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| From the left, Capt. William Banning, Will Rogers, Govenor James Rolph and W.K. Kellogg. |
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| The W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center is located on 38 acres of the Cal Poly Pomona campus. |
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| The W.K. Kellogg Foundation granted the university $5 million for the Arabian horse center. |
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation based in Battle Creek, Michigan, announced it is granting $5 million to the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center at Cal Poly Pomona.
The gift is the third largest ever given to the university.
The grant allocates $2 million for the construction of the new W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library and $3 million will be endowed for the care of the center.
The horse center is situated on 38 acres of green pastures where dozens of purebred Arabian horses thrive. The center is deeply rooted in university heritage. When W.K. Kellogg donated his land in 1949 to the university, one of the provisions required that the Sunday shows for Arabian horse enthusiasts continue.
The horse shows fall on the first Sunday of the month, October through June. The center is also dedicated to breeding, education, outreach and research. The center is internationally recognized for its breeding and training programs.
Before the generous $3 million endowment, the center relied mostly on the sale of its horses and boarding program for all the upkeep needed for the barns, fences and other aspects of the horse center.
“This funding will be crucial to us,” says Bill Hughes, the center's director. “This will help us do deferred maintenance and improve our facilities.”
The $2 million gift, which will go toward the construction of a 5,600-square-foot Arabian horse library, will provide the impetus for a $6 million capital campaign designed to build the library.
Currently the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library stores its collection in a small room in one of Kellogg's original stables, which now make up Union Plaza.
The library collects and preserves all types of Arabian horse information in multiple formats including newspapers, magazines, art work, brochures, newsletters, videotapes, photographs, letters, manuscripts and reports. The collection is intended to be used as a research facility by the university and community at large.
“We have a lot of materials that are in storage,” says Michelle Moyer, the College of Agriculture's director of development. “The new library would provide a much improved setting to display these items and help preserve the legacy of the horse center.”
The new library will be built on the horse center's grounds. Throughout the year, roughly 35,000 people visit the horse center, so there will be a steady stream of people who would likely be interested in the library's materials, Hughes says.
“This way people can go to the library and look at all the historical materials and then walk a little bit further and see the live show,” Hughes says.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 “to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.” To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development.
Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
For further information, please visit the Foundation's Web site at www.wkkf.org.
For more information about the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center and Library visit: https://www.cpp.edu/%7Eequine/Kellogg.htm