The Friday Finish - Signs of March - Delivery Personifies Hope - Dancing Our Story - Chiller Ready for Delivery - Big-hearted Visitor
- Tim Crawford
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
March 6, 2026
Signs of March
Daylight Savings Time, Spring, and Work Camp volunteer teams arriving at Red Bird Mission are signs that we’re moving from winter into the month of March. The first Work Camp team of 2026 arrived Sunday from Hopkinsville, Kentucky. There are two Kentucky groups that traditionally “book end” Work Camp season at Red Bird – the guys from First United Methodist Church in Hopkinsville and the “weekenders” group from Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Florence. They generally open the season helping to finish up projects on Work Camp facilities before the onslaught of teams arrive, and critical community or campus projects requiring high construction skills.
They were greeted and guided in their projects this week by Bobby Bowling, Work Camp staff who has been at Red Bird Mission for 16 years. Bobby is well known as the Resource Manager at the Lower Barn who ensures every team has the materials and tools they need to complete their projects each week. This year, Executive Director Jamie Collett asked Bobby to do “double duty” also taking on the role of Work Camp Volunteer Manager on an interim basis since Brad Kulp and his family moved back to Pennsylvania in December.
Bobby came to Red Bird in 2010 as a seasonal hire in Work Camp with the idea this would be a transition between permanent jobs. After working that first season, the late Dennis Sparenberg that supervised Work Camp for many years asked Bobby to make Red Bird Mission Work Camp his permanent job placement. Bobby said,
“I owe a lot to Dennis and Craig Dial who mentored me.”
Red Bird Mission is actively seeking to fill the position of Work Camp Volunteer Manager on a permanent basis. Now is the time to contact Mr. Jamie Collett about the Volunteer Manager position if you, or someone you know, has a love for mission, experience with volunteer team leadership, and knowledge of construction.
Delivery Personifies Hope
The colorful logo depicting green mountains, a rainbow and the name of the organization, Mission of Hope, on the side of the box truck just warms the heart when it pulls onto the Red Bird Mission Queendale Campus. And, the love from the volunteers bringing needed items to the families in these Appalachian Mountains personifies hope.
Monday afternoon, Doug Nichols and Jerry Noland were the agents representing Mission of Hope based in Knoxville, Tennessee, a support partner providing in kind and financial support to Red Bird Mission Community Outreach. Jerry, a retired Navy veteran who served in Vietnam has volunteered with Mission of Hope for 3 years, road “shotgun” for Doug, a volunteer with Mission of Hope for six and half years.
Eight pallets of critical items like water, blankets, food, and personal hygiene products will be used to respond to needs of families and individuals coming to Red Bird Mission Community Outreach for assistance every day.
Dancing Our Story
I’m just an ordinary Appalachian girl, nothing fancy to my name, but Tuesday felt like stepping into the stories my kinfolk whispered over quilts and wood smoke.
The Berea College Country Dancers came to our little school, Red Bird Christian School, and did more than perform—they opened a doorway. They moved like old-time photographs come to life, fiddles and feet telling the kind of tales that lived in our holler for generations.
One minute you’re watching a boy named Jack wake from sleep and dance like he’s been called back into the world, a sword dance that’s all clatter and careful steps, a story of danger and daring written in rhythm. Every set was a piece of history: courting and work and mischief braided together into something fierce and human.
But they didn’t just dance. They taught. They stood in front of our kids and told the truth that so much of what we call “Appalachian” music and dance has roots in African American culture. Our students got to hear, plain and simple, that our heritage is braided together—Black and white, old country and new world—and that honoring where these steps come from is part of loving our mountains well. It wasn’t a sugar-coated “diversity lesson.” It was real, and it was good.
Some of the dancers shared their own stories too—how Berea College had changed their lives, what it meant to find a place that saw value in where they came from and who they wanted to be. Listening to them talk about opportunity and calling and community, standing right there on our gym floor, made it all feel that much closer for our kids.
It felt sacred and ordinary at once. The dancers showed us how our ancestors might have laughed after a day in the fields, how they celebrated, how they told their truths when there wasn’t a paper or a pulpit handy. They told stories with their bodies and their music, and for a little while we were right there with them—sweaty palms, stomping shoes, and all. That kind of visiting, where culture steps off a page and into your chest, is the reason we keep these old dances. They’re not museum pieces. They’re a way back to each other. If you were there, you know what I mean.
Thank you, Berea, for bringing time to our gym and giving our kids a brush with the way their mamaws and papaws might have moved—and for showing them that our Appalachian story has always been a shared one. It was a good reminder that our past still has a pulse, and sometimes all it takes to feel that pulse is a fiddle, a set of shoes, and a story shouted with your feet.
- Kayla Smith – Development Gifts & Media
Chiller Ready for Delivery
Last Friday, a graduate of Red Bird Mission School and current Red Bird Mission Board member pledged to bring her contribution to the board meeting next week to complete the funding to install the new chiller for Red Bird Christian School this spring. The pledge was made just in time because the contractor notified us this week that they have received delivery of the chiller and are now scheduling to deliver and begin installation in the coming days.
Students and staff have been waiting to hear this news for two years. The prospect of having classrooms properly cooled as temperatures are already heating up is a relief to all that endured the uncomfortable conditions of a hot room brought on by 80 degree days.
Cool the School now moves to Phase III, replacement of room units to circulate the air from the chiller and boiler. Red Bird Mission Maintenance staff have diligently maintained and repaired them 20 years beyond the equipment’s expected lifetime, but teachers are using screwdrivers to adjust the temperature of the 40-year old units where plastic knobs rotted years ago.
The average cost to buy and install each classroom unit is $10,000. Because it’s a much larger space, $20,000 is needed to replace the units in the library. Churches, businesses, groups and individuals sponsoring (minimum $1,000 donation) a classroom unit will have a recognition plaque mounted in the classroom.
Please help now with an online donation, or mail your check to Red Bird Mission, Inc., 70 Queendale Ctr, Beverly, KY 40913-9607 marked “Cool the School”.
Big-hearted Visitor – A Little Silly, All About Students
Our preschool and elementary kids had a very special visitor wandering the cafeteria and chapel of Red Bird Christian School (RBCS) Wednesday — the Cat in the Hat himself. Dane Sizemore, Red Bird Mission Maintenance and RBCS Athletic Director, suited up, hat and all, and didn’t just wave and pose for pictures. He got down on their level, read with them, and helped turn an ordinary school day into something they’ll be talking about for a long time.
And because he’s the Cat in the Hat, he didn’t come empty-handed. He brought candy treats for each child, just a little extra sweetness to go with the stories.
We’re thankful for Mr. Sizemore taking the time to make reading feel special and alive for our kids and for helping us celebrate Read Across America Week in true Red Bird fashion—big-hearted, a little silly, and all about our students.
- Kayla Smith – Development Gifts & Media
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