DOES YOUR PROGRAM WORK?
Yes!! Each year, Tulsa Boys' Home delivers residential services to over 135 boys and their families. In our 88 year history, many of these boys have learned to lead productive lives, and credit TBH for breaking the cycle of poverty, abuse and neglect that is often passed on from generation to generation if no help is available. Accordingly, our good work is multiplied through countless familes and the children of the children that once lived, and healed, at TBH.
Dear TBH,
I just wanted to tell Mr. Fady [former Youth and Family Counselor, Bear Lodge] hello. And that I'm now living and enjoying the Army and the military life.
I'm currently living in Baumholder, Germany. I'm an infantry mortar man, and am about to deploy to Kuwait and Iraq (Baghdad) in less than a week. By the time this letter gets to TBH, I will have already stepped foot in Iraq.
I will be staying in Iraq no longer than 455 days, approximately 15 months. We are told we are going to be living in tents in this 140+ degree weather. But moreover, I have been thinking about TBH and all the guys I met there.
But I just wanted to say hello and thanks for all you all did for me. Me and my parents are on a lot better grounds, thanks to TBH and the military.
Thank you to all, especially Mr. [Fady] Srour, Mr. [Michael] Murphy (Program Director), and Mr. [Gregg] Conway [Executive Director], oh, and the Bear Lodge!
Sincerely
James "Evan" Pennington
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Dear Gregg [Conway],
My son, Mitchell, was at TBH for 5˝ months and has been home now for 2 months.
I cannot begin to express my gratitude for taking my son from his non-functioning, drug dependent state back in July and helping him make a new beginning. It is truly a miracle your staff performs and if the boys “get it”, they can have whatever their newfound passions are with the tools they learn there.
I had tried so many avenues – counseling, outpatient programs, Street School, CHINS petition – and nothing worked. When I called and talked to Ashley, I felt hope for the 1st time in 2 years. I knew an all-encompassing immersion in the healing model you use was his only chance and as a single mom, my only option that was affordable.
The Elk Lodge staff was incredible! Every person I talked with was informed, helpful and committed to those boys. Rick Rogers, his counselor, and Robbie Wheets endured endless questions from me and always found an answer. Their knowledge and support was invaluable. Plus Rick and Rusty's [Gillette] extra efforts to educate the parents with an after-hours group shows their true dedication.
The school staff, billing, nurse and anyone else I spoke with was always professional and accommodating. It shows the commitment you have to training and believing in your mission. Your grounds, facilities and the equine program are all amazing.
There truly aren’t enough superlatives or words of thanks to express my appreciation. The only drawback to our whole experience was not having an after-care program to ease our transition and help support Mitchell once released. If I can do something to help– whether it’s testimonials, fund-raising, etc. – please call on me (though I’m still limited by my broken arm for the next two months).
Please pass along my most heartfelt thanks to all.
Gratefully,
Anne
 Lee Bob Rose was a resident at Tulsa Boys' Home in 1988 when he was 16 years old. He had lived in Sapulpa until briefly moving to Tulsa where his problems reached 'critical mass'.
Lee got into trouble from joy riding in cars, and stealing. He had 'come up the hard way'. His father had been in jail his entire life, and his attitude was bleak, to say the least.
That all changed at Tulsa Boys' Home.
"I did really well in school at the Boys' Home," said Lee. "I really enjoyed school out there. The teachers actually took time to teach me something; wood shop was my favorite subject.
"I kind of needed an attitude adjustment. I needed a more positive attitude about life and to learn to accept responsibility for myself and my actions. It was time I was seeing things from a different point of view, and I needed to learn to take care of myself -- the way I dressed, carried myself, and talked. It was time for me to get more into education."
Lee enjoyed everything about Tulsa Boys' Home. He enjoyed the awards he earned, the assemblies he attended, and the arts and crafts that were offered then, especially ceramics as taught by "Ms." Betty Dailey. He enjoyed working out and playing sports in the gymnasium, and especially remembers camping out in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas for a day.
Lee entered the Job Corp program when he left TBH, and eventually ended up working in the oil fields as a pipeline welder, a skill he learned on the job. He has been there for seventeen years.
He lives in Kieffer now, and is married with five kids: three biological children and two stepsons
Lee obviously learned civic responsibility when he was at the Boys' Home because he volunteers for police work in Mounds. But neither welding nor work as a policeman are his ultimate goal.
Lee wants to join the U.S. Army, and soon.
He has a cousin who is a Navy recruiter, and she is working with him to prepare to enlist.
