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HARVEYS LAKE – Picking wool to prepare it for spinning, Brooke Nelson gained a new appreciation for the work behind simple products most people take for granted.
“It’s kind of humbling,” to see how much time and effort goes in to making something as simple as a winter cap, Nelson said. The wool she carefully pulled apart will be spun into yarn that will end up as caps knitted for the poor by Carmina Chapp at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm on Halowich Road.
Owned by Carmina and her husband, Larry Chapp, as well as John Gribowich, a priest serving in Brooklyn, New York, the farm is one of several that carry on a mission that sprung from the Catholic Worker movement of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Saturday, it hosted students for Misericordia University’s annual “Days of Service,” during which freshmen and new transfer students take on tasks like cleaning and painting at sites around the Back Mountain.
This was the first year the farm was included in orientation, and Nelson, of Williamsport, a senior and activity leader, was unsure what to expect. But once she heard the story behind the farm and got down to work in the small shed where the caps are made, she was impressed and enthusiastic, as was Mackenzie Wire, a freshman from Montoursville.
“I think it’s great what they do,” Wire said.
Larry Chapp said the three-year-old venture is one of several farms located around the United States serving the same purpose.
“It’s about taking care of the least among us,” Chapp said.
“We grow food for the poor and we make hats for the poor,” Carmina summed up.
Dorothy Day, a converted Catholic, co-founded the Catholic Worker movement and went on to establish emergency housing and soup kitchens for the poor. Along with Peter Maurin, she championed an economic theory that encouraged small farms and personal commitment to helping others in need.
On their 12 acres, the Chapps grow organic produce and raise sheep and chickens. Most of the food is given to soup kitchens and food banks, including some that Gribowich takes back to New York for distribution at the original Catholic Worker house on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Eighteen Misericordia students came out to work on the farm Saturday morning, and 26 more were scheduled for the afternoon. In addition to preparing wool, they painted the chicken coop, cleaned up the sheep meadow and pulled weeds in the vegetable garden.
Kelsey O’Donnell, a junior and orientation leader from Clarks Summit, eagerly volunteered to paint, but then switched to weeding when it seemed more help was needed there. “I just want to help,” she said.
In all, more than 430 students were expected to volunteer over the weekend at nine sites, ranging from the farm to the Luzerne County Fairgrounds and Mercy Center. New students arrived on the Misericordia campus Thursday and will begin classes Monday.
