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A home for the holidays

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An online petition has been circulating Facebook trying to acquire more than a thousand signatures in an attempt to keep all eight children together from the  Connie Maxwell Children’s Home in Orangeburg. 

Many of the children that reside there are students at Clarendon Hall in Summerton.

The children have grown up together. There are two sets of siblings. There is a set of four siblings and a set of two siblings. The main goal of the employees at the Orangeburg location and of the online petition is to find a facility in Clarendon or Orangeburg counties that can keep all eight children together under the Connie Maxwell Organization for funding purposes.

According to the Connie Maxwell website, the decision to close the Orangeburg location was a very difficult one to make. Over the last few years, the home has needed extensive repair and renovation, which would cost thousands of dollars to bring the campus up to their standards. 

The eight children will finish the 2022-2023 school year and then they will be placed in other homes. No siblings will be separated. The care of the children is above all else for Connie Maxwell. 

Richard Lackey is a third generation Connie Maxwell supporter who lives in Orangeburg and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the home.

A response letter from Richard Lackey read that the cost to maintain the campus is double the cost to maintain other Connie Maxwell campuses. This is due to the repairs and renovations that need to be completed.

The location of the campus also poses issues. The location is not a logistical fit in correlation with distance to schools. 

CM is building another location in Charleston. There is also another campus in Greenwood.

The petition to keep the children together can be found on facebook.com- change.org- Keep the kids of Connie Maxwell Brookland Campus Together.