Fall was in the air as several dozen people gathered in the parking lot at Trinity Church on Broadway, most already wearing the white t-shirts bearing the logo for this year's walk-a-thon. Each year, members of The Windmill Center gather with friends to raise funds to keep their program running.

The Windmill Alliance, Inc., a ministry of Trinity Episcopal Parish in Bergen Point, serves about 40 people with developmental disabilities in its Windmill Center day program and up to 15 in its Windmill Residence supervised apartments program.

The Alliance also operates the HIGHWAYS (Helping Individuals Gain Hope Will Always Yield Success) thrift store and counseling service, providing clothing, furnishings, counsel, and a food pantry.

They are working on a large project to remove an old house behind the parish and replace it with three buildings serving the disabled. But that project comes with a price -- and they need to raise $1.2 million.

Staying open

Each year, the members hold fundraisers to help maintain the annual $1.5 million budget that keeps the existing facilities operating. This year, Rev. Gerard A. Pisani Jr., the church rector, said much of the effort is geared toward its capital improvement project that will help bring its scattered resources to one location on Broadway.

A program director, three full-time employees, and one part-time staff member staff the center. They have been trained and certified by the State Division of Developmental Disabilities.

The walk - which starts out and ends back at the church with a stroll down Broadway to West First Street, then back up JFK Boulevard and home - incorporates staff, clients of the Alliance and family members, each taking pledges to raise funds.

The old house behind Trinity Church, built at the turn of the 19th century, is soon to be demolished, Rev. Pisani said, to make room for what the staff calls "a miracle on Fifth Street."

The house at 141 Broadway, which Pisani said is in "terrible shape," will be replaced with three new buildings to accommodate the growing community need for a bigger facility.

The current facility handles about 50 people in its day program. But with more disabled and autistic people expected to join the program after graduating from local schools, the program will need more room.

The first building planned for construction in the five-year project will double the capacity for the day program.

After that, they plan to construct a new community hall - which they hope to lease out for non-profit uses - and a third building that will bring the HIGHWAYS program onto the same location (it currently is located several blocks away on Hobart Avenue).

"We have our approvals from the zoning board," Rev. Pisani said.

Although the group expects to get grants and other funding, the capital improvement project still requires them to raise about $1.2 million.

So the group walks, strolling the streets of Bayonne in white t-shirts and broad smiles, waving to people they see.

Last year, the group raised about $4,000. This year, they hope that when the final numbers are tallied, they will raise a similar amount. Combined with the Oct. 3 annual fundraising dinner (which was held at the Chandelier), this may bring them closer to bringing the miracle about.

"We are committed to the enrichment of the lives of the developmentally disabled," Rev. Pisani said in the program's mission statement.

email to Al Sullivan