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Updates from our Community
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 In the spring, Sister Jean Stanford of Boston, MA joined us in community at Big Laurel. While her intentions were to spend three months of her sabbatical serving at the Kermit Pk-8 grade school as an assistant in the first grade and as an addiction counselor and mentor at Serenity Pointe Recovery Center, God had other plans. As Jean was getting acquainted at her places of service, her first few weeks were cut short by the Coronavirus pandemic. [Image: Grace, Jean, Justin, and Jacob at The Breaks Interstate Park.]
Instead of leaving Big Laurel and heading back to Boston, Jean decide to stay and quarantine with us on the mountain. After all, what better place to be safe and healthy. She enjoyed her three-month sabbatical at Big Laurel by praying, walking 10,000 steps each day, cooking, sharing in meals, celebrating birthdays, watching the spring and summer seasons unfold, and cleaning and volunteering on-site.
Join us in bidding farewell to Justin Rodriguez. He dedicated 11 months to Big Laurel by building community, hosting guests, educating children, and working towards social change in Southern West Virginia.
In September 2019, Justin began his year as a Notre Dame AmeriCorps member. He worked as an assistant teacher for the third and fourth grades in the nearby elementary school, helped manage the school’s gym classes, hosted guests at Big Laurel, and used sustainable practices to maintain parts of the property and surrounding land trust.
As schools closed in March and visiting groups cancelled, Justin adjusted to a new pace of life at Big Laurel. He continued helping maintain the facilities at Big Laurel, delivering meals and activity packets to kids, and visiting families at a safe social distance.
Beginning in August, Justin will be serving an additional year of Notre Dame AmeriCorps as a teacher assistant at St. Clement School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
During our June board meeting, we welcomed Jacob Zondag (2016-2018 AmeriCorps member) to our board of directors. Jacob lives and works in Kermit as a music teacher. After four years of his dedicated service, we are grateful to have him on the board and are looking forward to his ideas and contributions.
Grace Williams will be beginning her third year as director of Big Laurel at the end of this summer. She is looking forward to creating long-term goals and continuing to explore new ways that she and Big Laurel can grow.
Rebecca Hooker continues to serve on the Big Laurel board and share in community on-site.
Sister Kathy O'Hagan and Sister Gretchen Shaffer continue to support Big Laurel and share in community for their 44th year on the ridge. Sister Kathy is very involved in Project FACTS and works with individuals in addiction recovery at Serenity Pointe.
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Serving our Neighbors during COVID-19
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 As the Coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020, people in Mingo County began facing new challenges of even higher unemployment and school closures. A concern in the community was that families who normally relied on school meals would be additionally burdened. With Mingo County teachers, ABLE Families, Christian Help, and volunteers, Big Laurel began packing and delivering meals to local children and families.
Big Laurel was very disappointed to have to make the decision to cancel all summer camps for the 2020 season. Since many educational facilities, camps, and summer enrichment programs have been closed, children have been spending most of their time at home since mid-March. Some are without their parents’ supervision, and many without age-appropriate games, crafts, and toys to keep their minds and bodies active, engaged, and entertained. [Image: Justin, Grace, and Marlene (ABLE Families) deliver boxes.]
Big Laurel worked to fill that need by mailing activity care packages. Initially, Big Laurel sent 97 activity care packages upon request to children ages 1 to 18. Through Big Laurel’s network on social media, local teachers, and friends of Big Laurel, the mission of caring and learning reached many brand new families and children from all over WV and surrounding states.
 In June, Big Laurel was invited to apply for a COVID 19 rapid response grant from The Education Foundation of America (EFA), a funding partner of Coalfield Development. Upon receiving the $5,000 grant, Big Laurel was able to serve 141 people. Big Laurel delivered or mailed science and craft activity packages to 80 additional children in 1st – 12th grade. These are primarily children in Mingo County whose families have low incomes and who have attended Big Laurel summer camps in the past 2 years. [Image: Nick and Andy (Molloy College Alumni) and Justin pack 65 food boxes for families.]
In addition to craft supplies and coloring books, each child received two STEM projects, including a build their own solar powered robot and a recipe and supplies for a lab project to create their own gummy candies. We also packed and delivered food boxes to 61 families with low or fixed incomes in the Marrowbone Creek and Jennies Creek areas of Mingo County. This was conducted in partnership with the connections at ABLE Families and Christian Help.
