Advancing the Kingdom

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Advancing T he Kingdom: Kingdom House 130
the Missouri Accreditation of Early
Childhood Education and School Age
Child Care Programs again in 1998.
This citation lasts five years, when this
process begins all over again. Immken
was instrumental in the state’s efforts
toward creating appropriate standards
for child care, and under her leadership,
the Center received its first accreditation
in 1983. This distinction means that the
Center meets voluntary standards above
and beyond those required for licensing
by the State of Missouri.37
The St. Louis Downtown Lions Club
has supported Kingdom House almost
since the inception of the downtown
chapter. This group gave the first gift
towards the agency’s endowment
campaign goal of $3 million dollars.
ST. LOUIS – A relationship of service
and caring that extends back nearly seven
decades will be made permanent by a gift to
Kingdom House. In a recent ceremony, the
St. Louis Downtown Lions Club presented
with a $20,000 endowment.
Both organizations have extensive
histories of service to the downtown and
Near Southside of St. Louis City. Kingdom
House, sponsored by the United Methodist
Church and supported by the United Way,
has provided multiple social services to the
residents of the Near Southside since 1902.
The St. Louis Downtown Lions chapter,
chartered in 1921, is the oldest Lions Club
in Missouri. Records show that as early
as the 1920s, the Lions made donations to
Kingdom House to provide vital services for
the community.
“The Lions’ motto is, ‘we serve’ and we
take that motto seriously,’ said Don Johnson,
secretary of the St. Louis Downtown Lions
Club. ‘Right from the start, it was clear that
Kingdom House was providing the kind of
help and hope the community so desperately
needs. Supporting Kingdom House is one
of the best ways we know to serve our
community – it truly is providing an ‘oasis of
hope.’”
“We are pleased and proud to accept this
gift from the Lions,” said the Rev. Eugene
Morse, executive director of Kingdom
House. “This gift is the first in a Kingdom
House campaign to raise a total of $3
million in endowments by 2002, the agency’s
centennial year. An endowment truly is a
one-time gift that gives forever,” Rev. Morse
said. “Endowments given by people who
support the work of Kingdom House will be
the cornerstone on which we build the next
hundred years.
Kingdom House offers
a wide variety of services
including day care, an after
school program, summer
day camp, recreational
activities, teen lifeskills and
social group work, a thrift
shop, food pantry, homeaker
program, senior companions,
employment and training,
respite child care and other
forms of child advocacy.
Endowments are especially
valuable to agencies such as
Kingdom House because they
provide a stable source of
income”….38
As the agency prepared
for the coming of the next
century, a new logo was
adopted. Jamik Laser
Graphics of St. Louis
replaced the sketch of the
agency as viewed from
the street corner with an
A
Photos:
A: Day Care Director Eileen
Immken
B: Downtown Lions Club
members who gave a
$20,000 endowment
contribution
B
T he St. Louis
Downtown Lions
C lub has supported
K ingdom House
almost since the
inception of the
downtown chapter.