The Friday Finish - "dream bigger" - Dignity & Hope Stretched - Nurses Return - "Old Hands, Young Hands

September 26, 2025

"Red Bird…prepared me to dream bigger.”

Red Bird Mission School gave me a firm educational foundation that opened the door to my career in engineering at the University of Louisville. That path has taken me to rewarding roles across industries and, most recently, to my current position with Moog, a leading Space and Defense company, where I lead technical training and education for more than 9,000 engineers worldwide. While Red Bird is a small school, the experiences it offered—whether traveling the U.S. with the Cardinal Singers, learning discipline through sports, or building life-long relationships with teachers and mission staff—prepared me to dream bigger. Those opportunities fueled a desire to grow, explore, and serve, and they have taken me across six of the seven continents. (I may still make it to Antarctica one day to see the penguins.)

Equally important, Red Bird instilled in me the value of giving back. Beyond my professional work, I have dedicated myself to service through multiple nonprofit efforts. I operate The Rosewater Bookstore in Louisville, where profits are reinvested into the community to help those in need. I also founded MADE180, a business that provides training, education, and computers to individuals facing barriers to employment, and I am launching The Shared Impact Center, a collaborative hub where nonprofits and social enterprises can share resources they would not otherwise be able to afford. Of course, I continue to support Red Bird as well.

I don’t share these efforts to boast but to highlight the ripple effect Red Bird has far beyond Beverly, Kentucky. The school not only prepared me for success but also for service, and the impact of its alumni can be seen in communities across the nation and even the world. When you support Red Bird, you’re not just investing in a student’s education, you are equipping future leaders, creators, and servants whose influence reaches every corner of the globe. For me, that’s six continents so far.

Jason Dickerson, Class of 1993

Homecoming Challenge Gaining Momentum

If you haven’t heard yet, gifts to Red Bird Christian School are being doubled during the 2025 Homecoming Challenge thanks to faithful donors that are pledging thousands in matching funds. One-third of the $100,000 goal for 2025 Homecoming Challenge has already been received, but that means more gifts are needed to support the work that Austin and the other teachers are doing at our school. Don’t delay, make you gift online today, or drop a check in the mail to Red Bird Mission, Inc., 70 Queendale Ctr, Beverly, KY 40913-9607 marked “Homecoming Challenge”.

Give to enable more big dreamers at Red Bird Christian School

Link to 2025 Alumni Homecoming Info

Dignity and Hope Stretched Hundreds of Miles

Kayla Smith here, telling a story that sits real close to my heart. The Red Bird Mission doesn’t move mountains by itself. We move them because good people keep showing up with open hands and steady hearts. Wilmington United Methodist Church (UMC) in Ohio has been one of those steady lights for nearly 30 years. Year after year, sometimes twice in a year, they roll in with one or two semi-trucks for our Community Store. Clothes, household goods, the unglamorous things that make a home feel like a home.

This past summer, Terry and Randy Mabry came to volunteer and pulled up with a full trailer of furniture, housewares, and more. It wasn’t just a delivery. It was a love letter to a place they’ve chosen to stand with. While they were serving, Terry and Randy asked our Community Store Director, Kelton Adams, if he and his wife, Melanie, would come speak at Wilmington UMC. The Adams didn’t hesitate. They felt called to look those folks in the eye and say thank you the way gratitude ought to be said, person to person. Pastor Scott Miller welcomed them like family and tucked them into a beautiful old place called the Denver Hotel, the kind that carries stories in its floorboards.

By 10 a.m. Sunday, the sanctuary was full and Pastor Scott shared the long thread between Wilmington and Red Bird. Then Kelton and Melanie stood up and laid it plain. Kindness multiplies. Generosity ripples. A single stove donated meant a single mom of four could cook supper for her kids. Melanie said it best, “Their gifts brought dignity, hope.” I know what it is to struggle. Many of us in our small, tucked-away community do. Sometimes one good deed is the difference between giving up and getting up again.

Kelton and Melanie told me they felt at home there, even as newcomers. That says a lot about a church. Wilmington UMC doesn’t talk about serving, they just quietly build systems of care. They keep a stocked outdoor fridge so anyone hungry can grab food with dignity. They set umbrellas out so people can stay dry and catch their breath. That’s the Gospel lived out. Shelter each other from the rain. Be a calm place in the storm. Don’t weigh someone’s storm, just hold the umbrella and love them through it. The Adams felt that kind of steady love from the moment they pulled into town.

