Community Day Planned at Children's Home: Future Plans Will Be Unveiled

The Children's Home in Winston-Salem is holding “A Community Day at the Farm” this weekend. During the event, officials at the facility and a group of volunteers will kick off a capital campaign to help keep more than 60 animals on the campus.

“The capital campaign will include opportunities to purchase symbolic shares in the farm and also opportunities to fund an animal for a year or perhaps a nesting box for the chickens, things of that nature," says Leigh Summer, a volunteer at the farm who is also helping organize the event.

Some of the animals are used in therapeutic programs to help treat children with behavioral and mental health issues. Summer says the money raised will help continue these services. “Saturday will be a day for the community to come out and get to know the animals on the farm and the programs and the property and take tours of the property, so as we kick off our capital campaign people will be more familiar with what it is we are doing and what they will be supporting if they choose to support the farm.”

Daily, the Children's Home serves nearly 200 youth through foster care and other alternative education programs. Seventeen of the children live on the grounds full time.

Earlier this year, the Board of Trustees at the Children's Home decided to remove the animals and other farm-related programs. Board members cited costs to maintain the farm and reductions in reimbursements from the state for these types of therapeutic mental health programs. But the Board stopped the animal adoptions a few weeks later after Summer and a group of volunteers and community advocates presented a business plan to keep the animals and make the farm self-sustainable.

Future plans include providing free- range eggs, a community vegetable garden, a grass-fed beef program, and a fall festival with a corn maize. Summer says their goal is to raise $250,000 over the next six months. She says a lot of community volunteers are needed to make their business plan for the farm successful.

“A Community Day at the Farm” will also include games, food, and music. The festivities are this Saturday, May 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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