Blessed by what's been described as "one miracle after another" amid the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, a proposed Kapolei community center just got more good tidings.

The Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation has given The Salvation Army's Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center a gift of $1.5 million — bringing the local support for the project to $22.5 million. The gift was announced this week.

That figure is only a half-million dollars shy of the total $23 million community support requirement needed to complete the $133 million Kroc Community Center, which will break ground on Sept. 3.

"With this donation, we are one step closer to filling our commitment to establish a community center designed to serve a range of community needs, enhance quality of life and build character and competence for disadvantaged individuals and families on West O'ahu," said Maj. Edward Hill, Salvation Army divisional commander.

The donation will be used to build the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Center featuring an NCAA-size gymnasium for basketball, volleyball and other recreational activities. The facility will include durable state-of-the-art flooring to accommodate activities from indoor soccer to floor hockey to roller skating.

Two interior gyms will be used for health and wellness classes as well as martial arts, tai chi, tae kwon do, aerobics and pilates classes.

"When the foundation was asked by The Salvation Army which facility it would be most interested in supporting, we chose the athletic center because of the importance of developing healthy minds and bodies through sports and exercise," said John K. Tsui, chairman and trustee of the Ching Foundation.

The athletic center will augment the Kroc Community Center's performing arts, aquatic, early education and community education resource facilities as well as adjoining sports fields and a family park with picnic and barbecue facilities.

The 120,000-square-foot center, scheduled to open in 2011, will be equipped with a computer lab, recording and art studios and a commercial kitchen. It will also offer learning, vocational and enrichment activities in addition to enhanced preschool and after-school programs.

In 2004 Joan Kroc, wife of McDonald's hamburger king Ray Kroc, gave to the national Salvation Army $1.6 billion to build community centers nationwide. Kroc's $110 million gift to Honolulu was one of the largest.

The community center is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs, as well as dozens of good-paying employment opportunities for people in Leeward O'ahu.