| NEWS Susanna Wesley House Wish List For information call Joyce McCallister at (410) 256-6156. Gift cards for residents from Wal-Mart Childrens videos, DVDs and computer games Childrens books Arts and crafts supplies Spices Cleaning and laundry supplies Personal hygiene products Car seats Cribs and bumper pads Baby food and formula Disposable diapers and pull-ups Bath towels Sheets, blanket and comforters (full size) Bus tokens and taxi vouchers Paper products Plastic trash and storage bags | Susanna Wesley House provides a place of peace By Melissa LauberUMConnection Staff When the Susanna Wesley House was consecrated Dec. 23, the United Methodist Women opened the only transitional home in Baltimore for women in need and their children. The historic house on Park Avenue, owned by the Baltimore-Washington Conference United Methodist Women, will house nine women and their children. It is the and children part that makes the house remarkable. For every call we get from a single woman, we get two calls from women with children, said Susan Thompson, director of the Womens Housing Coalition, which will run the program at the Susanna Wesley House. The facility is designed to assist women in turning their lives around and reclaiming their independence and self-sufficiency, said Thompson, who also oversees the much-heralded coalition program at the Margaret Bennett House in Baltimore. Bishop Felton Edwin May consecrated the home at an open house Dec. 23, calling it a haven of blessing and a place of peace. We will never be able to calculate the results of all youve done, he said. The seven-month, $400,000 renovation changes the facility from a boarding house to a home with more self-contained units for each family. A mother and her children will have their own two bedrooms and a bath, and share a kitchen and laundry room with one other family, said Elaine Schaefer, president of the Susanna Wesley House board of directors. The house also has a main parlor, family TV room and an after-school place, called the SKIP room, for children. The nine units can hold up to 27 people. The women will have the responsibility of planning menus, shopping and preparing daily meals, as well as keeping their rooms clean. They will also be encouraged to save up a nest egg to enable them to move into self-sufficiency, Schaefer said. The maximum stay for the average woman at the House will be two years. While the Womens Housing Coalition will run the program part of the house, the United Methodist Women will be the landlord. According to Treasurer Romaine Towers, the annual cost of maintaining the property will be approximately $50,000. The Susanna Wesley House was originally opened in 1919 as the Wo-Ho-Miss Lodge for single rural women who came to work in the city. The home, which was in two large side-by-side row homes, was renamed Park Avenue Lodge. In the 1990s the home was devastated by fire and rebuilt. In the past two years, the board of directors was forced to deal with a case of embezzlement by one of their managers. Through many dangers, toils and snares, you have already come, said the bishop, who applauded the women for the grace they have shown in serving the women and children of Baltimore. Before the guests arrived for the consecration service, one of the houses newest residents, age 2, received a new pair of shoes for Christmas from his landlords. He loved them, Thomas said. And that is worth everything to us. |
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