Nike Foundation Announces $5 Million USD Grant to Support the Obama Presidential Center
This donation will help build a program, athletic and activity facility.
Earlier this week, Nike announced that it will be donating $5 million USD to support the Program, Athletic and Activity Center at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago through its charitable Nike Foundation initiative. This marks the first-ever Presidential library to include a public facility encouraging play, movement and sports.
The three additional buildings on the campus will be a museum, a forum for public meetings and programming, and a library in partnership with the Chicago Public Library. Additionally, the grounds will include new gardens, a two-acre playground, paths for jogging and strolling, a huge green lawn for playing and a hill for sledding. Nike’s chief social and community impact officer and Nike Foundation president, Jorge Casimiro, said in a statement:
“The very presence of an athletic facility underlines how much the power of sport is woven into President and Mrs. Obama’s identities. President Obama, after all, is famous for his NCAA brackets and his love of the White Sox, and the Obama family inspired kids everywhere to get moving.
It’s all part of a new kind of presidential center: a place to inspire, a place to learn and a place to reflect, but also — as befitting a president who brought his love of hoops from the South Side of Chicago to the South Lawn of the White House — a place to grab some friends and get active.”
He added: “Our belief in the power of sport to transform lives is why we work with organizations like the Obama Foundation — because whether it’s on a global scale or at the grassroots level, we’ve seen what’s possible when sport brings us together.” For Casimiro’s full statement, head on over to Nike’s website as well as for more details about the Obama Presidential Center.
For more Nike-related news, check out the sportswear brand’s latest Lunar New Year advertisement.
