Providing Home Sweet Homes
baptist children’s homes of north carolina, culture, michael blackwell,
Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina is Thomasville’s oldest continuing place of business still in operation: older than the famed Thomasville Furniture, older than the daily newspaper.
And since day one – Nov. 11, 1885 – the organization, which now spans 16 cities, has been committed to bettering the lives of children.
Michael Blackwell, president of the Thomasville-based organization, has shepherded Baptist Children’s Homes for the last 25 years. The 66-year-old is passionate about the organization’s mission and his role in seeing that mission accomplished.
“I think it meets and fulfills all the gifts and talents and abilities that I have,” Blackwell says. “I am able to carry out my own personal passion of helping children and young people, at the same time utilizing the talents that God has given to me. It’s the perfect job for me, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Nor would anyone who has been touched by Baptist Children’s Homes be eager to see him go. Under his watch, the homes have provided shelter for hundreds of neglected children, in addition to thousands of families who depend on the homes for daytime care.
In 2008, Baptist Children’s Homes served nearly 195,000 meals and provided shoes and coats to 830 children.
The support of the Thomasville and Lexington communities has benefited the children of the homes tremendously, Blackwell says.
“Anytime an organization is helping children, it resonates with just about everybody. And because we’ve been around for 123 years, it would be difficult to find somebody in the county that does not know about the Baptist Children’s Homes,” he says.
Even after a quarter-century at the helm of the organization, Blackwell says he is not considering retirement.
“I love my job. And I think that’s saying something after 25 years, that I can still say I love this place,” he says. “There are just a few things out there in the future that I need to accomplish before I hand it off to somebody else.”
Story by Michaela Jackson
Photo by Ian Curcio
