[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 17, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5685-S5686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             RECOGNIZING THE CHRISTIAN APPALACHIAN PROJECT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
Christian Appalachian Project, CAP, an organization that is celebrating 
50 years of dedicated service to the people of Appalachia.
  CAP was started by the Reverend Ralph Beiting in Eastern Kentucky. 
Reverend Beiting was a Catholic priest assigned to an area of Kentucky 
that had no Catholic church, and the organization grew out of his 
ability to help those in need without the organizational structure of 
an established church. In 1964, he started a summer camp for boys on 
Herrington Lake in Garrard County, thus launching the Christian 
Appalachian Project's now 50-year legacy.
  Since that summer of 1964, CAP has grown into the Nation's 16th-
largest human services charity. Among the services CAP provides are 
home repair and reconstruction, disaster relief, clothing drives, food 
relief, and--a sure sign that some things never change--summer camps.
  CAP employs 160 people and has around 50 long-term volunteers. This 
is in addition to the host of volunteers that are drawn to community 
service projects like Grateful Bread, Grateful Threadz, and WorkFest.
  CAP has touched the lives of thousands in Appalachia and is a model 
for how organizations can serve their communities. I therefore I ask my 
Senate colleagues to join me in honoring the Christian Appalachian 
Project.
  Kentucky Living published an article in their September 2014 issue 
profiling the Christian Appalachian Project. I ask unanimous consent 
that the full article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                   [From Kentucky Living, Sept. 2014]

    Bringing Help and Hope: Hundreds of Volunteers Working With the 
  Christian Appalachian Project--Now Celebrating 50 Years of Service--
Bring Residents of Appalachia Dignity, Self-Worth, and Renovated Homes.

                        (By Debra Gibson Isaacs)

       It wasn't supposed to snow. After all, it was spring break 
     for the college students who had wound their way into rural 
     eastern Kentucky from across the nation. But the snow was 
     just one of many surprises this week, and like the others, it 
     was easily, joyfully accepted.
       The students were in Kentucky for WorkFest, one of an array 
     of programs serving the most basic needs of the region's most 
     vulnerable residents--children and families, the elderly, and 
     individuals with disabilities--conducted by the Christian 
     Appalachian Project, or CAP as the nonprofit organization is 
     affectionately known. CAP provides home repair and 
     reconstruction, food, disaster relief, crisis intervention, 
     child development, summer camps, family advocacy, domestic 
     violence shelters, in-home respite, clothing, and programs 
     for the elderly.
       With help from hundreds of volunteers, CAP has renovated 
     362 homes in Floyd, Jackson, Rockcastle, Clay, Owsley, 
     McCreary, Martin, Lawrence, and other counties during 
     WorkFest since the annual event began in 1992. On this day in 
     March, CAP volunteers were in Rockcastle County working on 
     four homes.
       One was the home of Vincent, a member of Jackson Energy 
     Cooperative. Vincent had returned to Kentucky from 11 years 
     working for the military to find his home in need of far more 
     work than he could accomplish alone and with little money.
       ``I am like the Beverly Hillbillies,'' 48-year-old Vincent 
     joked, his green eyes smiling above his mustache, a bandana 
     on his head and two earrings piercing his left ear. ``I 
     packed up everything I owned in my truck and came home. This 
     is home. I always come back home.''
       But home had a bathroom floor that had rotted out. The 
     living room floor was also gone. The roof leaked. Windows had 
     to be replaced. Plumbing needed repair. The front porch was 
     close to falling down. The modest home was barely habitable. 
     Still, no one seemed to see the problems; they were focused 
     on the solutions.
       Seeing the solution rather than the problem is standard 
     fare for CAP, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary all 
     year from now until August 2015. Started by the Rev. Ralph 
     Beiting, a Catholic priest assigned to a slice of eastern 
     Kentucky without a single Catholic church at the time, CAP 
     grew from Beiting's ingenuity in helping those around him. At 
     first Beiting would travel to northern Kentucky, where 
     friends and church families would donate all kinds of goods 
     and clothes, and he would distribute them to those in need. 
     His outsized personality soon led him into the hearts of the 
     people, and that led him to try to meet the many needs he 
     found.
       The first official CAP project came in 1964--a summer camp 
     for boys on Herrington Lake in Garrard County. Beiting went 
     on to develop the concept for finding ways to help people 
     help themselves. He named his ministry the Christian 
     Appalachian Project and declared it would be ``a group that 
     would roll up our sleeves and get the job done.''
       That same work ethic and dedication continues today, 50 
     years later, as the Christian

[[Page S5686]]

     Appalachian Project goes about improving the lives of those 
     in Appalachia.
       ``Cut it like this,'' instructs Jay G. Dresser, a CAP 
     volunteer for 15 years, as he takes a power saw from one of 
     the students to demonstrate how to notch a 2x4. A few feet 
     away, students are in the bathroom ripping up rotted flooring 
     while another group works in the bedroom. It is dark and 
     nippy inside the modest home, but no one seems to notice as a 
     happy cacophony of saws, hammers, and laughter fills the 
     house.
       ``That's better,'' Dresser encourages. ``Push this. Now 
     pull the plate all the way out. Now stand it up and let me 
     reset the blade.''
       A few miles away, a similar scene unfolds at the home of 
     Betty, also a Jackson Energy Cooperative member, and the 
     daughter and her fiance, cousin, and four grandchildren who 
     live with her in a mobile home that has been added to over 
     the years. New windows are already in place and two 
     volunteers are at work on the roof.
       ``The kids now have a warm bedroom,'' says Betty. A fire in 
     the kitchen earlier had done extensive damage to another part 
     of the house, but she did not have the ability to repair it. 
     ``I just did the best I could,'' she says. ``My sister-in-law 
     fell through the porch and the refrigerator almost landed on 
     her.''
       ``My son passed with leukemia when he was 32,'' Betty says, 
     her long brown hair now streaked with gray. ``He always told 
     me if he won the lottery he would bulldoze down this house 
     and build me a new home. I wish he was here to see this. They 
     have done miracles.''
       Everyday miracles are what CAP has come to be known for as 
     it has grown into the 16th-largest human services charity in 
     the country with 160 employees and as many as 50 long-term 
     volunteers.
       CAP's Housing Program, which coordinates WorkFest and 
     YouthFest, a spring-break alternative program for high school 
     students, provides home repair and reconstruction services 
     year-round. Permanent crews, including an experienced, 
     industry-trained crew leader and several long-term 
     volunteers, perform all types of home repairs.
       Families requesting help fill out an application, which is 
     reviewed by a caseworker who then schedules a home visit to 
     assess the applicant's needs. The families go through a 
     budgeting process and in monthly installments pay back one-
     half of the material costs (up to a maximum of 5 percent of 
     their income). They also donate sweat equity. All the labor 
     is donated for the homes that CAP builds or repairs.
       Across Appalachia, similar projects are under way. A CAP-
     operated food pantry called Grateful Bread warded off hunger 
     for 800 families last year, and Grateful Threadz, a store 
     accepting donations of gently used clothing, helped thousands 
     of individuals and families. Prescription assistance helped 
     709, family advocacy served 4,980, elderly services 267, and 
     domestic violence shelters 2,640. It is the same with 
     numerous other programs. In all, the organization reached 
     more than 50,000 people last year. Each represents a need 
     met, a better life.
       ``We exist to serve God,'' says CAP President Guy Adams. 
     ``That is a high calling. How we do that is helping people in 
     need in Appalachia.''

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