ALMA, Ark. (KFSM) — The Morgan Nick Foundation for missing children and adults opened a brand new center geared towards bringing loved ones home.
The foundation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday (Nov. 6) for its new building right off of Highway 71 in Alma, which will have additional space for more workers.
"It allows us to be really visible in the community. People can find us, we’ve got people walking in the door here every day. People calling us now," said Colleen Nick, mother of Morgan and Executive Director of the foundation.
The foundation received a grant from the state of Arkansas allowing it to add four new case managers. This helps them reach out to every county within the state and also provide for new services.
“Our hope is that we can show, kind of what the pilot program that we’re doing here in our state with missing adults that next year we can reach out to the states that touch ours and access, the invoke grant money in their states and begin to do that same work,” Nick said.
Families going through the experience of a missing friend or relative can find support through the foundation.
"We had no education. Didn’t know where to turn, didn’t know what to do, and through Morgan Nick we learned. We started learning programs, we started talking to people about it,” said JoAnn Cross of Oklahoma, who's grandson was found with the foundation's help.
The foundation's goal is to help support all 500 missing person cases in the state of Arkansas.
“We really just started searching for Morgan but through that continued to find other families that are searching and realized there was a need for these kind of services,” Nick said.
The owner of the building is leasing the space to the foundation for just one dollar a month.
"We want people to come here and walk in the door and feel like this is a place where they can get the help that they need and that their family can be restored," Nick said.
Morgan Nick disappeared 24 years ago in Alma and hasn't been seen since.
The foundation has worked for the past 19 years to find missing people.