From Resident to Board President: The Impact of Amarillo Children’s Home

Matt Darrah (00:01)

Hello and welcome to All Things Foster, a place for coffee, connection, and community. Guys, we've got some folks here from Amarillo Children's Home to talk to us about the work that they do. But before we get to that, today's episode is made possible by Amarillo National Bank. We were incredibly grateful for their generosity and partnership. Amarillo National Bank recently awarded us a significant grant that's helping us to provide more placement packages to children entering foster care all across the Texas Panhandle.

That means more kids receiving the essentials that they need ⁓ on one of the hardest days of their lives. Things like beds, clothes, car seats, and a few comfort items to remind them that they are seen and valued. Amarillo National Bank has a long history of investing in our communities, not just financially, but relationally. And this grant is a powerful example of what it looks like when a local bank steps up to care for local children and local families. To Amarillo National Bank, thank you for believing in this work, believing in foster families.

and believing that every child deserves to be welcomed with dignity and care. We truly could not do this without partners like you. So thanks guys for your sponsorship and welcome to the folks from Amarillo Children's Home. So we'll kind of go around and you guys tell me kind of who you are and what your role is with the Children's Home. John, do want to start? Yeah, my name is John Forbes. I'm the executive director at the Children's Home. Okay. And Billy? Billy Smith and I am an alumni of the Children's Home and also the

board chairman. Awesome, awesome. And Emily? Emily Bell, I'm the director of development. Okay, so I'm excited that you guys are here. Amarillo Children's Home has been around for a long time and does some really, really important work in the community. So can you kind of share with me the origins? Like where did the Children's Home come from? Yeah, so we were 102 years old.

where our story is in 1923, ⁓ our original founders, ⁓ one of them, Reverend Thompson, who was the pastor, what is now First Presbyterian Church, ⁓ he was having dinner with three close friends and they looked out outside of the diner and there were three boys that were ⁓ on the street and just seem in distress. They were crying and just didn't, something didn't look right. So they called them in, sat them down, fed them dinner.

got to know their story and learned that they had been abandoned. ⁓

Amarillo in the 20s was, you know, obviously going through incredible growth. and I think that what they recognized is that, you know, while in that time, you see, you saw a lot of people really thrive and succeed in this new, you know, bustling, growing city. Well, also, there's a lot more stories of that right there, a family struggling, kids struggling, kids abandoned. So it started the conversation of, we need a place to take care of kids. And so they found a place for the kids to

ago for the night. And then over the next year, they started the process of starting what is now Amarillo Children's Home. So was the Presbyterian Home for Children. They bought in what was designed to be a military academy for boys on the north side of town. ⁓ So kind of this old school dormitory style, kind what you think of in the movies, you know, in orphanage. ⁓

good is safe place for kids to go they they had a place to from so kids from all over the panhandle ⁓ started coming to the children's home had a place to live had had three meals a day were taken care of and

Now, you know, in that time, they started to recognize that, hey, well, this is a great place. ⁓ We the word normalcy is a big thing in this world. And so in the in 20s and 30s, that word was was important. And they they said, hey, you know, well, this is a great place for the kids to go and take care of kids. Our kids need to know what it's like to have a home environment. And so that began the conversation and ⁓ very forward thinking at the time. ⁓ They purchased ⁓ the

the location that we're currently at from Charles Wolflin in the late 40s. It was on the outskirts of town. The Wolflin neighborhood was really just kind of getting developed and so they bought the the 10 acres that we're on right now and started building homes.

for the kids to live in. And so ⁓ they started building homes in the late 40s, early 50s, and it created this home environment for kids. that's been our journey. We still provide what's called group home care. ⁓ So kids that are in the foster care system.

can have a safe place to come and live on our campus and our primary, the primary, you know, the need that we're feeling is a lot of times it's kids that we, that's hard to find foster homes for. They're having, we can't find a kinship placement, can't find a foster home. And so a lot of our kids or teenagers, our average ages kind of fluctuates between 14 and 15. Large sibling groups, you know, it can be hard to find a foster home for a sibling set of three, four or five.

