Fort Mill Care Center opens new location

The ribbon cutting for a permanent home for the Fort Mill Care Center held on a recent Monday was a significant step in the life of the nonprofit. With that milestone met, the facility’s leaders are already hard at work to accomplish an even larger – and loftier – goal.

Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk joined Care Center President Diana Bernard and center Director Carol Higgins as they cut the ribbon on a newly renovated building at 2760 Old Nation Road. The building was once a restaurant and has been updated and retrofitted to become the offices and food pantry of the FMCC.

“This is just a shining example of what can happen when they persist and when they realize their success,” Funderburk said.

The FMCC plays a vital role in the community by offering assistance to low income clients through food distribution, help with utility bills and healthcare. The center opened its doors to clients for the first time at the new location the morning of the ribbon cutting. Bernard said the clients’ reaction was wonderful.

“Everybody loved it,” she said, “We just got fancy overnight.”

The ribbon cutting is a major step for the center, but while the location is new, the available space for storing food is still limited.

“The need is definitely there,” Bernard said. “We are almost at capacity right now and it’s going to be hard getting those Thanksgiving meals out like we wanted; we may just be giving out turkeys.”

That’s why earlier this year the FMCC launched its first capital campaign to raise funds to build a new food pantry next to the existing building. So far, $167,000 of the $400,000 goal has been raised with hopes that a golf tournament on Oct. 12 will push the campaign over its halfway mark. Registration for the tournament is underway and some big raffle prizes, including a week long cruise, have been donated.

However, golf alone won’t get the FMCC to it’s big goal, officials said. Members of the capital campaign committee are beginning to reach out to the community’s larger businesses in hopes they’ll be inspired to help the town they call home.

Funderburk agreed.

“When they come here and cut their ribbon they always give proper attention to the correct things to say,” he said, referring to big companies that relocated to Fort Mill in recent years. “It’s always about quality of life and about contributing and giving back to the community. They should see this as an opportunity to practice what they’re preaching.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 6:58 PM with the headline "Fort Mill Care Center opens new location."