KUO gets cleaned

Office Pride donates 150 hours to spruce up church building

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Dirt. Mold. Cobwebs. Insects. Trash. Main Street United Methodist Church had it all. The 55,000-square foot building was once a bustling location, filled with parishioners. But over time, the congregation dwindled to the point that only a fraction of the space was being used.

Faced with mounting bills and rising costs, the church donated the building to Kokomo Urban Outreach (KUO) earlier this year. The congregation still uses a portion of the facility, but KUO now calls it home.

Or at least it will. Eventually.

First, the building has to be whipped back into shape. Over the past couple months, KUO has conducted a capital campaign to help raise the money needed to rehabilitate the building as well as to grow, and the organization has been searching for partners. It recently found one in Office Pride of Indianapolis/Kokomo/Muncie.

That’s where the dirt, mold, cobwebs, etc., come into play. Office Pride is a cleaning and janitorial services company, and it recently donated about 150 hours of labor to clear away the unwanted debris and dirt that had accumulated after years of disuse.

“One of our employees had learned about the UP program and thought it sounded like something that would really align well with our core values,” said Patrick Poer, CEO of the local Office Pride franchise. “It is something we want to get behind and support.

“We all unanimously agreed, and so we encouraged our employees to come and donate their time to help level up this facility to where it should be.”

The KUO staff met with Office Pride last week and toured the building to review the cleaning that had been accomplished. Windows, walls, and floors were wiped down, sanitized, and buffed and waxed. KUO Director of Mission and Vision Jeff Newton was overjoyed with the result.

“When the building was given to us, the rooms were full of stuff,” said Newton. “We carried out lots of things, filled up dumpsters, and sold all kinds of things. But we just haven't had a chance to come back and clean it.

“We do tours, and we want to look good. We want people to invest money into something that is being taken care of. Our staff is small, and we can't bring a bunch of kids over to work because this building is very large, and they need supervised.”

The donation from Office Pride made an immediate difference at an ideal time. Because of the capital campaign, KUO needs to put its best foot forward. Cleaning is a part of that.

“We're working on the capital campaign to raise $3 million,” said Newton. “$2 million will go into the building. Another $1 million will be used to increase our staff. Right now, we have 350 kids in the other building. When we move over here, we can have more than 1,000 kids.

“We're going from 10,000 square feet at the other building, to about 45,000 feet here, and we're going to keep the other building. Going from 10,000 to 55,000 square feet is amazing.”

Newton explained that the organization raised approximately $350,000 in its first two months. That sounds like a lot, but it’s just enough to replace the boiler and heating in the aging church facility. KUO still has a long way to go.

But they’ll take that walk with at least one new partner.

“We’re very excited to be partnering with you all and excited to see what comes with it,” said Poer.

Office Pride of greater Indianapolis/Kokomo/Muncie is one of approximately 150 franchises nationwide. It boasts about 250 customers in the region and just as many employees. Its largest foray into the Kokomo market took place when the company was awarded the janitorial services contract for the StarPlus Energy battery plant.