Grant helps Wave reduce loan balance

The Daily Inter Lake

The Wave Aquatic & Fitness Center in Whitefish exceeded a year-end fundraising goal by raising more than $151,000, which will allow the center to receive a $150,000 matching grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.

The Wave will use the money to substantially reduce its construction loan balance for the 2007 addition and the associated new equipment. The loan-balance reduction will allow the facility to reduce interest costs by more than $45,000 over the next five years, according to Jim Lewis, chairman of the Murdock matching-grant drive.

"This will directly benefit Wave outreach programs," he said. "Annually, our outreach programs provide over $35,000 to enable folks, who otherwise could not afford it, to join the Wave."

The center's free Red Cross Swim Safety lessons for third-graders in the Whitefish and Columbia Falls school districts is another popular outreach program that will benefit from the grant, Lewis said.

The Vancouver, Wash.-based M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust was created in 1975 upon the death of Jack Murdock, one of the founders of Tektronix.

The trust's mission is to improve the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by providing grants to organizations that seek to enrich the region's educational and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways.