News

Stories written by Shelley Callahan

Children Incorporated Fall 2019 Newsletter

55 Years of Helping Children in Need

In 1964, the average cost of a new home in the United States was $13,050. Postage stamps were 5 cents each, and a gallon of gasoline cost just 25 cents more than that. In the same year, a young woman named Jeanne Clarke Wood started Children Incorporated out of her home in Richmond, Virginia to improve the lives of children who often went hungry and without having their most basic needs met. Reports from those […]

Understanding Honduras

What you might not know about poverty in Honduras — and how you can help children in need

Nestled in northern Central America, Honduras was once home to several Mesoamerican peoples — most notably the Maya. This ecologically diverse land — with its rainforests, cloud forests, savannas, mountain ranges and barrier reef system off the northern coast — teems with life. Its wealth of natural resources is equally impressive, including a variety of minable minerals and agricultural exports such as coffee, tropical fruit, sugar cane and lumber. Moreover, its growing textiles industry serves […]

A State of the Art School

The new Crum PreK-8 School replaces two older schools in West Virginia

Wayne County lies nestled amid the vast natural beauty of the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia and is home to the small town of Crum. Crum was once a bustling community with a vibrant economy, bolstered by the now-struggling coal mining industry. In recent years, mining companies have been forced to lay off workers or shut down altogether, and unemployment in this region has risen dramatically. Like many small towns in this rural part of […]

A Small School with a Family Atmosphere

Jones Fork Elementary School students benefit academically from the support they receive at school

Jones Fork Elementary School — which began as a one-room schoolhouse and was expanded in 1964 to accommodate more children — is located in Knott County, Kentucky in the small community of Mousie. The smallest school in the county, Jones Fork educates just 165 children in grades kindergarten through eight. According to our volunteer coordinator at the school, Deb, children at Jones Fork have above average test scores. Deb attributes this to what she calls […]

Insufficient Food for Growing Kids

Many children at Cannonsburg Elementary School rely on the school’s weekend feeding program

As the name suggests, Cannonsburg Elementary is located in the isolated and rural town of Cannonsburg, Kentucky in Boyd County. Like many of Kentucky’s Eastern Coal Field communities, Cannonsburg has suffered dramatically from the decline of the coal mining industry. At the height of the coal operations, Boyd County was an essential and active port city for the transport of coal along the Ohio River. Today, many of its residents live in abject poverty. Illiteracy […]

A Decline in Enrollment

Emmalena Elementary School has felt the effects of job loss due to mine closures

Emmalena Elementary School is located on State Highway 550 in the western part of Knott County, Kentucky just west of the community of Clear Creek. “The community of Clear Creek was the site of a 1970s women’s occupation and protest against strip and surface mining, especially the practice that allowed coal operators to tear up private land to reach underground minerals,” explains Renée Kube, Children Incorporated’s Director of U.S. Programs. Renée […]