Announcer 1: The presentation of Toledo's stories is made possible in part by KeyB celebrating the strength of our region's history and supporting the promise of it KeyBank achieved anything and by the generous financial support of viewers lik Thank you.

Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse: Hello, I'm Timothy Messer-Kruse from the University of Toledo on this episode of Toledo Storie We Present to Programs First Lutheran Homes Society A History of Compassion.

The is newest original productio followed by the storied Life of Molly Ben which originally aired on WG TV in September of 2001 Toledo's Lutheran Homes Society was one of the earliest private in northwest Ohio.

Though founded by German immigra to America in 1860 its origins can be traced further back in both space and t to the Bavaria in the early 19th There a promising young theologi by the name of Wilhelm Leahy began to question what he saw as the waning commit of the Bavarian Church to Lutheran doctrines and liturg Leahy proposed a wholesale restr of the church to refine and revitalize its ide but did so at the worst possible Immediately after the failed Democratic revolution of 1848, when the government fearfully lo all reformers as threats to its Leahy was essentially exiled to his poor c parish, a post far below a man of his stature unable to reform the Church of Reform.

Leahy turned his great energies to foreign missions, working to build seminaries, sch and charitable institutions among the burgeoning population in the American Midwest.

One of the objects of his attent was the newly founded Lutheran O and Old Folk Society in Toledo, for which he raised money and su Back in Germany, And now, two little stories presents Lutheran Home Society A History of Compassion.

Announcer 1: Funding for Lutheran Home Societ A History of Compassion has been provided by Lutheran Ho Societies Ministry Development F Supporting Research and planning to fulfill the needs of our comm Investing today for services to God's People Tomorrow and by the Bossman Corporation and Richard and Ruth and James.

Announer 2: Lutheran Home Society has served our community since 1860.

From its inception, the society there to assist people in need orphan children, the elderly, families founded locally by one and backed with the financial and spiritual of a church in Germany.

Lutheran Home Society has evolve an expansive humanitarian instit serving 25 counties in two state Their inspirational story reveal a history of compassion when the home for widows and orphans of Toledo closed in 1860 Pastor Yohanna St came to its rescue.

Darfur was the pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in North Toledo.

He assumed custody of two of the children, raising them as well as his own.

It wasn't long before the pastor taking in other children in need and a small group of prominent r organized the orphans home of To They purchased a parcel of land on the east side, and soon a two storey farmhouse was built on the prope The first Lutheran Orphan's Home was dedicated on July 7th.

1862.

It was born out of necessity, but its mission grew from a little church half a worl Rev.

Gerald Labun: The roots of the institution really in a sense, to 18 08 when a little baby was born and raised while in Germany.

To a very pious family.

And he ultimately became a pasto and name was Wilhelm Leahy.

And when he was ordained there w so many clergy, he didn't get a He waited six years.

When he did get a parish, it was in a nondescript little v of Neuen Delasalle, which is southeast of Nuremberg, He was very missionary minded an he had a great interest in young and especially young women who h low place in German society at t So he started a service training to train these girls as Lutheran deacon, as be the Lutheran equiv to a Roman Catholic nun.

And out of that effort, that village began to blossom as a center for missionary work.

He built an orphanage home for the of the home for handicap And of course, there's a trainin for missionaries.

Announcer 2: In northwest Ohio, immigrants were establishing far draining the Great Black Swamp and trying to build churches.

But pastors were in short supply and those few clergymen served several area congregation Rev.

Gerald Labun: In 1841, a pa from Fort Wayne, Indiana, was in and said that there were too man Lutherans in the hinterlands of the New World that had no pastors.

And so Leahy, determined to send teachers and pastors to America.

He would send not only a pastor, but he would recruit families so that he would send 15 or 20 f a place to start a church and a So he was really transplanting congregations.

And of course, that mission work then blossomed into philanthropi work, like our society.

Announer 2: Leahy sent Pastor Johannes Flier to serve S Lutheran Church.

Darfur, in turn, founded the Lutheran Orphans Hom and First Saint John's in East T The Orphan Society later used mo from Pastor Leahy to send an ale to no one devil so for training, Sister Anna bec the home's first deaconess in 19 05.

The mission of the organization to include care for the elderly The alternate home, or old folks home, was built adjacent to the and served primarily as a rest h providing residents with food basic health care and companions with the needs of the aged taken The society turned its attention toward expanding the orphanage That building.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: Constructed i was a small framed building and a little clearing and really what was wilderness as it began its usefulness because of the number of childre Some additions were put out.

