Nettie Craddock still finds joy in children learning
Over the last 25 years, the Craddock Center has grown into a resource for children across Appalachia.
“I’m very proud of the Craddock Center,” Nettie Craddock said. “It’s much larger, and it’s done much more than what we thought when we started.”
Nettie Craddock founded the center along with her husband, Dr. Fred Craddock. He died in 2015.
Since its founding, their center has worked to provide books, classes, education and help to children and families in southern Appalachia.
The center they founded together has lasted so long because of kind people, she said.
“We have good people that are interested in the message of the Craddock Center and helping people,” Nettie Craddock said. “And so it just rides along.”
The Craddock Center is one of many ways that Nettie Craddock and her husband’s generosity and care for others has impacted the world.
Nettie Craddock can’t pick a particular moment or aspect of the center that she loves most.
“We have had fabulous retirees that come in and help with things, and just lots of volunteers,” she said.
The pair founded the center because it “seemed like the right thing to do at the time,” she said.
Kirk Cameron, the Craddock Center’s director, said Nettie Craddock’s character has always impressed him.
“She’s very humble,” he said.
Just after he started work at the Craddock Center, he suggested to the group’s board that it change its slogan. At first, he was worried that Nettie would insist everything stay the way she had made it.
But she surprised him.
“She said, ‘You’re right. We need to reach out to people, differently, so they have a better idea of what we are here.”
Since then, Cameron has seen how Nettie and her husband’s shared passion has influenced countless children.
“They wanted to make sure that the children up here got books in their hand and were reading,” Cameron said.
Both the Craddocks came from backgrounds without many books to read.
“Dr. Craddock had the Holy Bible and the Sears-Roebuck Catalogue,” Cameron said. “Those were the only books he had.”
The work of Nettie Craddock and Dr. Fred Craddock has made certain that many kids have grown up learning to love reading.
“She has always been very supportive of what we do here in lots of different ways,” Cameron said.
Some things are hard about being 95. But life is still a gift.
“I’m still enjoying life,” Nettie Craddock said. “It is confusing, and kind of depressing that I can’t do the things that I used to do.”