ASHLAND — The Baptist Home Corporate Office announced they have been issued a $100,000 Challenge Grant from the J.E. & L.E. Mabee Foundation of Oklahoma for the construction of a new chapel on The Baptist Home-Ashland campus. The Baptist Home Trustees have named the chapel Duke-Nelson in memory of two prominent Missouri Baptist leaders, Nelson Duke and Tom Nelson and their wives. The chapel will be built as one part of a larger community center for social gatherings, activities and worship.
Arial view of The Baptist Home-Ashland campus from May 2018. (Image: Allstate Consultants)The grant requires that $800,000 of the $900,000 project must be raised one year from the issuance, by July 10, 2019. The Baptist Home reported that $368,825 has already been secured for this project.
The central Missouri property, located just north of Ashland and west of Hwy 63, was purchased debt-free from funds provided by The Baptist Home Foundation in 2014. Phase One of the 73-acre property will initially be developed into a cottage style retirement community with independent (active) living, assisted living units and a chapel and community center.
Founded in 1913, The Baptist Home provides continuum of care retirement communities in an evangelical, faith-based setting. Unlike many long-term care facilities, it operates without direct Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement. Residents living in assisted and nursing units pay for as much of their cost as they are able, but if funds are depleted The Home’s benevolent program enables them to receive the same care and services as private pay individuals for the rest of their lives. Currently, The Baptist Home is not able to provide benevolent care for its independent living residents.
The Baptist Home has three other campuses located across the state in Arcadia Valley (Ironton), Chillicothe and Ozark.
The Baptist Home-Ashland Administrator Steven Long hopes “we will have our first independent living units move-in ready by the end of 2018 and assisted living housing completed at the end of 2019.”
