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MRHD names Encounter Center (Oct. 17, 2007) – The 10,000-square-foot expansion of the Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center will be known as the Betty Strong Encounter Center. It will open Dec. 7. The name honors the late community leader who championed the initiative that brought riverboat gaming to Woodbury County, an accomplishment that has resulted in the distribution of millions of dollars to Woodbury County non-profit and governmental agencies. 
“Betty Strong’s passion for improving the quality of life for all people, particularly for children, energized her long and distinguished career of service and leadership,” said Mark Monson, president of Missouri River Historical Development, Inc. (MRHD). “Her legacy is not only here on the riverfront with the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center and now the Betty Strong Encounter Center, but also throughout Woodbury County and beyond where it touches the lives of thousands of people each day.” From 1989 until her death in June 2004, Strong served as president of MRHD, the non-profit that holds the license for riverboat gaming in Woodbury County. Under her leadership, MRHD built the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center which opened in September 2002. MRHD is now funding the entire cost of the Betty Strong Encounter Center. The $3.6 million facility will feature a gallery, an auditorium, activity room, restrooms, and areas for outdoor games and events. An enclosed pathway known as “The Connection” will invite visitors to encounter aerial maps and images of the Missouri River and then journey from the Interpretive Center’s time of Lewis & Clark to the Encounter Center’s changing themes of people, land and rivers of Siouxland and the region. These encounters will be expressed in exhibitions, programs, children’s activities, games, lectures and special events. The project architect is Cannon Moss Brygger & Associates. W.A. Klinger, Inc. is the general contractor. The mother of three, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of eight, Strong was active in Lowell School Parent-Teacher Association, Girl Scouts, First Baptist Church and Siouxland Informational Group for the Blind (SIG-B). In 1976, she became the first woman elected Woodbury County Democratic Central Committee chairperson. She served in that role again in 1983 and also served as vice chair. She was women’s activity director of the Woodbury County Labor Council; a precinct committee woman; director of Democratic Headquarters in election campaigns; an officer of the Woodbury County Democratic Women’s Club; and a member of Siouxland Women’s Political Caucus. Betty’s mastery of grass roots politics was instrumental in the elections of countless local and state candidates. She worked for the vote that built North, West and East High Schools, and Woodbury County’s juvenile detention center. MRHD was formed in 1989 when Woodbury County voters approved a referendum that sanctioned riverboat gaming. A second referendum passed by 75 percent in 2002. MRHD’s funding is generated from an agreement between MRHD and Argosy Casino Sioux City which allows Argosy to run a gaming operation in Woodbury County using MRHD’s gaming license. MRHD’s overall impact has added up to almost $14 million distributed to Woodbury County non-profits and governmental agencies. Since the inception of its annual grant program in 1994, MRHD has awarded 527 grants totaling more than $2.9 million. Its holiday gifts and special projects distributions have totaled more than $1.9 million. Major MRHD contributions have gone to Sanford Community Center; Habitat for Humanity; The Center; the Sioux City Art Center; Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center; IBP Ice Center; Tyson Event Center; and the Loren Callendar Clock Tower at Sioux City’s City Hall. MRHD’s funding for the Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center totals more than $4 million. The adjoining Encounter Center is being funded entirely by MRHD at a cost of $3.6 million. No taxpayers’ dollars will be used for the Encounter Center.
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