A crowd of officials and volunteers gathered Monday afternoon to tour the newly-refurbished Ottawa County Family Advocacy Center and celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Cutting the ribbon are Executive Director Connie Cornett and Sabrina Smith, whose family purchased the shuttered church and helped with the renovation. (Photo by D’Arcy Egan)

The Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting of the Ottawa County Family Advocacy Center was held on Monday at 570 McKinley, Port Clinton. The newly-refurbished center, once a neighborhood church, now houses a number of programs in Ottawa County.

The social organizations finding a new home there include CASA, TNT Mentoring, TICKET to Success and GRANDlove. The Summer lunch and fun programs for both Port Clinton and Genoa are operated from the center and a canned good drive was held as a part of Monday’s open house.

Kathleen L. Giesler, the long-time judge of the Ottawa County Probate and Juvenile Court, spoke on Monday about the important work being done to serve families and children in Ottawa County. The building was a former church and was purchased by the Smith Family. Sabrina Smith assisted with the ribbon cutting and said that her family was proud to be a part of this project.

Gary Barnhill managed the construction and redevelopment of the space. Connie Cornett, Executive Director of the Ottawa County Family Advocacy Center, recognized the vision of the late Chris Galvin of Port Clinton in the development of this one stop center for services to families.

The Family Advocacy Center is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.