The Friday Finish - Red Bird Receives Faber -School Snapshot - "People light up" - On-time Delivery - Fire Alarm, Chapel Song, The Place - Meal Strengthens Bonds - Japanese Visit
September 12, 2026
Red Bird Receives Inaugural Faber Award
Red Bird Mission was honored for its century of service in the mountains by receiving the very first Faber Award, given by the Berea Appalachian Fund. Appalachian Fund Director David King presented a plaque to Tracy Nolan, Director of Red Bird Community Outreach and Community Health, and Karla Roberts, Red Bird Grants Manager and Board Secretary, Wednesday during the 2026 Leadership Gathering in Berea, Kentucky. The plaque reads, “In recognition of outstanding service and dedication to improving the quality of life in Central Appalachia.”
The award honors the philanthropic vision and heart of the founders of the Berea College Appalachian Fund, Herbert Faber, co-inventor of Formica, and his wife, Ruth McGurk Faber. The Fabers started the Appalachian Fund with a million dollar investment set aside in 1950, “to benefit the hard-working people from the southern mountains of Appalachia that he employed in his business.” The fund has grown over the decades through wise investing while making a major impact supporting programs and projects benefiting Appalachian people.1 Mr. Faber’s family still stays connected to the Fund and follows its successes across the region.
1 “A Big Hand for Appalachia”, The Berea Alumnus, Summer, 2000.
School Snapshot
Red Bird Christian School students planning for college had the opportunity last Saturday to take the SAT transitioning from the paper and pencils of the ACT to the SAT digital format. As always, Red Bird School staff and IT were up to the challenge of loading the necessary software and making the day less stressful for students.
Alumni Samantha and Jon North were back on campus Tuesday night with their Pineville Lady Mountain Lions Volleyball team facing the spirited Red Bird Cardinal Nation. Our Lady Cardinals went down 2-0 but battled back for a win to force a 4th game before going down in defeat.
RBCS students and staff took a pause Wednesday afternoon with an early dismissal as mid-term reports went out to give students and their families an idea on academic progress.
The Culinary Arts Class took on a Food Box Challenge to see which team could transform a food pantry box into a delicious, nutritious meal for a family of four. Instructor Melanie Adams threw in different food allergies for each “family” testing what students had learned about identifying ingredients and substitutions to make without compromising the quality of the dish.
The school parking was almost to capacity today for the annual Grandparents Day Breakfast hosted by RBCS Food Service staff. Pride could be seen in faces of grandparents and students alike to share this special day together.
“People Light Up”
Red Bird Mission Work Camp teams provide necessary home repair for families living below the poverty line, but these teams also deploy volunteers to assist with Community Outreach programs. This week, one volunteer shared her experience assisting on one of the Home Delivered Meals routes. Government reimbursement to fully fund 60 home delivered meals ceased this month. We need your gifts to bridge the gap while Kentuckians seek restoration of this service needed for the health and well-being of rural people living in isolated settings.
just got to see how important these drivers are to their community. I watched people light up when Tamara brought their food to them. She checked in on them. She was caring. A lot of these people didn't seem like they were talking to anybody else throughout the week so just getting to have a conversation with somebody that they knew and could trust was a big deal.
In some of the houses as she's handing them the food it looked like they were maybe not preparing anything for themselves at all, and so this was the food that they were needing to get by.
You get to see more of the community than what we do when we're just here [Red Bird Mission Queendale Campus] - how isolated some of those houses were, how far back we were going on some of those roads. I don't know how much community [interaction] they could be having if they're having trouble getting around, getting out. Just seeing their faces light up when she came in to drop the meals off and just getting to talk to her was a big deal!
One of the clients came out on the porch as we came up with the meal, and she asked for help, and Tamara said, “Sure. What can I help you with?” Her phone line is not working currently and hasn't been for a while. She had checked her own blood sugar in the house, and it was over 400. She was expecting a traveling nurse, but hadn't seen anybody and wasn't able to call out.
