Albright College has received a $4.75 million gift from Margaret K. Schumo of Wyomissing, Pa., to establish the Schumo Center for Fitness and Well Being at Albright. This is the largest gift in the College's history. The gift will be announced at a reception at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 21 in the Campus Center at the opening ceremonies of Albright College's Sesquicentennial Celebration.
The gift will expand the College's planned 10,000-square-foot fitness center renovation in the Bollman Center into a two-story, 22,000-square-foot facility that will house:
• Cardiovascular fitness room
• Aerobic/multi-purpose room
• Weight room
• Nutrition classroom with kitchenette
• Meditation area/classroom
• Locker rooms
• Concession area/vending lounge
• Atrium
• Wellness offices
• Conference space
The Center will be new construction on the north and west side of the Bollman Center, extending into the Bollman parking lot.
The Center will also offer a wide variety of wellness and fitness programming. Albright College will form a committee, including faculty and students, to work with the donor to plan credit and non-credit programs.
Margaret Schumo grew up across the street from the Albright campus on Union Street, and says the campus was her playground. She attended 13th and Union Elementary School and Northeast Middle School. She went on to Northwest High School, and graduated from Reading High School and Cornell University.
As a real estate developer and owner of Spruce Lane Development Company, Inc., Schumo created The Inner Circle custom home community in Wyomissing. She is the widow of the late Robert M. Schumo, retired president of Pennsylvania Steel Foundry and Machine Company.
"To paraphrase the president of General Motors, 'What's good for Albright is good for Berks County,'" Schumo said. "I truthfully feel this is helping Albright. To a school the size of Albright, my contribution makes a real difference. It will help Albright attract topflight students."
Schumo and her daughter, Cynthia S. Lynn of Vermont, "share a passion" for fitness and wellness. "From a physiological standpoint, it's just a smart way to make a contribution that matters to a great number of people. Having a great environment in which to expend energy is a good first step on the road to wellness," Lynn said.
Lex McMillan, president of Albright College said, "Both Mrs. Schumo and Ms. Lynn care about well being in a holistic sense and establishing the center will benefit not just our students but will be a resource to the entire county. It will make a real difference to this college and we envision that this center will be a model for educators throughout the nation."
Founded in 1856, Albright College celebrates its Sesquicentennial in 2006. Albright is a nationally ranked, private college with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. The College's hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. Albright College enrolls 1,650 undergraduates in traditional programs, and another 500 adult students in accelerated degree and graduate programs.
The College dates its beginning to the founding of Union Seminary on January 3, 1856. The present Albright College was formed by a series of mergers with other institutions of higher learning founded in the 19th century by the Evangelical Association and the United Evangelical Church. Union and Schuylkill Seminaries were not theological seminaries, but three-year collegiate institutes.
Albright Collegiate Institute was founded in 1895, and became Albright College, Myerstown, Pa., in 1898. Union Seminary, founded in 1856 and rechartered as Central Pennsylvania College, merged with Albright College in 1902. Schuylkill Seminary, founded in 1881, became Schuylkill College in 1923 and merged with Albright College in 1929 on the present campus.
Jacob Albright, after whom the College is named, was a Pennsylvania German evangelical preacher and the founder of the Evangelical Association (later the Evangelical United Brethren Church). Born in 1759 as Johannes Jacob Albrecht, his family changed their name to Albright after his death in 1808.
