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Churches host Elon Homes youth

September, 2000

Two groups of teenagers from the Elon Homes for Children, a UCC-related facility in North Carolina, were guests of four Massachusetts Conference churches this summer.

Forty of the youth, ages 13 to 17, stayed with families of the First Congregational Church of the UCC in Wellfleet and the Federated Church of Orleans, and another 12 were hosted by the Groveland Congregational Church UCC and the First Parish Church, Congregational, in Manchester.

Jean Simpson, the New England Minister in Outreach for Elon Homes, said the purpose of the trip was two-fold: “to give them a vacation like every normal kid deserves, and to give them a chance to experience a real, Christian family.”

“Many of them have not sat down to a family dinner before,” she said. “One of our kids never knew how to sit down and just talk.”

Elon Homes has had a long association with the Massachusetts Conference. The organization has two residency programs and two charter schools, works in foster care and adoption, has a child life day center, and a family care program to help families avoid getting into crisis situations.

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