Red Bird Mission

This sign welcomes people to the Red Bird Mission campus.

Red Bird Mission fills a narrow hollow deep in the mountains of the Cumberland Plateau; it is surrounded by the Daniel Boone National Forest and follows the lines cut by the Red Bird River and Highway 66 in southeast Kentucky. The school is in the foreground with other Mission buildings around the corner and up the road.

Red Bird Mission

Although this blog has served me well in recording thoughts and experiences, it hasn’t yet shown readers the context of Red Bird Mission. Ok, so there’s been a picture of the Clinic and my office, of Alan working in a wood shop and with a team. Perhaps it sounded like we were single-handedly saving a community in Southeast Kentucky from poverty, disease and want. Nothing was further from the truth. We were, in fact, part of a community with a 90-year history of service in the Red Bird Valley.

Begun in 1921 with the arrival of two teachers and a preacher, Red Bird Mission was the answer to a prayer for a school for the children of mountain families too remote to benefit from county-seat schools. The geography in which these families lived was isolated and mountainous, the far-reaching back yards of three counties that came together near the tiny community of Beverly. A year later a nurse joined the group and soon a school, church, and hospital were thriving—today known as the Red Bird School, Red Bird Clinic, and Beverly United Methodist Church. With long ties to the United Methodist Church through its Evangelical United Brethern (EUB) roots (the EUB and Methodist Episcopal churches merged in 1968 to form the United Methodist Church), Red Bird Mission has been reliant on the goodwill of this denomination for all of its existence.

Today Red Bird Mission has expanded into five major components of service: education, health care, economic opportunity, community housing, and a broad range of services called community outreach. (Although Red Bird Clinic is its own legal entity, it shares the administrative services of the Mission and is governed by the same board of directors; here I include the Clinic when I speak of Red Bird Mission.) Although the Mission maintains historic ties with United Methodists and has many convoluted relationships with varied groups within the denomination, Red Bird Mission and Red Bird Clinic are governed solely by an independent board of directors organized under Kentucky law. The Beverly Church (mentioned above) and other United Methodist congregations in the region fall under a separate UM church structure called a Conference and are not governed by Red Bird Mission’s board. For all practical purposes, the churches and social service structures at Red Bird are completely separate, with Red Bird Mission and Red Bird Clinic governed by their board of directors and the churches falling under the United Methodist Red Bird Missionary Conference. With “Red Bird” in the names of all these entities and with their related histories, church ties, and geographical proximity (offices governing both sit side-by-side), it is very confusing for people from outside the area to recognize the distinctions.

The human side of the story is this: Red Bird Mission touches the lives of about 14,000 mountain people a year. The Mission has learned how to provide needed services in one of the most difficult environments and cultures in the United States today. Poverty and isolation still permeate mountain life; human need still outstrips the capacity of governments, industry, human services, and churches to provide. Red Bird Mission combines the best elements of all of these and somehow makes it work—not that the work is easy or complete—but it works.

The following pictures and text from the five ministry areas presents a most incomplete and unfinished story.

Dr. Lynn Fogleman works out a patient issue with business office manager, Winna Wagers.

It's never done till the paperwork's done!

Dr. Sharon Fogleman provided patient care for many.

Red Bird Clinic was a federally-designated Rural Health Center, providing a full range of primary care services on an outpatient basis. The Clinic included two board certified Family Practice physicians, a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, a lab/x-ray technician, two nurses, a nursing assistant, and office staff. Services also included a Public Health nurse and an independent on-site pharmacy.The Clinic saw about 500 patients each month on a budget of about $1.3 million, with patient revenues providing most of the operating budget. In addition, the Public Health nurse made over 600 home visits annually, as well as covered the needs of the school and some community health education.

Dr. Keiser and assistant, Ruth Ann, care for a patient.

Harry Brooks and students in the lab tech training program.

Dental Clinic

The Red Bird Dental Clinic sees about 150-200 patients a month. Serving an area of Appalachia with the national record for toothlessness meant that dental and dental hygiene needs were great. In 2008 a volunteer from Indiana (Harry Brooks) donated a modern dental appliance lab that provided low-cost dentures. In addition, he began training lab techs in the art in 2010. Without the services of a hygienist, dental hygiene students provided services annually under the direction of their instructors.

Meals on Wheels brought these women together.

The Christmas Room collects goods all year long.

Youth Summer Program--learning & fun on summr days.

Community Outreach

Community Outreach provides the most comprehensive range of human services, serving the elderly, women, children, the homeless, and community indigent. Its senior services include the DeWall Senior Center, Meals on Wheels and Home Care. Women and children benefit from MIHOW (Mothers & Infants Health Outreach Workers) and parenting classes, children attend its Early Childhood Development classes or spend summers in its Summer Youth program. Community Outreach also provides transitional housing & counseling for homeless families, transportation, low-income housing for disabled or senior residents, emergency food and clothing, adult education and GED preparation, a large Christmas program, and agriculture and gardening initiatives through Grow Appalachia.

On their day off dental hygiene volunteers worked on a campus building.

Lenny (NY) volunteers every year on community housing.

Community Housing

Community Housing provides a way for teams (and individuals) to work on housing repair projects for low-income residents in the Red Bird service area. Each year between 2,500 and 3,000 volunteers come to Red Bird for either the housing projects or to work on building maintenance around the campus. Staff oversee an extensive process of application and approval before projects are chosen, as well as management of the work and oversight of teams. Many youth teams come during the summer months, while spring and fall see adult groups generally.

Education

Red Bird School provides K-12 education with extracurricular opportunities in music, sports, and foreign language. The school is known for its quality music program, which features choral and instrumental groups (a reflection of both a gifted instructor and a local culture of music).

At a craft fair in a Methodist church--this was only one of many tables of handmade crafts by Kentucky artisans (these from a Richmond potter). Baskets, rugs, weaving, cornhusk dolls, woodworking, jewelry, and dulcimers were also sold.

The Craft Store at Red Bird Mission featured many fine pieces of art.

The Community Store sorted, cleaned, and sold mountains of donations.

Economic Opportunities

This area of Red Bird Mission was its smallest and encompassed a Community Store (which sold donated clothing and some household goods, as well as provided basics for families whose homes burned), a Craft Store (which featured handmade crafts from Kentucky), and took craft shows to churches as a way of promoting Red Bird Mission and supporting artists from the region.