So we have our younger kids are typically sibling groups and then we serve a lot of teenagers. So that's our that's been our very fast hundred year history of where we started and what our current location is. And ⁓ yeah, there's there's kind of our our history. Wow. So what's so what's kind of the mission and vision of ACH today? I mean, it's it's changed surely over the last hundred and two years. So what's is that really neat mix?

of there's a lot of new and new that we'll share, but there's a lot in our core that has not changed in 102 years. So our vision is, our mission is to restore the identity of kids so they can realize their great value and be a blessing to others. And when you break down that statement, you look at it, it's the gospel. And we are a faith-based organization. We are founded by First Pres. ⁓ The gospel of Jesus Christ is incorporated in everything that we do. ⁓ Our kids attend our local churches. We're supported by local churches.

While there's some different programs and some different things that we're doing now So much of what we've done for 102 years is still the same and you know, it's it's that the the Bible is truth and ⁓ It's eternal and we can always rest on it. And so that's the core of what we do and that that will never change So that's that's pretty fun. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, that's so cool. So ⁓ What are some kind of milestones over the last 10 years that you guys have kind of hit? What are some?

some big things that have happened. Yeah, so that's where maybe a lot of the new has gone on in the last 10 years.

there's a there's, you know, as in all things, when you're trying to improve the foster care system, especially across the entire state, things flex and change. And so there's a big push, understandably, we love it, we're behind it of, ⁓ of, again, that word normalcy of, know, if we can, you know, can we get kinship? Can we get ⁓ aunts, uncles, relatives, the support they need to take care of a kid in foster care? Or ⁓ can we get more foster homes online?

and serve more kids in foster homes. And so what we've seen the last 10 years is there's not as many kids coming into what was a group home setting. But what we're seeing as well is kids that are coming in the group home setting have higher needs than they did 10 years ago. It's kind of that pre-COVID and post-COVID world that we all, I think we all felt and we felt that at the children's home of the needs that our kids have post-COVID, what they're coming to us with. There's

higher.

level of need. while we may not have the as many kids on campus as we did 10 years ago, ⁓ they have much higher needs. And then there's also the stay is shorter. And so you'll hear a lot of stories from 10, 15 years ago, Billy has a phenomenal story I'm excited for y'all to hear. ⁓ But the the stay is not as long, right? So those kids that are staying for 5, 10, 15 years, that's really not the norm anymore. Our average stay is about eight months ⁓ in the in the group home. And so that

That's where again, we're kind of shifting of, if we've got a kid in the group home for eight months and we have a much higher need, there's this sense of urgency of how can we provide for this kid in a short amount of time? what needs do they have? What kind of healing can we be a part of? How do we support ⁓ whatever the process is? What's next for them? So ⁓ that's what it looks like in the group home is just how do we evolve with that of kids are staying shorter, not as many higher needs. So let's love them as well as we can and the amount of time we have. ⁓

we've seen the need for care after 18. you know, a lot of our kids when they went graduation, because they still need more support. And so we have a new program called supervised independent living. Sure, that cares for kids after 18. Yeah, gives them some additional support.

But a little in housing too, right? have some homes that are still homes, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we converted two of our homes that are on our campus to SIL homes to 18, 20 year homes. We're renovating one of our cottages right now with the hopes of expanding that to a a third SIL home. So that's a new that's a new shift for us in the last. It's been about a year and a half. We've had that program going. And then a few years ago, we got license. I'm sorry, a few months ago.

we got licensed that we can now license foster homes in the community. you know, what are the things that we can do to support foster families, ⁓ things that they, know, ⁓ ways that we can come around foster homes, kids, and ⁓ the support that we received for 102 years at the children's home and our group home, what does it look like for foster homes? So that's another way we're evolving just to kind of meet that need. So, yeah. Yeah. So, so talk to me about the actual group home. What, what

How many kids, so there's a couple, right? A houseparent couple that lives in the home with the kids, right? Yeah, yeah, so we have houseparents that live in the cottage.

