Scott Swanson
Before a crowd of well-wishers and clients, Sunshine Industries broke ground Wednesday, Oct. 10, for a new facility on 2.3 acres on Clark Mill Road, across from Melcher Logging.
Board Chairman Chuck Thompson welcomed the crowd, at least half of whom were clients of the organization, which serves disabled people by providing vocational training, paid employment, basic life skills training, education and socialization.
The relocation is due to the deterioration of the present 4,000-square-foot facility and the need for more space, Thompson has said. Sunshine needs space to store equipment, lumber and finished products produced in its wood shop and plant nursery.
Bob Dalton, a board member and leader of the $600,000-plus project, said the project is in the second of three phases and that, as soon as permits are procured, concrete will be poured for foundations and other infrastructure. The new campus will include a 7,680-square-foot main building and 3,000-square-foot woodworking shop and storage facility.
“This has been a dream of ours for a very long time,” said Dalton, whose daughter is a Sunshine client. “To get here has been a journey and it continues to be a journey.”
Freddy Bratton, 30, who has been a client at Sunshine for 12 years, said the ground-breaking was something he and others had been looking forward to.
Celebrating the groundbreaking are Sunshine staffers and clients, in front from left, Nick Wilson (hands folded); Geneva Henry (in sweater) and Harold Drew (wheelchair). In second row are, from left, Julia Reed (jacket), Vernell Warner, Freddy Bratton, Angela Vaughn, Toby Billings (hockey mask); Bob Miner (crocodile dundee hat), Chad Schroeder (backwards ballcap), Tony Miner (holding cup) and Katie Koch. In the rear, from left, are James Babbitt, Jeremiah Stevenson, Kelly Dobbins (wearing glasses), Mac McCalister (light gray cap), Jason Gorby (white shirt, holding cup), Dana Lane sun glasses) and Bob Kimberlin.
“It’s going to help us a lot,” he said of the new facility. “We need a new building, actually. The one we have now, it’s old and falling apart. It’s been there since 1974, about 38 years.”
Currently funded by government grants, income from work contracts and local contributions, Sunshine began in the early 1970s as a parent-operated activity center and, in 1973, located in its present facility, a dilapidated farmhouse at 3714 Long St. The organization serves approximately 65 clients, a number that has more than doubled in the last 10 years.
When board members decided a few years ago that a new facility was necessary, Sunshine kicked off a capital campaign to raise funds for the new campus but suspended it temporarily after some management reorganization became necessary. The campaign is back in full swing and sponsorships ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 are available, as well as memorial and other donations. Sunshine emphasizes that “no donation is too large or too small.”
Thompson said fund-raising thus far has raised about $85,000 and several grant applications are in the works that may raise that total.
“We’re still up in the air. We’re still short,” he said, adding that the local fund-raising goal is $40,000. Dalton announced at the ground-breaking ceremony that he had just been handed a check for $4,000 from his in-laws, Bob and Mona Waibel, which, Thompson said later, represents the first 10 percent of that local goal.
“I think it’s really do-able,” Thompson said.
He encouraged any prospective donors to check Sunshine out, in person and on its website, sunshineindustriesunlimited.com.
“We need people to come down and see our project and visit us at Sunshine and see what their money is going to,” he said. “I think if they come to Sunshine and see what our staff is doing with our clients, they will be impressed. They will see what kinds of things have happened and what we’re doing.”