By STEVEN CALHOUN/Staff Writer

Raleigh’s Place is raising funds to build a swimming pool for the children at its annual summer camp.

McKinnon Toyota Nissan has donated $20,000 and will match every dollar given through the end of the year towards the pool’s construction. McKinnon has issued a challenge to businesses and individuals of Chilton County to donate.

Raleigh’s Place co-founder Sharon King expects the camp to have about 250 kids this year. Due to growth in recent years, the camp has struggled to get the children back and forth to the pool they were using offsite.

“The YMCA has generously let us use their pool every year so far. This past year was very hard with 140 kids, for transportation purposes,” King said. “We are about six miles away. In prior years we had let them use the pool three times a week, and we had to cut it back to two; it’s almost impossible to transport that many kids.”

King said Raleigh’s Place has known it needed a pool for a while. This year, the group started fundraising and is already off to a good start with the donation from McKinnon.

If fundraising continues as planned, construction will be completed by summer 2017. The goal is $70,000, which would allow the organization to buy a commercial sized swimming pool to place onsite at the camp.

“Our focus is to teach kids about Christ, and hopefully they’ll have a desire to change their lives,” King said. “We’re a faithful people. We trust God will provide.”

Contributions can be sent to Raleigh’s Place at 346 County Road 1028 in Clanton. Online donations are also accepted at raleighsplace.org.

Mark checks “Pool challenge” or call King at 217-1366 for pick-up.