‘Project Move’ Storage Facility Dedicated

A labor of love

Waukesha, WI – September 6, 2010 – Dedication is more than just what’s being done for Hope Center’s new storage facility on Sunday September 12th. It’s at the core of what’s in the hearts of the volunteers who built it. Hope Center’s Project Move, which provides donated furniture and household items to those in need, is back in business thanks to the time and talents of a dedicated group of volunteers from St. John’s Lutheran church in Brookfield.

According to Ralph Zick, Executive Director at Hope Center, “We’ve been in need of a storage area for quite some time. Our old storage facility was in bad shape. It wasn’t big enough for our needs and it leaked, which caused a multitude of problems.” When members of St. John’s Lutheran Church of Brookfield became aware of the need, they set their sights on doing something about it. In June of 2009, with the help of 75 volunteers from the congregation, the old storage came down and the new storage facility went up in its place.

When asked why they took on this project, the volunteers from St. John’s were consistent. ‘We saw a need right here in our community and wanted to help those who’ve been hit with hard times,’ stated Lawson Rennie, a retired architect, ‘I’ve enjoyed working on this from concept to completion. It was truly a labor of love.’ Another volunteer, Ken Bahr said, ‘The good Lord blessed me with talents and it was payback time.’ Ralph Nelson’s agreed, ‘I’m retired, it’s fun and it’s for a good cause.’

Jeff Gubbins, St. John’s coordinator for the project stated, “We’ve helped communities in other countries and we felt it was important to do something for our local community as well. Hope Center’s storage facility was an ideal project for us. We had the resources, the talent, and the volunteers to make it happen.” A HUD grant provided additional funding for the project over and above what St. John’s could contribute.

This is not just any storage facility, according to Zick. It has become a staging area for hope. The dedicated volunteers, all of whom considered this project a labor of love, have put Project Move back on track. The campaign had been unable to continue for the past two years as a result of the lack of dry storage for the needed items.

Shortly before the building was completed in June, project Move started up again. To date, Project Move has picked up 166 donated items and delivered to 63 families in need. There are currently 83 additional families on a waiting list. “We’re grateful that St. John’s is helping us to reinstate Project Move,” said Zick.

The dedication will be on Sunday, September 12 at 12:30 p.m. with an ice cream social to follow. The public is invited to attend the dedication and celebrate the completion of the facility.

Hope Center, formerly Cooperating Congregations of Waukesha County (CCWC), is a non-profit organization that has been serving the basic needs of financial assistance, food, clothing and child care in the Waukesha County for more than twenty years. In 2008, Hope Center provided over 30,000 direct units of service with its eight different programs and is continually the number one referral source from 211/First Call for Help. Hope Center is continually working to provide new and better solutions to handle the growing needs of the community.

For more information on Hope Center and how you can give or receive help, please call 262.549.8726 or visit their web site at www.hopecenterwi.org.