{"id":34440,"date":"2024-04-11T17:40:38","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T21:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34440"},"modified":"2024-04-18T16:17:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T20:17:27","slug":"capital-campaign-will-help-auc-rise-from-the-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/capital-campaign-will-help-auc-rise-from-the-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Capital Campaign will help AUC \u201cRise from the Ashes\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s now been 10 years since fire devastated Aurora United Church in Aurora\u2019s downtown core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world has changed significantly in the decade since \u2013 including a pandemic and rising costs all around \u2013 and, due to these factors, the Church (AUC) needs a helping hand to quite literally rise from the ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cRise from the Ashes Capital Campaign\u201d is a $5 million drive to help offset the cost of the rebuild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis campaign marks a significant step forward in the journey to rebuild the church both in structure and in spirit,\u201d the AUC said last week. \u201cAurora United Church aims to raise $5 million through the Rising from the Ashes campaign to support the existing funding of the construction of a new, resilient, and welcoming church building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the \u201cbefore times,\u201d Aurora United Church was able to fund the rebuild on its own, both through their reserves, money in the bank, and their partnership with Amica Retirement Residence, which will share the AUC\u2019s historic site at Yonge and Tyler Streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But costs from 2014 estimates are no longer reflective of reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian North, Chair of AUC\u2019s Edge Property Committee, which has steered the rebuild, said costs have risen over 60 per cent in the last four years alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat has affected us terribly because we had enough money where money would be sitting in our bank accounts after the build was done. We were laughing and doing quantity surveys on a regular basis,\u201d says North. \u201cThen the pandemic hit and everything went through the roof. If we didn\u2019t need the money, we didn\u2019t want to do fundraising because it would look bad. Now we\u2019re in a situation where we need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were too far [into the project], we couldn\u2019t stop it. We were in contracts with Amica, the Town of Aurora, our building permits have gone through the roof, we\u2019d already built the basement. You can\u2019t stop and you can\u2019t go back to before, so we have to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Capital Campaign had its soft launch at the end of January, formally getting off the ground on March 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This campaign is an opportunity for everyone in our community to contribute to the rebirth of a cherished institution. Each donation, big or small, is a building block in our collective effort to rise from the ashes stronger than ever,” said Nancy Kerswill, Chair of Council, Aurora United Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerswill noted to The Auroran that the AUC Council is working with two professional fundraisers to help with outreach to philanthropists, foundations, and corporations, along with grant-writing, in order to meet the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know we can\u2019t possibly [reach that goal] from just within our congregation, although the congregation\u2019s support will be amazing. Our goal is to raise the money by the end of 2024, but if we haven\u2019t met it, we\u2019ll carry on until the building opens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals and businesses interested in contributing to the campaign are invited to visit\u00a0www.auroraunitedchurch.ca<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s now been 10 years since fire devastated Aurora United Church in Aurora\u2019s downtown core. The world has changed significantly in the decade since \u2013 including a pandemic and rising costs all around \u2013 and, due to these factors, the Church (AUC) needs a helping hand to quite literally rise from the ashes. The \u201cRise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8Xu","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 15:26:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}