In addition to serving his country, Lee wants to further his education while in the Army.
Lee's belief in the mission of Tulsa Boys' Home is founded in how it changed his life.
"If I hadn't been in the Boys' Home when I was, I would have ended up dead or in the 'pen' [prison]."
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The year was 1939 when Robert Hutchcraft was placed at Tulsa Boys' Home by a mother who was sickly and just couldn't support her  family.
Robert's successful life is proof that she made the right decision.
He was ten or eleven years old at the time; an exception was made for him because twelve was the minimum age for boys joining the Boys' Home back then. He would live at his new home until 1941 or 1942.
While he lived at Tulsa Boys' Home, he learned about equality -- that no one should think himself better than anyone else -- went to First Presbyterian Church, and sat on the front row each Sunday with the rest of the boys, swam at the YMCA and got to the "Y" in the Boys' Home's old Packard touring car. He attended Horace Mann for his schooling.
Robert enjoyed movies downtown when he got the chance, and football at TU (which was 'way out in the country back then') as well. He remembers collecting a ton of newspapers with the rest of the boys at "The Home" during WWII for the war effort. It was a time when going up 11th Street much east of Peoria got you out of the city and into the country where a guy "could even do some haying".
When he left Tulsa Boys' Home, and then his mother later on, Robert became a Rodeo Clown, served during WWII with the Navy Seebees, and worked as a nightclub comedian before settling down with a wife to start his own family.
To support his new clan, Robert went to diesel school in Okmulgee where he learned to work on diesel trucks. His long and successful career would also include work in the oil fields of Oklahoma and becoming the Maintenance Manager at Transcon Freight Lines in Oklahoma City before he retired several years ago.
Along the way, he collected six kids of his own.
That's not a bad life by anyone's measurement, and it is no mistake that he came back to visit Tulsa Boys' Home.
Robert visited our 'new' campus because he believes that his years at TBH made his life better. In fact, Robert feels that he made good decisions most of his life except for one thing.
He recently moved to Texas.
Everyone is allowed one mistake!
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 Ed Baxter lived at TBH during his 8th and 9th grade years in 1957 and 1958. He had come from Whitaker State Orphanage in Pryor, Oklahoma.
Baxter left TBH in 1958, attended McLain High School, and graduated in 1962.
Ed left TBH before he graduated from High School because he thought he wanted more freedom. He got his mother to take him back home after her second husband died. That didn’t work out like Ed wanted, so he ended up getting an apartment, a job selling shoes for Kinney’s Shoes, and going back to high school.
After serving three years in the Army, he attended OSU, graduating in 1970 with a BS in Accounting.
Ed has worked for a number of companies, including Trinity University, until 1992 when he went to Boysville in San Antonio, Texas, to do Planned Giving. He joined the staff of Boysville as a way to pay back those people who had invested in him when he was at Tulsa Boys' Home and Whitaker State.
"I have been working at Boysville for the last fourteen years," Ed said.
"TBH had provided me a home when I had no other place to live. One of the more important things that happened to me while I was at TBH was a volunteer taking me to Church at the First Baptist Church in Tulsa and starting me on a lifelong walk of faith."
Among his fondest memories of the Boys' Home is the time Ed participated in an Optimist Club speech contest in 1957 sponsored by the Oil Capitol Optimist Club. He wrote a speech on the meaning of Optimism and won the contest.
"I was asked to give the speech at the TBH annual $100 a plate dinner, which I did. I think the President of TBH then was a man named Armon Bost. I was attending Horace Mann Jr. High at the time and his daughter, Beverly, was a classmate.
"'Pop' Singleton was the Superintendent at TBH, and he is the only father figure in my life. Pop took a direct interest in me, and he has remained a major influence in my life. He took me fishing a couple of times and he caught fish and I didn’t. I remember the time as special because Pop was taking a special interest in me.
"We had a firewood project where you could make money by working to cut, split, and deliver firewood to local home owners. You could also get assigned extra duty on the firewood splitting for misbehaving. I never had to do the extra duty but I learned that hard work paid off!"
Ed is married with two children and two grandchildren. He believes that the Boys' Home was instrumental in setting some basic values in his life, and is sure, in many ways, that was what saved his life.
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Daniel S. was fifteen years old when he came to Tulsa Boys' Home in 1999. Five years after leaving, clean-cut and healthy and ready to take on the world, Daniel readily admits that his year on our campus dramatically changed his life for the better.
