BCFS garners highest praise from children

LULING—The Governor’s Division of Emergency Management praised Baptist Child & Family Serives for its role in caring for children taken from a polygamist Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints ranch in West Texas. But the highest praise came from the people whose opinions matter most—the children themselves.

“You’re nice,” a 6-year-old girl told BCFS Executive Vice President Nanci Gibbons as she walked past her on the playground at the BCFS Youth Ranch at Luling, where 75 children received care.

Gibbons thanked the child, but she asked why she believed she was nice.

“Because your shirt says BCFS,” the girl answered. “It means Best Care for Children.”

“For the children to recognize that the folks in BCFS shirts are there to help and be ‘nice’ is the best compliment we could get,” BCFS President Kevin Dinnin said.

Keeping siblings together

Placing 75 of the 462 children at the Youth Ranch allowed Child Protective Services to keep many sibling groups together. It also kept BCFS in overdrive mode to staff the facility and activate support programs with local school districts. A mobile medical unit also was stationed at the ranch.

The San Antonio-based agency was alerted April 4, just as the operation to remove children from the ranch in Eldorado got under way. Officials told BCFS to be ready to receive 24 children at the Youth Ranch. But the next day, Dinnin was asked if BCFS could supervise sheltering operations in San Angelo “for up to 150 women and children.”

At its peak, the shelters housed 550 women and children. Texas Baptist Men disaster relief, Victim Relief Ministries and volunteers from churches such as First Baptist in Plains served.

As incident commander, Dinnin provided overall command and control of all responding agencies. During the three weeks the shelters operated in San Angelo until the court ordered the children placed in child care facilities across the state, about 1,000 state, county and city personnel and volunteers worked under BCFS supervision as the agency interacted daily on critical incident decisions with various governmental agencies and officials.

Full deployment

BCFS deployed 55 employees, including most of its senior administrative staff, and more than $1 million worth of assets. In addition to two mobile medical clinics and a mobile feeding unit, BCFS provided the communication technology for the operation.

While CPS and the state courts decided about placement of the children, BCFS ministered to emotionally stressed women and children around the clock; accommodated religious practices by providing organic, non-processed meals and acceptable toys and play activities; treated outbreaks of chicken pox and upper respiratory infections; created an alternate phone system when the cable to the shelters and command post accidentally was cut; developed contingency plans for any of the possible court rulings; processed mountains of laundry; and handled all the purchasing.

When the courts ordered the transfer of the children to facilities across the state, BCFS tracked the bus convoys dispatched around the state by global positioning system.

“To categorize the sheltering operations as ‘highly successful’ is a gross understatement,” Dinnin added. ”To quote Chief Colley of the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management, BCFS was ‘the rock star of the San Angelo operation.’ We do appreciate that—but being noted for providing Best Care for Children is the highest compliment possible.”