Local humanitarian organization World Help is opening a newly built 26,000-square-foot distribution center at its headquarters in Forest at 1148 Corporate Park Drive on Friday.
World Help opening new, larger distribution center
The new facility will bear the name of its previous facility — Louanne Guillermin Humanitarian Aid Distribution Center — and will increase and expand its current relief efforts, a news release states.
The official ribbon-cutting ceremony follows seven months of construction and will feature remarks by Noel Brewer Yeatts, president of World Help; Vernon Brewer, founder of World Help; and Lester E. “Skip” Taylor, chairman of the board of directors of the nonprofit.
The distribution center features expanded space for volunteers as well as increased storage space for lifesaving supplies and shipping containers, enabling World Help to further its mission to serve the physical and spiritual needs of people in impoverished communities around the world, according to the news release.
The organization estimates that aid and relief efforts could be tripled. This may directly result in an increase to 15,000 volunteer hours, some 200 containers filled with lifesaving essentials shipped and some $57 million worth of aid sent annually. All these numbers mean that World Help could provide help and hope to more than 3.1 million people domestically and around the world each year, according to the organization’s news release.
“This building represents the next chapter in World Help’s history,” Yeatts said in the release. “Humanitarian aid and relief have always been central to our mission, and we are continually looking for ways to improve our efficiency and impact. This new space is a big step in providing even more help and hope for so many in need around the world.”