Part of being a student at RJC means trying new things, whether it be joining a sports team, joining a choir or living in a dorm. For Sydney Sutherland, a third year Grade 12 student, this also meant crossing the Canada/USA border for the first time to help build a house.
Every year in Spring RJC’s Alternative Learning & Service Opportunities (ALSO) program takes students across Canada and the world to volunteer and learn from a variety of organizations doing different work focused on helping others in their local communities. In spring of 2024 RJC was able to connect with Appalachia Build, a program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Kentucky, USA for the first time as one of the ALSO service locations.
Appalachia Build is a home repair program that addresses housing needs in central Appalachia, where there is a higher concentration of poverty. Kristin Overstreet, Appalachia Build’s program coordinator, says that their work helps to utilize volunteers from various backgrounds, including those from churches and schools, to serve for a week. The program provides tools, building supplies, housing, meals and educational activities for the volunteers they work with.
For Kristin, her involvement with Appalachia Build is personal. She grew up in the area and her father was a coal miner active in the 1970’s. At the time the area was prosperous with good jobs, health care, and schools. Over the years as the demand for coal declined, systemic problems began to develop which had a larger impact on the community and their access to basic resources. “What we’ve been left with the last couple decades is the lack of jobs, and one of the highest rates of poverty in the USA,” says Kristin.
While looking for service opportunities, Karalee Kuny, vice-principal at RJC, came across Appalachia Build. Upon doing some research, she realized that it would be a great experience for RJC students, “ALSO incorporates both service and learning and the Appalachia Build program has a strong emphasis on both of those areas. We serve others by helping others during the day to have warm, safe, affordable homes. In the evening we learn about the particular socio-economic issues of the area that create the extra need to help others in that area.”
Once it was announced that RJC students had the opportunity to visit Appalachia as part of an ALSO trip, Sydney was excited to jump in. “I really liked volunteering with the Okanagan Gleaners, processing discarded vegetables, when I was in Grade 10 for ALSO, so I was excited to try something new and do more physical work to help others,” she says.
While the ALSO Appalachia trip had several highlights and new experiences, it was a lesson on empathy taught by Kristin that was memorable for Sydney. “She talked about how she didn’t want us to come in and pity the people living there. She wanted us to really understand the bigger picture of what the people were experiencing before we went in and helped. I really connected with that idea and it changed the way I worked while I was there.”
From Kristin’s point of view, hearing the stories of the people living in Appalachia is central to adopting a posture of service, “[Our volunteers] have to be able to climb into someone else’s skin and develop genuine empathy for their neighbor. You can’t get any more personal than being in someone’s home and hearing their point of view.”
Karalee says that the school plans to continue the new relationship with Appalachia Build and return for future ALSO trips, “I find the teaching that MCC offers to our students to be excellent […] because this was our first year, there’s a lot we came home with.”
While thinking about future ALSO experiences, Sydney hopes to revisit Appalachia again, “As a school we talk a lot about supporting each other and ‘doing your little,’ and I think it’s important to show the work we do by serving our neighbors and being helpful to those in need. If I went back to Appalachia, I think I would enter with a more open mind.”
Kristin is encouraged by RJC’s ALSO program and the future of the school’s relationship with Appalachia Build. “This is where the seed starts. That’s how it grows. It’s bringing students to do this type of work that will help to plant a heart of service.”
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