Courage to Change Recovery Advocacy Day

As I was driving back from Martinsburg, WV, with a truck filled with donated product from the Procter and Gamble Tabler Station plant, I wondered where we were going to house two skids of valued product for our Leah Legacy bags. Thank goodness my parents next door volunteered to store them in their laundry room in the basement of their home.

That was the short-term solution, but the more long-term quandary was where would we store other items. We had products stored in our closet upstairs, in a few rooms, in our garage and an outdoor storage buildings.

I began to research the cost of a building. I knew what it would be called: Leah's Legacy Operations Center. That idea was mentioned in passing one day after I attended a Franklin/Fulton County Drug and Alcohol meeting and I was talking with April Rouzer, the former director. I asked if there was any funding for such a project. She referenced the project as an operations site. I said, “exactly.” Well, there wasn’t any such funding for this type of project from that agency, but that never stopped me from pursuing other avenues.

Once Robin and I researched builders and found the outpost we absolutely loved, we had to decide on a site. Again, my mom and dad volunteered their property - ours wasn’t as level. Site approval paperwork was done via email because of COVID-19.

The building sales rep. came bearing the paperwork. Much discussion took place that morning. Where was the money coming from? Is this the right time to flick the switch on such a project? I was convinced it was. We signed the paperwork, made a down payment and hoped it was the right decision. I mailed out over a dozen letters to civic organizations the next day, but by the end of the week, the state was in shutdown mode. Community organizations were no longer meeting and people were working from home.

Yikes.

My day job is to raise money for a hospital. My after-hours job suddenly was to pick up the phone and to talk with businesses, organizations and foundations in hopes of raising funds for the building. And to pray for a breakthrough. Lots of praying.

The actual construction was delayed because of the pandemic and that helped in a lot of ways- it bought us extra time to raise the necessary funds, along with an excavator who went out of his way to help us.

There was manna from Heaven. The building was paid for from donations and grants. The excavation was done in time for the Amish builders to apply their trade in less than two days on the 20x32 structure, the spouting/gutters were installed free of charge and the signage was beautifully done at a discounted rate.

Robin and my mom busily purchased the flowers and shrubbery and the landscaping was magnificently completed with a memorial garden by Dale Kennedy, owner of Village Green Nursery. The concrete was poured by a Doug DeGrange & Son Concrete who had hired our son Chris soon after high school in 2001. The electrical work was done by Robin’s cousin, Bo Higgins, owner of Higgins Electric. The inside wall framing was completed by our friend Jerry Hampton. The insulation, drywall, drop ceiling and trim work was done by Tim Smith, owner of T.W. Smith & Sons Construction and also a Clear Spring High School classmate of Robin's. The interior painting was done by Bobby Miller, a friend of Mike’s from Greencastle-Antrim High School. An epoxy floor was installed by Al Blum, owner of Renew It All. All Leah's Legacy signage done by friend Jay Sensenig, owner of FastSigns.