PEMBROKE — Odum Home has scheduled a celebration of 75 years of helping children and families in Pembroke and the surrounding area for Saturday.

The free community event will take place at Berea Baptist Church at 120 N. Odum St. in Pembroke starting at 10 a.m. Activities, such as inflatables, games, free food and vendors, will be from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside Odum Home’s Deal Recreation Building at 204 N. Odum St.

Odum Home alumni, current children in care and staff members will be in attendance. One special presentation will be made to sisters Catherine Locklear and Josephine Ransom, the first children admitted to Odum Home in 1942. Pembroke Mayor Gregory Cummings and Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Chairman Harvey Godwin Jr. are among those scheduled to speak.

Odum Home was originally formed by the Burnt Swamp Baptist Association in 1942 as The Indian Orphanage. In the late 1950s, the children’s residential facility struggled to stay open. Local leaders made an appeal to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, and in 1957 the Indian Orphanage joined Baptist Children’s Homes’ statewide system.

Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina operates residential facilities in 21 communities across the state.

Staff Report