Meijer Donates $10,000 to Rescue Mission

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The new Meijer store in Boardman has donated $10,000 to Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley ahead of the store’s opening next week.

On Wednesday, store director Dessie Szklany and members of the Meijer team visited the mission and presented the check, which supports the Rescue Mission’s general fund.

“The excitement of the store opening and bringing it to the community is great – the little things that we get to do when we open the store is to work within the community and figure out where we can partner,” Szklany said. “Within our teams, they really felt like the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley was one of those places that we needed to build that partnership. It is not just a partnership – it’s a friendship and we are excited about what you do in the community and it is our way of saying thank you”.

Meijer, at the corner of U.S. Route 224 and Lockwood Boulevard in Boardman, is set to open May 13. It will be the first store in the area for the Michigan-based chain. Other sites are planned in Austintown at the former middle school on Mahoning Avenue and in Niles at the former Super Kmart in the Eastwood Mall Complex. 

“[We are] so thankful to have the opportunity to be apart of the check presentation from Meijer this morning,” said Rescue Mission’s chief financial officer, Nora Byers at the check presentation. “Each donation to the Mission is more than a check written to us – it truly changes lives and allows our staff to provide resources to help individuals hear the Gospel and grow out of homelessness. We are so grateful for this partnership.”

Video of the check presentation can be watched on Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley’s Facebook page. The mission is in the final stages of a relocation to a new $5.9 million site at 1300 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., which is expected to be completed by early summer.

Pictured: Meijer’s Boardman store manager Dessie Szklany and Rescue Mission CEO John Muckridge III

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.