The Children’s Treatment Centre Foundation has received a large donation from Handy Bros. Home Comfort employees.
The Chatham-Kent heating and cooling company presented $20,500 in support of the Butterfly Building Campaign to build a new facility on McNaughton Avenue West across from the St. Clair College Thames Campus. The Butterfly Building Campaign will help build a more extensive, state-of-the-art facility to better accommodate the growing caseload. The Children’s Treatment Centre provides services to one in five children and youth in Chatham-Kent and has 1,300 children on a waiting list for services.
The price tag for the new facility was $28.5 million in 2017, but that has skyrocketed to $48 million because of inflation. The new facility will be double the size of the current one and will incorporate a family-friendly design with additional space to reduce wait times for rehabilitation services such as speech therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and autism services.
Foundation Manager of Communications and Donor Relations Lisa Caron said workers made donations through payroll deductions over the last year and decided to give to the the Foundation.
“Our staff felt that getting involved with the CTC and the new build was good for our community.” said Mitch White from Handy Bros. “We are continually community focused and felt this was an important project to support.”
The Children's Centre provides specialized therapy to children and youth with special needs across the community.
Collaboration from groups such as the Handy Bros. ensures that the Centre can continue helping Chatham-Kent children and youth participate in life to the fullest, said Caron.