- November 23, 2024
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Project WARM, a long-term women’s recovery treatment center in Bunnell, helps about 300 women each year, through its 68-bed facility in six-month to one-year programs. The center allows mothers who have children age 5 and under to stay with them as well. Thanks to a $2,000 donation from the Rotary Club of Flagler County, the women and their children now have a more soothing room to spend time in.
A fresh coat of light blue paint, coupled with new throw pillows, artwork and wall decorations, gives the center’s dinning space and waiting room a calming feel, said Project WARM Director of Operations Nicole Lucente said.
“I just think that if you have a soothing, inspirational, relaxing atmosphere for the clients and the kids to be in that it’s beneficial, it’s therapeutic,” she said. “We modeled after the Rotary ‘Be in the Inspiration,’ which is the president’s theme for this year. So, everything is coastal and aligns with that. ... So far, they love it. It’s been nothing but positive feedback.”
Rotary Club of Flagler County President Cindy Kiel Evans said she’s happy to put the Rotarian theme into practice.
“This year, I had been doing some Project WARM Wednesdays where we could collect baby items and bring them to Project WARM the next day,” Evans said. “So, I reached out to Nicole and asked, ‘What is it you’d want, if you had a wish list that we could help you with?’ And she said, ‘We really need to remodel.’”
The funds came from Rotary’s charitable giving, which the club budgets for to benefit an organization each year.
“By doing this ‘Be the Inspiration’ room, it could help these women, in the back of their mind to be thinking, ‘I need to be inspiring,’ to not only their children, but to their family, their friends and their community,” Evans said.
In addition to decor and paint, the donation provided 12 new high chairs for the children at the center.
The redecoration was completed a few weeks ago. To thank Rotary for their efforts, a dozen women in the center’s culinary program prepared a lunch for the Rotarians at the club’s meeting on Tuesday, April 30.
The center is unique in the fact that it goes beyond traditional rehabilitation, including by teaching vocational skills, like through the culinary program. The women have an opportunity to get up to four certification from the University of Florida before leaving the center, which better prepares them for getting employed after they leave, Lucente said.
“We were ecstatic,” Lucente said about receiving the donation. “The Rotary has been really good to us.”
