T he Magazine o f the Christian Appalachian Project
In th is issue: Appalachia.: H o m e 8i A w ay 5 0 th A nniversary S tre e t Preaching
November-December 1996
The
November-December 1996 Vol. XV, No. 6
JV iountain The Magazine of the Christian Appalachian Project
Field Trips by Jim Trammel
Christmas At The Old Home Place by Ike Adams
Priest On The Street Field Trips, page four.
by Margaret Gabriel
Z
26 God’s Artisan: Made in the Mountains by Beth Dotson
Departments
3 Random Thoughts
God s Artisan, page twenty-six.
11
Around the Project
16
The CAP Closeup
Appalachia — Home and Away Appalachia is home to hundreds of thousands of people. Some of them still live here; others have moved away, but still call the mountains home. In this year-end issue of The Mountain Spirit, we introduce you a wonderful lady who lived in a number of different places before following her heart back to Letcher County. You’ll meet her, and see some of her artwork, on page twenty-six in a story by Beth Dotson. Ike Adams shares some of the warmest of all traditions — the holiday traditions. You’ll learn why “home for the holidays” is so dear to the heart of many mountain people. While we all agree that there’s no place like home, it’s good to learn that by exploring other places and things. On page four you’ll learn how that exploration is undertaken by people in several CAP programs. Finally, we celebrated a very special anniversary this year. The summer of 1996 marked the fiftieth year of street preaching for CAP’S founder, Father Ralph Beiting, who is pictured on the cover (photo courtesy of the Catholic News Service). Read about the anniversary on page twenty-two.
Published by the Christian Appalachian Project. Editor: Margaret Gabriel. Graphic Design: Karen Frances Spivey. Circulation: Linda Grider East. Advisory Board: Father Ralph W. Beiting, Mike McLaughlin, Bill Begley, Carla Durand, Teresa McAnly. The Mountain Spirit is published six times a year. The annual subscription price is $6.00. Subscriptions and other correspondence should be sent to The Mountain Spirit, Christian Appalachian Project, 322 Crab Orchard Road, Lancaster, KY 40446. Copyright, 1996, The Christian Appalachian Project, Inc. All rights reserved. Member, Catholic Press Association. The Christian Appalachian Project Is a non-profit Christian service organization operating throughout Appalachia. The project operates on the philosophy that helping people help themselves is the best approach to Appalachian poverty. A summary of the registration and financial documents filed by this organization can be obtained by contacting: In New York, Secretary of State, Office of Charities Registration, 162 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12231; in Maryland, for the cost of copies and postage, the Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401; In NEW JERSEY, THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, 202-626-4380; in NORTH CAROLINA, A COPY OF THE LICENSE TO SOLICIT CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS AS A CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION OR SPONSOR AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES, SOLICITATION LICENSING BRANCH, BY CALLING (919) 733-4510; In Pennsylvania, residents may call the Pennsylvania Department of State at 1-800-732-0999; for West Virginia residents, the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305; In Virginia, the State Division of Consumer Affairs, PO Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23209; Washington State residents may obtain a copy of the last report filed with the Washington Secretary of State by calling toll free within Washington, 1-800-332-4483; IN FLORIDA, RESIDENTS MAY CALL THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES AT 1-800-HELP FLA or by writing to Christian Appalachian Project, 322 Crab Orchard Road, Lancaster, KY 40446. Our license number In Michigan is MICS 9933. Registration with any of the above government agencies does not imply endorsement by the state.
The Mountain Spirit
Random Thoughts 1
GABRIEL
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Margaret Gabriel
J
uring a workshop I attended in my earliest days with CAP, a presenter informed the group, “You can’t ever be from here, ’cause you ain’t got no kin here.” New to the area, I dutifully wrote that notion in my notebook and remembered it for many years. Only recently, when I began to work on this issue of The Mountain Spirit, which examines the idea of “Appalachia — Home and Away,” did I realize that I must respectfully disagree with that statement. I certainly can be from here, kin or no kin. For one thing, I feel that I have lots of fami ly here. Some members of my family — like me —are from other places. Others grew up in Appala chia, moved away and came back, often for reasons very much like those you’ll read about in this issue. But we all live here together, and work to make it home, in the same way that we would if we’d been bom here. Rose Price, a friend who was bom and raised and educated (she has a masters’ degree) in Appalachia, recently lost her father, but was able to bid him goodbye from the same Presbyterian church in Prestonsburg where she was bom, baptized and married. “Just like everybody else, when I was young, all I wanted was to get out of this little town, but that’s no longer true. There’s nothing like having people who’ve known you all your life with you during the hard times,” Rose said. The work of the Christian Appalachian Project dedicates itself to giving everyone those same kinds of roots, as well as the freedom to leave the area or the opportunity to stay. The depressed economy of the Appalachian area often forces people to leave in order to support themselves and their families. A lack of education, skills or training equips them poorly to find the support they need if they do leave. Sometimes people lack the self-confidence to leave home, feeling that they would rather face the hardship they know is here than what they might face if they leave. November-December 1996
The increased education and economic opportu nity that CAP promotes and cultivates will give young people in the mountains the same opportu nities that people have in other areas. Increased opportunity gives the solidarity of roots and the freedom for the expansion to and exploration of other places. Put more simply, folks will be able to go if they want, stay if they want, without the wrenching decisions involved in having to go or having to stay. Those of us who move in or out or even around the area have the advantage of having more than one “home” town. For example, I used to live in Lancaster, so it’s one of my home towns. I grew up in Louisville, so of course, that’s one of my hometowns. I’ve expanded it even further, too. CAP has offices in London and Hagerhill, so they’re my home towns. This perspective gives me the opportunity to have lots of hometown pride (more than my share, I guess, if I’ve got more than one hometown). But even more important, it gives me the responsibility to contribute to those areas.
Margaret Gabriel is the editor o f The Mountain Spirit, and resides wherever her heart decides to wander.
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Ihink of life experiences as being collected on a key ring. Each successful new thing you do adds a key of experience. As you navigate new situations, your key ring grows, and future challenges lose their awe because you’re carrying that big key ring to unlock new situations. We build our store of life experiences so smoothly and continuously we’re scarcely
aware of it. We’re only occasionally reminded how difficult life can be without the confidence this process inspires, perhaps when we travel to a new city or locale for the first time. Can you recall your first time in New York City, your first camping trip, or even your first sight of a shopping mall? If you can, you understand how self-image is enhanced by welldeveloped life skills, and you can imagine the empty feeling of not knowing what to do. Many Christian Appalachian Project pro grams broaden the experiences of their par ticipants, enhancing the programs’ primary aims by developing fuller lives for them. The Mountain Spirit
4
A simple shopping trip calls on an amazing array of skills. You have to know how to make choices, make change, shop intelligently, relate to salespeople, and perhaps keep control of your children if they’re with you, just for a start. These are skills most take for granted, but people in some CAP programs may have never developed them. Perhaps they have never left their home towns or their neighborhoods, or perhaps even their own homes. Imagine what an impact a trip to a large city makes on a person who has never been to one: Horizons are stretched and skills are being challenged and developed. It’s a growth experience, but a scary one; it would help if someone were there to make sure the experience was positive. When new experiences are successfully navigated, the challenge pays dividends in autonomy and confidence in many subtly different forms, as CAP programs show.
