The Bridge Cafe will Bridge the Dining Gap in Downtown Marion Share

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Next spring, the pop­u­lar farm-to-table Bridge Café in Upland will open a sec­ond loca­tion in Down­town Mar­i­on. The set­ting at 714 South Adams Street will also serve as a com­mu­ni­ty gath­er­ing cen­ter offer­ing coun­sel­ing resources and oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties for arti­sans, stu­dents, and more. Below is a press release from P. Eric Turn­er & T3 Invest­ments, short­ly after donat­ing the down­town Mar­i­on prop­er­ty and a boost of fund­ing for the project…

July 11, 2017 FOR IMME­DI­ATE RELEASE

The Turn­er fam­i­ly and T3 Invest­ments have reached an agree­ment to donate prop­er­ty it owns in down­town Mar­i­on at 714 South Adams Street to a Grant Coun­ty based not-for-prof­it, The Eph­esus Initiative.

In addi­tion, $30,000 will be donat­ed from the Paul E. Turn­er Foun­da­tion to the not-for-prof­it for need­ed repairs and upgrades to the building.

The Eph­esus Ini­tia­tive, a Chris­t­ian edu­ca­tion and com­mu­ni­ty group, led by Nicholas and Cather­ine Ker­ton-John­son of Upland, will be cre­at­ing a mul­ti-use com­mu­ni­ty space called ​“The Place” in the build­ing, that will pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for local arti­sans, edu­ca­tors, coun­selors and cre­atives to con­nect with youth and fam­i­lies in Mar­i­on and Grant Coun­ty, giv­ing them a chance to dis­cov­er the arts, urban gar­den­ing and cook­ing skills, design, per­for­mance as well as nutri­tion edu­ca­tion, mater­ni­ty class­es for young moth­ers, fam­i­ly coun­sel­ing and adult education.

The Place intends to part­ner with and assist The Cross­ing, locat­ed next door, with their mis­sion of pro­vid­ing a state accred­it­ed aca­d­e­m­ic edu­ca­tion while equip­ping stu­dents for the future with Job Train­ing and Faith-Based Char­ac­ter Edu­ca­tion. They also hope to cre­ate rela­tion­ships through the wider fam­i­ly con­nec­tions of the stu­dents, to offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for edu­ca­tion­al and artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty to those in Mar­i­on who may not yet have access to these.

The Place will also be the home of The Bridge Café in Mar­i­on, a sec­ond loca­tion of the well-known farm-to-table café in Upland. This new loca­tion will help pro­vide an income stream to cov­er the over­heads of run­ning the build­ing, and will also be used as a hub for com­mu­ni­ty cook­ing class­es, nutri­tion edu­ca­tion work­shops, and will pro­vide work expe­ri­ence oppor­tu­ni­ties for the stu­dents from The Crossing.

“We are excit­ed this build­ing can be brought back to life as a mul­ti-use com­mu­ni­ty space in down­town Mar­i­on as well as pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for youth of Mar­i­on and Grant Coun­ty to com­plete their edu­ca­tion, expand their job skills, and help devel­op their char­ac­ter and spir­i­tu­al life,” accord­ing to T3 Invest­ments Pres­i­dent, P. Eric Turner.

“Our fam­i­ly is delight­ed this build­ing will be used by the Mar­i­on and Grant Coun­ty com­mu­ni­ty, as well as become a hub of activ­i­ty for young peo­ple, as they seek to become respon­si­ble adults. Our hope is this facil­i­ty will pos­i­tive­ly impact these stu­dents, one indi­vid­ual at a time, and help them become pro­duc­tive cit­i­zens.” Hav­ing the Bridge Café come to down­town Mar­i­on is an addi­tion­al bonus,” Turn­er added. ​“We appre­ci­ate the vision of Cathy Ker­ton-John­son to max­i­mize the use of this facil­i­ty in down­town Marion.”

Cathy Ker­ton-John­son, spokesman for The Place, said, ​“We are thrilled to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to join the Down­town Mar­i­on com­mu­ni­ty, which is one of the most vibrant­ly cre­ative, pos­i­tive and moti­vat­ed groups of peo­ple I have known. With tal­ent like there is in Mar­i­on, and with the grow­ing num­ber of peo­ple who have cho­sen it as their home and as their call­ing, we can­not wait to see the blos­som­ing of vibran­cy in all areas of com­mu­ni­ty in the months and years ahead. Many peo­ple have been pour­ing their lives into reju­ve­nat­ing this City, and have pre­pared the ground for great things to hap­pen here.

We feel priv­i­leged to be able to join in at such a vital stage of the grow­ing move­ment that has had many years of blood, sweat and tears poured into it by ded­i­cat­ed stake­hold­ers. We hope to pro­vide a beau­ti­ful space, great hos­pi­tal­i­ty and cre­ative con­nec­tions for all mem­bers of the Mar­i­on fam­i­ly,” Ker­ton-John­son added.

Mar­i­on May­or Jess Alum­baugh added, ​“The City of Mar­i­on is pleased to have The Bridge com­ing to down­town Mar­i­on. Their plans for hav­ing a mul­ti­pur­pose build­ing in the heart of our Com­mu­ni­ty is excit­ing and we look for­ward to part­ner­ing with Nicholas and Cather­ine for many years to come.”

The prop­er­ty was last used as a Nau­tilus Fit­ness Cen­ter in the late 1980s.

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact Cather­ine Ker­ton-John­son (765−212−4920) or P. Eric Turn­er (317−417−1177)