Special Olympics to get new home building

The Iowa Special Olympics will soon have a new home near Grimes. Special Olympics president Rich Fellingham says they’ve raised two-million dollars of the three million needed for the new facility.He says it’ll include their headquarters offices, storage, and areas for training. Fellingham says the training is important to the organization that helps handicapped Iowans.He says they have coaches certification annually and now they have to travel around the state to do that. Fellingham says the facility will serve thousands of Special Olympians. He says their latest census shows they have 12-thousand-335 athletes across the state. Fellingham says they hope to have the building open by next fall. He says they hope to begin construction this fall, with the building opening in the fall of 2004. The building will be named after Des Moines businessman Dick Jacobson, who has donated half-a-million dollars to the project.