News Release
Contact: Blake Ragsdale
Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina
336-474-1212
For Immediate Release
Kennedy Home Celebrates 100 Years of Caring for Children
KINSTON –Kennedy Home in Kinston, which has provided a safe, caring home to countless children, marks its 100th anniversary in 2014. Current residents, alumni, staff and friends will commemorate the historic milestone when they gather at the 1,240-acre campus on July 5 and 6, 2014 for the “Centennial Celebration.”
Kennedy Home is part of the Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina (BCH), the largest residential child care organization in the southeast and is the nonprofit’s second oldest campus.
“The ‘Centennial Celebration’ is much more than an event; it is a gathering of people from multiple generations who call this special place ‘home,’” says BCH president/CEO Michael C. Blackwell. “On this first weekend in July, we salute history by celebrating the lives of boys and girls that were forever changed on this hallowed ground.”
BCH provides residential homes to children from a variety of challenging circumstances ranging from family dysfunction to abuse, neglect and abandonment. The statewide organization began in 1885 with its first location, Mills Home in Thomasville, NC. BCH expanded to eastern North Carolina when Kinston residents William Lafayette Kennedy, a former captain in the Confederate Army, and his wife, Emily Hardee Kennedy, donated their farm and mansion to BCH.
Kennedy Home officially opened its doors on June 5, 1914 and admitted its first eighteen orphans that summer. The home’s benefactors continued to live on the property until their deaths.
“The Kennedys began a legacy of love that has caught fire in the hearts of others throughout the years,” says Blackwell. “Churches, donors, foundations and other friends give of their own resources to ensure that Kennedy Home is available to the children and families we serve today just as it was a century earlier.”
As a nonprofit, BCH depends on charitable giving to sustain its services at Kennedy Home and its additional 18 statewide locations. “We receive fees for services when possible, but we are dependent upon the generosity of others in order to carry out our vision of ‘sharing hope…changing lives,’” explains Blackwell. “We never have to turn away a child or family because of an inability to pay.”
While Kennedy Home began as an orphanage, changing times shaped the home and BCH’s statewide network of services into a model that cares for the needs of today’s children and families. BCH is family-focused and works with the child and family together when applicable.
“The challenges children were navigating became more complex and intertwined with issues involving their entire families,” Blackwell says. “Involving the family has allowed us to expand the scope of our outreach and impact a greater variety of needs.”
That scope includes a new residential program called Family Care. Family Care cottages are goal-focused group homes for single mothers and their children. The transitional program connects a mother with the educational, vocational and other community resources needed to develop the skills to provide for her family. Kennedy Home currently has one Family Care cottage and is looking to add more alongside their children’s residential cottages.
“Family Care has been a tremendous complement and natural outgrowth of what we do. It has increased the number of boys and girls we serve,” says Blackwell. “There are so many hard-working mothers who have fallen on difficult times due to no fault of their own. Some are victims of a sluggish economy. Others have no family support to depend upon. We provide the home and guidance the mothers and children need while pointing them towards the goal of moving into a healthy, independent living situation.”
Longtime BCH staffer Brian Baltzell has recently stepped in as Kennedy Home’s new on-site director overseeing the campus’ array of child and family services. Baltzell got his start at Kennedy Home in 1990 where he worked four years before transferring to BCH’s Broyhill Home campus in Clyde. He served for 19 years at Broyhill as a case manager and Director of Family Work before returning to his Kennedy Home roots late last year.
“This campus has such a rich history, and it’s exciting to return in time for this momentous year,” Baltzell says. “I’m thankful that after a century of service, Kennedy Home remains a safe haven for children and families. The Centennial weekend in July is going to be quite a celebration.”
The “Centennial Celebration” is a free event for all ages promising a memorable two days for all in attendance. A campus festival on Saturday, July 5 kicks off the weekend with live music, wagon rides, games (corn hole tournament, horseshoe tournament, whistling contest), children’s inflatable games, free hotdogs and homemade ice cream, and tours of the old farm. Highlights will include the burial of a time capsule and a portrayal of Kennedy Home benefactors Capt. and Mrs. William Lafayette Kennedy. The Kennedys, portrayed by alumni Doris Powers of Kinston and Jim Dyer of Wake Forest, will arrive on campus in a horse-drawn buggy. The couple will ride underneath the Home’s archway entrance and come to a rest at Cedar Dell, the Kennedy’s residential mansion. The mansion, along with the campus itself, is a part of the National Register of Historic Places.
“Having been a child in care at Kennedy Home, it’s an honor to portray Mrs. Kennedy,” Powers says. She lived at the home from 1948 to 1959. “I’m eternally grateful for Kennedy Home. I don’t know where I would be without it. It was my home, and everything I needed was in place when I came to live there.”
On Sunday, July 6, a special worship service led by alumni and staff will be held at the campus church. BCH president Blackwell will be the service’s featured speaker.
“Kennedy Home is affectionately known as BCH’s ‘Star of the East’ and that is very appropriate,” explains Blackwell. “Kennedy Home’s future is glowing ever brighter. This campus which has impacted the lives of so many children throughout the past 100 years will carry this same mission into the next century. Kennedy Home is here to stay.”