Fall 2019
buildingfutures A GLIMPSE INTO MOUNTAIN OUTREACH
ARCHERY TEAM ASSISTS WITH HOME REPAIRS
SPECIAL PROJECT - JENNY MARTIN Jenny Martin is a 78 year old widow that lives in a home that her husband built. The exterior of the home is wood siding and needs continuous painting and maintenance. We enlisted the UC Archery Team to assist in this project.
At 8 am, we started scraping and then repainting. By 1 pm we had the entire home painted and it looked brand new. She was thrilled and loved on all of the students. She must have thanked them a thousand times!
VOLLEYBALL TEAM PARTICIPATES IN FALL PROJECT
SPECIAL PROJECT - MARJORIE MOSES Marjorie Moses is a 92 year-old widow who requires the services of a live-in caretaker. Although she requires assistance, it is surprising how well she is able to get around. The back porch deck on her house had three steps that went down to a long concrete sidewalk which led to the carport. Utilizing the front of the porch, Mountain Outreach came up with a design for a ramp that landed closer to the carport. As Marjorie is not very tall, 2 Ι UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS
the height of the handrails was reduced to accommodate her small stature. The new ramp and handrails enable her to more easily gain access to the carport, which is necessary for doctor appointments and other outings. The UC women’s volleyball team assisted with this project, and while they worked, Marjorie baked homemade cookies for them. It was a great and blessed day for all involved!
'TIS THE SEASON OF GIVING This year, more than 1,100 children got to experience the joy of giving through Kids’ Gift Days hosted by Mountain Outreach (MO). For the children at Whitley North Elementary School, a school newly added to the program, it was an experience they’d never had before. In the gym were tables lined with a variety of items from sweet-smelling lotions and sparkly keychains to lightweight toolboxes and thick gloves...modest gifts suitable for both males and females. The children were able to choose two gifts per household and help wrap them in festive bags and stickers. Cumberlands' students directed children through the lines and helped them pick which items to give their loved ones. There were plenty of smiles, high-fives and friendly debates about which Christmas movie is actually the most awesome. “I love seeing our students with these kids,” said Hensley. “Sometimes big ol’ basketball or football players come. They walk in all laidback and tough, but once they start communicating with these kids, you see all of it melt away. That’s meaningful.” Several baseball and softball players visited the schools this year, as well as some non-athletes. “I really enjoy this,” said Miranda Lewis, a junior from Corbin, Kentucky, studying education. “It’s a way for these kids to give to their parents. They get to choose what they want to give, which bag to put the gift in, which sticker they want to say ‘to’ and ‘from’
on, all that stuff.” Approximately 92 percent of the children at Whitley North receive free or reduced-price lunches due to their families’ low incomes. Whitley East, Pleasant View and Boston Elementary Schools all have similar percentages. That’s why Mountain Outreach gets involved. “These kids can’t afford to go Christmas shopping,” said Hensley, “and sometimes nobody is available to take them anyway. So, we provide the opportunity.”
MAKING CHRISTMAS POSSIBLE
Marc Hensley, Director of Mountain Outreach (MO), sat on a foldout wooden chair in the chilly MO warehouse. It was “Gift Day” for MO – the Saturday set aside to bring in families and give them food and toys for the holidays. Volunteers walked back and forth constantly, leading families along tables lined with toys or stocking pallets with food and loading the pallets into families’ vehicles. For years, MO only provided toys, no food. That changed after
Hensley visited the home of a family whose heat had failed during Christmas Break. After a lot of work behind the scenes, God’s Food Pantry (GFP) allowed Mountain Outreach to become one of their partners. Each winter for the past three years, MO has sent in one massive order to GFP, who delivers the order to the MO warehouse the Friday before families arrive. This year, GFP supplied almost 40,000 pounds of food. More than 100 families went home on Gift Day with 350 pounds of kid-friendly foods to stock their cupboards during the Christmas season. The pallets included canned veggies, fruit cups, Teddy Grahams, Chef Boyardee meals, even frozen meat like hamburgers, hot dogs and precooked chicken. Parents in the area do not have to decide between providing either Christmas gifts or food for their children. Thanks to the U.S. Marines program Toys for Tots, who partners with MO for Gift Day, families receive both. Parents were able to pick out five gifts for each child. Those with infants got to choose two toys per child in addition to diapers and baby wipes. “I believe our families will have Christmas this year because of this event,” said Hensley. “The gifts and the food ensure that they have a Christmas. I’ll be honest, if it weren’t for this event, I don’t think they would.” UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS Ι 3
MOUNTAIN OUTREACH FINISHES HOME NUMBER 151
