On May 7, Show-Me Christian Youth Home (SMCYH) ceremonially started the construction of its new Reed Home at Drysdale Farm in Barnett with approximately 60 in attendance to make the occasion.
The addition of this new home will mark the first major step in expanding the current Drysdale Farm facility into becoming a campus community for the non-profit organization as modeled at the main campus in La Monte, Mo.
SMCYH is a faith-based organization aimed at helping young lives by providing a safe, stable, loving home to young people struggling because of circumstances in their current home environment, according to their mission statement.
“We face a challenge to rescue and restore even more young lives,” explained Director Chad Puckett. “The need exceeds our capacity. The Reed Home is the next opportunity to meet this challenge.”
The Reed Home will serve as a residential home for a new Show-Me family of up to eight children. Located just north of the current house at 19314 Jones Creek Road in Barnett, this second home will be approximately 3,500 square feet and will have six bedrooms.
The main construction will begin this summer and is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2018. Like most of the homes at SMCYH, volunteers will assist in much of the labor.
“Show-Me’s story is our story: one person will tell me about how their church helped to put up the roof, another how they built the porch,” Puckett said. “The Drysdales or Reeds may have set aside the funding and dream, but it takes the whole community before a child can find safety under its roof. ”
The new home is named in honor of Ned and Louise Reed, who donated their property in Camdenton, to start the Camdenton Unit in 1988. Due to the close vicinity of the new highway directly next to the unit, it was closed in 2008. Funds were set aside to establish this new home at Drysdale.
