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A BRIEF HISTORY OF HAPPY HILL FARM
The Academy was opened in 1975, with 20 students in a mobile home. In 1977, an old house was moved to the Farm, refurbished, and became a new home for the Academy. Renovated classroom buildings, purchased for a pittance from the FWISD, were added the next year. The first five boys taken into care were living with the Shipmans and the Browns (the Farm’s first employees) in a leased residence on the Farm. Dreams were large. Bank accounts were small, comprised primarily of the Shipman family’s savings. Skeptics were in abundance, but the Shipmans clung doggedly to what they believed was God’s calling for their lives . . . to provide a safe haven for troubled, needy children.
FROM THE BEGINNING
It was 1974, Ed and Gloria Shipman, in their forties, lived in their country home on acreage just outside Dallas-Fort Worth. Ed was happy in his ministry and work. Their two sons, Chuck and Todd, were sixteen and fourteen years of age. The family was "comfortable." Little did the Shipman's realize that a telephone call for help from a local Marshall was about to change the whole course of their lives. In response to that Marshall's appeal for help, the Shipman's took briefly into their home two teenage runaway sisters. In an effort to find a permanent home for the girls, the Shipman's visited child-care facilities throughout Texas. The sisters were finally placed in a small children's home near Austin...but the Shipman family had been gripped emotionally. They were now primarily aware of the desperate plight of thousands of America's hurting boys and girls--the "drop-outs" and "kicked-outs" of society.
A year later, 1975, with personal financial resources sufficient to last only a few years, but with what they felt to be a sense of Divine direction, the Shipman's opened their hearts and officially opened the doors of Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home to a group of young boys.
Now, 3 decades later, Happy Hill Farm has been a safe haven for hundreds and hundreds of boys and girls, who, for whatever reason, were not able to live in traditional family and school settings. Many have been abused and neglected. All are desperately in need of help if they are to survive and become productive young adults.
The children come to the campus of Happy Hill Farm from throughout Texas. Most are referred by teachers or counselors who know of the Farm's reputation for quality care and education. They also know that Happy Hill Farm is one of the few schools that will take children regardless of their ability to pay.
Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home is licensed as a residential treatment facility, though we function more like a private boarding school for poor, inner-city children. Boys and girls (ages six to eighteen) live on the campus year-round. Most come from broken homes. Many of them need to be out of their family situation if they are to get their lives back together and move on to productive young adulthood. Fees and tuition from the families account for less than ten percent of the Farm's annual budget. The balance of the funds, to cover all of the children's needs, come from the private sector. Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home does not receive any State or Federal funding. We are not a United Way agency. Many of the children come with not much more than the clothing they are wearing. Therefore, we must raise 90-92% of the Farm’s annual budget to survive year to year.
We have been providing a private school, clothing, food, shelter, vocational training, and counseling to indigent boys and girls for more than 30 years now. Happy Hill Farm is a 500-acre farm-campus including a fully-accredited (K-12) private school, designed to accommodate more than 100 students. There is a health care center, athletic center, dining center, fine arts center, twelve housing units, staff housing, an 18,000 square foot agricultural center with a show ring, livestock pens, stables and riding trails, athletic fields, swimming pool, tennis courts, and administrative center.
Through our social workers and counselors, we try to help the entire family as much as possible, but our first commitment is to the children. Over the years, we have seen literally hundreds of these at-risk boys and girls rise above their environment and move on into life as successful adults.
As a working farm, Happy Hill Farm raises its own beef, lamb, and pork. There are horses and a host of pets. The Farm has a very large and active 4-H program. Students daily care for the livestock. Grain and hay crops are grown for the livestock.
Happy Hill Farm's boys‚ and girls teams excel in track, football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, and more, competing in the Texas Association of Private Schools League. The gym's trophy case is packed, bearing testimony to the students‚ hard work and athletic abilities.
Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home is licensed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Happy Hill Farm Academy is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Texas Association of Private Schools and the Texas Association of Non-Public Schools. |
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