After service, the church family threw a potluck that felt like a homecoming. A kind man from Sugartree Ministries showed up for his first visit to Wilmington and heard Red Bird’s story through Kelton and Melanie. That’s when you feel the Holy Spirit knitting threads you didn’t even know were on the loom. He left feeling led to send volunteers to Red Bird. Right place, right time, right hearts.

Kelton told me the environment there was healthy and unified, the kind of community that enjoys being together. That says everything. Melanie left with paint, crafts, and supplies for her E‑STEAM classroom at Red Bird Christian School, and Pastor Scott even talked about partnering with her students so their projects can serve real needs back here in the mountains. That’s the loop I love to see. Their generosity lifts our kids, and then our kids create work that lifts others. Melanie said, “It gave me some hope, how good these people treated us.” I felt that in my bones. When you’re from a small, isolated place that fights hard for every inch, being seen like that is healing.

So I’m saying this plainly, as a mom, a neighbor, and someone who believes in this mission with her whole heart. Wilmington United Methodist Church has been a faithful friend to Red Bird Mission for nearly three decades, and they keep showing up. Truckloads of furniture and clothes are amazing, yes. But it’s the dignity attached to those gifts that sticks with me. If you’ve ever wondered whether small acts matter, I’m telling you they do. If you’ve ever worried your gift won’t stretch far enough, it stretches farther than you think. Dignity goes a long way in these hills. Hope goes even farther. From our community to the pews in Wilmington, from the Community Store to the classrooms where our kids are learning to build and make and dream, we feel the love. And we’re going to pass it on.

Contact us about a Red Bird staff or Red Bird Ambassador coming to speak at your church

Berea Nurses Return to Red Bird School

Berea College Nursing was back in Clay County this week doing their part to keep children healthy and safe. Last week, they lent a hand at the AdventHealth Mommy-Baby Fair in Manchester. Yesterday, they were at Red Bird Christian School performing health screenings for the students at Red Bird Christian School. Another visit to Red Bird Mission’s Queendale Campus is planned in October when they will provide health education materials and some health screenings to the general public.

Support community health at Red Bird

“Old Hands, Young Hands”

As we close out the 2025 growing season here in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, I keep thinking about hands.

Old hands, steady as a metronome after fifty summers of hoeing rows. New hands, still learning the weight of a good tomato and the feel of rain coming in the air. Some of our members are veterans at this, the kind who can read soil by sight and prayer. Some came in brand new, brave enough to try a first garden and see what happens.

Then something very Appalachian happened. They met in the middle. The elders and the newbies just... worked. Stories were traded next to seed packets, laughs carried across the rows and a common love tied us up like twine. Generations making a perfect circle, passing the bucket, passing the know-how, passing the heart.

We kept that circle strong at our Red Bird Mission Grow Appalachia meetings each month. Smiles, cackles, and the kind of learning you can taste. Guest speakers rolled through with recipes and wisdom. Folks went home with tools that actually made the work lighter. And every single time, the gratitude in that room could’ve lit the room without a switch.

Fridays turned into a standing date. The Farmers Market was the place to be and the absolute highlight of the week. It gave our gardeners a whole new kind of backbone. People ask them, “Did you grow this?” And with their head held high they answered, “yes.” That pride is medicine.

Bags emptied into the hands of neighbors, kids, and elders who needed good food on their tables.

Our community garden stayed a small haven through it all. Hopes and dreams sown into the earth with love and grit. If somebody’s beans needed tied, somebody showed up. If somebody’s back was tight, another person finished that row. We tended each other’s plots like family, because that’s what this place makes of people.

As the season winds down, I don’t see an ending. I see roots set deeper, hopes braided together, skills that won’t wash away with the frost. We grew food, yes. We also grew confidence. We grew neighbors into friends. We grew a wider table. That’s the quiet miracle of Grow Appalachia here at Red Bird Mission.

Plant a seed, feed a family, strengthen a holler, repeat. Berea College lit this spark years ago, and it keeps catching. Every jar given, every tool shared, every lesson taught, every dollar spent at a local table says the same thing... we belong to each other.

Posted by Kelton Adams on the Grow Appalachia/Berea College website.

Support community agriculture at Red Bird