Post-abuse confidence building Family survivors of abusive situations must develop self-confidence quickly, says Paula Rice of CAP’SFamily Life Abuse Center. Residents of the center bridge the gap to independent living after having fled abusers. Some must quickly shore up undeveloped or rusty skills to become successful homemakers, workers or parents. The center helps with the direct needs — making loans for utility deposits, helping find public or private housing, furnishing transportation to work, providing counsel ing and life management classes. Also, the center addresses the social needs of its residents. “They need to know how to play, too,” Paula said. The three to five families typically residing at the center work and play together in a process that helps break down the barriers they might have brought with them to the center. November-December 1996
Center personnel often demonstrate how to take care of children in public. It’s important that both parents and children learn the difference between needed discipline and the abuse with which they are too familiar. Parents learn to discipline without
W hen new
spanking, through time-outs, loss of privileges, re direction of a child’s energy, and other techniques. Paula recalls the case of a mother who went to a Boonesboro, Ken tucky, swimming pool with water slides. The fascinated children “didn’t know how to act in a place like that,” Paula said, and were getting out of control.
experiences are *■ n S U C C C S S fU lly
navigated, the challenge pays dividends in autonom y and
Center staff taught mom how to keep her children close and controlled by role modeling proper techniques, and before the end of the trip, the mother was using the same words her role models had used to keep order.
co n fid en ce.. .
Whether the trip is an exotic visit to the relatively large city of Lexington and its Children’s Museum, or a simple hop to the local discount store, life lessons are always plentiful to leam. And those lessons are best taught when the pupils are having fun and not realizing they’re learning, says education director Glenna Robinson of the Rockcastle Teen Center in Mount Vernon.
The Teen Center sponsors typical teen outings like ice skating trips to Lexington and visits to Kentucky Kingdom theme park in Louisville. The teens earn their way to these trips by performing community service and earning a specified number of service points. They learn the lessons of community service while doing such projects as decorating and serving food at a dance sponsored by the Rainbow Respite Care Center (more on Rainbow Respite later). This project also was many teens’ first exposure to people with disabilities, and the teens learned not to fear the differences they saw. The trips to other cities teach the teens how to behave as young Christian adults, Glenna said.
Travel enhances long-term goals How crucial can day-to-day success be to your long-term goals? Paula remembers a woman encouraged by the center to pursue education goals. But these weren’t attain able until she did something about a severe
vision problem. The center coordinated an eye exam and prescription through the Eyes for the Needy program and the Kentucky River Foothills organization out of Rich mond. (Much of the center’s work involves matching needs with resources.) “People are searching for ways to better their lives. We give them the resources,” Paula said. “People we have helped write and call, saying they’re so glad we touched their lives.” Family outings are also held by Family Life Services, said FLS program coordina tor Sherry Allen. FLS provides services to abuse survivors and people in other transitional situations including separations, divorces or single parenthood. In addition to the individually crafted programs of legal, medical, psychological and parenting help, FLS also addresses social priorities. “We noticed our children went back to school after spring break and heard other children talk about their vacations,” Sherry said. So now every spring break a FLSsponsored week of children’s activities gives the FLS children something to discuss as well. The kids-only week is spent in such festive Kentucky locations as the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington, Mammoth Cave in western Kentucky, the Louisville Zoo, and even one year an Ice Capades show. Adults during the same week have Adults’ Nights Out, doing whatever the group votes to do — often seeing a movie or similar pastime. The last night of the week is Family Day, spent skating, bowling, having a picnic in a park, swimming, or doing some other enjoyable group activity.
Elderly program participants trying their hand at a little fishing.
The point, aside from the fun, is to broaden experiences for the families. “One year we had an Easter egg hunt that happened to be the first this 40-year-old The Mountain Spirit
CAP ARCHIVES
woman had ever seen,” Sherry remembers. “It was fun to watch her get as excited as the children.” Families are brought closer through family literacy programs like the one recently begun by the Sunshine Center in Lancaster, said program manager Becky Kana. The child development center holds twice-a-week sessions for families to develop reading skills. Literacy lessons are punctuated by trips to the Garrard County courthouse to learn first-hand about voting, government and citizenship skills.
Life skills remain important Getting out and around can be crucially important to elderly people. Special effort is sometimes required for the elderly to keep their horizons widened. Zayda Hurd, who managers CAP’s elderly services in Berea, recalls one dramatic case in point. Elderly services performs home visitation for elderly people in Jackson, Madison, McCreary, Owsley, Lawrence, Floyd, Magoffin, Knott, Martin and Rockcastle counties of Kentucky. The workers provide social activities and companionship. They assist around the house and help the elderly complete errands necessary to independent living, and “We try to do something social at least once a month,” Zayda said. A woman came to the attention of elderly services home visitation workers because she was living in her unfinished basement of her home and wouldn’t go upstairs to the rest of her house at all. She said she couldn’t keep the rest of her home looking nice enough any other way. (It was the same kind of thinking that produced the “unlivedin living room” with which many of us grew up.) So the workers were faced with a problem more severe than just getting this woman out of the house — they first had to get her upstairs into the house. Volunteer Ann Marie Leuenberger gradually won her trust and helped her make the physical and psychological November-December 1996
At a going away party fo r Ann Cummins (left), Ella Mae Brockman played the accordion, accompanying Ann and her friend, Geneva Rice, in song.
journey up the stairs and into the neighbor hood. Ann Marie persuaded the woman to attend holiday events at the Emmaus Christian Life Center, CAP’s residence for elderly people, and to take trips to town. One breakthrough happened when elderly services arranged for another social service agency to provide house-cleaning services. “Most of our people are very lonely, bored or isolated,” Zayda said. Perhaps their only visits are from a home health nurse who performs health maintenance tasks quickly and leaves. “So many have sat at home for so long that it’s a chore for them to get out at all,” Zayda said. Success in these cases is sweet: “When they finally want to go, you feel you’ve accomplished a lot.” Elderly services sponsors trips to CAP’s Camp Andrew Jackson near McKee, Kentucky, twice a year, for two days of crafts, fishing, horseshoes, bingo, hiking and other activities.
Skills that empower Confidence may never be more crucial to possess than for people with disabilities.
7
CAP ARCHIVES
The Rainbow Respite Care Center proves that becoming more skillful helps people with disabilities assert their rights more easily. Rainbow Respite provides relief to caregivers of people with disabilities, either for hours at a time through inhome visits, or for weekends or weeks at a time in the center’s facilities. The field lessons here Rainbow Respite participants gain confidence and learn teamwork, in the relaxed atmosphere o f Camp Andrew Jackson. aren’t only directed at the people with disabilities. Program coordinator Carolyn Butt hopes to The woman progressed in her indepen train those who deal with people with dence to being allowed to help prepare disabilities to do such simple things as meals, to go gift shopping, and to do other address them directly. (Call it the “What is things she had always wanted to do. Grandmother, for her part, was consulted he having” syndrome, where a disabled on her goals for the woman’s independent person, perfectly able to place a menu living, and all parties are working toward order, is addressed through a third person the day when the woman can live com by the server.) pletely independently. A new program at Rainbow Respite called Personal Futures Planning seeks to Getting their feet wet move a person with a disability toward the day when he or she will face independent Rainbow Respite clients take trips to living. Carolyn recounted the case of a Camp AJ, discovering with pleasure how woman with cerebral palsy who lived with well they can perform camp activities and her grandmother. Grandmother took good benefit psychologically from the challenges. care of her, but in the process had restricted One such activity is designed to teach them the woman’s opportunities. For example, to overcome water fright. “The first day the grandmother believed the woman could they get their feet wet, then gradually later only use the bathroom facilities in their in the week they’re completely in the home, because she used a wheelchair. water,” Carolyn said. By the end of the week, “It’s so exciting for them because Simply learning how to use public they’ve actually gotten completely in the facilities opened a whole new world for this water.” woman, and not only because it made extended absences from home possible. Indeed, gradually getting one’s feet wet in the outside world is perhaps the best way The key to the program is careful to state the objective of the essential travel listening to the desires of the participants. and social activities CAP programs pursue. Goals are crafted depending on what the person with disabilities and his or her caretakers want in the long run. Jim Trammel is a free-lance writer who lives in This woman “wanted a lot of things, but Lexington and travels extensively in eastern nobody was listening to her,” Carolyn said. Kentucky.
