After months of searching, the Mission of Hope is proud to announce the organization has found a home and according to Administrator Julia Baldrige, the organization could not be happier.
On July 14, just after 10 a.m., Baldridge announced the Mission of Hope had signed a purchase agreement for the existing land and facility in which the Mission currently sits.
“Earlier this year, the owner of the building had told us that we needed to prepare to move and to be out by the end of the year. We began looking at alternative locations but nothing we could find was big enough for our operations,” Baldridge said. “There were so many wonderful people who tried to help by scouting locations, holding meetings and trying to find a solution.”
The Mission’s inner workings are massive, requiring approximately 20 volunteers each week to ensure operations run smoothly and includes large refrigerators and freezers, garage sale area, Hope’s Closet Resale Shop, a free clothing area for victims of house fires and other natural disasters, sorting rooms, food bank and more.
“When it became apparent, we could not find an alternative location, I approached Bob and had a heartfelt talk with him about our predicament,” Baldridge said. “I told him I knew it was his property and knew he could do whatever he wanted with it. You cannot be mad at someone for wanting to do something with their own property, but I told him if he was going to sell it, to sell it to us.”
Following months of meetings, planning and negotiations, Murphy contacted Baldridge with two offers from which the board could choose.
Finding one of the offers more than reasonable, the board began the process to purchase the facility so operations would continue.
“We cannot thank Bob enough for working with us on this. It is such a relief not only to our board, but to our volunteers and to those we serve. There are hundreds of families who come to the Mission every month and now, we can continue to serve them,” Baldridge said. “We have purchased the building at a cost of $450,000 and will make payments over the next 20 years. We still desperately need a new roof and some repairs to the facility but we are elated that we can now officially call it ours.”
With the purchase of the facility, Baldridge noted the community’s help will still be needed to ensure the Mission can continue to serve.
“For a while, we had to stop accepting donations because we believed we were going to have to move. We will begin accepting donations again Monday July 17 and will place some of those items in our resale shop, Hope’s Closet to meet the requirements of the contract and the new payment structure,” Baldridge said. “This was the best possible outcome for the situation we were in and we look forward to serving the community. I want to express my sincerest thanks to all those who have supported the Mission for the past two decades, the title company, to those who tried to help us find a solution and for the continued support of the community. We are thankful that we can continue to serve.”
Baldridge said the Mission will hold fundraisers from time to time to help make improvements and repairs to the facility to better serve the community.
If you would like to help support the Mission in their efforts to continue operations, you may make a monetary donation in person or by visiting Hardymission.com.
Lauren Siebert
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
