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July 10, 2009

Carthage Crisis Center planning move

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Volunteers with strong backs will be needed at the end of the month when the Carthage Crisis Center moves to new, larger headquarters at Main Street and Central Avenue.

But Brian and Marilyn Bisbee believe the help will come. The couple, co-directors of the homeless shelter, say the Carthage area has always been willing to lift up the Crisis Center and its programs, including fund-raising and renovation projects that will allow the move from a former filling station into the former Leggett & Platt national research center.

Brian Bisbee cites an instance recently when he said his wife had been praying over the need for mattress covers to go on new bedding for the new shelter.

“She put the need for mattress and pillow covers in our newsletter and before we had all of them distributed, a woman came in to tell Marilyn that her boss wanted to take care of that,” he said. “This building is full of stories like that.”

The building was donated by Leggett & Platt, which also supplied all new bedding for center rooms to house residents and staff. And a request by L&P; officials to furniture manufacturers it supplies resulted in the donation and delivery of truckloads of new couches and chairs.

The center’s energy efficient lighting was donated by H.E. Williams of Carthage, Galbraith’s donated the floor tile used in some of the rooms, Lowe’s employees helped outfit a children’s play area, dining chairs were donated and most of the kitchen equipment was donated or bought at auction.

“It’s interesting how all the pieces have come together,” Bisbee said.

In addition to a $1.9 million renovation budget, much of the work to prepare the building has been done by volunteers, with hundreds of hours of labor coming from Crisis Center residents.

“A group from the First Baptist Church in Bourbon came down to help the First Baptist Church here with Bible school last week,” said Bisbee. “Two of their men worked with us full-time, and all the other folks were here helping when they weren’t at Bible school.”

On Friday, a partition in one of the new bathrooms was being painted by volunteer Kate Kennedy, of Carthage.

“I just felt like I should help,” said Kennedy, now a junior at the University of Arkansas.

The current, 16-bed center often is at capacity, and Bisbee said there is a growing need for additional shelter space, especially by families.

“With the economy, we’re seeing more people who need help, like families that can’t pay their rent,” he said.

The new center will have five family rooms, space to house 15 men and eight women, areas for seven men and four women who are in transition to independence, plus room for staff members. It also will have space used for counseling and training in areas such as life skills and financial management.

“Shelter is important, but our real goal is to help our residents return to being self-supporting members of society,” Bisbee said. “Earlier this week, a woman came back to visit who had spent several months here after getting out of an abusive relationship. Now, she’s got her own place; she’s working, going to school and involved in a church.”

The center also has a room for clothing donations that will be collected for residents and others in need, plus a room to store donated household goods to help shelter residents set up their own homes.

The center for years has been collecting and distributing used furniture and appliances, and has a food program that feeds shelter residents and helps residents and programs throughout the area.

Bisbee said much of the food comes to the center through relationships worked out with trucking companies that bring in food that would otherwise go to waste.



To help

Area residents who want to help with the move planned for July 31 and Aug. 1, or with cleanup and packing to prepare for the move, may call Brian or Marilyn Bisbee at the Crisis Center at 358-3533.

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