The Mountain Spirit 8
Letters to the Editor
I love your magazine. I wish I could come to the mountains and see your wonderful work. My mother, years ago, gave me your magazine. God bless. Charlene McKinnon Big Springs, Texas
We enjoy your magazine very much and read it from cover to cover each time we receive it. It is a very nice inspirational book. We enjoy all of Father Ralph Beiting’s books and read them all the way through. Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence M. Bennett Scotts Valley, Calif.
I read The Mountain Spirit from cover to cover. I’m im pressed and humbled by the good work you are doing for so many needy people. I was bom in Kentucky in Pike County. I still have relatives on both sides of my family there. I now live in Wyoming.
I was raised in the Appalachian area, so I know what it’s like to live there and I’m glad someone is trying to help these families. I really enjoy reading your magazine and I especially like to read about the old people. Mr. James Mullins, Sr. Sheridan, Ind.
Juanita Miller Pinedale, Wyo.
I enjoy The Mountain Spirit and can identify with the condi tions in Appalachia hills, as I was raised in the area. I would like to help more but I am widowed, retired and on a fixed income. My heart goes out to the people you help and the ones helping. May God bless you all. Mrs James H. Head Ashland City, Tenn.
November-December 1996
I wish I could give you a great big donation but my income also is at poverty level. But I tithe, so pray the Lord will help me and I will help you for I know from The Mountain Spirit you are doing wonders. Verona Navarre Topeka, Kan.
As a retired kindergarten teacher, my heart and prayers go out to you, Father Ralph, for what you have done and continue to do in Appalachia. To love and teach the little ones gives some hope for their future. For you and all your helpers, may God continue to bless and inspire you for the progress you have made with the people of the hills and the hollers. Your book and your letters are being passed on. Thank you for sharing your life. Joyce Sellberg Pipe Creek, Texas
The Mountain Spirit is excellent for keeping one updated regarding all the wonderful happenings and all that CAP is doing in the mission areas where they are ministering daily. Sister Francis E. McDonnell, OP Gulfport, Fla. Letters to the editor are welcome. They should not exceed 150 words in length, and we reserve the right to edit them for space. Address letters to: The Mountain Spirit Christian Appalachian Project 322 Crab Orchard Road Lancaster, KY 40446
---- Around the Project----CAP Selected Non-Profit of the Year by AOK
Respecting the wishes o f deceased loved ones, or in honor o f them, families often request that memorials be sent to us. Memorial gifts live on to benefit others. Many also specify memorial gifts in their wills. Any size gift is welcome. Contact us fo r more information.
PHTOTO COURTESY OF ASSOCIATION OF OLDER KENTUCKIANS
The Christian Appalachian Project was selected as the winner of the Non-Profit of the Year Award by the Association of Older Kentuckians at the Governor’s Conference for Older Kentuckians. The award recog nizes non-profit organizations that provide outstanding, innovative, and replicable programs which meet the needs of older Kentuckians. CAP was honored for the work that is done by its elderly services program. Nancy Andrews, chair of AOK’s award committee, called CAP’S elderly services program creative in that it works with seniors, rather than just doing things for people. “It’s a program that other people could do inexpensively,” Andrews said. “It’s a program that goes to the people. Transpor tation is such a problem for so many. In Kentucky, often the older people with the greatest needs are those that are least accessible.” Melissa Vance, manager of CAP’S elderly services in Louisa, is looking forward to learning more about the Association of Older Kentuckians, and learning about the services it provides. “I’ve gotten a lot of informa tion about transportation, elderly rights and economic security. I think the people in our program will really benefit.”
Melissa Vance, manager o f CAP's elderly services in Louisa, told the Association o f Older Kentuckians about CAP’s services to elderly people.
CAPRICE Manager Appointed to Subcommittee Bobbie Wesley, manager of CAPRICE (Christian Appala chian Project Resources for Independence and Community Employment), has been ap pointed chair of the Employer Relations Subcommittee for the Governor Paul Patton’s Council on Vocational Rehabilitation. People chairing council commit tees are a cross-section of people with disabilities, business professional and, like Bobbie, professionals serving in the disabilities field. Bobbie, who has served as manager of CAPRICE since 1992, has guided the training program for adults with disabili ties through several changes. Recently, CAPRICE moved its offices from Somerset to London in order to more effectively reach people in need of its services. Her committee’s main objec tive is to monitor and coordinate efforts in Kentucky in the area of
services to people with disabili ties and their employment and see that progress is consistent throughout. Of particular interest to the committee will be two statewide employer groups who support the employment of people with disabilities. Bobbie and her staff assist people with disabilities to develop independent living skills and help them prepare for the workforce. After teaching independent living skills as a center-based operation in Somerset, Bobbie restructured the program to take place in homes in the London area. “Being assigned to this subcommittee gives the chance to represent this region of the state,” Bobbie said. “Its purpose parallels CAPRICE’Spurpose, which is providing opportunities for folks with disabilities, particularly in the area of employment.” The Mountain Spirit
around the project. . . continued Cookout Kicks O ff New Program at the Sunshine Center what’s referred to as “PACT” time, an acronym for Parents and Children Together. The day is structured so that parents have their study and instruction, then time for interaction with the children. Carrie Poynter, head cook and
chief bottle washer for the Sunshine Center, gave the official number of thirty-two in atten dance at the kick-off cook-out, an impressive first start for a program that’s intended to give these children an impressive first start. SPIVEY
To introduce their participants to a novel idea in parent-child relationships, the Sunshine Center, CAP’S child development center in Lancaster, hosted a cook-out for its new program, “Families Growing Together.” This gave an opportunity for parents, children and staff to come together to celebrate the beginning of a new school year, as well as a new program. Those attending filled up on hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, potato chips and fresh fruit, while becoming acquainted with one another and with the program. The day served as orientation for the parents, who agreed to several criteria in order to participate. First, one must have a child between birth and five years of age. The next criterium is an educational goal, such as vocational training or studying for the GED, or college entrance exam. Some parents have more than one child participating. One parent has three children in volved. The Sunshine Center is not the first to undertake such a program. Eagle Child Development in McCreary County and Family Life Child Development in Rockcastle County have previ ously initiated family literacy programs for their centers. The staff of the Sunshine Center observed those programs to get some idea of the mechanics involved. Essentially, the program is designed to equip the parent with skills in discipline, feeding, listening and general social activities. The day is scheduled so that child and parent have
What Can I Do To Help CAP? Christian Appalachian Project supporters often ask what more they can do to help eliminate suffering in Appalachia. First, we tell them, you can tell others of the problems in Appalachia which you learn about in The Mountain Spirit and other CAP publications. You might want to share this magazine with a friend, for example. If you’d like, drop us a line and we’ll send you a replacement copy. Ask us about any of the prob lems in Appalachia and we’ll be happy to share any knowledge we have or to refer you to another organization that can help you. Secondly, you can give us a most valuable commodity— time. Since 1950, thousands of people have worked millions of hours,
donating time to helping the people of Appalachia help themselves and their families out of poverty. If you would like to volunteer a year or a summer to working in Appalachia, please contact The Mountain Spirit, 322 Crab Orchard Road, Lancaster, Ky., 40446. We will see that you receive information about CAP’s volunteer program. Finally, our most powerful form of assistance is prayer. We believe that if our supporters spend at least one minute a day praying for poor people everywhere, mountains can be moved, the course of rivers can be changed. The CAP family forms a powerful prayer network reaching into Appalachia and across the nation.
