Posted by: Jill @ 11:03 am
Edited from article by Jaine Treadwell, The Messenger (Troy, Alabama), January 16, 2007.
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| United Methodist Children’s Home foster parent Minnie Richards receives the Alabama Association of Child Care Agencies foster parent of the year award in January, 2007. PIctured here is Ms. Richards with Chidlren’s Home Therapeutic Foster Care case worker Laura Hollis at the awards ceremony in Clanton, Alabama. |
Minnie Richards has spent most of her life helping children, and that effort has now been recognized on a state level.
On January 8, 2007 Richards was named the Alabama Association of Child Care Agencies (AACCA) Foster Parent of the Year at an awards ceremony in Clanton, AL.
Richards was nominated by the United Methodist Children’s Home’s Southeast therapeutic Foster Care program because of the difference she has made in the lives of children.
Richards said she was surprised, amazed and grateful for the honor. “I’m sort of speechless about it,” Richards said. “but it’s exciting…it’s wonderful. I’m very honored.
“Being a foster parent is a blessing for me,” she said. If I can make a difference in the lives of children, then it is all worthwhile.”
Laura Hollis is the Children’s Home case worker who wrote the nomination for Richards and introduced her at the ceremony. “It was hard for us to put into words all that Ms. Minnie has meant to the children in her care,” said Hollis. “She has been a blessing to me just as she has to the children that she has taken into her home and into her heart.”
During the six years that Richards, a mother of two, has been a foster parent, she has provided a safe and structured home for12 therapeutic foster children. She also has provided short-term and respite care to many others.
“When my husband was living, we talked a lot about being foster parents,” Richard said. “We had heard friends talk about it. We got a new home, and we had room for foster children, and we thought we could help somebody out.” But Richard’s husband died before they entered the foster care program.
“I wanted to go ahead with what we had wanted to do,” she said.
In her comments to the group, Hollis stated that Richards has never turned down a request to take a child. “She excels in providing care for teenagers, and that can be a very difficult age to find a home for.”
A good foster parent is willing to also work with the child’s birth family. Hollis said, “Ms. Minnie has worked extensively with biological families. She welcomes them into her home and often teaches them basic parenting and housekeeping skills so that the family can be reunited.”
For several years, Richards has worked with a sibling group of teenage sisters.
“She has taught these girls independent living skills, but she also allowed each one of them to remain in her home until they were prepared to move out independently,” Hollis said.
Richards continues to assist these young women and is still the guardian for one of the sisters who is developmentally disabled.
“Ms. Minnie had encouraged the foster children in her home to continue with their education past high school and serves as a mother figure to any of her foster children who are now independent,” Hollis said.
“Richards possess all of the qualities necessary to successfully foster children of all ages,” Hollis continued, “She is a gentle lady who provides guidance and love in a firm and constant manner.”
“She allows her foster children to adapt to her home at their own pace and gives them room they need to grow and develop into independent adults. I cannot think of anyone who is more deserving of the AACCA Foster Parent of the Year Award than Ms. Minnie.”
Richards said she is saddened when the children leave her home, but it is good to see them make it on their own. The foster children stay in touch with Richards and often come and visit. She gets pleasure from seeing how well they are adjusting.
“God makes people for different things,” Richards said. “And, if you accept His plan for you, things just fall into place. This is my place. I would recommend being a foster parent to anybody who feels that is their calling. Being a foster parent is a blessing.”
The AACCA is a nonprofit association whose members provide for at-risk children and children in foster care throughout Alabama. More can be found online at www.aaccaonline.org.
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| Pictured at the AACCA awards ceremony are Mac Otts, AACCA Executive Director; Janet Rawls, Children’s Home Southeast Therapeutic Foster Care Program Supervisor; Alabama Attorney General Troy King; Minnie Richards, AACCA foster parent of the year; Zrica, Ms. Richards’ foster daughter; and Laura Hollis, Children’s Home case worker. |
In 2006, three former chairs of the United Methodist Children’s Home Board of Directors passed away. The agency’s staff and Board are expressing their deepest gratitude for the lives of Bill Chance, Rev. Dan Kitchens and Alex Woodall, and are offering sympathies to their families.
