Just outside Metro Atlanta in Haralson County, GA, a super-project designed to serve hundreds of neglected children per year may be scrapped and sold to another organization if an angel investor doesn’t step forward.

by Sam Gentry

The Proposed WORLD CHILDREN’S CENTER (WCC) located 45 minutes outside Metro Atlanta is still hoping to become a place dedicated to making long-term positive influences for children in the greatest of need.

Donald Whitney, founder, president and the visionary of the WCC asks us all to “imagine a place where children, who have only known fear, pain, and hunger learn to laugh, play, trust and love; a place where the cycle of hunger, abuse, and neglect is broken forever; a place of healing and celebration where every child recognizes how valuable and precious they are.”

The World Children’s Center is a 720-acre master-planned three-phase sustainable and environmentally-friendly boarding school campus that would serve up to 800+ homeless, orphaned, trafficked and/or neglected children from Georgia, the U.S. and the world. The campus is centrally-located between Atlanta, GA (45 minutes), Birmingham, AL (1 hour) and Chattanooga, TN (2 hours).

However, at this point, Whitney says the WCC will need an angel donor/investor or foundation to step forward in the next 90 days in order to join in his efforts so the campus can continue with its mission and purpose and officially open Phase II.

“Stepping out in faith of doing the right thing for these children was and still is our hope for the Center.  If we’re unable to find donors in the next 90-120 days, the campus will be sold and the WCC will form the World Children’s Foundation in order to begin serving the children we aspired to help in a different way.”

The Center is currently seeking up to $9 million to assist with Phase 2 of the campus, which would allow the World Children’s Center to officially open.

Whitney has a long history of helping needy children. He sponsored his first child at the age of 12 through a global humanitarian organization and his family currently sponsors 18 children through various nonprofits dedicated to the wellbeing of children.

“I began to understand the desperation of so many children throughout the world once I began getting involved in humanitarian projects in the U.S. and abroad,” said Whitney. “Many will never make it out of the devastating projects they were born into and are held captive inside a system that is broken, simply because of a lack of funding, quality care, education, and most of all, hope. That doesn’t make it right as every child deserves a loving home, which is the World Children’s Center’s tagline.”

The mission of the World Children’s Center is to provide children with a nurturing and healing environment consisting of the finest and most highly competent staff;  to provide an environment where the highest ideals of Judeo-Christian values can be explored and experienced on an individual basis; to give each child an opportunity to develop a sense of personal faith to gain inner strength and strong spiritual leadership in times of crisis;  to develop a measurable educational curriculum to prepare children for productive living in a multi-cultural international society; to offer both children and adults unique opportunities for leadership training that will lead to a positive impact on world conditions; and to create research and development opportunities to enhance their programs and services, as well as impact the welfare of children worldwide.

The WCC campus is being modeled after the highly successful Milton Hershey School (MHS) in Hershey, PA, which is currently serving 2,300 disadvantaged children. MHS is a cost-free, private co-educational boarding school that offers state-of-the-art facilities, advanced technology and hundreds of extracurricular activities. Milton and Catherine Hershey established the industrial school in 1909 to provide a positive, structured home life year-round to help orphan children gain skills to be successful in all aspects of life. Unable to have children of their own, the Hersheys decided to use their chocolate industry wealth to create a homestead and school for underserved children.

In 1910 the first 10 children came to the school. There, they were provided with a stable home life and rigorous combination of agricultural, vocational, and academic learning.

In 1918, three years after the untimely death of his wife, Milton gave his entire personal fortune of $60 million to the school. He continued to be involved with and its students until his death at the age of 88 on October 13, 1945. Today, students of the school have access to unique award-winning programs, experienced teachers, and caring adult mentors.

Whitney said he wants to continue in the tradition of the Hershey School in the South.

“It’s a humble and brilliant business model that many public and private companies should consider following in which the Hersheys left everything they owned to benefit children and mankind in perpetuity”, says Whitney, “It’s the golden ticket for so many deserving children. The school actually covers total living and educational expenses all the way through any college a student chooses to attend.”

As for the World Children’s Center, Whitney purchased the 720 acres of land in Haralson County, Georgia in 2005. Since then, much has been accomplished in furthering the project, including the infrastructure of roads, power, water, gas, sewer, fiber, the main entrance and the first model children’s home.

The WCC Community also has planned public and private venues that would help to ensure the wellbeing of the children who would live and grow at the Center, as well as children who live in the surrounding communities. Private venues include a Pre-K through 12th-grade school, a pediatric wellness center, parks and playgrounds, a food and clothing distribution center, an international humanitarian development & training center, graduate housing, a 100-acre organic farm, animal therapy, a non-denominational worship center, a 4,000-seat cultural art and music center and 100 children’s homes with surrogate house parents capable of housing up to 10 children per home.

When completely built, the World Children’s Center will employ 300+ full-time associates.