November-December 1996 11
around the project. . . continued
Docum entary Series to Feature CAP
DOUBLE Your Dollars! If you are a CAP donor, or are considering becoming one, you may be eligible to double your gift through your employer’s matching gift program. Many companies today match monetary support to non-profit community service organizations that are supported by their employees. Many of these companies match the gifts that are made by their retirees as well. Please write for your brochure “Double Your Dollars,” which lists participat ing companies and instruc tions. Send correspondence to: Teresa McAnly - CAP 322 Crab Orchard Road Lancaster, KY 40446
from Boston to tape the story of the Christian Appalachian Project. They visited adult education programs, a child development center and the Family Life Center to get a taste of the programs that CAP has, traditionally, sponsored to help people help themselves. They met Father Beiting as he was showing CAP’s board of directors a demonstration model of a house that is constructed from recycled plastic, then
interviewed CAP’s founder at his home, and at Camp Yatesville, the site of the organization’s newest camp. At the camp, Father Beiting shared both his memories of the past and his dreams for the future, an appro priate setting as so many of Father Beiting’s dreams began at camps. “The Visionaries” documen tary series is broadcast nation wide on 175 public broadcasting networks. GABRIEL
In the summer of 1995 former volunteer Pete Cullen-Conway suggested to Kathy Kluesener, assistant director of the volunteer program, that CAP contact the producers of “The Visionaries,” and tell them about the work of the Christian Appalachian Project and its founder, Father Ralph Beiting. He had seen a story in “The Chronicle of Philanthropy” which told of a series of profiles about humanitarians, both foreign and domestic, for broadcast on public television stations throughout the United States. An application was filed telling the producers about CAP and Father Beiting and why they would make an interesting profile. CAP workers were delighted to learn that the producers agreed, and began making plans to host a film crew. During the week of August 12, the crew traveled to Kentucky
Father Beiting is ‘‘wired ’’fo r an interview fo r the public television documentary series “The Visionaries. ”
Operation Sharing Gives Books to Schools The Christian Appalachian Project Operation Sharing warehouse in Hagerhill recently received a large donation of Penguin paperback books, according to program manager Robert Duncan. The 28 skids totaled nearly 60,000 books, everything from novels to children’s books to non-fiction. “There was a little bit of every thing,” Robert said. Operation Sharing workers contacted schools and agencies in all thirteen Appalachian states as well as several non-Appalachian
states for distribution. “These books are a really good things. They use them in the schools for book reports, and in libraries, and we like to get them in as many states as possible,” Robert said. Robert said he also likes to direct books to youth centers, those that are operated by CAP as well as other organizations. “I try to give them away by the skid, but a lot of smaller organizations can’t use that many, so I break down one or two a year into smaller loads. Folks are tickled pink to get them.” The Mountain Spirit
around the project. . . continued
Teen Center Holds Reunion in Rockcastle County On Saturday, September 21, 1996, the Christian Appalachian Project’s Rockcastle County Teen Center in Mount Vernon acknowl edged a milestone as it celebrated its tenth anniversary. For ten years the Teen Center has given young people in this rural community of more than 30 square miles a safe haven after school, on weekends and through out the summers. The center is a place where they can come and feel secure from the pressures that life generally puts on teenagers. Ike Adams, now CAP’S director of marketing and public relations, was “on sabbatical from the real world” when he offered to convert an old CAP used clothing store into a teen center in the summer of 1986. Ike had spent ten years with a venture capital company and had run a photography business prior to opening the center. “I just wanted to get away for a year,” he says, “and see if I could make myself useful to a bunch of kids who were as frustrated with life as I was. If it hadn’t been for the teen center,
What You Don't Know About Wills Can Hurt Your H eirs.. .
I’m sure I wouldn’t be at CAP today.” At the Teen Center reunion, Ike was able to greet Tim Huff and Andy Pigg, two of the first kids who showed up at the Teen Center’s door the day it opened ten years ago and both of whom now have families of their own. Dozens and dozens of other “alumni,” former volunteers, former staff, parents and other friends of the center showed up on a rainy Saturday afternoon to celebrate the joy of youth and the role that the Rockcastle Teen Center plays in it. They ate pizza and reminisced as they thumbed through hundreds of photographs the center has archived over the years. “It was really, really special,” said Jeff Burchett, who has run the center over the last four years. “The Teen Center is an institution in this county. The dozens of kids who come here every single day prove just how needed it is.” We say “Right on Jeff!” And “Congratulations.” Call us when you get to twenty.
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Ike Adams (center), first manager o f the Rockcastle Teen Center poses with Tim H uff (left) and Andy Pigg. Tim and Andy were first to attend the center, helping to paint so that it could open.
November-December 1996
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around the project. . . continued Volunteer Teaches Needle Work Class at David Crafts Most admitted that they had restricted it to pillowcases and household embellishment but one woman was planning an embroi dered vest for herself. “Teaching at David Crafts was a special experience,” Teresa said. In volunteering with CAP, Teresa hopes to be able to share her creative talents with the
people of Appalachia. Because the David Center distributes products to gift shops and department stores throughout the United States, Teresa said she felt privileged to offer skills and ideas to people who are commit ted to preserving their mountain heritage in the gifts they make with heart and hand. MOORE
Appalachia is well known for its handcrafts. One of the most recognized craft co-ops in eastern Kentucky is David Crafts, a non profit organization that operates in David, Kentucky. Last June, Teresa Moore, a Christian Appalachian Project volunteer from Houston, dropped in to look at David’s wares. The showroom was filled with a variety of items from quilts to furniture, baskets to pottery and dozens of other crafts. When Teresa asked if there was any embroidery, the shop assistant replied that, no, there hadn’t been anyone around who was available to teach stitchery that could be incorporated with the other products sold there. Teresa inquired about the possibility of teaching a class herself. A former member of the National Standards Council of American Embroiderers, she has been creating original artwork using embroidery over the past twenty years. The staff at David Crafts was interested, and, after reviewing some photographs of Teresa’s embroidery, arranged for a class to begin. Class participants learned a number of stitches the first week, as well as techniques for blending threads, creating dimension and choosing the right fabric back ground. Teresa asked them to practice stitching before the second session. At its start, one woman showed the class a quilt panel on which she had used the new stitchery. The second Saturday included more new stitches and reviewing the previous ones taught. All the participants seemed to gain a new appreciation for needle work.
