Christy Page gives history of The Children’s Home Catonsville and kids finding homes and new, loving families at State Fare on “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl Week” for The Maryland Food Bank.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
kids, absolutely, children, care, volunteers, home, day, years, maryland, people, kingsville, give, campus, living, awesomeness, situation, jiffy lube, gettysburg, gainesville, parents
SPEAKERS
Christy Page, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:04
Welcome back. We are in Kingsville work state fair. We’re doing this live on behalf of our friends at the Maryland food bank. It is crab cake row and that a lot of crab cakes. I’ve got two crab cakes in my fridge leftover. We were on Monday we started to fade these Tuesday we went to cost this Wednesday. We did Coco’s Today I’m at State Fair. I did steak and eggs here for breakfast. I’m gonna go for the Cobb salad this afternoon, but I’m gonna get a cup of the cream of crab and corn chowder. So I’m looking forward to that. We’re doing it all I’ll be out for friends at Maryland lottery as well. I’m giving away the 10 times the cash at a $10 winner the other day, you get a free ticket. Everybody gets a free ticket around here. Our friends are winter nation 866 90 nation as well as Jiffy Lube. Multi care. I’m a State Fair until five today we’ll be at Pappas until five on Friday and Cockeysville don’t come to Parkville or Bel Air Glenburnie we’re in Cockeysville we’re on the west side today. 21228 always life is great. Evan just came by here for State Fair, Evan brown Keith’s here. They have El Guapo they have Beaumont they got the basement, they do pit beef up the street. They do lots and lots of good things in Kingsville. Think about kittens, those two things, anybody. Somebody’s related to Don Mohler in the room always. And secondly, begins when people stick together and I can’t have a representative here from Catonsville that bragged about being walking distance without the first thing she said is Evan, thanks for all you do for us. And Evans about his charitable guys. I know and Karen sago put this thing together. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about Keynes, which and and Don Mohler has spoken of, let’s see, you’re the children’s home. I want to mitigate for Christy Page is here. What do you do there? And what do they do there? And I’ve learned so much about things. But I have done a segment on the children’s home a couple years ago. So I know a little bit about it. But update me. Awesome.
Christy Page 01:50
Yeah. So the children’s home is just right up the street less than half a mile away. We’re a home that that provides care and shelter and support for kids that are in the foster care
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:01
system for a lot of years. Right. That’s
02:03
right. This year is our 160 years. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:05
knew that the thing I remember about it is this is an old world. They knew children needed parents back then orphaned children, I’m sure at that point in the world that long ago. That’s the thing I knew about your your facilities like the oldest for like,
02:20
we were founded literally days after the battle at Gettysburg to kind of put it in historical Four score
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:25
and seven years. Yes, right that long ago, right? Absolutely. Where is it located? Exactly.
02:30
So we’re on Bloomsbury Avenue, right across from Gainesville Elementary, we have about 44 acres there. We’ve been on that campus 102 or three years. So we’re just right up the road here. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:41
what am I going to find when I come over there. So
02:43
across our campus, we have lots of cottages that are there to act as homes for the kids. So at any given point there about 50 kids on our campus. Over the course of the year, we’ll serve upwards of 150 kids,
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:57
it’s just a temporary, it is you want it to be well,
03:02
the hope is that we can get kids as close to family as possible. But that’s not always possible. The kids we serve are 13 to 20. And so these are kids who have experienced significant trauma who have lots of different concerns. So it’s not always possible to get them back to their family of origin or even kinship care, which is kind of extended family not even exist in some case. That’s right. And and you know, they often require very specialized care to help in their healing process. And so we provide all sorts of supports for these kids to try and get them through and get them healing and launch them into adulthood successfully. So some kids are there for a few days, they just need shelter. Some kids are there for years, it just depends on what their needs are. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:43
then we talk about troubled children. My parents tried to adopt children lost a child and they were we I had Foster’s in my home as a very, very small child in the early 70s. I never really talked to my parents about it before they passed or anything like that. But they my parents were like, parents, everybody in the neighborhood, just kind of people they were. I often wondered back then it was a young boy named Louis that lived in our home by you know, 50 years ago. I often wonder, you know, place to place how these things work, that you connect people and who winds up in your in your care for a period of time. Sure.
04:21
So when when a kid is in need of care, this is not delinquent? Correct?
