Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries is proud to announce a $2.6 million gift and the naming of a 25,000 square foot facility designed to provide services to children and families. The McCall Center is named for the late P.L. “Roy” McCall, whose generosity helped make the center a reality.
Connie Maxwell leadership, donors, alumni, and friends of the McCall family joined in a celebration ceremony for the gift on February 29. Danny Nicholson, president of Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries, announced the gift as the “mantlepiece” of the organization’s “Decade of Dreams” strategic plan, which is designed to fulfill its vision to be“ a national leader for ministry and healing for vulnerable children and families.”
“This significant gift names, gives meaning and brings honor and legacy to the healing of children and families for generations to come,” Nicholson said. “The McCall Center will define our future dreams through restoration, resilience and flourishing.”
Established as a ministry of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in 1892, Connie Maxwell has positively impacted over 18,000 children and families throughout its long history. The organization provides residential care, crisis care, foster care and family care to children and families facing difficult circumstances. They aim to make the dreams of children possible again.
The McCall Center will include an auditorium for large-scale events, meeting rooms and a research library. The center will also include a board room, workstations and offices to facilitate better collaboration among staff and accommodations for children receiving therapy and interventions.
According to Nicholson, the center will allow Connie Maxwell to integrate innovative, trauma-informed care into its existing programs and create a space for experts in the fields of trauma and childcare to share their knowledge with staff and the community.
“The McCall family was an ever present, strong and enduring influence, and has a lasting legacy in the South Carolina Baptist history,” Nicholson said. “The fingerprints of the McCall family will forever rest upon the hearts and lives of children and families at the McCall Center.”
Nicholson spoke of visiting McCall several times upon his arrival to Connie Maxwell in 2017. He said McCall was excited about the organization’s vision for a “deeper ministry” for children and families, and singled out numerous occasions in which McCall publicly voiced his support for its mission.
McCall, who passed away in 2022, was an active participant in numerous local, county and state agricultural organizations and a proud supporter of both Clemson University and Coker College through various endowments, gifts and scholarship funds. He was a lifelong member of West Hartsville Baptist Church, serving as a deacon, intermediate department superintendent and choir member.
Mr. Courtney and Carolyn Stokes, close friends of McCall who took care of him at the end of his life, were also in attendance at the celebration ceremony. Carolyn spoke of McCall’s long family legacy of philanthropy and support for the Baptist Foundation and numerous ministries and organizations, including Connie Maxwell.
“He always told us Connie Maxwell is a place that he supports, just like his daddy did.”
The Connie Maxwell Decade of Dreams Strategic Plan includes the creation of the McCall Center, the expansion and reimagining of Maxwell Farms, an existing location that offers respite for children and families via numerous outdoor activities.
The plan also includes the creation of a Connie Maxwell campus in the Charleston area, which is the only South Carolina region in which the organization is not represented despite a rapidly increasing population of individuals in need. To learn more about how you can support these initiatives, contact Danny Nicholson at president@conniemaxwell.com.
Below is an excerpt from President Danny Nicholson’s speech on February 29 of how God is in the details of the transformational gift from Mr. P.L. “Roy” McCall.
Psalms 139
For you created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mothers’ womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you
When I was made in the secret place,
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
History Rhymes…
From being born alone on February 26, 1962, picked up by a maintenance worker and school teacher, and carried to 401 West Richardson Circle in Hartsville, South Carolina…
To being distinctly called by God by and through a six year old African American boy at a Seafood Restaurant in Garden City, S.C., Summer of 2016, and his words… His words will forever remain in our hearts, he said,
“Will You Come to me in My Dreams?”
Like David’s proclamation in Psalms 139, I also feel that “all my days were set in place for me and written in God’s book before one of them came to be.” I feel that deeply in my heart and spirit!!
You see, on occasion, folks ask me “Exactly, what do you do as President at Connie Maxwell?” I answer quickly without hesitation, “I testify!” They reply, “No, I mean what do you do in your job, everyday activities, you know your role as the leader?” “I testify!” I testify about the intimacy and timing of God. I testify about the One that knows my story better than me.
Who can know your story better than you? Who can fling the stars into the sky yet still know the most minute details of my past, present, and future?
