The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent’s fundraising for a new building received a $100,000 booster shot recently, as Essex & Kent Insurance donated towards the project.
The centre, located currently on Lark Street, is looking to build a larger facility on McNaughton Avenue in Chatham. The new centre will be double the size of the existing one, at 50,000 square feet.
It’s a $28.5-million project. A total of $22.5 million is to come from the province, but that has left an additional $6 million in local fundraising required. Municipal council recently allocated $1.5 million towards the project, and centre personnel continue to seek additional funding.
Kevin Konecny president and CEO of Essex & Kent, said the company sees the value of having such a facility in Chatham-Kent. He said the treatment of the daughter of Dan Lundy of Lundy Insurance helped convince him to support the project.
“It’s a very cool story on Dan’s daughter and the use they get,” he said, referring to the therapy pool. “You sold me on the pool area right when you came in.”
Konecny said the pool is used for numerous forms of therapy, and it is also available for use by outside groups.
Mike Genge, executive director of the Foundation of the CTCCK, said groups such as Community Living, as well as physiotherapists will have “great” opportunities to make use of the pool at the new location.
Genge said the fundraising is starting to shift into higher gear.
“The community sees the municipal support and now they want to give personal support. It’s to look after the kids,” he said. “We’ve got great staff too.”
Mike Graill, Foundation committee chairman, said the centre is an important element of the community. He agreed with Genge in regard to the staff as being an integral part as well.
“Donna (Litwin-Makey, the executive director of CTCCK) and her team do their very best for the children,” Graill said. “We need the new facility to take on added capacity.”
Litwin-Makey said when the current centre was built in 1984, their client list numbered just a few hundred. They now have more than 3,000.
“We’ve needed more space for a while,” she said.
