HOPE West Virginia

Good morning! I spent my last post explaining how and why I left Stonehill College, but I want to take the next few posts to share a few of the great experiences I had in my last days at Stonehill. The first being a HOPE trip to West Virginia…

A HOPE trip to West Virginia

On March 4th 2023 I set out on an adventure with six other beautiful women to Wheeling West Virginia. It was spring break and instead of going home, we had all felt called in one way or another to go on a HOPE trip through Stonehill. It was a small group of us ladies but the week that lay ahead of us would prove to have a profound impact not only on the communities we served but also on ourselves. From the people we met, to the conversations we had, and all the unexpected laughs and tears I can truly say that I wouldn’t have wanted to spend this week any other way. But my attitude didn’t start out that way…

Initial thoughts & expectations before the HOPE trip

Before signing up for this HOPE trip, I had backed out of the winter HOPE trip I had initially signed up for. Sitting through my first meeting I had experienced a wave of great anxiety as I thought about the reality of not being able to see or contact my family during an entire week when I was supposed to be visiting them. That, coupled with the stress of the semester ending and a new one starting, I decided the winter HOPE trip wasn’t going to work for me that year. Thanks to the kindness and understanding of the HOPE leaders and coordinators I was graciously moved to the spring trip. And so I found myself a few months later in my first meeting for HOPE West Virginia. 

Upon finding out that it was a “girls trip!” my hesitancy and anxiety began to sink in again. Never in my life had I been in an environment in which I interacted only with girls- especially for a whole week. Most of my good friends were guys and I hadn’t had the best experiences trying to be friends with girls. I was expecting (and dreading) the drama, pettiness, and *cringe* moments that were bound to ensue on this trip. I almost dropped out again right then and there, but a voice inside of me told me to give it a try. To this day I am so beyond thankful that I did…

Preparation for HOPE West Virginia

Each week we would meet to discuss the issues we would be immersed in on our trip. We learned about the health risks, social, economic, and racial issues surrounding the coal industry. As people who cared deeply about the environment we also discussed the impact the coal mining industry has had. When examining these issues however we were reminded to not point fingers at the people working within the industry. For many of them, as we would soon learn first hand on our trip, this was the best or only option they had. 

Over the course of these meetings we started to get to know each other as a group. We began to open our eyes to the complexity of the issues facing the community we were about to immerse ourselves in. Our group leader Jessika did a wonderful job preparing us for what lay ahead. But the first hand experiences we would have and the friendships we would form on our trip went so far beyond my expectations.

The Places We Served through HOPE

Edelman Garden

The First place we served together was Edelman Garden. This was a beautiful community garden designed to provide the surrounding neighborhood with fresh food, flowers, and beauty. We helped to organize the tools shed, rip out some old posts, weed some of the beds and mark a layout for the new beds they are hoping to build. One of the ways Edelman Garden serves the community is by providing work for the blind and disabled. The new raised beds they are hoping to put in would make it easier for people in wheelchairs to access. We packed some sandwiches for lunch and adventured through “the ladies dancing district” (as Mary called it) in search of a restroom at a fast food place down the road. It was a great first service project together and it left me hopeful for the coming days.

A Quick Trip into Despair

It was later that day we went to visit the coal mines and see a coal slurry. To paint you a picture of my experience this was my journal entry right after:

“Love the Living and the Dead will rise again. I used to have dreams, when I was little, of the end of the wold. Dreams of fire and of clouds and of man made mountains. Robots that did not understand nor care that they were killing. I would dream of running, of hiding, of trying to stop it. Some people say you can’t die in your dreams but I did. Every single time. It was inevitable. I would die my inevitable death, I would wake up, and then the same was still true: an inevitable, lurking fate that I tried desperately to make the most of if I couldn’t avoid it.

That is what I saw today: the end of the world. And it was exactly how I had imagined it only it was different. I was there, in real life, staring at what I now know was a coal mine waste land. Not the first of its kind and probably not the last. It was that man-made mountain: so tall you couldn’t even see the liquid waste hiding inside. It was the machines digging, and driving, and carrying, and dumping, building a valley of death taking its victims slowly as the toxins seeped into their lungs and skin and water. It wasn’t as dramatic as my dreams, or maybe it was, but in my dreams there was always an intoxicating fear and intensity. Here, there was nothing but a gentle breeze, a warm sun, the voice of a mentor and a deep inexplicable grief.

When the end of the world was in a dream I thought that I could stop it, or avoid it, or at least save myself or my family. But now that I could see it happening right in front of me I wanted to do nothing but sit there forever and watch in burn. Who was I to stop it? No one. No one at all. And looking our onto that wasteland, I was humbled in a way I had never been humbled before. I’ve been told that it is only when we are humbled that we are able to see the greatness of God and I think now that this must be true because the more I wanted this all to come to an end or to have never began in the first place, the more I realized how little power I had until I was able to see myself nearly entirely powerless against it: it was something I could not defeat.

It is then that I was finally able to realize my need for a savior: for something bigger than me to hold onto: something that gave me power beyond my own. It is here that I heard God gently whispering “You need not defeat death for it has already been conquered by the eternal life of Love. You need only to find this love, to nurture, to share, and to cherish it all the days of your life. In this valley of death, love the living, and the dead will rise again”.

