BRETHREN VOLUNTEER SERVICE
Before I go through the things I've learned, the people I've met, or the reasons that Brethren Volunteer Service was the best interlude between high school and college for me, let me begin with a warning: BVS is different. Taking a year off is different. Doing anything but college after high school will get you a few double takes. My advice: roll with it. It's worth it.
On to the stories. Orientation Unit #277 was one of the largest to date, coming in with 31 volunteers. We started out Peace Valley, MO and finished up in Kansas City, MO. Though I had doubts about such a large group bonding in just three weeks, we were a tight-knit group by day three. We had being together constantly going for us in that one--nineteen females all sleeping in one room makes for some pretty quick friendships. (The guys had more rooms, but they were smaller.) As a group, we talked about simple living and culture clashes, met some fantastic people, had the chance to participate in the Arkansas/Missouri District Conference, ate some incredible food on a minimal budget...we had a blast and learned a lot. We recently had our mid-year retreat, and though we'd only been together for less than a month and had then been apart for more than five, it was like getting together with family. Going out into the world for God's service with a cloud of believers is a powerful experience.
I'm doing my ten months of service (shortened for college in the fall) at CooperRiis, a healing farm community in western North Carolina. CooperRiis is a residential facility for the mentally ill and those in emotional distress, currently at capacity with 36 residents. We have a rotational staff numbering in the sixties, including therapists, nurses, psychiatrists, lodge advisors, Life Skills managers, a maintenance crew, a housekeeping crew, and a kitchen crew. I started in the kitchen the first Monday I arrived, and I've been there ever since. It's an organic, fresh food kitchen, meaning that most of our food is organically grown without pesticides, and that we make almost everything fresh--especially our bread, which is deliciously fresh-baked every week. I work a kind of funny schedule: Tuesday through Saturday, with a twelve hour day on Fridays. We're all jumbled so that no one misses the weekend entirely, but also so that every meal and day is covered. As Kitchen Support Staff, I do everything from chopping vegetables to mopping floors to working with residents. The residents are in the kitchen for a Life Skills program every weekday for about six hours, learning the skills needed to cook and clean and be a part of a team. For as much work as we do and as complicated as some of our meals have been, we have a lot of fun. As a crew, we gave each other cowboy names (mine was Cash) and then had a Cowboy Night cookout.
Even after six months, or maybe especially after six months, I keep finding that there are many things I don't know, both about the kitchen and about the community. I've gotten ahold of names and schedules, but as an ever-changing community, there's always something more to learn. I've widened my knowledge of psychology and working with people--it's amazing how just a week of being here is worth more than a text book--and I've learned things about myself I might not have found otherwise. For instance, I have the ability to get up before sunrise to do the breakfast shift. I've also rediscovered my haphazard sewing abilities, which has been exciting. But more than that, I've met some amazing people, and though this is nothing against the staff, they've mostly been residents. As a volunteer, since I don't know the formal diagnoses of any of the residents unless they decide to tell me, I've had the opportunity to get to know people on a reasonably normal level (though I will admit my knowledge of everyone's idiosyncrasies around food occasionally colors my view of them). It's refreshing to meet people who, when put up against daily hardships just getting out of bed, keep coming back and trying again. Though we all have our trying days, our pervading theme is hope.
Though "taking off a year" was a strange idea, coming to a therapeutic healing farm as an an eighteen-year-old fresh out of high school may have been more revolutionary. The reactions from staff were mainly of surprise, though new residents continue to ask who I am--am I a resident? What lodge do I live in? Why do I work such strange hours? Perhaps because of this, it's been a wonderfully difficult and rewarding year. As a year between schools, it's been a chance for me to slow down and focus on things besides schoolwork, but also to get some real world and job experience. With a planned double major in English and Psychology, this couldn't have been a better place for me this year.
Additionally, lastly, I've always had an emotional need for community. Between the local Brethren church, the groups of lodge advisors that hang out as support for each other, the family I live with, and the larger community of CooperRiis, I've certainly not found it lacking here. CooperRiis has fulfilled something deep within me. Service has always made a space in my heart for others, and this year, it's happily content.
