Campus Gets $150,000 for Gym, Youth Center

The Weingart Foundation has awarded a $150,000 grant to help build a sports and youth complex at the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus.

The $4.5-million facility, including a gymnasium with retractable bleachers and a youth center, is a joint project of the Jewish Federation / Valley Alliance and Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles.

Money for the complex, aimed at serving teenagers and young families, is coming from corporate and private donations. The facility is expected to open in December.

The Weingart grant boosts fund-raising efforts to $4.2 million, said Marty Rosenthal, co-chair of the committee overseeing the project. A hefty share of the money came from a $2.25-million grant from the Milken Family Foundation, he said.

Rosenthal recalled the humble beginnings of the Milken campus, now the six-acre home of more than a dozen community service agencies, a library, preschool, classrooms and an art gallery. Twenty years ago, the Vanowen Street site had only “three or four shacks on four acres,” he said.

“We’re realizing the dream now,” said Rosenthal, a longtime West Valley Jewish Community Center board member. “It’s been part of my dream for almost 20 years. We can serve a lot more people now and this really culminates the deal. We will serve hundreds and hundreds of kids and thousands of people.”