Big Oak Ranch celebrates 50 years of transforming lives of more than 2,000 children … and counting
The Big Oak Ranch recently recognized its 50th anniversary at its founding location in Glencoe. (Nori Leybengrub /Anniston Star)
It’s probably the largest family reunion you’ll ever see. The Big Oak Ranch recently recognized its 50th anniversary at its founding location in Glencoe, celebrating the next generation of a family they hope will never stop growing.
The celebration featured burgers made from cattle raised through the Big Oak Cattle program, established 10 years ago to help Big Oak children develop skills of working with animals to fuel the self-sustaining production system.
Dessert was a potluck of brownies, cookies and more, contributed by the branches of the now 50-year-old family tree. Children outnumbered adults on bouncy houses, slides and across the fields. Children even helped organize, and then participated in, a rodeo to mark the anniversary.
“You’re not going to know which one of these little kids that are running around here are ours or are they the shadows of ours — the grandchildren of Big Oak Ranch,” said Brodie Croyle, CEO of Big Oak Ranch. “You’ll never know the difference — here’s the deal, neither will they.”
Croyle’s parents, John and Tee Croyle, started the ranch in 1974, with five boys they welcomed into their home.
A mission that began with five boys, Big Oak Ranch has 50 years later transformed thousands of lives. (Nori Leybengrub / Anniston Star)
“They acted truly on the faith and the hope that they just wanted to give kids a chance — kids that had not gotten the same opportunity as others, kids who had come across hard times, kids who experienced unfathomable abuse — and give them an opportunity to go seize what’s in front of them,” Croyle said. “It’s a life of purpose, it’s a life that where you came from doesn’t define where you’re going.”
Croyle has called Big Oak home his entire life.
“I went straight from the hospital to this place,” he said.
And after playing football for the University of Alabama and the Kansas City Chiefs, after co-owning and operating a timber business with a friend, Croyle returned to Big Oak, following something within him that urged him to return to his larger-than-life family.
He and his wife, Kelli Schutz Croyle, have been in leadership for more than 10 years now.
“What was still is, and what we’re doing it’s not new, it’s just our turn … our turn is going to look a little different than the past turn, but we’ve started at a radically different platform than that of a farmhouse with five boys,” Croyle said.
In 1989, Big Oak Ranch opened a Springville location for girls. In 1990, Big Oak assumed operational control over Westbrook Christian School in Rainbow City. This helped sustain the school and serve both the children of the Boys and Girls ranches, from elementary through high school. Today, the school is a ministry partner with Big Oak.
More recently, in 2019, Big Oak launched its ASCEND program, which provides spiritual, professional and personal life preparation for the emerging adults of Big Oak. The opening of the ASCEND Village, a living and learning home for the program, this year is helping strengthen the opportunity for children from Big Oak to pursue higher education.
“For some of our kids, that’s a four-year degree at a university; for others, it’s an associate’s degree; for others, it’s a trade school, but it really just creates an opportunity for us to find the best pathway for them,” said Scarlet Stearn, the resident guide to the program and part of the Big Oak family. “I moved to Big Oak when I was 10 and I stayed here and technically never left.”
Stearn graduated from Samford University and was hired by Big Oak as one of the first residential guides. She stays with the students in an independent home in Birmingham, where the students are able to pursue their own paths with guidance.
Her work with students includes a life skills curriculum.
“It teaches you everything that the world tries to teach you but college does not, basically financial management, relationship management, how to be a rock star in your first job, so as our kids are pursuing a higher education, we come alongside them and help them to be able to do that,” she said.
“It has been so impactful to really be the person I needed when I was their age … what they need that ASCEND is able to create for them is just guidance,” Stearn said. “They need support, and we go through so many seasons in college, through highs and lows, and ASCEND just provides so many levels of support that helps them thrive.”
In 2018, Big Oak began a program called Planting Oaks, which aims to help like-minded ministries across the nation establish Christian homes for abused, neglected and abandoned children. Through the program, Big Oak’s legacy has served more than 6,500 children through 109 Planting Oaks partners across 30 states.
Big Oak is entirely privately funded through donations from individuals and organizations. Funding supporters live in all 50 states.
A mission that began with five boys has 50 years later transformed thousands of lives. Of the more than 2,000 children who have called Big Oak Ranch home, John Croyle says he remembers the face of every child he’s helped given a chance.
A 17-year-old girl once approached him, John said. She asked him, “‘Are you Mr. John?’ I said I am, and she started crying. She said, ‘You went and got my daddy. He is a good man, and he is a great father. I just wanted to tell you thank you,’” said John, describing the interaction that defined what his life’s work has meant to him.
“We got a lot of kids that made it and a lot that haven’t. … But that is the greatest thing that has happened in my life out here, is knowing that the generational cycle is broken, and he made it, and he is a good man,” John said.
Children come to Big Oak from practically any situation you can imagine, Croyle said, and are placed into a home on the Ranch with a mother and father, and five to eight brothers and sisters.
“These people live out daily, small things repeated, at the end of the day, it’s not a small thing, because eventually small things become big things,” Brodie said.
Consistency, love, faith and high expectations are what Brodie described as small things.
“Over time, if we keep living that purpose out over and over again in front of them, eventually they are going to ask the question: What is different about you and then,” Croyle said. “You’ve earned a seat at their table where you get to share with them what is different about you.”
This article was originally published by The Anniston Star.
