Gorman Foundation Community Center plans underway
M.E.I.D. plumber/foreman Frank Hoff examines blueprints in the shell of the soon-to-come Gorman Foundation Community Center on May 3. Foundation president Amanda Larson said the facility, located in the Northside Shopping Center in Oneida, will offer a home for several agencies under one roof, including the Mary Rose Center, and Community Action Partnership.
Mary Rose Center volunteer Doctors, from left, Robert Pickels, Jennifer Cesana, Rathika Martyn, Jennifer Quinn, and Marcia Newsom hold the plaques awarded to them by Gorman Foundation president Amanda Larson on May 1, 2013. The Gorman Foundation, who created the Oneida clinic for the uninsured with Dr. Martyn in 2010, made the presentation in honor of the recent National Doctors Day and Volunteers Week. (Submitted Photos by Mike Jaquays)
Gorman Foundation News
(Oneida, NY- May 2013) Five local doctors recently took a break from their duties at the Mary Rose Center to receive some heartfelt kudos for their hours of volunteer service to the community.
Amanda Larson, president of the Gorman Foundation, presented plaques of appreciation to Drs. Jennifer Cesana, Rathika Martyn, Marcia Newsom, Robert Pickels and Jennifer Quinn during a short ceremony May 1. She said the plaques were given in honor of their service to the people in need in Madison County and beyond in celebration of the recent National Doctors Day and Volunteer Week.
“They put in a lot of hours for the people of the area, and we wanted to show we appreciate all that they do,” Larson said.
The Gorman Foundation founded the Mary Rose Center with Martyn in December 2010. It is administrated by the Community Action Partnership of Madison County and provides free medical health services for the uninsured throughout Madison County and the surrounding areas.
Their primary healthcare services include physical exams, disease prevention and screening, education, prescription assistance and help in finding affordable insurance plans, plus diabetic care instruction, mental health counseling, smoking cessation programs and laboratory and radiology services.
The clinic is for low-income, uninsured people who are 16 and older who live in or near Madison County.
The Mary Rose Center, named for Larson’s grandmother Mary Rose Durfee of Sherrill, is located at 1072 Northside Shopping Center in Oneida and open Wednesdays from 4 to 8 p.m. No appointments are necessary.
Call them at (315) 280-0855, fax to (315) 367-0031, or email nverro@capmadco.org for more information on their offerings.
For more on the center, visit maryrosecenter.org.
Foundation Plans Community Center
(Oneida) This July, the Gorman Foundation’s recently purchased facility in the Northside Shopping Center will bring together a variety of non-profit, community service organizations under one roof.
The 11,900-square-foot Gorman Foundation Community Center is expected to house five non-profit agencies, a semi-commercial kitchen and community room. Moving into the facility will be the Mary Rose Center.
The center is currently located on the opposite end of the same shopping center. Once moved, the new clinic will have five exam rooms with sinks in every room. The Mary Rose Center will soon launch a $300,000 capital campaign to outfit their new location.
Although the final configuration of other agencies who will be a part of the center is still pending, CAP has also already signed on to be a part of it.
“I think this is going to be incredible for us to be on the same property with all the other agencies,” said CAP Executive Director Julie Dale. “People can come right here and find many services all together — I think it’s very important to be convenient for them and not make them drive all over. This is going to be a campus of agencies, and I don’t know of any other place like it.”
Other agencies proposed for inclusion at the Community Center include the BOCES Consortium of Continuing Education, Karing Kitchen, Madison County Reads Ahead and the Madison County Literacy Coalition. The Gorman Foundation paid for the basic construction needs for the building, while the agencies themselves will pay part of the utilities, as well as common charges incurred at the site in the future.
The Gorman Foundation Community Center will be in the former Rite Aid location and was chosen for the site because of its central location, convenient parking, accessibility for the handicapped and size, according to Larson.
The same plaza also is home to offices of Head Start, Cedar House, Consumer Services and Oneida Healthcare’s Maternal Health Center.
One of the main goals of the Community Center is to treat every person who comes through the doors with the dignity and respect they deserve, and Larson said they want to make quality services available to everyone regardless of income.
“Due to economic instability, nonprofit organizations are challenged with increasing demands for their services and decreasing budgets,” Larson said. “We believe the Gorman Foundation Community Center will help alleviate some of that disparity. We’re able to give our nonprofit tenants below-market cost for the space plus provide them with a collaborative working environment where they can share resources, create new funding partnerships and achieve sustainability. It also gives ‘one-stop shopping’ to the people who depend on these services and who oftentimes do not have access to reliable transportation.”
Architectural drawings and planning for the Community Center started last summer, and construction began in April. The actual inspiration for the combined offices, however, goes back to the early days of the Gorman Foundation, said Board Chairwoman Joanne Larson.
“When the Gorman Foundation was established in 2003, my daughter, Amanda, and I began a series of conversations regarding the direction we wanted to take the Foundation,” said Joanne Larson. “We both had the same goals of serving the people of Madison County and the surrounding area in one centralized location – somewhere people could go and receive many services all in one stop. We set our sights on the North Main Street Shopping Plaza because it already had not-for-profit services offered. We were able to purchase the former Rite-Aid Building, and our vision began to take shape. We are very excited about the prospect of the different agencies we will be able to accommodate and the people we will be able to serve.”
Watch the Courier and MadisonCountyCourier.com for details on the Mary Rose Center’s fundraising campaign as they are announced.