The Robert Crown Center construction project reached its initial $10 million fundraising goal, raising roughly a quarter of the total costs associated with building the new center.

The project — sponsored by Friends of the Robert Crown Center, Evanston Public Library and the city — reached $8.8 million in funds in mid-August. The community center would provide Evanston’s first-ever publically available turf fields, two “new full sheets of ice” and a library, according to a Monday news release.

Though Evanston residents appreciate the new amenities, the expansion of educational and creative opportunities is currently “fueling” most of the campaign’s support, Friends of the Robert Crown Center board president Daniel Stein said in the release.

The $40 million project will include a library where Northwestern students and people from other programs can mentor Evanston children, according to the release. The library will also expand internet access to families.

“We have a world-class university on one side of town, and kids with no Internet at home on the other,” EPL director Karen Danczak Lyons said in the release. “Our new Robert Crown will … create the opportunity for tutoring and mentoring so that all of our children, no matter where they live in Evanston, have an opportunity at reaching their full potential.”

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