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Children’s Homes Agrees to Manage Oak Ranch Residential Community

Children’s Homes Agrees to Manage Oak Ranch
Residential Community

June 01, 2007

Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina (BCH) in Thomasville has entered into a relationship with Oak Ranch, a residential program for at-risk boys to manage the facility, located on the Lee-Harnett County line near Broadway. Oak Ranch features two existing cottages, administrative buildings and an eight-horse equine therapy component, all located in central North Carolina. The 122-year-old Baptist Children’s Homes begins operating Oak Ranch on June 1 adding the existing Oak Ranch residential program to its statewide network of facilities and programs. BCH will lease the property for 15 months and assume full ownership after that period of time.

“I am very pleased that Oak Ranch has been able to turn to Baptist Children’s Homes which has been caring for children since 1885,” said Oak Ranch founder Lyston Peebles. “Under their management, Oak Ranch will be able to successfully achieve it mission.”

Oak Ranch grew from the dream Peebles, a Raleigh native who is the Director of Cherokee Gives Back, a service of Cherokee Investment Partners, LLC. He envisioned an environment for needy boys that encouraged intellectual, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual growth. Soon his vision garnered the attention of others who had a desire to help children.

Oak Ranch became a reality when the land site was acquired in 1998. The decision was made to locate the residential facility on 755 acres of land on the Cape Fear River, 40 miles south of Raleigh in Broadway.

After researching children’s homes and residential services, Peebles concluded that Eagle Ranch in Chestnut Mountain, Georgia, would be the model he and the others would use to build their fledgling program.

“I saw a great need to provide a loving environment that could help children deal with years of pent-up pain and anger,” explains Peebles. “Oak Ranch is the culmination of a vision and a dream shared by myself and other concerned citizens in the Raleigh, Sanford and central North Carolina area.”

In the fall of 2006, Oak Ranch began a search for a partner who would help them grow the program and increase their outreach to boys. Their search led to a phone conversation between Peebles and Baptist Children’s Homes president Michael C. Blackwell.

“From the first talk that Lyston and I had, there was a great feeling of God’s hand guiding us to this place,” said Blackwell. “It is through God’s grace and in His time that Oak Ranch can become a BCH ministry.”

Baptist Children’s Homes has provided services to as many as 2,000 children and 1,300 families a year. BCH began in 1885 through the dedication and efforts of longtime Baptist John Haymes Mills who dreamed of establishing a Baptist-operated orphanage. In the late 19th century, children in the state felt the repercussions of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Mills believed there was a need for facilities dedicated to rescuing children.

With the support of others who shared Mills’ vision, a piece of property in Thomasville was purchased just a few miles a way from the farm where Mills lived. It was on this property that BCH’s first residential campus, Mills Home, was established.

Throughout the years, BCH has grown from its inaugural Thomasville campus to operating care facilities in 16 communities across the state. Blackwell, who became BCH’s president in 1983, led the agency to become more family-focused and child-centered.

Today, BCH continues to grow and evolve under Blackwell’s leadership, meeting the ever-changing needs of children and families. He sees Oak Ranch as being consistent with BCH’s mission of “helping hurting children…healing broken families.”

“This is an historic event,” said Blackwell. “Baptist Children’s Homes and Oak Ranch share a vision to provide hope and healing to children. This is a natural merger, and we look into the future with great hope and tremendous expectation.”

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