TAMPA — A renovation has risen at an adult day center, thanks to a generous grant from Hillsborough County.
The county and Sunrise Community Inc. on Feb. 22 showed off about a million dollars’ worth of interior renovations at the Sunrise Adult Day Training Center, 2714 W. Kirby St., Tampa, which will continue to provide services, as well as new activities, to people with disabilities.
Hillsborough County Affordable Housing provided more than $740,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding for the work, while Sunrise, a private 501(c)(3), not-for-profit organization that has served the Florida community of people with disabilities for more than 58 years, put in about $300,000, the group’s leadership team said.
“(The renovations) wouldn’t have been possible without the grant from Hillsborough County — we’re talking about three quarters of a million dollars,” said Margaret Feldman, Sunrise’s vice president of development.
Sunrise did interior renovations to three buildings, largely due to wear and tear, but also water and mold damage, much of which happened when some rooms at the center were temporarily closed during the height of the COVID pandemic.
The extensive rehabilitation and renovation included new or improved flooring, doors, sheetrock, cabinets, tiles, plumbing, and lighting, along with painting, ceiling repairs, electrical work and other improvements.
While the center opened in 2006, Sunrise has been providing its services there since 2013 when it took over from a similar service provider, The Arc.
The services provided at the Sunrise Adult Day Training Center are focused on enriching the lives of people with varying abilities to empower them in achieving higher levels of independence, self-determination, and personal responsibility.
According to Angela Mercado-Hernandez, the center’s day program supervisor, the renovations were much needed to provide service to its 60 enrolled adults — as young as 21 and as old as 79.
The rooms, now renovated, all have themes, such as Bee Hive or Lagoon, but the adults all have access to a game room, kitchen and cafeteria, rooms that teach life skills such as laundry and cleaning, an impressive gym, a garden in the courtyard and even a sensory room.
“It’s great to have a gym so they can get exercise because they can’t go to a regular gym — it’s too overwhelming,” Mercado-Hernandez said. “But we also teach them life and work skills, and then they can go out into the world and live.”
Mercado-Hernandez said her favorite new addition from the renovations is the podcast room that “gives them a place to talk — and do they talk.”
“They talk about everything from movie reviews to Christmas — they just talk,” he added. “It’s a podcast, so sometimes you don’t even know where they’re going to go (with topics), but I just like seeing them be able to have what everyone has and enjoy it.”