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'I cried so hard': Veterans United Foundation grant will transform The Center Project

Charles Dunlap
Columbia Daily Tribune
Janet Davis, left, The Center Project board member and facilities coordinator, explains how a deck will be replaced to allow for greater wheelchair access to the center's location at 805 Fairview Ave., while joined by board President Christi Kelly. The Center Project recently received a $77,600 grant to renovate and update the facility from the Veterans United Foundation as part of the foundation's 10 Years of Giving campaign.

When The Center Project, mid-Missouri's LGBTQ resource center, moved into its new location at 805 Fairview Ave. in April, the center's board knew the 100-year-old house would need considerable improvements.

The board also knew those improvements would require substantial funding. Without it, projects would have to happen in dribs and drabs.

Enter the Veterans United Foundation, which presented a check for $77,600 to The Center Project, covering the entirety of the board's wish list. 

More: The Center Project finds new home to serve Columbia's LGBTQ population

The center announced it had received the grant Nov. 8 on social media. 

When board member and facilities coordinator Janet Davis saw the check, she had to hide behind it when a photo was taken. 

"I cried so hard," she said. 

The grant to The Center Project is part of the Veterans United Foundation's 10 Years of Giving campaign. The Tribune, for Thanksgiving, is exploring the idea of thankfulness, by featuring this grant donation.

The foundation — formed 10 years ago and supported through Veterans United employees providing a small percentage of their paycheck — distributed $10 million this month, with $8 million of it staying in the central Missouri area. 

“I’m continually awestruck by the passion and generosity that our employees display daily, and this is yet another example of how impactful we can be in our communities,” said Erik Morse, president of the Veterans United Foundation board of directors, in a news release about the 10 Years of Giving campaign.

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Other non-veteran-centric organizations that recently received grants included Missouri River Relief, Rainbow House, True North and Day Dreams Foundation. 

Donations to Rainbow House and True North topped $1 million, with Rainbow House planning additions, renovations and expansion of services; and True North creating its victim advocacy center. 

Veteran-centric organizations and projects that received grants included increased accessibility at Columbia's Welcome Home Shelter; Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility at the Veterans Urban Farm in Columbia; the Veterans Healing Pavilion at Midlands Hospital in Papillion, Nebraska; Veterans Student Center at University of Missouri–St. Louis; and the SD Gunner Fund in Richmond Hill, Georgia.

The Center Project receives independent nominations

The 10 Years of Giving process started back in July. Veterans United employees could nominate a nonprofit of their choosing to support.

The Center Project received nine nominations, which happened organically.

Two people who nominated The Center Project were Spencer Thompson, a data product owner with Veterans United, and Mason Aid, a diversity and inclusion coordinator.

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Thompson has teenage children who participate in PRISM, the center's LGBTQ teen support group. Aid is a former PRISM coordinator and is on the center's development committee.

Aid spoke about learning more about confidence from the teens while serving as a coordinator than when first coming out.

The Center Project board members Janet Davis and Christi Kelly stand in one of the community spaces Nov. 18 at the center's location at 805 Fairview Ave. Enrich Construction this week removed the load-bearing wall behind them and put in support beaming to create one large community and meeting room for the center.

"I came out while at Mizzou in 2008. That’s a whole story. That was challenging to say the least," Aid said. "... I learned more about my identity and how to exist confidently in the world as an LGBTQ individual because of those teenagers."

"I was very glad to see a lot of my other co-workers saw this organization as one to support," Thompson said.

This group of nine was pooled together by the foundation Aug. 5 to work directly with The Center Project board on the improvement goals and proposal. This was submitted to the foundation Aug. 30.

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Veterans United employees, through an internal system, then voted on which projects would be supported by the foundation. 

"It was pretty wild the first day of voting because I just sat there and refreshed the page for, like, three hours seeing if we could get fully funded," Aid said. 

The Center Project's proposal received enough votes on that first day to be fully funded. This was Sept. 29. The board would receive the good news roughly one month later.

A wall between adjoining rooms at The Center Project is nearly demolished Monday. The project to renovate the center's location at 805 Fairview Ave. is being done by Enrich Construction after the center received a grant from the Veterans United Foundation.

Both Thompson and Aid noted it was a bucket-list item to present a great big check. They participated in the announcement posted to The Center Project's social media streams Nov. 8. 

"In a perfect world I would get to give a giant check to The Center Project, and I did," Aid said. "That was really cool for me to have that opportunity and be able to (help) this organization that has meant so much to me ... (to) be more financially stable."

The Center Project's home will go from "kind of a rundown old house near Hickman High School to being a space where people can gather, get resources, get clothes that fit their gender identity and just exist," Aid added.

What construction projects are happening at The Center Project

As facilities coordinator, Davis is in charge of everything that happens in the house.

