Money will help CommQuest upgrade buildings.

CANTON The Timken Foundation is giving CommQuest Services $1.6 million, the largest charitable gift in CommQuest’s history.

The money will help the addiction and mental health not-for-profit upgrade four buildings and enhance security systems at all of the organization’s 19 buildings.

“It’s one of those humbling, bring-you-to-your-knees-in-tears (gifts), because stuff like this doesn’t happen to behavioral health organizations,” said CommQuest President and CEO Keith Hochadel. “It doesn’t happen if you’re 100 years old or 10 years old.”

The money will enable CommQuest to:

Install energy-efficient heating and cooling systems at Wilson Hall in Massillon and Deliverance House in Canton.

Put new roofs on the Family Living Center in Massillon, Deliverance House and the Market Avenue office in Canton.

Install new windows at Deliverance House.

The gift puts CommQuest well on its way to reaching the $2 million goal of the capital campaign it started this year. The money means CommQuest can make needed repairs, while preserving funds for clinical services, Hochadel said.

CommQuest’s more than 480 employees provide mental health, addiction and social services to more than 20,000 clients a year in more than 30 counties. The organization is celebrating its 100th year.

In a news release, Ward J. “Jack” Timken said drug and alcohol treatment and mental health services were critical and noted CommQuest’s long history of helping Ohioans with those issues.

“A grant from the Timken Foundation is intended to provide critically needed funds for capital upgrades so that their organization can apply more of their assets to the work at hand,” Timken said. “We commend them on their past efforts and we look forward to even greater success in the future.”

Timken family members have volunteered on CommQuest’s board directors in the past, and Jane Timken is currently a director.

The Timken Foundation has helped CommQuest to upgrade its Massillon Recovery Campus and expand capacity at Wilson Hall, to purchase the Metropolitan Centre and to relocate its homeless shelter for families.

“I couldn’t believe the generosity of the Timken Foundation,” Hochadel said. “They’ve been supporters of us for a long time, but this goes above and beyond anything that we could have ever expected."