And so, Tamara and I stopped the route, came back here to Outreach so that Tamara could let somebody know this woman needed checked on. I don't know how else she would have been able to communicate with anybody.
On-time Delivery
It’s not every day that you see a semi pull into the Schaeffer Building parking lot at the Queendale Center to unload. Tuesday, Community Outreach staff breathed a little easier to know that Soles 4 Souls delivered again this year to help provide 100 pairs of shoes and socks for the Red Bird Mission Christmas Assistance Program.
Applications for Children’s Christmas Assistance are being made during September by families that qualify as living below the poverty level. New shoes, new clothes, books, toys, and sports equipment to fit the bodies and interest of each child will be included in the box. Red Bird Mission seeks assistance each year from individuals, churches and organizations like Soles 4 Souls to provide Christmas blessings to approximately 300 children.
In kind donations need to arrive by the beginning of October when volunteers begin to pack up the boxes for each family. You can contact Red Bird Mission Community Outreach to find out items most needed by calling 606-598-0520. Financial gifts are also welcome because volunteers can purchase what’s needed during packing. You can make a gift online by using the link below, or mail a check to Red Bird Mission, Inc., 70 Queendale Ctr, Beverly, KY 40913-9607 marked “Christmas Program”.
The Fire Alarm, the Chapel Song, and the Place That Kept Me
I'm Kayla Smith, proud member of the Red Bird Christian School Class of 2009. There were 18 of us. Eighteen. Most of my classmates had been together since preschool, and we were incredibly close. To this day, I feel like we'll always have a special bond.
One memory that always makes me laugh is about my good buddy Tyler North. Tyler has passed on now, and I miss him, but lord, that young’en had a mean streak in him. He loved a good prank. Almost every single day, at the exact same time, for a whole week, Tyler pulled the fire alarm. Naturally, that meant we all had to file outside and go through the drill like it was the real thing. A whole week of that before the school staff finally figured out it was him.
Then there were the chapel services. Mr. Smallwood singing our favorite songs, and our principal at the time, Bob Ferguson, playing his guitar and singing "I Am My Own Grandpa." If you've never heard a school principal sing that song, you haven't lived.
And I can't forget Mr. Vore and Mrs. Vore. Mr. Vore would sing "In the Ghetto," and it was always a treat. Mrs. Vore was my cheer coach and my music teacher. Now that I'm older, I appreciate her and all the other coaches so much more. All the late practices, giving us rides home if we needed them. She and so many others gave all their time and energy to us, and when you're a kid, you just don't see it that way. You don't realize what people are sacrificing for you until you're grown and doing the same thing for somebody else.
Ms. Sarah Thompson, thank you for never making me feel like I was bad when it came to math, even though I was actually very bad at it. That meant more than you know. Mrs. Sandy Melton, thank you for believing in me and ingraining a love for proper grammar in me.
I think about my classmates all the time. I see their life updates on social media, watch their kids grow up, see where life has taken them. We've all went different paths, but we'll always stay close and connected. That's what Red Bird does. It don't let go of you.
Losing my kids' dad was the hardest chapter of my story. That grief was and still is indescribable. The entire school signed and gave me a card. I remember not wanting to show my face for a while because I didn't want to talk about it. During school pickup I waited outside for my kids, and Mr. Smallwood seen me kind of hiding. He came straight to me, looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Hey, Hey,” while opening his arms and hugged me, and said, “We're praying for you.” I broke, tears coming down. In that moment I said, “Wow, most of these people actually care and feel my pain, even though I was just a former student and just a parent picking up their kid.”
After dealing with that loss, I went somewhere dark. I didn't want to be out in the world. I didn't want to be seen. It took a lot of healing and a lot of hard truth to accept things as they were, but I eventually went back to work. And let me tell you, the weight of a 9 to 5, driving 30 minutes to an hour every single day, carrying the whole load of being the only parent with a house full of responsibilities, it about crushed me. I was running on empty and had nothing left to give.
