The Christian Appalachian Project was founded in 1964 through the efforts of Reverend Ralph Beiting, a priest from northern Kentucky.
CAP’S Luther T. Foley Mission Center is home to staff and volunteers. It was dedicated almost a decade ago in Floyd County. Currently, it’s running full speed as a disaster recovery operation. Volunteers arrive all the time.
Gary Bibbee offered a tour of supplies to new volunteers last week. He’s been on many mission trips including travel to Africa, Peru, and Cuba. Bibbee said the Kentucky experience has been hard-hitting.
“But, these are such wonderful people and they’re hurting right now. I’ve spoken with some. They just look like an empty shell and there’s obviously a reason for that. I’ve spoken with some that have lost family, lost their loved ones, lost their homes and their families and it’s tragic,” said Bibbee.
Bibbee said, quote, “we are required to help, adding to whom much is given, much is expected.”
Bibbee, a West Virginia native, now lives in Venice Florida. A team of ten, most of them affiliated with the Nazarene Church came north to help out. Here’s Dave Kenaga, Dave Strickland, and Troy Moore.
“I came to CAP because I knew that they were in desperate need. Many people have helped me throughout my life and I want to be a servant of Christ to help anyone that I possibly can,” said Kenaga.
“If I had to go and do one of the jobs we’ve been doing by myself I wouldn’t be able to do it, but working with like-minded people who want to serve, it’s amazing, it’s really amazing the experience of fellowship here,” said Strickland.
“It’s an honor to work with them and we’re so blessed..to have what we have because you really do see the devastation and it’s heartbreaking,” said Moore.
Staff at the Christian Appalachian Project facility near Martin feed and lodge volunteers. The dinner scene last week included a group of Americorps members from all over the country. Ria Riedel is from Orange County California. She’s had a passion for volunteering for well over a decade.
“I started volunteering at ten years old with my mom and she kind of installed a love of volunteering. She passed away in October of last year. And she always dreamed about traveling the world and volunteering and helping as many people as she can. So, I want to follow in her footsteps and kind of fulfill her dream for her.” Said Riedel
Riedel says she’s been thinking about her mom every single day while in Kentucky, especially since the anniversary of her death is coming up in October.
Isabel Davis is originally from Phoenix but spent more than a decade in Singapore. Just out of high school, she’s looking to grow as a person and determine her path, maybe in social service or human geography. She spoke about an eastern Kentuckian volunteering with Americorps workers who had lost her home in the flood.
“She wasn’t going to say it. Someone else told us afterward, ‘oh that lady with the red hair she was one of the people that lived like down the road who completely lost her home. She’s living out of her car now, and it was just, she was helping other people, you know,” said Davis.
People from New York, California, Florida, Arizona, and Indiana comprise the Americorps team. Ciro Altamirano admitted he signed up for the ten-month service term because of his girlfriend who mentioned it to him. The Stratford California native had never been outside the Golden State. He’s been impressed by the care shown in the aftermath of the flood.
“How like they’re really trying to help. They’re really thinking about other people and not just themselves and it’s just really interesting because I really don’t see much of that in the world and I just think that’s really cool. I’ve never been to one of these things where I would like volunteer. I would never have thought that, myself,” said Altamirano.
Americorps members typically range in age from 18 to 26. Jesse Limmer says she finished college, got her degrees, and had no idea what her next step would be. But the Long Island resident knew she didn’t want to get behind a desk. With COVID cutting out much of the college socializing experience, Limmer feels like now is when she’s getting some of that togetherness not found during college.
“It really allows introspection, which again, is what the program is about. Taking folks from where they are from and putting them in different scenarios to see how other folks in the country live. And it’s humbling, it makes me feel grateful, all these mixed emotions that I am proud I’m getting to unpack this year,” said Limmer.
Tampa Bay area’s Mallory Brown sees herself in a period of transition. She said she did some internships and office work but it didn’t suit her. Brown says she sought something more aligned with her values, environmental interests like trail restoration found in Americorps. She says helping with flood recovery creates a feeling of belonging.
“It’s hard not to really rely on people when you're in such an intense situation like being under a house and not being able to see where anything is and just covered in the big grossest mud you’ve ever seen. But, it’s the kind of work that we’re like ready and willing to do and it’s the kind of ways that we’re ready and willing to support each other and I think we all really benefit from the team dynamic, being so intensely like comradery based,” said Brown.
The team leader for the Americorps group is Alexa Rodriguez, also from Long Island, New York. She served in Americorps previously and said her team leader then was a good role model. Lots happened after that impactful serving period. That included working up to a corporate level job in the City, then unemployment, in commercial real estate, and time in Puerto Rico. Rodriguez said she came back to New York, got another corporate job with a video game company and it wasn’t the same. She also views this time with Americorps as a transition.
“I lived in my apartment nine years previous to this and I packed everything else up and I sold everything, I tossed it out on the street. In New York, if you put anything on the curb, people will take it immediately, so put everything out, people took it. It’s gone and a little bit of things are still in a storage unit right now. But, outside of that, I completely moved out of New York and everything I own is with me currently right now. So, wherever the wind takes me is the next step for me,” said Rodriquez.
Rodriguez says she’s got eight months to figure out her next step.
Each night at the mission center, following dinner, a debriefing occurs where volunteers have a chance to talk about the day. Leading the group discussion on another night last week was Michaela Fisher with CAP. She spoke about how volunteers can sometimes experience empathetic feelings.
“Kind of set time aside at the end of the day for those who may have experienced something negatively impactful or potentially something that may have even made them smile that day. But, for those who may have been negatively impacted by something, something that’s probably weighing heavy on their chest a little bit heavy, we want them to kind of recognize that vicarious trauma is real and we want to make sure that you’re taken care of,” said Fisher.
The Christian Appalachian Project disaster response began on July 28th. At this point, CAP has coordinated relief efforts for 419 volunteers at flood-damage homes and at the on-site distribution center. It has amounted to nearly 14 thousand total hours with volunteers coming from almost every state. And the task is far from over.
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