MADISON – The Madison Chamber of Commerce and city officials helped the Downtown Rescue Mission celebrate the groundbreaking of their new location in Madison on Wednesday. The new store will be built at 101 Plaza Boulevard, behind the Publix Shopping Center on Hughes Drive.

The new store is expected to be ready by January 2022. Currently, the Downtown Rescue Mission Thrift Store in Madison is located at 8006 Madison Pike near Horizon Elementary. It first opened in 2010.

“The Downtown Rescue Mission has continued to make a difference here and throughout the rest of the Tennessee Valley,” Madison Mayor Paul Finley said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “We are very excited to have them here.”

Finley praised the work of the Rescue Mission, in particular the way the non-profit agency has utilized their thrift stores to help people in the community find items they need at great prices, which also helps fund the overall ministries through the Mission — their homeless shelter and recovery programs.

All proceeds from the seven thrift stores the Mission operates go directly back to the Mission to provide food, clothing, shelter and Christian education to anyone who needs it.

“A big part of what we do, is of course, help those who are needy,” said Downtown Rescue Mission President and CEO Keith Overholt. “But the Mission does much more than that. We are an advocate for the community.”

“While we do take care of the homeless, we have many programs to help the community in other ways too,” Overholt said.  He used an example of a family they are working to help who lost their home in a fire. “We are working to find things to supply their next house and things they will need.”

Overholt said the thrift stores help them to provide those services.  “Every cent goes back to help the Mission fund all those programs that we have,” he added.

The Mission currently operates seven stores in Huntsville, Athens, Decatur, Albertville, Meridianville and Madison. For more information about the thrift stores and the ministries of the Downtown Rescue Mission, go to www.downtownrescuemission.org.