⁓ There's an apartment built onto the side of the cottage that our house parents live in. ⁓ A big shift again kind of around 2020 ⁓ was a move towards 24-7 away in care. we have a set of house parents, we have an assistant who comes in on the house parents two days off, but then we have a wake.

overnight staff. Right. And so their job is to is just to take care of whatever need the kid may have, help out with with whatever the house parents have kind of again gives our house parents another bit of respite. They can go to bed at night, you know that the kids are taken care of. So we have got we have got about five staff in each home that run each home. And then really kind of a full house for us now is around five kids. You know, Billy, you may have a kind of a different, you know, may have a different experience. But five is kind of a big, full number

for us from past it may have been seven, eight, nine kids in the cottage. Okay. So what is living on the campus look like? Is that maybe a Billy question or is that a y'all's question? I think it's of a fun, like a both if you want to share what it was like when you were there and share the now. When I was there, living on campuses, it felt more normal and that probably seems small to people like you're like, it's, but.

You come in and there's routines. There's people who care about you. There's ⁓ tons of other kids. it's a different dynamic. Like the first day I showed up ⁓ at the doorstep, there was eight kids standing in the entryway to say hi to me. And it's a little bit of a shock. yeah, ⁓ it was good. It felt like family.

It made the transition a lot easier to know that the people, you could tell immediately that the houseparents cared and they weren't just there to make a buck. If we have time, did you write your spaghetti story? I didn't. Do you mind sharing it? Yeah, I can. ⁓

See, like I said, my first day I show up, everybody's there in the entryway. I meet everybody. ⁓ To this day, I'm the same way. I didn't remember a single name. You know how that is if you're coming into a new place. ⁓ So I met the house parents and ⁓ just kind of getting settled in. ⁓ At dinner, ⁓ the house parents made ⁓

spaghetti. And so you walk in with your plate from the set table. This, like I said, it's structured everything around the table, you walk in with your plate, they give you food, kind of go sit at the table and well, I turned around and bumped into somebody and dropped the plate. And immediately I from past experience, it was, hey, this is not going to be good. So ⁓

The house parent just kind of paused a little bit. He could see I was a little shaken and he just reaches down and he's like, he picks up some spaghetti and he just threw it at me. And I was like, what in the world? So from there, it was an all out food fight with seven, eight young boys and the house parents and their daughter. So yeah, was like the first time.

I remember I was like, so this is what normal or this is what love is like. And how old were you at this time? 11. Okay. And had you been in like, you removed straight from bio-family to there or had you been in some other foster homes? Right. So back then it was the Panhandle Assessment Center. You went there and they said, hey, six weeks is the max time you'll be here. I stayed there six months waiting for a placement. So.

from there kind of phased out and ⁓ there was a place called the O'Brien House. my god, my brother was there. Yeah, so I went to the O'Brien House where Kristen Elms, who works at the Children's Home, had been there forever. I actually met her at the O'Brien House. And then from there, I'd got a, ⁓ they called it an interview that you came to the Children's Home and...

It was a very structured thing where you sat down with leadership at the children's home and it was an interview process. Then they decided, yeah, we can take this kid or we can serve this kid. ⁓ So it was basically your third placement. third placement. And in kind of about what was it, about a year?

About a year total. Yes. Yeah by the time you made it to there. man and so, you know, they go to do the kids that live there they go to like a they go to public school do you know they school at the

children's home or what's the? all of our kids are in the local public schools. Most of our kids are Coronado, Austin, Tascosa so they're that fear. But we try to accommodate as best we can. We see the importance of kids being able to stay at their school that they're familiar with. We don't want to take them from teachers, from friends. So we try to accommodate as best we can. we've got, I know we've got a young lady who's at Canyon High. you know,

Such a huge shout out to our local school districts how much they support that so there's a bus that will pick her up and take her to Canyon High That's quite a drive try to keep as much familiar as possible. Yeah, exactly exactly. So yeah, we I think in the last year we had a kid we had kids at ⁓ West Plains High School Caprock Canyon High Tascosa ⁓ Premier

