{"id":118257,"date":"2014-08-25T23:34:26","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T05:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/renovations-to-graces-kitchen-completed\/"},"modified":"2014-08-25T23:34:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T05:34:26","slug":"renovations-to-graces-kitchen-completed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/renovations-to-graces-kitchen-completed\/","title":{"rendered":"Renovations to Grace\u2019s Kitchen completed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bob
Bob Waggoner, Bill Jobin and Judith Jobin chat during the celebration of the newly renovated hall at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church Thursday evening. The hall is home to Grace\u2019s Kitchen, which serves those in need three days a week.<\/span>Mary Shinn\/The Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Parishioners and members of the community gathered in the St. Barnabas Episcopal Church Thursday night to celebrate the completion of a major renovation project to the hall that houses Grace\u2019s Kitchen.<\/p>\n

As part of the $60,000 project,the burnt-orange linoleum flooring was replaced with tile, and the industrial ceiling and lighting replaced with far more polished fixtures, among many other improvements.<\/p>\n

During the celebration, Priest Leigh Waggoner told the crowd when she took over leadership at the church three and half years ago she knew that feeding people would be a great subtext of the church.<\/p>\n

But now, thanks to Richard Ballantine, chairman of Ballantine Communication Inc.\u2019s board of directors, the church could now also feed people with beauty, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Richard who came forward and said: \u201cWhat if?\u2019\u201d Waggoner said.<\/p>\n

The church\u2019s continued involvement in the community had made such an impression that he wanted to get involved, he told the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very glad to have been a part of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The small congregation of 65 people raised $11,000 for the project and did some of the labor themselves. During the construction that started in June, volunteers also made sure that Grace\u2019s Kitchen\u2019s lunches were still served at the Methodist church.<\/p>\n

\u201cI marvel at how all of you helped out,\u201d Ballantine said.<\/p>\n

The hall\u2019s change in atmosphere to a bright, fresh and modern space from the dated and much darker decor was the talk of the event. One of the community members, M.B. McAfee, recalled how 52 years ago, her wedding reception had been held in the hall and nothing had changed in the hall until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would recommend anybody having their wedding reception here now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In addition to all the renovations, fine art photography by parishioner Chuck Haspels brought a finishing touch to the room. The display is the first of what Waggoner plans to be a rotating display. She is also offering the space to nonprofits for free.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think churches should sit empty during the day. I want St. Barnabas to be a space the community uses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

mshinn@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ballantine gift backs $60,000 project<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-118257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118257"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=118257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}