The Baby Fold: "We Never Give Up On a Child"

The Baby Fold was born out of woman’s desire to care for others. Nancy Mason, donated her home in 1902 as a home for the local Methodist Deaconesses, full-time volunteers who were serving in the local hospital. But the Deaconesses saw another community need for the care of abandoned babies. There were no social service agencies to help. But these women knew they could make a difference for the most vulnerable children. They turned their residence into an orphanage. These women could never have imagined all the lives that would eventually be touched.

Today, The Baby Fold is a multi-service agency with nearly 300 employees, 3 campuses and 16 programs we can wrap around a child and family in crisis. Our services focus on building safe and nurturing environments through foster care, residential care, special needs and international adoption, special education, and services to prevent child abuse and neglect.

• Foster care. The Baby Fold’s foster care programs provide safe, nurturing home environments for children from infancy through the teen years when they have been removed from their own homes.
• Residential services. The Residential Treatment Center is home to 28 children ages 2-13. It combines a positive and structured living environment with specialized mental health treatment for children with severe emotional and behavioral disorders.
• Special education. Hammitt Schools provide education for children and adolescents with severe behavioral, emotional, learning and developmental disabilities including severe autism and autism spectrum disorders.
• Adoption. The Baby Fold provides permanent homes for those children in the most at-risk situations – specifically international, residential and foster care adoptions. The program also offers post-adoption support to children who are struggling to adapt.
• Family and Community Services. Community-based and home-based support programs assist families with children that may be at risk for abuse or neglect.

Each year though these programs, we give 1,000 children and their families the best chance at a better life.

The Baby Fold makes a promise to our children that they will never give up on them. The only reason The Baby Fold feels confident making that promise to the children is that we do not do this work alone. So many in our community wrap their support around us as we serve the children.

In fact, many decades after that first group of volunteers saw a need to care for abandoned babies, another special group of volunteers was forming to meet needs they saw at The Baby Fold. This group of passionate volunteers felt compelled to help and wholeheartedly believed that others in the community would join in if their eyes were opened to the enormous needs. The Baby Fold’s Festival of Trees was born and that small group of volunteers couldn’t have imagined how it would grow over the next 20 years. Nearly 2 million dollars has been raised, 100,000 people have kicked off their holidays with Festival, and hundreds of Baby Fold children have experienced the magic of Festival with their families – whether foster, biological or adoptive.

It’s not just a beloved tradition, but also a powerful reminder of the level of support for The Baby Fold’s children and families. When we look at Festival, we see more than twinkling lights and beautiful trees, we see our community making the life-changing work of The Baby Fold possible. We see thousands of people supporting us in our promise – We never give up on a child.