And then obviously Amtech, but yeah, we've got kids really kind of all over, but most of our kids are within that feeder, that Tascosa feeder. Okay. So what's the role of the houseparent? You talked about, you know, they're living there. What's their, what's their kind of their job? I'll kind of share the job, but then tell, you know, if you want to share the kind of beyond the job of it, you know, the...

that we I don't know if this is the right phrase to use. But we, you know, we talk about man, it's it's kind of like professional parent, you know, it's their job, but it's also they get to stand in that role of being parent. ⁓ And so those things that you would see mom, dad do in a home, that's that's what they're doing in the home. And so they're trying to create a home environment, you know, so the dinner table is such a big thing in my world, and really at the children's home of, you know, they're cooking meals together, kids are helping meals, sit down at the table,

kids

have, you know, chores and things and ways that they kind of chip in and a lot of that you're trying to do just kind of based on the interest of the kid or what the kid might need some, need some, you know, some skills on. But that's the, you know, it's the role of kind of what, what I'm trying to do with, with my kids is what our house parents are trying to do. It's, it's trying to be mom, dad, create that home environment, you know, running them to Kids INC games or, you know, practices, church, you know, all the things that, you know, kind of

running around with my kids doing that's that's what they're doing. So a lot of their day in day out looks like what a parent might be doing. So that's that's the maybe the job description. you know, maybe kind of beyond just the job. You know, what does that look like? Yeah, it's their their big thing is their chaos directors. Five to eight young young people that have come from a lot of different backgrounds that they're trying to teach and love and

support them in their growth and their healing. They're huge. They're the backbone of the children's home. ⁓ absolutely. yeah, so they're, mean, it's just so, they're building that relationship, They're providing that connection and that's so important for healing, right?

I don't think healing happens in a vacuum. I think it happens through connection. And so they're the core element that's trying to...

trying to create that healing. They're modeling family and some of the house parents have their own biological children in the home and they just do family all together and learn to bond with their cottage mates like Billy and ⁓ his cottage mates from back in the day that you've stayed friends with all these years. So yeah, from discipleship to meal prep to mentoring and just showing when we say the word healing, just trying to model for the child that ⁓ what they came from.

you know, can be healed and move forward and learn to trust adults again, and slowly, gently ⁓ learn to set boundaries, learn to open up again, and ultimately learn to forgive and let in healing where they can. So what are some things that they, I mean, you talk about sitting at the dinner table, what are some...

things that you guys try to do to have that normalcy. Everybody talks about you, right? We want it to be as normal life as possible. I mean, you talked about...

sports and things like that. Yeah, I'll share some of the in the cottage things. But if you want to talk some of the community stuff, but the, you know, within the home, you know, the the normal things in the home of cooking the meal together, sitting at the table together, cleaning up together, doing homework together. That just that blend of hey, what does it look like doing life together? And I have a part in this. This is this is my part, you know, I get to contribute, I get to learn how to do this. I mean, it's

amazing, ⁓ heartbreaking some of the things that the skills that kids may come to us and, don't think of ⁓ siblings that we had, you know, the, I think the oldest sibling was 13 or 14 years old and didn't know how to use utensils. And so those were some of those things that houseparents were able to teach and guide if, this is, you know, I mean, literally just to be at the table and eat a meal with utensils. ⁓ Those are some of those skills that those houseparents are working on.

But then just that home environment, know, Emily does a phenomenal job on her share some of just what our community does to engage with us. But the experiences that we get to have as a family of going to a softball game, going to a hockey game, you know, there's a concert coming in town, doing that, going on a family vacation or going to camp in the summer.

