Boise State announced a gift on Saturday, Oct. 10, of $2.5 million from the David and Debra Larsen Huber Family Foundation that will enable the university to begin renovating the former East Junior High School site near the corner of Broadway Boulevard and Warm Springs Avenue into a multi-use sports complex.
The 14.5-acre site will be named after Debra Larsen Huber’s mother, Dona Larsen, and be known as Dona Larsen Park. The naming of the site is subject to State Board of Education approval.
Dona Larsen, who grew up in Cornish, Utah, has been an active member of the Boise community since 1956, when she and her husband, Dorrell, moved to the Treasure Valley. Larsen was a stay-at-home mother raising her 10 children, all of whom graduated from East Junior High and Boise High School. Larsen also was heavily involved with local athletic teams, spending seven years running the girls’ summer softball and basketball programs for Boise City Recreation, coaching many of her children’s teams.
She began teaching physical education full time at East Junior High in 1970, as well as coaching girls’ track and volleyball. Larsen’s teams won many city championships before her retirement in 2000 at the age of 72.
Larsen touched countless lives throughout her 30 years at East Junior High School. In 1999 the Boise City School District presented Larsen its Red Apple Award in recognition of her outstanding achievement and innovation as a teacher.
Dona Larsen Park will become the ninth in Boise’s “Ribbon of Jewels” parks. The Ribbon of Jewels is a collection of parks and trails that run along the Boise River, all bearing the names of outstanding women in the Boise community.
Other Ribbon of Jewels parks include Julia Davis, Ann Morrison, Kathryn Albertson and Bernardine Quinn Riverside, the Bethine Church River Trail and the upcoming Alta Harris, Esther Simplot and Marianne Williams parks.
The site of the new Dona Larsen Park originally was an athletic field named Cody Park, built in 1911. The Boise School District purchased the land in November 1924 and renamed it Public School Field. The field was used for many noteworthy athletic and community events until the construction of East Junior High School in 1953.
When Boise Junior College began competing in athletics in 1932, it used Public School Field for its football games and track and field events. In fall 1940, the Broncos moved to College Field on the current Boise State campus.
Boise State took possession of the site on July 1, 2009, after a new East Junior High School was built and opened earlier this year just east of Boise.
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Media Contact: Max Corbet, Department of Athletics, (208) 426-1515, mcorbet@boisestate.edu
THE NEW U RISING: Boise State University has been selected among the nation’s “top up-and-coming schools” in U.S. News and World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges” issue. Recognized for its striking improvements and innovations, Boise State is ranked No. 3 in the West among master’s degree institutions.
