Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sunshine Industries will soon kick off a fund-raising campaign to construct a new building.
Sunshine Industries’ existing main building is old and deteriorating, said Executive Director John Strickler, and the nonprofit organization has outgrown all of its buildings.
“We’ve been in this building since our inception in 1974,” Strickler said. The building, located 3714 Long St. east of Hawthorne School, was donated by a Seventh-Day Adventist school.
“They gave us a room to use to work with people,” Strickler said. Mabel Evans, the founder of Sunshine Industries Unlimited Inc., acquired the space and started working with the developmentally disabled so they wouldn’t have to travel outside the community for services. Sunshine Industries incorporated as a tax-exempt nonprofit in 1997.
The building is old, with a wooden foundation, Strickler said. And like other old buildings, Sunshine Industries is dealing with dry rot, carpenter ants and numerous other problems.
Also, when Strickler started working there five years ago, Sunshine Industries had 11 staff members and 30 clients. Now, it has 15 staff members and serves 63 clients.
“We’re just busting at the seams,” he said. Five years ago, Sunshine Industries built a new woodshop. When the shop outgrew that building, it moved into another building. Weyerhaeuser contracted with Knife River to connect the two buildings with a concrete slab; but the complex has no space left.
Sunshine Industries has attempted to purchase surrounding lots, Strickler said, but when that proved fruitless, staff and board members started trying to figure out if there was a way they could construct a new building on the existing property.
Sunshine Industries began working with Community Services Consortium of Albany, which helped Sunshine Industries get architectural plans created by 2form Architecture of Eugene.
Sunshine Industries is planning to complete a new 10,000-square-foot building in three phases, Strickler said. The project will begin at the north end of the property. Sunshine Industries will move in phases, tearing down old structures as the new building grows.
The last of the old structures will be demolished to make way for a parking lot.
The building features an open courtyard area on the west side, and it leaves options for expanding the building for future growth, Strickler said.
The building is estimated to cost approximately $2.2 million, Strickler said. Sunshine Industries is hoping to tap $800,000 in Community Development Block Grants with an additional $700,000 through private sources, such as the Meier Memorial Trust. That will leave Sunshine Industries to raise approximately $700,000.
The price and funding scheme are similar to those of the Jim Riggs Community Center, and Strickler said the architects looked at that building to come up with ideas that would help the new Sunshine Industries building blend into the community.
With the assistance of the Community Services Consortium, the Sunshine Industries Board of Directors is planning an official kickoff for the fund-raising campaign in September or October, Strickler said. He is especially thankful to CSC.
“Their expertise isn’t going to cost us much money,” he said. “That way we can spend what we raise on the building.”
Sunshine Industries is primarily funded through the state, Strickler said. It also receives funds from United Way and contracts for jobs. Clients operate a business shredding documents and providing janitorial, grounds keeping and woodworking services.
Sunshine makes everything from survey stakes to wedges used to stabilize freight loads. It makes about 100,000 wedges each year.
It deals exclusively with the developmentally disabled, providing work as well as social opportunities for its clients, Strickler said. Clients can spend time at the center playing games, watching DVDs or just visiting, and they can join regular outings to a variety of activities, “the things you and I take for granted” in its “community inclusion” program, something unique among similar organizations. In addition to recreation and work, Sunshine Industries also provides clients with ongoing help with reading, writing and arithmetic.
“We have something that’s a little bit unique, and people want that opportunity,” Strickler said. With that in mind, he expects Sunshine Industries to double its number of clients again in three to five years.