COMPASSION
F
ew people in the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) family are as widely known or better respected than Jack Hamm. Since 1998, Jack has been a beloved member of the CAP community, working on-and-off in the accounting department for almost eighteen years. When you think of the services CAP provides to families in need in Eastern Kentucky, you may not immediately think of the folks who work in accounting. That’s because you don’t know Jack. Born in Flemingsburg, Ky., thirteen miles south of the Ohio River, Jack Hamm grew up in a loving home with two older brothers, a mother, and a father. “They say Flemingsburg is where the mountains meet the bluegrass,” says Jack, “and Eastern Kentucky has always been in my thoughts from the time I was a small child.” Something else that is always on Jack’s mind is how hard the people of Eastern Kentucky work to
“I think I was most impressed with CAP’s employees, and I still am to this day because nothing has really changed. They are very dedicated to their work.” 34
By Elizabeth James help their families. Jack himself got his first job as a six-year-old helping the janitor clean his school. His grandfather George Washington White worked hard mining clay from the mountains until a tragic accident took his life. Jack’s mother was still a small child at the time, and George’s sister took her in and raised her. In 1945, at the height of World War II, Jack’s father was called away to Texas to serve in the United States Army Air Force as it was named at the time. Jack still remembers how many fathers, sons, and brothers were away during the war and how many families struggled to keep food on the table. The U.S. began rationing food items we take for granted today, such as sugar, and Jack remembers carrying those ration stamps in his pocket, running down to the store to buy groceries for his mother. Jack recalls, on a day when he was younger, he scared off another boy who was trying to pick a fight with him. Some days later, as he was walking out of the gymnasium leaving work, someone started pelting him with rocks—the older sister of the boy he scared off. “That young girl’s name was Fried,” says Jack, “and she was the daughter of a much wealthier family in town.” The same little girl who stood up to a young Mr. Hamm became his high school sweetheart a couple of years later. Now they are married and have three sons. Upon graduating high school, Jack wanted to see
THE MOUNTAIN SPIRIT | 50th Anniversary Commemorative Issue Volume 2
