Ribbon cut on Potter Home’s newest housing

Published 6:00 am Monday, July 28, 2025

By Jack Dobbs

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Geneva and Ralph Brewer join Potter Children’s Home Board of Trustees members, Chamber of Commerce ambassadors and U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie in cutting a ribbon on Potter Children’s Home’s new Brewer House, a quadplex apartment building built to expand the housing for Single Parent Alliance for Raising Kids (SPARK) program that allows existing families to stay together and receive help from professional counselors, on Friday, July 25, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

Friday’s steamy morning heat did not stop a group of Potter Children’s Home & Family Ministries personnel and local, state and federal officials from cutting the ribbon on the Potter Home’s newest quadplex apartment unit, one that will allow the organization to continue providing help to families in need.

“This is a great day in the history of the Potter Home,” said Bob Raby, head of the home’s board of trustees. “We’re very excited about what could and will take place with God’s help and with the support of all those who contribute.”

The quadplex is the fourth one to open at the Potter Home since 2009. The buildings provide living space for single-parent families participating in the organization’s Single Parent Alliance for Raising Kids (SPARK) program.

Raby told the Daily News that the program usually lasts about two years. Those participating in SPARK are provided a space to live for that time, and participants are helped to find jobs and housing.

He said once participants leave the program, ties are kept.

“ … They become part of the Potter family,” Raby said. “We try to emphasize ‘you are a part of our family.’ ”

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Four units are available inside the newest quadplex. Raby said a “mentor” couple will live in the middle unit, helping program participants with different needs, from taking kids to school to at times taking parents to work. Three families will fill in the remaining units.

Raby said an anonymous donor provided funding for the home. A cost figure was not disclosed.

The home bears the names of Ralph and Geneva Brewer. Ralph Brewer serves as executive director of the Potter Home and Geneva Brewer works as a staff member. Raby spoke on their support during the ribbon cutting ceremony.

“It’s been through their unwavering dedication and … a heart of love for children and moms, it’s just been profound,” he said.

Ralph Brewer said he and Geneva were “overwhelmed” with gratitude to have the building bear their name, and turned focus to the families the home will help.

“This home is about the more than 7,000 children who have lived here over the years,” he said. “ … It’s about the kids. They are the future.”

The first family moved into the new home on Saturday, with others on a waiting list.

Raby said the plan for the future, “as money is made available and as God wills,” is to construct 14 more homes similar to this one, stretching from the Potter Home all the way to Bowling Green Junior High School, building on the four built since 2009.

“It (has) been a blessing to come this far in that short period of time,” he said.

About Jack Dobbs

Jack covers city government for the Daily News. Originally from Simpson County, he attended Western Kentucky University and graduated in 2022 with a degree in journalism.

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