ROCK SPRINGS – The generosity of two Sweetwater County residents was recognized recently by the McKenzie Home group.

Rev. Bernadine Craft and Kim Brown received bricks commemorating their support of the McKenzie Home project. The bricks were from the former Washington Elementary School and had plates recognizing their contributions to the project attached to them. Craft was the keynote speaker for the McKenzie Home’s recent fundraising banquet while the Kim and Jody Brown Foundation recently donated $95,000 to help establish the McKenzie Home. 

The McKenzie Home project seeks to build a temporary home for single mothers at the site of the old Washington Elementary School in Green River. The building was converted into an office space after Sweetwater County School District No. 2 vacated the building, but a fire in 2019 has left the building vacant. 

Despite not having the home established, Debra Moerke, the president of the McKenzie Home Project, said she’s already receiving phone calls and emails from single mothers looking for support. Craft said she believes in the McKenzie Home’s mission and sees it as something that is needed in Wyoming. 

Craft said it’s common for women attempting to flee from abusive situations to pack up their children and whatever they can carry, then attempt a long-distance trip to stay with family and have their vehicle break down during the trip. She said a resource like the McKenzie Home would help women and children in those situations. Carrie Fischer, a member of the Sweetwater County McKenzie Home board and a former Green River Police Department officer, said a high number of child abuse cases come from situations where the abuser is a boyfriend to the mother, not the child’s biological father. Also, Moerke said 34% of children born in Wyoming are to single mothers. 

Work continues to raise the money needed to establish the McKenzie Home. Moerke said a recent fundraising banquet raised $50,000 and is happy Craft and the Kim and Jody Brown Foundation have gotten involved with the McKenzie Home’s capital campaign.