Published: July 24, 2008 04:01 pm      

Our Place moves to new home in New Albany

Our Place Drug and Alcohol Education Services Inc. will no longer be the best kept secret in Floyd County. At least, that is the hope of MeriBeth Adams-Wolf.

Our Place will officially open its new office at 400 E. Spring St. in New Albany on Friday afternoon at an open house from 4 to 7 p.m. For more than 25 years, the organization has been housed at Mount St. Francis in Floyds Knobs.

“We are very excited about this move,” said Adams-Wolf, executive director of Our Place. “A lot of people are unaware of the Mount. They have been so good to us, but we had no room to grow.”

According to its Web site, Our Place is a nonprofit organization, whose mission is to provide education, prevention and intervention services for individuals of all ages, who are presently or potentially impacted by alcohol, tobacco and other drugs of abuse.

When Our Place first started, only two programs were offered. However, now its programs are reaching more than 3,000 children, according to its 2006-07 annual report. Our Place staff also provides prevention and outreach programs for adults and college students.

“We just keep growing,” Adams-Wolf said. “We went from a staff of four to eight. We just had no room at the Mount.”

Staff has been working feverishly getting the building ready for its grand opening Friday. Carpet was being laid Wednesday and other work also was being completed.

“I think it will be awesome,” said Karen Keeler, administrative assistant at Our Place. “We will be a lot more accessible to the public and be much more visible.”

The thought of buying a building in New Albany and moving was first brought up five years ago, Adams-Wolf said. Thanks to a pair of grants from the Ogle and Horseshoe foundations, a large donation from an anonymous donor, along with other donations, the move became possible.

“It all came together,” she said. “Before we just couldn’t get everything to match up. A gentleman approached us and said he had a building he thought would be beneficial to us.”

The new building sits on the corner of Spring and Fourth streets, and has 6,000 square feet of space. Adams-Wolf said she hopes to see a large crowd come out to the open house Friday.

“We want the community to come and see what we have,” she said. “Employers use us, children ... we know that drug and alcohol abuse affects so many lives.”

• There also is time to buy a raffle ticket for Ryder Cup tickets. Tickets are $50 each for a chance to win two tickets to the six-day event. A drawing will be held at the new Our Place building at 6 p.m. Friday.

Karen Keeler said 100 tickets have been sold. If you would like to purchase a raffle ticket, contact Keeler at 502-724-0377 by 4 p.m. Friday.