Adam Thielen's foundation to provide grant for new Humboldt fitness center

Jan. 21—The Thielen Foundation, headed up by Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen, took a keen interest in the Harding-Humboldt football co-op that formed last year in St. Paul. The foundation reached out to head coach Otto Kraus, now the athletic director at Harding, because it knew of the increased costs that come with forming a new co-op, from uniforms to equipment.

The foundation also informed Kraus it was looking for an athletic facility it could help improve in the city.

Kraus suggested Humboldt's fitness center.

"Because we are in desperate need of updating this facility," Humboldt athletic director Matthew Osborne said at this week's board of education meeting, "and they are prepared to come through with a grant to help us do that."

The meeting agenda said the fitness center "has been deteriorating for the past couple of decades without any maintenance or new equipment for students and athletes." It was not included in the district's new five-year facility plan.

The Thielen Foundation will donate up to $75,000 to the reconstruction and renovation of the fitness center to stock it with "modern fitness training equipment, in addition to adding new flooring, paint, flat screen television, and a new sound system."

The project is slated to be completed this spring.