Two men sat at the same table at a Kids in Crisis donor breakfast earlier this year in Cos Cob. One had painted the Farmhouse fence as a reluctant teenage volunteer, sent by his parents with a brush and a can of paint on a Saturday he'd rather have spent elsewhere. The other had lived behind that fence as a child, a resident of the emergency shelter when his family was falling apart.

Neither knew the other. Decades later, they shared a cup of coffee in the same room.

A story marking 48 years of service.

Executive Director Shari Shapiro shared their story in a column published July 20, marking 48 years since Kids in Crisis opened its doors in 1978. The Cos Cob shelter, known as the Farmhouse, remains Connecticut's only free, round-the-clock emergency shelter accepting children from newborn to age 18, no questions asked.

Two very different paths that led back to the same place.

The former teen volunteer grew up, raised a family in Greenwich, and returned decades later as a donor — telling the breakfast gathering it was the first time he'd truly understood a place like the Farmhouse existed, a memory that had quietly stayed with him for years. The former resident grew up, built a life of his own, and came back to support the place that once sheltered him.

"It no longer sorted them into the 'helped' and the 'helpers,'" Shapiro wrote. "They were all just people this place had gotten a hold of and hadn't let go."

A ripple effect that reaches further than expected.

Shapiro also described employees from a local company who spent a day doing yard work around the fence — one later told her the experience changed something in their office that no corporate retreat ever had.

The numbers behind the mission.

Kids in Crisis holds monthly Breakfast at the Farmhouse gatherings to keep supporters updated on its work. Since 1978, the nonprofit has served more than 181,000 children, teens and families. In fiscal year 2025 alone, 596 helpline callers received crisis counseling, and 11,962 children and families were reached through services and community events. The organization traces back to a United Way of Greenwich needs assessment that identified a growing number of runaway and homeless adolescents, launched as a pilot program by the Junior League of Greenwich and a local counseling hotline before becoming independent in 1981.

The fence, Shapiro noted, is still standing. It could use another coat of paint.

How to get involved.

Residents interested in volunteering or attending a Breakfast at the Farmhouse meeting can contact Kids in Crisis at 203-661-1911. The organization's 24-hour helpline is available by call or text for families in crisis.