You share some of those just some of those things. Yes, absolutely going to Our Thompson cottage the Riles or house parents and they'll say the monster truck shows coming to town and we know our young guys are preteen boys want to go and be a part of that and so ⁓ Absolutely, our community comes around us and we have a full program this children's activities program It's year-round and of course, it's heavier in the summer because that's when we have more time with our kids on campus and so Yeah, we grill a lot of meat and blow up inflatables and explode

Watermelon sometimes and and we mark the year very intentionally we we don't let summer come without recognizing it and having a summer end-of-year party when we build ice cream sundaes on the porch and then get our swimsuits on and and splash and throw water balloons together You know and we have our community come and be a part of that like Valero and come and you know donate Beach balls and towels and sunscreen and just get kicked off and ready for the summer. Yeah, you know and year-round then we have investment

that's a youth group style gatherings, know, and the community will come and that way everyone on campus can congregate in our auditorium and come have a campus-wide meal together and then have a dance party and then a worship set and a 10-15 minute Bible story just to encourage those kids in their real identity in Christ. ⁓ Such a special time to have a congregate meal where our community can engage with that and eat the hamburger or the spaghetti with the kiddos and let the teenage girl in this cottage

hang out with her younger brother that's currently living across the way across campus in another cottage. you know, everything, we just heard a story from a houseparent this morning and Stephanie, an assistant rather, who said, you know, there was a child that kind of moved up in his responsibility. He'd ⁓ earned a next level. And so we do restore that normalcy where he said, well, Ms. Stephanie, what do I do now? What do I do? And she said, well, you just be a kid.

Just run around so he had a drone helicopter that he was able to go and play and he said well, okay You're gonna go over here. Do I follow you over there? And she said no Just have your freedom and go to the so so we were watching him out on the basketball court and then he came to the administration building which is in the center of campus and showed us his helicopter and ⁓ Gosh, just good kids, you know that that are just learning to trust and then even trust themselves again to have this freedom in this residential

care environment but like John spoke to we just want it to feel ⁓ as loving and family style and normal as possible. Yeah, yeah for sure. So Billy, talk from the alumni perspective. You know we're over here talking like we to create normalcy. What did that feel like from your perspective?

Put you on the spot. Yeah, that's okay. ⁓

The normalcy part of it is ⁓ the little things that we don't think, like most people don't think about is like routines. You have rules, you have discipline, but there's structure behind it ⁓ that the kids need and I needed for sure. yeah, ⁓ just the meals together, the ⁓ ability to play sports and.

and do things that a normal high school or middle school kid is doing. ⁓ And then not having to worry about having a place to stay at night and a meal to eat. That was probably the best thing was ⁓ we ate meals together, every single meal. We ate at the table. There was no, hey, I'm taking my plate to the living room. There's none of that. And then...

It forces you to talk, forces you to have conversations with people and learn those skills that I didn't know before. I didn't have any idea. And like John said, some kids come and they don't, they can't even use utensils. So, ⁓ yeah, that's. Yeah. It's like, it's that connection we get back to.

Yeah, just feeling this, being safe and seen by, I mean, while you were there, did you have the same houseparents pretty much the whole time or was there some change or? No, so I had a few, I had some behavior problems. When I first got there, I ⁓ was learning how to adapt to that situation and ⁓ being at Amarillo Children's Home. ⁓

And I think that's probably a good thing, right? We have multiple house parents. Kids come in, not everybody's the same. And you have that ability to adjust and move around if you need to that some kids do better with other styles of parenting. And so I was moved into another home and then I...

They said I was an absolute angel, which I wouldn't believe that. Yes he is. But still had my issues, but it was a different parenting style, and so ⁓ it was helpful for me. So how do you feel like, so how long were you there? You went there at 11. Until I was 18, so seven years. Like John said, it's very abnormal now to have that long of a stay, but.

⁓ It was very normal back then to have ⁓ most of the kids stayed for ⁓ over three years. And so how do you think ACH kind of shaped you as a person, as an individual, as a member of the community?

ACH really helped me change my identity. was this lost kid. ⁓ I came into ACH as you can't. You can't trust people. You can't make future plans. You can't do things that normal people do. And ACH turned it into you can. You can make plans. can... ⁓ So that was the big thing.

⁓ they've really shaped me as a father. ⁓ I have two kids now and ⁓ changing that generational pattern of abuse and neglect and ⁓ turning it into something positive so my kids don't have to go through that and their kids don't have to.

