As many of you are aware on Sunday I pay tribute to someone who should be worthy of our praise. This week the honoree is Steve Finn.
From a Epoch, Bright headline:
“Former Cop Saw Too Many Kids’ Lives End Badly—So He Built a Christian School to Give Them 2nd Chance”
The sons of West Virginia were the reason former police officer Steve Finn, once serving Atlanta Metro, hung up his badge. In the line of duty, from the late 1990s, he saw it happen firsthand to young people in his home city: He knew a young woman who, in conflict with herself, chose gang life—fatally. She died in the passenger’s seat during a head-on car crash. A known gang member, also deceased, was in the driver’s seat. Too many children’s lives were ending in bad ways, the officer saw.
Finn said,
“I just saw again and again, children that I knew that were making really poor decisions that were putting them in the grave early or putting them in jail for the remainder of their youth.”
Officer Finn had wanted to make a difference in their lives, wanted to get upstream and fix the problem, somehow. As a “Christian in uniform,” he went home and told his wife his intentions and prayed about it.
“What if we could do more?” Mr. Finn asked his wife. “My wife, God bless her, she’s a trooper. She said, ‘Let’s go after this,’ and we went after it. And we almost lost everything in the process.”
They would found an all-boys school for troubled youths in West Virginia.
Why West Virginia? West Virginia, per capita, is highest in the nation for having children in foster care. While the national average is 3 children in foster care for every 1,000, in West Virginia, that number is 13 children in foster care for every 1,000. That’s over four times the nation’s average, and doesn’t even include children being raised by grandparents. In Braxton County, a staggering 86 percent of grandparents raise their grandchildren. West Virginia, Mr. Finn learned, was the state with the greatest need.
He said, ‘Let’s just put our chips on the table and see if God’s in it. If He’s in, He’s in; if He’s not, He’s not,’” Mr. Finn told his wife. “Let’s give it 12 months, and if nothing’s happening, we’ll shut this thing down.”
They were down to their last $12.54 at their lowest.
They broke ground in 2005. And now, we have Chestnut Mountain Ranch which, sure enough, holds troubled kids accountable but also seeks the areas where they truly shine, nurturing that with its capacity for 28 boys.
In the latest news, a 370-acre children’s home shut its doors a few miles down the road and Chestnut Mountain was asked to take over. With encouragement from the community, the deal is all but done; attorney-drafted papers still need signing, but handshakes have been made. It appears that, soon, there will be a new all-girls Christian school for the daughters of West Virginia.
Steve Finn recognized a need, and Steve Finn risked it all. Consequently, many teenage boys have benefitted, soon many teenage girls will also benefit.
3/24/24