Filed at 09:49 PM

President Peggy. R. Williams announced today that the college’s first Capital Campaign had reached $145 million – an amount that jumped in its closing 24 hours with a $25 million grant from Atlantic Philanthropies.

Williams said the college was very excited to have raised $119.3 million with only 48 hours to go, but the additional gift was “transformative.” She said the unexpected money will allow the college to break ground on the new Athletics and Events Center later this year and will provide the funding to build an aquatic center for the swimming and diving teams at the college.

“It has been an incredible ride,” she said, after ripping open her shirt to expose a Swimming and Diving team shirt — an omen, she said — that she was wearing the night before the big announcement.

Williams went on to thank the 990 members of the faculty and staff who had contributed to the campaign, and the 37,000 donors in total who gave money to the college during the course of the campaign.

The college officially announced the campaign in October of 2006. At that time, they had already raised more than $80 million.

Carl Sgrecci, the college’s vice president for administration, who has been at the college for 41 years, said the campaign was the second most historic event in the college’s history, trailing only the creation of the South Hill campus.

Check Thursday’s edition of the Ithacan for the full story.