FAIRMONT — Red ribbon, smiling faces, and one very large pair of scissors. A sunny day met the ribbon cutting of the new PACE Enterprises office located in Fairmont. Marion County Chamber of Commerce President Tina Shaw welcomed the company to the community, expressing eagerness to work with it as the future progresses.
Chamber board members and elected officials stood lined up with scissors, with one extra large pair wielded by president of PACE enterprises Greg Morris, who thanked the community for its support.
A nonprofit organization, PACE does assessment training and placement with adults with disabilities. It’s been operating in Morgantown since 1972 and in Marion County for a few years. But the organization has grown out of its old space.
What initially started as a partnership with the local Disability Action Center, there was a much greater demand for services than had initially been anticipated.
“We’re servicing about 300 percent more clients than we planned on so we simply needed to find a bigger facility and that’s what this particular facility allows us to do. To provide those services with a little bit of elbow room,” Morris said.
The office, he said, is sort of a satellite of the Morgantown office. PACES doesn’t operate any of its businesses out of Marion County. There are other community rehabilitation programs that do that. PACE works with those organizations and supplements what they do.
“We’re not quite yet placing as many of our clients in the community as we do in Morgantown, but we are working in that direction so I would expect before too long you’ll see more PACE clients working in other area businesses,” he said.
Though PACE has been operating in Fairmont for a few years, it’s only been in its new facility for a few months. He admits they have been waiting for some good weather to have the ribbon cutting and finally they were able to arrange that.
“We’re real grateful for the support of the community so far, and we want to provide services to as many clients as possible and I think this facility allows us to do that. It’s really about adding meaning and joy in the lives in the people we serve,” he said.
That’s what PACE is all about.
“We think work is a really important part to the quality of life of everybody, especially individuals with disabilities. We think this facility will help us fill that need,” he said.
The Marion County facility serves about two dozen clients, which is substantially more than planned, Morris said.And Morris believes there’s a demand beyond that as well.
“We look forward to being a part of the community for a long time,” he said after cutting the ribbon.
