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APPALACHIAN COMMUNITY OF VOLUNTEERS HAS DEEP LOYOLA ROOTS

Kasia Stachon (BA ’06) plants a pepper plant at Bethlehem Farm, a community service-based project in which many Loyola alumni play pivotal roles.
“Jesus told us to visit the prisoners, but he didn’t say we couldn’t play softball at the same time.”

Eric Fitts (BS ’99) smiles as he discusses the softball games volunteers from Bethlehem Farm played with inmates at a federal women’s prison in Alderson, WV. The games are one of many activities serving the Appalachian area surrounding the farm, a Catholic community of volunteers started by and consisting of Loyola graduates.

Bethlehem Farm is dedicated to living out the Gospel and social teachings of the church by breaking the cycle of poverty in its community. Fitts and fellow alums—a group that includes his wife, Colleen Buck Fitts (BS ’03)—founded the organization to create a lifestyle of service. They hope to motivate a new generation of youth to work for their communities in the same way they were inspired to serve by Loyola’s mission and ministry staff. 

“The community that campus ministry was able to build was so amazing that it’s made us still want to work with each other in this way,” says another farm volunteer, Liz Drapa (BS ’98).

The Fittses had visited Nazareth Farm, a northern West Virginia nonprofit organization, which seeks to eliminate substandard housing through home repair, on a Loyola immersion trip. Both began working there after graduation.

“At Nazareth Farm, I was putting myself at the service of families in very desperate situations who, in turn, showed deep love and hospitality to me,” Eric Fitts says. “It’s not often that one finds a place where everyone feels like they’ve received more than they’ve given. It certainly doesn’t balance in any standard equation. But love is not subject to laws of physics, so with God, this kind of place is possible.”

“Love is not subject to the laws of physics... with God, this place is possible.”

ERIC FITTS (BS ’99)

Fitts says he left Nazareth Farm inspired to create a similar community in another place with great need. Along with fellow Loyola alums Drapa, Russ Plywaczynski (BA ’03), Heather Angell  (BA ’04), Ed Pluchar (BA ’03), and Marcy Eggert Pluchar (BSN ’05), the Fittses found that opportunity in southern West Virginia. The group spends its time working in community gardens, soup kitchens, day care centers, and food pantries, as well as doing minor home repair projects for low-income households. Shannon Green, a campus minister at Loyola, chairs the board of Nazareth Farm, Inc., which oversees both farms.

Loyola sends a group of volunteers every May; the University also hosted and partially funded a December benefit for the farm at the Water Tower Campus.

“It really took a small group of committed people to come together and make this vision a reality,” Eric Fitts says. “It has so clearly been the work of the Holy Spirit.”  | APRIL SPECHT (BS ’01)

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN TRAVEL OFFERINGS FOR LOYOLA ALUMNI, FRIENDS, AND PARENTS THAT WOULD BE SERVICE-ORIENTED, SUCH AS VOLUNTEERING FOR A WEEK AT A PLACE LIKE BETHLEHEM FARM? IF SO, PLEASE LET US KNOW. E-MAIL LUC-ALUM@LUC.EDU.