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Dan Kegley/Fueled by coffee and carrying a symbolic gasoline can, Doug Scanlon passes the Chilhowie Fire Department Wednesday morning on a walk shared with Mark Early from Glade Spring to Marion, a segment of a cross-state journey raising awareness and money for Salem-based Hope Tree Family Services. The fuel can represents the project’s internal theme, Fueling an Empty Heart.

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Walkers remain optimistic about campaign’s potential

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Hope Tree Family Services’ C to Shining C walk across Virginia was on schedule but falling behind in fundraising when it entered Smyth County Wednesday.
Doug Scanlon passed the Chilhowie Fire Department around 8:45 a.m., enroute to a planned pre-noon arrival at Marion following a first-light departure from Glade Spring.
He and walking partner Mark Early left the county, continuing on Highway 11, Thursday morning. The journey is a kind of relay with other teams alternating with Early and Scanlon to divide the cross-state journey into smaller segments.
Team members rotate between walking and driving every couple of miles.
The walk began in Cumberland Gap Aug. 1 and is set to end in Chincoteague Sept. 14.
By the end of the walk on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, Hope Tree hopes to have added $150,000 to its coffers.
That goal is part of a $5 million capital campaign for new facilities, said Hope Tree spokesman Mark Early
While the walkers have remained on schedule, Early said donations are below what the organization hoped for at this stage. But Early remained optimistic, noting the wealthier central and eastern parts of the state lie ahead.
“I told our director we came through the two poorest counties in Virginia,” Early said.
Early said previously the teams walk during the cooler morning hours, reserving afternoons and evenings to speak to civic, professional and church groups. Last week Early said no plans were set for Marion and by Wednesday morning, despite communications with at least a local Rotary Club, no speaking engagements had been arranged for Wednesday.
Hope Tree’s Web site traced its roots to a group of Baptists who in 1887 “began rallying their churches to support the establishment of a Baptist orphanage. As a result, the Baptist Orphanage of Virginia was chartered on Feb. 24, 1890 and “thrived” for the next four decades.
In the 1930s and ‘40s, a change began in the orphanage’s children. Fewer were truly orphaned, but “their families placed them with the Baptist Orphanage because of economic hardships.”
That led to a change in program and name in 1953: Virginia Baptist Children’s Home.
Economic hardships faded over the years as a main reason children went to the home, replaced by abuse and neglect. In 1985 the home became Virginia Baptist Children’s Home & Family Services.
In the ‘90s with its outreach to adults in its Developmental Disabilities Ministry, a new identity began.
“A new name was needed that would be inclusive of all of our programs, open our doors to all denominations, and convey our statewide locations beyond our former, singular “home” title,” Hope Tree’s Web site said. “Thus, Hope Tree Family Services became our new name.
Hope Tree offers these programs plus emergency care for times of crisis, foster care and adoption services, the Gus Mitchell School that educates residents “while they cope with their individual circumstances,” assistance for those in transition to independent living, and the WOODS Programs (Wilderness Outdoor Opportunity Discovery Schools) that teaches discipline through high-adventure learning.