DALLAS (ABP) — A Baptist woman in Dallas has given $1 million to start a community center in Oak Cliff, an inner-city neighborhood just south of the city's downtown.
Officials of Buckner Children and Family Services and Cliff Temple Baptist Church in the Oak Cliff community said the community center will be built on church property.
“It is a pleasure to give back something that I've been given in this holy place over 84 years,” said Jeannette Sadler, longtime member of the Oak Cliff church. “I was practically born in the basement [of Cliff Temple Baptist] and now I teach the oldest Sunday school class in the church.”
The Cletys and Jeannette Sadler Community Center will be named for Sadler and her late husband, who was a teacher and East Texas rancher. Plans call for the community center to work with other partners in the community to provide crisis relief and assistance, after-school and youth programs, adult and family education, and programs for senior adults.
The gift is an “answer to our prayers to be deeply involved in meeting the needs of hurting people in the Dallas community,” said Buckner President Ken Hall. “Mrs. Sadler's generosity in making this gift to Buckner exemplifies her commitment to others who are less fortunate.”
Cliff Temple Pastor Glen Schmucker said the community center fulfills Jeannette Sadler's lifelong dream “to help those in our community who are less fortunate by providing both the physical facilities and programs that help them.”
Buckner Children and Family Services is a Baptist charity affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.