Category: News

High-school teens and adults can attend an information session on Wed., Jan. 25 offering details about a meaningful week of volunteer home-repair this summer with the Jesse Lee Appalachia Service Project (ASP).

This no-obligation meeting will introduce students and their parents – and any other interested adults – to the Appalachia Service Project overall, and especially to the developing plan for Jesse Lee ASP’s 39th year: a mission trip July 1-9.

The one-hour information session will start at 7:30 p.m. at Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, 207 Main St.  Meet in the sanctuary.

ASP is a national Christian volunteer organization founded by Rev. Glenn “Tex” Evans, a Methodist minister, in 1969. Since then, more than 420,000 volunteers from across the nation have participated in weeklong mission trips to make more than 18,500 homes in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina “warmer, safer and drier.”

Jesse Lee ASP is open to anyone who will have completed their freshman year of high school this summer. Adults are encouraged to volunteer – both those who have teens participating and those who don’t. You don’t have to be a member of Jesse Lee or any church, you don’t have to live in Ridgefield, and you don’t need to be an expert with a hammer to volunteer. Basic construction skills and safety rules are taught in training sessions prior to going on ASP. There’s also a fund-raising component. And it helps if you like ice cream.

You don’t have to pre-register for the Jan. 25 information session.

Previous ASP volunteers need not attend the Jan. 25 information meeting. However, they should plan to attend one of the two required “first orientation” meetings – choose between Wed., Feb. 8 and Tues., Feb. 14.

For more details, go online to www.jesseleeasp.org or call Deb Ahle (203-438-6782) or Dave Sigworth (203-438-7501).

Jesse Lee ASP is excited to announce that the winner of the 2022 John Ward “Love in Action” Scholarship Award is Parker Etzbach.

Parker is a recent graduate of Wooster School and a 5-year participant of Appalachia Service Project. The earlier years Parker served as a youth volunteer and this past year he co-led a team in a young adult capacity. 

Parker is very involved in sports playing soccer and tennis.  At Wooster he was a Social Impact Executive Board Member where he helped plan service and community education opportunities for the Wooster community and bring service opportunities to Wooster students and faculty.   He also was a Student Ambassador, where he led tours for prospective students and represented Wooster in front of alumni and board members at events.

A member of Jesse Lee United Methodist Church, he also assists their Spirit Builders construct and assemble wheelchair ramps across Connecticut providing greater accessibility for the homebound. 

This fall Parker will be attending Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota where he plans to study chemistry.   We are very pleased to present him with this award.

The John Ward Love in Action Award was established by Jesse Lee ASP in 2017 to honor John Ward’s 30th Appalachia Service Project Trip. It is a $1000 grant given each year to a high school senior who has participated in ASP and dedicated themself to other forms of community service.

Winners of the John Ward Award have been:

• 2022 – Parker Etzbach
• 2021 – Kate Fleming
• 2020 – Matt Carpenter
• 2019 – Miles Tullo
• 2018 – Gillian Retter
• 2017 – Petros Papadopolous

High-school students and adults from the Ridgefield area are on their annual Appalachia Service Project mission trip this week, with 127 volunteers working to make homes “warmer, safer and drier” in Kentucky and another 50 doing repairs locally.

Based out of Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, Jesse Lee ASP is in its 38th year. Because of the pandemic, Jesse Lee ASP split its efforts this year, offering the option of the traditional trip down to Appalachia and an “at-home” version.

The 127 traveling volunteers departed early Saturday morning after a commissioning ceremony at Jesse Lee with family and friends. They split up, working this week in Floyd and Magoffin counties in Kentucky. Crews of two adults and four students team up to repair, build or replace roofs, foundations, mobile-home underpinning and wheelchair ramps, while also developing relationships with the homes’ residents. They’re eating and sleeping in “centers” organized and operated in schools and churches by the national ASP organization.

Saturday’s departure celebration included recognition of five Ridgefield teens who have participated in ASP during all four years of high school. They are (shown in photo) Caspar Browning, Annie Haughney, Eric Pereira, P.J. Reiner and Alexa Sasse.

Additionally, Parker Etzbach of Wilton was named recipient of the John Ward Love in Action Award, a $1,000 scholarship established in 2017 that honors John Ward, who is in his 34th year of participating in Jesse Lee ASP. The scholarship is awarded to a graduating senior who has been on ASP at least once and who has committed to ongoing community service in other arenas besides ASP.

The Kentucky volunteers will return to Ridgefield in a long honking caravan on Sun., July 10 around 4 p.m. for a welcoming reception at Jesse Lee. For an updated time of return, watch the website www.jesseleeasp.org on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, 50 additional Jesse Lee ASP volunteers are working in teams this week to repair one house each in Danbury, Redding and Ridgefield. Projects include painting, building stairs, landscaping, building a wheelchair ramp, and repairing windows. In ASP tradition, they’re also eating meals together and joining in “evening gatherings.”

Funds to support Jesse Lee ASP’s work were raised through car washes held at Jesse Lee on Saturdays this spring, from “stock” sold by participants, and through gifts from the Jesse Lee congregation.

Jesse Lee ASP will celebrate its 2022 work in two ways: with an ice cream social at the church on Sat., July 16 at 6:30 p.m. featuring a slide show of all the crews’ experiences; and a special Sunday-morning service at Jesse Lee on July 17 at 9:30 a.m. All are invited to both.

In addition to the teams working this week in Kentucky and local towns, four college students from Ridgefield (all Jesse Lee ASP veterans) are working all summer in Appalachia as paid ASP staff members. Johannes Bonwetsch is center director in McDowell County, W.V.; Claire Dollins is center director in Bell County, KY; Chiara Signorelli is volunteer coordinator in Nicholas County, WV; and Bella Lussi is finance coordinator in Floyd County, KY. Their tasks include helping to evaluate applications from homeowners, stocking the “center” with tools and supplies, planning and overseeing home repairs, hosting and assisting the weekly teams of volunteers, and much more.

Appalachia Service Project is a national Christian volunteer organization whose participants make an annual weeklong mission trip where they work to make local folks’ homes “warmer, safer and drier.” Since its founding in 1969, more than 410,000 volunteers from across the nation have repaired 18,300 homes in central Appalachia.

Pre-COVID, Jesse Lee ASP had grown to become the second-largest local ASP group in America. The entire national ASP program was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic, but Jesse Lee ASP sent 281 volunteers in 2019.

Jesse Lee ASP is open to anyone who has completed their freshman year of high school.

For more information about the local Appalachia Service Project, call Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church at (203) 438-8791 or go to www.jesseleeasp.org.