TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
The Temple Home for Crippled Children, the organization’s first location, at 304 East 5th Street in Texarkana, Arkansas.
The second Temple Memorial location at 1315 Walnut Street in Texarkana, Texas.
Temple Memorial’s continued growth is marked by its newest expansion, the Behavioral Health Center at 6307 Richmond Road in Texarkana, Texas.
Temple Memorial’s story began in the 1950s during the polio epidemic. Concerned citizens, led by Katherine Sage Temple and the T.L.L. Temple family, recognized there was a critical need. They formed what was then called the Texarkana Society for Crippled Children, incorporated in June 1952, and a donated family home served as headquarters. Over the next 70-plus years, the name changed several times, but the mission remained the same. Most locals simply called it Temple Memorial, and the community never stopped supporting it. In 2019, the center had gone through a period of growth, and the requests for services resulted in a long waiting list. The building at 1315 Walnut could not be expanded to meet the need for additional space, so a dream was made into reality, leading to the purchase and renovation of a former law firm at 1710 Moores Lane. It was converted into a state-of-the-art pediatric therapy center complete with its own ABA autism wing. Varner and a couple of board members presented the dream to the T.L.L. Temple Foundation and asked for seed money to purchase the building. The foundation committed $1.3 million to the cause with overwhelming community support. Every square foot was sponsored, and every wish list item donated. The
building quickly filled up, and additional staff members were hired. Varner soon realized, “We didn’t build it big enough.” An expansion in 2022 added 4,000 square feet to the 14,000 already in use. By 2025, the need had grown again. Temple Memorial then opened a standalone Behavioral Health Center at 6307 Richmond Road, made possible by another $1 million gift from the T.L.L. Foundation. After sleepless nights and hard work, the Behavioral Center opened December 1, 2025, with one board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) and four registered behavior technicians (RBT). An additional BCBA and several RBTs have been hired and will begin seeing children in mid-January. The addition of ABA therapy was one of Varner’s earliest goals when she became executive director in 2010. That vision became a reality in 2016 through a grant from the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, providing this treatment free of charge to families. In 2020, Temple hired Allison Rea, a BCBA from the Burkhart Center in Lubbock, and she now oversees all ABA services. At that time, she was the only practitioner providing ABA services within a 100-mile radius. The hope for this new building is that it will help to ease the long waiting list for
Temple Memorial’s current location at 1710 Moores Lane, Texarkana, Texas.
ABA services and open up some space at the Moores Lane location to expand speech and feeding therapy services, which are also in high demand. The impact has been profound. “One pediatrician texted me after seeing a patient in our ABA program,” Varner shared. “She said the difference was ‘phenomenal.’ He communicated with her and allowed an exam without a struggle.” Shea Phillips, whose son Atlas attends ABA therapy, said, “When Atlas began ABA at Temple at age seven, he was nonverbal. Communication and behavior were daily challenges.” Within months, everything changed. “He went from a few words to full sentences, engaging with toys, building friendships, and thriving at home and at school. Because of the progress he has made at Temple, he is in general education classes. He joined Cub Scouts. We even
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COMMUNITY & CULTURE
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