Advance Ministerial Alliance teams with Gospel Mission on new store location

Tuesday, June 16, 2015
MADELINEDEJOURNETTadvancensc@sbcglobal.net The former Inland Shoe Factory, built in the early fifties, is being re-fitted for the Advance branch of the Stoddard County Gospel Mission. The front portion of the building will provide 4400 square feet of space for the Mission thrift store.

An Advance factory building originally built with volunteer labor in the early fifties is once more being renovated and re-fitted to serve the community.

When the Advance branch of the Stoddard County Gospel Mission had to vacate their current location on Ruth Street, because the building had been sold, the Advance Ministerial Alliance stepped up to provide the Mission with a location that will furnish the local charity with 4400 square feet of operating space.

The Gospel Mission distributes food to the needy every Thursday and operates a thrift store, where sales go toward the cost of operation.

MADELINEDEJOURNETTadvancensc@sbcglobal.net The building will be used to house the donated furniture items which the Mission has been unable to keep locally, because of space constraints.

"Now our Advance branch will be able to keep donations locally," said Ministerial Alliance volunteer Wayne Page. "We're renovating the front part of the old shoe factory building, which has been empty for some time."

Page and Ministerial Alliance volunteer Ronnie McAtee are doing much of the construction work in the new facility.

The 60-year-old building has been occupied by various businesses, since the Inland Shoe Factory closed sometime in the eighties. (To read the amazing history of the factory, see Paul Corbin's account in this issue of the NSC.)

MADELINEDEJOURNETTadvancensc@sbcglobal.net The office will be used to distribute food items at the Advance location on Thursdays.

"We're hoping to be in the new facility soon," said Stoddard County Gospel Mission Director Kim Slavins, who supervises the main branch of the mission in Dexter and the two auxiliary facilities in Advance and Puxico.

Until the facility is ready, the Gospel Mission is operating out of temporary headquarters in the old Advance RIV gym annex on Highway C next to the library. The facility distributes food from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Thursday.

"We're having to operate out of coolers until we can get into our permanent building," explained Advance manager Jean Whittenberg. "We don't have freezers in the annex, so we can't stay open as long as we did at the last location."

A grand opening is planned for the new location.

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