The following story first appeared in the Autumn 2000 Glenmary Challenge.
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Women in Service to Appalachia
By Patricia Normile

A bell peals across the Appalachian meadow. Hearing its call, women emerge from the swimming hole, rise from the porch swing, or amble across the hand-laid bridge to the Farm House. It’s suppertime at the Glenmary Farm in Vanceburg, Ky. 

In contrast to this pre-dinner leisure, the day has been packed with activity. These “Women in Service to Appalachia,” who spend a week of their summer vacations serving the people of Eastern Kentucky, find themselves changed in the process.

One of the founders of Women in Service to Appalachia (WSA) is Eugenie Coakley from Waltham, Mass. On a retreat for parish Eucharistic ministers, she faced nagging questions about her life’s direction: “Should I have gone into the Peace Corps?” “Should I have done something for other people?” And then she found a brochure about a week of service specifically for women at the Glenmary Farm. 

After that retreat she came down to the Farm where she remembers praying in the out-of-doors and celebrating the liturgy that closes each week of Farm service. “The Spirit took over,” she says. And she has returned summer after summer for this week of service which, since 1996, has been sponsored by the organization she helped establish.

Eugenie meets many young women facing similar life questions. College students often have opportunities to serve in other cultures and to help the less fortunate, she points out. But once one is in the working world, opportunities for short-term service diminish. That’s why she helped establish WSA—to ensure that this service opportunity for women continues. 

This week at the Glenmary Farm affords women a chance to leave their comfort zones to assist others as they assess their own futures. Eugenie, who is now on the research faculty at Harvard University, uses her spare time to develop this Appalachian ministry. 

“People are doing this on vacation time,” she points out. “It is really a sacrifice, but you have to smack them over the head to make them say it is a sacrifice.” 

WSA volunteers come each summer to the Glenmary Farm in Lewis County from across the country: from California to Minnesota to New Hampshire. In June 2000, over 20 women from seven states participated in the annual week of service.

And they come in a variety of ages. The original WSA brochure advertised for “single women, ages 18-45.” Today, some are married and the upper age is flexible based on an individual’s abilities and desire to participate. 

When asked how they discovered this Appalachian service project, quite a few respond that they read about it in their church bulletins. Others were invited to participate by friends. No matter the source of their interest, the women have a common mission: to assist those caught in the web of poverty in Appalachia, to come in Christian love and to discover more about themselves in the process.  

WSA volunteers work to construct homes for Lewis County residents with incomes between $5,000 and $18,000. (A minimum income is necessary to assure that the occupants can maintain the homes in which they live.) Housing for the handicapped is another project in which WSA has participated. Volunteers have also employed landscaping skills to set native plantings around new homes. 

Arriving WSA volunteers know the direction their week will take. The group divides into work crews assigned to various tasks including remaining at the Farm to cook and tend to Farm duties. Other groups may work with clients at Comprehend, a local mental-health facility; or visit residents of a nursing home. Others may assist with home-maintenance projects for the elderly or disabled.

A week at the Farm with WSA is not all work, however. Each day is launched with prayer and praise and song—and concludes in the same way. Each participant is given a prayer book created for the WSA Farm experience. Its cover bears the WSA pledge, first introduced by Sister of Charity of Nazareth Brenda Gonzales:

“I pledge allegiance to the earth and all its sacred parts, its water, land and living things, and all its human hearts.

“I pledge allegiance to all life and promise I shall care to love and cherish all its gifts with people everywhere.”

The WSA prayer book further reminds participants of the sacredness of their mission into others’ homeland:

“Our first task in approaching another people, another culture, another religion is to take off our shoes, for the place we are approaching is holy. Else we may find ourselves treading on another’s dream. More serious still, we may forget...that God was there before our arrival” (author unknown).

Opportunities are seized to remind participants that they do not enter this work alone but with God’s help: Hands that pound with hammers, scrub or paint with brushes are blessed as workers notice both their power and their gentleness. The warm, fragrant water of a foot-washing ritual at day’s end soothes soles that have walked through a hard day’s labor, while conversation shared about the day’s events soothes souls that have observed the difficulties of those who are poor in a material sense. 

A bread ceremony, reflecting on the various types of breads representing different cultures and people, reminds that bread nurtures and strengthens the women who are called to be one bread, one body. A “Walking Rosary” in the evening dark focuses on the events of Jesus’ life. 

Volunteers also learn of Appalachian culture as they drive to their various work sites. A group leader explains that the language of the “hollers”—those gentle coves in the hills with such names as Finger Board Hollow, Ghost Hollow, Backbone Hollow, Slate Hollow, Bear Hollow—stems from Scotch dialects. “Thar” for there, “whar” for where—these are honored as part of an ancient tradition. 

In the summer of 2000, Glenmary Father John Rausch spent a day with the group to provide an overview of Appalachian history and culture, discuss current social and economic issues in the region, and celebrate Mass. 

The Thurmans, a local family, invite volunteers to their home for a taste of family life and music. Mary June and John Roe, married 53 years, sit down in their country store with visitors to share a bit of the day’s news. No one is too busy in Vanceburg to be hospitable. And the group usually attends a prayer meeting at a local Pentecostal church.

Spiritual discernment flourishes at the Glenmary Farm, long referred to as “the place where peace came and stayed.” Those who arrive in a troubled state of mind leave with new direction and peace of spirit. 

Those who arrive feeling too comfortable often experience a challenge to stretch themselves in new directions. One young woman during the 1998 WSA week discerned a call to religious life as a sister. Anita Laughlin, a Massachusetts epidemiologist, decided to give two years to working in Uganda after her experience at the Farm. 

Lives change because of Women in Service to Appalachia and the Glenmary Farm. Women arrive ready to help others less fortunate in a material sense; they leave served by those they came to serve. 

Patti Normile is a freelance writer based in Cincinnati, Ohio.