CF Foundation lands big gift – Ocala

103-acre farm, valued at $2.9M plus, will help students in Equine Studies and Agribusiness programs

The College of Central Florida Foundation announced Tuesday that it has received the largest gift in its 58-year history: a 103-acre farm on County Road 475 that is valued at more than $2.9 million.

The farm will soon provide hands-on learning opportunities for students in the colleges Equine Studies and Agribusiness programs, CF said in a news release.

Though he is not named in the release, the donor is Richard E. Sherman of Ocala. He transferred the deed to the foundation on Dec. 28. One day before that the Diamondback Cattle Company, of which Sherman is the sole managing member and administrator, transferred the land to Sherman, according to land records on file with the court clerks office.

The news release identified the donor only as a longtime Marion County supporter of education and agriculture.

The farm address is 4020 SE Third Ave., Ocala. Its better known as the farm on CR 475 just north of Grace Episcopal School.

The CF Foundation was created in 1959 as the Central Florida Junior College Endowment Corp. The name has changed through the years but the mission has remained consistent: "to solicit and secure restricted and unrestricted resources to support the college in providing educational services to Citrus, Levy and Marion counties," the foundation wrote in an email.

Until now, the foundation's largest gift was $2.5 million from the estate of Jack Wilkinson. The money was designated for CF's new Levy campus, which is under construction and scheduled to open in August, the foundation said.

The foundation raised $1.16 million during 2015, the latest year for which full statistics are available. That does not include the farm, which will be counted in the 2016 tally.

"The foundation has over 400 scholarships, with 363 of them endowed, to aid our students in their education journey. In 2016 we added 14 new scholarships and one endowed chair," foundation Executive Director Chris Knife wrote in an email. (The foundation also helps find equipment and capital resources to enhance existing CF programs.)

The Equine Studies program has approximately 100 students and there are 50 in Agribusiness. Both are Associate in Science degree programs, though "the Agribusiness program also has a specialization in the Bachelor of Applied Science degree," the foundation said.

"This year the college celebrates 60 years of providing education and workforce training in our community, and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate our past accomplishments than to look to the future," CF President Jim Henningsen said in the news release.

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CF Foundation lands big gift - Ocala