Goodbyes and More WorkFest Preparations

With it only being a week away from WorkFest beginning in the Sandy Valley Region, we spent most of this week continuing to get ready, which I never realized how much work went into the planning and setting up of WorkFest. So on Monday we got to take a trip to the Coca-Cola bottling company [...]

WorkFest begins

Beginning February 28, 2010, more than 400 college students and short-term Housing crew leaders will descend upon eastern Kentucky for WorkFest–CAP’s annual home repair and building blitz. As in past years, we are hosting groups at two sites: Camp Andrew Jackson in our Cumberland Valley Region and Camp Caleb in the Sandy Valley Region.  Over the course [...]

Learning to Walk

This past week, my housemate Jordan and I visited a couple in the Elderly Services program – Ed and Anna. Ed is sixty-five and Anna is sixty-four, and they grew up together in a hollow not far from where they live now. I’d met Ed last week at the commodities food distribution, but this was [...]

How can I afford to volunteer?

It’s a question we hear alot at the CAP Volunteer Program, and it’s a fair one. Volunteering for a year–or even for a few weeks–is a significant sacrifice for many people. But a lot of confusion exists around what it means exactly to “work for free.” Although many people may write off full-time volunteerism as [...]

WorkFest Preparations

Another week of bad weather gave us a shortened week of volunteering for most programs. Monday and Tuesday morning Housing was grounded and luckily Tuesday afternoon we were able to go into our shop and do some cleaning up, because I know I was going stir crazy sitting in the house so much. Despite the [...]

Life in the Mountains

I have to admit this past week has been crazy, awesome, incredible, and amazingness all packed into one week. As I mentioned in last week’s blog we had volunteer orientation at our house all last week. Therefore Floyd House had the opportunity to eat many meals with the new volunteers, most of whom we knew [...]

Christian Community draws 13 new volunteers to CAP and Appalachia

On Thursday, February 11, 2010, Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) Volunteer Program officially welcomed 13 new long-term volunteers at its winter Commissioning Service. Although some have been serving since October, many are just beginning their CAP journey. One of those new arrivals is Ed Riehl, 64, from New York City. Ed is experienced in both long-term service [...]

Home repairs continue, despite winter weather

This last week in Housing was a very productive week for us. We finally finished repairing all three floors in the house we are working on, so all our inside work is done. This is a relief because we all thought repairing the floors would be a much bigger job, but we actually finished the [...]

Judy Shue: Volunteering in retirement

Anticipation, nostalgia, anxiety and a bit of panic washed through my mind as I submitted my letter of retirement.  I had fourteen months to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I was truly at a transition point.   My children were settled in homes of their own.  My grandchildren were entering [...]