Floyd County women learn the art o f needlework in a class taught by CAP volunteer Teresa Moore.
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The Mountain Spirit 14
around the project. . . continued
Parents Are Teachers Hosts Potluck Supper CORTAS
Leigh Weaver, manager of Parents Are Teachers, recently hosted a potluck supper for all the Lincoln and Garrard counties’ families and “graduates” of CAP’s early intervention program. “This was a great opportunity for families in the program to meet families with children a little older than theirs and see what life after Parents Are Teachers is like,” Leigh said. About 25 children and adults met in the fellowship hall of the Lancaster Baptist Church to share their dishes and their stories. One Parents Are Teachers mother was determined to tell what the program has meant to her and her family, but knew that she would cry at the description, so she recruited physical therapist Sandy Hartner to do her speaking
Jesse Preston represented Operation Sharing at the potluck supper that was hosted by Parents Are Teachers for families in Garrard and Lincoln counties.
for her. Kathleen Leavell and Gloria Jordan, former program manag ers, were invited as special guests, and commended the family orientation to the supper, as well as Leigh’s efforts to enable people to reconnect. “It was great to see the growth in the
children,” Kathleen said. Jesse Preston, material handler for Operation Sharing, repre sented CAP’s in-kind donation distribution program. “They gave us all kinds of wonderful door prizes,” Leigh said. “Everybody was really happy to meet Jesse, and he had a good time, too.”
Have an Adventure in Beautiful Appalachia! Volunteer for a year or a summer with the Christian Appalachian Project. We are in need of energetic, open-minded people to staff our many human service programs here in eastern Kentucky. Volun teers live together, sharing meals, prayer and the challenge of fighting poverty as they support each other through their strong Christian motiva tion to serve people. Oneyear volunteers receive room and board, a November-December 1996
monthly stipend, health insurance and loan defer ment information. We need one-year volunteers (age 21 or older) to serve in child development, adult education, home repair, elderly programs, respite care, outreach, spouse shelters, youth and teen cen ters and more. Join others from around the country by putting your faith into
action to fulfill a dream for Appalachia. For more information, call 1-800755-5322.
The CAP Closeup “I f they volunteer their time,
ru
volunteer m ine . . . ” If Ross Abrams were to identify a constant in his life, that might be hard work. As a young man he learned that hard work paid off when he left Jackson County to work in a factory in Michigan. When he returned, hard work at a machine shop allowed him to make a living in Lexington and a home in Sand Gap, where he was bom and raised. Saying that he needed to get his life “straightened out,” in 1979 Ross quit his job in Lexington and began working for the Christian Appalachian Project. “And I mean hard work. I mowed that camp up there with a push mower and weed eater,” Ross said, pointing in the general direction of CAP’S Camp Andrew Jackson.
Ross Abrams.
When he came to work for CAP (for half of what he made in Lexington) Ross worked in maintenance, and at the Christ mas wreath factory in Tyner. In 1991 he began working as the crew chief for CAP home repair in Jackson County.
Kathleen Turner’s house, an elderly lady who has known Ross since he was a boy (“I was in school with her kids”). Ross talked to Kathleen and inspected the house, inside and out, as Kevin climbed a ladder to survey weak places in the tin roof.
Ross didn’t have time to sit for an interview, so The Mountain Spirit traveled with him as he estimated repair jobs for a crew of 28 volunteers that he was expecting the following week.
As Ross looked through his briefcase, a neighbor of Kathleen’s asked him if CAP could help with the repairs on his home. Ross referred him to the outreach office in McKee, the county seat, and told him to fill in an application, and expect a visit for estimation.
Ross and his partner, volunteer Kevin Black, stopped first at
♦ Story and photos by Margaret Gabriel ♦ The Mountain Spirit 16
Ross Abrams “This will be a good job,” Ross said, after they bid Kathleen goodbye, and told her to expect a crew of six volunteers bright and early Monday morning. “That tin roof didn’t look too bad,” Kevin commented. “Do you still want to shingle?” “It was leaking all over the place. That’s why her floors were so bad. I think the best way to handle it, and not to have to fool with it again, is to sheet it and shingle it and be done with it. If you try to coat it, it’ll just leak again,” Ross said decisively. As they drove to the next site, Ross pointed out homes that he and Kevin or other volunteers had built or repaired during his years in the home repair program. Since beginning to work with Kevin in September of 1995, the pair has been responsible for the complete construction of two homes, and the repair of 41. “And most of them were big jobs,” Ross pointed out. Ross doesn’t swing the home repair hammers much when he
Ross and Kevin have repaired over 40 houses since September o f 1995.
November-December 1996
has volunteer groups. During those weeks he spends his time teaching, mentoring and guiding groups, many that are made up of young people who are experi encing Appala chia for the first time. “It’s been good to work with Ross,” said Ross and co-worker Kevin Black, a volunteer from Kevin, who’s South Carolina, combine to form a crew that really from South measures up. Carolina. “He knows the area and he knows the County, he had a difficult time people and the people know him. gaining acceptance from the local I’ve learned that patience is a community. “I remember a family necessity. I’ve watched him when that lived up the road there, that the groups come in. A lot of the Father Beiting helped a lot. The people don’t know which end of old man’s dead now, but that the hammer to hold and he family had it hard and the teaches them and understands Catholic people helped them. that there will be mistakes and They were talked about a whole they just have to be fixed.” lot, but they sure did help a lot of people,” Ross said. Ross volunteers an occasional weekend for home repair projects “Father Beiting’s a strong man, that are undertaken by local a lot stronger than anybody else I churches in Jackson County. know. He’ll work a young man “If they volunteer their time, plumb to death.” I’ll volunteer mine. Sometimes they’ll ask us to work on a Some of the people in Jackson house for someone they know. County, especially those whose We’ve worked on some of homes are repaired by CAP, theirs, and they’ve worked on know Ross as Roland’s and some of ours.” Mildred’s boy who grew up in Sand Gap. Others now identify Ross believes that CAP and him with the Christian its founder, Father Ralph Appalahcian Project and the Beiting, have influenced the good work that is done by Ross churches in Jackson County to and his crews of volunteers. take a more active role in helping their neighbors. He But Ross sees himself as “a lot recalls that when Father better feller than I was seventeen Beiting first came to Jackson years ago.”
xv
At The Oil Bone Place g
Hxcept for electric lights, I
don’t recall exactly when my mother finally spent good money on a tree ornament or any other decoration for Christmas. I’m sure, however, that I was in college when I first noticed tinsel made from aluminum foil, and a few of those little festive glass balls with Currier & Ives miniatures painted
by Ike Adams
on them start showing up on our tree.
