SIFE celebrates its 25th year, new headquarters

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

Students in Free Enterprise has a lot to celebrate at its world headquarters in Spring-field.

Sept. 13 the nonprofit organization will offi-cially open The Jack Shewmaker SIFE World Headquarters, a consol-idated campus for the company located at 1959 E. Kerr St., near the I-44 and Glenstone inter-change. The completion of the headquarters is the result of a $1.48 million fund-raising campaign SIFE completed in July, said Alvin W. Rohrs, president and chief executive officer of SIFE.

"Our last big contribution came in from the Alfred Schwann family of Schwann's Ice Cream in July. They contributed $150,000 toward the total goal," Rohrs said.

The Schwanns will have a floor in the new complex named for them as a result of the gift. The rest of the facility is also named for major donors: Shewmaker's name is on the campus proper, while Springfieldian Robert Plaster's name is on SIFE's Free Enterprise Center, the newest building on the two-building campus. The older building is named the Jack Kahl Entrepreneurship Center.

SIFE is an organization that has collegiate campus teams worldwide. SIFE works with businesses, colleges and universities to help students take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to real-life situations, Rohrs said.

The organization's world headquarters was not always in Springfield.

Twenty-five years ago, SIFE got its start in Texas. Texas native Robert T. Davis started the National Leadership Institute, SIFE's forerunner, in order to give business a more positive image on college campuses.

"It was a great concept that allowed students to create some rivalry among themselves in order to further their education about free enterprise. It came about at a time (the late 1960s) when students had a somewhat negative view of big business," Rohrs said.

The organization grew to something close to its present form in the mid-1970s, gaining membership year over year until 1981, when it "really took a nosedive," Rohrs said.

"Contributions dropped off, the membership fell