Daniel was born in Bartlesville, but grew up in Tulsa. Because he grew up in "a bad environment", he came to TBH as a teenager with some serious problems.
"I lied to everybody and I was stealing," said Daniel in a recent interview from his room at Oklahoma State University. "School was never a problem for me, even before I came to Tulsa Boys' Home. So I did well in school at TBH, and my best subjects were English and History. But I also learned how to replace my bad habits and develop good ones when I was at Tulsa Boys' Home."
When he left TBH, he returned to his grandparents' home in Bartlesville and graduated from High School, winning two college awards, the Deverce League of Bartlesville Scholarship and the Choctaw Nation scholarship. His next big step in life was to return to our campus for an interview with Tulsa Boys' Home Executive Director, Gregory T. Conway.
"Before I left," continued Daniel, "Mr. Conway had told me about the scholarship program that is available for qualified Tulsa Boy's Home guys. I came back to Tulsa Boys' Home and went through an interview with him, and signed an agreement that, if I kept a certain grade average, TBH would help pay for my college."
Daniel spent his Freshman year at Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond before transferring to Oklahoma State University in the 2003-2004 semesters.
"I am twenty years old now and a Junior at OSU. I will graduate in May of 2007 if everything goes right. I have declared my Major in Management Sciences--computer systems. That means that I want to be in computer systems or business analysis; basically a programmer."
Spanish is his declared Minor.
Just as was true while he was at Tulsa Boys' Home, Daniel has several favorite 'subjects' at OSU. He enjoys ROTC, intramural sports, flag football, baseball, and computer gaming. He has also enjoyed "living on a whole floor of geeks and making a lot of good friends."
There is no doubt that Daniel's is a story that both he and TBH can celebrate. And Daniel is more than willing to share several words of advice with boys who will follow him at Tulsa Boys' Home so they may share his success.
"They should come face to face with what they've been doing in the past, and be open and receptive to what the staff is trying to teach them. It may not sound like fun to them, but, in the long run, they'll be a better person for it."
"At first," Daniel concluded, "I know guys don't trust or believe what the staff is trying to tell them. But as my testimony, Tulsa Boys' Home changed me, so it must be able to work for them too."
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The years 1963 to 1967 were life changing for Dennis Bennett. He has spent the first years of his life with a destructive attitude.
After a visit to the present campus of Tulsa Boys’ Home, he shared with current residents how he had twenty years in the Air Force as a pilot, rising to the rank of Major. He credited TBH for his change from a life-negating attitude to a life-affirming outlook that brought him a college degree, a successful career, and a wonderful family.
His testimony is just one of so many proving that TBH is all about “changing lives for a lifetime.”
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 John Lafferty lived at Tulsa Boys’ Home for six years beginning in 1953.
He went on to become an electrician after serving 4 years in the U.S. Navy. In the service, he worked aboard a wooden-hulled mine-sweeping boat during the historical Cuban missile crisis.
In 1960, John became the first person married on our campus, and now has two children, still teaches at Tulsa Technology Center, and works as a fee inspector.
Does Tulsa Boys’ Home really ‘change the life of a boy for a lifetime”? You bet. John is living proof that the mission of TBH serves not only individual boys, but their future families, our community, our nation and our futures.
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Johnnie C spoke with optimism and enthusiasm. He is a former resident who ‘came up the hard way’ and  now looks forward to a successful and productive life.
Johnnie lived at TBH from 1999 to 2000 when he was 16 years old. He had come to us because he was angry, had a problem with authority, and was jealous of the kids in the foster homes where he had lived. He got into many fights.
“I took many things with me from TBH,” he said, “that now serve me well. I took independence with me – I had a job with Burger King when I left, and Tulsa Boys’ Home helped get it for me. “
Johnnie has been employed at McDonald’s for more than 3 years, and is now an assistant manager. The advice he would share with boys now at Tulsa Boys’ Home?
“Education is the key. And don’t give up working on your goals and you will make it.”
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 Ken Harp is a former Tulsa Boys’ Home resident who has a lot to smile about. He is a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, working as a Flying Crew Chief on cargo aircraft.
When he was 17 in 1992, he became alienated from his father and began “running wild on the streets” of Sapulpa after his mother died.
“I had problems with dealing with the pain,” said Harp. “I was scared to come here because I had heard all of my life that boys' homes were tough. But the staff made me feel comfortable and helped me with problems. I could tell they cared about me, and that they were here because they cared about what they did for guys like me.”
Where he was in 1992 and where he is now in his life speaks volumes.
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