It’s a challenge to step outside of your comfort zone - to leave everything you know behind. When Jebbeh was only 10 years old, she did just that. Spending her early childhood years in center-city Philadelphia with her mother and two older sisters, Jebbeh didn’t know a life outside of her crowded school and hectic [...]
Andre Dunbar-Smith, a 2014 children’s home graduate, values self-reflection. He’s constantly thinking of ways to improve his character, actions and motives in life. Andre credits the children’s home for this trait. “They teach you to look in the mirror at yourself and make yourself better,” Andre said. “You don’t have a mom and a dad, [...]
During her career as an ampoule operator for narcotics at McNeil Laboratories, Trudi Prath was famous for clearing the snow off of her coworkers’ cars in the winter.
Rina is known among her friend group as “the jokester.” She loves to make people laugh and encourage them to just be in the moment. However, she hasn’t always been so generous with her humor or open to new friendships.
Melinda Tkacs moved around a lot as a child. She first lived with her father. He then left her with her aunt and uncle in California, and soon after, she went to live with her grandmother. When Melinda entered into high school, she didn’t think many educational opportunities were possible for her. College after graduation seemed at an even larger distance.
Arthur, now age 24, is a 2014 Masonic Children’s Home alumnus and 2018 Bloomsburg University graduate. He currently works as an inside sales representative for the Philadelphia Union soccer team in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Noelia’s family was struggling with money, and Noelia was struggling in the Philadelphia school system, when they decided to contact the children’s home for help. Despite moving far from her home, Noelia, then eight years old, was already familiar with one aspect of her new environment: her two older brothers lived there. “Philadelphia wasn’t that [...]
George Kahler never knew his parents well. His mother passed away from bone cancer when he was just 2 years old, and his father died of a heart attack three years later. George was the youngest of five children. His brother, Ray, was closest in age and only nine years old when their father passed [...]
Joanne Westafer’s childhood was like a fairytale, filled with long summer days outdoors and stretches of homegrown vegetables and roaming chickens in her backyard. It was a “happy, yet simple time” that she still remembers vividly today at age 88. Joanne’s father was a “busy-body” who devoted his time and energy to her and her [...]
