Edgewood Children's Ranch celebrates 50 years of changing lives

WEST ORANGE  Tucked in off Frank Hubbard Road at the southwest end of Lake Hiawassee, Edgewood Children’s Ranch is set to celebrate 50 years of changing at-risk children’s lives.

“As we look back, our mission has not changed over the 50 years,” Director of Development Gaby Acks said. “Maybe some of the ways we do things has changed, but our mission hasn’t. We take children who are in need, work with them and their families, get them caught up in school, heal them emotionally and spiritually and send them out as whole, healthy families.”

The ranch — which runs entirely off donations — is a voluntary, live-in program for children ages 7 to 17, and they typically stay there for two to two-and-one-half years. To be there, both children and their parents have to agree that they want to change. The children live in cottages with a set of cottage parents, who ensure that each child does chores, goes to the ranch’s school and does what is expected of him or her. 

“When you drive down the hill the environment is different,” said Bruce Jordan, a part-time ranch employee and former rancher himself. “When you’re dealing with kids, they have a lot of emotional roller-coasters, but for the most part, they’re at risk. They’re failing school, they’re in and out of JDC, they have to make a clear choice of being here or not, and that’s the beginning point of healing.”

It all began in 1966, when Juvenile Court Judge D. Arthur Yergey saw a need for a residential facility for young, at-risk boys who showed negative social behaviors due to poor family situations.

“He spoke at Edgewood Baptist Church men’s group about not having anywhere to send these young men, and that’s how they started,” Jordan said. “They raised $75, rented a house in Groveland, brought in Dr. Jack Lynd and started the program with a couple of boys.”

In 1968, Minnie Rouse donated the 110 acres on which the ranch currently sits, and eventually, girls were added to the program, creating the Edgewood Children’s Ranch. The faith-based program teaches the children how to work together and learn what their responsibilities are. Each child goes to school at the ranch full-time, helps out in his or her cottage and in different areas around the ranch and participates in fun physical activities, from soccer to kayaking and taking care of animals on the ranch’s farm.  

“(Here) you get to see what a true, loving family looks like. The cottage parents sometimes are the first time kids are going to see what it looks like.”— Bruce Jordan, a part-time ranch employee and former rancher

Additionally, parents of the children are required to attend parenting classes, and the kids are taught how to acclimate back into society afterward with the end goal of changing the home environment.

“I came from a single-parent household and didn’t want to be there,” Jordan said. “I ran away from home and went to JDC for a bit. I had no barriers. (Here) you get to see what a true, loving family looks like. The cottage parents sometimes are the first time kids are going to see what it looks like.”

Contact Danielle Hendrix at [email protected].