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WorkFest

2001

Faith In Action

P resid en t’s NOTE

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M o u n t a in S p ir it The Magazine o f the C H R IS T IA N A P P A L A C H IA N P R O JE C T MAY-

JUNE

2001

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20,

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Betty Laukhuf: 4 Following The Call by Ike Adams

14 16 18

WorkFest 2001: Faith In Action by Karen F. Spivey

Profile Of McCreary County, Ky.

by The CAP News Service

CAP Transitions:

A Discussion with CAP Human Services Directors

22 Literacy Makes Progress in McCreary County

^ - Myrtle Meeks: Living ^ ¡ ¿ 4 As A Christian by Margaret Gabriel On the cover: WorkFest celebrates its tenth year, with students arriving from across the county, fo r an alternative spring break (story on pagel 4). Photo by Elizabeth Fritz

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R a n d o m T h o u g h ts Letters A round the Project CAP Close-Up

CAP Transitions, page 18 Published by the Christian Appalachian Project

C o n tr ib u tin g E d ito r M a r g a r e t G a b r ie l

G r a p h ic D esig n K a r e n F r a n c e s S p iv e y

C irculation D e b b ie M o rris

A d v iso r y Board: F a th e r R a lp h W . B e itin g , M ik e San d ers, B en P re w itt, B e c k y K an a

The Mountain Spirit is published six times a year. The annual subscription price is $8.00. Subscriptions and other correspondence should be sent to The Mountain Spirit, Christian Appalachian Project, 322 Crab Orchard Street, Lancaster, KY 40446. Copyright, 2001, 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. The Christian Appalachian Project is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and is qualified to receive tax deductible contributions.

We at CAP have discov ered that one of the dearest treasures of Appalachia is the experience and memories of our senior Mike Sanders, citizens. CAP President Workers in elderly services programs in 12 counties provide assistance to nearly 1700 people, assistance that ranges from transportation and help with chores to simple companionship. For many of the people, the visits they receive from CAP volunteers and employees help them to maintain their own homes as long as possible. Many who have moved to nursing homes continue to receive visits, phone calls and cards from CAP. The memories of many elderly residents of Eastern Kentucky bridge amazing spans of experience. Myrtle Meeks, for example, whom you will meet on page 24, remembers days when entire communities of the mountains were inaccessible by any transportation except horse. Today the house that has been home for many years is but a stone’s throw from one of the busiest four-lane roads through the mountains. Her stories and memories are rich, indeed. In this issue of The Mountain Spirit, we want to give readers a look at the extensive planning that we have for the coming years as we move into areas of Appalachia that have the greatest needs. Moe Mercier, Tom Connor and Rose Price share the thoughts behind the move and give insight concerning how the changes fit into CAP’s overall mission. Please keep CAP as well as the people we serve in your prayers during this time of change.

Mike Sanders CAP President

A summary o f the registration and financial documents filed by this organization can be obtained by contacting: in Maryland, for the cost o f copies and postage, the Secretary o f State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401; in Virginia, State Division o f Consumer Affairs, RO. Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23209; in Washington, residents can call the Secretary o f State toll-free within the state at 800-332-4483; in Mississippi, by calling the Secretary o f State’s office at 888-236-6167; IN NEW YORK, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, CHARITIES BUREAU, 120 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10271; IN NEW JERSEY, THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY CALLING 973-504-6215; IN PENNSYLVANIA, DEPARTMENT OF STATE BY CALLING TOLL-FREE W ITHIN THE STATE, 800-732-0999; IN WEST VIRGINIA, SECRETARY OF STATE, STATE CAPITOL, CHARLESTON, WV 25305; IN FLORIDA, THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALL TOLL-FREE WITHIN THE STATE AT 800435-7352; IN NORTH CAROLINA, FINANCIAL INFORMATION AND A COPY OF THE LICENSE ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE STATE SOLICITATION LICENSING BRANCH WITHIN THE STATE AT 1-888-830-4989 OR OUTSIDE THE STATE AT 919-807-2214; or by writing to Christian Appalachian Project, 322 Crab Orchard Street, Lancaster, KY 40446. Our license number in Michigan is MICS 9933. Registration with any o f the above government agencies does not imply endorsement by the state.

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T H O L G H T S B y M elissa V ance worth of individuals by promoting fter The self-help. We try to give the elderly Mountain the support they need that for some Spirit asked me reason may not be receiving to write elsewhere. In this day and time, no something longer do we always see a son or about elderly daughter taking care of an elderly services, I wondered what I would parent. This is not by choice, often, write about and actually had many but is due to the economy in this ideas. That was, until I started region. It takes two incomes to typing. Oh, it sounded simple at support the family unit, which first. But to put your thoughts and ultimately leaves the elderly parent experiences down is a little more difficult than one might think. I would like to say “thank you” to Richard Ginn for believing in me enough to offer me a management position for elderly services. He gave me the opportunity to work with a popula tion that will forever change the way I view my elders. As for my years with elderly services I’ve enjoyed every aspect of my job. We are able to spend quality time with our participants with no need to rush or put a time limit on the service being provided. Now, tell Melissa Vance, Elderly Services Program Manager. me where would you be able to sit for alone. hours and listen to an elder express We try to involve the elderly in sorrow over the loss of a loved one, activities. We’ve helped establish happiness over the birth of a great support groups for our participants grandchild, or grief concerning the so that they may help others. inability to pay a bill. Here at CAP! Elderly services participants may I don’t mean to imply that we spend even enjoy a day on a houseboat countless hours without being listening to one of their number — accountable, I’m just plainly stating often a friend — play mountain that we are definitely there for that tunes on a cherished guitar. elder. One of the best times in the Elderly services promotes self

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program is the early spring when the elders are getting ready to plant their gardens. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “How in the world would elderly people plant gardens?” I’ll tell you: better than you or I! When March rolls around and I haven’t received the order of garden seeds everyone starts getting a little worried. You see, our elders know what it’s like to struggle during a depression; they know what it’s like to worry about where the next meal will come from. So they are always prepared. We have a proud people in Appalachia and they will survive. I’ve learned that from each and every one of the people we serve. If they are able, a garden will be planted to ensure food for the upcoming months. If they are not able, a relative will be coaxed into planting a garden for them, like it or not. Stop and think about this in a broader picture. What does a garden signify to an elder? Life. They enjoy watching seed grow into a creation that God has blessed with a gift of sun and rain. Our elders know the value of such gifts, gifts often taken for granted by those that are frequently too busy to stop and give thanks. I’ll never forget the gift that allows me to work with one of the greatest resources that we have today: our elders. The chance to talk to, leam from, care for, ache with an elder is an unbelievably valuable lesson. This was a once in a lifetime chance for me. Melissa Vance manages CAP s elderly services program in Hagerhill. She is a licensed practical nurse and the mother o f Nick and Luke.

It all started with an old magazine collecting dust on a bookshelf in the office of the Christian television station in Butler, Indiana. Betty Laukhuf was taking a break from her regular duties as volunteer receptionist and jack-of-all trades. She picked up a dog-eared, dusty and ragged magazine, its cover ready to fall off, its pages turning yellow around the edges. Betty glanced at it several times before finally picking it up. “I wasn’t really looking for anything to read but it was almost like the magazine was talking to me and saying that I really ought to take a look, even though it was not the kind of publication that would normally get my attention,” Betty fondly recalls. “But before I knew what I was doing I was turning the pages.” The magazine was a back issue of The Mountain Spirit, well over two years old, if Betty’s memory serves her correctly. The front cover featured a photo of an elderly mountain lady and there were more photos inside of elderly folks and stories about their special needs. “I’d never even heard of the Christian Appalachian Project or Father Beiting or The Mountain Spirit but within thirty minutes of picking up that magazine I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that God was talking to me. He was saying ‘This is what I’ve been preparing you for, Betty, so pay close attention.’ Before I knew it, I had read the magazine from cover to

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cover and I’d started at the front and I was reading it again.” She was especially glued to an advertisement promoting CAP’s volunteer program and the opportunities to work in CAP programs for a year. The spot had a number to call for more information and almost before she knew what she was doing Betty was on the phone with someone in Lancaster, Ky., figuring out the details. That was in July, 2000, and two weeks after reading The Mountain Spirit Betty interviewed for a position as a CAP volunteer. Two weeks after that she received an assignment and six weeks after picking up that ragged old copy of

CAP’s magazine she was on the staff of CAP’s elderly services program in McCreary County. “God doesn’t mess around,” she says. “The message could not have been any plainer if He’d sent me a letter telling me to pack up my clothes and head for McCreary County. The [CAP volunteer program staff] talked to me about a bunch of other positions they thought I might be interested in and they’ve even talked to me about doing this same job in three or four other counties that are much closer to my home in Indiana, but God has told me that right here in McCreary County is where he wants me to do His work and I don’t even think about being any other place.” She is so sure she is where she is supposed to be, doing what she’s supposed to be doing, on February 25 she signed up for another year of volunteer service. “I didn’t want anybody at CAP to be worrying about what they were going to do for an elderly services worker in McCreary County if I left. God told me there was no sense in keeping them guessing,” she gleefully exclaims. “Now they know that I’m going to be here for at least another 18 months.” Betty Laukhuf is 66 years old. She has four children, all married, eight grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. For more than 30 years she worked full-time in a factory, and as a mother and homemaker who dreamed of one day retiring and settling down as a full time grandma, doing the things grandmas are supposed to do with their grandchildren. “I never had it planned out in any great detail when I was working in those factories every day for all those years, but I have to admit that I did look forward to retirement. Factory work is not the kind of thing that anybody imagines doing until they aren’t physically able to work any longer. I’ll tell you this though, if anybody had told me right up until

Betty drives a “spiffy” van to visit 38 elderly participants in McCreary County.

I retired that I would be working in a rest home within a few weeks of leaving the factory, I would have told them they were crazy. In fact, if you’d told anybody who knew me that I’d be a rest home worker or down here in the mountains doing volunteer work they would have laughed so hard that you would have felt foolish.”

