Katy Station Donations Matched Through Nov. 2

Donations to save Columbia’s 1909 Katy Station will be matched dollar for dollar through Monday, Nov. 2, the Save Katy Station group says.

In its Oct. 28 newsletter, the group said local business owner Rusty Drewing of Rusty Drewing Toyota offered the matching challenge. A $25 gift becomes $50, and the group’s stated goal is $10,000 by the deadline.

How to give

Gifts go to the Save Katy Station Fund at the Community Foundation of Central Missouri, the group’s fiscal sponsor. Donors can give online at savekatystation.org/donate, or mail a check to the foundation at 2635 South Providence Road, Columbia, MO 65203, with “Save Katy Station” on the memo line.

The group says funds are held by the foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity. If moving the depot proves unfeasible, its bylaws require any remaining money to go to a qualifying historic-preservation nonprofit in the community.

Now a nonprofit, with officers

The newsletter also said the group has incorporated as a Missouri nonprofit. At its Thursday, Oct. 22, meeting it approved bylaws and elected officers: James Roark-Gruender, president; Matt Fetterly, vice president; Dave Griggs, treasurer; and Chris Campbell, secretary.

Committee chairs were also named for the five working committees the group announced earlier this month, and the group is still recruiting volunteers. It says no expertise is required. The chairs are Roark-Gruender (site, relocation and building), Griggs (fundraising and finance), Fetterly (community vision and future use), and Nancy Kiser (community outreach and communications, and history and historic preservation).

Katy Station is the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad depot in downtown Columbia that gave the Katy Trail its name. For background on why preservationists are worried about its future, see our earlier report on the station’s uncertain future.