Jason Lamers came from humble beginnings in southwest Fort Worth. He had a loving family that didn't have the resources to care for him or his siblings. Fortunately, someone loved them enough to pluck them out of a poor home situation and give them a new start at Happy Hill Farm (HHF) in Granbury. Lamers arrived there in 1989. He was 12 years old.
"At this point in my life, there was a major fork in the road," Lamers says. "The path that I was on was one of destruction and would've likely led to me making some very bad decisions that would have eventually shattered my life and opportunity. But there was another path-a path of discipline, education and spiritual renewal," he says. I was fortunate to be placed on that new path thanks to Happy Hill Farm. It wasn't easy, and I fought it at first. But, I would later learn that this structure was setting me on a path to success."
Today Lamers serves as Chief of Staff, Office of the Mayor and City Council at City of Fort Worth.
He recalls visiting City Hall at 13, and shaking hands with former Fort Worth Mayor Bob Bolen, who was a longtime benefactor of HHF. "Never would I have imagined that I would one day be working alongside future mayors," says Lamers. "I'm just one of the many examples of young lives saved because of the selfless compassion of Ed and Gloria Shipman and the Happy Hill Farm team."
The seeds for Happy Hill Farm were planted in 1974 when Ed and Gloria Shipman were in their 40s. Ed was a minister. Their sons, Chuck and Todd, were teenagers. In response to a sheriff's call for help, the Shipmans took in two runaway teenage sisters, who eventually were placed in a children's home. Because of this experience, the Shipmans made a family decision in 1975 to stop a land development they had begun on a 266-acre working farm to build a home for at-risk children. Twenty years ago, a generous board member bought and donated 250 more acres. The entire Shipman family is involved to this day.
"I didn't get any voice from Heaven; there was nothing angelic, but there was an inner sense that "This is something you need to do. See if this is a special assignment I've got for you that you need to know about,"" Ed Shipman says. "The more I talked with Child Protective Services and the juvenile justice system, the more I looked and talked, the more aware I became of how many kids there are in bad situations. We've been through some hard times, but never ever have I wavered from that feeling that this is something that God wanted me to do."
Happy Hill Farm is home to one of the world's premier Christian boarding schools for underprivileged youth. This is one of the few schools in Texas that will take children regardless of their ability to pay.
North Central Texas Academy, founded in 1975, is a fully-accredited, private, college-preparatory boarding, day, and international school, located on a 500-acre campus. They are dedicated to raising scholarship funding for almost every student in the program, Shipman says. More than 90 percent of the Academy's budget comes from private donations.
Up to 125 boys and girls (ages 6 to 18) live at HHF year-round in small group homes, overseen by house parents. These students are joined by an additional 100+ international students and day students from the local community.
The farm/campus has athletic fields, an athletic center, chapel, vocational agriculture complex, barns, greenhouse, woodshop, and a 60,000-square-foot Academy complex with a fine arts center. Every discipline is approached through a Christian worldview, and the values of service and leadership are emphasized on a daily basis. Most of the school's graduates go to universities and colleges.
All of this was accomplished with no government money.
Granbury couple Carol and Bob Cook have served as volunteers at HHF since 1997. Carol is an author and journalist, and Bob is a prolific watercolor artist. Ed Shipman and Bob became building buddies, as Bob rendered every building the Farm wanted to build and donated them to the Farm. He also got a well-respected architectural firm in Fort Worth to step in, and a relationship developed that has resulted in millions of dollars to build the school, welcome center and other buildings.
When the Cook's granddaughter died of injuries from a car accident, they set up a scholarship fund to help a disadvantaged child. "The first scholarship was given this year to a young woman who came from a terribly disadvantaged life," Carol says. "This gave her a new beginning at HHF and the Academy, and we now embrace her as part of our family."
The most positive part of this journey has been all of the wonderful people that he has met along the way who have a heart for kids who need a way out, Shipman says. "When they found us, it was a meshing of like minds. Some were very wealthy and could give us a lot of money, and some were poor and very limited in terms of their ability to help, but all those people combined have enabled us to do what is nothing short of a contemporary miracle. I am humbled to be a part of something that is so much bigger than I am. The good Lord has smiled on us and we have helped thousands of children."
To learn more about Happy Hill Farm or to make a donation, visit happyhillfarm.org.
