ST. LOUIS — An important St. Louis resource asked the community for help Tuesday after the center was flooded.
The Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center's crisis center at 5355 Page Avenue had to turn away clients. A pipe burst at the center after days of sub-freezing temperatures.
The crisis center helps children by providing immediate intervention to prevent child abuse and neglect. Services include emergency shelter, food, clothing, educational needs, conflict resolution, emergency medical attention and counseling.
"The crisis center is 24 hours. This is where we get the calls in the middle of the night for children whose parents overdosed on drugs or being killed, or they are homeless. We're licensed to 12 beds, from 17 years old to newborns. This is their safe haven," CEO Keisha Lee said.
Tuesday morning, staff members' shoes squish on the soggy surface.
Beyond the water, pieces of the floor were buckled and thrown all over.
Tuesday morning, children were tucked in their warm beds, soon to be awaken by the harsh frigid weather at about 7:15 a.m.
On the boys' side of the facility in the bathroom, the pipe behind the shower ruptured.
"Once the cold air hits the pipes, they start expanding and extracting, so it's going to find the weakest spot in the pipes that's going to give. It was close to 800 gallons of water at least. It was water going down the basement steps like you had a creek in here," Eddie Brown, who is head of maintenance, said.
Lee has asked for volunteers to help with the cleanup and to restore services.
Staff believes there is more than $150,000 in damage to one side of the building.
For now, the children are safe.
However, items inside half of the building are far from repair.
They have also had to turn away families and refer them to outside resources in the meantime.
"Our dressers, the clothes, the bedding furniture like that, we have to band together and repurchase. We need the help. This is a place where people go in a time of crisis. A crisis center can't be in crisis! I love my babies I'm going to make sure that it's back up and running," Lee said.
Annie Malone Children and Family Services accepts online donations. The center is buying new supplies after the flood.
The Whitfield Foundation for Success also had a pipe burst Monday. The executive director cleaned up the mess.
"Our large art exhibit that was mounted to the ceiling was damaged as well as our mural on the wall," the CEO said. We need help fixing pipes and replacing all the damaged items."
Lee released a statement Thursday, that reads:
“Part of my Annie Malone Family has been disrupted, due to the freezing weather causing a pipe to burst. There are many people in our community helping us and thank you to all, including KAI Enterprises, Frederick Searcy, Jr. Paul Gallagher, and Mark Reese of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 562, Michael Boschert with PARIC Corporation, Alderwoman Shameem Clark-Hubbard, Building Commissioner Frank Oswald and Building Inspecting Supervisor Dan Coplin, our board, and staff, and to the news media that delivered our call to help to the community.
I consider all of you, and other volunteers too numerous to mention, part of our Annie Malone family. While this helped during the immediate crisis to keep Twelve families safe, we need our Annie Malone family back. They need to be here with us and not in hotels so that we can continue to provide our services that will bring stability and economic mobility.
I am reaching out to Mayor Jones, and other concerned federal state and local officials to help mitigate this crisis. We are a crisis center, so we need to continue to stabilize this situation, and quickly. With the help we have received already we have saved an estimated $150,000 at a minimum.
I am thankful everyone is safe, and we will continue to work through this crisis together like a family. We would love and be grateful for your help for a monetary donation to replace furniture and other items. You can reach us at info@anniemalone.com or call us at 314-531-0120.”
Donations to Whitfield can be made here.
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