SERVICE
Making a Home How the Kindness of Neighbors & the Compassion of Strangers Are Repairing More Than Houses
By Susie Hillard Bullock THE DRESSES t was a gorgeous late summer day in Kentucky. Under a brilliant blue sky, my new Chicago-based colleague and I drove through the beautiful hills of Jackson County, about 90 minutes south of Lexington. I wanted to give him a first-hand look at a CAP home repair project. Both my parents were born and grew up in Jackson County, and as we rolled through the peaceful countryside, my thoughts turned to them. Following my mom’s death in 2007, my siblings and I spent several days sorting through her belongings. She kept everything, or so it seemed. We chuckled at some of the things she saved—dozens of red plastic coffee cans, for example—and wept over others. Among the treasures we uncovered were four tiny, handmade dresses—two blue and two pink with long, wide sashes that tied in the back--that Mom sewed for me in the early 1960s. From the day I came home from the hospital to our small dairy farm in Eberle, my mom and sister Tish fussed over me. As the first baby in 11 years (two more sisters followed me), I was like a new toy to my much older siblings. My father took lots of pictures of me in those dresses. I wore them every day, not just on Sunday. When we finished cleaning my mom’s house I carefully washed and ironed each dress, then took three, along with photographs of my mom and dad, and framed them. (I’m saving the fourth for a future granddaughter). They hang on the wall at my home, a reminder of my heritage and of Jackson County, where my life began. As I gaze out the car window, stunning vistas and signs of hard times compete for my attention at every turn. We stick to our directions until we spot two Christian Appalachian Project pickup trucks parked in front of an old mobile home that has seen better days. In the back yard, crew leader Darrell, an industry-trained carpenter with West
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Virginia roots, is showing long-term volunteers Jason, 23, Bill, 20, and Emily, 24 how to build a deck. As Emily and Bill measure and re-measure, Jason unloads building materials. Over the next 3 or 4 weeks, Darrell will supervise as they install energy-efficient windows, patch holes in the walls, put in a new floor, replace the deck in front, and build a wheelchair ramp.
In Kentucky, everybody wants to know where you’re from and who your kinfolks are. It’s an unquenchable desire to “connect the dots,” to find common ground, that goes back generations.
Emily, who arrived from Georgia only a few weeks earlier, has no experience in home repair. She smiles sweetly and listens carefully as Darrell shows her how to make sure the corners are square. “After graduating high school, I knew that I wasn’t ready to go straight off to college” she tells me. “So after some personal and family prayer, talks with my family and lots of time on the Internet researching ways to volunteer, I found Christian Appalachian Project. This is where God wants me to be.” A NEIGHBOR IN NEED Like the other long-term volunteers who will spend a year working on dozens of homes, Bill, Jason, and Emily will
CHRISTIANAPP.ORG | 50th Anniversary Commemorative Issue Volume 1
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