Groundbreaking ceremony for Texoma foster home

The North Texas Geary Girls Ranch will focus on girls who are aging out of the foster care system. (KTEN)

HOWE, Texas -- A Grayson County non-profit organization is one shovel closer to becoming a foster home for teenage girls.

The North Texas Geary Girls Ranch broke ground Friday for what will be an 11-acre foster home community nestled in the heart of Grayson County near Howe.

According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, there are more than 800 girls ages 12 to 18 in the foster care system in this region.

"What we're doing here is creating a community of foster homes, so these girls can support each other, our foster parents can support each other, and the total focus will be on the teenage girls and their success," said Geary Girls Ranch founder and president Susie Black Holamon. "We have programs and counseling and all things put in place."

Joe and Charlotte Geary operated a foster home which Holamon entered when she was 12 years old, so she knows first-hand the kind of impact the ranch will make. 

"It's been a vision of mine," Holamon said. "I've lived the life, so I attribute my success to the Gearys and how supportive they were."

Foster home sibling and Geary Girls Ranch vice president Colleen Geary Patton is also a believer.

"It worked, and I think it worked because my parents really didn't make it feel like they were 'foster,' or not part of the family... they brought them in as part of the family," Patton said.

The ranch will welcome girls from across the State of Texas.