The History of Sunset Gap - page 9
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Summer
has also come to mean Work Camps at Sunset Gap. Usually the youth
fellowship of a single church, they come from all over the country
to experience and assist the settlement work being done by the
United Presbyterian Church.
In 1970, the Center's full-time volunteer aide, Rick Bell, developed a further dimension for the Sunset Gap work-camp experience. Organizing work projects into the morning hours, he left afternoons free for study, recreation and travel. The study sessions were designed to permit work-campers to examine Appalachia's contribution to America's cultural heritage, the place of Christian community in this and other forms of human service, and the role of the Christian amidst the conflicting pressures of contemporary life. The Board of National Missions turned the operation of Sunset Gap over to a local Board of Directors in 1968. The local Board became responsible for setting policies regarding personnel, programs and budgets. Only the real property remained in the hands of the United Presbyterian Church. This change in administration has enabled the regional church and the local community to have a greater voice in the development of the community center. Thus, the process of making Sunset Gap into a community directed center, begun by Miss Wright, is approaching fulfillment. |
In
1969, Bob Davis began attending the first meetings of an organization
designed to expand communications and fellowship between several
private, non- profit institutions which serve rural communities
in the Southern Mountains. The Settlement Institutions of Appalachia was initiated as an effort in regional cooperation among its member agencies, each of which sought a forum for an exchange of ideas and resources.
Inevitably, each of Sunset Gap's directors influenced the direction of the Center's life and work through the motivations and convictions each brought to his or her perceptions of what Christian ministries Sunset Gap should represent in the community. Over sixty years ago, Sara Cochrane brought formal schooling to a traditional, isolated mountain community, but quality education standing for thoughtful and creative methods of teaching. Her life was a personal example of rigid self-discipline, tempered by a loving compassion that yearned to give adequate health care to an area desperately in need of it. |
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