FIRST TIME VOLUNTEERS !
FOA and ASP is an experience that will change your life.
You will be immersed in a different culture and come face to face with extreme poverty.
You will crawl under a house or climb on top of one, and you will work and sweat and hurt.
You will know what it is like to bring hope, to be hope.
And you will never be the same.
You will be immersed in a different culture and come face to face with extreme poverty.
You will crawl under a house or climb on top of one, and you will work and sweat and hurt.
You will know what it is like to bring hope, to be hope.
And you will never be the same.
FOA's 14th Anniversary Trip
June 28th - July 6th 2025
Central Appalachia
Meetings will be held at Trumbull Congregational Church Sundays 6:30-8:00pm see Calendar Tab
First Time Volunteers - Information
Friends of Appalachia/Appalachian Service Project is an experience that will change your life. You will be immersed in a totally different culture and come face-to-face with extreme poverty. You will sweat and be sore from your hard work. You will also know what it is like to bring hope to a family, by making home improvements (ex. handicapped ramps, flooring/walls, kitchen/bathroom). You will crawl under a house (ex. underpinning) or be on top of one (ex. roofing).You will forever make a difference to one or more families and their community. You will forever see a difference in yourself.
If you are looking for something worthwhile to do this summer, this experience is for you! We hope the FOA/ASP experience for you! It is a lot of work and a considerable time commitment, but there is nothing else like it. FOA takes youth volunteers away from home, for 9 days, and puts them in an Appalachia community, working on people's homes. Supervision is provided by the FOA Group Leaders, who are adult volunteers traveling as part of a group, and by the ASP Staff, who work fulltime for ASP, and run the center locations where we will stay and organize the work projects. In order to work effectively and safely, we expect youth volunteers to follow rules and guidelines set by that leadership.
Who can participate?
The Friends of Appalachia trip is open to those who will have completed ninth grade by the time we leave on the trip.
We also have openings for College-Aged/LIT's - Leaders-In-Training who are high school graduates thru 21 years of age and Adult Advisors (over 22 years of age). If you know someone who would like to learn more, please look for more information on the College/Adult Tab under the Volunteer Tab above and contact [email protected].
Important Application Information
Application links will open December 3rd 9pm.
ALL applications must be submitted by December 7th at 6pm - however the link may close sooner if we reach our maximum.
Please note there are 2 applications NEW and REPEAT, please fill out the appropriate one.
FOA Selection Committee will be reviewing applications as a whole, regardless of past trip experience,
so take your time filling out the application and focus on submitting the best possible application you can.
There is no waiting list.
Registration Fees and Required Forms
The cost of participation in the Friends of Appalachia 2025 Trip is $1000.
The Application/Commitment fee of $150.
After the $150 application fee is paid, and you are accepted, you will receive your own QR Code to use for donations for your own account.
By March 1st a required minimum of $350 must be in your account.
The minimum $1000 must be paid in full prior to our May Meeting.
All donations can be made by sharing your QR Code with others to donate to your trip account.
Checks can be made payable to "FOA" and brought to any event/meeting.
Trip amounts are to be paid in full in May. Monies received in June or later will be added to our General Fund.
Please click on the "Solicitation Letter" black box above on the this page.
You can edit this document and send to family and friends for donations to you account.
The general ASP rules are in the document above "Expectations Rules and Regulations - Required Reading". They are not negotiable, so please make sure you read the and understand what you are signing up for. People have been removed from the trip for failing to live up to them. Group leaders and staff may create additional rules as necessary to address the specific situations we find ourselves in. All ASP and FOA rules (including the dress code!) apply throughout all the fundraising and training sessions and travel days, not just the work week itself. Remember we do go into peoples homes as representatives of ASP and Friends of Appalachia. Volunteers are asked to signify their acceptance of these expectations through filling our and signing our Volunteer Covenant, as our last general meeting, as part of the registration process.
Application fee of $150 is non-refundable and must be submitted with your application. Donations into participants accounts are non-refundable.
2025 Trip Amount - $1000
$1300 Club - entitles you to an extra FOA gift and input on an extra purchase
for your work site home,
$1500 Club - entitles you to 2 extra FOA gifts and input on an extra purchase
for your work site home
Parent Commitment
Parents are asked to support all our Fundraisers with their time and talents.
Most especially preparing for our largest fundraiser, 2025 Taste of Spring.
First Time Parents (and repeat parents if they wish) have 2 required meetings, in January and June.
Information for these meetings will be in the Meeting Notices.
Trip Preparation Meetings
All ASP volunteers are required to attend and participate in all of our pre-trip meetings, community help opportunities, solicitations and fundraisers. Please click CALENDAR tab above.
