GARY - A new Goodwill Store, that is expected to be more like a campus, is coming to Gary. Vice President of Mission Advancement Guy Fisher says it will be at the intersection of Ridge Road and Clark, across the street from Calumet High School. (Not in wrap) The groundbreaking is Monday, June 4th at 1:00 p.m.
"This is a piece of land that we were able to acquire," Fisher says. "And plans for that piece of property that we bought is that the facility will be about 105,000 square feet and it will include a brand new, what we call a pound store, which I'll explain to you here in a second. It will include a processing facility and then what we're most excited about is it will include our third Excel High School operation as well a community career center."
The education component is something that can be well utilized in the Region. The Excel Center is a free high school for adults 18 and over, as well as a Community Career Center, offering free job search assistance for anyone seeking employment.
"Lake County alone, from where you're calling me right now, there are over 50,000 adults who have not finished their high school diploma," Fisher says. "And the Excel Center is a Goodwill based high school program that allows adults the opportunity to complete their Indiana core 40 diplomas. So it's not a GED program. It's not a high school completion program. It's the exact same degree diploma program that our students at Merrillville, Crown Point and Lake Central students are all finishing up in the next couple of weeks, but it's designed for adults who didn't get it done the first time."
The Gary campus will be Goodwill's third Excel Center. There is also a center in South Bend and one in Hammond that opened last September. There are about 250 students currently taking classes at the Hammond campus.
