A CAMPAIGN OF GRATITUDE … 10 days remaining!
Update: Donate NOW to help fulfill our pledge to the Rempel legacy. Remember every gift received by September 30th is eligible for the 100% matching fund dollars!
Wonderful Stories: One of the many benefits of this important campaign has been the incredible stories we are hearing. We plan to compile as many stories as possible and provide them to the Rempel family as a part of our commitment to upholding the Rempel legacy. We hope will join those who have submitted theirs — please send your story, antidote, or special memory to either Terry Woodbury ([email protected]) or Kathy Baldwin ([email protected]). We’d love to receive them by mid-October if possible. Thank you!
Story Highlight to the Week: From Kelly Yarbrough Frasier – former Staff and current Board member
I first came to work on staff at Shadowcliff in 2009, just after graduating from Austin College in Sherman, Texas. I was full of ideas and wanted to explore the world, make it better, hungry to learn.
Being a full season staff member at Shadowcliff was just what I needed, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it ushered in a whole new chapter of life for me; solidifying a worldview that I had been piecing together in my young adult years. I saw my values, my ideals, my hopes for the world played out in front of me in real time through living, working, eating and laughing in community with my fellow staff members, Shadowcliff leadership, volunteers, groups, visitors, and CDT hikers. I saw directors Bob Mann and Judith Christy, and managers Judy and Skelly Warren be servant leaders to us, to guests – to whoever crossed their paths – and that, to me, made Shadowcliff not only a place, but a way of life. People would come to Shadowcliff from far and wide because it was a destination and a retreat. But, we were not an escape from life. Everyone in the Shadowcliff community is passing through it from one place to the next place. I always perceived our goal at Shadowcliff was to be a model of a better way to those who pass through, and to give them something good to take with them – a good night’s sleep, an honest conversation, a vision for a new path forward, or sometimes, a detailed sustainability management plan for a town hundreds of miles away.
I was fortunate enough to spend 4 months there my first Summer on staff, and I returned for shorter times throughout my twenties. In 2014, I met my husband at Shadowcliff. Now, I’m serving on the board. But, all I needed to see to be changed happened in that first season.
And Shadowcliff is a continuing model for me. I live in Kansas, and am proud to say that I feel like I’ve built a pretty meaningful life for myself — a unique ecosystem of work, volunteer projects and community, existing in close proximity to the native landscape where I live. This is a life that I built after experiencing the Shadowcliff way of life.
I wish more people could experience the Shadowcliff way of life as I did: I think we would have a more open-minded and hopeful world. However, I’ve learned that “Shadowcliff people” are out there in droves — whether they know of Shadowcliff or not. They are the patient, loving, change-makers of the world. I recognize them because I know Shadowcliff. Whenever I meet these people I almost instantly start plotting how I’ll eventually introduce them to the place! I also recognize people who need Shadowcliff. The best ways that I know of to help these people are to live out Shadowcliff values in my own life and to help support the ongoing organization of Shadowcliff, itself.
Even though I remain connected to Shadowcliff now, I know that I am also just passing through. Shadowcliff started with a great community of patient, loving, change-makers before I was ever around this Earth and I want it to be sustained by future patient, loving, change-makers who I will never meet. It’s good to be a part of something bigger than myself.
Remember: Each dollar given to the “Campaign of Gratitude” will be matched if we reach our goal by September 30th!
Learn more about the campaign here!
Donate now! (by September 30th for a 100% match — dollar for dollar)