From the Archives: 'Recreation center dedication is Friday'

[ Editor's note: At the end of the decade, Western Today is publishing articles from the past 10 years of FAST, the campus faculty/staff newsletter. This is one of those articles. Publication of FAST officially ended in the summer of 2009. It was replaced by Western Today. ]

The new student-financed Wade King Student Recreation Center will be dedicated at 11 a.m. Friday (Oct. 3). The center is named in memory of 10-year-old Wade King who died with friend Stephen Tsiorvas and 18-year-old Liam Wood in the June 1999 Olympic pipeline explosion in Whatcom Falls Park.

In pledging a substantial gift for athletic scholarships and to provide funds for future recreation center support, parents Frank and Mary King said they had considered for many months how “we could best act to support young people in this community and honor the memory of our son.”

“To Wade, sports was life,” they wrote about the gift and naming of the facility. “Had he lived and become a student at Western, you would have found him often on its playfields and in the Student Recreation Center. We want to help the memory of Wade live on by supporting scholarships for young people who are the kind of person Wade would have become, and by supporting the center.”

The board of trustees, in accepting the Kings’ “extraordinary financial contribution” and voting unanimously Aug. 20 to name the center in Wade’s honor, said the name “symbolizes the promise of youth and the hope for tomorrow.” The trustees added they wished to recognize the ties between the University and the Bellingham community and the impact the explosion had on the community of which Western is a part.

“In providing scholarships, together with support for the Student Recreation Center, the Kings have chosen to create opportunities for Western students that are part of a well-rounded university experience,” said Western president Karen W. Morse. “We are grateful that they have made this commitment to our students. We also believe that this memorial to Wade helps in the healing process for all of us in this community who share their sorrow and their hope for the future.”

Although the Kings are University of Utah alumni, Mary King attended Western for two years and is a graduate of the Campus School, which served generations of Bellingham children and Western students preparing to teach until it closed in 1967.

The Kings pledged $125,000 annually for athletic scholarships and recreation center support as well as a $2.5 million bequest for these purposes in their estate. Estimated to be worth more than $4 million over time, this would be the largest single private gift in the University’s history, according to Stephanie Bowers, vice president for University advancement and executive director of the Western Washington University Foundation. Bowers added that the Kings’ gift is a “most welcome boost” to the scholarship initiative the foun-dation announced Sept. 22.

Students voted in February 2000 to assess themselves $80 per student per quarter to pay off construction bonds for the  $26.7 million center. It features a three-court gym, multi-activity court, a six-lane pool, weight and fitness training facilities, an elevated jogging track and a rock climbing wall, and will be used for individual recreation and intramural sports.

“Having a setting conducive to learning is integral to the academic experience at Western,” said Eileen Coughlin, vice president of student affairs and academic support services. “Research indicates that enhanced recreational opportunities play a significant role in retention of students; higher grade point averages; integration of students into the social community of the campus; and greater student satisfaction with the overall college experience,” Coughlin said.