I love that, you wrote it down. You can't til you can. Man, that's, godly, that's good. Was there a, like, something that stands out in your mind that this was kind of a pivotal point in your kind of growth as a young man becoming a man? Yeah, so there was...

At one point, ⁓ like I told you, I some behavior problems. I got in some pretty big trouble that took me away from the children's home for ⁓ two weeks or so. ⁓ But during that time, in the past, it had been, hey, you messed up. It was a big deal. It wasn't met with love. It wasn't met with... ⁓

It was met with more trouble. ⁓ But one moment that stands out ⁓ is that. then the people, everyone at the Children's Home was ⁓ trying to get me back to the Children's Home, trying to get me back and making sure I understood I was loved. ⁓ there was still discipline, right? I still had to... ⁓

of had consequences but

It was just different. It was different than I had experienced in the past. And so it really changed me to know that I had that people that loved me that much to where I could mess up, I could do things wrong, but I was still welcomed back. was very... At that moment, it was like very Christ-like, right? We can do all the wrong things, but He's always welcoming us back. And prodigal son to a team.

So that kind of time period away, you come back and you're like, okay, this is love, right? This is being valued. Yeah, there's consequences for our behaviors and decisions, but if it's met with love, if it's meted out in a Christ-like and loving way, then yeah. ⁓ And coming into it, just, you know, like as a...

foster kid or somebody who's in ⁓ in that situation you just feel disposable. You feel, ⁓ they could just throw me away and not worry about me, but that was the first time I was like, I'm not disposable. Man, that's powerful. So how did it feel to go from being a kid in the program to being the board chair?

I had to write this one down. It's the first time in 102 years. Yeah. Just because it is, it's such a, it's humbling. It's, ⁓ deeply personal to me, ⁓ to have a seat at the table, to make changes and, ⁓

I was whenever I talked to people about it, it's it's we have some wonderful people on the board, past, present, and we have great people coming onto the board ⁓ next month. And and you have community leaders, have doctors and business owners and builders and all these things. And when I first came on the board, I was kind of.

questioning my worth on the board, but you figure out really quickly that everybody is there to work together ⁓ for the kids. And it's powerful to me and... ⁓

to be somebody who's an advocate for the kids, that knows, that's been there, that's ⁓ lived through that to know, these are decisions. Because sometimes we can make decisions that, you know, if we haven't been there personally, ⁓ we don't know how is, we don't know if we try to make the best decisions that we can.

I think it gives me good insight and it's truly an honor to serve. ⁓ Yeah. You know, I was in the foster care system, I was adopted and so, and a lot of folks that I think do, that are in the field, whether they're a social worker or running an organization or something like that, they have that personal experience and I think that gives a really unique, you you talked about fostering.

you know, as a licensed foster parent ⁓ and things like that. And so we, you know, that gives us this better understanding of how to serve and help, you know, these kiddos that are coming ⁓ from a tough place, you know? And so what do you, what's something you wish that people knew about kids that are in residential care?

So there's always been this kind of stigma, right, that these kids ⁓ come in and they're broken. So the big thing I want people to know is they're not broken. They're resilient. They're very talented. ⁓ They're very hard workers. ⁓ And they just need a little bit of stability and consistency and to be shown a little bit of love. ⁓

and like I said, they can turn you can't into you can. You can't into you can. I just love that man. That is so good. So how ⁓ do folks, community-wise, engage with ACH? in all kinds of ways. We mentioned baseball tickets, but from going to the theater and saying...

