Courtesy Mercy House of Saratoga
Mercy House of Saratoga Inc., a new nonprofit group created to provide temporary residences for a wide range of people in need, has received a pledge of $25,000 from the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (NYTHA) to support and dedicate accommodations for Saratoga Race Course backstretch workers.
The announcement was made on July 17 by Gordon Boyd, president of Mercy House. Representatives of NYTHA, Mercy House and the Backstretch Employee Service Team (BEST) gathered at the future site of Mercy House on Washington Street in Saratoga Springs to announce NYTHA’s pledge.
The funds will be put toward the construction of a 6,000-square-foot suite of rooms to serve backstretch workers from Saratoga Race Course, within a four-story, 30,000-square-foot building to be built on land abutting Bethesda Episcopal Church.
Construction of the $9 million building, at 26-28 Washington Street, is expected to begin in the coming year.
In addition to Mercy House, the new building will serve as the parish house for Bethesda.
The suite will be dedicated to the late Rick Violette, longtime president of NYTHA and an advocate BEST.
BEST will provide recovery and counseling services to the backstretch workers accommodated in Mercy House. Violette, a successful thoroughbred trainer who celebrated a win with Diversify in last year’s Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, died in October after a lengthy battle with lung cancer.
“NYTHA is pleased to support Mercy House’s development of accommodations for backstretch workers who are being helped by BEST for counseling, recovery and recuperation,” said Joe Appelbaum, president of the NYTHA board. “We believe that Mercy House will help further BEST’s mission, which is to meet the health and social welfare needs of the backstretch workers at Saratoga Race Course through alcohol or substance use counseling and other assistance.”
Paul Ruchames, executive director of BEST, said the partnership with Mercy House “is a big win for our workers and another example of the commitment of the Saratoga County community to help track workers. The importance of a caring community to the healing process cannot be overstated.”
Mercy House was established last year by Bethesda to provide and manage a new housing resource for people in need of shelter or supportive housing. In addition to BEST, Mercy House is partnering with agencies that serve victims of domestic violence and their children, homeless military veterans including women with children, and people living with mental health and substance use disabilities.
“We are grateful for NYTHA’s generous support, and this will be a fitting memorial to Rick Violette’s example and leadership on behalf of the workforce,” said Gordon Boyd, president of the Mercy House board of directors. “Serving BEST’s clients at our location, just off Broadway in downtown Saratoga, will mean a place for workers to recover and eventually resume their jobs, in a safe, clean and focused environment.”
Darren Miller, senior warden of Bethesda, said, “providing accommodations for workers from the Saratoga Race Course who need recuperation or recovery is central to Bethesda’s religious mission of caring for people in need, as scripture instructs us to do.”