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Champions of Children: John and Mary Warren
John W. Warren (1857-1943) and Mary V. Warren (1862-1959) were the founders of Tennyson Center for Children in 1904. Six decades before child abuse began to be recognized by the mainstream medical community, this couple, both teachers, donated their 219-acre farm near Loveland, Colorado, for Tennyson Center for Children. The couple was not wealthy, but having no children of their own, they decided to care for the less-fortunate children of the area. Mrs. Warren said in later years that their intent was clearly to help children get a practical start on life in a loving environment. She had been influenced by a publication called The Orphan's Cry, published by the National Benevolent Association (NBA), the philanthropic arm of the Christian church (Disciples of Christ). The Warrens donated their farm (valued at the then-astonishing amount of $10,000) to the NBA, which then had five similar homes in other parts of the U.S.
Though the original intent was for Tennyson Center for Children to be an orphanage, and the term "child abuse" did not exist then, it was clear that some children were there not because of deceased parents, but for other reasons. In those days, it was hard for anyone to imagine parents inflicting serious or unfair harm on their children--much less discuss or publicize the idea. But an early Tennyson Center for Children brochure states: "...children have been gathered from over the entire Rocky Mountain region. They have frequently been received diseased and starved in body and mind--or cursed into life by unworthy parents, they have come through the juvenile court."
John and Mary Warren and a number of dedicated church members and volunteers raised the money for the first building, for furnishings, and everything else required for start-up. In 1907, to better serve the Rocky Mountain region, Tennyson Center for Children was moved to Denver. Located at 3331 Decatur Street in a rented house, Tennyson Center for Children continued its work. In 1910, a new location was built at 2950 Tennyson Street, the site of the present Tennyson Center for Children campus.
The Warrens and others endured numerous obstacles. Besides having to educate the public about society's need to care for other people's children, they were constantly fundraising to keep Tennyson Center for Children operating. Community needs had risen to the point where there were more children who needed to be at Tennyson Center for Children than there were spaces. There were penny campaigns, where church members saved their pennies for Tennyson Center for Children. A donate-a-bed fundraiser asked donors to buy a child's bed, which would then be affixed with a nameplate of the donor. There were "membership" drives and even volunteers who drove door-to-door in buggies to collect farm products to supply food for the home.
In addition to those challenges, the Warrens and others who shepherded Tennyson Center for Children in the early years had to endure the Great Depression and World War II, which caused shortages in food and other supplies. Ironically, the Warrens were modest and never wanted to be heralded for their work. They did not want the donation of their farm mentioned in early Disciples of Christ publications. An early supporter who publicly credited the Warrens for starting the home discovered what quiet people the Warrens were. Her reply letter to Mrs. Warren said, "You scold me for making your names public."
As needs changed, Tennyson Center for Children transitioned from being an orphanage into a treatment center for at-risk, abused and neglected children.
In her later years, Mary Warren said that one of her fondest memories was seeing the result of work she and her husband had begun long before. With a joyous smile, she recalled the words of Rufus, one of the first children who came to Tennyson Center for Children. "He sat on my knee," she said, "and with his arms around my neck he said, 'I love you a house full, a barn full, I love you a farm full."
The work of the Warrens continues to this day in magnificent ways. Tennyson Center for Children at Colorado Christian Home, the first accredited residential treatment center for at-risk, abused and neglected children in Colorado, is currently the largest treatment center for children ages 5-14 in the Rocky Mountain region. Tennyson Center for Children has 200 employees, multitudes of volunteers, thousands of sponsors and donors. Currently it serves approximately 500 children and 1,500 other family members a year from several states with innovative therapeutic and educational techniques designed to both break the cycle of child abuse and neglect and to heal families.
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Another "Champion of Children": Charles Loring Brace
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