Building Foundations – The Ubl Home

“About a year ago, we felt like it was time to REALLY start giving back.” ~~Jerry Ubl  

On September 4, 2019, Jerry and Maggie Ubl were interviewed by KFRU’s David Lile out of Columbia, Missouri. It was significant, as it was because of an interview 15 years earlier that Jerry and Maggie were able to first connect with Larry McDaniel and Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries

In 2004, David Lile interviewed Larry on KFRU. Maggie Ubl happened to hear that interview, and when her husband Jerry arrived home later, she couldn’t help telling him, I heard something very interesting today, and I feel like we need to get involved in some way, shape or form.” 

Jerry and Maggie contacted Larry and scheduled a time to come out for a tour. As often happens, folks don’t fully grasp the work and ministry of Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries until they step on our property. Jerry and Maggie were amazed.  

Maggie says, “It was just absolutely breath-takingChildren smiled and greeted Larry with Good morning, Mr. Larry!’ The children were so well-behaved, and everything was so well organized. We couldn’t believe all of this functioned mostly through the support of donors, with little government assistance.” 

Jerry continues, I saw kids given the opportunity to be kids. Each home has a playground, they’ve got their kitchen area, their recreation area downstairs, etc. Like Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries advertises, it’s a lifestyle that lets a kid be a kid. 

Larry adds, The thing that’s so neat about what Jerry said – about it being a place where a kid can be a kid – that’s been a theme from the very beginning. Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries is a safe place to be a child. So many times, kids from hard places don’t get a chance to be a kid because they have to be so many other things. Sometimes they play the part of a parent. Sometimes they‘re just trying to survive. Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries gives them a safe place be a kid again. 

Jerry and Maggie became donors in 2004 by opting to give memorial donations to Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries instead of sending flowers to the funerals of friends and loved ones. They continued doing that faithfully for years, but recently they approached Larry and asked if they could help build another home for children at Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries. 

Maggie says, “When I told my brother what we had decided to do, he was excited, yet shockedSo I asked him, ‘How much money do you really need in your older years? Do any of us really need everything we saved for, or can we put some of it to a better use? I believe we’re putting our money to the best use we possibly could. It’s amazing, and I just can’t talk about Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries enough.” 

Jerry concludes, “We’ve been very fortunate and blessed in our lives in many, many ways. We’ve had good financial advice along the way, but we came from very humble beginnings. There was a time, while we were in California and I was in the Navy from 1957-61, that we didn’t have any money and I had to borrow 50 cents from a woman just so we could make phone callLater, when I went to pay her back, she wouldn’t take it but she told us at some time in our lives we’d be able to help someone.  

I believe now it’s time to really start giving back. 

At this year’s Open House event, the Ubls were introduced to those in attendance out at our Harrisburg Community. Jerry and Maggie were then introduced to some of the youth who gained summer employment and experience on construction projects at The Hill during their summer break. These youth presented Jerry and Maggie with a hammer, engraved with the words “Ubl Home 2019 – Building a Safe Place to Be a Child.” 

Thank you, Jerry and Maggie, for the foundations you are building today that will impact generations to come! 

couple in front of construction site
Keith & Joyce Roth, Maggie & Jerry Ubl on the future site of the Ubl Home.

(We’d also like to thank KFRU and David Lile, for facilitating the opportunity to meet Jerry and Maggie 15 years ago and for the chance to share this story with your listeners.) 

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