By Josh Havard, Editor
Published in the Lufkin Daily News, September 13, 2024
Burke, a nonprofit organization, has been a part of the East Texas community by providing mental health services dating back to 1974. On Thursday afternoon, it celebrated its 50th anniversary by inviting members of various organizations to a luncheon at the Pitser Garrison Convention Center.
Local law enforcement officials and people who have served Burke since its inception were on hand for the event.
“It’s amazing,” Burke CEO Melanie Taylor said. “I’ve been with the Burke Center for 38 years. To see where we’ve started and how much we’ve grown over the years is great. To see how much we’ve worked to our core mission of improving lives and making sure everybody is taken care of is what today is about.”
Burke’s services include mental health, mental health crisis services, developmental disabilities, primary care and early childhood intervention. The organization serves 11 counties throughout East Texas.
There were 13,751 clients served, including 5,663 in Angelina County. Burke employs 402 full-time and 107 part-time positions. There was $44 million in funding given to the organization in 2023.
Taylor emphasized the care the organization provides in the community.
“Working together for us means working with our families,” Taylor said. “It’s not just individuals. It’s families. They have kids, they have parents, they have husbands, they have wives. We work together to improve their lives. With the dedicated staff throughout our agency, we do our best to provide them with the services needed.”
Randy George, the vice chair of the Burke board, has both a professional and personal knowledge of what the nonprofit provides.
His first cousin, Bill, is one of the clients.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” George said. “I’ve been dealing with Burke for many, many, many years. I have a family member that’s a recipient of some of the services that Burke gives, and that’s very, very important.”
He expanded on how vital Burke has been to Bill.
“He’s in a group home. Folks in charge of the home take care of him. He gets to go to a workshop, gets to do a little bit of work if he wants to, and he’s so happy. When things happen, they’re right there on the spot taking care of him. I’m a firm believer, Bill wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for Burke.”
George went on to expand on how mental health affects not only individuals but the entire community and how pivotal it is to have Burke to help everyone out.
“When there’s a problem with a mentally handicapped person, it affects the sheriff’s department, it affects the police department, it affects the emergency rooms at the hospital,” George said. “They’re not trained to take care of those things. Today is all about thanking everyone involved. It takes all of us to take care of folks when there’s a problem.”
He said paying attention to mental health only gets more important as time goes on.
“Things are going to change as more problems arise,” George said. “There are cold, hard facts. You see shootings in hospitals, shootings in schools. All these folks have mental health problems. If people don’t do things about it, these things will continue to happen.”
Taylor said while the world continues to change, Burke is there to help those who need them most.
“If we weren’t in our community, we wouldn’t have psychiatry services, peer coordination or residential homes for people to live in,” Taylor said. “It would be a catastrophe for the community if we weren’t here to go give that support.
“Our plans are to continue to provide the best services we can. We know people’s lives change. We’re seeing a large increase in the number of people in crisis and we’re seeing people whose disability is more severe. We have to continue to work to provide those services.”
Featured Photo Caption:
Wayne Lawrence, the first CEO of Burke, is shown with current CEO Melanie Taylor at the organization’s 50th anniversary held on Septemeber 12, 2024, at the Pitser Garrison Convention Center in Lufkin, TX