I was born into death: a time and a place I often wished would not have to come to me and yet so often it is only in death that we are able to truly know life. If I was born into light I of course would know light, in fact I would only know light. And et that knowing of light would be different than to know light in the midst of darkness: it takes on a new meaning and significance and power: it becomes something we receive: something we nurture: something we protect. And it is in these moments that we become united with the divine: humbly accepting the invitation to follow and become one with something so much greater than ourselves and our enemies. “

– March 6th 2023 (West Virginia HOPE trip journal)

It was a moment of true despair and also an ironic hope. This hope only grew as we served at Firefly Gardens the next day…

Firefly Gardens

For our next service day, we traveled to Washington PA. It was there that we visited and served the firefly garden. It was also there that I was filled with an overwhelming confidence in humanity’s ability to persevere beyond all hope. Firefly Gardens is a community green space built over a plot of land originally intended to be a parking lot. When the funding for the parking lot fell through, a member of the community asked permission to build a community garden there. The contract was temporary but because it was such a success, she has been able to keep it beyond the original permitted time.

Firefly Gardens educate the community about gardening and the environment. It also provides a space for the community to gather and celebrate one another through art, music, and tranquility. We were able to help with many things including organizing the green house, and digging up rocks to instal a beautiful mosaic made by the women in the community’s recovery home. The project that has the most impact on me though, was planting a couple of small fruit trees. 

Reflecting back on the moments, this is what I wrote:

We dug holes in what was mostly gravel and – if we were lucky – clay, to plant trees and shrubs that would become a part of this community. It was a symbol to me of humanity’s stubborn hope: the belief that we will go on and life will continue. It is the kind of faith that keeps me going and it is that “life” I was writing about yesterday. Those trees and shrubs and bushes will grow. Not because they have the perfect conditions or even suitable, good conditions but because we need them to, and our stubborn and persistent hope cannot help but grow: pushing through even the most adverse of conditions and guarantees of death.

-March 7th 2023 (West Virginia HOPE trip journal)

and so the adventure continued to GrowOV…

Grow Ohio Valley

Grow Ohio Valley or GrowOV as they like to call it, was our third service site. It was a busy day full of wonderful experiences. After arriving at the headquarters and praying for the work truck to start, we were given a tour of Vineyard Hills Orchard and Lincoln Meadow Farm. By the time we got back to headquarters, the work truck was running and we were able to make our way to Farm 18. Farm 18 was built on a once-forgotten demolition site beneath a highway. This is the site that “started it all” according to GrowOV. It was there that we got to work shoveling piles of gravel into a truck in order to pull back the ground covering and make the plots ready for farming.

After a lot of hard work and a very long walk to the 14th street greenhouses, we made our way to the Public Market for lunch. It was hands down one of the coolest places I have ever been. It is a once-abandoned large industrial building that has been beautifully transformed into a thriving market place. You could buy everything local there: food, clothes, arts, crafts. It was like a farmers market on steroids. I LOVED it. If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration I highly recommend checking our their website: https://www.growov.org/  

Wheeling Soup Kitchen

Our last day of service we stayed in wheeling and helped out at the local soup kitchen. We almost weren’t able to squeeze this day in, but thankfully ourguide was able to organize one more quick day of service. It was very different from the rest of the trip but it was still so inspiring. We were able to help serve a meal as well as organize the food pantry and assist a bit in the clean up afterwards. We learned how the kitchen and pantry first got started and I quickly realized how much of a family this space created. Not only for the people who come to eat but also for the people who dedicate their lives to working there. 

The Sisters

This post wouldn’t be a true representation of the HOPE trip without talking about the lovely sisters of Saint Joseph. The sisters were kind enough to let us stay with them throughout the trip. We had our breakfasts and dinners with them, celebrated mass with them, and had lots and lots of laughs. They even let us visit their “private – sisters residence” area to see their cat! Mount St. Joseph Center held so many precious memories. Memories of reflection, rest, and fellowship as we grew closer as a group. The rooms were absolutely beautiful. The sisters were some of the sweetest and most fun people I have ever met! I know it was largely because of this that our HOPE trip group was able to bond so well…

The Bonds We Created Together

It’s hard to say when or how or why it happened but somewhere between the hotel floors, the sweaty work days, the laughs, the tears, the mountains, the sunrises and sunsets, seven random women became friends. We shared in so many “mice moments” and even more “lizard moments”. We filled pages and pages of a notebook with quotes that filled our hearts with laughter. The beauty of what it means to be a woman started to become more clear to me. My soul was at peace with these people. It was at peace with their wise words of wisdom and their loving acts of kindness. It was at peace with their vulnerability and the way it inspired vulnerability in myself. I was even at peace with the Great British Baking Show and icecreams snuck from the freezer. 

This, I thought to myself, is what friendship feels like. It’s not complicated, it’s not difficult, it’s simply willing the good of another person and being content with one another. I knew that things would be different when we got back. I knew we wouldn’t all be spending so much time together once we came back to the “real world”. At the same time I was pretty certain that the bonds we had formed together wouldn’t just disappear. And I was right… 

Looking Back on HOPE West Virginia

Looking back, I can say with total confidence that this HOPE trip to West Virginia was exactly how I was meant to spend my spring break. It was an irreplaceable experience and one I will not soon forget. It challenged me and tested me and exposed me to so many realities that made me fearful for the future. But most importantly it helped me to realize that despite it all, no matter what, we will keep moving forward. Because of one thing: stubborn, ruthless, beautiful human hope. And that, I think, is one of the strongest things in the world.

If you want to get involved or support Stonehill’s HOPE program, check out their website here. Or you can head on over to their instagram. If you’ve been on a HOPE trip I’d love to hear your story! Leave a comment below, send an email through the connect page, or DM me on instagram 🙂

As always, thanks for reading!

-me