Big Oak Ranch celebrates 50 years of helping children

GADSDEN, Ala. ( WIAT ) — The Big Oak Ranch is celebrating 50 years of helping children achieve bright futures.

Its Gadsden ranch had food, fireworks and a rodeo to commemorate the milestone Sunday. But to find the true celebrations at the ranch, you didn’t have to look past the families and hundreds of former residents who came to the event.

The ranch started with a simple mission to help children in need through faith and family. In the five decades since John Croyle started Big Oak Ranch, that mission has expanded, but it hasn’t changed.

“A 17-year-old girl walked up, and she said, ‘Thank you,'” Croyle said. “I said, ‘I don’t know you,’ and she said, ‘You went and got my daddy.'”

Croyle is now 73 years old. He was 19 and playing football for the University of Alabama when he was inspired by a young boy he met while working at a summer camp in New Orleans.

“His mother was a prostitute, and he was the banker and the timekeeper,” Croyle said.

Croyle shared his faith with the boy and told him the Lord could change his life. A year later, Croyle saw the boy again at the same summer camp and found out his message had stuck. The boy found faith in the Lord, and it completely changed his life.

“That’s where the dream started,” Croyle said.

The dream has turned into two ranches — one for boys and one for girls — that combined are home to around 300 children.

“They take kids who basically have families who can’t provide for them, whether that’s because of abuse or whether that’s neglect,” said Scarlet Stearns, a former resident of Big Oak Ranch. “They become family to kids who need it the most.”

Stearns moved onto the ranch when she was 10 years old. Living there changed her life. With the support of the family she found at Big Oak Ranch, she graduated college. She started working part time at the ranch helping kids just like her navigate life.

Since Big Oak Ranch opened, it has helped over 2,000 kids. Operations are now run by Croyle’s son Brodie Croyle. He said the plan is to keep the ranch running for another 50 years.

“We want to create what God always intended family to be,” Brodie Croyle said. “We believe that happens in a home. We believe that that happens with a godly man and woman. We believe that happens with all the people that surround us.”

Big Oak Ranch said the best way to help the organization is by donating. More information on how to contribute can be found here .

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