A Des Moines businessman is helping Youth and Shelter Services (YSS) get their campaign to restore the old City Hall building off the ground with a lead pledge of $500,000.

YSS announced Friday that Richard O. Jacobson, owner of Jacobson Warehouse Company in Des Moines, will give $100,000 a year for five years to start the “Preserving the Past — Preparing for the Future” capital and endowment campaign.

On July 11, YSS presented a plan to acquire the old city hall building to the Ames City Council. This contribution would be used to help renovate the building as a new home for YSS. The money is the first part of a goal of $2 million, YSS representatives said.

“Dick is making a dream come true,” YSS CEO George Belitsos said. “We will not only be revitalizing this building, but also revitalizing many young people’s lives.”

Jacobson told the crowd the reason for this contribution is that children are our future leaders.

“If we start working with young people and get them straightened out, we won’t have the problems with our middle age. I’m involved in philanthropy across the U.S. and I don’t know of any organization that is more important than YSS,” Jacobson said. Belitsos has created something that this city and surrounding communities should be proud to have here, he added.

YSS plans to begin their official campaign in the spring of 1996.

The council will decide what action they will take on the nearly 80-year-old building at tonight’s meeting in council chambers starting at 7 p.m.