GCC will hold open house on Sept. 7 for new buildings

Courtesy of GCC: The Richard C. Call Arena is a new 54,000-square-foot facility that will host sporting competitions, trade shows and community gatherings.

Richard C. Call Arena will also be dedicated in memory of prominent local farmer, philanthropist

BATAVIA – Genesee Community College will have a dedication ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Batavia campus for the new Richard C. Call Arena.

The ceremony will be at 6 p.m. Then there will be an open house for the arena and the new Student Success Center.

The Richard C. Call Arena is a new 54,000-square-foot facility that now houses many of GCC’s physical education classrooms and coaches offices, a new Fitness Center, meeting rooms, and a press box overlooking the Turf Field. The 20,400-square-foot field house can accommodate many different types of events –from sporting competitions to trade shows and community gatherings.

The dedication ceremony will honor and recognize many donors who contributed to the “Creating Our Future Together” capital campaign.

GCC’s new facilities, including the Student Success Center which was occupied in July, will be open for visitors to see before and after the ceremony.

In January 2015, Genesee Community College kicked off its “Creating Our Future Together” fundraising campaign with the goal to raise $5 million to support the construction of two new facilities at the College’s Batavia Campus, and also to support student scholarships emphasizing outreach to students living near GCC’s campus centers in Albion, Medina, Arcade, Warsaw, Dansville and Lima.

By the end of 2016, “Creating Our Future Together” exceeded its goal and a total of $5.5 million was raised.

In May 2016, Genesee Community College’s Board of Trustees formally dedicated GCC’s new event center in honor of longtime College supporter Richard C. Call, who was a member of the GCC Foundation Board from 2001 until his death in 2014. Mr. Call was a strong proponent of volunteerism and philanthropy, and also an advocate of a new event center at GCC. He recognized its potential economic impact on the overall region as well as its intrinsic value to the teaching and learning experience for students of all ages.

Over many decades, Mr. Call and his brother, Robert, built Call Farms into a highly innovative and nationally-known agricultural enterprise. Mr. Call’s brother and their children continue to operate the farm. Not surprisingly, Mr. Call encouraged other agricultural leaders across the region to get behind the “Creating Our Future Together” campaign and collectively, they were instrumental in making the new Arena possible. Mr. Call was also a strong supporter of many community causes, and had a special interest in youth. In addition to his local volunteer commitments, he was well-known across the U.S. for his leadership in agricultural organizations and he served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University.