The building is finished outside.

Inside, it is still bare studs and open floor.

Volunteers, soldiers and neighbors raised a 17,500 square-foot center for Western Wisconsin’s veterans, seniors and youth. We have six months to fund the interior — the walls, the kitchen, the clinic rooms — or the doors stay closed on the community that built it.

Give now What your gift finishes

Home to VFW Post

Senior Center

Events & Weddings

Gather. Celebrate. Connect.

The urgent ask

Six months to finish what a thousand people started.

Land, concrete, labor, windows and fuel were donated. Army Reserve engineers poured the footings. The Post and Auxiliary held fundraiser after fundraiser. Every dollar given now goes straight into the interior.

Donate today

Phase I Complete

$3 million public-private partnership. Exterior finished.
Phase II Underway

Interior build-out, mechanicals, kitchen, clinic and classrooms. This is the current campaign.
Phase III Next

Doors open and the center operates on leases, rentals, events and sustaining gifts.

17,500

Square feet built

1,000+

Military personnel trained on site

15,000

Regional veterans served

20,000

Regional seniors served

Under one roof

Four spaces, one community

5,000 sq ft

Veterans Center

Managed by VFW Post 10818. Counseling, VA benefits guidance, medical equipment for disabled veterans, financial assistance for dependents, and a Boots to Business incubator with Royal Credit Union, Associated Bank and Northwood Technical College.

5,000 sq ft

Senior Center & Club 55+

Meals and nutritional programs, medical services, education and recreation, plus a Gerontology Care and Training Program with Northwood Technical College and Westfields Hospital.

6,000 sq ft

Community Event Center

Offices, classrooms and a rentable event hall for weddings, art fairs and expos. Rental income will help sustain the building’s operations.

4.4 acres

Youth & Sports

Soccer and football fields, walking trails and covered picnic areas on a lakefront park site, with room for scouts and school groups.

How it got here

Built by the Army, the trades and the neighbors

Freedom Park Center is the largest Innovative Readiness Training project of any kind in Wisconsin. The Department of Defense provides skilled military personnel who train under local contractors at no cost to the project.

Over a thousand service members have worked this site across five summers, on 4.4 lakefront acres donated by the City of New Richmond.

Read the full story

Already gathering