Our Volunteers are the Best in the Community!
Judy Dancause

It's just my opinion, and maybe I'm a bit biased, but the volunteers at the Agapè Centre are the absolute best! It would not have been possible for the centre to relocate to our new location (at 40 Fifth Street West), on schedule, without all of their hard work, dedication and sheer number of hours volunteered!

In Germany the word for volunteer means "Noble Worker". What a wonderfully accurate way to describe people who donate their valuable time to better their community and the people in it! Every week at the Agapè Centre approximately 85 "Noble Workers" donate in excess of 650 hours to help us give assistance to so many.

During the preparation for the move� and during the move itself, I could not count how many hours our volunteers donated to help. Painting, scraping, cleaning, scrubbing, sweeping, carrying, building, stacking, researching and organizing. These are the words that describe what our �Noble Workers� did during those weeks before we moved. It was hard, physical and often tedious work getting everything ready. Volunteers, clients, staff, board members, donors, family and friends all pitched in to make sure the centre opened on schedule to help the less fortunate in our community. Days often started before 7:00am and finished after 10:00pm! It was a fun, slightly crazy and definitely inspiring time that no one involved will ever forget.

I would like to sincerely thank every person involved in our relocation (and with our regular services) from the bottom of my heart for their efforts. You are the life blood of the Agape Centre and we couldn�t have done it without you!

Well, we've moved! The Agapè Centre is now fully operational at our new location at 40 Fifth Street West. Clients, volunteers and customers alike are all adjusting to our new home. Although some renovations still need to be completed, response has been outstanding to the new building.

The cheerful yellows on the walls, and the clean, spacious reception area, along with the friendliest volunteers in the community have all combined to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere for anyone who visits!

The more centrally located building has significantly improved wait times for the services we offer. The additional space has also given the Thrift Shoppe the opportunity to have a bigger selection of clothing and household goods � thousands of items are now in the store! We are especially thrilled about some of the changes to our Food Bank and Clothing Services. In the old building, a client would need to come to the centre on two separate occasions to access both of these services because our Food Bank did not have enough space to accommodate additional food and all food storage was across town. Starting in September, our clients will be able to make one appointment each month to receive their groceries and clothing!!! It really has been a hardship for many of our clients to organize the transportation to the centre twice each month for these services.

Signage has now been installed, and we have just received funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to install a lift at the building!!!! The lift will make all our services completely accessible to all in our community. Everyone is very excited about this as families with strollers, seniors, walkers and people with wheelchairs have always been challenged to fight their way into our building and maneuver through the old halls - so this is a huge improvement! The lift should be completed in October of this year. Many thanks to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for making this possible.

I've mentioned it before, but this move to a larger, more centrally located building was critical for the centre to meet the growing needs of our community. Since 2001, the number of people receiving service has tripled! In addition, the centre now offers more services such as snowsuits and prom dresses. The new location will also offer the opportunity for the centre to develop more new services and partner more closely with other community agencies � all with the goal to better meet the needs of the less fortunate.

The move has and will dramatically improve the way the centre operates. Again, thank you to everyone in the community who helped make this move possible. Local People Helping Local People. It is who we are and what we do.

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