Mountain Outreach has finished constructing its 151st home for workers to “cook” delicacies with them in their play-kitchen, bounce a local family in need. on the trampoline with them, or push them on the neighbor’s Christopher and Bridgett Dezarn of London, Kentucky had never swings. The workers happily obliged. heard about Mountain Outreach (MO) before Bridgett’s friend The MO team, which consists of MO staff and Cumberlands mentioned to a co-worker that the Dezarns were struggling with students, “fell in love” with the family immediately, according their mobile home. The family of seven to Marc Hensley, Director of Mountain had outgrown their two-bedroom trailer, Outreach. “Working with Mountain and the list of problems that needed fixed “All five girls have different – including leaks, old flooring, an open Outreach has really opened my personalities,” Hensley said. “What stands stream of sewage runoff in their front out to me is how well these parents yard, and flooding issues in their driveway eyes to being a true servant and interact with their children. They are – was just too long and expensive for the tuned into their girls all the way from the putting my faith into action. young family to handle on their own. oldest to the youngest. I’m impressed with It’s by the grace of God. It’s “We were looking at different places, their family relationship; they’re good trying to do something, but nothing ever people.” rewarding.” worked out,” Christopher explained. Christopher Dezarn is employed by the Bridgett, cradling their newest baby U.S. Department of Forestry, and Bridgett Micah Linton '20 girl in her arms, added, “By February, I stays home to take care of the girls. figured we hadn’t gotten chosen for the The new home includes three MO house. Then one day, they called and said they wanted to come bedrooms, a kitchen area, a living room area, two bathrooms, and a meet us. To look out our window today and see this house, I’m still front porch. Mountain Outreach raised the house’s foundation high blown away.” enough to avoid potential flooding and used the best materials and The new home lies on the Dezarns’ property, directly in front of equipment possible to ensure the home was high-quality. the family’s trailer. Once the home construction was finished, MO “Is it more expensive? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes,” said Hensley. “You demolished the old trailer, cleaned up the area and fenced it in need to account for the value of a home. You can build a house with so that, for the first time, the Dezarns’ five daughters have a real low-quality materials, but if the house has problems or the family backyard to play in. Not that the girls didn’t already play in what can’t pay the electric bill because of inadequate insulation, you yard space they had – they did, regularly, often pulling over the MO haven’t done that family any good. We find bargains when we can 4 Ι UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS
and calculate where we can save, but we make sure the home has real value.” The MO team uses newer building techniques and quality materials to build good homes for the families they serve. Yet secret blessings are hidden inside the houses themselves. Once the interior beams of an MO house are up, the workers write prayers on them. The prayers are soon covered by drywall and paint, but families inside MO houses can gaze at their walls anytime knowing that, somewhere underneath, there are words of blessing which were prayed over them by a Cumberlands student before the house was quite a home. “My dad always says, ‘It’s not about the projects, it’s about the people,’” said Jenna Hensley as she held a sleepy Dezarn girl in her arms, the girl’s arms drowsily wrapped around Jenna’s neck. Jenna is Marc Hensley’s daughter and a senior at Cumberlands. “Thinking about these girls growing up in the home we’re building makes you want to build more houses and do it even better. It makes you feel like you’ve done more than just build a home.” In truth, much more than construction work occurred over the summer. The common sentiment from MO summer team members across the years is that, while they are busy doing construction on the house, God is busy doing construction on their hearts. Around the work site, workers are seen gulping down bottles of water, swatting gnats and mosquitos away, wiping sweat off their faces before lathering on a third round of sunscreen, stretching sore muscles, and so on. They never complain, but they readily admit: this job is tough. There are days they do not feel like going back to work. But then a team member belts out a song from a favorite children’s movie; or a sleepy girl from the family reaches up, wanting to be held; or the workers step back and see all the progress they have made in just one day. Suddenly, it’s all worth it again. “Every year, we just realize how blessed we are to be able to do something like this,” said Micah Linton, a Cumberlands senior. “Working with Mountain Outreach has really opened my eyes to being a true servant and putting my faith into action. It’s by the grace of God. It’s rewarding.” UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS Ι 5
SPECIAL FOCUS - DR. MONROE & MRS. SANDRA TROUT
HONORING THREE DECADES OF SERVICE TO UC & MO Dr. Monroe & Mrs. Sandra Trout have been faithful supporters of University of the Cumberlands and Mountain Outreach since 1990. They saw the ultimate purpose of Mountain Outreach – to provide a helping hand and empower people to rise above their circumstances. Dr. Trout himself had humble beginnings. One of fourteen children growing up in the Great Depression, he states, “There is no shame in being poor. There is shame, however, in being rich and not trying to help your fellow man and make this world a better
place to live in.” Over the years, Dr. and Mrs. Trout have established an endowed fund for Mountain Outreach and an endowed scholarship fund which they recently renamed in memory of their son, Timothy William Trout. Over the past three decades, the Trout family has had a tremendous impact on our students and our community. It is our hope that those impacted will pay forward the generosity that has been bestowed on them.