Illustrations by Karen F. Spivey The Mountain Spirit
Sometime in the mid-1950s I reportedly threw a temper tantrum because most of the **¿4 / neighbors had electric lights on their Christmas trees and apparently Mom gave in. I was in first or second grade and in retrospect I’m sure that peer group pressure had something to do with our getting the lights. Mom would also buy two packs of Easter egg dye each spring. One would be used to color Easter eggs and the other would be stashed away with the Christmas ornaments. On the weekend after Thanks giving we would commence popping kettle after kettle of popcorn until we’d have every pot or glass container in the house filled. After the popping was finished Mom would mix the colors one at a time in a Windex bottle or anything else that had a pump sprayer on top of it. We would place the popcorn on an old window screen, spray it down with the coloring and then place the screen in the oven for a few minutes so the popped com would dry back out enough to handle. We would repeat this process until all the colors were used. Finally, we’d take out needles and long lengths of twine and stitch together long strands of the colored com to make garlands for our tree. My three younger brothers and I would be covered head to foot with every hue of the rainbow. Fortunately the dye washed off with a bit of soap and water and our clothing came clean in the laundry. Ornaments consisted of large pine cones that we’d touch up with a bit of white and red paint, little hand-carved wooden stars, comshuck angels, paper figurines representing the Nativity and one
giant star made of foil that Mom had pasted up to put on top of the tree. And every year everybody in the family would try to come up with one new ornament. Cutting the tree was also a family affair. My brothers and I would be scouting as early as July for the best tree in the woods, and there were thousands growing wild to choose from. Scotch pines, white pines, hemlock, spmce and cedars were scruti nized with care until the list of candidates was narrowed down to three or four. Then my brothers and I would take turns each year making the final selection. I always chose a cedar because I loved the smell. My brothers were more objective in that it didn’t matter much what species they wound up selecting as long as it wasn’t cedar. But no matter how bad the weather might have been on the Sunday afternoon on Thanks giving weekend, we cut the tree and that evening, after supper, we spent several hours making it look just right. And from the time I can remember until I reached my mid-twenties, that tradition continued. In fact, until I reached adulthood, I counted on Santa Claus making his run on Christmas Eve. Actually Santa was more she than he, because my mother was the stealthy one who could somehow sense when everyone in the household had gone to sleep. She would get up in the wee hours of the morning and place our presents, never wrapped, under the tree. Nor was there any need for name tags. Both Santa Claus and we knew what we had asked for and there was always one or two items off that list under the tree on Christmas morning.
November-December 1996 19
V
Mom had a huge trunk that was off limits to anyone else in the house hold. She kept a few bed quilts and some mementos in it but it could have held nearly everything in our household including major appliances. It was more than seven feet long, about four feet wide and three feet deep. It had one lock in the middle of the lid that could be picked with a bobby pin in about three minutes. I, as the oldest kid, decided at a pretty early age that all this stuff about reindeer and Santa coming down the chimney sounded pretty suspicious. No tracks on the roof or even in the yard, and fires going in every fireplace in the house on Christmas Eve. Not only that, but every kid on the holler was leaving milk and cookies under the tree and everybody reported getting a thank you note from Santa about how delicious they were. I had my doubts about one man being able to eat that many cookies and drink several gallons of milk. So, when I was five or six years old, I decided out of curiosity to see if I could get the trunk open. I pulled a kitchen chair into Mom’s bedroom so I could reach the lock and was busy at the task when Mom stormed into the room. Suffice it to say that she was a firm believer in corporal punish ment and she put her faith into action on my behind. The very next day my dad spent several hours installing hasps on either side
of the middle lock and the trunk was secured by two big Yale padlocks. A bank vault wouldn’t have been much safer. Even though we never talked about it in her presence, by the time we brothers were elementary school students, it was common knowledge that the so-called North Pole was Mom’s old trunk. But oh, how I loved the preparation for Christmas supper. (Dinner in the mountains is always served at noon. The evening meal is supper.) Since it was always held at our house, Mom took responsibility for the main course(s). That meant a forty pound ham was in one oven well before daybreak and that a turkey of similar proportions was being slicked down to go into another just after the crack of dawn. Our old home was the only one I’ve ever been in with two cook stoves. We had one in the dining room and one in the kitchen, back to back and vented into either side of the same chimney with just a wall separat ing them. Until I was a teenager both were fueled with wood and coal. Dad finally installed an electric stove in the kitchen when I was in high school. I believe it was a Mother’s Day present, but I’m off the point. We kept two stoves because relatives came home from the industrial midwest fairly frequently and sometimes there were so many that you simply didn’t have room to cook enough to feed them all on one stove. That happened at our house several times a year. And at Christmas and Thanks giving three stoves could have been kept busy. Thanksgiving weekend was always hog killing time, the beginning of preparation for Christmas supper. Different uncles and cousins would purchase pigs in the summer, leave them on our hillside farm, and Dad would fatten them off over the next several The Mountain Spirit
20
months. And for the three days after Thanksgiving, butchering was a dawn to dusk enterprise. Many of my relatives loaded the salteddown meat in the trunks of their cars and hauled it back to Columbus or Detroit or Cleveland or Indianapolis or wherever they lived up north to stick in their freezers or cure in their garages, and would leave Dad a ham or tenderloin in exchange for his watching over their livestock. The very best and most select of those hams was carefully trimmed and cured between the holidays — sugared, peppered, salted and wrapped in cheese cloth and babied till Christmas Eve, when my mother put it into the oven and basted it with honey and cloves and sprigs of sage for a full twelve hours. Meals in Heaven, I believe, will smell and taste like those Christmas hams. Early on the evening of Christmas Eve numerous aunts, uncles and first cousins would gather at our place to celebrate the tradition of coming home for Christmas. We lived in a huge old log house that had been the old homeplace for Mom’s eleven brothers and sisters. Everybody brought a favorite dish of food and we’d have Christmas supper and then we’d sing every carol in the hymnal. Finally, the families would go to their own homes and wait for Santa. Being home for Christmas was extremely important in my family. One year my basketball team at Pikeville College was in a tournament in Norfolk, Virginia, at the Navy base and the championship wasn’t played until the afternoon on Christmas Day. The tournament was held as a consola tion to provide some entertainment for the thousands of sailors who couldn’t leave base during the holidays. But it also meant that I couldn’t be home for Christmas. I doubt that I had ever had such a case of the blues as I did that Christmas night as we drove 12 hours through the Blue Ridge
Mountains on a Greyhound bus back to Kentucky. We had won the tournament but instead of celebrating, the ride home was pretty somber. I’m sure that I was not the only one with a lump in his throat because we had missed Christmas with our families. I didn’t make it completely home until nearly noon on the 26th. And there in the living room stood the tree I’d helped decorate with presents all around. My mother was in the kitchen fussing over cakes and pies and pots on the stove. She gave me a quick hug and informed me that she needed help if we were going to have a decent Christmas supper. That night the kinfolks showed up and we went through the traditional routine two days late. After everyone had left, Mom an nounced to my brothers and me that we’d better be getting to bed if we expected Santa Claus to show up. And of course he did. And I’m sui that I will never receive another Christmas present as wonderful as the love m family gave me on that occasion. Many eastern Kentucky families follow similar routines to this day. Many folks wouldn’t think of spending money on a Christmas tree and many wouldn’t dream about being away from home at Christmas. The southbound interstate highways are clogged bumper to bumper with relatives coming back to their mountain families for several days before Christmas. You can also be sure that somewhere in the mountains this year Christmas will have to be postponed a day or two because a brother or sister, son or daughter couldn’t make it home on time.
Ike Adams is a dyed-in-the woo/, certified hillbilly and proud o f it. Ike is also the director o f marketing and public relations fo r the Christian Appalachian Project.
