service
AFTER SUMMER ENDS O
ne tiny hand after another dart toward the sky, like distress signals from different corners of the low-lit classroom. While the teacher patiently offers assistance to students at the front of the class, two young women slowly make their way to each of those outstretched tiny hands, kneeling to provide one-to-one counsel. This scene plays out in this same manner for the subsequent 30 minutes and is then replicated across the hall in another classroom immediately after.
“Everybody knows us from summer camp, and everyone always asks the question, ‘what do you all do the rest of the year?’”
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christianapp.org/MtSpiritGive | FALL / WINTER 2016
These two young women providing aid to the students of Sand Gap Elementary School in Jackson County, Ky. are Alexus Hornback and Jenette Vogt, long-term volunteers with Christian Appalachian Project (CAP). Hornback and Vogt spend four to five days per week in classrooms assisting local teachers in their instruction by providing support, tutoring, encouragement, and whatever other services may be needed. They also aid in leading various additional curricula, including antibullying, conflict resolution, and consumerism courses. This is all conducted under the banner and leadership of CAP’s Camp Program, which may come as a surprise to some. Mike O’Brien, coordinator for Camp AJ, understands the surprise expressed when people learn about the camp’s deep level of involvement in the school system. “Everybody knows us from summer camp, and everyone always asks the question, ‘what do you all do the rest of the year?’” In fact, one could argue that the work done by CAP’s Camp staff and volunteers throughout the school year is the very heart of the program. By providing muchneeded support to underfunded schools and teachers,
