Not even a downpour could stop breaking ground on something 12 years in the making.
A large crowd turned out for the groundbreaking on the new Children's Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent (CTC-CK). That included people who use the services provided by the centre, those who have donated to the building of the new centre, members of provincial and local government, and those involved with the foundation.
Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff was involved with the centre when the idea for the new building initially became more than just an idea.
"Twelve years ago the chair, Michael Grail, said we need to build a new treatment centre so he steered the ship and said we need to raise the money and move towards it. Eight years ago they bought the land, so the planning has been going and going," explained Canniff. "The culmination of raising locally almost 10 million dollars to do this, the community has really come together. It's such an important thing for a community; one in nine people in Chatham-Kent touch the services there."
That sense of community is why there were 150 shovels set out to break ground on the new building. Everyone agreed the new build wouldn't have been possible without the Chatham-Kent community.
"This was a community effort we want all members of the community to come and grab a shovel as we break ground," said Michael Parsa, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.
Along with the $9.5 million raised by the community of Chatham-Kent, the government of Ontario is investing an additional $58.9 million towards the new building.
The CTC-CK currently provides services to more than 3,700 children and youth with special needs and the building they are currently in was not made to be beneficial for that large of a number.
"We are pushing through double the capacity in that facility. And there is still a waiting list," said CTC-CK board Vice President Jerome Quenneville. "[We're] really looking forward to this new facility so we can better accommodate the ones we already have and welcome new people."
Parsa said this was one of the reasons the government was on board with investing the money needed to make this new 58,000-square-foot centre a reality.
"They already do fantastic work but obviously with the growth in the community and the services families rely on this will be able to help them even more and provide even more support to not only Chatham-Kent but all the local communities," said Parsa.
This larger facility will also diminish wait times for CTC-CK services like speech-language pathology, Ontario Autism Program services and occupational therapy. Though it isn't known how much, the wait list which can average about 700 to 800 people, will go down, Donna Litwin-Makey, Chief Executive Officer of the CTC-CK, is confident it will. But explains demand is always a factor.
"We have definitely grown every year, we saw more kids ever before this year. But we project we will be more efficient, more of our staff will be housed at our centre and we will be able to do more with every hour that we have," said Litwin-Makey.
While the ground was broken on the new facility, the CTC-CK still needs to raise the last $500,000. After the success of the Butterfly Building campaign, in the fall they will be doing a two-week campaign called Build for the Kids to get them over the top.
As for the building timeline, Quenneville said it will be two years before they are in and offering services, adding, "But this is where it starts."