To children who have been abandoned, the idea of family is a strong one, and many of the children who have lived at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys want to give other abandoned or orphaned children the love and support that St. Joseph’s gave to them.These St. Joseph’s “graduates,” now young adults, urged Michael Geilenfeld and the youngsters at St. Joseph’s to take on a large challenge – caring for fourteen severely disabled children who were living at Wings of Hope, previously run by French missionaries. The missionaries were returning to France but were having trouble finding new homes for their young disabled residents. Michael proposed that they care for one child at St. Joseph’s; the boys at St. Joseph’s said, “No way, Michael! We’re going to care for all of them!”
They had visited “Wings” as it is affectionately called, and seen children who spent their entire days in bed, given little care and no compassion or love. They were shocked when the woman who ran the home described the children as “living pieces of furniture.” Remembering how they, too, were once seen as being of no value, they were determined to give these children – abandoned because of their handicaps – the experience of family that had changed their lives.
Thus was born Wings of Hope Home for Disabled children.
