Ill. Country Insurance Pledges $1 Million to Peoria Museum
Bloomington, Ill.-based Country Insurance & Financial Services has pledged $1 million to a proposed regional museum in Peoria and now organizers have about two-thirds of the nearly $125 million needed to open the high-tech complex in 2009, according to officials.
The sponsorship deal would put the insurer's name on the Illinois High School Association's wing of the planned Peoria Riverfront Museum. The IHSA's Peak Performance Center would include the organization's first-ever Hall of Fame.
Along with the IHSA, the museum also would include an African-American Hall of Fame and expanded quarters for Peoria's Lakeview Museum. Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. would build a $38 million visitors center next door and has pledged up to $11 million toward the museum.
Lakeview President and CEO Jim Richerson said Country Insurance's gift brings the total amount pledged to the museum to $81.5 million. The facility, which officials estimate would draw about 350,000 visitors each year, needs $124.5 million.
Richerson said he expects to raise the rest in time to begin construction next summer along the Illinois River in downtown Peoria.
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