{"id":34759,"date":"2024-06-27T16:51:16","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T20:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34759"},"modified":"2024-06-27T16:53:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T20:53:36","slug":"town-square-capital-campaign-goes-public-as-grand-opening-plans-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/town-square-capital-campaign-goes-public-as-grand-opening-plans-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"Town Square Capital Campaign goes public as Grand Opening plans continue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fundraising for Aurora Town Square has now exceeded $3.5 million of its $5 million goal, and members of the public can now contribute to the downtown revitalization project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Town held a reception for new donors last week just days before the formally announcing the grand opening of Aurora Town Square on September 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, the Town confirmed the September 20 grand opening date, noting the celebrations will continue through October 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis momentous occasion will be marked by a variety of indoor and outdoor entertainment, including hands-on workshops, exclusive previews from partners and captivating performances,\u201d said the Town in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artists set to perform as part of the Grand Opening and the series of events following September 20 are yet to be announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe grand opening will draw audiences of all ages from Aurora and beyond, providing visitors with unique experiences and vibrant cultural offerings,\u201d the Town continued. \u201cOpening celebrations will showcase the venue\u2019s state-of-the-art design and a diverse range of future programming, with a remarkable 32,000 square-foot addition and a 29,000 square foot outdoor community space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Mayor Mrakas in a statement, \u201cThe grand opening of Aurora Town Square represents the culmination of our community\u2019s vision for a dynamic gathering space in the heart of downtown Aurora. We are thrilled to invite the community to join us in celebrating this milestone for our Town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, new and previous donors who have helped make Aurora Town Square a reality were celebrated at an in-site event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New donors celebrated on June 17 included Delmanor Aurora, Jim McAlpine and McAlpine Ford Lincoln, and residents Steve and Carole Mirkopoulos. In their fundraising efforts, they join previously-announced donors Addison Hall Business Park, Charlieville Developments Ltd., Fieldgate Homes, Paradise Developments, Shining Hill Group of Companies, TACC Developments and Treasure Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are closer than ever to reaching our Legacy Campaign goal, with more announcements to come as we ramp up to the grand opening of this tremendous venue this fall,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas in a statement. \u201cThe future looks bright for Aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to The Auroran following the recognition event, the Mayor said it\u2019s \u201cencouraging\u201d to see \u201chow many people are stepping up\u201d to make the project a reality \u2013 \u201cnot just from the corporate world, but residents in our community who have stepped up with major donations to the Square.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey see and they believe in what we\u2019re creating for our downtown and they want to invest as well to\u2026be a part of this special moment, I think, in our Town\u2019s history,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re positive we\u2019re going to get there (the $5 million goal) and we\u2019re going to see more and more community members who are going to be excited to step up and have their name on the donor wall that will be there forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Legacy Capital Campaign formally launched last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, residents of Aurora and people from further afield can see their names immortalized on the donor wall with a contribution of $10,000 or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is to support the development of Town Square and all the programs we\u2019ll be having there,\u201d says Aurora Town Square Project Manager Phil Rose. \u201cAs a community cultural facility that is going to house and promote arts and culture, it\u2019s a chance to make your mark and leave your legacy by contributing to a community town project such as Town Square. In exchange, they will get their name and their recognition on the donor wall and tickets to our VIP (event) as part of the Grand Opening and other recognition as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about supporting and sharing the vision of Town Square as an important community project that is tied to promoting and growing arts and culture in the community but also supporting downtown revitalization and other economic development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big ticket donors will also see naming opportunities for various amenities that will be part of Aurora Town Square once it opens in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amenities that have already been claimed include the visual arts studio, multipurpose studio, box office, atrium lobby, and the environmentally-controlled collections space for the Aurora Museum and Archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still up for grabs are the 250-seat multipurpose performance hall, performing arts dance studio, program room, caf\u00e9 and multipurpose area, kitchen and servery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think anyone would be fooling themselves if they said they wouldn\u2019t want to see it (the fundraising campaign) reach the goal by opening day, obviously we would love to see that occur, but we know that even if we don\u2019t, the fundraising is going to continue until we reach that goal,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cWhether it is opening day or whether it is a couple of months, or a year, later, we\u2019re going to get there and I am confident that we will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Fundraising for Aurora Town Square has now exceeded $3.5 million of its $5 million goal, and members of the public can now contribute to the downtown revitalization project. The Town held a reception for new donors last week just days before the formally announcing the grand opening of Aurora Town Square on September 20. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34764,"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-34759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/2024-06-27-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-92D","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 09:06:59","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\/34759","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=34759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}