For more than 100 years the Falcon Children’s Home has been taking in children, caring for them and providing not only for their physical needs, but for their emotional, spiritual and mental health, too. That is no small task in any day and age. Not only is the emotional task daunting, the nuts and bolts of feeding and clothing their charges can be overwhelming, too.

Hence the Harvest Train, a 61-year-old tradition that has allowed the surrounding community to bless the Falcon Children’s Home by filling in the gaps and meeting the needs of the children who reside there.

This year, the Harvest Train takes place on Nov. 23 and you are invited to attend, participate or contribute in whatever way suits you.

“It originally started back in the 1940s. They (the Falcon Children’s Home) were having a diffi cult time meeting their budget and having enough food and clothes to last throughout the year,” said Joey Leggett, Falcon Children’s Home CEO. “So the women’s ministry groups from some of the churches here in North Carolina said ‘Let’s start something called the Santa Claus Train’ — that is what it was called to start with.”

The churches came together to collect things and raise money throughout the year. They would meet up in Dunn, which is eight miles from Falcon, and then would make a caravan and drive down I-95 to the Falcon exit. The children from the home would line the street and the folks in the parade would throw them candy and then everyone went to the auditorium where the children would do a program as a way of saying thanks.

“I don’t think the home would have made it back then if it had not been for the Santa Claus Train,” said Leggett. “I feel certain they would have had to close their doors.”

Back then, there was not state funding to lean on, and the proceeds from the parade made up about three quarters of the annual budget, according to Leggett.

Today, it still makes up a little more than a quarter of the budget. Although the home currently receives funding for some of the children that reside there, they never turn a youngster away and there are several in their care who do not have state or federal fi nancial support and whose families are unable to help cover the cost of car-ing for them.

The parade doesn’t start in Dunn anymore, but at the Culbreth Memorial Church in Falcon. Folks bring their donations, be it school supplies, canned goods, cleaning supplies, paper products, toiletries or diapers and infant-care items for the babies of the resident teen mothers and walk to the children’s home (and yes, they still throw candy to the kids as the come in).

“Last year the parade was about a mile long,” said Leggett. “We’ve added a lot more to it this year, too. Pope Air Force Base will have a lot of their Airmen and equipment in the parade. It still winds up at the auditorium and then the children still do a program as a way of saying thank you to everybody.”

Leggett estimates that 90 percent of the residents at Falcon Children’s Home come from Cumberland County, and while they do get a lot of support from organizations like the Fayetteville Area Hospitality Association, there are still many needs that have to be met, and unfortunately, the funds to do that are not always readily available. That is why the Harvest Train is so important to the Falcon Children’s Home.

“We are definitely grateful for all of the support that we get from the commu-nity,” said Leggett. “We touch so many lives here. There is no greater feeling than knowing that you have touched a child’s life and been able to help them turn them-selves around and be successful.”

Supporting the Harvest Train is just one easy way to help the Falcon Children’s Home in their mission to change the lives of the future citizens, and hopefully leaders, of our community.

To find out how you can help, visit www.falconchildrenshome.com or call the home at 980-1065