Bill Chance - Local Champion for Children
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| A Passionate Heart - Bill Chance, Board chair from 1994-1996, brought a fresh perspective to the agency. |
Mr. Chance was appointed to the Board in 1987 and served as chair from 1994-1996. During his career, he served churches in four states both in Christian education and in music. Among other things, his ABC enterprises managed a chain of restaurants.
Chance was an integral part of the arts and culture of the city of Monroeville. For 15 years he chaired the Old Courthouse Restoration Committee. The city performs the play, To Kill A Mockingbird at the courthouse. Monroeville is the home of author Harper Lee who wrote the book of the same name from which the play was adapted.
Chance established the Monroeville Community Concerts and was a member of the Alabama Arts Council.
Rev. Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, the Minister Emeritus at First United Methodist Church Monroeville, served with Chance on the Children’s Home Board. When speaking of his good friend, Rev. Butts said, “He was a substantial force in promoting the passion [for the Children’s Home] in this community.”
First Monroeville, Chance’s home church, continues to be far and above one of the strongest supporting churches of the United Methodist Children’s Home.
“He really cared about the Children’s Home,” said Chance’s former wife. “I thought he really brought a lot of new ideas and enthusiasm to the Board.”
Louise Iverson, Children’s Home alumni and former Board member who served with Chance agreed. “He just had so many good ideas,” she said.
“I know he had quite passion for the Children’s Home,” said Rev. Joe Lisenby, interim President & CEO and a good friend of chance.
Rev. Dan Kitchens - A Leader with a Servant’s Heart
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| A Life of Service - Rev. Dan Kitchens, Board chair from 1987-1990, dedicated his life to helping people |
Rev. Dan Kitchens was in good health up to a few weeks before he died, but succumbed to a sudden illness in September, shocking family and friends.
Rev. Kitchens’s life was devoted to helping others. In addition to being a United Methodist minister, he traveled extensively on mission trips, his most recent to Costa Rica in June.
He and his wife Emily were trained in disaster relief. Early in 2006 they were able to help out with recovery efforts in the Gulf region.
He joined the Children’s Home Board in 1979 and was chair from 1987-1990.
“Dan was excellent,” said Iverson, who also served on the Board with Rev. Kitchens. She remembers how well he carried the meetings.
Rev. Spencer Turnipseed, Conference Administrator of the Alabama-West Florida Conference and who served on the board with Rev. Kitchens, has similar memories. “In everything he did, I remember his thoroughness…that led him to do his homework,” said Rev. Turnipseed. “He was good at collegiality—deriving consensus,” said Rev. Turnipseed, while noting that leadership was not always about building consensus. “[He] had his convictions.”
“He was very pleased to be serving on that Board and very much appreciated the services of that ministry,” said his wife, Emily. “I think he really admired what they do with the children.”
Iverson remembers that, even after Rev. Kitchens’s stint with the Board, how helpful he was to a young man who had returned to live with his parents in Cullman, AL, after being a resident at the Children’s Home. Rev. Kitchens was minister of First UMC in Cullman at the time.
“We lost a very talented and a very dedicated man,” said Rev. Turnipseed.
Alex Woodall - A Gentle Giant for Change
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| An Honorable Man - Alex Woodall served the Children’s Home for 40 years. His constant involvement and strong leadership brought the agency forward into a new era of helping children. He is pictured here with board member Mary Elizabeth Carter at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Tuscaloosa Group Home in 1996. |
From 1978 to 1984, Alex Woodall chaired the Board which he was appointed to in 1962. 40 years later, he resigned his position. According to Louise Woodall, his wife of 61 years, he felt that his declining health no longer allowed him to serve in the capacity that he believed a Board member should.
In 2003, the Children’s Home Board honored Woodall, making him a permanent, honorary member.
“He was a very kind, gentle person,” said Mrs. Woodall, from her home in Bessemer, AL. She said that he always felt a fondness for children and their welfare.
Mrs. Woodall believes that his experiences as a child gave him a special perspective on the lives of the children in the care of the Children’s Home. She said that he knew what it was like not to grow up in a home with Mom and Dad.
Woodall’s mother died when he was very young. She said that his father loved him and his brother very much but was not able to care for them. The children lived with grandparents and aunts.
Woodall served on the Board during a time in the South when racial integration was at the forefront of American life.