What Betty found herself doing when she first “retired” was getting extremely active in mission work for her church. Betty and both her sons are ordained ministers in Restoration Fellowship Church, a Pentecostal faith that appeals to many Christians in the rural midwest. Her church sent her to India for six weeks of missionary work but her real joy, she

learned, was much closer to home. One day a young boy, maybe ten or twelve years of age, showed up for services and Betty asked what brought him there. “It turned out that he had gotten into some mischief at a much larger, better known church in town and they’d told him that they didn’t want him coming back unless he learned to

the same time and if you’ve ever behave better. He told me that he Betty lives in CAP’s volunteer believed in God and that he ought to been a factory worker that’s not a house in Whitley City where she be in church and it just happened to concept you think about much. I shares community life with eight be convenient for him to come to loved the people there — the nurses “mostly college-age kids” and Restoration Fellowship. Anyway, and the other workers — but most certainly nobody anywhere near her of all, the residents. I found out that before I realized what I was doing, I age in years. She doesn’t look 66 had taken him under my wing to I could make people laugh out loud years old. She doesn’t act 66 years when they didn’t even have much to old and she says she sure doesn’t make sure he had a ride to services and to special events for youth and smile about. feel that old, either. so forth. “I certainly wasn’t thinking about Running out to get an ice cream “In the process, I became a different job when I picked up that cone at nine or ten o’clock, which magazine. It had never even acquainted with his mother who the “kids” are prone to do, was not worked at Betz Nursing Home in occurred to me that I would ever be something that Betty figured would Auburn, Indiana, and one day she doing anything else until I actually be much fun until they talked her told me about a job opening there. did retire the next time. That is, if I into it. Betty is usually reading at At first I thought it was funny but did ever retire. I was having too that hour of the night and getting for the next several days she kept much fun to even think about ever ready for bed. She says, with a leaving because, for the first time in persisting. She told me I had the bemused grin, eating ice cream at personality for the job that basically my life, I knew without any doubt that hour didn’t cause her to lose involved keeping folks company that I was following God’s will. any sleep after all. Any time she and organizing little social does start feeling a little out of activities and so forth. touch, the young volunteers “So I began praying The great thing about her embrace her and make her feel she about it and I realized that belongs. job, says Betty, is that God was talking to me “It’s not like I’m the house through this young woman mother or grandmother or great almost everyone knows who somehow thought I’d grandmother at all,” she says. be good at working with everyone else, even if they “I’m simply treated like one of the invalids because I got gang and that’s the way I want it along well with her kid. I live ten miles apart. to be. I feel loved and appreciated know it doesn’t make much and that’s more than enough.” Unless there’s a sense, but that’s what it On the job, Betty is CAP’s boiled down to. Then it elderly services caseworker in mean-looking dog in the became clear to me that McCreary County. Thirty-eight God wanted me to listen front yard she simply stops senior citizens depend on her for up, so I went for an companionship, transportation for interview and they offered and asks directions if the shopping trips and visits to the me the job right away. God doctor. Once a week she trans written ones don’t make is always talking to us but ports a woman who has become a we don’t always know how close friend to a medical facility 35 any sense. to listen. miles away for kidney dialysis. “I came home and talked She has a spiffy new Chevrolet it over with my children. I mean, I “But when I found that telephone van because, she says, “The first was supposed to be retired and number for the volunteer program, one they gave me didn’t want to getting into the grandma routine and the message was loud and clear. God start a lot of the time and even when I wondered how they would feel was saying, ‘Betty, this is what I’ve it started, it didn’t want to go.” about me going back to work full been preparing you for. I’ve been Two or three times a month she time. I guess I was a little surprised making it easy for you to learn how drives to Berea, more than 80 miles when they told me they thought it to be of service to older people and away, for staff meetings and most of was a wonderful idea for me to go to now I’m going to send you where I the time she makes the trip alone. work in a nursing home, and it need you. I’m not finished with you “When I first got here, a lot of other became clear that there were no yet.’ CAP workers worried that I’d get lost obstacles. “So here I am. I’m doing exactly and it has been difficult to find some “Within a week I was thanking what God prepared me to do and I of the places I was scheduled to God because I loved every minute of couldn’t be any happier or more visit, but I was lost when I didn’t it. I was on salary and having fun at satisfied.” know God and now when I don’t

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know exactly where I am myself, I know that He does, so it’s not something I worry about.” McCreary County is in the very heart of the Daniel Boone National Forest and most folks Betty visits live along narrow, winding country roads, way out in the woods. The great thing about her job, says Betty, is that almost everyone knows everyone else, even if they live ten miles apart. Unless there’s a mean-looking dog in the front yard she simply stops and asks directions if the written ones don’t make any sense. That has led her to meet a lot of new friends and a lot of people know Betty now. She doesn’t hesitate when asked about her favorite experience so far — it involves making several new friends who are not associated with her program. One day Betty was trying to find Jessie, a 76year-old woman who lives alone. Her written directions had her believing that perhaps Jessie’s road simply didn’t exist, so she stopped at a house in the neighborhood and asked. Sure enough, the directions were off by a mile or two and the lady from whom she’d asked directions decided that she’d like to visit Jessie, too. If Betty could wait a minute, she’d go with her. A few weeks after that visit, Betty learned that Jessie had a birthday coming up, so she stopped back at the neighbor’s house and proposed they throw a surprise party. And this is the part of the story where Betty’s eyes well up, a lump comes in her throat and you can tell in a heartbeat that the emotion she’s feeling is joy so pure that it’s difficult to take it without sitting down.

“So we get a cake and ice cream and we all show up at Jessie’s house and she just can’t believe it. After a bit, she looks around at all of us and you can tell that she is so, so happy and so surprised that it is unbeliev able. Then she announces that this

and at ease with myself and the world as anywhere I’ve ever been.” She pulls out a photo of a young mother lying in a maternity room with twins, one tucked into the crook of each arm. “Identical twin boys,” she beams. “That’s my granddaughter. Those are my two newest great grandchildren. I did run home for a couple of days to see them when they were bom two weeks ago.” Maybe one day, when they are old enough to understand the lessons Betty Laukhuf is learning, those little boys will sit beside her and come to realize the importance of helping a 76-year-old have her first birthday party. It won’t be her first, but maybe they’ll even throw one for her. In the meantime, Betty says the word “awe some” is not nearly strong enough to describe the way she feels, but it’s the best adjective she can come up with on short notice. “Some of my friends and family wonder how intelligent it was to walk away from a nice job with a good salary where I was happy but they don’t know that the kind of satisfaction I’m getting out of this is better than all the money in the world. “God spent a long time preparing me for McCreary County and I’m going to be right here as long as he keeps telling me in no uncertain terms that I am doing His will. I don’t believe there is any greater joy than knowing that.”

“Some of my friends and family wonder how

intelligent it was to walk away from a nice job with a good salary where I was happy but they don’t know that the kind of satisfaction I’m getting out of this is better than all the money in the world.” is the first birthday party she has ever had in her 76 years on earth. Seventy-six years old and never had a birthday party! “Jessie grows popcorn in her garden and we popped up a big bunch of it and that was the hit of the party. God had that party planned for Jessie, and I am so thankful that He used me to make it happen that I can’t even put it into words. “I feel at home here. That’s one of the reasons I signed up for another year of service. I lived in Florida for years and I was so homesick that it actually hurt. I thought the work I was doing in India was important but I was more than ready to come home. But now I feel as comfortable

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Ike Adams, a native o f Letcher County, Ky., works fo r the Federation o f Appalachian Housing. Is is a graduate o f Pikeville College and has served on the board o f MACED fo r twenty years. He is a frequent contributor to The Mountain Spirit.

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L etters to the E d itor 1)^(11^\11X11^1 1)^1 IV(I 1X1 1X1 1X1 1X1 1X1 1X1

As a former CAP volunteer, I want to reassure your readers that their donations are put to full use and there is no waste. For example, in the CAP volunteer houses - if someone wanted cookies, they could purchase flour, brown sugar, eggs, etc. to make lots of cookies. They were not allowed to buy ready made. This is just a very small example of CAP’s thriftiness and utilization of donations. Hello to all my friends! God bless, Kathy Kirk-Malters Brainerd, Minn.

I enjoy The Mountain Spirit very much. God bless Father Beiting, he is so great. I hope he is doing well. Helen Savage Covina, Calif. I enjoy The Mountain Spirit magazine very much. I left Eastern Kentucky close to forty years ago. I am proud of all the work you are doing for my people there. May God richly bless you and your co workers. Love and Christian faith, The Ralph Cassell family Bellville, Ohio

It’s good to see that progress is being made among the poor of Appalachia. Good luck and contin ued success. Brendan Murphy Yonkers, N. Y.

Thank you for publishing the magazine. It puts a “face” on where the money goes. We get so many requests from charities and cannot help everyone (we are retired). We will continue to give what we can to CAP. God bless your wonderful work. Mrs. Mary M. Kelsch Pittsburgh, Pa.

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The Mountain Spirit brings to life what can be done to help people really help themselves with some dignity. There is no hidden agenda in the CAP program - only the desire to honestly help. Mrs. Barbara A. Spriggs AltaLoma, Calif.

I wish I was younger and could visit the CAP area. For 30 years I have been reading about Fr. Beiting and his great work. Anna Zugay Norristown, Pa.

I love The Mountain Spiritl I especially enjoy stories of the success of an individual or family. Stories of the pre-school and how students succeed in primary grades interests me, having volunteered with Head Start in a rural area in Washington state. Directors, staff, volunteers and the residents are in my prayers. Together we can succeed! In Christ Jesus, Louise Wallace Desert Hot Spring, Calif

The Mountain Spirit always renews me with a burst of joy and strength, knowing that God’s work is being done. The gladness of the volunteers, and the recipients of CAP’s services is invigorating. Thank you, Carolyn Santangelo Brooklyn, N.Y.

