Soaring Wings seeks to take in babies, toddlers
HOLLAND — Sounds of laughter from children and teenagers can be heard in the homes at Soaring Wings Ranch, but no babbling from babies — yet.
The Christian home for long-term foster care is raising money to equip one of its houses for babies and toddlers, said Andrew Watson, founder and executive director.
The remaining goal is $50,000 after getting a $10,000 donation from a supporting church, he said.
“Over the last eight years, we’ve had to turn away so many babies and toddlers that we finally just asked ourselves the hard question: What if we equipped to take care of babies and toddlers instead of saying, ‘We’re not equipped?’”
To equip the home, Watson said, furnishings — such as cribs — are needed, as well as a van, toys, bottles, diapers, “you name it.”
“We’ll have a house-parent couple — that’s their full-time [job] — and at least two college-age girls pursuing their degrees in a related field. Give them an opportunity to do their internship there, which will be paid, and room and board thrown in. They will help house parents take care of their babies.”
The ranch, on 195 acres in the Holland community, accepts children from ages 6 to 17.
It opened Aug. 1, 2007, with a sibling group of two boys and a girl, Watson said. Today, the ranch houses 24 children in three group homes. The fourth home, Strain Home, was actually the first home built on the property. It will be outfitted to house seven babies and toddlers, ages birth to 5, he said.
Watson recalled that last fall, an ad litem attorney contacted Soaring Wings and asked if it had space for babies and toddlers, and Watson told the attorney no.
“They would have been able to bring four babies in that evening — a 2-year-old and triplet 7-month-olds, all siblings,” he said.
As recently as a couple of weeks ago, Watson said, the ranch was contacted and asked to take a 2-year-old.
Watson said he enlisted the help of Jason Bollinger, the ranch’s campus director, to help with the research before deciding to go forward with the plan.
Representatives of the Arkansas Department of Human Services “say the need is definitely there,” Watson said.
Bollinger has been campus director at Soaring Wings Ranch for 2 1/2 years and also worked at an emergency shelter for foster children in Northwest Arkansas. He said 43 to 48 percent of children in foster care — 1,800 — are between the ages of 0 and 5. “That’s a staggering number,” he said. “There’s a huge need out there.”
Children are placed at Soaring Wings Ranch through DHS, as well as privately.
“All the kids we have here are here through no fault of their own,” Bollinger said. “They’re good kids who just need a family to love them, and that’s what we’re here to do.”
He echoed Watson’s stories about getting calls to place toddlers, particularly ones who are part of a sibling group.
“It really is ideal for them to be placed together,” Bollinger said.
“Another neat thing with the babies-and-toddler home,” Watson said, “we will be able to take emergency placements to give DHS time to find more long-term foster care. Some foster families will say they’ll take on a baby or child, and they wind up with three or four, and they wind up getting overwhelmed.”
Watson said Soaring Wings Ranch has launched a campaign called the Faithful 500 to fund the creation of the baby-and-toddler home. He said it is “an extremely important effort” with the ranch’s focus on sustainability.
The goal is to reach 500 monthly donors. He said the organization now has 260 monthly donors who are integral to the ranch’s success.
“With 500 donors, we believe we’ll be able to take care of all four homes, including the baby-and-toddler home,” he said. “If everything goes as planned with the baby-and-toddler home, we will build that next home for older boys. That will put us at two homes for girls, two home for boys and a baby-and-toddler home.”
Children can stay at Soaring Wings Ranch until they graduate from high school, Watson said.
“Then after that, we will help them in vocational training or college, either one, and help them get through that. We help them to find a place, and we help them as long as we need to, and help them secure employment.”
Bollinger said it will be “an enormous blessing” when the goal of 500 donors is reached, “because we don’t rely on state and federal funding.” With 500 donors, “we’ll be funded 100 percent every month,” including paying the electricity bill and putting “food on the table, gas in the vans,” he said.
Donors may make monthly pledges from $25 to $1,200, he said. The $1,200 amount “fully sponsors a child,” Watson said.
People may donate on the website www.swranch.org or call the ranch at (501) 8492243.
tkeith@arkansasonline.com.