Ping
Officials say 47 children from polygamist group coming to Waco’s Methodist Children’s Home
Thursday, April 24, 2008
By Emily Ingram
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Officials at Waco’s Methodist Children’s Home revealed Wednesday that they will get 47 children from a West Texas polygamist sect within the next 48 hours.
Child Protective Services officials alerted children’s home President and CEO Bobby Gilliam about the move Wednesday, he said during an afternoon press conference.
The announcement came a few hours after Texas authorities said they had finished taking DNA samples from all the children housed at the San Angelo Coliseum since being removed from a polygamist compound more than two weeks ago. Child welfare officials are trying to sort out the complicated family relationships at the ranch compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
3 Local Facilities To Get Polygamist Sect Children
POSTED: 7:52 am CDT April 24, 2008
UPDATED: 8:11 am CDT April 24, 2008
HOUSTON — Three Houston-area facilities will soon be temporary homes for dozens of children removed from the polygamist sect in west Texas, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.
Thirty-six children will live at Kidz Harbor in Liverpool, Texas, in Brazoria County.
“I think it’s a place where the kids will feel safe,” Liverpool Police Chief Myles Hopkins said. “They community will also embrace their arrival.”
Up to 16 children could soon temporarily call a Hockley facility home.
There’s an unassuming sign out front that reads “Boys and Girls Country.” The driveway back to the foster care compound is a few miles off Highway 290, surrounded by fields.
“Our first priority is to welcome a child in a warm way,” Executive Director Shirley Wright said.
The staff and volunteers have been getting ready, folding towels, putting backpacks by each empty bed and writing welcoming notes.
“If we know what their favorite food is, we’ll be baking it in the oven,” Wright said.
More at: http://www.click2houston.com/news/15976852/detail.html