Originally posted in The Southpoint Sun on Dec. 11, 2019
In less than one year, an idea turned into a new 10-room facility for Leamington’s homeless youth.
George Bergen, one of The Bridge Leamington Youth Resource founders and Board President, recalled meeting with Peter and Cathy Quiring in January of this year to ask for a donation towards Phase II of the Bridge – a temporary home for the homeless youth of Leamington. “Peter inter-rupted me and said, ‘You know what George, we’re going to build Phase II for you.’ I’ll never forget that moment,” said Bergen.
The Grand Opening for The Quiring Family: Fresh Start Housing Facility was held on Friday, Dec. 6 at the Sherk Street location. The supportive housing facility will start housing youth in the New Year.
The Quiring family donated approximately $1,000,000 to the project. “We are really blessed to be able to do some-thing like this for our community,” said Peter Quiring. “We just knew we had to do something. Writing a cheque is one thing, but the people volunteering here day in and day out, week in and week out, I recognize how difficult that is,” added Quiring.
Anthony Grossi of Grossi Construction kept the proj-ect moving at record pace and also donated approximately $150,000 to the cause. “It all happened so fast. January was ‘the ask to now. Peter told Anthony to do it at cost and to throw in some extras,” said Cathy Quiring.
This is an opportunity to offer programs and services to sup-port youth on their journey of change to move towards inde-pendent living, move on to permanent supportive housing, or re-integrate back with their families. As an organization we are confident that providing housing to the youth of the Leamington and greater area is an opportunity to assist with bridging the gap in services and support,” said Krista Rem-pel, Executive Director of The Bridge.
The facility includes 10 rooms, five bathrooms, a kitch-enette, a shared living room space, laundry facilities, and a supervisor’s office, which will be staffed throughout the night. The facility provides an opportunity for youth to be housed for just under a year’s time.
Messages of support were heard from Chatham-Kent Leamington MPP Rick Nicholls, Essex County Warden Gary McNamara, Leamington Deputy Mayor Larry Ver-beke and Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos.