The Amarillo Children’s home has provided a safe place for foster children in the Texas Panhandle for nearly 100 years. It began in 1923, when three orphaned children were found hungry and in need of help. Minister Dr. R. Thomsen and his friends, including Guy C. Saunders and Allen Early, Sr., took it upon themselves to help the children.
What began as a three-story home with no electricity or running water now exists as a seven-cottage campus with many resources and opportunities for children from a variety of different backgrounds.
“We have seven cottages on campus, all broken down by gender and age with their own loving house parents and assistants to help them,” said Lindy Wakefield, Assistant Development Director. “We house mainly sibling groups and teenagers, who are harder to place in individual homes.”
Every year, community partners come together to make sure that Christmas at the Amarillo Children’s Home is special. Each volunteer group is assigned to decorate a different cottage. Amarillo College has been helping with decorations since 2016.
“I think it’s important for people to know that we are the Amarillo Children’s Home, and we couldn’t be here without our community, without them supporting us financially, without them paying our light bills, without them supporting our house parents. It’s a labor of love,” said Wakefield.
To learn more about the Amarillo Children’s Home, visit them online at amarillochildrenshome.org.
