OTC partners with CFO on challenge grant

Ozarks Technical Community College has partnered with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks on a $50,000 challenge grant.

The grant would support the OTC Allied Health Clinical Simulation Center, a 2,000-square-foot multidisciplinary simulation lab providing training for students in 12 programs, as well as health care professionals already in the work force. With the funding, OTC would purchase equipment and software for the center, according to a news release.

"The funds from this grant will help us to continue providing the technologically advanced medical training that the community has come to expect from OTC," Chancellor Hal Higdon said in the release.

For every $1 raised by the school's fundraising arm, the OTC Foundation, CFO will match it for up to $25,000 by June 30, 2013. Donations made toward the initiative are tax-deductible, the release said.

The initiative is the second OTC and CFO $50,000 challenge grant this year for the college's Allied Health Clinical Simulation Center. In mid-February, the organizations announced a grant period ending June 30. Louise Knauer, CFO's senior vice president of communications and marketing, said CFO matched its $25,000 portion of the grant, and she said it's possible OTC raised more on its side. Neither OTC Director of Development Stephanie Brown nor spokesman Joel Doepker could be reached for comment by deadline.

Knauer said CFO also matched its $25,000 portion of a 2010 challenge grant benefiting OTC's Transport Training Institute.