Action Services buys building to expand; plans fundraiser

By Elizabeth Sharp

Photo by Greg Benenati

Activity Director Renee McGhee, left, watches Whitney Calvin shred some documents at Action Services in Morrilton. The business, which employs disabled adults, plans to expand the workshop and its programs.

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ADVERSTISMENT

RIVER VALLEY and OZARK AREA — At Action Shredding, Recycling and Work Activities Center in Morrilton, payday means more than just being able to take home a paycheck.

For the workshop's employees - all mentally or physically disabled adults living in Conway County - it means accomplishing something they wouldn't have the opportunity to do otherwise.

"When they get their paycheck, it's Christmas around here," Activity Director Renee McGhee said.

The workshop, which shreds confidential documents for businesses, is operated by Action Services, a Medicaid-funded nonprofit organization that teaches practical life skills to disabled adults.

On June 15, Action Services bought Morrilton's former West Side kindergarten building for $290,000 with hopes that a bigger, more modern facility will allow the organization to accommodate more disabled adults and expand its programming and workshop operations.

While work has already begun at the old school site, Action Services stillneeds more money to complete the renovation by its projected opening in January.

"Another $250,000 would help us immensely," Assistant Director Tina Hollabaugh said.

Although Medicaid funds Actions Services, McGhee said the nonprofit organization's other greatest source of funding is its annual Radiothon. Local businesses donate items to a live auction that's broadcast on Morrilton's KVOM radio. Last year, the Radiothon raised $37,400 - the most money ever raised in the event's history - but McGhee said that Action Services is hoping thisyear's event on Friday, July 31, will raise even more.

Right now, there are 36 disabled adults and nine staff members at Action Services every day. McGhee, said that the organization had already outgrown its current facility on West Elm Street when she started working there four years ago.

"We have no room in here," McGhee said. "It's not just the workshop; it's the main building, too."

McGhee said Action Services was founded in the early '70s. The disabled adults - called "consumers" - who come to Action Services must either have a high school diploma or be 21 or older to participate.

Every day beginning at 7 a.m., the Action Services bus begins picking up the disabled adults, most of whom live with their parents or guardians. Once they arrive, each person's dayalternates between programming in the Action Services main building and working in the workshop.

Programs teach consumers a wide range of skills they can use on a daily basis, including how to cook, use a microwave, count correct change, water plants and make a bed - "anything that can maybe help them, one of these days, be able to be out on their own," McGhee said.

When consumers aren't busy with programs, they get to work in Action Shredding, Recycling and Work Activities workshop behind the main building, where they shred documents from businesses in Morrilton as well as Conway, Russellville, Van Buren County and Hot Springs.

The shredding business, previously called Action Shredding, started about five years ago. In the beginning, there were only nine businesses that hired the workshop to shred their documents; today, McGhee said there are about 115.

Each business pays 20 cents per pound of documents. From that, 16 cents go to the consumers' paychecks, and the remaining four cents pay for gas and maintenance of the truck that picks up the documents each week. Each consumer can work three days a week for an hour at a time and earn a maximum of $85 a month.

A new building will mean new opportunities for growth, McGhee said. She hopes to take on more businesses that need documents shredded, as well as expand work opportunities for the adults to things like possibly growing a garden and setting up a produce stand - anything to keep them interested, busy and learning, she said.

McGhee said that the entire facility will need to be renovated. It will need to be handicappedaccessible, and there will need to be a kitchen in every classroom. Action Services officials are also trying to think of a way to convert the cafeteria into the workshop.

She said she hopes the new facility will give Action Services the chance to "pick up more consumers and give them the opportunity to broaden their horizons," McGhee said.

"For them, being able to go home and measure out a cake mix - that's a big deal," McGhee said of both Action Services' current and future consumers. "But it's something they've learned. They have hopes and dreams that one day, they'll have a life on their own."

For more information on the Radiothon or how to volunteer or donate to Action Services, call (501) 354-6061.

- esharp@arkansasonline.com

River Valley Ozark, Pages 67, 70 on 07/02/2009