Lake Martin Magazine

The new facilities at Children’s Harbor will be ready for a Magic Moments Memorial Day weekend camp.

The pyramidal bell tower at Children’s Harbor, just off the Kowaliga Bridge, was built in 1987 to enhance the nautical theme of the camp for seriously ill children and their families.

Since its inception in 1990, Children’s Harbor has maintained one very simple mission: “to help children and families through the treacherous and troubled waters in which they sometimes find themselves.” That mission was nearly shattered the night of April 27, 2011, when an EF-4 tornado ripped through the Lake Martin campus, damaging multiple buildings, destroying more than 500 trees and causing more than $1 million in damage.

Jim Ray was born in Birmingham and was raised in Selma, Ala. Jim and his brother Carl lived at the United Methodist Children’s Home (UMCH) where his parents served as house parents for a number of years.

The Friends of Children’s Harbor will host its fifth annual auction and tour of homes during the third weekend of May.

Tim Head remembers when he didn’t know the meaning of the Children’s Harbor lighthouse. That was more than 15 years ago when the Pelham resident would visit Lake Martin to fish. It was before 1996 when his daughter, Jennifer, was born with spinal bifida, a developmental birth defect that left her a paraplegic.

The Friends of Children’s Harbor hosted the fourth annual Tour of Homes and Auction benefiting Children’s Harbor on the second weekend of May, bringing in a grand total of $143,000 for the organizatio