Last month, I had the absolute pleasure of spending time in Lee County, Virginia with Appalachia Service Project (ASP). The trip was my eleventh time making the 12-hour journey by car with my mom but this year it was just the two of us, rather than a group of 20, and it was the greatest blessing to spend that time with her.
We stayed in Jonesville, where ASP has a year-round center for volunteers to serve the county. The median household income, according to the 2022 census, is $37,574 and 25% of the people living in the area are considering to be at or below the poverty level.
Since we weren’t bringing a large group of volunteers, we were assigned as “Helping Hands” who were there to assist the staff in any way they needed. We began our week getting the center ready for a large group of college students who would be attending staff training, organizing the warehouse fastener by fastener and tool by tool.
My mom and I got to work on-site the latter half of the week, preparing a mobile home for new vinyl siding. We were tasked with putting J-Channel, or siding trim pieces, and corner pieces around the home to make it a smooth transition for the next group coming in to install the siding. Another group of volunteers, an all-adult team from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, were also working on the home, so we got to know them as well.
As we drove down the winding roads on our way to the worksite on the first day, I noticed we were getting further and further from the nearest hospital, the nearest grocery store, and the nearest school. The houses lined the train tracks which ran mere feet from the front door. A group of five stray dogs walked along the tracks. Coal trucks drove back and forth to the mine looming in the distance.
The family of six that lived in this home included a three-year-old, an 11-year-old, a 15-year-old, an 18-year-old and the mother and father.
The three-year-old and I became the best of friends, and every five minutes I was graced with the question “Whatcha doin’?” I have a two-year-old niece, and this little girl reminded me so much of her. I couldn’t help but think about how happy this girl was, even spending the day with her dad in his office while everyone else was at school and running errands. We ate lunch together, and my Go-Go-Squeeze applesauce was the star of the show. I think she ate a box of 12 in three days. Everyday ended with an “I love you” and “You better come back” in her sweet but sassy tone. I later learned that she was adopted. Her dad had his sister sign over legal guardianship to him when the little girl was born, and they haven’t seen her biological mom since.
The family also had eight dogs, seven hamsters, three snakes, and two tarantulas. A dog named Zeva stole my heart and got plenty of belly rubs throughout the week. As the mother described it to me, she didn’t grow up with much, but her mom always took in the animals around the neighborhood that people didn’t want or couldn’t support anymore, and she continued doing that when she started her own family.
By the end of the week, we felt like were part of the group from Shippensburg, and vowed to stay in touch with an eighty-year-old volunteer who reminded my mom and me so much of my grandma who passed away. There is something in the atmosphere at ASP that brings people together in a way like no where else. You spend a week volunteering with people who you only know briefly but feel like you’ve known your whole life.
Every year after volunteering with ASP, I am left with both pain and love in my heart as we drive away toward home. I know there is so much more I can be doing to help others, I wish everyone would take a moment to recognize that we can each make a difference, if only for a week, for deserving people who may have less.
