Instead of closing a children's home in Ponca City and uprooting dozens of foster children, the American Legion will transfer its ownership, officials confirmed Monday. The American Legion had planned to close the home last year, until the state Attorney General's office won a court injunction to keep the facility open temporarily. Now the attorney general and the American Legion have reached a permanent arrangement that will save the home, but under new management.
Details are still being worked out, officials said, but the American Legion has agreed to transfer the home and all of its assets to a new organization created specifically to operate the home. "It's a total victory," said Diane Beekman, a volunteer at the facility who helped set up a Save the Children's Home group. "We were always optimistic that it would work out somehow, we just didn't know how," she said. Established in 1928 for children of World War I veterans, the home now houses 44 foster children. The Oklahoma Legion board voted last fall to close the home, saying state budget cuts were threatening to make the facility a financial burden on the American Legion.
Supporters countered that the home did its own fundraising and received little if any support from the state Legion chapter. In a letter last year asking the attorney general to intervene, Beekman suggested that the American Legion wanted to divert the home's assets toward other causes.
Details are still being worked out, officials said, but the American Legion has agreed to transfer the home and all of its assets to a new organization created specifically to operate the home. "It's a total victory," said Diane Beekman, a volunteer at the facility who helped set up a Save the Children's Home group. "We were always optimistic that it would work out somehow, we just didn't know how," she said. Established in 1928 for children of World War I veterans, the home now houses 44 foster children. The Oklahoma Legion board voted last fall to close the home, saying state budget cuts were threatening to make the facility a financial burden on the American Legion.
Supporters countered that the home did its own fundraising and received little if any support from the state Legion chapter. In a letter last year asking the attorney general to intervene, Beekman suggested that the American Legion wanted to divert the home's assets toward other causes.
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