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 […]

A Conversation with Mary Wilson

Our CEO and President, Ron Carter, catches up with our award-winning sponsor

My mother’s sister operated a record store in our small hometown of Reidsville, North Carolina. During my childhood in the 1960s, I spent a great deal of time there. While other little boys were outside climbing trees, swinging bats and getting into mischief, I was inside spinning records. Music was everything to me, and while I was a huge Beatlemaniac, my favorite music of all was that of The Supremes — Diana Ross, Florence Ballard […]

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 […]

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 […]

From Higher Education Program Participant to Volunteer Coordinator

At Cordia Combined School in Eastern Kentucky, a former sponsored child is now helping kids in need

Cordia Combined School is in Knott County, in the heart of the rugged wilderness of eastern Kentucky. Despite its beauty and proud history, this region suffers economic troubles that result in widespread poverty and deprivation for many families. Industries such as coal-mining and lumber — once mainstays for employment in Knott County — have dramatically declined, increasing unemployment. Jadea with one of our sponsored children at Cordia Combined School Furthermore, due […]