We have, you know, the theater calling us and saying, come see the sound of music, bring a cottage or two to come out to the rodeo. We have tickets for you. To bringing a congregate meal or...

for a cottage, let's say our union cottage with littles and grandma Jenny and her daughter Carrie, the assistant coming and saying, okay, we're receiving a new child in placement today or we're saying goodbye to a kid today who's going to go into a foster to adopt home. We could use pizza tonight. We could just have some pizza and bagged salad because our families need what your family and my family needs. And we all do the dishes and sometimes we do the dishes two and three times a day. We're not sure how, but you imagine a cottage with four or five

children,

two biological children, so just meal provision and you know they're very practical things sometimes make a world of difference and we do have mentors and we're seeing that ebb and flow. We partner with Amarillo Angels for our mentorship training and we have faithful volunteers who know and understand the expectations that they can and shouldn't have on our children that they come and junior

League is one of them. They'll come and help with mum making in the fall. And they are so incredibly good with our kids. And so are so many churches and groups who come and put up lights at Christmas time and then come in January and take them down because they understand the value that that communicates when a child is coming home from a youth group or a church service and they're walking into their cottage at night and for their home to have inflatables and exterior Christmas lights. It's everything and an inside

decoration. ⁓ just all the nuts and bolts that it takes to run a household and raise a family. Our cottages need that and more. Just all the pizza boxes and extra helping hands come over. We have board members who are so engaged and so involved and I really am proud of our board and our leadership. They really do lead with mercy and lead with love and I don't think we would be anything without that because that's how Father God

leads us, but ⁓ they'll come and they understand the value of sitting and playing with Legos with our little boys or pushing them on the swings and ⁓ groups like Pantex who understand the value or Messiah's house men's group that John invited out and they came and just keeping our pea gravel in the sandbox you know ready to go and keeping the basketball court painted and ⁓ just very practical ways like that just makes all the difference. ⁓

You

know, and to share a story that we heard today, I think it's the experience of getting to expose kids to something that they may not have been exposed to. So, know, we're tearing kids to family camp in Colorado.

⁓ And it never gets old watching an 18 year old get off the van and step out into Colorado and just be completely blown away like almost sensory overload. And I've never seen the mountains before. That never gets old. But I think what those experiences facilitate is what's incredible. The conversations to watch what God does in our kids' lives at family camp is phenomenal.

But the story this morning we heard of one of our homes went to a hockey game. And I don't know where the tickets came from. I don't know if it was through the church or very often somebody will call us and just say, hey, I've got extra tickets to a game.

or an event and our cottages go. Well, at the at the hockey game, we have kind of a newer girl in the cottage. The youth pastor, the church that that home goes to went with them. And she says that the youth pastor sits down with with the young girl and just says, Hey, do you know what's going on? Like, you know what you're watching? She said, No, I don't know hockey. And so the youth pastor starts teaching her about hockey. And in yeah, hockey was awesome. It was great that she got the experience to learn that. But she instantly that kid connect with you.

and now she loves going to youth group. She wants to go to church, she wants to be involved in the youth ministry, she's hit it off with the youth pastor, that's now another trusted adult that that kid has and that many more trusted adults. To watch the way that church is really, the whole church comes in around our kids, it's phenomenal. And so it was that hockey game, that conversation.

led to just to watch her whole life transform and the experiences she's getting to have. So that's why it's the experiences.

but then also what that facilitates is so amazing. Like you say, the more connections, the more safe people, the better we're gonna do. And yeah, it's going to a hockey game, but having that connection with a safe adult is, ⁓ yeah, it's so important. outside of coming in, I assume you have a volunteer...

list or something on the website that people can go or how do they, if they want to volunteer, what do they do? They can give us a call. I think we do have a portal for alumni or a portal for for volunteerism on our website. We'll all have to check that out later, Matt, to be honest with you. But ⁓ give us a call. Just kind of tell us what you're interested in. are volunteer opportunities.

kind of follow the seasonal patterns, whether we need garden beds planted outside or a paint update or staining the fences again in the spring. And they also follow the school year again. So a back to school bash or school supplies if a group. In fact, today we're headed to Sleepy Hollow Elementary and they've done a huge, in kind drive for us. So toilet paper and paper towels, paper goods, assist our whole campus. You know, and we're like Amarillo High School that does a big food drive. So there's so many different ways.

