In The News

Dallas Morning News February, 2001

"I glanced over a news release from J. C. Penney, smething about donating vans to Happy Hill Farm Children's Home. 'Nice, nice,' I thought moving quickly to the next news release. And then I thought , 'Wait a minute! Maybe this is the answer.' No, not more vans. Or news releases. More Happy Hill Farms, I mean. More children's homes. More places to send struggling kids. Goodness knows we're sending too many to prison these days. Maybe we should start sending them away a little earlier - - to a place with cows and horses instead of guards and fences.

That theory sure fell on receptive ears with Ed Shipman. He's only been saying the same thing for a couple of decades. 'Exactly!' he said when I offered my little insight. 'And there's a small but growing movement of people who agree.' The place just exudes calm and order. It must be a terrible shock for the topsy-turvy kids who arrive here.

Mr. Shipman backed into this business years ago after hearing of problem teens being passed around, not welcome anywhere. He and his wife, Gloria, took in five boys. Now they provide home and schooling for 100 kids, ages 6 to 18. Typically, kids come to Happy Hill Farm at ages 12 to 14 and stay two to three years. Most are able to return home and do just fine.

'We don't lose many kids,' Mr. Shipman said. And there's no big mystery about their formula for success. 'Consistency. Predictability. A focus on spiritual and moral values,' Mr. Shipman said. 'And lots of personal, individual attention.' The mystery to me is why there aren't a dozen Happy Hill Farms scattered around the outskirts of Dallas-Fort Worth. Part of that answer, Mr. Shipman said, goes back 50 or 60 years, when old-fashioned orphanages fell out of favor. Foster homes became the new approach.

'Some of the criticisms of the big institutions were justified,' Mr. Shipman said. 'But I think we threw the baby out with the bath water.'

'I'm not saying not to have foster homes. But we need other options.'"