Beckley Salvation Army opens to community
BECKLEY, W.Va. (WVVA) - After 15 years of planning, two years of non-stop construction, and countless hours of prayer from those involved, the all-new, state-of-the-art Beckley Salvation Army on Robert C Byrd Drive has opened its doors to the community.
On Friday, the Salvation Army held a ribbon cutting to mark the occasion.
The facility’s commanding officer Captain Liz Bluesiewicz says construction alone has already totaled $7 million with some final projects to be completed. With the demolition of the lot’s former building, this project has easily taken $10 million to come to fruition.
“We have top-of-the-line everything: the best technology, the best internet service,” Bluesiewicz explained. “We’re gonna have music classes, a huge kitchen that is state-of-the-art, where we will be able to feed breakfast, lunch and dinner. We’ll be able to operate in times of disaster and flooding. And so we’ve really spared no expense to make this something that will hopefully last even longer than our last building, which was there for 84 years.”
That old building has sat on Beckley’s South Fayette Street since 1938; and while it served the people of this community as best it could, it just couldn’t keep up with the times and the growing need of southern West Virginia.
“The old one was just way out of date,” shared Jay Quesenberry, Advisory Board Chair for the Beckley Salvation Army. “It just did not fit today’s lifestyle, today’s people in the way it works with these programs that we have. This [new facility] really fits perfectly on how we can be an outreach to the community.”
This new facility is prepared to feed hundreds out of its updated kitchen, welcomes dozens of students to the county’s first-ever afterschool Boys and Girls Club and help provide utility assistance to struggling individuals across seven counties.
These are all facts that caught the eye of West Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Moore Capito (R-W.Va), who attended Friday’s celebration.
“We know it’s all about community, all across West Virginia. That’s what’s really common about every single part of this state is that we have strong communities and this is a shining example of that,” Moore told WVVA.
A majority of the facility’s funding was supported through the West Virginia CARES Act Fund, but local foundations also stepped up to help. A large contributor to the project was the Cline family. On Friday, the facility was named in honor of Chris and Kameron Cline, who died in a helicopter crash in 2019. Their family says the father and daughter would be proud of the work the Beckley Salvation Army has done and will continue to do.
The Beckley Salvation Army’s “Boys and Girls Club” for school-aged children will start on Monday, May 13. They will also be offering a summer program, as well as renting out gym and conference room spaces to community members.
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