Orphans returning to Palmer

June 23, 2006

By JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - A children's home on Lazy Mountain closed its doors 35 years ago. On Saturday, dozens of former orphans will return to Palmer to reconnect with the men and women who were once the only family they knew.

Lazy Mountain Children's Home opened its doors in the late 1940s. For the next quarter century, hundreds of boys and girls grew up as one giant family. Supported through a combination of local church donations, state funding and volunteer assistance, the home's full-time workers raised and educated young Alaska Native children.

Vosie Heaton was one of the few children at the home who had parents to raise her. As the daughter of the home's founders, Kenneth and Vivian Hughes, Heaton was constantly aware that most of her playmates had no parents.

Now 71, Heaton has worked with other former residents of the home to unite all her brothers and sisters while there is still time.

&#8220It was just pressing on me that we hadn't seen each other for a long time,” Heaton said last week. &#8220A lot of people have been sick or passed on.”

In the early years, the children's home contained a school and working farm. After school, children slopped hogs, fed chickens and

generally helped run the small community of orphans, missionaries and volunteers. Heaton isn't sure how many people will attend Saturday, but she hopes many will find that the sense of family they once shared still is alive.

&#8220I've always been very conscious of the fact that I had parents and they didn't,” Heaton said. &#8220Right now I feel more love for them than I ever did.”

The children's home sat on a 60-acre tract, donated by Max Sherrod. For food, children ate road-kill moose, hand-picked berries, salmon, animals and produce from their own farm, and lots of vegetables from Valley farmers.

Heaton said the home closed in 1971 after state funding for many of the children began to dwindle. When the home shut down, many workers took children into their own homes and raised them.

The reunion begins Saturday with a 10 a.m. potluck. A fish bake begins later at 6 p.m. For more information about the event, contact Heaton at 376-3727.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266 or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.