Aaron's Acres has the accommodations to capitalize on countless possibilities.

The nonprofit organization moved to 121 Walnut Hill Road, Millersville, on Jan. 10 and is settling into the new, expansive home it purchased while continuing to contemplate how best to cater to clients.

"We are beyond excited to get to this place after 28 years," executive director Risa Paskoff said. "We have a building, and we've had dreams that have been turned into realities (during) the first 28 years. Now, with this building, we can have another whole set of dreams and can meet the needs of more people."

Before moving to the building formerly operated by the Grace Baptist Church of Millersville, Aaron's Acres was confined to 1,000 square feet of office space it was leasing. It held programs at churches, Millersville University, and other organizations and used a storage area on Rohrerstown Road.

There are no longer many limitations in the new digs, which has 12,000 square feet. "All of our programs can be here and our meeting rooms," Paskoff said. "We had a great relationship with the Residence Inn for our board meetings, for committee meetings, and now we can have committee meetings here. Everyone in our administrative office staff has their own office."

She said the foremost feature is how the building benefits the clientele. "The program space is the biggest thing," said Paskoff. "We're going to have a kitchen. There is a kitchen here, but we want to start doing cooking classes here, cooking programs for families. We want to expand all the programs that we have. Aaron's Acres has a camp program and monthly recreational programs."

"We have program, a social science where the older population have a place to go and interact with each other and engage in meaningful activities," continued Paskoff. "We're hoping to have a family lounge here, so parents can come and sit while they drop their kids off and interact and engage in conversation with people with similar situations and realize they're not alone in their situation."

The facility fosters a feeling of belonging. "Raising a child with a disability often is very lonely, and you don't feel like you're part of a community," Paskoff said. "We really want to create this as a community hub but based on our people's needs."

Aaron's Acres once served people between the ages of 5 and 21. Now it can assist those up to and including 40 years old. "We want to be able to do more meaningful programs for the older group," said Paskoff. "With the purchase of this building, we are truly meeting the needs, and we're going to continue to meet the needs of families and individuals who have disabilities."

She added, "There is a tremendous need for programs for individuals who have disabilities, especially as they graduate from high school. Families have said to us, 'The school bus stops coming, and families fall off the cliff.' That's an awful visual, but it's reality. We wanted to make sure that we had meaningful, age-appropriate programs for individuals who graduated from high school."

Aaron's Acres boasts a staff-client ratio of 1:1 or 1:2 and aids people from all backgrounds. "From when we first started 28 years ago, we've never turned away a child because of a disability, and we've never turned away a family if they can't afford the program," said Paskoff. "We provide scholarships. Some families do get county funding, but we have never turned away a family if they don't have funding. We make sure it happens for them. We don't want a parent to say, 'I'm sending my kids to camp or to a program. They are having fun, but I'm stressed.' We want it to be a positive experience for everyone."

Aaron's Acres has come a long way. For the first 16 years of its existence, all six employees worked from home. Then the outfit leased space before coming to the organization-altering decision to purchase a location. "The positive was we were partnering with a lot of different organizations and businesses and churches for program space," said Paskoff. "It raised the awareness of who we are, what we do. People learned about us, but it was also logistically hard, because we had to work around everyone's schedule. We finally said it's time for us to have our own space, because we have a lot of dreams, and we want to just keep expanding."

Go to https://aaronsacres.org for more information.

"At Aaron's Acres, we embrace possibilities," Paskoff said. "We celebrate each person for who they are and what they are able to do. We create a safe space where parents have told us they could breathe. The child who has medical issues or the child who has behavioral issues or physical issues, they all can be met, and their needs can be addressed in a way that's appropriate and immediate."