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:27
This is different than this isn’t. A child has broken the law unnecessarily, not
04:32
necessarily 85% of the kids that we serve come from their local Department of Social Service because there’s been abuse, neglect, violence understood in their families different
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:43
than a hickey or this is a different kind of environment. Want to make sure we make that. Absolutely.
04:47
Absolutely. Everybody. Everybody
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:49
is clear
04:49
on that. And you know, our goal has always been from day one 160 years ago was to make sure kids who needed a safe home, have a safe home and that’s what we do every day. And, you know, we specialize now in the kids who are the hardest to provide a safe home for? These are kids who have experienced, you know, a lifetime of trauma.
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:09
And now here they are on this campus living in a communal kind of state with other children of that. This isn’t there’s a schooling element involved here. Right? Absolutely. Above and beyond just regular care, you’re educating these young people, not just housing, right? It’s life
05:26
skills. It’s, you know, it’s teaching kids how to manage their bank accounts and how to do grocery shopping. And you know, how to see in many cases, absolutely. Well, most of our kids go to local Baltimore County Schools, with the exception of one cottage that’s for our kids who need some specialized attention.
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:45
They come from all over Baltimore County specific. So about half of the
05:49
kids that we serve come from Baltimore County or Baltimore City, the rest come from across Maryland, DC and sometimes up and down the five corners, a little region. That’s right. About half of them are.
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:01
I mean, you talk about almost 20 years old, how many places are like your place, because I haven’t talked to anything in regard to orphans this week. I’ve talked to in regard to inner city and after school and hunger, and I mean, a lot of different things. But, you know, I was born in a weird situation, I probably would have been, if I did have care, I did have loved ones and extent, not really in the family. I wasn’t raised by blood family, but I was raised by near that. But I would have been a candidate. You know, I had really troubled parents that would have been incapable of taking care of me. That’s right. It just would have been no question about that. And I would have been somebody that would have been and I wonder parents that are adopting Where’s adoption for a 16 year old, 18 year old?
06:45
It’s pretty rare, right? It really is. We can’t find foster parents, much less adoptive parents for you know, most of our kids. Sure. That’s why they live with us instead of a traditional foster home. because there just aren’t plainly aren’t enough foster homes to care for these kids. Especially
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:02
if they’re 20. Might not be a foster home. It may be a living situation. Right. Literally independent living. Right, right. Yeah. living situation, not a parent. Parental Guidance situation. That’s right. That’s right. All the challenges are different. I’m sure I’m not trying to put one, you know, blanket over top of it. I’m just trying to understand what you do. Yeah,
07:20
absolutely. So we even have a semi independent living program for some of the older kids that are in our care. So ups, right? That’s right. They get they get jobs. Sometimes they even work. I have one that’s working as my intern and learning all about fundraising and volunteer coordination and how to manage our website and or maybe
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:36
the kitchen bussing tables, and
07:39
we were so close to that. That’s right. Absolutely. So you know, our kids, you know, by and large, what we try to do is give them opportunities to learn and new experiences they can have. So we we bring horses in once a week and we do equine therapy. ride horses. There you go. There
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:57
you go. We’ll do that. Yeah, Christy page is here. It’s children’s home in Gainesville. I’ve featured it before without fully understanding all of it. The graduation party said, Well, we have 50 at a time, but we try to do 100 150 A year, three to six months and you’re trying to create a better environment. How long could someone stay at your place? So
08:19
are two Oh, no up two years. So when young lady that’s in our care has been there as long as I’ve worked for the home, which is four and a half years. Okay. So it just depends on the needs of the kid and you know, where their goals are and what services are available to them. You know, some kids you know, love some want to stay there. And you know, I’ve got one that I can’t push out of the nest
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:41
right now. Man on Monday made me cry. He’d been given up by his families and older gentleman and church in Essex, had a you know, a situation St. John’s. Listen to my stuff earlier in the week. It’s just it’s amazing. All the work all of you do you get out of bed every day and try to figure this out funding for you and what our audience could do and what you thank Evan for, which is I’m sure funding in some way but also volunteers and different things that people could get involved in maybe a hands on way with the
09:11
children. Absolutely. So we are always looking for volunteers to help as mentors, instructors, coaches, and then we also have volunteers that come and just help. We have 44 acres that’s a lot of property to manage. We have a trail that runs around the exterior of our campus. So on April 13, we’re going to have 100 volunteers come out and help us maintain the trail so that the kids can enjoy the trail and ride the horses on it because it you know it needs help every spring so you can sign up on our website there. The Children’s home.net to be a volunteer with that or we also need volunteers you know to teach underwater basket weaving or crafts or
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:50
water whatever it might be something new,
09:57
it’s you know, whatever your specialty He is whatever your strength is we want to engage you in helping the kids learn that awesomeness.
