Counselor gets local approval to use mansion as school for at-risk girls

ANTRIM TOWNSHIP -- A modern mansion within sight of Interstate 81 is finding new life after standing vacant for 13 years.

Carissa Martin, a counselor to teenage girls, is raising money to turn the Wishard house, 7465 Angle Road, into a residential school for at-risk girls.

“It’s a perfect fit,” Martin said. “It was kind of an encounter with the Lord where this really began.”

Martin is founder and president of Monarch’s Way. She describes the organization as a private Christian nonprofit school for at-risk girls, aged 11 to 17 years. It is associated with At the Cross Ministries that Martin founded in 2003. 

Martin recently got conditional approval from Antrim Township supervisors to use the property in the village of Kauffman. The conditions include that the state certify the school and that the girls not have cars.

Martin hopes to have the school up and running in August -- initially with fewer than 10 girls, but eventually 20.

“There’s so much unresolved trauma,” Martin said. “Each person has been designed to serve a purpose. There are traumatic things that get in the way of being alive. Everyday living becomes so much easier when you get rid of those hindrances.”

Martin, a prayer counselor with Spring of Hope Ministries, has worked with teens and their families in the Chambersburg and Waynesboro areas for more than a decade. She also taught for 12 years at Shalom Christian Academy and coached volleyball there. 

The second floor of the house has seven bedrooms and a wide hall, Martin said. The house has an elevator shaft, but no elevator was installed. There’s space for classrooms and a lab or project room. While the interior is in excellent shape, the porch and columns need repair.

Martin aims to raise $400,000 from individual donors within 90 days to buy and fix up the house. A second phase of fundraising then begins.

“People want to be involved in this, and so we want to give them an opportunity starting in March,” Martin said. “People see this as a need in our community.”

More than twice as many women are in Franklin County Jail as were jailed in 2012. Officials suspect that the opioid epidemic is at least partly to blame.

Monarch’s Way will not be an addiction treatment center, according to Martin. Potential residents must test drug-free and must want help in changing their lives. If an applicant had been addicted to drugs, she must be clean before she is accepted to the program. Girls could come from across the nation.

“Each girl will have a different story,” Martin said. “The program will cater to individual needs. We want to provide a safe place for these girls to get an education and to get what they need.”

A married couple will live in the house and serve as full-time houseparents. The program will have a director of education, an activities coordinator and people to counsel and coach the girls. People have not chosen to fill the positions, Martin said.

The girls will have responsibilities in the home such as doing their laundry, cleaning up and helping with meals.

“It’s a school based in a family environment,” Martin said.

 A typical girl may spend a year in the program before leaving, she said. School official will follow up with graduates for a year.

“We are looking at there being a tuition,” Martin said. “Certainly, we wouldn’t turn any girl away because of need.”

Monarch’s Way could offer scholarships and have a sliding-scale tuition, she said.

Raymond Wishard built his grand home in the 1990s. The house remains in his estate and has been vacant since he died in 2005 at age 90.

Wishard had operated Top-O-Town Orchards at Clay Hill for 62 years and his regional trucking company for 23 years. He was a major collector of carnival glass and had served as a director of the International Carnival Glass Association.

Martin said she and Wishard had spoken many times about what could become of the house after his death.

Antrim Township Supervisors by a 3-2 vote agreed earlier this month to allow the 2.8 acres in the agricultural zone to be used for a residential school.

“There was a lot of passion on both sides at the public hearing,” Martin said. “I think a lot of that is around safety. Some people don’t understand the community of girls we will be serving.”

Supervisors attached 11 conditions for the school:

1. No more than 20 students shall be allowed to reside at the school.
2. All students shall be female students less than 18 years of age.
3. Students shall be under adult supervision at all times.
4. There shall be no fewer than one adult staff member per eight students on the property at any time that a student is on the property.
5. Students may not possess automobiles and there shall be no student parking on the property.
6. Students will be at-will students.
7. The school will be accredited by Ignitia, or other similar agency, registered with the State of Pennsylvania and receive any other required approvals from the local, state and federal government to operate the school.
8. The school shall comply with all local, state and federal building codes such as fire codes, uniform construction codes, etc.
9. Lights on the property shall be shielded from adjacent properties.
10. There shall be screening on the property as required by the Code of the Township of Antrim.
11. The conditions listed in l to 10 above shall apply to any future owners of the property desiring to use it as a school unless a new conditional use application is applied for.

People also wanted the township to mandate door and window alarms for the house, Martin said.

“We are discussing that,” she said. “We’ll see. It’s not something we’re opposed to. We want to do our best to think through those things and be responsible to the girls we are serving.”

Martin is confident that Monarch’s Way will meet all of the stipulations. Brechbill Helman Construction Co., Chambersburg, has offered to help, she said.

“I think when we’re finished with the house it will be beautiful, and the community will rally around us and see it’s a good thing,” Martin said.

Monarch's Way is not yet accepting applications for potential students. Information will be posted on the organization's website https://www.monarchs-way.org as it becomes available.

Jim Hook, 717-262-4759