One was put on in 1870.

Another addition was put on 1874 until the early part of the 20th There was no problem about 19, t The State began to be interested in regulating child care and ultimately I think it was in 1915 or 16, the city of Toledo d to be a fire trap, completely un for the care of children, and required that either be closed within 60 or 90 days or replace.

Announer 2: The society issued b to fund construction of the new Sunday school children Kerri Dim depicting the pictures of orphan The capital campaign worked, raising the $80,000 needed for the build and the new orphans home opened The five storey brick structure contained a gymnasium auditorium two classrooms and living and dining quarters for over 100 It bore little resemblance to th dingy places portrayed in the mo or the pages of popular fiction.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: I would guess that in the minds of many of the image of an orpha would come maybe from Charles Di and a little boy Oliver asking, Can I have some more?

That this was kind of a stereoty The fact is that the caricature of an orphanage that many people have just didn' sit here.

Gertrude Jaessing: They had a lo down there at that time, and most of them, they were either orphans or half because the father was gone and the mother had to work or the farm, whatever was there, and the mother was gone.

So we had most the time when I was there, 120 840 kids t So you got angry with one kid.

You could always have another fr Announcer 2: Running a single household is difficult Running an institution responsible for the care and fee of more than 100 children required a special approach.

Gertrude Jaessing: The bell rang to get up in the m It seemed to me it was around 6: So we'd get up and brush your teeth and wash. And then the bell rang for break and then did our chores right after breakfast until it was school time.

And when the bell rang, we went to school again.

We went to school right there.

The first four grades were in on The next four grades were in ano And then we went on to eight hig Rev.

Gerald Labun: We always sai we lived by the bell.

Of course the bell would call th the lunch and Bell would call them back to school, which would go until close to 4: from four to five.

They were free to play.

5:00 was And then there was a very bedtim so that the nursery children, of course, would go to very early.

Janet Teems: And the older ones, they were the ones that helped the attendants or sisters take care of the younger ones, because that was a monumental jo You can imagine trying to get 20 boys washed up for supper, and if you are assisting, you know, the attendant, you wen before bedtime, made sure they were washed up, h you know, wash the little ones u and get their jammies or gowns on or whatever Brush their hair, brush your teeth and then go out and make sure everybody was sent to say their prayers.

Announcer 2: Prayer, the church and religious instruc as you might expect, played a major role in the lives of the orphans.

Gertrude Jaessing: We had a catechism two days a we Bible history, two days a week, and we learned to him every Wedn Rev.

Gerald Labun: They learn church history.

They learn Bible history.

And there was not an intent to c but to instill some kind of a fa So we don't try to impose our re on people, but we try to express And if it's contagious, that's f Announcer 2: Reverend Harry Scha was director of the Society for from 1927 through 1954.

But it was the deaconess as the Lutheran sisters who ran the day to day operation of the home.

They in turn received a lot of h from the women's organizations of the local churches a month they would come and do s and dancing in the sewing room d The ladies organizations from th Churches all over Stoney Ridge, Woodville, Genoa, all the small all the ladies organizations pit those that worked in the home realized quickly that it was more than just a job for Pastor Geral It seemed like a match made in h Rev.

Gerald Labun: When I was in I was asked to do an internship, which all seminarians were asked to do their seventh y The dean said, I have a special place for you t but you don't have to go if you don't want to, because instead of going to a parish, I was sent to this agency and I lived in the home and I was part time in the churc and I was part time childcare wo taking care of 18 orphan boys.

I came back as a pastor in the c St Mark's Church on the East Sid got on the board, and as a bachelor I would come here at night when I did have meetings and I w with the kids and organize games and read stories and put them to bed.

And after 11 years in the parish, ministry, the Soc and the retirement of Reverend Chuck Houser called me and said that I was their hand-picked suc the best job I ever had.

Announcer 2: As in most homes, life in the or followed a pretty regular routin weeks of chores and schoolwork a by the excitement of the holiday But in the orphan's home with its dozens of resident chil the build up to the Christmas season was almost magical.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: In the church the New Year's Day is added on S which is four Sundays before Chr And so in the home highlight of that first season was a morning Adven The children would learn to say Scripture verses and little poem and sing hymns.

Gertrude Jaessing: We sing, Oh, come on, come Emanuel for that.

When we come down into the dinin The girls usually wore white angel things for for Christmas, for the Adven And we'd go down to the dining r and they always had a button and they had bent one every place with the candle in.

Gerald Labun: Christ as the brea and the light of the world.