When I was offered my current position at Red Bird, I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time. Relief. Like I could finally breathe again. I drive less than a minute to pick up my kids. I can be at their ball games, their cross country meets, their school events. I'm right here. I found a job that lets me be their mama and still do something I love, all in the same place that raised me.
Now, most of you probably know me as the office chick. Aside from my daily tasks of putting the mail and gifts and donations in the database and keeping records of them all, I help run several Facebook pages for the mission. I cover events, write about them, take pictures, make videos. That stuff is my passion, and I'm lucky to have a job where I get to be creative every single day. I have the best boss in the world, Tim Crawford. He's been really patient with teaching me the ropes, and he understands I'm a mom and works with me on that. Not everybody gets that kind of grace, and I don't take it for granted. Thanks Timothy!
I’ve got a bit of advice as an elder millennial to all the students out there. If you want out of here, go for it. Experience as much of the world as you can. But if your heart guides you back home, that's amazing too. You can make an impact here, a meaningful one, to people like your grandparents and to kids who grew up just like you.
Red Bird raised me. The teachers, the principals, the classmates, the chapel songs, and yes, even the fire alarm. This place shaped who I am, and I'm still here, still giving back, still grateful. Eighteen kids in a class in the middle of the mountains, and somehow it felt like the whole world.
Strengthen the Legacy. Double Your Gift.
The annual Homecoming Campaign has started and folks are doubling the impact through a dollar for dollar matching fund pledged by two Red Bird Mission School alumni. They realize the importance that Red Bird played in their education and preparation for career and life so they’ve pledged $45,000 in matching funds. You can strengthen the legacy of Red Bird Christian School by giving during the Homecoming Campaign to give opportunity to our current students.
Double your gift through the alumni match by making a contribution to Red Bird Christian School today using the link to our secure online form. If you prefer, you can also mail your check payable to Red Bird Mission, Inc., 70 Queendale Ctr, Beverly, KY 40913-9607 marked “2026 Homecoming Match”.
Harvest Meal Strengthens Member Bonds
Some of the best home cooking around was spread out on the serving tables as a number
of the Red Bird Grow Appalachia (GA) Members gathered in the Cramer Room on Tuesday evening for the annual GA Harvest Meal. Pino Brock, Red Bird GA Coordinator, thanked everyone present for their dedication to feeding their families and the community making this year another success for Red Bird GA.
You could sense that this group is more like a family than a member organization by the conversations around the table. Recipes and cooking techniques were exchanged, but stories from family experiences to spiritual revivals evidenced the commonalities the group has beyond community food production.
Japanese Nurses Learn about Red Bird Care
Last Friday, eight students and two faculty members of from the School of Health Sciences, Kagoshima University in Japan were on campus to hear how Red Bird cares for health needs in our remote, rural region. The visit to the United States was part of the international partnership between the Berea College Department of Nursing and Kagoshima University School of Health Sciences.
Berea Nursing staff, Monica Kennison, EdD, MSN, RN,CNE, and Lisa Turner, PhD, RN, PHCNS-BC, accompanied the colleague group on the visit that began with a stop at the Red Bird Farmers Market to see fresh produce and baked goods produced locally. Red Bird Mission Community Outreach and Community Health Director Tracy Nolan, RN, BSN, explained how grants obtained to provide vouchers distributed to the community have an impact on overall health.
The group then toured Red Bird Christian School where Principal Jennifer Wilder highlighted how the recent partnerships with Kentucky Health Associates, Mountain Comprehensive Care Center, and Magnolia Tree Therapies are making a positive impact on the physical and behavioral health of students. Later, Tracy explained how staff navigate the diverse needs of the people Red Bird serves with programs in Community Outreach and Community Health for improved health outcomes during a Schaeffer Building walk through.
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