Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Members of the King’s Home Shelby Auxiliary recently presented a $70,000 check to King’s Home to assist in its mission to help victims of abuse.

On May 23, members of the King’s Home Shelby Auxiliary met with representatives of King’s Home to hand-deliver a $70,000 check comprised of funds raised from a recent Tablescapes fundraising event.

“It’s just absolutely amazing what you all do for us,” King’s Home Vice President Jim Medley said to the auxiliary group. “I wish I could adequately thank you, but what I can say is, ‘Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.’ All of us feel the same way for what you have provided for so many years and continue to do so.”

President Lew Burdette explained the purpose behind King’s Home and the work it continues to do.

“98 percent of all of our residents have experienced really horrible abuse, including our teenagers,” he said. “That’s what King’s Home (has) been doing for almost 50 years is providing help and opportunity and hope for teenagers, adult moms with children—all fleeing domestic violence, all experiencing abuse in their life—and giving them a chance to start over in life.”

At the King’s Home Shelby Campus, they offer 21 residential group homes with 11 homes for teenagers and 10 homes for adult mothers with children.

“It’s just such a great program,” Burdette said. “Just seeing God at work, we say that Jeremiah 29:11 is the life verse of King’s Home ministry. God has a plan and a hope and a future for your life. No matter what you’ve experienced or come out of and how bad that abuse is and (if) you feel like there’s just no hope in life, there really is.”

Event Planner Carolyn Ramey explained the work that the auxiliary group does to aid in King’s Home’s ministry.

“Our group is a group of women (that do) two big fundraisers a year for King’s Home and, specifically, the women and children in their home,” she said. “We go into their home every month and talk to them and have parties and things, but the two events are the big main fundraisers. Tablescapes is our spring (event) and then we have the really large one in the fall which we started calling ‘Give and Gather.’”

Ramey shared that the auxiliary group was able to raise $70,000 through this year’s Tablescapes, the largest amount the event has ever raised before.

“We were excited that this year, 2023, raised the most for the home,” she said.

Ranea Breen, president of King’s Home Shelby Auxiliary expressed her enthusiasm for the board and her team.

“I’m very proud to be president going on four years, and I love the board I work on,” she said. “We work as a team, and we’re like a family.”

The next major fundraiser hosted by the King’s Home Shelby Auxiliary will be the third annual Give and Gather event in October.