Hats off to Father Beiting! I always enjoy reading stories about him as well as all the work he and his crew do in Kentucky. Mrs. James W. Weitzel Cincinnati, Ohio

Your life and devotion to the underprivileged has always been an inspiration to our family. Especially your bringing the word of God to the people to inspire them and help them to lift themselves up. We thank you and ask God’s continued blessings on your Christlike endeavors. Mrs. Bernard N. Voegtle Pierz, Minn.

Having been a friend of Father Beiting’s brothers, Paul and Butch, and knowing how loving and giving the whole Beiting family is, Father Beiting’s success in CAP is no wonder. His faith and the outpour ing of love to all of Appalachia have inspired me for a long time. Glenn R. Rankin Cape Coral, Fla.

I like your publication because it tells the truth about all your hard work and also about the people’s way of life, the poor. God bless you all. Mrs. Espy Salmon Chula Vista, Calif.

I love your magazine. It is so encouraging to read the stories of people who are working toward a better life for themselves and their children. The examples set by the volunteers are a lesson for all of us. You are a blessing. Marilyn Jochum Evansville, Ind. 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 Street Lancaster, KY 40446 or e-mail capinfo@chrisapp. org

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CAP Vice President Sue Sword An Industry Leader for Direct Response The Non-Profit Times, a monthly industry today. newspaper that reports on non The twelve women were chosen as profit news, organization industry leaders for management and goings-on a combination of in the industry, recently reasons. While all selected Christian Appala are first-rate direct chian Project’s Sue Sword, marketers, some vice president of direct have raised the bar response and gifts in kind, of excellence which as one of twelve women from others copy, some across the country who are are constantly driving the non-profit teaching and sector’s direct response cSue cSword, mentoring while ^

others were the first in their field and continue setting industry standards. Sue attributes much of her success to the precedents set by her mentor and predecessor, Bill Begley, who retired from CAP last summer after twenty nine years of service. Among her most successful accomplishments at CAP is a re design of the organization’s website which produced more donations in one month than had been raised in the previous year.

CAP Thoughts On Funding For Faith-Based Charities The initiative promoted by President George W. Bush for the government to partner with faithbased charities in providing needed social services will support con tracts that are already in place, according to Christian Appalachian Project human services director Rose Price. In CAP’s early days, the philoso phy of founder and chair emeritus of the board Father Ralph Beiting was not to use government funding of any kind. During the days of the War on Poverty, in the mid-1960s, many programs accepted govern ment funding with few strings attached. Because they were totally dependent on that source of funding, many disappeared when the funding dried up. Ginny Ramsey Today, Rose said, CAP’s philosophy has softened. “We don’t want to depend on federal or state money to the point that it would cripple a program if it wasn’t there. Overall, though, I think it’s good use of taxpayer money to help fund an

organization that really knows how to meet needs. But I sure wouldn’t give money to a little church at the head of a hollow that doesn’t have a bookkeeper and can’t account for its funds.” Rose worked in Comprehensive Care, a mental health agency during the post-Kennedy years and recalls receiving large grants with few strings attached. “That allowed a lot of creativity, but we weren’t asked for much accountability. We tried to do the right thing with the money and it’s nice not to be over-regulated, but I don’t think we’ll ever see those days come back.” CAP’s policy, Rose said, is to accept funding for programs that are already in place, and not to create programs just because funding is available. “The advantage to having been here for a while is that we have more freedom to put money where we think it will be effectively spent. If we can use government grants, that allows us to use other money in another area. My philosophy is that the government should funnel money to faith-based organizations and it’s our responsibility to use that money well.” The proposed increase of avail

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ability of government funding for faith-based charities makes Ginny Ramsey, a CAP board member and co-director of Lexington’s Catholic Action Center, wary. “We never want to seek funding that will limit the scope of the people we serve,” Ginny says of the work of the Catholic Action Center. “We’re called to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty, and we’ll do that even if they don’t have the right paperwork.” Ginny has several concerns about such funding, including the possibil ity that the availability of funding will lead to a decrease in community response to people in need. “I’m not saying that [government funding] can’t be done, and done well, but I’m concerned that we might be creating social services agencies instead of churches. The light would go away.” She admits, however, that govern ment involvement could signal the public that less support is needed from individuals. Nothing could be further from the truth, she said. “That’s what happened, histori cally, with welfare,” she said. “People got the impression the government would take care of it, and it destroyed the impetus of people acting out of faith to make a difference.”

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CAP Teacher On Mission To Provide Bibles the initiative to connect elderly Shirley Mandeville whispered a people at the Salyersville Rehab prayer as she pushed a grocery cart Center with young people in an along the Mountain Parkway on a adoptive grandparents’ blustery, cold day before program and has asked the Christmas, 2000. “Don’t local discount department you think it’s time to store to stock giant-print send one of your angels Bibles so she might along to pick me up and gradually purchase enough give me a ride home?” to furnish one to every Shirley, a volunteer room at the rehab center. teacher in the Christian After hearing her story, Appalachian Project Kevin gave Shirley $30 to JobStart program in help with her ministry. Salyersville, was not Shirley Mandeville The sharing did not stop taking an ordinary with Shirley and Kevin. Kevin told of journey. She was delivering Bibles to residents at the Mountain Manor his experience to Tim Bostic, a reporter for the Salyersville Indepen Rest Home. Right on cue, after dent, the small weekly newspaper in Shirley’s prayer, Kevin Owens Magoffin County. The week after stopped to give Shirley a ride and loaded her empty shopping cart into Christmas, a story appeared telling the story of Kevin’s encouter with the back of his SUV. Shirley and giving a brief outline of Shirley’s mission of providing her outreach. “When told of Kevin’s Bibles to people who might need experience,” Bostic wrote in a story one began when she moved to headlined Christmas Defined, “this Salyersville in 1999. She has taken

scribe felt no different than others who had heard it. I envied him. I immediately wished it had been me instead of him. Not only was he blessed with learning about the true meaning of Christmas and witnessing it first hand, he had the rare opportu nity to see it first hand and to share it.” A week later, Shirley thanked Kevin in a letter to the editor of the Indepen dent, saying “ ‘Christmas Defined’ is not me or you! Christmas defined is Jesus, God with us, every day of the year. He is the reason for every season! We need to be celebrating our relationship with Jesus and loving each other every day of the year, not just Christmas . . . We can be as blessed as Kevin Owens was, experiencing the true meaning of Christmas that day. . . There are so many lonely, desperate people out there in our world today, everywhere, especially in nursing homes, who need to know that Jesus loves them every day of the year. God loves us all the same. He has no favorites.”

Outreach Collaborates With High School Students Brighter mornings and lengthen ing days in many Christian Appala chian Project counties will find gardeners beginning to “break ground” and sow seeds provided by outreach workers through the efforts of agriculture departments in Clay, Owsley, Jackson, McCreary and Rockcastle county high schools. “Last year Jackson County High School provided plants and seed potatoes in all the counties, but it was a little chaotic, trying to get everything transported,” said outreach program manager Robyn Renner. “This year, McCreary County finished their greenhouse and was able to take on the project and the other counties agreed to work with us, too.” Rather than purchasing seeds and fertilizer from local retailers, CAP outreach is paying the schools to M ay

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raise the needed plants which will be distributed to any participant interested in raising a garden, Robyn said. “Some of the partici pants plant only the materials that CAP provides, but others plant a much larger garden and preserve a large quantity of food for use through the winter months. What we offer is all that an elderly couple might need, for example, but we have a lot of people who plant a lot more.” When signing up to participate in the program, a gardener has a choice of red or yellow tomatoes and several varieties of beans and com. They can select up to $20 worth of materials. Most, Robyn said, select tomatoes, com, beans, potatoes and fertilizer although folks occasionally select broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage. “After we get the orders,

we let the high schools know what they need to raise,” she said. “Volunteers are going to the schools to talk to the students about CAP, our volunteer program and the gardening program,” Robyn said. After the agriculture students do the necessary preliminary work for the 500 gardeners who will partici pate in the CAP program, they will help the outreach workers with the distribution in the counties. Most of the gardeners also participate in CAP’s elderly services program, Robyn said. Although some younger families still raise gardens, because so many women work outside the home, “Not very many have the time to put out a garden and weed and can. It’s still very popular with the elderly people, though.”

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JobStart Uses New, Improved Curriculum When JobStart began as a pilot program in 1997 it was a response to welfare reform. Many of the students who first enrolled in the program did so because people who received state benefits were required to participate in a work training program. For that reason, many of the first JobStart students were KTAP (Kentucky Temporary Assistance Program) recipients; many had no job experience, according to program coordinator Judy Dillingham. Currently, Judy said, more JobStart students have enrolled on their own rather than being required to do so in order to receive benefits. “They start out with better motiva tion,” she said. “If they’re required to come, sometimes they start out with a negative attitude. If that attitude doesn’t change, they’ll usually leave. Now, they’re all working together because they want to increase their job skills.” Several JobStart students are

interested in beginning college, so are studying for college entrance exams and have started to research the possibilities for financial aid. One JobStart student would like to go to nursing school; a graduate is coming back to the program to assist Judy with program administration, and thereby increasing her job skills. Several current students JobStart students increase computer skills at the have returned because the center in Rockcastle County. “Fun Nights” in order to involve program has started to use a new curriculum: KET Workplace Essen students’ families and occasionally tial Skills, which covers reading, they hold auctions, Judy said. “We communication, writing, math and use things we get from Operation employment. Sharing and people purchase things with ‘JobStart Dollars,’ which they The JobStart office in Rockcastle earn for completed assignment and County bustles with activity, with hours they spend working here.” some students working to increase The JobStart office in Rockcastle computer skills, others accessing the Internet and some working on County is one of four. The others projects with Judy and JobStart are located in Salyersville (Magoffin County), Wayland (Floyd County) teacher Sandy Spaulding. and Eagle (McCreary County). Students and staff plan periodic

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W ell Be Back Next Year!