While Davis' profession is photography — and she is also an American Sign Language-certified interpreter — she and her husband renovate old houses, so she knew what kind of work it would take on the center's new home. 

"Nobody else on the board has that knowledge," she said. "It fell into my lap, and I love taking old structures and making them new, and being a queer person, my love for The Center Project is even bigger." 

Construction projects started Monday at The Center Project. The organization is working with Enrich Construction to complete the projects over the next three to six months.

Jed Foster, owner of Pinnacle Electric Solutions, finishes up removing a ceiling fan Monday while helped by construction project manager Billi Bracken of Enrich Construction at The Center Project at 805 Fairview Ave. The center is receiving renovations after it was awarded a $77,600 grant from Veterans United Foundation.

While most bid packages take about a month to create, Davis said, Enrich did its in about two weeks. 

Project manager Billi Bracken said this project has been a great learning experience for her. She is fairly new to Enrich, but had helped with residential and commercial projects while working for Lowe's for 16 years. 

"It was nice to jump in, get my feet wet and learn about what they have going on (at The Center Project)," Bracken said. 

Construction will happen in phases, she said. Projects include: 

  • Removing a load-bearing wall and installing support beaming to create one large community room on the main level;
  • Making the space wheelchair accessible, including rebuilding a deck with a ramp to access side entrances to the house; renovating a bathroom to make it wheelchair accessible; and leveling floors;
  • Renovating a detached, unfinished garage into another meeting and storage space, which likely will be used by the PRISM support group; and
  • Other general improvements, such as updating wiring, other issues associated with the large construction projects and buying furniture.

Some outdoor, backyard landscaping likely will take place as well. 

When The Center Project board found its new home on Fairview Avenue, its goal was to have "a house where kids, adults and whoever in the community could have a place to feel safe and call home," Davis said. 

The wall demolition, beam installation and flooring replacement is expected to take place over the next two to 2 1/2 weeks, she added.

"This week we are going to get that wall ripped out," Bracken said. "Next week, we'll (start getting) the whole house refloored from the ground up."

A complete renovation of a detached garage at The Center Project's location at 805 Fairview Ave. is among construction planned for the center. The renovation will transform the garage into an outdoor meeting space for PRISM, its LGBTQ youth support group.

The garage project will happen over the winter and into the spring, Bracken noted. 

"As (The Center Project) asks us to do sections, we'll try to work them in as quickly as possible because we know this is important for the community so they have a nice, safe place to work," she said. "It is nice sometimes having these smaller projects where we can get them done in a few days' time frame."

Bracken thinks it is great The Center Project has a program focused on LGBTQ youth. 

"That is a picked-on group, and if they can come together and talk and work together to solve problems they may have, it's a great thing," she said. 

'We are wanted. We don't have to hide.'

The $77,600 grant The Center Project received is transformative, Davis and board President Christi Kelly said. 

We are in "a position where we are seen and we are genuinely reaching a place in this community where we are wanted, we are needed and we don’t feel like we have to hide," Davis said about the idea of thankfulness.

"I am so grateful and thankful that any day of any week of the year, I can walk in (the center's) front door and know that I am safe."

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Employees of Enrich Construction of Columbia demolish a wall Monday at The Center Project at 805 Fairview Ave. as part of renovations taking place at the center after it received a grant from the Veterans United Foundation.

When the check was presented, you could see on the board members' faces that they were now thinking, "OK, now we can actually get to work," Thompson said. "I can't wait to see what it looks like when they are done."

This was echoed by Davis, noting money raised by The Center Project can now focus on its operational and programming costs, instead of construction cost fundraising.

"We can now 100% take everything else we raise and turn it into programming," she said.

Kelly knew The Center Project would face challenges moving the center into a historic home, but a new location was necessary.

"We wanted to expand our programming," she said, noting for this to happen, construction upgrades would have to happen first. "We thought it was going to take a few years, a capital campaign, all that.

"And in one fell swoop we get it all done in the next six months."

A detached garage at The Center Project's location at 805 Fairview Ave. currently serves as storage for Mid-Missouri Pridefest. Once it is renovated by Enrich Construction, it will function as a year-round meeting space for PRISM, the center's LGBTQ youth support group, said board members Janet Davis and Christi Kelly.

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Part of the programming expansion was having the space tphold more than one event at a time, Kelly said. The center's old location was one large room, a small kitchen and its clothing closet. Scheduling center programs was a tricky dance. 

The multi-use space goal was realized Nov. 17, Davis said. 

"We had our Friendsgiving downstairs (on the main level) and another group was meeting upstairs for their monthly meeting, and they didn’t overlap each other," she said.

The upstairs of The Center Project has its office, a meeting space and storage space. Once construction is completed, the downstairs will have a large community space, smaller community space, kitchen, bathroom, storage and its clothing closet. The garage renovation will allow the center to have a third, larger meeting space