MONTICELLO -- Group homes are never supposed to be forever. Halfway houses, recovery centers, even college dormitories, they're temporary. The dream is independence.
Maybe Alicia Whitaker's student had that dream, too -- the one who arrived in her music classroom about 10 years ago, halfway through the school year.
Born and raised Presbyterian, Whitaker had heard of Vera Lloyd Presbyterian Home and Family Services and its Annie B. Wells residential campus, the 1,000-acre spread of houses and offices and an activities center, the stocked pond, the outdoor basketball court. She may have had a vague idea that wards of the state ended up there, because there are no foster parents for them or because they've run afoul of the law.
That student told her music teacher, Whitaker, that she'd been over at Vera Lloyd, and "I'm gonna get back to Vera Lloyd."
The children's home?
"I could not even imagine that comment."
Why would you leave your own home to go back to a children's home?
"My only image of a children's home was Annie. You know, the hard-knock life."
Whitaker is a 1987 graduate of El Dorado High School. As a young person, she studied piano under Roger Lawson. At the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, she studied the instrument under Alan Chow. Her favorite piece is Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu.
How's her touch today?
"Oh, we're not going there. Please!"
Her husband, Sam, is a former industrial farmer: cotton, rice, corn and soybeans over thousands of acres. They have two boys, John Arthur, 16, and Harrison, 12.
Alicia Whitaker is sponsor chairman for the home's third Turkey Trot 5K. It's Nov. 8. Right now it's $20 for adults (it goes up to $25 next month). The run begins and ends on the campus, with a trip up to Monticello High School and back.
Yes, that's Monticello, population 10,000 and closer to Louisiana than Little Rock. Why should Little Rockers and others care? For one, Vera Lloyd Presbyterian Family Services is actually based in Little Rock (most of its financial support comes from central Arkansas). For another, these foster kids who end up in Monticello come from all over the state.
And here's a third reason -- Whitaker is convinced other compassionate people will jump on board as she has.
"Because I know it works. The reason I know it works is because" of that student. "That child had been so [affected] by what Vera Lloyd did."
The situation on campus has got to be unique. For one, these foster kids live in homes, albeit ones that feel like small dorms, replete with plain oak stair rails and box-locked thermostats. They have photos of themselves up on the walls, as if their fellow wards are their sibs. They have "parents," albeit unrelated and paid, and they're in the photos, too.
Sit-down dinners aren't just frequent, they're customary, nightly. Most of the kids go to Monticello public schools. Each Sunday, several vehicles depart for various area churches (most of the children are not Presbyterian and attendance is not compulsory).
On a recent weekday, inside the carport at the Barton cottage -- each is named for a benefactor -- a line of fishing poles rested along the wall. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission had recently been out to stock the pond, and the fishing had been off the hook, to borrow the parlance of that age.
The 5K raised $10,000 last year, twice what it was the first year. This year's goal is $20,000.
The money raised is earmarked specifically for the Transitional Living Program. That's housing and counseling for young people 18 to 21 who've aged out of state foster care and aren't likely to reunite with family. Surveys and studies show that these young people are particularly susceptible to homelessness, and to the safety nets that serve that population -- soup kitchens, emergency room health care.
The campus began as a day nursery in 1910 for the women working at the lumber mill in Monticello. The woman who ran it was Lulu Williamson, for whom the main hall is named. That nursery morphed into an orphanage after a pair of twins were left in her care.
About 1923, another Presbyterian, Annie B. Wells, donated more than a thousand acres of timberland for the campus and construction of the first main building, and a third -- Vera Lloyd of Marianna -- donated the money to run the charity that today operates an annual budget in excess of $2 million and employs about 40 people. (The Annie B. Wells campus houses up to 48 young people.)
Shortly after Whitaker became a board member, she took her two boys to dinner in one of the houses.
"I remember it very clearly," says John Arthur Whitaker. "We just sat down and had a very modest meal ... fried chicken and gravy in a big pan. This pan, it was obviously designed to feed at least 10 or 12 people. We all sat down, we tried to make small talk, conversation with them, get a sense of how they live their lives."
Since then he has noticed Vera Lloyd kids at school. Everyone can "sorta-kinda" spot them. In the car drop-off line they're the ones getting out of a full-size van. One boy tried out for the football team John Arthur plays for, but couldn't manage it. "I think he was working a job after school that cut into practice."
"I brought my boys, not for me to say, 'Look how good you have it,''' she says, ''but to show them how children live in this world. 'These are your classmates. I want you to show compassion.'"
John Arthur got the message. It helps that his mom's so proud of the campus and the mission.
Any nonprofit is indebted to its board, who give of their time and resources without remuneration, but Whitaker is grateful to be there. Jodie Mahoney served on this board, she points out. "I'm a past music teacher, but Jodie Mahoney was a legislator that did great things -- he was important. ... No, [I'm not important]. I'm just a volunteer."
But it all serves to countenance her favorite Bible passage, 1 Peter 4, and the signature axiom, Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.
Or as Whitaker plainly puts it, "We're all given talents and gifts from the Lord. We're told to use them."
The Turkey Trot 5K is chip timed but not sanctioned by U.S.A. Track and Field. Anyone can register at VLTurkeyTrot.com, or by calling (501) 666-8195.
High Profile on 10/26/2014