Building Hope

Hilliard and Ashcraft Homes Now Open

Capital Campaign Enters Into Phase Two

MCH youth and staff recently moved in to the Margaret Ann Yates Ashcraft Home and John E. Hilliard Home, the newest additions to the Waco campus. The opening of these state-of-the-art homes completed the first phase of the Building Hope Capital Campaign, an effort that started in 2015 to build updated homes to better suit the needs of today’s youth.

MCH hosted an Open House and Dedication on Feb. 2 to celebrate and honor the homes’ contributors. The design for the homes followed the same footprint as the Dr. Jack Kyle and Evelyn Daniels Home, which was completed in 2016, with minor modifications based on feedback provided by the Daniels residents and staff. The design features a single-story, open floor plan to encourage interaction along with individual bedrooms and bathrooms to help residents feel safe and secure. The new homes also have two-bedroom home parent apartments connected on each side. The apartments each also have a door for outside entry which will provide privacy if they choose to remain in the apartment during off weeks. MCH leadership believes these apartments will help foster stronger relationships between residents and staff in addition to improving retention of home parent staff.

The addition of the new homes resulted from an initiative in the Strategic Plan to examine the effectiveness of aging residential homes on the Waco campus. Based on modern licensing standards, increased maintenance costs of older homes, and knowledge gained through the latest research and collaboration with the Karyn Purvis Institute for Child Development at Texas Christian University, MCH leadership launched the Building Hope Capital Campaign with the goal of providing new homes on the Waco campus for residential youth and staff. The building of Daniels, Hilliard and Ashcraft completes phase one, and fundraising for phase two to build two additional homes is currently in progress.

Loved ones and friends from Hilliard and Ashcraft were able to provide an inspirational quote that will be included on a plaque in the home to celebrate the donor’s generosity (see page 11). The plaque will also include information about the lives of the homes’ namesakes. Additional donors have been honored through name plates in chosen areas of the home.

Naming opportunities are currently available for new homes based on level of giving. For more information about contributing to the Building Hope Capital Campaign, contact Trey Oakley, vice president for development, at TOakley@MCH.org or (254) 750-1388.

Margaret Ann Yates Ashcraft Home

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Margaret Ann was born in Waco. She was the middle child of three children having an older and younger brother and was commonly referred to as “Sister” or “Sis.” Margaret Ann attended Temple, Texas, schools as well as Baylor University. On January 28, 1949, she married Royce L. Ashcraft. Royce and Margaret Ann shared a love of Texas and its history, traveling far and wide across the state. Margaret Ann was a descendant of Dr. George Washington Barnett who was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence as well as Frederick Browder Gentry who fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. She and Royce also enjoyed boating on Lake Travis with friends and family as well as entertaining them at the home they built. Margaret Ann waterskied until she was in her late 60s. As a couple, they were outstanding on the dance floor to any kind of music. Margaret Ann was a bright and intelligent woman, having been born with a keen mind and a knack for seeing things as they really were. Her generosity will help bless all those who live and serve in this home for generations to come.

 

John E. Hilliard Home

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
-Mark Twain

Colonel John Edward Hilliard was a traveling man. Born in a small town in East Texas, he joined the Air Force after law school and lived in many places both in the United States and abroad. Among his assignments were Alaska, Spain and Thailand. After his retirement he taught government and history at a Christian school in Houston where he was beloved by his students for his fairness, his sense of humor and his dedication to his craft. During summers and holidays, and after his second retirement, he traveled to 97 countries. Most of these trips were purely for pleasure and adventure, his one extravagance. There were, however, a great number of mission trips with his church group. Most of those were to Siberia, where, at the age of 60, he met and later adopted a young boy. He raised that boy to manhood and launched him on the road to a good life as an American citizen. John’s life was a beacon of loving and giving, which will continue to shine in his gift to Methodist Children’s Home.