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Suicide at ChildServ
Ursus:
LakeForest-LakeBluff Patch
Historic Marker Ensures Children's Home Will Always be Remembered
Building once occupied full block in Lake Bluff until the late 1960s.
By Patricia Havrin · November 10, 2010
It's probably been more than 40 years since Heather Madison Walden has stood on the ground where the Lake Bluff Children's Home once occupied a full block near the northeast corner of East Scranton and Evanston Avenues.
But this place holds good memories for her even if the circumstances that put her in the children's home from 1961-64 were not. Walden's parents were getting a divorce and her father had a drinking problem.
"My Mom explained our going to the Children's Home like it was just like cousin Linda, who was going to college," Walden said. "'We will see you at times. We still love you,' my Mom said."
While at the orphanage, Walden said she doesn't recall "any time where I was scared out of my wits, it was uneasy at times, but not scared," she said. "Thinking back we were able to go to things. We saw Victor Borge, Narrator of Stories and Harmonicats. We had opportunities we would not have had like going to the circus and Riverview every year. We saw moves. I think we were fortunate."
To commemorate the memory of the children and staff that lived and worked at the orphanage, a historic marker was officially installed Monday in a sidewalk panel at the northeast corner of East Scranton and Evanston Avenues in Lake Bluff.
The Lake Bluff Children's Home began in 1894 with the arrival of six orphans from Chicago and within a couple years grew to 30 children. The building was incorporated in 1895 as the Lake Bluff Methodist Deaconess Orphanage and between 1895-1969 expanded to become known as the Lake Bluff Children's Home, housing over 100 children per year and covering the entire 200 block of Scranton Avenue.
Memorial Marker Coordinator Tom Tincher explained many of the children who stayed at the home were not orphans, but given up by parents who could no longer afford to support them.
"Many of these children grow up and return to visit the Lake Bluff Community," Tincher said. "They are disappointed the orphanage is not there. This marker can alert people to where it stood."
The Vliet Center for Lake Bluff History collaborated on the historic marker initiative with the Lake Bluff Women's Club, Village of Lake Bluff, Grace United Methodist Church and ChildServ.
In 1973 the Lake Bluff Children's Home was renamed ChildServ and moved to Chicago. Jim Jones, ChildServe CEO, said "there was such wisdom and such a vision for what the organization is today. Like to think that 116 years later it is still the same, wanting to bring permanent support to families."
"ChildServ is Lake Bluff's Home," Jones added. "In terms of making a commitment to serve today's disparate people in underserved communities, they need the same kind of love they had then. All communities need to keep a great beginning alive." ?
Over the years the Vliet Center has collected documents and photographs, as well as positive feedback from visitors who lived in the orphanage and come back thrilled to see the museum exhibits. Often they report the times spent in Lake Bluff were the happiest days of their life.
Phyllis Albrecht, former Village president and Vliet director, explained that "the dedication of caregivers to children is a story we hear over and over again."
United Methodist Church Pastor Debbie Fisher explained "the Methodist Church was right across the street from the orphanage. They came and filled our Sunday school classrooms and sang in our Choir. It was a wonderful relationship."
Many of the volunteers and employees of the Children's Home were also church members, explained resident Mary Dalton, who has lived in the area since 1954. Long time townie Ethel Tincher explained that "people really felt connected with the Children's Home. Many pictures hanging in the Vliet Center used to be in the Methodist Fellowship Hall."
Volunteer Kraig Moreland is currently working to raise enough money to finish producing a video on "Memories of the Children's Home of Lake Bluff." Moreland has traveled to 10 states to interview and gather information.
"Everyone I talked to, people who worked here, then went to work at other orphanages, all stated that it was not the same feel," Moreland said. "The staff and people who worked here were family. The married couples and people taking care of them were one big family. They had some outstanding leaders, and staff that were committed to kids."?
Related Topics: Dedication, Lake Bluff Children's Home, Orphanage, and Vliet Museum
Copyright © 2012 Patch.
Ursus:
Here's a copy of that plaque:
It reads as follows (including a typo in the 4th paragraph - "CHILDREN?S" - which looks like it may have actually made it into the sidewalk):
LAKE BLUFF CHILDREN'S HOME
1894 - 1969[/list]
THE LAKE BLUFF CHILDREN'S HOME'S STATELY RED BRICK BUILDINGS ONCE OCCUPIED THIS ENTIRE BLOCK BORDERED BY SCRANTON, EVANSTON, GLEN AND NORTH AVENUES.
IN 1894 METHODIST DEACONESSES BROUGHT SIX HOMELESS CHICAGO CHILDREN TO LAKE BLUFF TO BE CARED FOR IN A RENTED COTTAGE.
FROM THIS MODEST BEGINNING, A MAJOR CHILDCARE FACILITY DEVELOPED.
MORE THAN 100 CHILDREN ANNUALLY RESIDED IN THE CHILDREN?S HOME, ATTENDED LOCAL SCHOOLS AND PARTICIPATED IN THE LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY.
IN THE LATE 1950S FOSTER CARE SHIFTED TO PLACEMENT WITH INDIVIDUAL FAMILIES AND COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAMS IN THE METROPOLITAN CHICAGO AREA. IN 1969 THE LAKE BLUFF FACILITY WAS CLOSED AND THE BUILDINGS WERE RAZED IN MARCH 1979.
· · ·
THIS MARKER IN MEMORY OF THE CHILDREN AND THEIR DEDICATED CAREGIVERS WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY:
GRACE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH · LAKE BLUFF WOMEN'S CLUB · VILLAGE OF LAKE BLUFF · VLIET CENTER FOR LAKE BLUFF HISTORY · CHILDSERV[/list][/size]
Copyright © 2012 Patch.[/list]
none-ya:
I'd like to backtrack a little. The OP Says that she took her life on a nearby railroad track. Was she actually hit by a train? If so,how do we know she was pushed?
none-ya:
After all they're not gonna do much of an autopsy on someone who was hit by train.
Ursus:
--- Quote from: "none-ya" ---I'd like to backtrack a little. The OP Says that she took her life on a nearby railroad track. Was she actually hit by a train? If so,how do we know she was pushed?
--- End quote ---
Well...as far as I know, there was NO mention whatsoever about Caitlin being "pushed." Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you and and am taking you too literally here (I apologize, if that's the case).
The specific language used in the article in the OP was (emphasis added):
ChildServ in Naperville is where 15-year-old Caitlin Lee lived until she took her own life on nearby railroad tracks.[/list][/size]
Thus far, and I could well stand to be corrected on this, there has been no description of just HOW Caitlin Lee took her own life on the railroad tracks.
One thing IS clear, however, and that is that Caitlin's family blames the system in general, and ChildServ in particular. The article continues (emphasis added):
Her mother, Mary Lee, blames the system and the home that was supposed to take care of her troubled daughter, who was a danger to herself and became a ward of the state.
"I just remember screaming out, 'I told you this was going to happen,' " Mary Lee said about her daughter, who reportedly was not doing well at ChildServ.
During her three-month stay at ChildServ, Lee ran away 17 times. In fact, in the nine days leading up to her death, she ran away six times.
Caitlin's grandfather, Patrick Ward – a former elected state's attorney in Lee County – says Caitlin was doing better at a different facility and she should not have been moved to ChildServ.
"She was my girl. She shouldn't have been released from the only place she was safe," said Ward. "And we tried and we yelled and we screamed and we begged."
CBS 2's investigation uncovered police records showing Naperville police were called to the home 625 times in just two years.[/list][/size]
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