ANDOVER, Kan. (AP) A child advocacy group has been awarded a major challenge grant for building a new children’s home in south-central Kansas.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, a Delaware-based nonprofit, is providing $406,000 in a challenge grant to the Sunlight Children’s Advocacy and Rights Foundation. The foundation needs to raise about $480,000 more by January 2014 to secure the grant.
The foundation has been trying to raise $2.5 million to build Sunshine Children’s Home in Andover for children from Butler, Elk and Greenwood counties who have been temporarily removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect. Children in those counties now are taken to Wichita for placement.
The foundation has received about $1.8 million in gifts, pledges and in-kind donations for the home.