And if that is true…and I believe it is. What else is left to do in life….but testify?
So after our “Damascus Road” experience at the beach when Debra and I surrendered to God’s call.
The word Dream had a very different meaning to us.
In September 2017, we arrived at Connie Maxwell and unpacked our bags at 109 Jamison Street North and joyfully began to work on a plan for the future.
While writing “A Decade of Dreams” strategic plan or should I say strategic testimony because man makes plans and God creates testimonies. I ran across a quote by Mark Twain that I used to express the dance between the past history and the future dreams. It says,
“History doesn’t repeat itself; but it often rhymes.”
History Rhymes.
After reading every bit of history that I could find and learning about A.T. Jamison who served as President for 46 years. I was impressed with his intellectual curiosity and enduring commitment to excellence that blazed a path of innovation way ahead of his time. In fact, his last words to colleagues four days before he died were,
“Boys, don’t get in a rut, if I children need something we don’t have, go learn where to find it.”
It was Jamison who used the term “mental hygiene” in the 1930s and received Connie Maxwell’s first grant from the Duke Endowment for $7000 to fund a Family Social Worker in 1924. It became obvious to me that this desire to have a deeper understanding of trauma and brokenness was in our DNA from the very beginning.
Yes….History Rhymes.
It is a distinct privilege and with great joy that Connie Maxwell announces today a 2.6 million dollar gift “For the Dreams of Children” Campaign to name the McCall Center as the mantlepiece of “A Decade of Dreams .”
This significant gift names, gives meaning, and brings honor and legacy to the healing of children and families for generations to come.
The McCall Center will define our future dreams through Restoration, Resilience, and Flourishing. Approximately, a 25,000 square foot state of the art facility will be built to elevate Connie Maxwell’s profile, enhance our mission, and ultimately fulfill our vision to be “a national leader for ministry and healing for vulnerable children and families.”
But this is more than a major gift announcement.
It is a testimony of how God builds, fulfills, and then reveals His glory and future dreams to His people.
History Rhymes.
One night, after hearing of the news of the McCall gift, I was in the vault in Bailey Administration building, quiet and alone, I went to explore some of the scrapbooks and pictures in the archive when I looked up and saw a number of red leather bound books on a shelf above the door. I had never seen them before so I reached up to randomly pull one of them down. I parted the book pages and to my delight and surprise I opened it to a picture of P. L. McCall when he was Vice Chairman of the Connie Maxwell Board of Trustees in 1971. I was stunned and began to ask God if there is something more about this gift? Something more that He would like me to know?
My mother died around the same time that the gift transpired and as I went through all of her belongings I found a Building dedication program for West Hartsville Baptist Church in 1954. I fumbled through its pages and noticed that P.L. McCall was the chair of the Building Committee and the Fundraising Committee for the creation of West Hartsville Baptist Church in 1954. What has that got to do with today?
Well, my mom and dad, who rescued and adopted me, were married in West Hartsville Baptist Church in 1957. The pastor who conducted their wedding ceremony was Rev. David Wells. He signed my adoption papers in 1962.
History rhymed again when Roy and Reaves McCall played key role in building the new West Hartsville Baptist Church right next to the old one. We attended church there in the 1990s and my two sons, Taylor and Bryson, were both baptized in that church.
The McCall family was an ever present, strong and enduring influence, and has a lasting legacy in South Carolina Baptist history.
As the story continues and history rhymes into the creation of the McCall Center, thousands of children and families will experience restoration, strengthen their resilience, and ultimately flourish in their lives. Indeed, many children, through the ages, will come to know Christ through the healing power of His grace, and that grace will be administered through God’s Word, faithful prayer, cutting edge interventions, research, and education.
In 2020, our leadership planted a tree and placed a marker in the ground to claim God’s calling through “A Decade of Dreams.” It has been four years and here we stand on this sacred ground. Ground that soon will be broken to proclaim our commitment to the healing of children and families at Connie Maxwell, in South Carolina, and around the nation.
The fingerprints of the McCall family will forever rest upon the hearts and lives of children and families at this sacred place…
For the glory of Christ Jesus and the Dreams of Children.
