We're not just opening a building. We're strengthening a community."

Those were the words of Loft Community Partnership (LCP) board president Tom Keller during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 26 at the nonprofit group's new home located at 100 E. Charlotte St., Millersville.

The Olcott Family Community Resource Facility, which will serve members of the Penn Manor community, hosted a soft opening for high-risk clients and families with children on April 2 and officially opened six days later.

"It's our own building, so we have the keys, we open the doors," LCP executive director Jenna Graeff said. "We bring people in and welcome them in our own way, in our Loft way."

Christening the new building is the culmination of a journey and the start of discovering a world of potential. "The concept and the theme is about the unlocking of doors, so the unlocking of possibilities and improving of access to resources," said Graeff. "One journey we've been on is having many different spaces, being in two different churches, in a Millersville University building, all different types of doors, all different types of access. Here, it will be about the doors are unlocked, we're open to the growth and the possibilities that can happen here."

After Graeff made some remarks at the beginning of the ribbon-cutting event, project manager Joy Olcott recognized volunteers, construction partners, and supporters who helped to make the group's vision come to fruition. Community leaders addressed the gathering, and then the building was named in honor of the Olcott family.

CCS Building Group began the project on Oct. 27. LCP started a capital campaign to pay for those improvements and has raised $1,427,000 of its $2 million goal.

"We need furniture in the multipurpose room," said Joy Olcott, who is LCP's development coordinator, project manager, and capital campaign chair. "We need to fit that out as well as the greenhouse needs to be fitted out, and we want to raise also the money to pay off our mortgage so that we can be debt free so that we can put then all the other contributions toward the operations of the organization."

For information about Loft Community Partnership's capital campaign, operating hours, and food pantry, go to http://www.loftcp.org.

The renovated 10,000-square-feet building is approximately three times the size of LCP's previous location space in Jefferson Hall at 164 W. Cottage Ave.

"Having a building that's much larger and has landing space for gathering and conversation and connection will be the biggest asset to being here," Graeff said. "This is our permanent location, and you'll be able to find us here during normal business hours. We hope that we will be able to have more community programming and more events for people and neighbors. We hope to be able to host groups that want to rent space or use space, classes, and that kind of stuff will be here in the kitchen, and then the greenhouse. Just having a space that really fits for us is a miracle because of Millersville real estate not being that prolific, but we found the right place for us."