GSA board, staff and guests participate in Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. Approximately 175 people attended the Center of Hope dedication.
Photograph is courtesy of Fernando Hernandez.
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GSA Dedicates Lighthouse Facility for the Community
One hundred and seventy five people attend GSA Center of Hope Dedication
The Good Shepherd Alliance (GSA) celebrated the dedication of its new Center of Hope facility in Ashburn Tuesday, July 15, with a keynote speech by Delegate Tom Rust (R-86), along with speeches by the David Cogley, Board President of HomeAid, which oversaw the project, and the Bill Gilligan, Regional President of Toll Brothers, which lent its construction expertise to the many subcontractors and suppliers who worked on the project.
"Today we are here to celebrate the opening of this wonderful, wonderful center, the Center of Hope," said Rust. "It is a physical structure, yes, but it represents hope, it represents faith, it represents love, and yes, it represents one person reaching and caring for another person. And that is what this is about."
Rust focused on the need that GSA was meeting and thanked the nonprofit and its contributors for "helping to make this dream a reality." Rust pointed out the center was much needed as 16,000 families in Loudoun make only 20 percent of the county's estimated median income, $99,000.
"Not a single one of these families can afford either a single-family or attached home," Rust said. "Almost 50 percent of their income goes towards rent on an apartment."
HomeAid Board President David Cogley also spoke at the event, thanking the many contributors to the project for all their hard work and donations. "Through these donations, HomeAid's builders and suppliers saved GSA hundreds of thousands of dollars that would have otherwise been spent on building materials," said Cogley. "In this instance, GSA, with the help of Toll Brothers, their suppliers and partners have saved almost a quarter of a million dollars on this project that will be able to go into the homeless programs that Good Shepherd performs on a daily basis."
Cogley then presented Joy Trickett and Mark Schmitt, chair and treasurer of the GSA board of directors respectively, with a $10,000 donation check.
Bill Gilligan, regional president of Toll Brothers, said that while the home building industry may be facing tough challenges in the economy, many people are facing much more difficult challenges in the community. "There are many individuals in our neighborhoods that are not as fortunate as ourselves," said Gilligan. "And those challenges and tragedies they are faced with are ever more real than those that we face in our business lives. So as bad as the banking and home building and general economy gets none of it is as personal as what the individuals who are helped by Good Shepherd and the Center of Hope are facing."
"It is amazing what wonderful things folks can do when a great group like GSA and a great company like Toll Brothers and a great association like HomeAid get together," Barry Schwartz, Past Board President of HomeAid said.
"This is God's temple, this is the new Center of Hope, and this is for all people," Trickett said.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at the front of the new center's thrift store closing out the Dedication ceremonies.
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