The Christian Appalachian Project offers an alternative Spring Break each year to universities around the country. More than three hundred college students and staff participated in the tenth annual WorkFest. WorkFest 2001 was an enormous success as students and the families that benefited from the repairs and renovations combined their energies, their faith and their fellowship in a spring “My bones ache, my muscles are sore and I am tired— break they’ll not soon forget. WorkFest Is Faith In Action. yet also I am at peace for the first time in months. A sense o f gratitude and spirituality is present here in such an environment. I find my heart and mind opening to the world at large. At CAP you can leave

Christian Appalachian Project your “safety zone” and emerge into the reality of www. chrisapp. org

322 Crab Orchard Street • Lancaster, Kentucky 40446

injustice —ajourney that is utterly exhausting and yet uniquely fulfilling.

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Eric Anderson, Marquette University T

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CAP Hires Director o f Economic Development job since early January, Marilyn has Marilyn Payson will tell you in no ment by meeting with people in the uncertain terms that Pikeville, Ky., in area who are involved in a number of already started working with the Mayo Technical Training Center on initiatives to bring economic November is a different place than a curriculum designed to train septic stimulation to the area. “We don’t Pikeville, Ky., inApril. installers and operators. The want to go in and re-invent the Marilyn, a native of Kirksville, wheel, but we want to work hand in program teaches students all of the Mo., had traveled considerably in “whys and hows” involved in hand with established programs, the course of her career, but finally installation and at the end of the slowly and wisely.” decided that what she really liked training period, she hopes that a Marilyn would like to introduce was small towns. So when her husband was interviewing to work at curriculum into CAP youth programs micro-loan program will be in place that will enable students to access that she believes will have a lasting the Pikeville College School of start-up capital to begin septic impression. She is researching a Osteopathic Medicine, the small program called “The Reality Store,” installation businesses. town atmosphere appealed to her. “I’d like to see that start in Floyd which has been “But that day, it was and Martin counties, and then move used by the gray and foggy and to Owsley and Wolfe counties.” University of wet and I said, ‘I’m not Both Mayo and Prestonsburg Kentucky sure I can do this.”’ A Extension Office Community College have been return trip in April helpful in development of this plan, in Pike County. when the mountains Marilyn said. The program were in bloom con “I’d like to see us start a similar assigns “jobs” vinced her otherwise to eighth graders, program with day care centers, and in 1997, Marilyn, maybe in alliance with churches. depending on husband Stephen their grade point Many of them sit empty during the Payson (newly hired as week and could be used for child average. “For the dean of student care. We can train child care workers example, a kid affairs), two golden and then they can get started on with marginal retrievers and a cat grades might be their own.” moved to Pikeville. Marilyn Payson Marilyn believes that small a garbage While working in collector and a kid with high grades businesses and entrepreneurship Pike County Judge Executive Karen would be an ophthalmologist. Then, can be a key to self-sufficiency for Gibson’s campaign, Marilyn met they draw out of box the number of many people in Eastern Kentucky. many people in the area, people she kids they have and go into a room knew would serve as excellent that’s set up with a lot of tables.” connections when she learned that The first table is the Internal the Christian Appalachian Project Revenue Service, she said, and was looking for a director of PAYROLL D EDU C TIO N economic development. She knew of salaries are taxed. Students visit If your employer offers donor CAP through its connection with the tables that represent banking, designation as a write-in for payroll housing, vehicles and groceries and deduction campaign, please Pikeville College School of Osteo remember the Christian at each they learn of the realities of pathic Medicine, and felt drawn to Appalachian Project. CAP is a the expenses involved. “After they its mission, she said. get to all of the tables, you’ll see kids 501(c)(3) tax exempt agency, and “When I was interviewing with payroll deduction is the easiest way trading in their convertible for Mike Sanders, I learned that we to help the families of Appalachia. agree that folks in Eastern Kentucky something more realistic. It’s really To ensure that we receive your fascinating. One kid said he’d never can be self-sustaining, and a lot of payroll deduction gifts, please give that can come out of small business. ask his mother for another penny.” your payroll officer CAP’S full The Reality Store, Marilyn said, We also agree that we need to look address and send to the attention makes clear to students the impor to our youth. They’ll be the ones of: Teresa M cA n ly tance of a good education, as do who are making the difference.” Campaign Coordinator other curricula she is researching. Marilyn is creating a plan for the Christian Appalachian Project Although she has only been on the department of economic develop 322 Crab Orchard Street Lancaster, KY 40446

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CAP Volunteer Tony Carbrello takes a welt-deserved break with his crew atop the home of Jim Blair in Johnson county.

by Kaiu;\ F. S pivey Throughout McCreary, Floyd and Johnson counties, as hammers were swing ing, roofs were being repaired and new windows installed, cultures from across the country were converging for WorkFest 2001. With the returning promise of spring, so returned college students to ascend the heights of rooftops and mountaintops throughout Eastern Kentucky, for CAP’s Annual WorkFest. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the alternative spring break in Appalachia and CAP welcomed nearly three hundred students and staff from 30 universities to the hollers and hilltops of Auxier School in Floyd County and Barthell Mining Camp in McCreary County. Eighteen job sites were underway during WorkFest, with the finishing touches being completed by early April. At the northern edge of McCreary County, Bert and Pam Bryant occupied a cramped twobedroom home with their three teen-

tion,” said Bert Bryant about the WorkFest project. “There are a lot of people like me that could’ve never done this had it not been for CAP,” Bert said. Louie and Donna Stambaugh’s home required a multitude of repairs; walls were replaced, new paneling

installed, construction lowered their front porch and added new windows and a new bedroom for their fiveyear old son, Joey, who became part of the WorkFest team. “Joey got to pitch in with the crew,” Donna Stambaugh said. “He would hold a can of nails and pick up the old ones, doing small chores in order to help out. “The repair has really changed the whole look of our home, the kids were wonderful, considerate and my husband and I felt really blessed that they gave up their Spring Break to come help us out,” Donna contin ued. The Stambaugh and Bryant families, along with the other sixteen work sites have family members,

Sister Michelle Aronica, surrounded by students from St. Joseph s College in Maine views a plaque signifying her years ofparticipation in CAP’s WorkFest.

people, it’s also personally trans here, it’s helping somebody.” forming,” remarked Sister Michelle. “I love the prospect of meeting “This is a wonderful program, the new and fun people from different people are faith-filled, gracious and universities across the country,” said Marissa Morton of St. Joseph’s warm.” Volunteer Eric Anderson from College in Maine. Marquette University had this to The students may travel to Kentucky say about his time in Appalachia and with CAP: “My bones ache, my in the same van, but when they get muscles are sore and I am tired —yet I am at peace for the first time in assigned to a job months. A sense of gratitude and site they’re with spirituality is present here in such an seven to ten kids environment. I find my heart and from the different mind opening to the world at large. colleges that At CAP you can leave your ‘safety participate. zone’ and emerge into the reality of Sister Michelle injustice — a journey that is utterly Aronica, a sociol exhausting and yet uniquely ogy teacher from CAP housing manager Mike Wiley and a WorkFest crew fulfilling. ” St. Joseph’s lend assistance in an emergency project to mend a leaking College in Maine, roof at the home o f Edsel Blevins. added an extra spark to the crew on the home of relatives, neighbors and anyone capable of contributing sweat equity Jim Blair, as she has returned to CAP year after year to volunteer at to the project, working shoulder to shoulder with the WorkFest crews to WorkFest. As her team constructed a new roof to the home, changing complete the renovations, repairs the structure from flat to pitched, and construction. Sister Michelle stayed “earth“Some of these students don’t have any idea what a hammer is, but bound” allowing her younger counterparts to complete their tasks they come here to work,” Mike from a more lofty perch. Wiley, CAP Housing manager Donna and Louie Stambaugh, with their WorkFest crew. “It’s not only a way to help commented. “As long as they’re

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- by M argaret Gabriel -

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cCreary County

McCreary County adult education students celebrate receiving GEDs with a graduation ceremony sponsored by CAP.

games designed for pre-school education, visited families throughout McCreary County. Sister Jean McAuliffe taught parents the crucial elements of how to teach their children and to prepare them to start school. In the Parkers Lake region of the county, the lessons children and parents learned through PACT supple mented those they received through Head Start, which was conducted at Eagle Elementary School. In the late 1980s, Head Start learned that they would no longer be able to operate out of the elementary school. Knowing that children and families had far greater education needs than could be served by the PACT van, the sisters contacted CAP, asking if the organization could begin a pre-school program adjacent to Eagle Elementary School. Jean Barnes, then serving as head teacher at CAP’s Children’s Discovery Center in nearby Somerset, accepted the challenge of determining the need for a child development center in the northern region of McCreary County and began to search for families in need of CAP’s services. “I looked for little people’s clothes on the line and toys in the yard,” Jean recalls. “I’d knock on the door and tell them who I was and what CAP was about. I told them that we were opening a pre school and asked if they were interested in enrolling their children.” After several weeks of searching, Jean had enrolled twenty children in the Eagle Child Development Center.