“He was a serious-minded man and the epitome of a southern gentleman,” said Rev. Butts, who served on the Board with Woodall during this critical time in history. “He held substantially strong views on issues that put him ahead of his time.”
In the 1960s, there was a movement within the Children’s Home leadership advocating for the acceptance of non-white children into its programs. Rev. Butts remembers Woodall being one of the champions of that movement. That change came in 1971.
Rev. Lisenby stated that he was a very strong supporter of “the right decision to be made about the Children’s Home becoming integrated.”
According to Mrs. Woodall, Mr. Woodall kept his affinity for children to the end, making a special bond with a new foster child of one of his nieces. At only two years old, she had already learned to fear men. At a holiday gathering in 2005, he sat quietly while she approached him. His unassuming manner eventually diffused her fears and she climbed into his lap,
falling asleep in his arms.
“He was an exceptionally kind, sweet-spirited man,” said Rev. Lisenby. “All three of these men were extremely committed and passionately supportive of the Children’s Home ministry.”
Posted by: Jill @ 2:06 pm
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| Celebrating Tennis - A small gathering celebrated the end of Phase I of the Children’s Village Tennis Project. Pictured here are John Pittman (holding Little Bit), Louis Hill and Marilyn Pittman. As volunteers, the Pittmans have been instrumental in raising the $23,000 needed to demolish the decades-old courts and construct new ones for the children. Hill is the Tennis Coordinator for the Selma City Schools Recreation Department. |
SELMA, AL - The United Methodist Children’s Home (UMCH) held a ceremony to break ground on a renovation project that has been needed for a long time. The tennis courts on the campus of the UMCH Children’s Village in Selma have been unusable, and extensive work is needed to bring them into good condition for the children.
Fundraising for this project was led by John and Marilyn Pittman of Enterprise, Alabama. They began about two years ago, and have now raised the $23,000 needed for the project.
On February 15th at 2:00 pm, a small group gathered at the tennis courts to celebrate the beginning of Phase II, the reconstruction phase.
The ceremony was led by Jan Taylor, UMCH Executive Assistant to President/CEO. Ms. Taylor has been involved in the project with the pittmans since the beginning of the fundraising effort
Also standing with the Pittmans and Ms. Taylor was UMCH Board member Earl Edwards, and Louis Hill, the Tennis Coordinator for Selma City Schools Recreation Dept. Some of the staff members and children also braved the cold weather to come out and show their support.
The plan is to not only have high-quality playing courts for the children living on campus, but to possibly be able to make it available to the community through events, tournaments and providing tennis instruction.
“We just want to thank the many people who contributed money, balls, racquets and prayers,” said Marilyn Pittman to the supporters.
The Pittmans also thanked the associations that provided grants which helped them to reach their fundraising goal. A $2,500 grant from the United States Tennis Association was matched by the Southern Tennis Patrons Foundation. The Alabama Tennis Association also donated $2,500. The rest was given by private donors.
The Pittmans are national tournament players with a strong love of the sport. After seeing that the 25-year-old courts at the Village had become unusable, they wanted to help.
“I love tennis,” said Marilyn. “There are so many positives,” she said, referring to how the sport can benefit children. She noted that it raises self-esteem, builds confidence and improves body fitness.
Tennis pro shops in eight locations throughout Alabama collected donations of raquets, balls and tennis clothing.
The third phase will begin in spring as the children at the Village become involved in organized tennis instruction and competitive opportunities.
The Children’s Home is calling for people that love tennis to volunteer to work with the children. For more information, contact Jan Taylor at 334-875-7283 or e-mail jtaylor@umch.net.
Others who would like to help but who cannot personally volunteer can donate a tax-deductible gift toward the costs of tournament entry fees, tennis balls, clinics and equipment. Gifts should be marked “Tennis Project” and sent to the United Methodist Children’s Home, Attention: Jan Taylor, P.O. Box 830, Selma, AL 36702-0830.
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| Built to Serve - Pictured in the background are the unusable tennis courts at the Children’s Village in Selma, Alabama. Ceremonially breaking ground on the new courts with (left to right - see above picture for more info) John Pittman, Louis Hill, Marilyn Pittman and Little Bit are staff member Jan Tayor and Board member Earl Edwards. |