CRISFIELD — It Takes a Village to Help Our Children Inc. is actively seeking donations to raise the final $500,000 for construction of its new center on the site of the former Whittington Primary School.

With $800,000 from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and $350,000 from the Weinberg Foundation the $1.65 million project is being designed by Salisbury-based CHYKE Maurice & Associates.

Located on the corner of Somerset and Asbury avenues where the school once stood and where the program operated until superstorm Sandy in 2012, the nearly 3.4 acres of land were given by the county to the city and the City Council in August 2016 approved its transfer for a new center. The former school was demolished a few months later.

The name on the rendering is the Dr. H. DeWayne Whittington Multi-Cultural Center which reprises the former name in recognition of the county’s first Black superintendent of schools.

It Takes a Village serves over 200 young people with after-school academic support, career and college prep, summer enrichment along with field trips and character development.

There is a donation link on its website ITAV2HOC.org or mail checks to It Takes a Village, Building Capital Fund, 943 W. Main Street, Crisfield, Md. 21817.