CENTER
POINT, IND. -- For the sixth consecutive year, the Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology baseball team donated their time and
efforts on a Saturday morning and afternoon to help the Exotic
Feline Rescue Center (EFRC) continue progress on its facility.
Thirty-nine members of the Fightin' Engineer baseball team spent October 27, 2012, building a new perimeter fence that will expand the center's capacity for enclosures to house the big cats. The additional space will provide for up to 15 new enclosures to be built at the center, helping to meet the continuing need for housing rescued animals.
The EFRC was founded in 1991 by Joe Taft in Center Point, with a mission of providing "permanent homes for exotic felines that have been abused, abandoned or for some reason have nowhere to live out their lives, while educating the public about these beautiful cats." The EFRC currently contains 228 large cats from across the nation, and more than 20,000 visitors pass through the EFRC every year.
In the past, the Rose-Hulman baseball team has helped the center with work on its food processing center, a facility that handles more than 3,000 pounds of meat per day. The team constructed an enclosure in 2008 with donations from the foundation of NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and has spent other years constructing additional enclosures that house several of the big cats rescued by the Center, including a white tiger that was reportedly once owned by Mike Tyson.
The following players offered their time to support the effort in 2012: Hank Akard, Kody Alayon, Jake Althouse, Taran Bohnhoff, Andrew Bryant, Michael Bush, R.J. Carroll, Jordan Chipka, Chris Erickson, Nevin Fansher, Kevin Farley, Kevin Garon, Chris Grable, Matt Green, Hazen Hamather, Eric Harned, Josh Hoeing, Gunnar Hutchison, Tanner Inboden, Caleb Kissel, Josh Koutnik, Kyle Kraus, Zach Lehman, Ralph Lucarelli, Jeff Ludwig, Brett McKinney, Alex McNally, Ben Menich, Bobby Newman, Karson Nixon, Nick Pilipovich, Caleb Post, Donald Stopka, Andrew Stull, Daniel Sutherland, Aaron Thompson, Matthew Turk, Donnie Waters, and Warren Whithaus.