For the first fifteen years of its existence, the Christian Appalachian Project concentrated services in four counties: Garrard, Rockcastle, Jackson and southern Madison. Those counties in the Knobs region of Kentucky made up founder Father Ralph Beiting’s first parish. In the late 1970s, CAP began to extend services south, into Lincoln and Pulaski counties. Several years before CAP began serving needs in Lincoln and Pulaski counties, a group of Sisters of St. Joseph moved from West Hartford, Conn., to McCreary County, believing that a Catholic presence in the county could serve both spiritual and material needs. At that time, there were several indicators of need in the county, including low educational attainment rates, high unem ployment and a per capita income of about $3,000 a year. In this setting Sister Nancy Sutton and Sister Maureen Faenza began to assess needs and as a result gave assistance through the McCreary Christian Center. Sister Nancy credits several people for the assistance they needed to begin their work. One of those credited is Father Beiting, who gave the sisters a contribution toward needed start-up funding as well as advice about working with people who were established in the community. One of several successful programs the sisters started was a homebound child development center known as PACT (Parents and Children Together). The brightly painted bus, which was loaded with books, toys and

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They were able to co exist with the kindergar ten classroom at the elementary school until CAP was able to purchase and place a double- wide trailer adjacent to the school. In the subsequent fifteen years, other CAP programs have grown out of Jean’s efforts to begin the pre-school, which is now known as the Eagle Child and Family Development Center. Although there has been marked improvement since the Sisters of St. Joseph first arrived in the early 1970s, the county is still considered by some to be one of the most distressed in the state. McCreary County, situated on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, was the last of Kentucky’s 120 counties to be formed and was the only one formed in the 20th century. It is named after Governor James B. McCreary and was formed from parts of Pulaski, Wayne and Whitley counties. The population of the county is 16,754. After CAP began Eagle Child Development Center, workers began to learn of additional needs of the families with whom they were working. Educational attainment is a great problem in the county, with less than 22 percent of the popula tion having a high school diploma. In 1991, CAP began a program to help parents who had children enrolled in the child development center to achieve high school equivalency. Today, that adult education program has blossomed into “Families Growing Together,” a family literacy program that com bines early childhood, adult and parenting education. The correlation between poverty and low educational attainment rates are evident in McCreary County. Although the per capita income rate has increased to over $ 16,000 a year, over 35 percent of the citizens of McCreary County live below the federal poverty level; over 46

confidentiality in the

Situated entirely within the program which might to a student who is Daniel Boone National Forest, appeal self-conscious about being a non-reader. “I really McCreary County is ruggedly think that has a lot to do with it,” Helen says. beautiful.

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percent of McCreary County children live below that level. Today, CAP offers a full range of services in McCreary County, including outreach, housing, and an adult education program that has grown out of the program that started at Eagle Child Development. When adult education programs began in McCreary County, most of the students were studying for the GED, the high school equivalency

Eagle Child Development students.

test. Currently, according to CAP adult education teacher Helen Sumler, fully half of the students in her caseload and that of volunteer Sarah Chaplin are literacy students. “The literacy program at the local library discontinued and they referred most of their students to us,” Helen said, concerning the increase in the number of literacy students in the program. Because CAP’S teachers visit their students in their homes, there is a degree of

GED students are much easier to identify and recruit than literacy students, which might be the reason that adult education programs often start with more of those students. However, when a program has a long track record in a county and a high degree of trust with students, it is not unusual to see more literacy students, Helen said. McCreary County has hosted CAP’S Spring Break Appalachian WorkFest several years in the past. Spring break 2001 saw nearly 200 volunteers working on homes in the county and staying at Barthell Mining Camp. The restored camp, one of McCreary County’s newest tourist attrac tions, was the first mining camp built by J.S. Steams when he came to the area in 1902. The historical restoration has been the work of the Koger family, whose ancestors were involved with the mine in the early part of the 20th century. Volunteers who stayed at the restored mining camp during WorkFest 2000 said living at the camp gave them a real sense of connection to the region. Situated entirely within the Daniel Boone National Forest, McCreary County is mggedly beautiful. Its beauty both attracts visitors and compels residents to claim the county as home. Sister Nancy Sutton, an adopted daughter, came to love the county as home. “McCreary may look like a sleepy little county, nestled in the hills of south central Kentucky, but to me, it’s an exciting place to live!” Throughout this year, The Moun tain Spirit is featuring counties in which CAP operates programs.

W orking -A nd R eworking

— THE MISSION

Human Services Director Rose Price lends her expertise to a rooftop during the WorkFest 2001 project.

The Mountain Spirit: Christian Appalachian Project donors and supporters have been hearing about changes that are being implemented for the organization. Who will be affected and how? Moe Mercier [Vice-President of Human Services]: When Father Ralph Beiting started CAP, he was working in a four-county parish of the Appalachian region of Kentucky. In those early days [the 1950s and ’60s] there was a great deal of poverty in all four of those counties. As he began to respond to some of those needs, people came to assist him in programs and activities that would help people work themselves

out of poverty. When Father Beiting was transferred to parishes in other counties that had high rates of poverty, he — and then CAP with him — started similar programs in those areas. Over the last ten or fifteen years, CAP has been moving programs into areas of higher distress and out of areas that have showed measur able improvement. The move that we’re making now just continues that pattern. It will affect more people because in the next three years, or so, we’ll be making some big changes in administration as we move our headquarters out of Garrard County.

As we make that move, CAP will be changing its mindset about adminis tration and how it ranks in the larger mission. No matter where we establish a new headquarters, there will be a greater focus on human service programs. Garrard and Madison are two of CAP’s original counties. At the time when Father Beiting was the pastor of the Catholic churches there, there were dire pockets of poverty in those counties. More recently, though, a number of things have been working together to alleviate some of that distress. Geographically, they’re closer to the Bluegrass area of Kentucky which historically has been

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more prosperous than the moun tains, so that has had a lot to do with it. CAP, and the presence of its administrative offices in Garrard County, has also had to do with the improvement in the county. But now we’re working with other groups and agencies in the county to make sure that services that are still needed will be provided in some other way. That will include the Sunshine Center [the Garrard County family and child develop ment center] and the outreach and adult education programs. Rose Price [Director of Human Services]: The board looked carefully at where the poverty is in Eastern Kentucky and having done that, they had to make difficult choices affecting the area where the organization was founded. After making the decision that we were going to serve, exclusively, lowincome people in poverty-stricken areas, they knew we had to move to counties that met that description. Tom Conner [Director of Human Services]: The decision [to move CAP headquarters] was based on the fact that the poverty rate has decreased significantly in the years that CAP has been in the commu nity. CAP made a major contribution in those areas. Rockcastle was another of the counties that was part of CAP’Soriginal service area. While it and Jackson County have bigger problems than the other two, there are still a lot of poor people there, but there’s been a drop of ten to twelve percent in the poverty level this decade. Rose: This has been the philosophy for many years, but it wasn’t until the last five or six years that [a move] became feasible. We saw the economy improve in those counties, and welfare reform played a big part, too. When you have a situation where people can still draw some benefits, get some insurance and you have new jobs moving in, then you’ve got a situation that makes change really possible. Moe: A book came out recently that

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has a lot of parallels to some of things we at CAP are going through now. It’s called Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard. It’s an illustration of life and one’s need to be aware, every day, of your opportunities in such things as job and family, and the way those things change. The “cheese” in your life could be any number of things — your job, your children leaving home, a lot of things. To say “your cheese has been moved” can mean a new opportunity and new direction in your journey in life. It’s never easy, but we need to take the opportunity to examine our fears and our reluc tance to embrace change. Who Moved My Cheese? speaks of a maze, a period of time when you don’t know why the cheese has moved or who moved it. We need to be aware of when our cheese is moving by staying on top of trends and in touch with patterns. Johnson’s book focuses on the idea that the journey never ends, that there’s always a new cheese. I like to put the metaphor into a spiritual context, as we in human services look at how a new cheese will effect all of us. These are big, bold moves we are making to stay in line with our mission. Tom: In all counties where we’ve worked, CAP has influenced a changing attitude. Now, we’re helping the county educate itself

and we’ll be giving a strong dose of confidence that they can be leaders. Moe: There is a statewide effort called “Partners for Progress” that has gathered people from different agencies to look at the future

directions. In Garrard County, we have been meeting with Larry Woods, a member of that group. CAP’s announcement of its change has prompted stronger leadership within the group. Larry is part of the public school system. Now they have about 40 partners, including County Judge Executive E. J. Hasty, Lancaster Mayor Billy Moss, the state Cabinet for Families and Children and representatives from the faith community. As they’ve come together to talk about the community after CAP moves, they’ve realized that they’re looking at a void in services. They’re considering purchasing the CAP office on Crab Orchard Street so that they can bring all of the

with special problems. partners together into the same Usually the biggest problems building. They’re looking at the I’ve seen when you get involved types of grants that might be with inter-agency work is monitor available to community groups. They’ve toured the building and our ing. Everybody assumes that someone else is taking the lead. board has decided on a price. But if we can get those logistics There are quite a few brick-andworked out, these partnerships mortar grants available for this type should be very effective. of one-stop center, but they’ll also MS: You ’ve been talking about have to look at other sources of moving CAP administration. Will revenue and decide if they want to that also include the human go forward. Appalachian Village in services administration? Madison County is also being sold, Moe: I’m fairly certain that human hopefully, to a community group, services administration will move too. to the Hagerhill area. Four of us are Rose: In a sense, we’ve already got going for sure, and there will be a this type of partnership going on at Hazel Green [“The Mother School of satellite office in Mount Vernon. I’ll be spending half of my time in the Mountains,” a fonner boarding school in Wolfe County]. Janine Musser is running a life-long learning center there, in partner ship with the Christian Church, the owners of the property. We’ve given them grants and we supply the caretakers for the grounds. That seems to be working very well. Partnerships are very hard to do, but we’re going to do it. There are grass roots organizations that might need technical assistance or staffing or money, but when they have that, we’ll really be able to make the donor’s dollar reach a lot farther. We’ve always said that we wanted to get a program going and Tom Conner then turn it over to the community and move to another area that needs Mount Vernon and half in Hagerhill, the same as Mike us. It’s a lot easier to do that if Sanders [CAP president]. we’ve had partners from the very MS: Do you think there may be beginning. It can be complicated at multiple human services offices in times, but we’re going to do it. the future? Tomorrow, for example, I’m going Tom: There’s a certain efficiency to to be meeting with our Rejoice having support staff, managers and Respite people, Mountain Compre assistant directors in one area hensive Care and Kentucky Baptist Homes. MCC and the Baptist homes where people can go out from there. Right now, we have a center want to get involved with providing in Jackson County that reaches respite services for severely into counties within a one-hour emotionally disturbed children. drive of the office. The future could Everyone at that meeting will have a see us have as many as five or six different agenda, coming in, but multi-faceted hubs. we’ll all be talking about the same As far as new counties, we could thing — providing respite for kids

see a hub in Breathitt County and possibly a hub in Pike County. A hub in Pikeville [the county seat] could extend to Phelps and Elkhom City. Those are very poor areas. Once you move east of Pikeville, which is really quite far west in the county, there are a lot of distressed areas. We could also look at that as a link to programs beginning in West Virginia. Moe: We’re looking at the leadership in several of those communities, talking to people who are willing to be partners with us. I’ve had some contact with people in Phelps, for example, and they’ve been fantastic. In the last few years, we started a few programs in West Virginia, and until now, people have been traveling over the river from Kentucky to work in those programs. Recently, though, we’ve finalized all the work we need to do to hire West Virginians but that’s just in the early stages. Rather than moving into other states, we’re going to be concentrating on West Virginia and the counties in Eastern Kentucky where we can have an impact. Tom: Three of the counties in Eastern Kentucky with the highest poverty levels are counties where we’re not currently working. Moe: In Manchester, the Daniel Boone Community Action Agency has been there for many years, and they provide leadership for the county. We’re not going to go in and start to duplicate their services or take over things that they’re already doing, but we’re already working with them on housing and it’s going very well. We have had elderly, outreach, adult education and we’ve had a counseling office there for several years. In the future, we’ll do county evaluations, see who the partners are and talk about the role that they would like for CAP to play, if in fact they want us to participate. We want to be able to enhance their programs so we’ll be asking what role can we play with the programs we have and the programs they have. We never want to go into a county without well-crafted discussion. Partnership

