The WEECare Story

The call to begin a child care program came as a surprise!  Men from the seminary had come to counsel Dr. Charles Dorman, the pastor of Fuquay Springs Baptist Church (now Fuquay-Varina Baptist Church), advising that a kindergarten would be a great ministry for the church.  Dr. Dorman and Mrs. Marjorie Green, church secretary, thought Doris would be the right one for the job since they knew she loved to teach children.  

At the time, Doris was working for a florist in Raleigh, and she had to trust someone else to pick up her children after school and care for them until she got home.  It was spring, and she was busy making corsages for spring proms.  She remembers looking at the corsages and thinking that the beautiful but hard work would be gone so quickly. She began to pray, “Lord, can’t you give me something to do that would have eternal value and allow me to be home in the afternoon for my children.”  Though she was in earnest with the prayer, she really forgot about it thinking God would answer someday.  However, in about two weeks the call came from Marjorie Green that the church wanted to start a kindergarten and would she consider being the director/teacher. She knew that she did not fully qualify, but the answer to her prayer was so dramatic that she believed this was indeed God’s will for her. 

During her lunch hours, she would visit Raleigh kindergartens to get ideas. Then she began to pull together a curriculum. She had to make everything “from scratch” since there were no prepared curricula in that day. Rev. Dorman told Doris “the main thing is that the children learn about the Bible and about Jesus”. Doris said “what God starts, he completes.” God called me to do it.”  Doris said that her motto was “what is best for the child?” And so with faith that God would enable, she was off and running.  The church approved the kindergarten, she prepared for class, and a fence was erected for a playground.  At this time the church was on the corner of Main St. and Academy, a very busy intersection.  A slide and some swings were put up, and the class was advertised.  The kindergarten was given $1100 for the fence, playground equipment, and other basic needs.  (The ongoing operating costs were self-sustaining.) The doors opened to fifteen kindergarten students in September of 1963.  This began the ministry of “Fuquay Springs Baptist Church Kindergarten”.

Mrs. Weathers was the teacher and the director! The classroom was right down the hall from the office so sometimes the pastor said it got pretty loud. Doris said some days she just had to “tie a knot and hold on to the end of her rope.”  Since she had no assistant, sometimes she had to holler across the room to stop a problem.  McLean’s Grocery was right across the street, so that is where the food for the snacks was purchased. Tuition was $161/month. Those were the days…

From 1963-1970 Mrs. Weathers had no assistant. However, in 1970 Mrs. Betty Mangum moved to Fuquay Springs. On visiting the family, Dr. Dorman discovered that Betty had taught children in her previous church.  He requested that Doris visit Betty to ask her if she wanted a job. Betty accepted that offer, and what a blessing she was through the years! She was a self-starter, just as Dr. Dorman had said. In order to hire her, Doris had to share her salary since the budget would not afford another salary.

 As time went by, the preschool began to grow. The name was changed to the “Fuquay-Varina Baptist Church Child Care Program”.  In addition to kindergarten, younger classes were also added, beginning with a four-year old class.

Doris realized that God had answered her prayers and started an amazing ministry at the same time.  She summed up the interview saying “we have had wonderful times at WEECare with the children.  I loved what I did!” She encouraged us to keep on loving the children and teaching them about Jesus.  I (Barbara) promised her that WEECare would continue to carry the torch into this fiftieth year, teaching the children about Jesus along with excellent academics. God has been faithful!  To this day, we are seeing the work of God as He accomplishes what He started fifty years ago.