Boys & Girls Country: Houston-area ranch saves children from families in crisis

HOCKLEY, Texas - A safe haven in northwest Houston offers a comforting home for children who have nowhere else to go.

Boys and Girls Country has been serving children for more than 50 years.

Hundreds of Houstonians turn out year after year for the Heritage Award Dinner to help support Boys and Girls Country! Headliners are always on hand at the event, with Frank Caliendo this year, to crack-up the crowd and lighten the mood. But living without parents is no laughing matter.

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The crowd realizes that, which is why they continue to help children in need at the loving home in Hockley, called Boys and Girls Country.

"It's more than a children's home. This is a place where kids are able to have a normal life, grow up here in a safe and secure environment," states the CEO of BGC, Vincent Duran.

Harmoni sure is thankful for it! She admits when she first arrived there at eight years old, it took a while to warm up to the idea of living outside her own home.

"As I got older, I wanted to go back home. But then after a while, I said it's best for me to stay here, because I'll be able to be put through school and finish school and actually go to college," exclaims Harmoni.

Just like Cameron! She moved here nine years ago and learned to thrive here, recently graduating from Rice University.

"I'm very thankful I got to experience a childhood here. I got to experience what it was like to not be worried about things that adults really should be worrying about. I got to just be here, experience the joy of having a family, because I never believed before that family was defined by blood, but being here really, enforced that," explains Cameron.

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Kids here are encouraged to do their very best in school. They have what are called "house parents" who live in cottages with them, raising them in a loving, Christian environment.

"We're still a working ranch, with 200 head of cattle, and so I think the environment is very healing and therapeutic for our kids here," says Vincent.

Five hundred children have learned to thrive here over the past dozen years alone. To continue those valiant efforts, they need help.

"One of our biggest needs is we need house parents who would consider coming to work here and giving part of their time and have a feel that they have a calling to invest in our children. So we're building brand-new cottages here, and we can't fill them with kids if we don't have house parents to take care of the kids," says Vincent.

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The house parents mean the world to Cameron, as she continues to work through pain from her own family.

"I don't want to say, worthless, but feeling as if I didn't mean anything to my parents, and that's something I still struggle with to this day. But I feel like even back then, I was able to see that I'm in a safe environment. I actually lived in foster care before I lived with my mom until I was six years old. So comparing BGC to a lot of group homes and foster homes I've been in is a lot safer, a completely different environment," says Cameron.

Everyone here is like family to Harmoni.

"I'll call the girls in my cottage, my sisters. When I go to school, 'Oh, that's my sister. Or, if one of the guys from another cottage, oh, that's my brother or that's my cousin.' I'm really close with them," says a smiling Harmoni. 

They're getting to experience the mission of Boys ands Girls Country, which is to build healthy relationships and raise kids to become self-sustaining and contributing adults.

For more information: https://boysandgirlscountry.org