The Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson's Wellness in Farmington Hills has received a second $1 million gift, this time from the Jay Farner Family Foundation.

The donation, reported by DBusiness Magazine on Monday, Aug. 31, comes less than a month after the center opened a new gymnasium funded by a separate $1 million gift from the Daniel J. Loepp Family Foundation. Together, the two gifts total $2 million in philanthropic support for the Farmington Hills nonprofit.

Jay Farner is founder and CEO of Birmingham-based Ronin Capital Partners and former CEO of Rocket Companies. He established the foundation with Nicole Vallianatos. The gift will also fund an endowment to hire and train coaches and staff as the center navigates what DBusiness described as a period of rapid expansion.

The center, located at 31440 Northwestern Highway, opened in October 2025 and is described as the first facility of its kind in Michigan. Kirk Gibson, the former Detroit Tigers star and 1984 World Series champion who has Parkinson's disease himself, is its namesake.

Membership has outpaced expectations. The center has more than 1,000 active members participating in classes, well above its original projection of 800 by the end of 2026. All programs are free. They include the PWR! Moves program, or Parkinson Wellness Recovery, which focuses on mobility, balance, strength and everyday movement.

The Loepp Foundation's gift funded the Robert A. Loepp Sr. Multi-Purpose Gymnasium, a 2,700-square-foot facility that began construction in May and opened with a ribbon-cutting Aug. 7, as reported by C&G Newspapers. Daniel Loepp, former president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, named the gym after his late father, who lived with Parkinson's for more than 10 years.

"This new multipurpose gymnasium will allow us to meet the needs of our rapidly growing membership, and I am grateful for Amy and Dan's generosity which made this opening possible," Gibson said in a statement reported by DBusiness.

At the Aug. 7 ribbon-cutting, Loepp and his wife Amy said the project was personal. "Watching my father face Parkinson's showed us what real strength looks like, and it's what led our family to this moment," Loepp said, according to C&G Newspapers' Aug. 22 report.

The Kirk Gibson Foundation's next major fundraiser, the Everybody vs. Parkinson's 2 Gala, is scheduled for Saturday, April 10, 2027, at Saint John's Resort in Plymouth Township. The Sklar Brothers, a University of Michigan alumni comedy duo, will host. Tickets are $500 each at kirkgibsonfoundation.org.