UPS & DOWNS   August, 1999

WAYFARERS' HOUSE NEWS

Welcome to Carol, Janine, April, Pam, Betty, Pat, Barbara, Mary and Sharon. Farewell and good wishes to Kathy, Anna K., Michelle, Jessica and Mark. Happy August Birthday to Anna R.!

Meeting Ground Volunteers recently had two sessions led by Lee Jankowski on the Alternatives to Violence Program, with which Lee has been associated in programs with prisoners. Reports from participants have been very appreciative.

BOAT TRIP

Residents of Clairvaux Farm and Wayfarers' House are scheduled for a boat trip on the Chesapeake Bay this week. We are eager to hear reports of the expedition.

WORK GROUPS

The summer work groups have been hard at work at Meeting Ground. About eight groups have come to work at Wayfarers' and Clairvaux Farm to construct sidewalks and entrance pad between the dorm and the dining hall at the Farm. They have done interior re-painting and fence repair as well as many other organizing, ordering and improving chores at both sites. Always their relationships with residents, staff and other volunteers have enriched us all and given, they say, an experience to them that is unforgettable and has changed the way they look at life and other people.

OUR SYMPATHY

Our deep sympathy to Anna Reckenberger in the recent loss of her brother.

GET WELL WISHES

Our wishes to Bob Rudisill for a speedy recovery from his recent illness. Bob is a volunteer driver for Meeting Ground.

ARE YOU NEW TO WAYFARERS'

If you are new, have you met these volunteers yet? Pete Quayle (her real name is Frances, but no one calls her that) is Meeting Ground's financial secretary, and she often can be found in the office of Wayfarers' on Thursday mornings. Mae Yokoyama is often at the House too. She was there on Monday afternoon just after she fed lunch to all the General Council members at their monthly meeting. Lynn Rodden will often be planning meals for the House or taking someone with her to do the weekly marketing. And have you met Eric Schaumann? He's the man who is quietly making repairs or adding new benefits to 107 Delaware avenue, like the new changing table in the downstairs bathroom and the new shelves on the donation porch. Renie Newman is one of the day-monitor volunteers, a good listener. You probably, by now have met the full-time volunteers Barbara Dugan and Al and Barbara Amman, who live at the Farm but who are often helping in one way or another at the House. Kathy Parker you know as one of the night and week-end monitors, but have you met Mary Jo Williams? She often assists our volunteer medical professional, Dr. Aaron, when he visits the House on Monday afternoons, and she will be starting our weekly parenting group next month for mothers at the House who would like to be part of that experience. And when you hear that art group is beginning again in the fall, you will meet our Leona Papagno. Residents report that they never knew artwork could be so much fun and so relaxing until they met Leona. Please leave notes for Esther Smith in her mailbox in Wayfarers' Office if you have ideas for Ups & Downs, something you would like to see in this House newspaper, something you'd like to say, something you have written -- an article, a poem or a story, we would be happy to have it. Would you like to work on Ups & Downs?

ABOUT APRIL

In July, soon after April arrived at Wayfarers', you probably saw her in the kitchen. She has already cooked many meals for our residents, and she admits to having real interest in food preparation. And she will quietly admit that she may have some natural talent. "My sister is a really good cook, and she taught me ... when I lived with her," April says. She reports that when she lived with her dad, he cooked, but when she lived in a group home, where there were 22 women, she did a lot of cooking.

We know she has cooked many meals here, lunches and dinners for women and children who live here and meals for the work groups who have been helping at the House. And then there are those birthday cakes she made!

April has a son, Daulton, who was two years old on July 31 and who lives with his dad in West Virginia.

If it's true that the way to a person's heart is via the stomach, we would venture a guess that April has many friends here already.

CONVERSATIONS

Sometimes in conversation at the House we learn what our residents think about many things. This past week we not only learned that Carol grew up on the East Coast as an only child , but that she has some serious reservations about the way science is moving in this era. She thinks genetic engineering may have gone way too far. She does not like the dabbling with nature that has moved int test tube babies from DNA research. She feels strongly this isn't progress.

She has reservations, too, about children who aren't allowed their innocence, are robbed of some of childhood by learning about many unhappy and too-sophisticated parts of life. Still, she says, she doesn't think it was good that she grew up being taught that no one was bad. That is growing up ignorant, and we pay in the end for that, she said.

A GUESS WHO

Who at Wayfarers' was a nurse at Chester Medical Center in Pennsylvania and at Elkton, Maryland, loves children and enjoys nature???