‘ForeverDads’ looking to buy old elementary school

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- One local organization that supports dads is looking to make their temporary office it’s permanent one.

Zanesville City School will be auctioning off one of their old buildings located on Madison Street on December 15th. The building previously was an elementary school, but for nearly ten years now the building has hosted Forever Dads. After leasing the building, they’re now looking to buy. Give a Dollar for Dads is a collection effort asking for the community to donate money to support Forever Dads. C.E.O. Burl Lemon said this donation will help on multiple levels.

“We look at this as a three-fold manner. One, we want to recoup some of our programming dollars that we had to use for building improvements, emergency. Secondly, we want to be able to have dollars available to put toward the auction price of the building. And third, we need sustainable dollars, so we’re looking at this as an overall capital investment campaign,” said Lemon.

Forever Dads encourages and educates men on how to develop positive relationships with their family. Founder James McDonald said staying in the same building will be extremely beneficial because it creates stability.

“My mom and Dad raised ten children in one house. We were there for all our lifetime. I struggle sometimes when I see families that are forced to move. We want to create some consistency here for the families we serve. They know where we are from generation to generation. It’s important that we stay here,” said McDonald.

If you would like to donate, you can find the link to the GoFundMe campaign on ForeverDads.com.