Christian College dedicates ‘miracle’ athletic center

The bleachers of Alaska Christian College’s new athletic center were filled Friday for a ceremony showcasing the new facility and celebrating its unique path to completion.

Keith Hamilton, ACC president, said he first dreamed of an athletic center in 2002, when he wrote in his journal, “the students want a gym.”

“All these years, students get off the vans from village Alaska and look around the campus and go ‘wow, this is great, but where’s the gym?’” Hamilton said. “In every village, almost every city in our state, they have a gymnasium. We didn’t have one. Today we’re going to dedicate this gym to the students of Alaska Christian College and to the Lord.”

Standing in the mostly completed facility on Friday, part of the Alaska Christian College campus near Kenai Peninsula College off of Kalifornsky Beach Road, Hamilton and others, including Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche, cited a series of “miracles” and “divine intervention” as a key element of the facility’s unusual path to construction.

“Do you think God wants an athletic center for Alaska Christian College?” Hamilton asked.

The effort began with identifying the roughly 4-acre tract of land adjacent to ACC’s campus that was “the best option” for construction of the athletic center. But a letter sent to the address on record at the Kenai Peninsula Borough for the owner came back undelivered. Multiple attempts to identify and contact the owner were unsuccessful.

“Lord, we’ve got to figure out who owns this piece,” Hamilton recalled. “This is the right spot for the gym.”

It was an ACC volunteer, flying home from Duluth, Minnesota, through the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport who achieved a breakthrough. That volunteer, of Soldotna, had a chance conversation at the sink in the airport’s bathroom with a man who lived in Anchorage. That man said he owned “a piece of land in Soldotna.”

“I kid you not, the owner of this property is in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International bathroom,” Hamilton said.

In short order, Hamilton and the property owner stood together at the edge of the property. The college bought the 4-and-a-half-acre tract for only $52,000.

“That was the first miracle.”

A plaque, telling that story, hangs outside the bathrooms of the athletic center.

Architects estimated, Hamilton said, that constructing the facility would cost roughly $18 million. The entire project, including erecting the center and creating its new parking lot, cost $3.2 million. The expenses were covered by donations, including $1 million in matching from one long-term donor, and the work was undertaken almost entirely by volunteer laborers. Several major players in the construction, including designers and electricians were awarded as “Nehemiah Servants,” named for “the great builder” in the Bible.

Hamilton said that Steve Coleman of Kuna Engineering and Klauder and Company Architects both provided pro bono design work. Doug Norris Sr. helped ACC to harvest their own gravel for the foundation, Dick Ruckman sold them steel at his cost without profiting on the project, and several transportation companies donated the majority of the shipping efforts.

The gravel, Hamilton said, was the second miracle. They had expected to need 6 inches of gravel for the center’s foundation. They’d budgeted $20,000 to that end. Then, the engineer said it would instead be 4 feet of gravel across all 28,000 square feet. Norris, who owns a nearby gravel pit, quoted them $400,000.

“My heart sank,” Hamilton said.

But Norris told Hamilton that the college’s land, located directly adjacent to his pit, has the same rock. Norris provided them with the use of his vehicles and gave other guidance that saved the college “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The college received $1.3 million in donations from college staff, their Business Advisory Council and Board of Trustees to hit the $1 million match offered by one of their donors.

Constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility was funded through donations of $500,000 from the M.J. Murdock Trust, $400,000 from the Rasmuson Foundation, and hundreds of individual donations from people and from churches.

“I want to ask, dear friends, do you believe that God maybe wants us to have an athletic center on the campus of Alaska Christian College?” Hamilton again asked.

Though the center was dedicated and celebrated on Friday, Hamilton said there’s much still to do. In the second phase of construction, they plan to add a lobby space, a chapel, a wellness center and a commercial kitchen.

In a dedication prayer, college ownership from the Alaska Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church and from the college’s advisory council called for the center to be “a caring place, a recreational facility, a place where health and wellness will be encouraged,” and “a blessing to every single student.”

Styles Walker, an ACC student, cut the ribbon at the close of the ceremony, surrounded by other students and staff of the college.

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom said during the dedication that the athletic center is “testament to what can be accomplished when people come together with a shared vision and a common purpose.”

Also recognized during the dedication ceremony was the retirement after 17 years at ACC of Harvey Lundquist.

After the ceremony, Hamilton said that the center was built and intended for community use, with amenities like a running track for use in the wintertime. It’ll also make a difference for ACC students who previously have been playing basketball in the snow.

“Those long winter months, to be able to have a place to come out of their dorms and to hang out,” he said. “It’s a real win for them.”

For more information about Alaska Christian College, visit alaskacc.edu.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.