The American Legion is our nation’s largest veteran’s organization and has a long history of helping veterans, children, and their community. One of the shining examples of this great work is the American Legion Children’s Home (ALCH) in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Soon after World War I, the veterans of that great war and the members of the American Legion, in particular, saw the need for a children’s home for the children of servicemen who had been killed in action. Thus the idea was born to build the American Legion Children’s Home. With the help of oilman E.W. Marland, the American Legion of Oklahoma founded the American Legion Children’s Home in 1928. The grand opening was held on June 17, 1928 with over 20,000 people attending.
At the time of the grand opening, there were two brand new dorms or billets as they were called. Though the dorms were built to hold 60 children, the home started with a capacity of 40. One of the children here on that beautiful day in 1928 was a boy named Tommy Rider. He would go on to become the homes very
first graduate. More importantly, he would serve his country proudly and become the highly decorated Lt. Colonel Thomas L. Rider. Many of our residents have graduated and then joined the military to serve our country. During World War II, 37 of our graduates went on to serve our country. Five were lost to the war, including one at Pearl Harbor.
The ALCH has served our country well for over 80 years and has helped raise over 8000 children. At present, the home has four dormitories, a gym, cafeteria, school, art room, rec. room, playground area, baseball diamond, an administration building complete with individual counseling offices and meeting rooms, and about 100 acres of farm land which includes a well stocked fishing pond. The home sits on a beautiful hill on the east side of Ponca City, Oklahoma just next to two lakes on land that was donated by Mr. Marland.
For the first 50 years, the home was funded almost exclusively by the American Legion family of Oklahoma. The American Legion Posts, along with their Auxiliary sponsored children at the home and paid for many of their needs. There were also donations by many local supporters of the home that helped with expenses.
In the early 1980’s, between wars, the ALCH was experiencing hard times in that there was simply not a need for beds for children of veterans. At the same time, State agencies were expanding and needing bed-space for children who had been abused, deprived and neglected. So, after much debate, the ALCH board decided to contract with the State of Oklahoma to house children in State custody who had been deprived, abused or neglected. The agreement was that the ALCH would get priority on those children who were veteran’s kids.
While this was, and still is a very controversial move, there can be no doubt that it did accomplish one important goal, it kept the American Legion Children’s Home operating. This was key at a time when many facilities closed their doors forever. However, partnering with the State meant giving a government agency some of the control of our facility.
As of three years ago, the State provided over 90% of the funding for the ALCH. At that time, we started on a ten-year plan to raise funding from other sources including the American Legion Family nationwide. The ALCH felt certain that if our American Legion family in other states new of the home with so much tradition and history, they would gladly help. For the last two years, the American Legion Children’s Home staff have been traveling to neighboring states and all over the State of Oklahoma speaking to any organization that will invite them. Though raising funds is tough work in these economic times, much progress has been made, which made the ten-year plan seem possible.
Then, in March of 2010, the State of Oklahoma Department of Human Services informed the ALCH that they were cutting 72% of their funding. This huge cut would surely close the nations only remaining American Legion Children’s Home forever! The Children’s Home and the Oklahoma American Legion fought the cut with the help of several Senators, Congressmen and other infl uential supporters. Finally, in August, the State backed off and announced they had found a way to only cut the homes’ funding by 28%. While this is a big cut, it does accomplish our main goal, which is to keep the home open.
Now, having survived this crisis, we are turning a new page at the American Legion Children’s Home. We believe it is time to write a new chapter and return to our roots. Because of the cut to funding, the State also removed 18 of our kids which leaves us still caring for, educating, feeding and clothing 44 boys and girls. Of course, this process was very diffi cult for us but we resolve to continue in this great work and not only survive but thrive in our service to these very deserving children.
Currently, we are for the fi rst time in our nation’s history, seeing children with both parents in the military. We have seen more single parents in the military than at any other time in history. There are parents who are stationed in dangerous places where they cannot take their children. There are parents who are deployed and need a safe place for their children to live while they are gone. There are parents returning from war who because of Traumatic Brain Injuries or other physical disability, can no longer physically or fi nancially care for their children. Not to mention that our veterans make up approximately 25% of all homeless in our country. The American Legion Children’s Home stands ready to serve this purpose. We alone have fi lled this need forover 80 years and have the facilities, the ability and the expertise to do it for another 8 decades. But we need your help. Please consider giving to the Nations last American Legion Children’s Home.
What greater legacy can we leave than this: We cared for our heroes’ children while they were fi ghting for our freedom. We cared for our heroes’ children when they came back from war disabled. And We cared for our heroes’ children when they fell.
Our children deserve it and our veterans have earned it!