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in those counties is our ultimate goal. MS: How will CAP present its new direction in programming to donors and supporters from throughout the country? Moe: We have an audience now that’s five generations wide. Since we’re communicating with that broad an audience, the way we understand direct mail has changed. When we’re talking to baby boomers, we do that differently than the way we talk to my mother’s generation. In fact, we speak to all five audiences, putting emphasis on five different ways. Baby boomers, for example, view a charitable organization very differently from the view of their parents. With students, you see more of the “hands-on” gospel and now is the time to involve them in our work and in the work of other charitable organizations. And how do we have to speak to them? I think WorkFest speaks to them today. To them, Work Fest is very much what church is. Schools and institutions, too, are promoting, even requiring, volunteerism and saying that it’s important to take care of your community. It’s necessary and it’s important. They equate spirituality and values and being good human beings. But on the other hand, people in their 50s, baby boomers, are beginning to retire early and they’re coming to volunteer with us. In a sense, they’re moving their own cheese. With contributions of time and talent from older people, CAP becomes that much richer as we’re able to share in the experience of people who have so much to share. MS: How do the moves CAP is making fit into its overall mission? Moe: CAP is CAP when it does what we’re talking about. CAP is the mission when it implements that mission. That’s CAP at its best. If it becomes reality, we will probably have exercised its best mission. If the Garrard County Community Center becomes a reality, CAP will

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have really achieved one of its greatest goals as it returns programs to local leadership. Tom: There has been discussion with Goodwill, which has many of the same philosophies as CAP, and also works to involve local groups in their planning. Moe: Goodwill is willing to hire all of our employees in Madison County and they’re also expanding into child development and housing. They’re doing all this in addition to creating jobs for people with disabilities, which has always been their mission. That’s a wonderful mission, but the local community must sustain the work of the Goodwill. When we moved our Attic out of Stanford several years ago, Goodwill bought the community center and child development center. That’s our goal for Madison County. We’d like to introduce local groups to child development and encourage them to become the engineers of those programs. Day care is becoming equally important to child development because of welfare reform. And we’re seeing a big increase in the number of the working poor. They’re getting jobs, yes, but with those jobs, they’re still not making enough money to make ends meet. I think that we’ll see Goodwill moving in the same direction that CAP has been moving for several years. MS: How will the changes CAP is making more effectively serve the people o f Appalachia? Tom: We’re going to see an increase in energy and creativity. We’ll be able to look at the numbers and see where the needs are the most intense. Some of the needs that we’ll be addressing are the same as they’ve been in the past, but I think we’ll be expanding. We’ll continue to serve some of the needs we’ve been serving, but on a lesser level so that we can gear up to address literacy. They way things are now, even if jobs moved in, people don’t have the skills they need to do the work.

There are an estimated 400,000 non readers in Kentucky. You don’t bring non-readers out of their needs overnight. You don’t teach them overnight. When we started in adult education years ago, the need was for GED [high school equivalency], and that’s where we worked. Now we’re moving into more literacy training as we knew we would have to, eventually. None of this is news. When we met with Dr. Tim Jackson [the Deputy Secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children] three or four years ago, we talked about serving the hard core problems, and how we could work together to serve people who could be left behind. We knew then that a quick fix wasn’t going to work. For example, the first year of JobStart in Jackson County was a big success. But now we’re finding that women who first enrolled are going to work instead of finishing the program. That would be okay, except that they’re not ready and really need the skills that JobStart offers them. So they’re back to square one. Industry hasn’t realized that they can’t cut comers, espe cially in training their workers. In the past, they used an uneducated workforce, then when the industry moved out, they left those workers holding the bag. They’re using people in a way that is both immoral and unethical. And that’s really the whole history of Appalachia. Industry used people to serve themselves and left behind those who didn’t know any better. Moe: In some of the those new counties that we’re looking at, we’re not in a position of just going in to tell people that we have services. We really have to convince people why those services are important. And then we really hope that we can help industry. Lots of them are people who have come in from outside the area, and we hope to help them understand the people and their culture. I really think that’s a way that CAP can make major contributions.

Makes Progress in McCreary County Story and photos by Margaret Gabriel

Myrtle Bryant and her husband, Carl, a CAP adult education student.

more and more in the classroom until finally he did the only thing his young mind could think of. He quit. And although he was nominally a seventh grader, he still couldn’t read. In addition to his farm work, John worked as a carpenter and as a gravel tmck driver for the state of Kentucky; he is now retired. His life experience had taught him how to read road signs and he knew the alphabet and how to tell time. “And you couldn’t cheat me out of a penny,” he exclaims. In spite of his successful work history and family life, John dreamed of learning to read. It wasn’t so long ago that he learned that a neighbor was receiving visits from a Christian Appalachian Project adult education teacher. He and Carl had been classmates and neither had mastered reading. “Do you reckon she’d come to see me?” he asked. John has studied with several CAP teachers and currently meets weekly with Sarah Chaplin, a volunteer from Texas.

If you were to come across a gentleman, maybe in his late 50s, reading Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, you might think that he was reading to reminisce about the old days or to reconnect with his own memories or the stories of his parents. Indeed John is accomplishing all of those things. But at the same time, John is learning to read, and in the space of less than one year he has gone from being a virtual non-reader to enjoying a text intended for a reader on the fourth to sixth grade level. “I hid it real well for 58 years, but people knew I couldn’t read, and they made fun of me,” John says. John was bom on a farm in McCreary County and regularly helped with chores and farmwork. During tobacco stripping season in the fall and planting season in the spring, John was frequently absent from school. “They just passed me on and didn’t fool with it much.” John slipped further and further behind and struggled

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when one goes from teaching “She’s always been real under children to teaching adults, Helen standing and never jumped on me for anything,” John said. “She’s one says. “There is still the same joy of teaching and sharing of information. of the greatest ones you’ve got.” In adult education, you can work While John studies with Sarah, more one-on-one. There aren’t as Carl works with Helen Sumler and many materials available, but you says that she is the best teacher he can be more creative in the types of has ever had. Like his former materials you can use.” classmate, Carl missed a lot of In addition to the students like school because of the demands at Carl that Helen teaches in their home and fell further and further homes, she also periodically visits behind until he dropped out of the sixth grade. Carl is an only child. His students in the McCreary County parents read very little and they had no tradition of reading or education to pass on to their son. Several years ago a missionary with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints asked Carl if he read the Bible. He answered, “Well, I don’t read the Bible much because I can’t Teacher Helen Sumler and student Carl Bryant. read,” and the jail. missionary asked if he was inter Adult education manager Bobbie ested in learning. “I never thought Wesley visited the jail one day while that the opportunity would come,” Helen was teaching an inmate Carl said. named Jimmy. As they worked in a Helen helps Carl to associate vacant room in the front of the letters with the sounds they make building, Bobbie observed how and finds teaching aids in some easily and openly Helen and her unconventional places. During a visit from Helen one day, Carl tuned student communicated. That openness became even more in to the local access cable channel and studied and learned several new apparent, Bobbie relates, when the jailer passed through the room and words during the “Help Wanted” segment. He committed the words to she saw Jimmy visibly tighten. “I could really see how much he memory and filed them away for trusted Helen,” Bobbie said. “She future reference. touched him on his shoulder and Helen joined CAP as an adult education teacher only a year ago, told him how well he was doing. I but taught kindergarten through the wondered how often he got that kind of encouragement or how much eighth grade in nearby Harlan he had gotten in the past.” County for many years. Although CAP adult education teachers her initial teaching experience came work in jails in several counties and in a more traditional way, Helen became interested in teaching adults Helen suspects that many students have a double purpose for working when she worked as a volunteer on a high school equivalency tutor at Southeast Community diploma. “I’m sure a lot of them are College. interested in getting the GED. I’ve Methods and techniques differ

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had several tell me that they’d like to study to be an EMT (emergency medical technician) or another trade. Then, too, some also want to look good for the judge. CAP had discontinued teaching in the jail after there had been some trouble, but our services were requested, so we went back,” Helen said. Currently Helen has four students at the McCreary County jail, which is the maximum number she has time to see. Because all of the students are on different levels, it is more efficient to work with them one-on-one, rather than as a group, Helen said. One of the students Helen sees at the McCreary County jail began working on a GED in a jail from which he had been transferred, although there was no personal instruction in that setting. The student had taken the GED test but had not passed it, she said. If any of her current students are trans ferred, she said, they will be able to take with them records of the progress they have made in their studies. “Most of them have a goal to get their GED by the time they’re released,” Helen said. Although younger students often study in order to take steps to improve their lives, older students like John and Carl express a desire to learn to read for far simpler reasons. “It’s already been a real blessing,” John said. “When I went to Ala bama a while back, there were a lot more road signs I could read. It’s opened up a whole new world.” John’s wife, a long-time teachers’ aide in the public school system, has recently started college and would like to become an elementary school teacher. John, though, has no ambitions toward higher educa tion. “I just want to learn to read real good.”

