New Goodwill Store, Counseling and Wellness Center opens in Vandalia

Members of the Vandalia Chamber of Commerce hosted a double ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Feb. 26, celebrating the opening of a new Goodwill Store and Counseling/Wellness Center in the former Fulmer grocery store building on West National Road.

“We really want to be a part of the Vandalia Community,” Goodwill/Easter Seals of the Miami Valley (GESMV) President and CEO Lance Detrick said. “Vandalia is a great city; we really appreciate the support we’ve gotten from the community already, and the partnerships that we’re starting to develop.”

“This will be a very convenient place where people can donate or shop,” Detrick said.

“We’re very grateful that you’ve chosen to make Vandalia your home,” Vandalia-Butler Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Nick Kavalauskas said. “We’re proud to have you, and your Miller Lane location, as members and we’re looking forward to all the great work that you are going to do in this community.”

Located across the street from the Dayton International Airport at 732 W. National Rd., the new Goodwill Store officially opened on Tuesday, Feb. 4. The Counseling and Wellness Center opened on Wednesday, Feb. 26, offering a wide variety of mental health and counseling services for children, teens and adults.

“Today is our official opening,” GESMV Chief Mission Officer and Vice President Jen Bonifas said. “We are open and ready to start receiving referrals and seeing people.”

The Counseling and Wellness Center will offer a wide variety of counseling services, including group meetings, for children, teens, adults and seniors. The center will also offer employment services, adult day services and services for individuals with disabilities.

“We do a lot of different things,” Detrick said. “Our mission is to empower people with disabilities and other disadvantages to achieve independence and a better quality of life.”

“Empower is a big word for us,” he said. “We’d much rather help somebody with a hand up, instead of a hand-out. We’d rather help them get a job than just give them something for the day.”

“We serve children, we serve teens, we serve adults of all ages,” Bonifas said. “We’ll have appointments available during the day; we have evening and weekend appointments available, and we also can do in-person or telehealth.”

The center accepts a wide variety of medical insurance providers, including Medicare and Medicaid.

“We really pride ourselves in being a quality provider for individuals who have Medicaid or Medicare,” Bonifas said. “We also are able to take most other insurances as well, so it’s an opportunity for everybody to come and get involved and get really good mental health care.”

GESMV served over 24,000 people last year, Detrick said, and currently operates a total of 43 retail stores throughout the Miami Valley.

“It’s the biggest money source for our mission,” he said. “It supports a lot of things we do.”

“Everything that happens in our retail stores supports our program services,” Bonifas said. “As you shop and donate to our store, 87 cents from every dollar goes back to support our programs.”

GESMV also offers opportunities for volunteers who would like to help with Goodwill’s mission.

“We have programs for youth and young adults that are looking for volunteers,” Bonifas said. “We have volunteers in our senior adult day programs, and we have volunteers in our office; if they want to contribute to our mission but they don’t want to directly work at a site, they can come in and file, answer phones or help with marketing.”

“We are always open to volunteers,” she said. “They can connect with us on our website, or they can reach out and call our Main Street campus.”

GESMV now operates a total of three Counseling and Wellness Centers, located in Vandalia, Trotwood and Dayton.

“That puts us geographically to the north, middle and west of Dayton, so hopefully that gives us an opportunity to really make our services available to everyone,” Bonifas said.

“We didn’t really have a mental health facility in the northern area,” she said. “It was kind of a perfect opportunity with our store opening, to utilize some of the space for our health and wellness center.”

“We have some amazing people who want to do good work, and want to serve our community,” Bonifas said.