Troubled Indianapolis children help young hurricane victims
June 30, 2006

The children of Lutherwood Residential Treatment Center and School in Indianapolis, Ind., a home for emotionally troubled youth, recently held a bake sale to benefit Bethlehem Children’s Center for abused and neglected children.

Bethlehem Children’s Center, which was located in New Orleans East, had cared for children for 125 years. Hurricane Katrina severely damaged the children’s center and the program is temporarily closed.

“As soon as the children saw pictures of Bethlehem, they knew right away they wanted to help out,” said Mary Beth Trotter, communications coordinator at Lutherwood. “Our kids couldn’t believe the damage caused by the hurricane and many wanted to know if the kids at Bethlehem were okay.”

The two-day bake sale raised $721.53 to go towards the reconstruction of Bethlehem Children’s Center.

“It is heartwarming to see these children, who are in similar situations as the children at Bethlehem, putting their time and effort into helping out people they don’t even know,” said Kurt Senske, chief executive officer of Lutheran Social Services. “It is yet another wonderful example of Christians reaching out to help those in need.”

At the time Katrina hit, the 46 Bethlehem residents had been evacuated to Trinity Lutheran Church in Baton Rouge, La. When it became evident that the damage was too severe for the children to return, they were temporarily relocated to a sister center, Bokenkamp Children’s Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Bethlehem children have since been returned to Louisiana where they have been placed in foster homes and other centers.

In the meantime, Bethlehem is temporarily closed. Lutheran Social Services, which owns and operates Bethlehem Children’s Center, is awaiting decisions from local, state and federal authorities on when and where the ministry could reopen.

Lutherwood Residential Treatment Center and School is owned by Lutheran Child and Family Services of Indiana/Kentucky, Inc., a multi-service, non-profit agency.

For more information on LSS disaster response efforts and how you can help, call (800) 938-5777 or visit www.LSSS.org.

Lutheran Social Services is the social service arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. LSS annually serves more than 30,000 children, elderly and poor in Texas and Louisiana regardless of religious beliefs, ethnicity, gender or age. Its nationally accredited affiliated ministries include disaster response, emergency assistance, therapeutic foster care, adoption, children’s residential treatment, health care and retirement centers and adult day care.

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