Students at both Pleasant View and Boston Elementary Schools now have extra picnic tables where they can kick back and enjoy themselves. Members from Mountain Outreach’s summer team constructed the base of the picnic tables, then walked the children through assembling the remaining parts. The kids utilized their math skills by measuring how far the boards hung off the base on both sides, the size of the gaps between the boards, and the distance between the screws they needed to secure the boards to the base. The children, under careful supervision, got to use power drills to screw the boards in place (definitely the kids’ favorite part of the activity). The children all participate in 21st Century, a nationwide after-school program that provides academic enrichment opportunities focusing particularly on reading and math. While Mountain Outreach does construction projects for the elderly and local families all the time, it was a refreshing opportunity for the team, interacting with a group of kids and passing on some of their construction knowledge. 6 Ι UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS
FROM CUMBERLANDS TO CALVARY
As always, Spring Break came around, and while other students were kicking back, Mountain Outreach (MO) was hunkering down. Armed with toolbelts, safety goggles, a lot of know-how and even more heart, the team got right to work completing construction projects at multiple sites around Letcher County. The most in-depth project this Break was an outdoor classroom for Letcher County Central High School. The classroom includes birdfeeders, flower boxes and other similar features for students to learn more about nature and farming. With the decline of the coal industry, teachers in the area have been looking for ways to teach children skills like farming which can help provide for their families and provide the kids with possible future career options. Denise Yonts, the superintendent at Letcher County Central, was thrilled that MO agreed to build the outdoor classroom. “Every time we have volunteers come in, they act as role models to our students,” said Yonts. “For our kids to see others give their time and energy to a project is such a ministry. It’s such a wonderful thing for all of our kids and our staff to see people out here giving. It makes a difference.” Other Spring Break projects included renovating a building on Calvary Campus, which has hosted the MO team during Spring Break the past few years; constructing one wheelchair ramp for a 20-year military veteran and another ramp for an elderly gentleman named Mr. Potter; and fixing the gutters and a pre-existing wheelchair ramp at a woman named Theresa’s house. The team also built relationships with the community members who received the projects. Baylea Bunch, a freshman from Berea, had a conversation with Mr. Potter as her group worked on his ramp. “He’s a wonderful man,” said Bunch. “We finished the ramp and he came out and said, ‘You guys want some Cokes?’ and he had two cases of Coke ready. It was great. Working together and seeing all the progress you make in a day, coming closer to God, all the bonding – it’s awesome.” There is an increasing number of senior adults in Letcher County who have almost no income and may be disabled. Rick Fleenor, Associate Professor of Missions & Ministry, who has served with MO for years, has noticed that sometimes people say things like, “You just need to get some help” to this older population, but never actually offer to help them. Fleenor is grateful that MO steps in to serve in tangible, impactful ways. This was the first year Marc Hensley, Director of MO, sent out an email to Cumberlands’ entire campus, notifying everyone about MO’s Spring Break projects, requesting volunteers. This year’s team had almost 40 helpers, 34 of which were Cumberlands students or staff. Some volunteers have served for years. Jenna Hensley, Marc’s daughter, has been connected with the ministry since age eight and is now MO’s Student Coordinator. Caleb Dixon, a senior from Pine Knot, has helped before and was a Site Leader this Break. Both Fleenor and Chris Leskiw, Vice President for Academic Affairs, are familiar faces at MO functions. Yet every year, new faces join the group and enjoy the seemingly paradoxical experience of impacting someone greatly while simultaneously being greatly impacted. “It’s a cool experience to go through,” said Kassidy White, a freshman from Strunk. “We’re giving back to the community through God. That’s not happening much anymore. To see such a small group of kids come together to worship God and serve the people in the community who need help is refreshing.” UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS Ι 7
buildingfutures: A GLIMPSE INTO MOUNTAIN OUTREACH Fall 2019 . VOLUME 5
Mountain Outreach is a non-profit service organization operated by University of the Cumberlands. Since the organization’s inception in 1982, students and volunteers have built more than 150 homes from the ground up in Southeastern Kentucky and have completed renovations on hundreds more. The program’s outreach also includes numerous service projects that help children, the elderly, and financially-struggling families with critical and urgent needs. For more information about how to help, please visit ucumberlands.edu/mountainoutreach