Fifteen months ago, Well-fully’s staff, leadership along with the many boys and girls we care for gathered on a dusty, overgrown lot off Omaha Street as the first shovel of dirt was turned with the official ground breaking ceremony.

“Our completion date is set for October 12,” according to Justin Vangraefschepe, Project Manager for Scull Construc-tion, “but there are typically a few weeks of cleanup/punch-list items that will be ongoing while you guys are moving in furniture and getting setup to operate.”

WellFully’s itinerary plans for the classrooms to move Oc-tober 31 from their temporary office location on Deadwood Ave., followed by the kitchen and St. James offices on Novem-ber 1. The Addiction Recovery Unit as well as the Behavioral Health Care Unit will be mov-ing, with the youth spending their first night in the new

building on November 2.The WellFully leadership

and administration will be the last to move into the building from their temporary office lo-cation on Deadwood Ave on November 16.

Regarding Scull Construc-tion’s participation in the proj-ect, Vangraefschepe commented “it has been a fun and challeng-ing project for us. This building is very unique on its exterior and definitely stands out as you are driving down Omaha. The biggest plus for us is being a

part of providing Wellfully with a highly functional and hope-fully morale boosting facility to continue serving our youth in this community. We love to build things, but it makes our jobs much more rewarding when you know our final prod-uct (the building) will do so much more than just provide a place for people to work, play, or live.”

An Open House is being planned for the near future by WellFully for the new building with details to come.

A few weeks ago, WellFul-ly COO, Rich Cartney received word that one of Rapid City’s assisted living retirement com-munities was interested in do-nating some used furniture to local non-profits in need.

With the upcoming com-pletion of WellFully’s Premier Adolescent Care Center and the move into the new building

next month, a donation of this type is just what is needed for the new building.

Sharing the news with the WellFully staff, he exclaimed “we hit the lottery.”

Maryann Petrotto, HR man-age for Westhills Village noted of the donation, “We recent-ly moved into a new facility, which included furnishings. At

Westhills, we love to be able to support other Rapid City orga-nizations, and was excited to be able to help WellFully as they transition into their own new facility.”

Working with Petrotto, Cart-ney was able to work with the COO’s of three Westhills Village facilities to provide furniture for the new WellFully facility.

With the 2 truck loads of furniture, he says, “We now have enough tables and chairs to completely furnish the new dining room, as well as chairs, desks, tables, etc. to furnish oth-er areas of the new building.”

Monthly Newsletter October 2018Informed

Inside:• Employee group strives for

staff morale - Page 2• Tobacco Club donates

Chromebooks - Page 2• New WellFully kitchen

designed to serve as well as teach - Page 3

Support OpportunitiesIf you have questions about an event, or would like to volunteer, please call Rich Cartney at (605) 718-4870

ext. 315 or email him atrich.cartney@wellfully.orgTo make a donation to

WellFully go to our website and click on the Donate Link.

Or, mail a check to:Wellfully, PO Box 1087,Rapid City, SD 57709.

Timelines set for move into new facility

A new angle of care - The Premier Adolescent Care Center is in the final weeks before the youth and staff of WellFully will be moving in.

Large donation will help furnish new building

Special thanks go to these individuals who have

contributed to the wellbeing of the youth of WellFully

Westhills VillageFurniture for the

Premier Adolescent Care

Samantha GoodironCanned fruit and

peanut butter

Rapid City Fine Tobacco ClubDell Chromebooksfor the kids to use

Ashley GeringBook lights

body wash & shampoo

Appreciated

A gift of comfort from Westhills Village will help furnish the new WellFully Premier Adolescent Care Center. At right, Maryann Petrotto from Westhills Village poses in one of two truckloads of furniture with Ben Roth and Arlen Fergusen of WellFully.

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As the staff of WellFully looks for-ward to moving into its new Premier Adolescent Care Center facility, efforts are being made to provide a more con-ducive work environment for them.

With this in mind, a group of staff members have created an Employee Council that will work to promote fel-lowship and communication between the nearly 30 staff members at the non-profit organization.

Over the past few years, the staff has been fractured, especially with the administration offices being housed in a separate facility from the youth care facilities. Over the past year, the admin-istration offices as well as the classroom facilities have been housed at the Sum-mit Plaza, and before that, they were housed in the old Cottonwood facility on the west side of Rapid City.

