A ribbon cutting was held on Saturday to officially welcome an expansion of a non-profit organization.

Midwest Missions took over as the tenant of the former Aureon building, at 219 North Chestnut Street, in March and is leasing the facility from Greene County Development Corporation. Iowa Coordinator Danille Curtis says Midwest Missions was established in 2000 in Springfield, Illinois, and they collect items from across the country to be given around the world for victims of disasters, to health, education and provide microbusiness. Curtis points out Jefferson became a collection site in 2019, and their first location was in the basement of the First United Methodist Church in Jefferson. 

Curtis talks about why they wanted to move to a bigger space.

“In this building, we’re so excited because we have space to spread out, to leave our volunteer workspace set up all the time. We were a little limited (at the church). We would set up our work days and then we would have to tear down and get ready for church the next morning. So this way we can have our space open and up all the time. And we also have a much bigger warehouse storage space with this, as well as a loading dock, so we can bring supplies, move supplies back out much easier than where we were before.”         

Curtis adds by having steadier hours and a bigger facility, she’s hoping to offset the number of volunteers that the Springfield facility has booked out to, which is 2025. The hours that Midwest Missions is open is Monday through Thursday 8:30am-4pm and to get involved, click the link below. 

https://www.midwestmission.org/iowa