Big Laurel continues to work to maintain the facilities and grounds on-site. Even though large visiting groups and volunteers have been cancelled, the team at Big Laurel has taken the time to make some much needed repairs and improvements. [Image: Interior of the Ecology Center after renovation.]
 In addition to deep cleaning and rearranging the Web of Life Ecology Center camp building, Big Laurel staff and volunteers have repaired fencing, cleared the boy scout trail, cleaned the guest house, and re-built the barn doors on Gert’s Barn. Paul Winberry was able to join us for a few days to lead the tedious task of removing and replacing the door on the barn.
 With several months of way more free time than we anticipated, we continued our maintenance and building projects. We emptied sheds, hauled trash and recycling off-site, repaired the hot water tank at the Eco center, repaired the water heater at Big Laurel, cleaned cisterns and filters, cleared out the shelter at Big Laurel, re-dug power lines by Spirit Way, removed the sky light and did roof and ceiling repair on the screen porch, gardened, took care of the lawn, maintained the roads and ditches, cleared dead and fallen trees, and got a jump start on splitting firewood. [Image: Justin saws fallen trees.]
Sister Kathy continues to build community and encourage addiction recovery through Project FACTS. Serenity Pointe remains a partnering site where Big Laurel hosts social distanced, outdoor addiction recovery sessions and AA meetings.
As travel and gathering restrictions began to loosen towards the end of the summer, Big Laurel has been able to host small groups and individuals so that as many as is safely possible can still enjoy the beautiful nature and creation that is all around. Big Laurel has practiced a safe COVID 19 policy with social distancing and spending time outside with guests as much as possible.
Staff and volunteers brought eight former campers to the pool for a one-day outing. Big Laurel has also done a few home visits and invested into specific families to help them along with physical needs during this time.
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By Grace Williams, Big Laurel Director
Light pink, rubber shavings cover the dining room table and rain to the floor. As I hold the 2-inch square block in my left hand, I carve away at the corners and details. A little house begins to take shape.
My back is to the side porch, and dim, evening light sifts through the door. My feet press against the sloped floor beneath the table. My elbows rest on the smooth, glossy surface and I can feel the creative inspiration seeping out of this altar and into me.
A sort of creativity lives in this long, wooden table that Dave Pierce made by hand more than forty years ago. Dave was Seneca Indian and when he heard about the JASMER land reserve, he moved his family down from New York to settle on this mountain ridge. A talented carver and woodworker, Dave soon began building and crafting wooden furniture for Big Laurel School and other neighbors.
In its early life, kids crowded on benches around this table for homemade bread and bottomless glasses of milk every day for a decade. Now, some days, the table rests in a spirit of gratitude and an aura of reverence, as if remembering its years of hard work and love. But today, I am using the table’s spirit to create a new image of Big Laurel, a little rubber block print stamp.
Central to a space that is so familiar to everyone who has visited Big Laurel, the table stands proud and steady. Even through all the changes in staff, décor, community members, paint, even the flooring beneath it and the chairs around it, the table remains unchanging. An altar that holds our sacraments, we gather to eat. Hands clasp encircling the table before every community meal. “God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.”
And in the seasons, when the community is less concentrated, spread all over the country, I sidle up to the table with my laptop or guitar or book. I sit at the end nearest the woodstove and prop my feet in the little raindrop shaped cutouts on the table legs. And I’m reminded of all the food and all the crafts and all the love this table has held and I’m grateful.
There’s a song by the Highwomen, an all-women country band, called “Crowded Table” and there’s a line that goes, “I want a house with a crowded table, and a place by the fire for everyone. Let us take on the world while we're young and able, and bring us back together when the day is done.”
So remember, you always have a place at the Big Laurel, at table and by the fire. And I know Big Laurel will bring us back together when the day is done.
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Donate Online
Ready to make a contribution?
go to biglaurel.org/donate
Or send check by mail to:
PO Box 266 Kermit, WV 25674
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Board of Directors
Sr. Lillian Jordan, President
Lydia Noyes, Secretary
Elizabeth Collins
Rebecca Hooker
Pat Mosunic
Jennifer Sartin
Jeff Varney
Jacob Zondag
If you or someone you know would make a good board member, fill out an application at biglaurel.org/board
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Don't forget to smile!
Amazon Smile, that is :)
Anytime you shop online, go to smile.amazon.com, log in, and select Big Laurel Learning Center Inc. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchase directly to Big Laurel!
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