GREENFIELD — Bentley’s Buddies and Friends will soon have a new doghouse to call home.
The Greenfield-based nonprofit — which encourages young children to hone their literacy skills by reading to dogs — has moved out of its previous location due to reports of plumbing issues.
The new site at 108 N. State St. is less than a half mile north of the previous location at 707 N. State St.
Bentley’s Buddies founder Nickie Scott said her husband Terry is in the process of purchasing the new building — the former home of the Salon D’Elegance salon on the northwest corner of State and North streets.
The new 2,300-square-foot property is more than twice the size of the previous 1,200-square-foot location. The new space features an upstairs apartment Scott says will be used for storage, and a shared paved parking lot in the rear. At the previous location, visitors jockey for parking space in the driveway accessible by an alley beyond the home.
Scott said her husband opted to buy a property to rent to Bentley’s Buddies after she struggled to find a rental property that would accept a steady stream of dogs.
The larger property would mean an increase in rent, which was $1,350 at the previous location, said Scott, but she said the expanded space should serve the nonprofit’s clients well for years to come.
“We have an impressive library of over 3,600 books, and the kids can still have their snow cones, because we have a kitchen at the new property like we did the last one,” said Scott, who sometimes bakes cookies for the kids.
Scott commended a team of volunteers from both Leadership Hancock County and the Rotary Club of Greenfield, who made light work of moving all of the nonprofit’s belongings from the old site to the new location on Saturday, May 18.
She planned to join a crew of volunteers to clean up the previous location on Tuesday, May 21 before turning in the keys.
Scott said the Bentley’s Buddies had been operating under a month-to-month lease, which made moving out easier.
The nonprofit also received a $1,500 mini grant from the Community Foundation of Hancock County to help with the move.
Scott is now focused on finalizing the purchase of the new property and opening the doors to clients, with the hopes of hosting a public open house sometime later this year.
“It’s going to be a great new chapter for Bentley’s Buddies. We can have a lot more reading spaces and can accommodate more dogs to read with the kids, so that will help,” she said.
The program currently has roughly 25 teams of volunteers and dogs who work with kids both at the Bentley’s Buddies office and through weekly visits to five Hancock County schools — St. Michael Catholic School and Brandywine, Sugar Creek and Weston elementaries in Greenfield and New Palestine Elementary in New Palestine.
J.B. Stephens Elementary in Greenfield will join the program at the start of next school year.
In addition to the schools, volunteer teams also visit three Hancock County libraries each month and attend a number of community events.
Just under 30 children are also registered to receive one-on-one reading support at the Bentley’s Buddies office.
As the program continues to grow, Scott said the nonprofit will need about a dozen more volunteer teams to meet the needs of clients this year.
For more information or to volunteer, visit bentleysbuddies.com.
