If you drive any faster than a stop-and-go clip, you'll miss the place.

But then again, that may just be the point.

For it's what's on the inside of the drab, two-story brick building in the nether reaches of Casper's downtown that's likely to brighten the spirits of women and children starting over.

Next month, 30 of them could be calling this, the Transformation Center for Women and Children, home.

Visitors to the Central Wyoming Rescue Mission's new facility on Kimball Street will be greeted by a place filled with sun and light, no matter how cold and dark it may be outside.

In rooms redolent of new flooring, sawdust and shrink-wrapped plastic, a group of girls who have a home are busy preparing a welcoming world for those who don't.

A troop of Girl Scouts sort through boxes of children's DVDs, board books and stuffed tigers, while seated on stuffed Elmo chairs that vibrate and giggle on cue. The walls are splashed with bright blue and green hues as a leader of the group dabbles her pallette, taking tiny brushstrokes transforming a simple wall into a patch of grass topped with a huge apple tree.

In a corner, a whimsical race-car shaped television plays "The Lion King" as the girls meticulously place puzzles, dolls and model cars into shelves they've spent months building and cramming with toys of every kind.

For anyone who enters, it's Christmas.

"Sometimes I find myself playing with these toys instead of sorting them," said Dana Grapes, 14, a student at St. Anthony's Parish in Casper. For more than a year, Grapes' Girl Scout Troop 471 has been soliciting donations, mailing fliers, collecting and sorting toys for the new shelter as part of a community-service project.

Grapes and her friends are nearly finished with their task, as are the rest of the partners who have donated labor, time and materials to complete the new shelter.

"We want this (play) room to be ready by the time they open the shelter," she said. "We don't want to be the ones holding them up."

Cheryl Grapes, Dana's mother, is impressed.

"It's pretty cool what kids can do when you just let them do it," she said.

When completed, the shelter will be able to house women and children who now share space with men at the Central Wyoming Rescue Mission. As of last week, 57 people called the mission home, having arrived there because of unemployment, substance abuse or other problems they've needed assistance with.

Just as they would at the main rescue mission, the women who come to the new place won't be turned away, but they must come with an individual plan that either involves rehabilitation from substance or alcohol abuse and the path to a job.

Heather Lowe, who helped sponsor the remodeling of the children's room, said she expects the place will fill quickly.

Lowe is one of a small army of people who donated their labor and materials for the refurbished center at little or no cost. The Wyoming Community Development Authority helped with financing, and contractor Gary Kloefkorn donated materials and labor "at cost."

And the young women earning their Girl Scout Silver Awards kept smiling Friday, as they sorted and stacked squishable baby toys, foam basketballs and books away. They were simply having fun they know other children will soon.

"Doing this brings back memories," said Kala Moore, 15, a sophomore at Kelly Walsh High School. "A lot of the toys that are here are ones we used to play with or toys we wish we had."

Night editor David Mirhadi can be reached at (307) 266-0616 or david.mirhadi@casperstartribune.net