The Salvation Army serving Carson City and Douglas County recently launched the second phase of its capital campaign. The campaign will help the charity raise $1.5 million to secure a new location. The current location on Colorado Street has served the charity well, but has become too small for the work it’s doing.
“We have reached a point that we are overcrowded and cannot continue to accommodate the volume of services we are providing,” said Captain Mark Cyr, the local leader of The Salvation Army. He went onto say: “We hope to find a building in the 10,000 to 12,000 square foot range which will be adequate for our current and future needs.”
The Carson City/Douglas County Salvation Army has a broad-based program that serves an average of more than 250 people per day. Most important among these are morning latchkey programs for children at four schools, the “Dream Big” after school program, Family Services, which assists an average of 12 families per day with a variety of emergency needs such as food, clothing, rent, utilities, etc. and a full church program primarily geared toward the segment of the community The Salvation Army serves.
An independent study, commissioned by The Salvation Army, recently completed a thorough community needs assessment based on interviewing local government officials, social service directors, religious organizations and business leaders. This study indicated a desperate need for The Salvation Army to expand its programs to help the poor in our community.
Larry Goodnight, the campaign chair, said, “I support the mission of The Salvation Army which is to be there to help everyone who is at their time of need. They help with food, shelter, utilities, emergency disaster services and child care and are always ready to provide spiritual and emotion care. It’s our duty as a community to help those in need and supporting The Salvation Army is one of the most responsible ways to fulfill that duty.”
The first phase of the campaign, what the organization called the soft capital campaign, was organizing local leaders and businesses, and planning the campaign. This started last spring and received a little more than $300,000 in pledges and donations.
“It’s been exciting to receive that kind of support when we really haven’t started to ask for money until now,” Cyr said.
The Salvation Army now needs to raise $1.2 million more to complete the second phase of the project which will include selling its current building, purchasing a new building and streamlining that new building to fit the needs of the organization.
“We thank you for the support many of you have given and are going to give,” Cyr said.
For information, call Cyr or Goodnight at 775-887-9120.