H.A.L.O. Group holds town meeting to explain plans for New Perry Hotel

The New Perry Hotel on 800 Main Street is soon to be the center location where the H.A.L.O. (Helping Achieve Life Outcomes through Having Agape Love for Others) Group plans to renovate the hotel into a vocational, educational, and residential program for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism. Leading the charge for the H.A.L.O. Group are Angela Cuti (Executive Director), Melanie Murphy (Director of Vocational Services), Deborah Vickers (Director of Business Operations), and April Tew (Director of Residential Services).

H.A.L.O. Group is a nonprofit organization that has been created to assist individuals with disabilities become valuable members of our community and help our community become a stronger place. Each member sees the historic New Perry Hotel and Restaurant as the rightful place to see these goals come to fruition.

“There is a closing date drawing,” said Murphy. “We have signed a contract and we will close on it in the next few weeks.”

Tuesday evening at the Perry United Methodist Church, the H.A.L.O. Group held a public meeting to make the local citizens aware of the plans that they have to serve children and adults with special needs.

“The New Perry Hotel can be a shining star in our community and with no services like this in Perry and overall in the Houston County area, this will just be a prime location for a great opportunity for this type of program,” said Cuti, speaking to the crowd.

The four directors wanted to let the audience know that they are contacting local business owners, state agencies, corporations, parents, and guardians to get involved and just encouraged anyone who has been touched by someone who has special needs to get involved with helping kids/adults with disabilities.

“Our whole premise is about inclusion and celebrating people of diversity,” said Cuti. “What we want to do is just bring awareness to local citizens in the community about the mission and vision for the project. People really love the historic building and they also love special needs individuals. In Perry, there’s not a service model for individuals to be trained and employed in vocational programs and they can be viable and self-sustaining.”

Cuti explained that when special needs students leave high school and their friends happen to go off for college, they feel somewhat left behind and they struggle trying to figure out what to do next. Cuti wants no special needs student to have that void in their life and wants them to be put in a position where they can maximize their earning potential.

“A lot of people get their sense of purpose with employment,” said Cuti. “They have a job. You feel valuable. You want to be included. You get a paycheck. You feel good about that. You get to spend it. You have your own life and can make your own choices. We feel like everybody should have that ability.”

Throughout the meeting, videos of inspiring testimonials by parents with sons and daughters with disabilities such as Down syndrome were shown. An NBC Nightly news video of a restaurant in McKinney, Texas called Hugs Café, where the majority of the employees with special needs were staffed was exhibited to the public. The group also presented a slide show that displayed slides of different rooms and areas around the hotel in its current condition. Slides of the exterior (front and back of the building) and interior (dining room, kitchen, and plans for an entry way to a coffee shop) were shared with people.

“Our plans are to fund the project through grants, community fund-raising, a food truck business, and donations,” said Cuti. “After renovations are done, we will seek government funding to sustain the program.”

The group said that there will be three phases to completing the reviving and renovation of the New Perry Hotel project but aims to focus on Phase 1 first. “Phase 1 will be renovating a motor court for vocational classes and residential apartments, begin exterior gardens and landscaping development, and developing a food truck business for the preliminary phase of a food service vocational program,” said Cuti.

Cuti, who is a special education teacher, has a fervent passion for students and wants to not just focus on what students do in the classroom but she wants to know what happens when they get outside of the classroom. “We want to empower people and help them see the full potential that they can bring to a workforce,” Cuti added. “Our program is developing in Warner Robins but we do envision it developing throughout the state of Georgia and eventually nationally.”