November-December 1996 21
Priest On The Street
Thousands of times the message has rung through the mountains: My name is Father Belting, and I’m here to talk about your best friend and mine — Jesus Christ
• by Margaret Gabriel • The Mountain Spirit 22
I
t ’s difficult to say
exactly how many times Father Ralph Beiting, founder of the Christian Appalachian Project and pastor of St. Jude Church in Louisa and St. John Neumann in Hode, has addressed a crowd in this way, and even
Father Beiting took his loudspeaking equipment to the banks o f the Ohio River in 1987, when he sailed from Portsmith, Ohio to Paducah, Kentucky>.
more difficult to say how many people he has addressed. When Father Beiting sets up his loud speaking equipment, anyone within a couple of miles is going to hear him, whether they can see him or not. November-December 1996
The first time at a microphone his greeting was a little different, as he was not yet Father Beiting. As a student at St. Mary’s Seminary in Norwood, Ohio, in 1946, Ralph Beiting was assigned to spend a summer with Father Joseph Wimmers, pastor of the Catholic parish in Paintsville, deep in the Appalachian region of Ken tucky. While the young seminarian was im pressed with Father Wimmers’ dedication to helping people in need and motivated to do the same, he was equally intrigued by his practice of preaching outdoors, giving information about the Catholic Church. With the help of Father Cornelius McGraw, and the seminarians who were working for the summer, Father Wimmers preached in county seats, in front of general stores and post offices.
Father Wimmers’ car was fitted with a loudspeaker and a microphone, and although his outdoor congregation had little knowledge of the Catholic faith, he reached out through the common bond of the Bible. Ralph Beiting’s first street preaching experience that summer of 1946 came on the grounds outside St. Casimer Church in Van Lear, a mining community five miles south of Paintsville. “It was an exciting new adventure. I had never seen this aspect of our faith before and I was deeply impressed by it.”
I t was an
exciting new
adventure. 1 had never seen this aspect of onr
faith before and I
To this day, Father Beiting calls that summer of 1946 “the year I fell in love.” Father Beiting was ordained in 1949, and in 1950 was given a permanent assignment in the mountains he had come to love.
In the early years, Father Beiting’s outdoor preaching was intended to enlighten listeners to the traditions and beliefs of the Catholic faith. It wasn’t long before Father Beiting saw that topics like purgatory, the Blessed Mother and celibacy were causing divisions rather than building bridges. People were so focused on topics with which they disagreed that they were missing the main message: God’s love for His people.
was deeply
impressed by it.”
So the topics changed, and for the majority of the 50 years that Father Beiting has been preaching in the mountains, they have been universal, and relevant to the times. “The most important aspect of a family is for husbands and wives to love each other,” he said during a preaching stop in the summer of 1996. His message that love in the world starts in the home is as true in 1996 as it was in 1966. As one might imagine, Father Beiting has hundreds of stories about his experi ences street preaching. Some cause a chuckle, and have to do with people disagreeing with his message and throwing tomatoes. Others feature children asking about the Preacher Man with the white hair. One of his favorites, though, shows just how vital is this ministry of street preach ing, Father Beiting says. “We were preaching in Breathitt County one August. It was getting late in the afternoon, but I decided to stop at a place with about a half-dozen houses. We were there about 15 or 20 minutes, and I noticed a man in an old beat-up Chevy going back and forth. I guess he must have passed us six or seven times in the 20 minutes we were there. “When we finished, he came up and spoke. ‘You know, I need to thank you for coming here and preaching today. I was going out to shoot myself to get rid of all my problems. The Mountain Spirit
“‘My wife left me. We got four children, and she took them all up to Dayton. Last weekend, I went to find them and I found the kids playing at an old place up there, and when I went into the house, my wife was with another man. I thought maybe I’d kill that guy, but instead I ran all the way back here. I’ve been stewing, trying to figure out what to do, and today I decided that I’d commit suicide. That’s where I was going when I heard you all preaching, and decided to stop and listen to what you had to say.’ “I never did see him again,” Father Beiting said. “But I pray that he was able to make some kind of life for himself. It’s very humbling to realize that for one moment we stood between him and his own death, but that God won the battle.” A preaching stop always includes a few selections from ‘‘The Mountain Troubadors, a musical group comprised o f CAP volunteers and employees. Musical talent is not always a prerequisite.
Just about every branch and holler in eastern Kentucky has been favored by Father Beiting’s message about the love of God. In 1987, he even cruised the Kentucky and Ohio rivers, as he took “Appalachia on Tour.” There are folks trying to convince Father Beiting to launching into year 51 of street preaching by going on the Internet. But whatever route he takes — the road or the river or the Information Superhighway — Father Beiting says that after 50 years, he’s as anxious to keep going as he was to start, and that “I still get a big kick out of talking about God.” Father Beiting preaches on the lawn o f the Jessamine County courthouse in 1993.
November-December 1996
G OWs, f l r t i s a n Madjz in thg:
O Q N T fU N â f l rt becomes business in big cities where marketing professionals gather in towering office buildings or funky lofts to discuss art shows, advertising and distribution. On Main Street in Cumberland, Kentucky, mountains that bring misty mornings and afternoons when mountaintops and clouds meld together inspire art. Story and photos by Beth Dotson 26
An Out-Of-The-Attic creation, hand crafted o f clay, fabric, branches and grapevines, with a story to tell and a lesson to impart.
The Mountain Spirit
Wanda Chapman discovered a desire to create within herself and she followed that urge to form art from old things — clothes, ticket stubs, buttons and more. Surrounded by the landscape of her childhood, Wanda follows her instinct, not a marketing plan. Still, her art sells throughout the United States, Germany, Japan and England. Bits o f “treasure, ” that inspire the artist and add to the creation.
“I just create things and people find them,” Wanda insists as she sits in her shop surrounded by antiques and her art. Her voice has the quiet honesty of someone who doesn’t need to put on airs. “Somehow I’ve been discovered. When you create from inside you and it’s something that God put there, they get discovered. It just happens. It’s not something you’re trying to do. It’s not something you work at. It just happens.”
As her art just happens, so did Wanda’s return to the mountains. She grew up moving between Kentucky and Illinois. Until she was ten or eleven, she lived in Eolia in Letcher County. She invokes her Cherokee heritage when she says the name means Valley of the Winds in Cherokee. It’s clearly a place she had always held dear in her heart. And the mountains are a place she always knew she would return to, even if it took 30 years. “I always knew I would come back and I didn’t even want to in my head,” Chapman said. “But in my heart I knew that someday I would come back. It’s just like you never really leave it.” As a child, Wanda would pack a lunch with her brother — Harvey Sturgill — and they would set out to play for the day. They explored the woods and pretended to be their own Indian ancestors. Today, Harvey is a mountain craftsman in Tennessee. November-December 1996
Wanda graduated from high school in Springfield, Illinois, married young and devoted herself to being a wife and mother. She lived in Indiana, Illinois and Texas with her husband and four children. When her two oldest children were grown and her two youngest, both boys, were approaching high school, Wanda and her husband, Doug, decided they wanted to move to Kentucky. They leased approximately 65 acres on Black Mountain in Harlan County and developed their own farm where they homeschooled sons Michael and Chris. For three years, Wanda and Doug devoted themselves to educating their sons while living in primitive conditions. The family raised its own food and cooked on a coal burning stove. “The boys grew to know that if you didn’t cut the wood you were going to be cold in the winter,” Wanda said.
