Gophers senior punter Peter Mortell showed his generous nature last holiday season, and he has raised the ante this year.

Last December, all Minnesota players received a $452 Best Buy gift card for playing Missouri in the Citrus Bowl. Mortell purchased items and donated them to needy kids at St. Joseph’s Home for Children in Minneapolis.

This year, he started a crowd funding effort to raise $10,000 to buy gifts for teenage patients at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital. After 12 hours, contributions exceeded $10,000, and he set a new goal of $25,000. Mortell is also looking for a $25,000 match from a corporation.

“It says a lot about this community, and I’m proud to be a part of it,” Mortell said Saturday after practice for the Gophers’ appearance in the Quick Lane Bowl against Central Michigan in Detroit on Dec. 28.

When he did last year’s act of kindness, he said he initially had no plans to do it on a large scale this year.

“The feedback and support from the community was overwhelming even up to a few months ago, so I said, ‘How can we do something bigger and better and reach more people with this giving community that we have?’ ” Mortell said. “And the scary thing is I don’t think we are even close to being done.”

Mortell said he will also be giving away the $200 gift card given to players from the Quick Lane Bowl.

“I’m going to talk to the team at some point once we get the gift cards,” Mortell said. “I’m sure a bunch of the guys are going to jump on board with this, and we will do something special.”

REAL GROUNDBREAKING

After a ceremonial groundbreaking in the $166 million Athletes Village on Oct. 31, some machinery moved in last week to begin real work on the site of the 320,000-square-foot project.

“I think that’s the missing peace to the puzzle for us to constantly compete at a high level,” Gophers coach Tracy Claeys said. “You can draw so many pictures and change them every couple years, but once you start breaking ground and doing things on the site, recruits and everybody see it and get excited. It’s reality then. It’s great that they are starting to do some things out there.”

The Athletes Village, which has a roughly $86 million fundraising shortfall, will be the home to the Gophers’ football and basketball practice facilities and academic center for the school’s 25 athletic programs. The project is expected to be finished in 18 months to two years.

Follow Andy Greder at twitter.com/andygreder