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The Springfield Dream Center cuts the ribbon on the Betty & Bobby Allison Activity Center.Photo courtesy PINNACLE SIGN GROUP
The Springfield Dream Center cuts the ribbon on the Betty & Bobby Allison Activity Center.

Photo courtesy PINNACLE SIGN GROUP

Bobby Allison gifts naming-level donation to Dream Center

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Philanthropist Bobby Allison gifted a naming-level donation to the Springfield Dream Center.

Dream Center Director Jody Glazner said Allison donated more than $1 million for the Betty & Bobby Allison Activity Center, where a children’s basketball training camp soon will launch. His donation led to a total rehabilitation of the 829 W. Atlantic St. Dream Center’s gymnasium flooring, as well as new basketball goals, locker rooms, bathrooms, parking and a courtyard.

“He decided he needed to give kids the Cadillac and not the Chevy,” Glazner said.

The Dream Center held a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday for the Betty & Bobby Allison Activity Center.

At the gym, the Dream Center is partnering with The Fieldhouse Sportscenter’s Chris Johnson on Elevate Academy, a basketball training program he’ll run on a volunteer basis. Glazner said the program fit with the Dream Center’s goals.

“It’s been his dream for 20 years to have this type of academy running,” she said. “The Dream Center had been my dream for about 18 years.”  

Allison’s donation includes scholarships for children to participate in Elevate Academy.

North Point Church in March launched the Dream Center in 53,000 square feet donated by Hamlin Memorial Baptist Church in the Woodland Heights neighborhood.

Glazner said the center helps Zone 1 children and community members through a food pantry in partnership with Crosslines, a clothing pantry, poverty center via The Northwest Project and a high school education course offered by Ozarks Technical Community College. About 100 volunteers help run the center led by Glazner, who has one part-time employee, two paid interns and six unpaid interns.

“We run about 35 hours of programming in the summer and about 40 in the school year,” she said. “It takes volunteers every single day.”

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