One of the easiest ways to build em-ployee morale is to recognize them for their efforts, especially those individuals who tend to go above and beyond what their job description requires. The Em-ployee Council will be responsible the monthly Employee recognition, accept-ing nominations for their contributions to the youth, and WellFully as a whole. Selected nominees will be announced at the monthly all-staff meetings.

The committee will also plan other activities that will encourage the Well-Fully staff work better together and make them a better team.

The first of these morale-building ac-tivities is the “Kiss the Pig” contest. Tick-ets will be sold for $1 each, or six tickets for $5. Then the tickets will be placed in buckets, vot-ing for the lucky staff member

(Rich, Ashley, Kevin, Arlen, Kim, Seth or Courtney) that will win the opportunity to kiss the pig.

See Rich Cartney anytime to buy your tickets! The staffer with the most tickets by Noon on October 30 will be the winner.

The kissing of the pig will take place at a date and time to be announced. Money raised will be used by the Em-ployee Council for future activities.

Employee group strives for staff morale

One of WellFully’s newest sup-porters has stepped up once again, this time helping out with a donation of 10 Dell Chromebooks.

The Rapid City Fine Tobac-co Club, who recently raised over $3,000 in a raffle to benefit WellFully, purchased the Chromebooks in addi-tion to the monetary gift.

These units will be a great ed-ucational help for the kids. The mini-laptop computers will be made available to the youth in the WellFul-ly programs to take part in online classes and to do their homework. The also offer the opportunity for the youth to properly learn how to use the internet for research, as well as job seeking.

Rapid City Fine Tobacco Club donates Chromebooks for use by WellFully kids

Technology for the kids - Chris Bennett of the Rapid City Fine Tobacco Club presents Ashley Callahan, Behavioral Clinical Director of WellFully with one of 10 Dell Chrome-books the club donated to WellFully.

When you have an organization that caters to the needs of teenage boys and girls, there is one factor you can count on. They will be hungry!

With that in mind, one aspect of the new WellFully Premier Adolescent Care Center that has had extra care in its design is the food service depart-ment.

Currently, the kitchen facilities at WellFully are crammed into two small rooms in between the Addiction Re-covery Unit (ARU) and the Behavioral Health Care Unit (BHCU), with service windows out to the two units. With limited space and amenities, the kitch-en staff are somewhat hindered in the menus they can prepare for the kids.

The dining area for the youth are also tight, sharing space with the indi-

vidual unit’s group living area as well.But, come November, that situa-

tion is going to change. When WellFul-ly moves in to its brand new facility)located on Waterloo St in Rapid City) the food service staff are looking for-ward to an all-new kitchen to prepare meals and snacks for the kids.

Over four times the size of the cur-rent area, this new kitchen includes expanded food prep and cooking area, a full-fledge dish-washing area and steamer tables to keep the food hot while serving to the youth.

As the cook at WellFully, Robin Wieczorek is especially looking for-ward to the change of scenery, “I’m not really sure about what kinds of equip-ment I will have so I don’t know if the kinds of food I make, but I’m definitely

ready for this new adventure.” A great improvement is the

walk-in refrigerator and freezer. “These will help us lower our costs by being able to buy and store food more economically,” says Operations Director Rich Cartney.

Wieczorek also commented, “I am also excited because shop-ping will be so much easier with the door into the kitchen from the parking lot.”

In addition to preparing meals for the WellFully youth and staff, the kitchen area is large enough that it can also be used as a teaching kitchen, offering youth instruction in food prepa-ration, as well as learning the basic skills required in the food service job market.

New WellFully kitchen designed to serve as well as teach

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Tight space in the current WellFully kitchen (above)doesn’t leave much space for help in preparing meals for the kids. The BHCU group liv-ing area (below) shares space with the cafeteria style tables where the youth eat their meals.

Expanded food prep, cooking and service space (above & right) will allow for expanded menus and

greater variety in the types of food served.

Large, efficient walk-in (below) refrigeration and freezer will provide for more economic

food storage.

Bright and airy dining room (below) along with the new kitchen will provide a more efficient and friendly dining experience for the youth.