And circling that bread would be a little wreath, the symbol of e Gertrude Jaessing: We always had a big wreath in the center of the of the dini and lit a candle every day for the 25 days before Christmas.

Once and all we had a fire.

But that was the excitement of i Janet Teems: We practiced weeks in advance for t The lights were out.

This was such a special occasion And that was the beginning.

From then on, everyone became re all the Christmas is going to be really soon.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: And then on C Eve, the dining room would be cl and the children would have a pi out in the halls or in the kitch Because in the dining room, at e would be placed all the children Christmas gifts, which had been donated by congre and individuals and by staff.

Children would go to Christmas Eve servic and then when the service was ov they would come back to the home doors of the dining room would b and they would all go to their seat at the place where they alw And at that place would be six, eight or ten gifts for each child.

Gertrude Jaessing: We had a gifted every place and I can't remember exactly who some of them that I had probably little girls and probably some o had little cards and things like we all had had a gift at our pla Janet Teems: The gifts were donated from many many churches, many, many women's organizations.

The organizations would say we n and what their particular age ne Is there any specific that a child wants?

Well, the attendance are new because the kids turned them int the little ones, so they in turn could pass sign and say, Well, this little wants us to start the other thin So when these items came in, if they didn't have a name o the attendance went through a ne Who should get what?

One thing, of course, you know, you always got close but the little kids had their to They had they just had plenty.

They really did.

Besides the little boys and little girls departments, they each had this huge sitting That sitting room consisted of numerous toys for the boys tr and cars and trains and what hav that they could play up there.

So they actually did have places to play and toys to play the cars, you know, share with 20 other kids.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: The children here never lacked any of the traditional kinds of holiday experience just because they were in a cong setting.

You say they had a pretty normal in many respects.

Announcer 2: It wasn't all fun a Just like most children, the residents of the orphan's ho had chores to do.

Gertrude Jaessing: We each had a and they change that about every So you took care of the little c for a while and you helped in th and you helped in different places to the home.

Announcer 2: The orphanage was d to provide for itself, and acros the street was a working farm where residents helped grow crop and raise livestock after school Rev.

Gerald Labun: If they were a high school age o in the big boys department, most of them had a chore at the Gertrude Jaessing: With the boys to help milk the cows.

I mean, if they were old enough, they would do that, clean out th because we had cattle at the tim and in the field they raised tom and no fruit.

We had cherry trees and apple tr and we girls, we used to pick th Rev.

Gerald Labun: In the early This was an agrarian society and farming was the goal of many And so even in the fifties when I lived here, we still had eggs to gather and chickens to dress out.

And so the older boys would be w and younger kids could could pla Announcer 2: Whatever else the h was generously provided by area congregations and nearby We were a very self-sufficient but nevertheless, to fill in the from the other churches, we had numerous canned goods.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: In the spring we would send truck a truck out with hundreds and thousands of f and they would be delivered to congregations in Ohio and Mic And then in the fall, that truck would go back and pick the jars up and they wo full of home canned food.

So the support really was widesp and it did involve some very personal kinds of invo That farm wife who was canning set aside a percentage, sometime That ties of their have vegetabl and meat and whatever, and that was contributed to the And sometimes there wasn't much here but there was food.

Announer 2: Supporting congregations saw firsthand how their contributions were put at the annual picnic and festival hosted by the Orpha Gertrude Jaessing: The churches would always bring and cakes and they'd, they'd ser but they would come from from all the churches up in Mich Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

And there were thousands of peop that would come to those doings.

Announcer 2: By the 1930s, it was evident that the Lutheran home was too small, but the buil design didn't allow for easy exp And the onset of World War Two q any talk of new construction in the early fifties.

The time was right to address the future of the art in high A new building was designed and construction began.

The new facility opened in Octob and set a higher standard for se care with private rooms, a chapel and recreation areas but by the end of the decade, the building was bursting at the and the needs of its residents were changing.

A 60 bed admission for nursing and medical care was constructed on the grounds in November of 19 But while plans called for further expansion of elderly operation of the Lutheran Orphan Home was reluctantly grinding to Rev.

Gerald Labun: In the post-W War two era and social work developed new kinds of ideas and philosophies.

It became more and more acceptab to focus on foster care in private homes and and so in the fifties the instit became kind of a pariah in socie And so there was quite a push to empty those institutions.

And so this pretty much came to in the early 1960s when it was d to suspend the work in this buil the way it had been traditionall and to reprogram for what we're seeing as more, you might say, modern approaches or modern Announcer 2: The Lutheran Orphan suspended operation in 1964.

