HANCEVILLE, Ala. – During Hanceville’s Mud Creek Arts & Crafts Festival Saturday, Leah and Ace McCollins slipped in behind the line of street vendors on Commercial Street for a “soft” opening of their new coffee-and-much-more shop named Rise Up. The business completes the Commercial Street phase of Hanceville’s downtown revitalization project, but does so in a unique way.
Leah McCollins is a licensed professional counselor who was formerly assigned to Hanceville’s three schools as a support counselor with Mental Health Care of Cullman (now WellStone). She now wants to offer her services to the community as a whole.
McCollins explained, “I want to be able to provide mental health services for folks in our community that don’t have insurance, or else their copays are still too expensive with the insurance. I do therapy for a reduced rate, at a reduced hourly rate, or no rate if folks can’t afford it at all.”
The shop will offer coffee and mental health care: an interesting combination, but the owners are absolutely serious about it. The couple is even making room for a little more: a buildup of the body as well as the mind.
McCollins explained, “My friend Amber Sellers is opening a gym back there. So we’re doing a coffee and nutrition bar in the front and, basically, we just need this business to be successful so that we can provide the resources, you know, that we need in this building. We’re just connecting with a lot of people in the community to just be a presence here, make mental health care more available in this area.”
Behind the counter at the coffee bar, husband Ace McCollins insisted, “It’s her vision, it’s her dream; I’m just here to stand behind her with it, you know. We just feel like we need to reach out to the community. God’s blessed us in so many ways, and we’re trying to bless the community in the same way God blessed us: addiction therapy, children’s therapy, just whatever kind of therapy we can do.”
Plans for Rise Up include worship nights, small group meetings, a community Thanksgiving meal and a possible Christmas toy drive.
The McCollinses are planning for an official grand opening Nov. 15.
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