Updated, May 6
With more than a dozen blue hardhats, a shovel for every hand, and standing in front of a pile of dirt, the Islands community gathered on Friday for the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS) celebratory groundbreaking of a new facility on their campus, which will be named after two prominent Islanders.
A new wing — set to be named the William and Rose Styron Center for Wellness and Recovery — is part of the MVCS’s larger $17.5 million, 13,700-square-foot construction project on Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road in Oak Bluffs.
When the two-story facility is finished, it will house the Styrons wellness center and include the construction of a courtyard that will be considered “the heart” of the new campus, consolidating all mental health, substance use disorder, and other services into a modern and spacious, two story building, scheduled to be complete in 2026.
“We are building a brand new campus,” Carl Folta, Vice President of the MVCS board of directors, told the Times Friday. “All our administration and most programs we housed are going in a brand spanking new, modern, environmentally safe, two story building that will value patient privacy.”
“The ability to move services into the same building is amazing and it’s going to be beautiful,” added campaign chair, Gary Foster.
At the ceremony on Friday, Tobias and Durwood Vanderhoop of the Black Brook Singers of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) welcomed guests into the groundbreaking ceremony with a drumming and singing performance.
Rose Styron — local legend, renowned poet, journalist, and human rights activist — was at the ceremony on Friday, and said her late husband, Bill, would have been so honored to see this dedication in their name.
“My husband would’ve been just thrilled. His hundredth Birthday is coming up and our anniversary is this weekend,” said Styron to the Times on Friday prior to the ceremony.
The center aims to honor Styron’s legacy surrounding the destigmatization of mental health, particularly through William Styron’s 1990 memoir “Darkness Visible,” which detailed his personal struggle with mental health.
“The response to his book saved him — through that, he got to talk to so many people who he helped,” said Styron.
The new building is designed by South Mountain Architecture’s Ryan Bushey. Bushey said that the planned courtyard will become the heart of the campus. They are also replacing “uncomfortable noisy spaces” now at the Community Center with quieter and more resilient space. He said they are also getting rid of fossil fuels completely; the building will be run on electricity.
“We hope to make a safe, healthy place not only that meets the community’s needs but one that meets the Island’s needs,” said Bushey from the podium on Friday. “But right now it’s just a big hole and a lot of optimism,” he lightheartedly added.
Dean Teague, CEO of MVCS who spoke at the podium on Friday, said he was thankful for the overwhelming Island support since he started as CEO in February.
“The island has been fantastic,” he said. “I have never met a more generous group of people,” said Teague following the ceremony on Friday. “Even the ones who don’t have the ability to give too much find a way to give what they can.”
He said that the new facility is a big need on the Island. “It’s significant because we are going to open up a new era about how we handle mental health patients.”
The MVCS has raised a total of $13 million so far for the construction project, toward a total goal of $17.5 million that is needed to fully fund the campus transformation. MVCS officials also said they were proud that more than one million of the total raised for the project was done so through smaller, local donations.
“It was done in a way that was really inspiring, with fellow islanders coming together to raise more than a million dollars to build the center that will have the job of housing our mental health and substance abuse services,” said Foster.
