wfn.org | Oldest Presbyterian Children's Home Dedicates New Buildings

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

7-October-1999 
99338 
 
    Oldest Presbyterian Children's Home 
    Dedicates New Buildings 
 
    General Assembly Vice-moderator Among Participants at 
    Kentucky's Bellewood 
 
    by Eva Stimson 
 
ANCHORAGE, Ky.--In 1849 a group of Presbyterian churches in the Louisville 
area got together and founded a facility to help salvage the city's 
troubled and abandoned children.  On Oct. 3, 1999, the Bellewood 
Presbyterian Home for Children, which claims to be the oldest children's 
home related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), marked its 150th 
anniversary by dedicating six new buildings. 
 
    "This building project is part of our commitment to the children who 
will need our help over the next 150 years," said Greg Mathews, Bellewood's 
president and CEO, welcoming visitors to a brief  "blessing service" 
outside one of the new residential treatment cottages on the Anchorage 
campus, just east of Louisville.  Matthews introduced special guests from 
the General Assembly, the Synod of Living Waters and Kentucky's three 
presbyteries. 
 
    "The true test of any society ... is how we relate to our children," 
declared featured speaker the Rev. Floyd N. Rhodes Jr., vice moderator of 
the General Assembly. He praised supporters of Bellewood and similar 
institutions.  "Through your actions," he said, "you are welcoming God's 
children." 
 
    Bellewood has launched a $6.8 million capital campaign to pay for 
construction of its new buildings.  Teenagers enrolled in Bellewood's 
transitional living and family restoration programs have begun moving into 
the five new residential treatment cottages.  These state-of-the-art 
facilities replace four aging buildings, some of which date back to the 
1930s. 
 
    The new administration building, with staff offices, conference 
facilities and rooms for family therapy and counseling, replaces a building 
constructed in the 1950s.  Plans on the drawing board call for the old 
administration building to be converted into classrooms and transitional 
apartments for young adults 18 and older who are not yet ready to live on 
their own. 

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