Breaking Ground on Our New Men’s Campus
On April 1st, The Extension team celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony for our new men’s campus in Marietta. Members of The Extension’s board and staff, donors, community leaders, Extension alumni, and friends gathered to mark the start of construction on the 22,000 square foot building.
In 2021, The Extension served more than 330 clients, providing a lifeline to men and women who desperately wanted to reclaim their future from chemical dependency. With the current facilities at maximum capacity, The Extension had to turn away more than 500 individuals (65% of them men) to an uncertain and often perilous future. To meet the community’s growing need for services, The Extension’s Board of Directors and Capital Campaign Committee launched the Building Solutions capital campaign in 2020 to raise funds for a new men’s facility. According to Capital Campaign Committee Co-chair Dave Schwickerath, “Almost every donor to our campaign has been touched by someone they know affected by addiction. Almost everyone we asked to contribute has stepped up to help.”
The Extension’s Building Solutions campaign launched with a lead matching gift of one million dollars from our ongoing partners at AssuranceAmerica. This company’s support served as the single largest private gift in the organization’s history and set the tone for the campaign’s fundraising success. Guy Millner, AssuranceAmerica’s Executive Chairman and Founder, stated, “We are so excited to be a part of this remarkable progress. This team is doing incredible work, truly transforming lives, and we are thrilled to be a part of it. Now we want other companies and family foundations to join in to help this team of strong change agents say yes to those people waiting to join the program.” The Building Solutions campaign has raised more than 90% of its fundraising goal and is on track to complete the campaign this year thanks to the remarkable generosity of our community.
The nearly one-hundred-year-old building that served as the first permanent home of The Extension has since been torn down to make room for the new building located on Church Street Extension. The new men’s facility will include a 56-bed dormitory with meeting rooms, recreational areas, and a cafeteria. The building is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2023 and will increase The Extension’s capacity to help men struggling with homelessness and substance abuse in our community by seventy percent.
For information about the Building Solutions campaign and the ways that you can be a part of this effort, contact Anne Murphy, Director of Development, at annemurphy@theextension.org / 770-590-9075 x309.
