To provide a home for abused, unwanted, and orphaned children and animals.

Noah's Ark was founded by Jama Hedge­coth, the daugh­ter of an itin­er­ant preacher who spent much of her child­hood on the road. As a child, Hedge­coth cared for injured and unwanted ani­mals, nurs­ing them back to health and then find­ing homes for them. Hedge­coth and her hus­band, Char­lie, opened the orig­i­nal Noah’s Ark in 1978 in Ellen­wood. The idea for the name stemmed from the fact that an ark is a ves­sel of safety in the midst of dan­ger, and Hedgecoth’s facil­ity was built to shield chil­dren and ani­mals from today’s floods of abuse and neglect. The site con­sisted of 250 acres that even­tu­ally would hold the ani­mal reha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­ter, a long-term res­i­den­tial care children‘s home, a train­ing and admin­is­tra­tion build­ing, nat­ural habits for the ani­mals and nature trails.

Residential care
Education
Social skills
Rrehabilitation