By Ben Cox
Midwest Youth Services’ office at 2001 West Lafayette Ave. in Jacksonville is expected to undergo some major changes in the next few years. However, a little paint and sprucing up before all that happens never hurts.
Farm & Home Supply officials were recently in town for an annual meeting and selected Midwest Youth Services as a recipient for their Farm & Home Cares service project. MYS Executive Director Ann Baker says that Jacksonville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Brittany Henry contacted her as Henry was helping to coordinate Farm & Home Supply’s annual meeting here in Jacksonville.
From there it was some back-and-forth coordination with representatives from Farm & Home “[Brittany Henry] gave them a rundown and a list of all the different non-for-profits and things like that in the area. They were particularly drawn to our mission and selected us to do a give back project. I guess it’s something that they do everywhere that they go. I know last year they worked with a children’s hospital. From there I got in contact with Glenda Hackman and she’s the chief people officer out of Quincy representing Farm & Home Supply. We had been going back and forth with ideas and things that we could do for the project.”
Baker says approximately 40 Farm & Home Supply volunteers showed up on July 30 around noon and spent the next four hours rehabilitating the offices and outdoors around the building.
“We’re working towards our building project and so we didn’t want to have them do things that were going to be potentially undone,” Baker explains, “We’re putting on the new building addition hopefully soon. Everybody knows as soon as you build something new and you stand it next to something that’s not new, it very quickly looks dated and worn. We really wanted to take some time to put new paint on the walls. Over the years, we’ve had to make do with different hanging baskets for mail or all of those things that just create holes in the wall. They came in with spackle and sanding blocks and filled all of those holes, took everything off the walls, washed down all of the walls and got them primed and ready to paint. They spent the majority of their time painting interior walls and doorframes, and they also did some cleanup projects outside.”
Baker hopes this will finally summon the kick off of their major addition to the building, which has been delayed for several reasons. “It was supposed to start when the ground frost was done,” Baker says of the delay, “We’ve fundraised so much money and we’ve really gotten a great head start on things, but the downfall is that while we have been saving money, the cost of living and materials just continues to rise. Our project cost is about a third higher than what we originally anticipated. We’ve had to negotiate with the board, get them to support the project and the need, and then obviously still working with funders and fundraising. Ultimately, we will end up having a mortgage at the bank. We’re still working with the finance committee to get things solidified before we sign those papers and move forward, but I’m hoping within the next 30 to 45 days we will have lots of movement here at the agency.”
