The Silverdale Sunrise Rotary Club has accepted the challenge grant offered by the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust in funding renovations and helping to build a family waiting room and other safety enhancements at Kitsap Mental Health Services’ (KMHS) Adolescent Treatment Unit (ATU).

The Rotary Club, which was chartered less than two years ago, donated $750, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Trust.

“Donors are always worried about how effectively their money will be used,” said club President Jack Hussey. “Our members appreciate the fact that our contribution will be matched and immediately doubled by the challenge grant.”

The ATU is a ten-bed short-term psychiatric inpatient facility for adolescents, ages 13 to 17. It provides stabilization, evaluation and treatment services in a secure setting for youth exhibiting severe emotional, mental or behavioral problems. Its intensive treatment program is designed to stabilize a youth’s immediate crisis and develop a discharge plan that will continue in an outpatient setting.

What Rotary is helping to fund will create a safe waiting and visiting area which will encourage family involvement in the treatment process, a necessity in successful transition to outpatient services

The project, which involves enhancements at the ATU and the Residential Treatment Center, a fifteen-bed inpatient psychiatric facility for adults, will require more than $800,000 to complete and is well on its way to completion with $666,000 raised to-date.

“I had the good fortune to visit with the Silverdale Sunrise Rotary Club and was impressed by their members and their spirit of service to the community,” said Larry Keller, Executive Director of KMHS. “Their gift will continue to give in the years to come.”.