Myrtle Meeks:

Story and photos by Margaret Gabriel

“The Lord gave me good health when I was born and the good sense to take care of it,” declares 93-year-old Myrtle Meeks. T

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Spending an afternoon with Myrtle, as Christian Appalachian Project volunteer Jean Gaither will tell you, is an afternoon spent hop-scotching among Myrtle’s memories. She recalls and introduces you to her parents and 13 brothers and sisters, and to the Lawrence County she knew as a girl. She speaks of her three children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren and shares her no-nonsense view of modem politics.

On a sunny afternoon in late winter, Myrtle visited with Jean who serves as CAP’s elderly services worker in Lawrence County and program manager Melissa Vance. Myrtle is one of 33 people who participate in the elderly services program in Lawrence County. In 12 counties, employees and volunteers provide elderly participants with

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companionship, transportation, help with chores and “whatever we see needs to be done to make their quality of life better,” says Jean. Most of the people Jean visits have been able to remain in their own homes and care for themselves, she said. Some have good family support, although others have seen their families move from the area in

order to find work. “Independence is very important to them,” Jean says of her partici pants. Jean and her husband, John, have been CAP volunteers for five months. After receiving an appeal letter and reading one of Father Ralph Beiting’s books, Jean began to consider the possibility of

Myrtle shares wisdom with Elderly Services program manager Melissa Vance.

volunteering after retirement. She worked in a program for develop mental^ disabled adults and John owned a machine shop. “We knew we didn’t want to sit on the porch in rocking chairs, and CAP has given us a new direction.” When Jean began working in elderly services she inherited records from the previous volunteer caseworker, so was able to leam a bit about the history and needs of the people she would be visiting. She visits everyone at least once a month, some two times a month. She has several people, including some in nursing homes, who receive visits every week. Jean receives referrals to her program from such agencies as Home Health and Meals on Wheels, and from other CAP programs, such as outreach. When she adds a new person to her program, she talks and visits in order to assess a person’s needs. “The more we talk, the more I leam

about the help they need,” Jean says. “I get so many blessings from this program. My people have such a positive outlook and such strong faith. Every day I come home and think ‘I’ve been blessed all day today.’ They have such wisdom, and I’ve received wisdom from them.” Like many of the people in the Lawrence County elderly services program, Myrtle receives support from her family and from her church, which is one of the reasons she is able to maintain her own home at the age of 93. She tends wild birds in her yard and helps care for the garden that her son plants for her every year. “Just by talking to her, you can tell how sharp her mind is,” Jean says. Myrtle is a remarkable woman for many reasons — just living to celebrate one’s 93rd birthday is an

achievement few people see. Prompted to tell the story, Myrtle proudly tells visitors that in 1945, she was elected county tax commis sioner, the first woman to hold elective office in Lawrence County. In 1945 Myrtle was working three days a week in the county court house for the Works Project Administration. As she worked, Myrtle became acquainted with those working around her and they became aware of her good work habits and that she had the atten tion to detail needed to keep accurate books and records. “The sheriff asked me if I could keep his books, if I could start in the morn ing. I looked at those books and told him, ‘I can’t keep books that look like this.’ He said to fix them any way I wanted and from then on, I kept those books and sent out the sheriff’s bills. And I typed for the county court clerk.” One day the county court clerk

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(“Arch Thompson, he wouldn’t sends greetings to her family on house, introduces himself to Melissa and Jean, and goes outside mind me usin’ his name) came to their birthdays. Without even Myrtle and said “You’re going to to finish some chores he has started having to stop to search her for his grandmother. Members of the memory, Myrtle ticks off the number Morehead tomorrow to take the exam to run for tax commissioner,” First Methodist Church in Louisa of birthdays she remembers she recalls. Never one to deny what throughout each month of the year. are frequent visitors to the small, she saw as reality in the days when “And I love to send Christmas tidy cottage where Myrtle lives off few women worked outside the Highway 23, a main thoroughfare cards. Christmas and Easter are the home, Myrtle protested that a through the mountains of Eastern most important days of the year to woman couldn’t win elective office. Kentucky. me.” “We’ll see that you are,” the The recent hiring of the Rev. powers-that-be told her. Shannon Hodge (a former CAP The recent hiring of the “I went home and told my volunteer) to lead the congre Rev. Shannon Hodge (a husband what they’d said. He gation of First Methodist said it would be an expense that caused a small ripple of former CAP volunteer) to wouldn’t come to anything, but disapproval among members my first time, I won easily.” who do not believe that lead the congregation of First Although her first election women are called to be Methodist caused a small could have been interpreted as a preachers, Myrtle said. A few mandate from the citizens of to join other churches, ripple of disapproval among left Lawrence County, in her second although Myrtle’s view is far race, Myrtle won by only three members who do not believe more inclusive. votes (after a recount). “I guess it “The most important that women are called to be message ever taken was taken was close because people still didn’t want to see a woman women. When they went to preachers, Myrtle said. “The by running. My opponent was a look for Jesus in the tomb, school teacher and he was well most important message ever they found it empty and said thought of. But if you’re going to to a man standing nearby, taken was taken by women. ‘They’ve taken my master.’ He get into politics, if you can’t lose, you better not get in.” That When they went to look for said, ‘Mary, Mary, go and tell philosophy served well until my disciples that I have Myrtle lost her last election in Jesus in the tomb, they found risen.’” The fact that women 1961. After leaving office, Myrtle were chosen to carry that it empty and said to a man message validates the suitabil worked at the River View Hospital as an insurance clerk until 1972. ity of women to preach the standing nearby, ‘They’ve Gospel, In her first presidential election Myrtle says. in 1928, Myrtle voted for A1 Smith, Myrtle is open about her taken my master.’ He said, a Catholic from New York. “I views concerning women in 6Mary, Mary, go and tell my the ministry. “Look at then and didn’t know much about Catho lics, but the way people talked ii now. When I was growing up, disciples that I have risen.’” about them then, you’d have there were only two things thought they had horns,” she women could do, outside of says. A staunch Methodist, staying home. They could be a Myrtle believed then, as now, that “I don’t go out much anymore,” school teacher or they could be a there is intrinsic value in any and all Myrtle admits. “I could call for them housekeeper for another family. And churches and religious organiza to take me to church, but I don’t look at what women do now. I say if tions. know if I could stay for the whole God gave you a talent and told you “Christ came as a human and he service. I wouldn’t want anyone to to use it, you’d better do it.” lived to make it possible to be a have to leave on my account.” Clearly, Myrtle is more concerned Christian. Any church that’s Visitors from First Methodist with the will of God than public founded based on his life is good,” come weekly, bringing tapes of opinion. she said. “And I’ve never heard any services along with reading material “I’ve always tried to live my life Methodist minister say that you and news of the congregation. News by Matthew 7:1-2. ‘Stop judging, have to be Methodist to be saved.” of her friends and fellow church that you may not be judged. For as Myrtle’s grandson, Scott, visiting goers keeps Myrtle connected with you judge, so will you be judged from Ohio, passes through the those outside her cabin, and she and the measure will be measured

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out to you.’ I remember once before when we had a pastor that some people didn’t like. People asked me how I liked him, and I told them I was going to church to get my cup filled and if they didn’t that was their business. I’ve seen people do things that I couldn’t do and call myself Christian and I guess others look at me the same way. But I try not to judge people.” Myrtle’s memories brim with priceless stories about life during most of the 20th century. Before marrying and for one year after, Myrtle taught at a one-room schoolhouse in Patrick, Ky., a small community in Lawrence County that was so rugged, the only way to get to it was by train. It was in Patrick that Myrtle heard her first sermon that wasn’t delivered by a Method ist minister. Although she went home to her family in Bussyville every Friday, through the week she boarded with Charles and Belle Fitch. One day they asked her for the key to the schoolhouse so they might have services there on Sunday morning and invited Myrtle to attend. Myrtle accepted the invitation, knowing that the service would be a bit different than those she was accustomed to. The only real surprise she had though, came at the close of the service when the preacher invited everyone “of our faith order” to come forward and shake hands. “Some call them ‘hard shell Baptists,” she says and recalls feeling quite isolated. Myrtle tells stories of the county poor house, which her father and mother ran at various times during her girlhood. Melissa Vance exclaims that she thought the term “poor house” was just that — a term, but Myrtle assures her that it was an actual place where people lived when they no other means. “At that time there was no welfare. If someone couldn’t take care of himself, the county would bid to provide that care. When Daddy did it, there were two houses,

one frame house for the keeper and his family and two others, one for the men to live in and one for the women. They ate their meals at the keeper’s house. People who came were called inmates, and if a woman had children, they were usually taken away and put in an orphans’ home.” Most of the people in her parents’ care didn’t know how or weren’t able to care for themselves, Myrtle says. When she was eleven years old, Myrtle recalls that her mother contracted the flu and was unable, temporarily, to continue with many of the chores she performed to care for the inmates, as well as her family. “Daddy had arthritis and I got him to teach me how to milk the cows, and I went down with Tobitha Willis. She was a big woman who stayed with us and would help with any thing you asked her to help with. It wasn’t long before I could milk faster than she could, but she always told people she taught me how to milk. She was the sweetest person you ever met, though. She was easy to get along with and a good worker.” Myrtle takes pride in her Kentucky roots and visibly bristles as she talks about outsiders who sell Kentuck ians short. “Some people think people in Kentucky don’t know beans from apple butter — it just bums me up when people say that.” She recalls a time when she was working in the county clerk’s office and some FBI agents were looking for the sons of a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses who had neglected to register for the draft. This was past the days when one had to take a train into Patrick and the agents drove into the holler in a four-wheel drive tmck. “Then they came back to my office and sat there abusing people from Kentucky. They just didn’t know about Alben Barkley [vice-president under Franklin D. Roosevelt] or Fred Vinson, a justice of the Supreme Court.” Asked what knowledge and advice Myrtle might pass down to her grandchildren, without hesitat