Submitted by Cassidy McFadden
On to the stories. Orientation Unit #277 was one of the largest to date, coming in with 31 volunteers. We started out Peace Valley, MO and finished up in Kansas City, MO. Though I had doubts about such a large group bonding in just three weeks, we were a tight-knit group by day three. We had being together constantly going for us in that one--nineteen females all sleeping in one room makes for some pretty quick friendships. (The guys had more rooms, but they were smaller.) As a group, we talked about simple living and culture clashes, met some fantastic people, had the chance to participate in the Arkansas/Missouri District Conference, ate some incredible food on a minimal budget...we had a blast and learned a lot. We recently had our mid-year retreat, and though we'd only been together for less than a month and had then been apart for more than five, it was like getting together with family. Going out into the world for God's service with a cloud of believers is a powerful experience.
I'm doing my ten months of service (shortened for college in the fall) at CooperRiis, a healing farm community in western North Carolina. CooperRiis is a residential facility for the mentally ill and those in emotional distress, currently at capacity with 36 residents. We have a rotational staff numbering in the sixties, including therapists, nurses, psychiatrists, lodge advisors, Life Skills managers, a maintenance crew, a housekeeping crew, and a kitchen crew. I started in the kitchen the first Monday I arrived, and I've been there ever since. It's an organic, fresh food kitchen, meaning that most of our food is organically grown without pesticides, and that we make almost everything fresh--especially our bread, which is deliciously fresh-baked every week. I work a kind of funny schedule: Tuesday through Saturday, with a twelve hour day on Fridays. We're all jumbled so that no one misses the weekend entirely, but also so that every meal and day is covered. As Kitchen Support Staff, I do everything from chopping vegetables to mopping floors to working with residents. The residents are in the kitchen for a Life Skills program every weekday for about six hours, learning the skills needed to cook and clean and be a part of a team. For as much work as we do and as complicated as some of our meals have been, we have a lot of fun. As a crew, we gave each other cowboy names (mine was Cash) and then had a Cowboy Night cookout.
Even after six months, or maybe especially after six months, I keep finding that there are many things I don't know, both about the kitchen and about the community. I've gotten ahold of names and schedules, but as an ever-changing community, there's always something more to learn. I've widened my knowledge of psychology and working with people--it's amazing how just a week of being here is worth more than a text book--and I've learned things about myself I might not have found otherwise. For instance, I have the ability to get up before sunrise to do the breakfast shift. I've also rediscovered my haphazard sewing abilities, which has been exciting. But more than that, I've met some amazing people, and though this is nothing against the staff, they've mostly been residents. As a volunteer, since I don't know the formal diagnoses of any of the residents unless they decide to tell me, I've had the opportunity to get to know people on a reasonably normal level (though I will admit my knowledge of everyone's idiosyncrasies around food occasionally colors my view of them). It's refreshing to meet people who, when put up against daily hardships just getting out of bed, keep coming back and trying again. Though we all have our trying days, our pervading theme is hope.
Though "taking off a year" was a strange idea, coming to a therapeutic healing farm as an an eighteen-year-old fresh out of high school may have been more revolutionary. The reactions from staff were mainly of surprise, though new residents continue to ask who I am--am I a resident? What lodge do I live in? Why do I work such strange hours? Perhaps because of this, it's been a wonderfully difficult and rewarding year. As a year between schools, it's been a chance for me to slow down and focus on things besides schoolwork, but also to get some real world and job experience. With a planned double major in English and Psychology, this couldn't have been a better place for me this year.
Additionally, lastly, I've always had an emotional need for community. Between the local Brethren church, the groups of lodge advisors that hang out as support for each other, the family I live with, and the larger community of CooperRiis, I've certainly not found it lacking here. CooperRiis has fulfilled something deep within me. Service has always made a space in my heart for others, and this year, it's happily content.
Submitted by Cassidy McFadden
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