Basic Construction Skills Training
In the Monthly Meeting Notice - IF Construction Training is on the agenda, everyone needs to wear proper work site attire: long pants, a shirt that tucks in (no sleeveless shirts; no low necklines), work boots (no sneakers). Participants with improper attire will not be able to participate. Instruction includes supervised individual practice on the safe use of the circular saw, power drill and hammer among other skills. Everyone will need to bring a "Construction Bag" to that meeting that includes a 16 oz. hammer, a pair of safety glasses, and a pair of work gloves. Be sure to mark your name on your tool bag and tools that you bring, because they will tend to look a lot like somebody else's.
The same consideration might be given to your work boots.
Expectations during the trip and at the Work Site
FOA and ASP expect that our volunteers will focus on meeting the needs of those they have come to serve, and support their fellow workers who are trying to do the same. The one need that we know that the families we work for will have is home repair. However, other needs that all people have include respect and sensitivity. The people we serve are important and special, we strive to treat them as such.
For some, knowing that someone else cares about them is just as important as the repairs.
Volunteers participating in Friends of Appalachia Trip will be expected to be involved in specific home building and repair projects. These projects can include activities such as roofing, carpentry, sheet rocking (drywall), digging, building steps, footers and piers, plumbing, insulating, painting, flooring, masonry, electrical wiring and other facets of home repair, remodeling and renovation. These activities include, but are not limited to, the use of power tools such as saws and drills as well as the use of hand tools. These activities will also require climbing, with or without supplies, tools and materials, as well as working in high places such as rooftops, small or confined spaces such as crawlspaces, and other facets of construction work. These activities may be done in any type of setting, including remote, rural, urban, small and large towns.
You will be expected to work hard. But you will be able to do it!
Each participant is assigned to a particular work crew, a mix of age, gender and experience.
A crew is usually made up of approx 5 Youth and 2 Adult Advisors.
You are guaranteed to make new friends!
When and where do we go?
The dates of our trip is June 28th - July 6, 2025. FOA will be assigned to 1 of the 5 states of Central Appalachia. Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or North Carolina. We will be traveling in van/suburban type vehicles. We won't know exactly where til the springtime. During our time on the trip, we stay in an ASP Summer Center, generally set up in a school or community center building, sleeping on floors and eating in the cafeteria.
What happens on the Trip?
On Saturday June 28th, all participants meet at 6:15am. Our fleet of vehicles will drive to Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg VA, for our first night of the trip in the college dorms.
On Sunday, June 29th, after morning devotions together, we continue to our ASP assigned County.
From Monday to Friday (June 30th - July 4th), we will begin each day with breakfast and devotions, work on our homes from 8am-4pm, and then be back together in the evening for free time, dinner, chores, and "evening gathering".
On Saturday, July 5th about 7am we will leave our center and return to EMU.
On Sunday July 6th , we will leave EMU and drive home to Trumbull arriving approximately 4pm. We will then have our Family Picnic (Unity Park) to celebrate our Week of Work and Fellowship.
Packing and Departing
The success of the ASP trip is highly dependent on proper preparation, and that is true for packing. Every participant should download the packing list and follow the instructions very carefully. Please click on the Individual Packing box at the top of this page.
Friends of Appalachia/Appalachian Service Project is an experience that will change your life. You will be immersed in a totally different culture and come face-to-face with extreme poverty. You will sweat and be sore from your hard work. You will also know what it is like to bring hope to a family, by making home improvements (ex. handicapped ramps, flooring/walls, kitchen/bathroom). You will crawl under a house (ex. underpinning) or be on top of one (ex. roofing).You will forever make a difference to one or more families and their community. You will forever see a difference in yourself.
If you are looking for something worthwhile to do this summer, this experience is for you! We hope the FOA/ASP experience for you! It is a lot of work and a considerable time commitment, but there is nothing else like it. FOA takes youth volunteers away from home, for 9 days, and puts them in an Appalachia community, working on people's homes. Supervision is provided by the FOA Group Leaders, who are adult volunteers traveling as part of a group, and by the ASP Staff, who work fulltime for ASP, and run the center locations where we will stay and organize the work projects. In order to work effectively and safely, we expect youth volunteers to follow rules and guidelines set by that leadership.
Who can participate?
The Friends of Appalachia trip is open to those who will have completed ninth grade by the time we leave on the trip.
We also have openings for College-Aged/LIT's - Leaders-In-Training who are high school graduates thru 21 years of age and Adult Advisors (over 22 years of age). If you know someone who would like to learn more, please look for more information on the College/Adult Tab under the Volunteer Tab above and contact [email protected].
Important Application Information
Application links will open December 3rd 9pm.
ALL applications must be submitted by December 7th at 6pm - however the link may close sooner if we reach our maximum.
Please note there are 2 applications NEW and REPEAT, please fill out the appropriate one.
FOA Selection Committee will be reviewing applications as a whole, regardless of past trip experience,
so take your time filling out the application and focus on submitting the best possible application you can.
There is no waiting list.
Registration Fees and Required Forms
The cost of participation in the Friends of Appalachia 2025 Trip is $1000.
The Application/Commitment fee of $150.
After the $150 application fee is paid, and you are accepted, you will receive your own QR Code to use for donations for your own account.