“When yoa create from inside y ou... it’s something that (Hod pat there”
Although moving from an upper-middleclass neighborhood in Texas to an isolated farm in Kentucky was a tremendous change, Wanda thinks it was good for her sons. “The boys grew to have a different work ethic than most teenagers. We never had a problem with them,” Wanda said. Wanda grew to know that she wanted to help the local economy by encouraging tourism. She saw coal mining jobs leaving the county and discovered there might be economic possibilities in attracting vacation ers and other visitors. She worked for two years at the Schoolhouse Inn, an old schoolhouse that was converted to a 16room hotel. Wanda and Doug also wanted to persuade local craftspeople to set up shops. They bought a building and turned it into the
Tradin’ Post in Cumberland. Wanda invited artists to sell their work there. Now two of those craftspeople have their own shops. Today, Wanda showcases antiques and other goodies she and her husband have discovered. Among the tables, rockers and bureaus are her creations. She began with the Gift Giver, her interpretation of Saint Nicholas. From there she moved on to create “A Giver of Gifts who walks the hills and valleys of the Appalachians” — the Appalachian Gift Giver. Wanda said the Appalachian Gift Giver’s story is about how God has blessed the mountains so beautifully. She also creates three other dolls with unique stories, Faith “The Flealer,” “The Keeper of Wisdom” (a grandmother), and Molder of Dreams “The Teacher.” Wanda fashions the faces of the gift givers from clay. The rest of the creation, and the dolls, she makes from leftovers — clothes and other found objects that she picks up at flea markets. Sometimes people bring her old clothes and ask her to use them when creating a specially-ordered doll.
Two o f Wanda's creations, waiting patiently at the Tradin ’ Post, to provide inspiration, strength and beauty.
But there’s much more to Wanda’s dolls than an intriguing appearance. “People are attracted to them visually but then when they read the stories they are touched in their heart,” Wanda said. “Without the story I don’t think they’re worth as much. Anybody can do that.” Wanda wrote in the story of “The Healer”:
Old-fashioned props, beckon would-be art collectors and tourists.
“Great Aunt Faith was a medicine woman. She knew things about the healing of bodies and she knew things about the healing of spirits. Her ‘knowing’ transcended her knowledge of healing herbs and roots. It was as if she was in constant contact with a wisdom outside her abilities.” “The Healer” doll carries a basket.
The Mountain Spirit 28
The stories are based on facts and people, sometimes from Wanda’s own life. She worked for several years as a freelance writer and now uses her writing talent to add this extra dimension to her dolls. “At first it’s a craft and you can get crafts anywhere. The story makes it a part of you or somebody you can identify with. And sometimes knowing that other people have lived with this pain or gone through this story come through.” Because the stories have that affect on people, Wanda calls her dolls “healing art.” In the story of “The Teacher,” Wanda writes about overcoming disappointment and starting again: “And so, with renewed courage she dried her tears and returned to the mountains. She proposed in her heart not to quit. . . She began to teach her children and their parents to dream. She taught with a force and a tenacity that would not consider failure . . . she painted pictures for their souls. She became a tireless advocate of building possibilities into their days.” Wanda fondly recalled a telephone call from a woman in Colorado who had purchased one of the dolls when she was visiting Berea, Kentucky. The woman cried because she said the doll’s story was really her own. “Everybody has things in their past that they need to get over so they can get on with it,” Wanda said. She believes her dolls can push that process along.
“Faith ” and “The Keeper o f Wisdom, ”poised in a quiet com er o f the shoppe.
Wanda draws on her own family for her talent. She remembers that her grandmother could look at a Sears and Roebuck catalog and make a dress from it without a pattern. The small but regal-looking black Singer sewing machine that Wanda’s father bought for her at a pawn shop still sits in her studio. Wanda’s mother also lived creatively. “I think I got it (my talent) basically from my mother. We were always poor, always, so it was always a challenge, if you move into a
“The Keeper of Wisdom” doll is Wanda’s favorite. She created it upon the birth of her first grandchild. From “The Keeper of Wisdom” story: “With a newborn’s solemn gaze she looked into the eyes and heard the voice that was to mold her young life in almost mystical ways. It was as if each of them knew that a bond was being made that transcended natural relationships. Even though nearly a half a century separated their births . . . two hearts began beating as one.” November-December 1996
Wanda Chapman and the Singer sewing machine her father purchased at a pawn shop.
dump and make something beautiful out of it. My mother was able to do it. She could take almost anything and make it look good. It’s a gift.” Wanda is planning to share her gift by offering dollmaking classes through Southeast Community College. She says that although she can tell people how to make dolls, she can’t tell them how to discover their own ideas. Sometimes, she says, another artist will spark an idea. Wanda remembers talking with a woman at a craft show who made tea-dyed cloth rabbits. Someone commented that they looked like they just came out of the attic. That comment stayed with her and Wanda later named her business Out of the Attic Creations. Wanda fervently encourages other artists. “Just take what’s inside of you, what you love, just create,” she said. “Don’t quit. Never, ever let anyone tell you can’t do something. There’s absolutely nothing you can’t do. I mean nothing.” That strong belief comes from Wanda’s faith, which has been passed down through
“The Gift Giver, ” old as the mountains themselves.
her family. That faith puts a strength in her statements about art that doesn’t leave room to doubt what she says. “It’s a fact because if it’s inside of you . . . God put things in us and he wants us to succeed and he’s in there fighting for us and if you ask him, he will bring what he put in you out and put you on the right road and then it’s not something that anybody can take away from you. “It’s just the way it is,” Wanda said. “Once you know that and you know who you are, there isn’t anybody who can stop you.” Beth Dotson is a freelance writer and a form er volunteer fo r Christian Appalachian Project. Beth resides in Lancaster, Kentucky. For more information about the craft items “Out O f The A ttic”
While one o f her “creations ” looks over her shoulder, Wanda placidly searches fo r new ideas.
216 West Main Street, Cumberland, KY 40823 phone (606) 589-5881.
The Mountain Spirit
ow many times have you read a story in The Mountain Spirit and thought “Oh, I wish I could share that with . . . !” We hear from readers almost every week who tell us that they pass their Mountain Spirit to their mother, brother, pastor or friend.
Give a little bit of us this Christmas by giving a gift of The Mountain Spirit to someone you’d like to tell about the work of the Christian Appalachian Project. We’ll be happy to announce your gift with a specially designed card.
If you’ve told yourself that you’d like to do more for CAP in the coming year, this might be the very way to do it. By sharing The Mountain Spirit you can tell more people about the joys and chal lenges of the mountains and the work that the Appalachian people are doing to help themselves out of poverty.
More than three decades have
SPIVEY
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passed since the peak of Appalachian migration.
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Early generations of Appalachian
people arrived in the cities during an era of industrial expansion. Urban Appalachians of subsequent generations have been devastated by the decline of the automobile, steel and other manufacturing industries.
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These declines have led some Appalachian people to return to the region. /
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Urban Appalachians gain cultural support through frequent visits and
communications with the mountains. Source: From Mountains to Metropolis: Appalachian Migrants in American Cities Shaded area indicates the boundaries o f the Appalachian region
CHRISTIAN APPALACHIAN PROJECT 322 CRAB ORCHARD ROAD LANCASTER, KY 40446 THE MOUNTAIN SPIRIT
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID Christian Appalachian Project
Address Correction Requested
CAROLYN SUE MARKS 4430
KY.
HV7Y 6 4 3
WAYNESBURG KY 4 0 4 8 9