Canton’s Bluecoats announced this week a $1.75 million capital campaign that will fund a new education center for its partner organization EN-RICH-MENT. The facility will take over the former Ziegler Tire building in Downtown Canton, which will be renovated and expanded to accommodate arts education classes and administrative spaces.
EN-RICH-MENT was founded in 2012 to provide free performing arts and life skills programs for underserved youth. The organization has become known around the Stark County area, especially for its drumline.
“They’re an organization that we’ve always had a friendship with in some way or another,” said Mike Scott, CEO of the Bluecoats, the award-winning drum and bugle corps based in Canton. “Over the years, that’s been a relationship of sharing resources, ideas and communication.”
EN-RICH-MENT, now an affiliate organization of Bluecoats, has expanded in the years since its founding and outgrew a previous space. Its current location is slated to be torn down in the next year.
“They were going to be without a home, and we really wanted to step in because EN-RICH-MENT is relatively small in their structure and stature,” Scott said. “It’s definitely an organization where they raise every dollar they can and spend every dollar they can on the kids.”
Scott said that the resources Bluecoats can provide will help ensure EN-RICH-MENT’s future.
When Ziegler Tire moved out of its location on the corner of Ninth Street and Market Avenue, it created an opportunity, Scott said. The property is owned by ArtsinStark, and the new education building for EN-RICH-MENT will also be on the site of the Cultural Center for the Arts.
“This allows us to ensure that these kids aren’t just going anywhere, they’re going to the headquarters of arts and culture in the county,” Scott said.
He said about $1 million of the $1.75 million has been secured through foundations and philanthropic support around Canton and Northeast Ohio.
“There was an immense groundswell of support,” Scott said. “And we said, ‘Okay, we’ve got what we need here to make something happen.’”
