About the Sam's Place Foundation
The mission of the Sam's Place Foundation is to support Sam's Place in Kenya and provide planning, governance, and funding for deaf orphans in their quest for a life of well-being, service, and leadership to deaf orphans across East Africa.
There are fifteen million children in Kenya. The AIDs virus has made over a million and a half of these children orphans-orphans who have no parents, no home, no nurturing place in which to grow and develop. Many are deaf, and in Kenya, deaf orphans face a dismal future. Many extended families who accept the orphans from other family members who have died, refuse to take in the deaf orphan. Some are led into the jungle where they are tied to a tree and left for the wild animals. Many are just abandoned to face the future on their own. As desperate as the future is for all Kenyan orphans, for the deaf child left behind by the AIDs virus, that child will have no future.
One social worker asked the question, "How do you save these millions of children littering the landscape in Kenya?" She answered her own question, "You can't save the millions. You have to begin with one, then two, and do what you can." For Sam's Place Foundation, over a decade has passed since we have first stepped on the red soil of Kenya. As we began in Kenya twelve years ago, we began with one, then two, and then forty deaf orphans at a new orphanage and school called Sam's Place. It has been a new beginning for these deaf children, and a continuing story of making a difference in the world by the people of Abilene and West Texas.
The Sam's Place Foundation was organized to expand American solutions to the deaf orphan crisis in East Africa, especially in Kenya. The Foundation received approval from the IRS as a 501 (c) 3, and all donations are tax-deductible. The directors and officers of the Foundation receive no compensation, and one hundred percent of donations go directly to Sam's Place. Monthly expenses such as web hosting, internet access, telephone, clerical services, and video and media production are donated to the Foundation. Home offices are used to host Foundation operations to insure that overhead is kept at a minimum. All buildings, improvements, and classrooms, labs, equipment, and support for our orphans have been paid for with cash. No debt or deferred payments have ever been a part of our financial plan. A pay-as-you-go is our only strategy since the Foundation and its partners began operations at Sam's Place in 2007, when the land was purchased and the first construction began.
The Foundation is registered and approved with Benevity Causes that connects charities and nonprofit organizations all over the world with hundreds of corporate giving, matching and volunteering programs. Sam's Place Foundation can accept direct donations from individuals, companies, and other corporate organizations and foundations.
Officers and Staff
President
Dr. Vernon L. Williams
Senior Vice-President
Raymond Blasigame
Vice President for Vocational Education
Dr. Jerry Drennan
Vice-President for Operations and Communication
Oliver Hunt
Vice-President for Transition and Child Programs
Hannah Hunt
Managers, Medical and Nursing Services
Andrew Williams, BS, LP, NREMT-P
Tana Overman, RN
Secretary
Mary Elizabeth Purcell
For more information, contact:
Dr. Vernon L. Williams
1617 Morrow Lane
Abilene, Texas 79601
vwilliams@samsplacefoundation.org
(325) 280-3399
Sam's Place Foundation has no paid staff. All officers and staff are volunteers.
IRS Determination Letter (Please click to view)