The History of Sunset Gap - page 6
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Elizabeth
Wright retired as director of Sunset Gap in 1952, leaving Muriel
Boone, one of the teachers to act as director.
It was Miss Boone who found the next permanent directors for Sunset Gap. Rev. Roe Ford of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Grassy Fork, Tennessee (a community located near the North Carolina line almost 25 miles from the Center) introduced Miss Boone to a couple who had retired to Grassy Fork after many years of teaching for the Presbyterian Church. Miss Boone spent most of 1952 convincing both the Oscar and Lil Clark and the Board of Missions that they were needed to continue the growing program of activities at Sunset Gap.
Unable to slow down, they had been organizing community programs in an old school building owned by Mt. Zion Church. |
Mr.
Clark as the first male director was able for the first time to
make the men in the community feel that there was a place in center
activities especially for them. To interest them in existing center
programs, he organized hunting, fishing and camping trips. In 1955, the men and boys of the community built Sunset Gap's ball field, and formed organized, inter-community baseball and softball teams which played against Newport teams. Mr. Clark's training in agriculture became an important asset to the community, too. He began an effort to check soil erosion on the small farms and to improve farming practices in general. He further encouraged farmers to turn their land into pasture and raise catfish. Mrs. Clark's training as a nurse enabled her to offer an important service to the community, also. She often helped with the sick by acting as a bedside nurse during home visits. The clinic building resumed its original use when several invalid patients came to recuperate under her care. In center programs, her special emphasis related to spiritual work within the community. Most of the clubs and programs she worked with, like the Spiritual Life Group and Vacation Bible School, were religious in nature. |
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