To fund the daily, monthly, and yearly costs of operating the facilities, Whitney hopes to develop a separate 642-acre venue seven minutes from the WCC campus (located in both Carroll and Haralson County) which would support major retailers such as Bass Pro Shops or Cabela’s, Publix Super Markets, The Home Depot or Lowes, and an outlet mall such as Tanger or Premium. Additional planned developments include a major sports venue, a 10,000-seat outdoor amphitheater and indoor theater that could host the world’s top-tier entertainment.

“If we could begin this opportunity in phases after the WCC opens, we believe rooftops would start appearing in the region,” he said. “Jobs would be created providing opportunities to the surrounding community. However, we don’t want to get ahead of our work helping children and the core purpose of the WCC.”

Whitney said the World Children’s Center would “be dedicated to the millions of children that have perished throughout the world due to hunger, abuse and neglect who were ultimately our responsibility.”

“We’re here to provide hope, education and the unconditional love of God that cares for every child and person, who are all of equal value, and to provide opportunity to the many desperate children in crisis who are counting on us all. We choose to do this by the humble actions we will take,” Whitney said.

The World Children’s Center as a whole will become a community which provides for and/or promotes the development of protective factors required to enable children/youth to make progress toward escaping the negative consequences of poverty, abuse, and/or neglect; and to foster the development of resiliency to adversities.

The wrap-around service approach would be accomplished at the World Children’s Center which has been specifically designed as a collaborative and integrated management system that provides community-based support in an effort to help children/youth attain their potential and make progress toward attaining the Center’s desired results.

It is the goal of the WCC that the same surrogate house parents will continue to support and nurture the children/youth during their entire stay. The hope is that the relationship between the surrogate parents and their children will be one of mutual respect and positive emotional ties that lasts a lifetime, providing the children with a positive family model to emulate throughout his or her life.

“Helping children who have lost all hope is a special calling and gift.” Whitney said.

The idea is that such ongoing support will provide the children with a sense of connectedness and continuity to others which are important feelings for children as they grow into adults who can, in turn, establish and maintain healthy, long-term relationships.

The WCC children’s homes have been designed by child welfare professionals in order to provide a supportive environment in which each child can learn the social and interpersonal skills necessary to develop his/her resiliency, leading to a satisfying and productive life. Safety within the home will be assured through conventional, as well as state-of-the-art safeguards, such as security systems, safety inspections, injury prevention programs and neighborhood awareness programs.

The physical environment of the seven planned neighborhoods will be warm and inviting, as well as safe and secure. The EarthCraft homes themselves will be located in close proximity to playground and other public areas designed to be easily monitored by adults. This structure will allow children to develop a sense of both freedom and responsibility within the safety of their own neighborhood.

The World Children’s Center could potentially have an outstanding and unique positive impact on the local, regional and state economies. According to one economic impact study, the WCC would create over $1 billion in total economic activity during the period 2018-2028. Construction and operation of the facility will account for a $500 million increase in direct economic activity during the period 2018-2028 as well. Furthermore, the Center will create 360 jobs annually during the period 2018-2028.  As a result of that job creation, the World Children’s Center will generate $9 million in annual spending and $600,000 in tax revenue from increased spending.

The feasibility study also states that the World Children’s Center “will create an increase in local spending of $1.7 million annually and create $300,000 in tax revenue from increased spending.” The annual impact of guests to the World Children’s Center alone will create over 310 jobs for the local economy and $3.9 million in local tax revenues.

It is the hope of the WCC that, as a result of living at the Center, children will achieve the following results:

• Young people who are productive, secure, educated, loved and involved in their community;
• Young adults who aspire to leadership and have a planned path to get there through higher education, vocational training, work or service opportunities;
• Young adults who understand and are proud of the culture from which they came, and respect the diversity and uniqueness of all people;
• Young adults with a spiritual foundation from which they can draw and grow all their lives;
• Young adults who have the ability, desire and skills to develop meaningful relationships throughout their lives.

The project has been endorsed by Governor Nathan Deal, Sam Olens (former Georgia State Attorney General), Peter Gurt, President of Milton Hersey School, the Honorable Peggy Walker, Douglas County Juvenile Court Judge, and many other notable figures.

Whitney is appealing to any angel investor, donor, philanthropist, foundation, individual and corporate business, that has the means to step forward and consider investing to take this project from the five-yard line to the end zone. If successful in raising the $9 million needed to take the next step, Whitney said other groups and many foundations and organizations have committed to the project and will come on board for the Center’s needs.

“We’ve met with a lot of foundations that said, ‘Get it open and we’ll support you,’” Whitney said.

Parties interested in helping the World Children’s Center reach their goals should contact Donald Whitney at dwhitney@worldchildrenscenter.org. Also, visit www.worldchildrenscenter.org to view a map and animated tour of the property. Among the 720 acres is a 25-acre lake and a private registered airstrip.

Whitney is the Founder and CEO of Corporate Sports Unlimited, Corporate Events Unlimited, and Corporate Health Unlimited. He also founded the U.S.10K Classic which ran for 17 years in Atlanta. The event became the 6th largest multi-sport road race in the United States and was created to assist in bringing awareness to the World Children’s Center and other children’s charities. The event donated $5 million to 30 local children’s charities during its run.