Jesse Lee ASP Info Meeting – Jan 22 @ 7:30

High-school teens and adults are invited to an information session on Wed., Jan. 22 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 41st year: a mission trip June 28-July 6.

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

ASP is a national Christian volunteer organization founded by the Rev. Glenn “Tex” Evans, a Methodist minister, in 1969. Since then, more than 430,000 volunteers from across the nation have participated in weeklong mission trips to make 19,000 homes in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina “warmer, safer and drier.”

Jesse Lee ASP is one of the largest local ASP groups in the country. Last summer, 268 Ridgefield volunteers repaired and improved homes in Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Jesse Lee ASP is open to anyone who will have completed their freshman year of high school this summer. Adults are urgently 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. 22 information session.

Previous ASP volunteers need not attend the Jan. 22 meeting. However, they should plan to attend one of the required “first orientation” meetings scheduled for Wed., Feb. 5 and Tues., Feb. 11. Choose one.

For more details, go online to www.jesseleeasp.org or call Deb Ahle (203-438-6782) or Sandy Carpenter (203-470-4328).

Abby Seal Wins 2024 John Ward Award

Jesse Lee ASP is excited to announce that the winner of the 2024 John Ward “Love in Action” Scholarship Award is Abigail Seal.

Abby is a recent graduate of Ridgefield High School and a 3-year participant of Appalachia Service Project.

At RHS Abby was involved in sports, playing field hockey and serving as team captain her senior year.  She was also active in student government all four years, serving as class president her senior year. 

In the community, Abby was active with Saferides of Ridgefield, the Molly Ann Tango Memorial Foundation Junior Board and the Ridgefield Field Hockey Program.  In addition to lots of babysitting, she has worked at Tiger Sports and Bailey’s Backyard. 

This fall Abby will be attending The University of St. Andrews in Scotland where she plans to study neuroscience.   We are very pleased to present her with this award.

John Ward

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:

  • 2024 – Abby Seal
  • 2023 – Henry Idone
  • 2022 – Parker Etzbach
  • 2021 – Kate Fleming
  • 2020 – Matt Carpenter
  • 2019 – Miles Tullo
  • 2018 – Gillian Retter
  • 2017 – Petros Papadopolous

268 Jesse Lee ASP Volunteers Head Down South

High-school students and adults from Ridgefield are on their annual Appalachia Service Project mission trip this week, with a near-record 268 volunteers working to make homes “warmer, safer and drier” in Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Based out of Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, Jesse Lee ASP is in its 40th year and is one of the largest local ASP groups in the country. The total of 268 volunteers means that more than 1 percent of Ridgefield’s population is on the mission trip this week. The total also is just shy of Jesse Lee ASP’s record of 280 volunteers set in pre-COVID 2019.

The volunteers departed early Saturday morning after a commissioning ceremony at Jesse Lee with family and friends. They split up, working this week in Dickenson County, VA; Leslie County, KY; and Sullivan County, TN. Crews of two adults and five students team up to repair, build or replace roofs, foundations, floors, 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 six teens who have participated in ASP during all four years of high school. They are: Nikolai Bonwetsch, Dean Mosiello, Ryan Mosiello, Luke Pereira, Nick Sganga and Ian Swiatowitz.

Additionally, another recent RHS graduate, Abby Seal, was named the recipient of the John Ward Love in Action Award, a $1,000 scholarship established in 2017 that honors John Ward, who is in his 36th 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 ASP volunteers will return to Ridgefield in a long honking caravan on Sun., July 7 around 5 p.m. for a welcoming reception at Jesse Lee. For an updated time of return, watch the website www.jesseleeasp.org on Sunday afternoon.

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 2024 work in two ways: with an ice cream social at the church on Sat., July 13 at 6:30 p.m. featuring a slide show of all the crews’ experiences; and a special Sunday-morning service on July 14 at 9:30 a.m.  All are invited to both.

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 420,000 volunteers from across the nation have repaired 18,500 substandard homes in central Appalachia.

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

For more information, call Jesse Lee Church at (203) 438-8791 or go to www.jesseleeasp.org.