From career exploration to festive community events, Franktown Open Hearts brings joy and support to disadvantaged children across Franklin.
“We are a program that works with impoverished children from kindergarten to senior year after school and all day during the summer," says Chris Barnhill, Franktown Open Hearts' executive director. "The big difference between Franktown Open Hearts and any other program I know of is that we take the kids through what I call a ‘buffet line’ of careers when they are in middle school. They go to 35 classes to get exposure to cooking, automotive, sewing, 3D printing, golf, finance, welding, electrical, plumbing, woodworking and much more. Because of this, 100 percent of our students have graduated from our program and ‘launched’ into either a university, program, or job. These kids want to work for it, get off of welfare, and better their lives. All we do is give them the tools and experience to do it.”
Franktown Open Hearts' purposeful mission, coming alongside disadvantaged kids, is not the only way the program is involved in the community. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization is also known for spreading the Christmas spirit throughout Williamson County and beyond.
“We have two Christmas time activities the community can get involved in," says Barnhill. "The first is the Franktown Festival of Lights. It started because there used to be a Christmas lights show near Opryland that moved to the Wilson County AG Center. The year before moving though, there were about 60,000 cars that drove through their light show. So when they moved, it gave us the idea to put on a light show closer to Williamson County for all of these people."
"Eventually we found a light company that was a good fit for us to partner with. We also partnered with the county and they let us lease the AG Center for the festival. The light show’s route is about a mile-and-a-half long and certain sections are synchronized with Christmas music, so you can tune your car radio to a station and listen along with the light show. At the end, people can get out of their cars and get their picture taken with the beautiful 25-foot-tall Christmas tree and roast marshmallows while enjoying hot chocolate, popcorn, and cotton candy."
The festival opened on November 22 and is open from 5-9 p.m. each night until December 31. "We even have ‘Walking Wednesdays’ each week until 6:30 so that anyone can come and walk the course with the music instead of driving it,” adds Barnhill. “Each night we need volunteers to help, so anyone can go to the website to volunteer or buy tickets at any point in the season. The cars that drive through receive a card with information about Franktown Open Hearts that explains all of the proceeds raised go toward Franktown Open Hearts' capital campaign. It also has a rendering of the center we are looking to build because we are currently using numerous locations that are not our own to host these children. By having our own building, we can minimize the amount of time we are spending driving the kids from place to place. The county is leasing us a piece of land directly behind the Williamson County Library for this center, so all we have to do is raise money for the building to give the program a home to serve more disadvantaged kids.” The Festival of Lights is an event for anyone and everyone in the community to enjoy.
Franktown Open Hearts also seeks to make the kids in the program feel the Christmas spirit in a unique way, as well. “Our second Christmas activity has a direct impact on the kids in the Franktown Open Hearts program," says Barnhill. "Throughout the year, we raise enough money, so that by Christmas time we can give each child some funds and pair them with a Franktown Open Hearts volunteer family that can take them shopping to buy Christmas presents for their family. These volunteer families take them to stores, check items off the list, and then take them back to the church, where we host a time for all of the volunteers and kids to wrap the presents and eat a Christmas feast. Then the kids are taken home, and we help them carry in the presents and a box of food. It helps our volunteers realize that many of us are very blessed and we can help our community through projects like this one. The purpose of Franktown Open Hearts is to serve the kids, and we are blessed to share that with the Franklin community.” FranktownOpenHearts.com