The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Aid in Milan finds new digs
Future programs could include small wildlife sanctuary
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 15, 2007
With the holidays behind them and everything in its place, Aid in Milan has officially settled into its new home on West Main Street.
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The 30-year-old organization celebrated its move to its new headquarters at 89 W. Main St. with an open house Sunday. Attendees were treated to tours of the historic lakefront property and discussed ways in which Aid in Milan might best be able to put its new resource to use.
"I would call it a success," Aid in Milan Executive Director Nina Pemberton said of the open house. "We want the community to tell us what they want the building to be used for.
"We want to get people in, see the building and think about how they would want to use it."
After beginning the moving process in November, the building already has hosted the organization's very successful Thanksgiving and Christmas projects, the latter of which provided food and gifts for more than 100 families last December.
But with those projects behind them, Aid in Milan has been able to finalize the move and begin looking to the future. Possible new programs in the new building include everything from a small wildlife sanctuary along the lakefront to downtown walking programs to combat childhood obesity to a further restoration of the 141-year-old building.
In the end, Pemberton says, how the building gets used is less a matter of what Aid in Milan wants than what Milan as a community needs.
"We're going to keep the building open for public use," she said. "That's our major concern … We're willing to help however we can."
Last year, though, Aid in Milan was in need of some help itself. The organization's operations were spread across three separate buildings, each of which required a rent payment. With the area's United Way –– a major source of Aid in Milan funding –– undergoing its own financial issues, Pemberton said, the rent payments were becoming a major drag on the organization's bottom line.
"I'm not sure we would have survived," she said.
Instead, Pemberton says, some "very generous donors" stepped up to purchase Aid in Milan its own building. After some searching, the organization's board decided that the building at 89 W. Main St., then-owned by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which still worships in the building, offered the best fit.
"We looked at a number of places," Pemberton said. "When this one became available, we decided on it because of the amount of space we could adapt and utilize. We also wanted to be able to preserve it. It's a big part of Milan history."
The building was constructed in 1866 as a multi-denominational house of worship by Thomas Braman and his wife, Hannah. As the congregations using the building grew and built their own houses of worship, the building became, at various times, a school house, a Red Cross center during World War I, a Boy Scout headquarters and the York Township Hall.
In 1971, the building was purchased and later remodeled by the church.
Now the building is the center of not only all of Aid in Milan's various programs –– including Meals on Wheels, an elderly adult activity program and many others –– but serves as a meeting place for many other Milan organizations, such as the city's Catholic Social Services program.
Although the move didn't cover much of a distance geographically — the previous Aid in Milan headquarters was also on West Main Street less than a block away — Pemberton says the move has made a huge difference in the Aid in Milan outlook.
"To have a place where we can say 'This is ours,'" she said, "we're all very happy. It makes for a very nice atmosphere."
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