Located in Summerdale, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Boys Ranch, established in 1984, provides long-term residential care and programs for foster children, typically ages 8 through 21. Ranch Director Steven Jones said it is currently home to about 24 young men.
Currently at max capacity, the ranch is looking to build a new house, which will be for young men ages 18 through 21 who are either in college or working full time. The ranch currently has three houses with eight boys in each. Each house has what they call a “house parent,” employees who live and work on-site whose job is essentially to be a parental figure to the boys, with tasks including taking them to school and church and enforcing house rules.
Jones estimated that the total cost of the project will be around $800,000. David Vosloh, who founded the Vosloh Charitable Foundation with his wife, Sue, is providing a matching donation of $400,000 as part of a 1-to-1 match. Jones called Vosloh's donation "huge" and believes it will encourage others to follow with their own donations.
“What’s near here is that when they’re coming to this program, they’re gonna stay until they graduate from high school and now they’re gonna have the ability to stay until they’re 21 to get through trade school or whatever,” Vosloh said. “They have a motto here that it’s easier to fix a boy than it is to fix a man, and that’s so true.”
Donations can be mailed via check to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Boys Ranch at P.O. Box 157, Summerdale, AL, 36580.