Advocacy, action are second nature for Parc CEO Michelle Detweiler<\/a><\/p>\nDetweiler said the need for a new classroom building on Parc\u2019s six acres was only too obvious, even before she was named President (a move up from Chief Operating Officer) in 2021. She remembers discussing it with her fellow board members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said \u2018We either do this, or we get out of the business of serving children with developmental disabilities. Because we can\u2019t do it like we\u2019re doing it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The project was top of mind for an entire decade. \u201cOur original school was built in the \u201860s and is very outdated,\u201d Detweiler explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not ADA approved. But we were grandfathered in because we\u2019d been there so long. But the classrooms are small. A child\u2019s wheelchair can\u2019t maneuver in those classrooms very easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
It does not represent, she said, \u201coperational excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cRaise the Roof\u201d campaign began in 2021 with a $10 million goal, to raze the old administrative services building and adult arts center, elsewhere on the property (it looks out on Tyrone Boulevard) and build anew.<\/p>\n
The James gift was more than enough to get the plans drawn up and the bulldozers moving, and today Parc has raised $8.5 million. And the roof has been well and truly raised.<\/p>\n
Detweiler praises the \u201ccollaborative effort\u201d of the donors, both public and private, the State of Florida and the City of St. Petersburg, all of which have contributed (and continue to). \u201cIt takes a village. I always say that. It takes a village.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once the new center opens, the old school building will be re-purposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in giving back to the community,\u201d said Tom James, Chairman Emeritus of Raymond James Financial. \u201cThat was always one of my primary goals in building a corporation, to be a good participant in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parc\u2019s mission, he said, spoke to him. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of good missions around, but this is a great one. One that helps children. We have to convince the community how important this place is, to take care of those who aren\u2019t capable of taking care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In April, the very same month in which the Parc Center for Disabilities celebrates its 73rd anniversary, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-206471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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