Walter T. Merrick House
CYMG, UCCMA, 501 (C) 3 Walter T. Merrick House is a shelter that will provide 6 rooms for homeless and displaced veterans who have reduced means as a result of divorce, lack of training, or due to being in recovery. The house is being donated by RDJC, Inc. and the interior is in need of final rehab. To help facilitate that end, CYMG has begun a fund raising effort to help complete and furnish the home. The home can provide up to 12 beds, 2 full baths, a shared kitchen and dinning room, common living room, and a fenced play area in the back of the house.
Walter T. Merrick House will provide reduced and subsidized rent while the residence get needed training for job placement and provide a safe transition environment during education and rehabilitation. Presently in the Bradford Pennsylvania area, the state pays up to $90.00 a week for homeless and displaced such as those who would be housed in the Merrick House. Many of the housing resources presently in the area are sub-standard and do not provide services in education that the Merrick House will provide.
Pastor Walter Truman Merrick
Walter Truman Merrick: The house is named after Walter Truman Merrick who was a circuit riding minister during the turn of the century who attended college in Pittsburgh and was ordained shortly thereafter. Walter established congregations all across Pennsylvania before moving to the budding frontier in Arizona where he established the Buckeye Christian Church. Many of the Churches Walter and his wife Edna Pearl Redfield Merrick established are still active congregations including one in Indiana , Wellsboro, and Pittsburgh. During the great depression after the stock market crash of 1929, Walter road horse back to the brick yards in Pittsburgh where homeless people during the time would gravitate to keep warm. He spent his entire fortune of some 5 million dollars which he inherited from his grandfather before the stock market crash on helping others to survive this troubling time in American history. One event that best depicts why this house is named after Walter is recounted in his wife's writings that tells how once he came back home with no shirt, coat, or shoes from one of his trips to hand out quarters to help feed the homeless. This was in the dead of winter and he traveled from Pittsburgh to home in the Bradford area on horse back that way. Edna tells how God must of had his angels protecting him in that he never even got a cold. Because he gave to others, God protected him. It is in that spirit that we have named this shelter after him.
Our fund raising effort is to help complete the work begun here to the exterior, furnish the facility, provide educational material, and a staff to oversee the operations of this home. The goal will be to give a fully rounded exposure to positive thinking, employment education, entrepreneur skills, money management, wealth building techniques, mentor programs, and spiritual encouragement from a non-denominational perspective. Many of the residence here we hope to help will come out of shelters for abuse & treatment that are running out of space. Merrick House will provide the needed transitional environment and help to lead to a productive self esteem and future for it's residence.
Won't you help? Please visit our EBay page, order a magazine, or contribute by clicking the Visa Master Card donate button on the main page?
Your contributions are tax deductible and will help us continue to help others who are in need of a safe warm home.