Ivanhoe Service Trip
	Story by Chris Brown, ’09 Photographs by Brian Gilbert It was late June when 11 Prep guys, including Admissions Director Brian Gilbert and Latin teacher Erik Maginnis, traveled down to the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia. They knew it would be hot. They knew it would be hard work. But that was about all that they knew. What were the people going to be like? How bad was the poverty going to be? The group had no idea. They also did not know that they had driven nearly 200 miles on a blown tire, but that is beside the point. The people of Ivanhoe, Va., are victims of an ongoing economic crisis. When mining in that area of the Appalachians became inefficient, Union Carbide, the mining company, pulled out and took the majority of the jobs in the area with it. Ivanhoe’s main source of income was gone, and as a result there was no money to be invested in the local businesses. Soon enough, the only employment to be found was in neighboring towns over an hour away and Ivanhoe was struggling to survive. The students from Prep were also victims, but not in the usual sense. They were victims of Ivanhoe’s whole-hearted generosity and gratitude. “Victim” fits because the group was honestly taken aback by what Ivanhoe wanted to give despite their situation. The group did their part in Ivanhoe to the best of their abilities, but no one expected such a response. The people of Ivanhoe threw Nick Szczur a birthday party on the second day of the trip. They cooked the group so much food that it seemed as though they were gaining weight from meal to meal. Ivanhoe hosted late night bonfires for the group and held a mini-Jubilee (Jubilee is their annual homecoming festival) in Prep’s name. The people of Ivanhoe were openly loving and caring throughout the entire trip.

Ivanhoe Service Trip

 

During their time there, the Prep group learned that life moves at a different pace in Ivanhoe. For more than a week, the group didn’t have the world at its fingertips. They had the opportunity to focus on whom and what surrounded them. In our culture today, this opportunity may last for a few days at the most. However, the people of Ivanhoe live like this continuously, and as a result, they hold relationships with one another in the highest regard. The importance of their relationships was revealed most clearly in how they deal with the loss of life. For example, Ivanhoe resident Claude Blair’s despair over the loss of his wife was so powerful that it could suffocate an entire room. Months may have gone by since her passing, but it felt like yesterday. It felt as though, in sharing his grief, the group had known his wife’s kindness and generosity just as he had. The group was reassured of Ivanhoe’s future by 90-year-old native Ben Sales, who said, “Ivanhoe’s not dying with [him].” This hope and drive of Ivanhoe could be found in every resident, from Cloe, who was raising money to compete in a town-wide pageant, to Josh, who is single-mindedly pursuing his goal of eventually attending Virginia Tech, to Phyllis and Danny, who opened their hearts and homes to the group, and to Maxine Waller, who is leading the charge to get Ivanhoe back on track. Ivanhoe is, in fact, the bumble bee that keeps on flying no matter what obstacles are thrown its way, and the proof is in its people. For more information about the Ivanhoe trip, please contact Brian Gilbert. This story originally appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of Alumnews.