ing, she says, “To find Christ at an early age. Some people think you have to be a certain age to be saved, but I knew a preacher who was saved at the age of five. That would be my advice to anyone. Have Christ in your life. If you have him, you’re rich, if not, you have nothing.” Myrtle’s reminiscences often drift back to the importance of faith in her life and how much that faith stmctures her daily activities. “I don’t know how many times I’ve read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation.” Myrtle also reads the Scriptures that are recommended in such commentaries as the Upper Room and Daily Bread. “Some people read in the morning and I tried to do that when I was working outside the home. But in the morning, I was getting the children off to school, and then I’d clean my house and get to work. I started to do my reading at night. And I still read at night.” The walls of Myrtle’s cozy home are covered with dozens of pictures, pictures which seem to span several generations. She proudly points to baby pictures of great-grandchildren as she maps branches of the family tree and describes which babies go with which parents. “I was lucky to be raised in a Christian home and in a Christian community,” Myrtle says. “If someone was sick in your family, the neighbors always came in to help. They asked if they could help clean or cook or wash dishes, and then someone else would come in with a big basket of breads and pies and cakes. We were extreme in our way of life, in a Christian life.” Kentucky history is rich in many ways: in documentation, in tradition and in depth of experience. People like Myrtle Meeks, whose lives are simple, yet steeped in generosity and good works make the history of Kentucky so much the richer. Margaret Gabriel is the contributing editor o f The Mountain Spirit.

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Frank Bierwiler

“She presented me with a bill for $74.65.1 wrote my first check for DayStar and that left less than $6 in our account. Right from the beginning,” Frank says, “the Lord started testing me. Even then he told me, ‘Don’t worry, I ’ll give you everything you need. ’ We stepped out in faith and Lord has never let us down.” Frank Bierwiler,

CAP Supporter, founder o f Daystar Hope Center

For nine months in 1974 Frank Bierwiler lay in bed, pondering and praying. Growing up, Frank had always wanted to be a police officer, he says. “I would look at troopers and put them up on a pedestal. I kept taking the test to become a state trooper and in 1965,1 finally got an appointment.” Now, just nine years later, Frank had been stricken with multiple sclerosis. The father of three children, he was unsure what the future held, but he knew that despite his illness, he still had gifts and services to offer. “I asked the Lord to use me. He

gave me this big mouth a long time ago and I knew that I had to use it to serve His people,” Frank said. Not much later, Frank was out of bed, still affected by MS certainly, but able to get around. Within the year, the family left the winters of upstate New York for the milder climate of Spring Hill, Florida, and Frank took a position in the Hernando County sheriff’s office. Frank and his wife, Maureen, active members of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Spring Hill, were asked by Msgr. John McNulty in 1983 to begin an outreach known as Daystar, one of eight such centers in

in the Diocese of St. Petersburg. “We met that day and asked what we needed to get started,” Frank recalls. Learning that they needed people and a place to operate, Frank recruited eight volunteers and found a building that they could rent for $150. “But what a building!” Frank remembers. “The roof leaked, there was no electricity and it was full of garbage. But this was where we had to be.” So the volunteers set out to replace the roof, clear the garbage, put in dividers and install a toilet. Frank went across the street to the electric company to arrange electri-

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cal service. While he was there, he told the woman working in the office that they would be setting up programs to help people in need. “I asked the lady if we could get electric service and she said, ‘Certainly.’ Then I went to the bank and started a checking account with three checks for $25 each and $10 cash. The day we opened, a woman came in with three children in diapers and Daystar Hope Center receives the services o f over 100 volunteers, including those o f asked to speak to Mr. Bierwiler. the “Golden A g e” volunteers, pictured here, who are 81 to 89 “yearsyoung. ” She had gotten my name from the Hernando County sheriff’s office in Frank,” says Operation Sharing lady at the electric company and 1997 to work full time at Daystar and told me that they were going to shut warehouse manager Carol Parrett. is now busier than ever, he says. He “We never know what we’re going off her power at 3:00 and wanted to and Maureen live within minutes of to get,” but she knows to expect know if I could help her. their three children and nine good quality household goods, “She presented me with a bill for grandchildren. Frank’s older son toys, building supplies, furniture, $74.65.1wrote my first check for owns a pool company; his daughter used clothing and canned food. Daystar and that left less than $6 in is a teacher and his younger son is a Sometimes Operation Sharing our account. Right from the begin police officer. “Like father, like son,” ning,” Frank says, “the Lord started workers and those who are visiting Frank says proudly. the warehouse that day even get a testing me. Even then he told me, Maureen, featured on the Daystar little treat of fresh citrus fruit ‘Don’t worry, I’ll give you every Hope Center’s website as “Frank’s straight from Florida, Carol says. thing you need.’ We stepped out in greatest supporter,” works as a Daystar Hope Center also reaches faith and the Lord has never let us secretary at St. Theresa, in addition out to people after hurricanes and down.” to providing care for her daughter’s floods, sharing the bounty with To date, the Daystar Hope Center, youngest son. “She takes care of which the Hernando County now an inter-denominational him during the day while my community supports them, Frank coalition of some 90 religious daughter is teaching, then works says. The donations they receive groups, has helped thousands of from five in the afternoon to nine at stock a thrift store, a furniture store, people in need in Hernando County night at St. Theresa’s. Sometimes we a drapery store, a bargain center and and in the last several years has have to write letters to say in flea market, all of which are located begun to reach out to people in touch,” Frank says. The service on five of 17 acres which the center need in other parts of the country, hours for assistance as well as the now occupies (having considerably including friends to the north at the pick-up and delivery schedule for moved up from its original $ 150-aChristian Appalachian Project. the center makes it obvious that the month location). People in need are “I heard about CAP through 104 volunteers at the center — given vouchers to shop in the Charlie Cunningham [a CAP everyone at DayStar, including stores. People with means are supporter from Greensburg, Pa., who Frank, is unpaid — go at a pretty welcome to shop, where they are spends time in Florida].” good clip. able to find amazing bargains in any Frank was impressed with CAP’s Frank’s persistence to keep mission and began to send materials and all of the stores, Frank says. Not working despite his physical long ago, they sold a sofa with the to help with that mission through condition has him traveling about tags still affixed for only $50. Operation Sharing, CAP’s in-kind Daystar’s 17 acres in a wheelchair “We’re in an affluent area, so we donation distribution program. Five now, but he takes that inconve have people who are able to make to ten times a year, a 48-foot truck nience in stride. “I lost my legs, but donations, but we still have our arrives from Florida, packed with the Lord gave me wheels,” he says. share of the poor,” Frank says, and materials that not only can be used As long as he can continue to it is those people to whom Daystar in CAP’s programs, but in those of serve, Frank says, he will view all his Hope Center reaches out, as well as hundreds of organizations through days as “beautiful. The Lord, those in other areas of the country. out the Appalachian region. promised me that all of my days Frank retired from his position as “We always look forward to would be beautiful. And they are.” the public information officer in the seeing the truck coming from

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W o iih F EST 2001 As A Family Participates Reflections On

Ron and Helen Kidd live in a 70 year-old

smile and soft

former mining camp home that they purchased

spoken answer

through a land contract with the Stearns Coal

for anyone who

Company. It became clear that the cost of

had a question.

repairs and additions were beyond their finan

“Each group

cial means, however, with the assistance of

seemed to

CAP outreach worker Diann Brand, the Kidds

build on the

applied for available grant money and found

enthusiasm of

they were eligible. So along with CAP’S do

the previous

nated labor, the renovations were dreams

group. Morning

within their reach.

devotion was

The couple are raising their three grandchil dren who lost their mom in a traffic accident.

inspiring and fun and the

The additions to the home will provide much

groups left for

needed space for the family of five.

their worksites

Pam DeRosa, a permanent CAP volunteer in housing had these reflections to offer about the Kidd family and the two weeks of WorkFest. “The U.S. Postal Service’s motto ‘Neither rain, nor

eager to begin.

Pam DeRosa from Long Island, N. Y., is a CAP housing volunteer and Crew Leader fo r WorkFest. She and Ron Kidd work to was felt fram e up an addition to his home in touching US all, McCreary County.

“God’s hand

snow, nor sleet, nor hail,’ fit WorkFest 2001 like a

sending joy,

glove. We had all of that plus a couple of beautiful

love and communion with each one who partici pated.”

sunny days. Bad weather did not dampen the enthusiasm of the groups working on Ron and Helen

Workers in the CAP housing program know that

Kidd’s home, it just made them more determined to

there is plenty of credit to share. They are espe

complete at least one part of the renovation before

cially grateful to the WorkFest volunteers who

returning to college. Helen came to love every

spend their sprinq break giving people a hand up.

person from each crew,

They’re grateful, too, to

so thankful for their

CAP’S donors and support

help in trying to make

ers, those who make the

their home larger for

financial sacrifices needed to carry out the mission of WorkFest — and of all of CAP. Your donation of $50, $75, $100 — more if you’re able — for use where it is needed most, will allow families like the Kidds to live in a more affordable and energy efficient home.

the grandchildren, Garra, age 13; Braxton, age10; and Torrey, age 7; that she and Ron are raising. “Ron was all over, helping the students, explaining the next step, always with a

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Ron Kidd was tireless in his pursuit o f repair and renovation alongside a WorkFest volunteer.

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l F M IM H The year 2001 marked the 10th year for Christian Appalachian Project’s WorkFest, an alternative Spring Break for college students. Over thirty colleges partici pated this year. Nearly three hundred stu dents and staff partici pated.

CAP Volunteer Susan Liess of Eagle Child and Family Development works on the home of Ron and Helen Kidd in McCreary County.

Eighteen homes were constructed, reconditioned and repaired in three counties, McCreary, Johnson and Floyd, during WorkFest.

Shaded area indicates the boundaries of the Appalachia region