Carly Eversole, ceversole@wyoming.com | wyo4news.com
September 8, 2022, Green River, Wyoming – Washington Square, formerly known as Washington School, has a history dating back to 1925 when the first group of 5th and 6th-grade students walked through its doors breathing life into the structure as an elementary school for the next 50 years. When the new Washington School was built, the Central Administration building for Sweetwater County School District #2 found a home in the structure. After serving the community for over 20 years in that role, the building was purchased by a private owner to be used for businesses and given the name Washington Square. On the evening of December 26, 2019, tragedy struck as the building caught fire destroying much of the external structure of the building and bringing the businesses inside to a total loss.
For 3 years now the building has sat lifeless and empty, however, plans to rebuild and revive Washington Square are in place thanks to an individual all too familiar with rebuilding, reviving, and not losing hope herself. Debra Moerke, a California native, turned Texas transplant, to finally proud Wyomingite, is that individual. Moerke married into a local Green River family and although careers have taken them places such as Houston, and Pheonix, Wyoming is home. Her husband and she have made their home in Casper since 1981 traveling frequently to Sweetwater County to visit family, including their own children and grandchildren.
Moerke’s professional and personal life has not been without tragedy, struggle, sometimes heartbreak, and of course great joy. Moerke and her husband have fostered nearly 180 children together, she has served as president of the Pregnancy Resource Center in Casper, been a speaker at women’s prisons as well as worked as an officer in the jail at the Sheriff’s Department in Pheonix, Arizona, motivated by a strong desire to become a prison chaplain. She has served on many boards and has not shied away from rolling up her sleeves and helping the communities she has been a part of, no matter how messy the circumstances. During her time as a foster parent is when she saw many children come from single-parent households. Of those households, one experienced tragedy unparalleled to others leading Moerke to write a book about the circumstances. Her history of tackling desperate situations has driven Moerke to be motivated to be a part of something bigger and to take on projects that have meaning behind them. Moerke and her husband had purchased a home in the country in Casper where the idea of turning the home into a safe place for single mothers became a goal of hers, once their own children had grown and moved away. However, a series of tragic events would lead Moerke down another path, to another home.
August 30, 2019, brought darkness into Moerke’s life when her 5-year-old granddaughter lost her fight with cancer. As the funeral procession for the small child headed up the hill to the Green River cemetery, it passed Washington square. Moerke felt an instant connection with the building and couldn’t help but admire its beauty even in the face of her family’s tragedy. Later that year when she received the call from her daughter that Washington Square had caught fire she “cried and cried. I went to see the building on a return trip to Green River and cried again. The way the building looked is how I felt on the inside…I made many return trips to Green River and would always go to see the building. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and eventually, the idea I had for the home in Casper is how I felt about Washington Square.”
Because Moerke is a stranger to ideas like “quitting”, she began talking and researching in the community to find the owner of the building and understand his story. These talks lead Moerke to start a nonprofit organization that will eventually purchase the building and turn daydreams into tangible reality. Moerke’s hopes are to turn Washington Square into a safe transitional home for single mothers and rename the home The McKenzie Home in honor of her granddaughter McKenzie. According to a mission statement presented by Moerke at an informational meeting held at the Green River Library on August 30, 2022, the restoration plans of the McKenzie home will:
-Provide a safe transitional home for single mothers
-Support counsel and train women on positive parenting skills
-Preserve a beautiful historical monument
-Utilize a building to serve Green River citizens
-Serve local businesses and organizations
-Become a self-supporting entity providing local employment
-Represent the state of Wyoming by setting an example for other communities to follow.
Not only does Moerke have the will to see this project through but she has a team of professionals working on it, including an accountant, an attorney, and an architect. She has a volunteer nurse and counselor wanting to lease office space in the building and help the cause. Green River locals are coming forward to serve on an advisory board and help in any way they can. Additional funds are needed to get the project through the construction and start-up phases but the building should be able to be self-sustaining with the availability of office spaces for lease, an auditorium for recitals, receptions, luncheons, etc in the community, and a conference room for meeting places for businesses. There will be 24 available rooms for single mothers and their children that can be sponsored by members of the community by furnishing the space. These donations will be recognized by a plaque placed at the entrance of the room letting mothers know this room was made possible for them by someone local.
“Integration into the community and helping these mothers become members of society is very important. That is why social activities and businesses will be in the home to help mothers feel like they are a part of the community and not a burden to the community,” said Moerke. “Mothers will be referred to us through programs like DFS or pregnancy resource centers both locally and non-locally. There will be an intake case worker to handle each case on an individual basis. The hope is also to get doctors and dentists to offer services at a discount to the mothers. Classes such as baking, parenting, and even basic car care will be available as well.”
Understanding the goal is lofty, Moerke is driven by passion and willing to speak more with anyone in Sweetwater County interested in hearing more about the plans. “I will come speak to your dog if you really want,” Moerke joked “but the more people know and want to help the sooner this plan can become reality.” As of now, the cause does not have a website or social media but the best way to reach Debra Moerke is through email at dj_moerke@yahoo.com.
“I want to break the cycle of despair single mothers can fall in if they don’t have the right support.” -Debra Moerke