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:05
Christi branch shirts children’s home, and we are in Catonsville and state fair. So I think of Catonsville as being this really I spoke about it yesterday about the town square here. And this community that’s held it together held a town square together with people like evidence, so many businesses, this is a really cool, thriving area to be a part of, and I would think, if I am on board at your place, and I’m a young person, that this is available and close by, it’s better than a mall, let me like, literally, I’m just trying to think of like, if you’re housed here for a period of time, Catonsville feels like a very inclusive place. But more than that, that if I’m stuck here, and I’m from someplace else, and I’m of that age or whatever, there are things around here that make it not feel like you’re at a prison for lack of a better or way away where there’s not things Kingsville itself has embraced your place for a century and a half, right? Absolutely. I mean, you know, any modern Catonsville grown up enough to do it? Absolutely.
11:03
I mean, you know, there’s places like like, you know, the local pizza place, a piece of pizza, pizza, pizza, I parked in their parking lot. They bring us pizza almost every day, like, literally almost every day, you know, there’s Growing Minds in that parking lots. Absolutely. And some of those are to benefit the children’s home. But that’s what I would say there’s things
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:21
going on here, where if you are living in this unfortunate circumstance, and you’re young person and you’re under your care, this is something you can come walk to you can participate. And fourth of July, maybe not if you don’t get your chair out in June. You got to put it back. But I just think, you know, what would my life be like as a 1415 year old person there? If I found myself there. There’s something about being here, no offense to downtown or anywhere else, where this may promote and stimulate a different kind of outcome? Yeah, then in other circumstances,
11:58
absolutely. From our candidates with the bucolic setting there, to the upgrade in school that often when
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:05
you’re not in upstate Pennsylvania wave, you know, right. And kids can go to a ballgame once in a while, if that’s right, if things work out the right way, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you giving us some love how many folks work in the care of these young people over in your
12:17
facility. So we have people around the clock three shifts, 24 hours a day, about 5060 people employed within the organization. At any given point, you
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:27
are the donor and community, I always want your donor in you gotta make their peer donor community engagement manager. So they’re absolutely it’s a big title. It’s what does that mean? I’m a
12:38
development director.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:42
No, I have guys over there in Kingsville go over and have coffee smile at it brings some pretty some pretty some canned goods.
12:48
Most of my job is about bringing in the funds that it takes to give these kids extra to give them more than just three square meals a day and a roof over their heads. So you know that kids can have the swimming pool and go on field trips and good Wi
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:02
Fi. Absolute good Wi Fi the rest of taking care of That’s right. Absolutely. Somebody else can find you out on the web, give you a hand in some way. And I’ll let you get back to doing the good work you do. Or to getting lunch here. I mean, I skipped the chicken waffles, which was a mistake, but I’m gonna get a Cloud
13:18
Shell. Yeah, absolutely. So to find us were on the web, the children’s home.net is our is our website and we’re also on Facebook and Instagram.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:27
Are you the only children’s home let’s call this also cool may
13:31
on Instagram we are the children’s home and on Facebook where the children’s home dot Maryland. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:38
there’s children home in Oregon or something like that
13:39
there. But it’s just because it’s such a generic data in many cases. We were among the first 1863 Gettysburg.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:52
Yep. I remember that. Yeah, absolutely. Gettysburg. Thank you for coming by. Appreciate you and thanks for your patience and dealing with all my little league teammates who came by this is awesomeness. It was cool. Awesomeness. She said awesomeness spill call you like that? Is that a hashtag? My name is Ness. My name is Dennis and we’re in Catonsville come bring us stuff. We’re getting soup out. We’re doing it on behalf of our friends at the Maryland lottery wind donation and Jiffy Lube and coal roofing Bill coals here. He is threatened to be my co host for the next three hours. I’m gonna have the folks my tinnitus on as well before bill gets your bill get a sandwich or something get some french fries are delicious here. The Maryland lottery is giving me these 10 times the cash I’m gonna walk around the room and give these things out. We’re here till five o’clock if you bring us dry goods, canned goods, good stuff for the Maryland Food Bank. We will give you a cup of soup or bowl and it’s tasty works State Fair. Stay with us.