I would just say give us a call. Give us a call and connect and we'll see to what level and degree and we have everyone from elementary and middle school students to adults and senior adults volunteering and mentoring and reading books to an individual child after school or getting a child ready to attend school the next year. So I would just say start with a call and get to know us. And of course it's a non-profit. Always need funds. We're so grateful for ⁓ God's just always

faithful through his people to give and our community has been generous and faithful for so many years and we still, vast majority of support comes from community support and individual, you know, donors and churches and businesses and civic groups and we're so grateful and we hope that also it fills their cup with joy and they can see the investment and the return on it because getting to know some of our kids and engaging with them like John said even

even our churches coming around our youth and saying, yeah, come on, you're taking up the communion today, or you're taking up the offering today. And they just let them be a part. And they really show them that they're seen and loved and...

That they're here. They're part of this community and that that we're family. We also try to model that I think I feel for each other and ⁓ It's it is not just a job. It really is a calling. Yeah, and you yeah hard to put that into For sure for sure Wow, so ⁓ Anything else that you guys would would want to say share with folks? No, I think

I guess the you know, we we've been so blessed by the community has come around us for 102 years. ⁓ That what we're looking to do is just how do we further involve the community? And how do we expand opportunities for community get involved? Whether that's like, and we said, through supporting us financially to being involved as a volunteer. ⁓ Come workforce, you know, if God may be calling you to say, hey, you know, ⁓

I mean, you hear a houseparent stories and they all have a different background, different story. it's and it's you just hear of a couple going, we just feel like God's calling us to do something missional. And we feel like he's calling us to work with kids. And so do you feel called as a couple to come work for kids? And if so, come work for us. You know, we would love more houseparents to you know, you hear the story of what that of that role of what they did in somebody's life like Billy, it's it's you know, what an incredible opportunity. ⁓

If it's not that it's it's we're called to maybe open our home. You know, we we were licensing foster homes if you want to be a foster parent. Yeah, come talk with us and and and a lot of what we talked about there. It doesn't have to it can look so many different ways. Yeah, we you know the need the need in our community is is is huge. I you know the the statistics are staggering. The numbers I've seen I think eight only 8 % of kids removed from Potter County.

are still staying in county I was looking at those same statistics last week and Randall I think 15 15 % and so we need more home so whether it's us or other agency if man if you're thinking about your call to open your home to foster care whether that is long-term placement foster to adopt or hey you know what that the the the two-year-old who's been removed from their home tonight

⁓ Yeah, call me. They can come stay at my house. John't drive them to Houston because there's not enough homes. That two-year-old can come stay at my home. Man, that breaks me to hear that story. That's a call that we get quite often of, we need somebody to take in a three-year-old and there's not a home available in town to do that. so ⁓ if God's tugging on your heart of, hey, I'll be in emergency placement for a home,

you know, come chat with us. ⁓ So whatever it is that God's calling you to, ⁓ we are trying to provide as many routes and avenues for ⁓ you to get connected to work with kids. yeah, whatever that pool is, you know, the foster to adopt home the Sunday school teacher at church.

If that's what God's calling you to do is to teach Sunday school to third grade and you have one of our kids, what you do in the eight months of that kid's life and that Sunday school class is phenomenal. And so just walk in obedience to what that calling is. ⁓ I love that. Man, so good. There's so many different ways to get involved that, you know, yes, sometimes it's it's

getting licensed and bringing kiddos into your homes and sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's delivering a placement package or bringing some pizza or something like that. There's a thousand different ways to get involved. ⁓ you know, so many, my experience has been, it's not that, people don't know what to do. And so once they're kind of confronted with some opportunities to get involved,

They respond. mean, sure, not everybody is called to do something in foster care, but so many people, they're kind of confronted with that need, they respond. that's just, especially, I think our community is a very generous community. so, yeah, it's super important. So, well, guys, thank you all so much for coming. Billy, Sharon, you're...

It's personal stuff and it's I appreciate you just being open and honest and and and sharing your story with us and Thank you for having us. Yeah. Thanks for coming Emily. Thank you and John. Thank you so much for coming ⁓ guys thank you guys so much for tuning in. Have a great week

Thank you for having us.