After years of work and pandemic delays, Recycling Grace Women’s Center is finally opening its newest campus. The public is invited to tour the Ruth House at 708 Kinzer St. at an open house from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday.
The new eight-bedroom facility sits next door to the Linda House and will become the new headquarters of Recycling Grace. Both properties were donated by supporter Dave Wendel and renovated through the hard work of many volunteers and the generosity of local contractors, organizers said.
“The community has rallied around this to help us. They see what we’re doing and they know that we’re doing it for the right reasons,” said Recycling Grace CEO Sandy Mick Shockey.
“It’s really ... about the community, because you could almost say this is what the community has done,” added her husband Brent Shockey, who also volunteers with the ministry.
Recycling Grace provides housing, counseling and opportunities for women leaving addiction. Their first facility on Apple Street was built in 2014. The Linda House opened five years later. Volunteers came from as far away as Kansas City to tear out walls, install insulation, replace windows and more.
April 3 is the move-in date for the Ruth House’s first occupants. It has a capacity of 14 people and features a full kitchen, large living and dining rooms and handmade quilts on each bed. The quilts are donated by seamstresses in local churches.
Mick Shockey herself is also an addiction survivor. She credits God for changing her life and inspiring Recycling Grace so more women can also find healing and transformation.
“God changed my life and turned it around, and made it better than I ever dreamed it could be. I want to show that same grace to others so that they can have the opportunity to have their lives changed too, and God’s brought a good team of people around me to do that,” Mick Shockey said.
Recycling Grace is a nonprofit. More information and donation opportunities are available online at rgwc.org.