With a $20,000 grant from the Kalispell Daybreak Rotary on Thursday, the Kalispell Boulder Project could be completed by early summer 2016.

The Kalispell Boulder Project aims to bring two rock-climbing boulders to Lawrence Park next summer. Similar artificial boulders have been installed in communities around Montana including Bozeman, Big Sky, Belgrade and Helena.

“It’s like a 21st century jungle gym,” project chairman Jandy Cox said. “You see kids scrambling on rocks already. It’s in our DNA.”

The organization has accumulated about $70,000 so far, Cox said. The total cost of the two-boulder project is $100,000.

The boulders will be rated for beginners and total newcomers, but will feature routes for all difficulties. The larger boulder will be 16 feet long 10 feet wide and about 10 1/2 feet high. The dimensions of the second boulder will be just a few feet smaller, Cox said.

The artificial boulders will be constructed out of a steel framework, filled with a rugged Styrofoam material and encased in a concrete fiberglass mixture. The final product will look just like a natural boulder.

Surrounding the boulder, wood chips will be in place to provide soft landings, not unlike the surfacing beneath a swing or jungle gym, Cox said.

“The liability is certainly not an issue,” Cox said. “Part of climbing is just learning your boundaries.”

The Kalispell Boulder Project formed a little over a year ago. The group first spoke with the Kalispell Parks and Recreation Department, which encouraged the addition to the park. The project then went to the Kalispell Community Foundation, which got the group rolling financially. The first donation came through The Sustainability Fund by Dr. Lex Blood, for $500.

Cox said the first $20,000 was the hardest to make. Community support has only gained momentum since.

“It’s been such a cool community thing,” Cox said. “People have really rallied behind it.”

The Kalispell Boulder Project held several fundraising events this year, attracting about 700 people at its block party in August. Through vendors, community groups and thousands of individual donations, the group quickly racked up about $50,000.

In June, the Kalispell Daybreak Rotary had pledged a matching $20,000 in a challenge to Cox and the project members to raise another $20,000 of their own in five months.

In early November, the Plum Creek Foundation gave the Kalispell Boulder Project a $3,000 grant while The Sustainability Fund chipped in another $2,000, putting capital raised in five months over the $20,000 mark and, in part, achieving the Rotary’s matching $20,000. With the $100,000 goal quickly approaching, Cox is confident the project could reach fruition by summer in 2016.

Cox, 45, has been climbing since he was 13. For him, the project is a dream come true.

“It was actually pretty emotional,” Cox said of receiving the Rotary’s matching fund. “It’s been partly that the community has been so support of something that’s kind of an alternative. I felt very honored and appreciative.”

The Daybreak Rotary, which meets at the Buffalo Hill Golf Course every Thursday, will be able to see the completed project on the drive up every morning, Cox said.

The city of Kalispell will excavate the area for the boulders while Sandry Construction is donating the concrete slab that will be poured before the boulders and wood chips are dropped in. The cost of the two boulders being manufactured and shipped to Kalispell is $86,000.

“There’s a lot of metaphors about climbing and life, and they’re sort of candid, but at the same time, they’re real,” Cox said.

For more information on the Kalispell Boulder Project, visit www.kalispellboulderproject.com.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.