Ultimately another program merge to address the problems of a new generation.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: The idea was the best of the orphanage and to take the best of other kinds of care and put them And so the transition really was from congregant care.

105 children in the building to ten or less in a neighborhood David I. Roberts: The orphanage doesn't exist today, although the proble that we saw in the orphanage do occur today.

In the type of youth that we serve where they're not in the traditional sense that you'd think of with having lost their parents, they're orphaned in the more technical sense and that their parents no longer or don't provide for them and in some cases abuse them.

And they have other issues.

Announcer 2: The society opened group homes across northwest Ohio with each specializing in the complex needs of its residents.

Steve Plotner: ELA, just Family services works with children and who are difficult to work with, who have been through the gamut of other types of care and treat and who haven't made it, who have not been successful, who are violent, who are aggress who have been difficult to place difficult to work with in home, out of home, in detention, in psychiatric unit and have man many multiple failed placements.

And parents, caregivers, school and other people are literally up against the wal wondering what they should do.

That's the type of young person we work with, and we do so succe Announcer 2: The society's newes program is a residential care ce for the treatment of Aspergers D David I. Roberts: The Asperger's diagnosi has just been recently recognize and documented as a low level au That requires a particular type and treatment These children act out in a variety of ways, but it's not that full fledged autism that you'd see in other p So it does require a unique type of service, a unique type of car Announcer 2: Although the settin and type of care needed may have changed over the years.

The primary mission of helping c in need remains the same as does the society's r on area congregations for suppor David I. Roberts: We have 156 member cong a losing hope in society.

Those congregations support us through their volunteerism, but also financially give us the ext that are needed to fill the gaps Our Asperger's program is being largely from donated dollars that we're so that we can do the start up.

And it's those donated dollars that make the difference.

Announcer 2: Possibly the bigges over the last 30 years involves the society's care for the elder From 1970 through 2000 to 13, senior communities were developed across northwest and southeastern Michigan.

Extending the base of operations from East Toledo outward to better serve all of its suppo congregations.

Independent living communities were created for older residents who, though active and healthy, might occasionally need assistan Continuing care centers were des where older adults could live independently yet transitioned to assisted living or nursing home care should the need arise.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: The need real the elderly is continued to mushroom in term of independent living, assisted and, of course, nursing care.

And so I think the really the big transition philosophical was to take services out to the rather than expecting the people to come here to East Toledo.

Announcer 2: As medical advancements have increa the average life expectancy.

Our population has grown older, their need for specialized care.

Mark Gavorski: People want to remain independen They I mean, you know, 90% of the aging are well, but it's that safety and securit that we have in a campus that of all our services from independen to assisted living and nursing h Even though somebody might not w in the nursing home, it's therefore needed.

Announcer 2: In 1994, Pastor Ger retired and David Roberts was named his successor.

Soon afterwards, the Lutheran or and Old Folks Home Society becam Home Society, consolidating thei to better reflect their services But their mission remains virtually unchanged after almost 150 years.

Steve Plotner: We were founded by a Lutheran mi before Abraham Lincoln was presi So we've been around a long time and we have that heritage, that heritage of faith, and that's what founded us.

Rev.

Gerald Labun: That probably at least in my mind, to what use our our theme text from the Scri which says that religion that is and undefiled is to take care of the widows and the orphans and to keep ones spot it in the world, that to care for orphans and ultimately later elderly people was a fulfillment of Chri mission and command that if you truly have the faith this is the kind of person you're going to be, you're going to be outgoing, not self-centered.

You're going to focus on the needs of other people.

And you got to try to do somethi about it.

David I. Roberts: As a as a social minist organization of the church.

It's an issue of faithfulness that we're called to do the work and we're called to do it in the context of our values.

You need integrity in equality.

You need stewardship, and you need wholeness of life and equality and justice.

Those, in a nutshell, our values and we apply those values every as we have since 1860 in order to deliver our services Gertrude Jaessing: In the summer Then we would go swimming out to or East Harbor or someplace we wouldn't even have cleaners t It was their vegetable truck.

We were like a bunch of cattle standing there, but it was fun.

We'd be so close you couldn't hardly fall down.

So that the swimming was nice an And sometimes we'd go during the and spend the whole day there at Jim Beach.

Announcer: Funding for Lutheran Home Societ History of Compassion has been provided by Lutheran Ho Societies Ministry Development F supporting research and planning to fulfill the needs of our comm Investing today for services to God's people tomorrow.

And by the Musselman Corporation And Richard and Ruth.

And Chase.