Leavitt ends long career of helping abused children

Rebecca Malone

Monday, Jan. 14, 2002 | 8:35 a.m.

Peggy Leavitt calls her career helping children a blessing.

Leon Ireland calls Leavitt, who has run Child Haven the past eight years, an angel.

"Put a halo over my quote for her," said Ireland, who worked with Leavitt at the county's shelter for abused and neglected children. "Anything you think of as angelic, that's her."

After 30 years of service to abused and neglected children, she retired Jan. 4.

Before Leavitt was the manager at Child Haven she worked for more than 20 years at the Southern Nevada Children's Home, a long-term home for youths in Boulder City that closed its doors eight years ago for budgetary reasons.

The Children's Home became a second home to Leavitt, and she became a surrogate mother to many children there. She said she still keeps in touch with at least 10 of them, and others often track her down to say hello.

From the Children's Home, Leavitt went into a managerial position at Child Haven and worked to make it larger and more welcoming.

She helped start a fund-raising campaign that brought in millions, which enabled renovations and an increase in population. The funds allowed them to build a new gym, more cottages and large playground, Leavitt said.

"She had a heart of gold, the children always came first," said Joni Justice, who works in the Beazer Cottage for toddlers at Child Haven. "Our program totally improved with her here. We were already good, but she made us better."

The 53-year-old Leavitt said she doesn't deserve all of the credit her former co-workers are quick to give her. She said she just felt blessed to be able to do a job that she loved.

"It's not anything I had to work at, it's really a gift," Leavitt said. "I think I have a gift in working with these children. It's just my passion."

As humble as she may be, she cannot deny she made a difference in thousands of children's lives.

"These children all look at her like she is a ray of sunshine," Ireland said. "When she walks through the cottage, their eyes follow her."

Ireland said children can pick up certain vibrations from adults and that he could see the connection between Leavitt and them.

"Her caring and her aura helped heal people," Ireland said. "In eight years I have never seen this lady get angry."

Even though she dealt with people who were not good parents, Leavitt said she was always able to treat them with respect because they were almost always abused or neglected themselves.

"I always treated the parents as victims as well," Leavitt said. "That would help me not be as judgmental."

Although Leavitt could sympathize with most parents, occasionally there would be ones who were educated and knew what they were doing to their children, and those, she said, really got to her.

The children brought to Child Haven day in and day out would sometimes tug at her heart as well. She remembered seeing twin toddler sisters who were brought in bruised head to toe and an 8-year-old boy who was in vegetative state from being shaken as a baby.

"The infant cottage is particularly hard because you see the atrocious things people do to their little babies," Leavitt said. The day she retired, two more shaken babies were brought in.

Through the years, she said, she learned to cope with the situations she had to see, but when she first started she said she couldn't sleep at night and brought many of her case files home with her.

"One of the things that helped was that over time you learn the resilience of children and their ability to get through so much," Leavitt said. "You can see miraculous changes in kids. There is no better thing in the world than to see you made a difference in a child's life."

Ireland said his heart broke the day Leavitt retired, but Leavitt said it was time for her to leave. She is looking forward to spending more time with her three sons and their children.

She is still going to be involved with children and has been asked to join the Children's Advocacy Alliance, Leavitt said. She will attend her first meeting this month. She is also planning a reunion for the Southern Nevada Children's Home for the summer of 2003.

"I feel very blessed to have worked in a job that I loved," Leavitt said. "I feel like I had a great career."