HOW TO HELPFor information or to donate, call We Care Director Laura Olmstead at 423-775-1000, e-mail lolmstead@wecaredayton.org or visit www.wecaredayton.org or www.safehavenlight.com.
SPRING CITY, Tenn. – The We Care Community Services Agency is looking for an August or September opening for Rhea County’s first respite care home for children.
Safe Haven Light is a 3,000-square-foot home in Spring City, Tenn., that will provide temporary housing for children referred by the court system because they do not have a responsible adult to care for them.
The idea came from Gary Venice and Cindi Porter, co-owners of East Tennessee Waterfront Properties in Spring City.
“The Rhea County community has been so good to us in the past two years and we decided it was time to give back,” Mr. Venice said. “We came up with the idea for Safe Haven Light when a bunch of us were just sitting around having a general discussion about things going on in the county. It came up that there seems to be a gap in services for kids, especially for those kids in transition while foster care or relative care can be arranged.”
The group found a four-unit apartment building and is rehabilitating it into a single-family home with space for house parents and space for kids.
“It will be a short-term facility for children who have parents who have been incarcerated, hospitalized or have abandoned them,” Mr. Venice explained. “Just for a few days until more permanent housing can be established.”
He said the first home will be for boys, but he’s already planning for a girls home, too.
Walter Ring and Laura Olmstead of We Care Community Services Inc. found government support for the project through a $189,000 Neighborhood Stabilization grant that covered the purchase price of the property, some renovations and an addition to the building, according to John Carpenter, a spokesman for We Care.
House parents and a part-time worker will also be needed.
In the meantime, Mr. Venice and Ms. Porter sponsored the second annual benefit poker run on Watts Bar Lake that raised about $5,000. The first run netted $15,000, but most of that came from a single donor.
Mr. Venice said this year’s run still a huge success because it earned the project “a much larger base of community awareness.”
“I’ve had dozens of calls from people asking how they could help,” he said. Ms. Olmstead said La-Z-Boy of Dayton donated chairs and the county Department of Education gave $2,000 for household goods.
Donations of money or household goods still are needed to furnish the home, Mr. Venice said.
“When you start a household you need everything,” he said. “Everything from forks and spoons to beds and refrigerators. We are looking for cash donations to help us furnish the haven and maintain it.”