by David Ball
Staff Writer
For 55 years, Pine Castle has been providing comprehensive resources and employment services for Jacksonville residents affected by disabilities.
And for 55 years, the non-profit agency has operated out of the original wooden buildings at it’s 13-acre campus on Spring Park Road. If more room was needed, additions were added.
However, the structures have long outlived their use, and organizers are soon set to begin construction on a new $3.6 million, 17,000-square-foot Life Enrichment Center that should serve the needs of the disabled community for years to come.
The project will be the end result of a more than 18-month capital campaign – the first such campaign in the non-profit’s history.
Susan Hamilton, chair of the Pine Castle board of directors, said since her group hasn’t had to raise funds for large campaigns such as this before, the response from the community and from businesses assisting in the build has made all the difference.
“We certainly must have community support and business support in order to accomplish this,” said Hamilton. “We have a very strong advisory council led by (attorney) Doug Milne, and so far we’ve been very well received.”
Hamilton said Pine Castle has more than $1 million left to raise, although the total would’ve been much higher if it wasn’t for work done by contractor Elkins Constructors to provide below-market work and work from subcontractors.
“In talking about subcontractors and suppliers, they aren’t doing it for free, but they are doing it for sub-market pricing,” said Barry Allred of Elkins. “We try to select the right person for the job, as well as take into account what they are willing to contribute to the overall success of the project financially.”
When built, the new facility will replace four older buildings and provide a bigger, more modern and safer space for a new multipurpose room, nurses station, a training area for the special Olympics, adult education programs, computer lab and more handicap-accessible restrooms and shower facilities.
“We determined that for future expansion we hope to serve more people with disabilities,” said Pine Castle Executive Director Jon May. “We needed more space and a more modern building to provide services to folks in our program who are the most elderly and the most severely disabled.”
Pine Castle began in 1952 as a grassroots movement started by a group of parents of children with mental and physical disabilities who couldn’t attend public schools.
When Duval County public schools began accepting disabled students in the mid-1960s, Pine Castle switched its focus to serving disabled residents once they left school from the age of 18 on.
Since then, the non-profit has helped thousands of residents and now provides services each year to more than 350 adults afflicted with down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, traumatic brain injuries and other disabilities.
Many of the users of Pine Castle are employed in the non-profit’s work program assembling components, such as the gray PVC telephone switch boxes for area companies. Pine Castle also places more than 50 people in other jobs in the community and operates five group homes for 36 residents.
Pine Castle employs roughly 120 staff members and operates on a budget around $5 million. May said he expects to increase all of those numbers as the new facility comes online sometime in late 2008.
“We’ve been a solid and stable community organization that hasn’t been out begging or knocking on doors for funding,” he said. “This is our first attempt (at a capital campaign), and it’s certainly a challenge to raise those kinds of funds. We’ve had a lot of good response, but we need a little more.”
To donate or for more information, call 733-2650 or visit www.pinecastle.org.