Debra Moerke knows the struggle single mothers face, and she seeks to help women experiencing that scenario through implementation of a grand vision.
The idea of The McKenzie Home project sparked as Moerke drove from her granddaughter’s gravesite nearly five years ago. She saw an old schoolhouse, charred by a fire, and for the next year, when she visited family in Green River, located in southwest Wyoming, that building continued to draw her attention.
“I would sit in front of this building and just pray and go, ‘What is it about this building that I am drawn to?’” Moerke recently told Pregnancy Help News. “I felt God say, ‘This is going to be a transitional home for single moms and their children,’ and I just thought, ‘That's crazy!’ It's far from my home; the building is damaged. I mean it's an impossible situation.”
However, just like the parting of the Red Sea, what seemed impossible began to happen, and Moerke started walking a visionary path. The non-profit transitional home has an established Board of Directors in two locations: where the home will be built and, in the community, where Moerke resides. Other counties in the state will soon be represented by on boarding more members, she said.
Additionally, plans for demolishing the fire-damaged Washington School, blueprints for construction of the transitional home that will pay homage to that school, and supporters from around Wyoming have all materialized during the past few years. Moerke has conducted many speaking events, and she’s attended several conferences. Two billboards about the project have been erected along Interstate 25 in northern and southern Wyoming. The organization has hosted two gala events, with another planned for April 26, 2025.
A goal of raising seed money is set for June 1, Moerke said, about one-eighteenth of the project’s entire cost.
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About The McKenzie Home
“Half of the building will be housing for 24 moms and their kids, and the other half will be a multi-purpose room, office space, and classrooms,” Moerke said.
The women will be required to either work or further their education. Many businesses, medical facilities, and the community college know about this endeavor and are supportive, she said.
The McKenzie Home is named in honor of Moerke’s granddaughter, who died from cancer at age five. But there’s another reason for choosing that moniker.
“Mckenzie was born to a single mom, and my daughter and son-in-law adopted her at birth,” Moerke said. “They fought with her and for her for five years through cancer, and so the name, The McKenzie Home, not only is in honor of her, but also because she represents a child born to a single mom.”
McKenzie’s heart
While raising money and building additional support for the transitional home, Moerke and her board, all volunteers, have established McKenzie’s Heart, an assistance and networking program to help single moms in times of need while also developing a supportive community for women raising their children.
For example, an administrator at the Washington Elementary School in Green River learned last year about a mother whose vehicle broke down. She was unable to work and fell behind on rent. With two young children, the woman was in crisis. The administrator reached out to one of the board members and asked if The McKenzie Home project could help this mother. An emergency board meeting was held, and “people stepped forward,” Moerke said. One man volunteered to fix the woman’s car, and funds were raised to pay the back rent. The mother returned to work and was able to move back to her place.
Additionally, the church Moerke attends partnered with her to bring together single moms for brunch and a program. This ‘Gal-intine’s Day’-themed event, which took place February 15, had a specific purpose: to introduce single moms to one another that can lead to strong friendships.
“Single moms tend to isolate either out of shame or they're just trying to keep their head above water,” Moerke said. “But they can be a support for each other. What we're trying to do is get them to realize they have another support system here among each other and have them get to know each other.”
This will be a monthly event, she added.
“We want to support these single moms and tell them that we love them, that we care about them,” said Moerke.
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The name McKenzie’s Heart came to Moerke’s mind upon remembering something special that took place while her granddaughter was alive and fighting cancer.
“Her little cousin, who is six months younger, was out in the backyard playing with other cousins, and she came running inside crying because she ended up with a sliver in her foot,” Moerke recalled. “Her mommy said, ‘You need to lay across me on this couch and let me try to get this splinter out of your foot.’”
McKenzie was lying on the couch across the room, covered with a blanket and hooked to an IV.
“The younger cousin was crying even more and saying, ‘It hurts!’” Moerke continued. “Little McKenzie got out from under her blanket and with her IV went across the living room to her little cousin. She took her hand and said, ‘I'm here. You're going to be okay.’ So, this is why Mckenzie's Heart because Mckenzie, even though she was sick and hurting, saw the need of somebody else, someone who was in pain and suffering.”
Embracing the need
According to 2023 statistics, nearly 34 percent of Wyoming households led by single mothers fall below the poverty line. That number, and her own experiences, are the reasons that Moerke travels on this journey.
A Christian author and speaker, she was once a single mother due to a divorce. More than 30 years ago, she founded a pregnancy center in Casper known as The Caring Center. That center is now True Care Women’s Resource Center, and it was the first pregnancy help organization in Wyoming to become a medical clinic. Moerke also served as a jail chaplain and hosted Bible studies for women in prison. Moerke and her husband, Al, served as foster parents for more than 140 children over a 20-year period. She has therefore witnessed the sadness of broken families on a number of levels. She foresees The McKenzie Home helping to alleviate that sorrow and breaking the chain of shattered, struggling families.
“They’re either going to continue to fill our penitentiaries and drug rehab centers or they might be the next generation of teachers and doctors and mayors, and so we can either be part of the solution or part of the problem,” Moerke said. “We can either ignore it or we can step forward and say, ‘We want this for our state.’”
