American Legion Children's Home - Helping Veteran's Families

AMERICAN LEGION CHILDREN'S HOME

Need to Know
SUMMER, 2010 Issue #73

Farewell to “Babe”...

     Almost everyone in the ALCH family knew who “Babe” Wright was – even the kids here today. Also known as Wesley Frank Wright, this gentle giant was hard to forget and never forgot where he came from. Frank and Delores, his wife of 47 years, regularly visited, volunteered, sponsored and mentored children here at this Home. He, his brother Jesse and their sister Louise all grew up here in the 1940’s and 50s. Frank and Jesse were just two of the boys who helped build the old gymnasium here on campus.
     Franks sponsors while at the ALCH were the American Legion Posts from Edmond and Sapulpa. Frank was quoted as saying, “I want to thank the American Legion and the Home School for giving me the opportunity to get an education. I think Mr. and Mrs. Summers (former administrators) being there was the best thing that happened while I was at the Home School.”
     Frank graduated from Ponca City High School in 1955. He then went into the service of the U.S. Air Force for 4 years. He was a member of the American Legion Post Choctaw 127. He retired in 1999 after working in the bakery industry for over 40 years. Frank was an avid golfer and loved fishing as well.
     Recently, he and Delores spent many hours volunteering for the Children’s Home making contact and spending time with their “Home School Family” including Destiny, a 13 year old girl whom the Alumni have sponsored. Delores tells of how this is the first place that Frank ever brought her when they were dating “because this was home”. They married in 1963. They had one son, Todd, his wife, Cheryl, and 3 grandchildren; Shelby, Taylor and Hayden who now reside in Mustang, Ok.
     On behalf of our children, all of our alumni and our staff here at the Home wish to offer our deepest sympathies, our utmost respect and say farewell to one of our own. Wesley Frank Wright, born March 13, 1937 and passed away in his sleep at home on Sunday, May 30, 2010 at the age of 73. He will truly be missed.

Five Star Annual Fund Report...

The first annual, Five Star Annual Fund Drive has officially come to a close and was a greater success than we could have ever imagined. Thanks to our generous donors, our Annual Fund was increased by more than $85,000 this year, which brought us to over $250,000 including our sponsorships. Our letter campaign alone raised just over $75,000. We had a total of 845 gifts compared to roughly 550 gifts in the previous fiscal year. We received gifts from donors in 28 states and 162 cities, with 49 donors giving over $1000.
As we have mentioned before, it is our resolve to become independent of the unstable government funding which we have relied on for too many years now. It is no longer a secure way to guarantee the future of this Home. Many of you have asked what we need to reach this goal, and we estimate an Annual Fund of $2,000,000 will place us in the position to no longer accept ANY state or federal funding. A strong Annual Fund will secure our future and enable us to continue providing for our children without risk. We have every intention of continuing the mission of the Homes’ founders - to provide for these children for many years to come - and we hope that you will continue to help us do so. We salute our generous donors!!!

BACK TO SCHOOL
     Can you believe it’s already time to start school??? The summer has flown by, and our kids will go back to school on August 12.
     Although we have many of the supplies our kids need to get back into the swing of things, we are still in need of some items, including:

large backpacks                 spiral notebooks
copy paper                  colored markers
duo-tang folders (with pockets and brads)

JOIN OUR E-MAIL LIST!
Do you have and e-mail account? Would you like to receive our newsletter as an e-mail so that you can forward it to friends who may be interested? Call and let us know, or e-mail us at alch@cableone.net and we'll add you to our e-mail list.

Page 4