To help spread the word about the Standing Stone Community Center, the center’s founder will be visiting Eastern Tuesday.

Dawn Thompson will be available at the Standing Stone Community Center, located in Charleston at 201 N. Sixth Street, from 1 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. to answer questions at the open house.

Thompson’s meeting can involve anyone who is interested. She will be speaking about what running a service organization, how they bring in food and what services they offer.

Standing Stone Community Center is a service organization and a non-profit ministry. This ministry provides food, articles of clothing and furniture to those who need it.

Thompson was inspired to open this ministry after watching a movie called “The Touch.”

Nine months after seeing this film, Standing Stone Community Center was opened in June of 2012.

“I started Standing Stone to meet the unmet needs in the community,” Thompson said.

Anyone interested can get involved with Standing Stone Community Center by donating or volunteering.

Wednesday and Saturday nights are the service ministry’s main drop off days for pieces of clothing. Standing Stone Community Center gets a lot of students from Eastern to volunteer their services, whether it is for credit, or to just fulfill their need to give back, Thompson said.

“We could always use volunteers and we appreciate the help of the students who do” Thompson said.

Community members are encouraged to reap the benefits that Standing Stone Community Center offers.

The organization has a “five item clothing program” where anyone can go there and grab five items of clothing per person every 30 days.

Eastern students are a big part of the service organization, not only volunteering and donating but by getting their needs met as well, Thompson added.

“Poor college students come to us to get furniture for their homes” said Thompson.

Thompson said she hopes more people will learn about the organization and start or continue to use the services provided within the community.

Deanna Tadlock can be reached at 581-2812 or dennewsdesk@eiu.edu.