By March 1st a required minimum of $350 must be in your account.
The minimum $1000 must be paid in full prior to our May Meeting.
All donations can be made by sharing your QR Code with others to donate to your trip account.
Checks can be made payable to "FOA" and brought to any event/meeting.
Trip amounts are to be paid in full in May. Monies received in June or later will be added to our General Fund.
Please click on the "Solicitation Letter" black box above on the this page.
You can edit this document and send to family and friends for donations to you account.
The general ASP rules are in the document above "Expectations Rules and Regulations - Required Reading". They are not negotiable, so please make sure you read the and understand what you are signing up for. People have been removed from the trip for failing to live up to them. Group leaders and staff may create additional rules as necessary to address the specific situations we find ourselves in. All ASP and FOA rules (including the dress code!) apply throughout all the fundraising and training sessions and travel days, not just the work week itself. Remember we do go into peoples homes as representatives of ASP and Friends of Appalachia. Volunteers are asked to signify their acceptance of these expectations through filling our and signing our Volunteer Covenant, as our last general meeting, as part of the registration process.
Application fee of $150 is non-refundable and must be submitted with your application. Donations into participants accounts are non-refundable.
2025 Trip Amount - $1000
$1300 Club - entitles you to an extra FOA gift and input on an extra purchase
for your work site home,
$1500 Club - entitles you to 2 extra FOA gifts and input on an extra purchase
for your work site home
Parent Commitment
Parents are asked to support all our Fundraisers with their time and talents.
Most especially preparing for our largest fundraiser, 2025 Taste of Spring.
First Time Parents (and repeat parents if they wish) have 2 required meetings, in January and June.
Information for these meetings will be in the Meeting Notices.
Trip Preparation Meetings
All ASP volunteers are required to attend and participate in all of our pre-trip meetings, community help opportunities, solicitations and fundraisers. Please click CALENDAR tab above.
Basic Construction Skills Training
In the Monthly Meeting Notice - IF Construction Training is on the agenda, everyone needs to wear proper work site attire: long pants, a shirt that tucks in (no sleeveless shirts; no low necklines), work boots (no sneakers). Participants with improper attire will not be able to participate. Instruction includes supervised individual practice on the safe use of the circular saw, power drill and hammer among other skills. Everyone will need to bring a "Construction Bag" to that meeting that includes a 16 oz. hammer, a pair of safety glasses, and a pair of work gloves. Be sure to mark your name on your tool bag and tools that you bring, because they will tend to look a lot like somebody else's.
The same consideration might be given to your work boots.
Expectations during the trip and at the Work Site
FOA and ASP expect that our volunteers will focus on meeting the needs of those they have come to serve, and support their fellow workers who are trying to do the same. The one need that we know that the families we work for will have is home repair. However, other needs that all people have include respect and sensitivity. The people we serve are important and special, we strive to treat them as such.
For some, knowing that someone else cares about them is just as important as the repairs.
Volunteers participating in Friends of Appalachia Trip will be expected to be involved in specific home building and repair projects. These projects can include activities such as roofing, carpentry, sheet rocking (drywall), digging, building steps, footers and piers, plumbing, insulating, painting, flooring, masonry, electrical wiring and other facets of home repair, remodeling and renovation. These activities include, but are not limited to, the use of power tools such as saws and drills as well as the use of hand tools. These activities will also require climbing, with or without supplies, tools and materials, as well as working in high places such as rooftops, small or confined spaces such as crawlspaces, and other facets of construction work. These activities may be done in any type of setting, including remote, rural, urban, small and large towns.
You will be expected to work hard. But you will be able to do it!
Each participant is assigned to a particular work crew, a mix of age, gender and experience.
A crew is usually made up of approx 5 Youth and 2 Adult Advisors.
You are guaranteed to make new friends!
When and where do we go?
The dates of our trip is June 28th - July 6, 2025. FOA will be assigned to 1 of the 5 states of Central Appalachia. Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or North Carolina. We will be traveling in van/suburban type vehicles. We won't know exactly where til the springtime. During our time on the trip, we stay in an ASP Summer Center, generally set up in a school or community center building, sleeping on floors and eating in the cafeteria.
What happens on the Trip?
On Saturday June 28th, all participants meet at 6:15am. Our fleet of vehicles will drive to Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg VA, for our first night of the trip in the college dorms.
On Sunday, June 29th, after morning devotions together, we continue to our ASP assigned County.
From Monday to Friday (June 30th - July 4th), we will begin each day with breakfast and devotions, work on our homes from 8am-4pm, and then be back together in the evening for free time, dinner, chores, and "evening gathering".
On Saturday, July 5th about 7am we will leave our center and return to EMU.
On Sunday July 6th , we will leave EMU and drive home to Trumbull arriving approximately 4pm. We will then have our Family Picnic (Unity Park) to celebrate our Week of Work and Fellowship.
Packing and Departing
The success of the ASP trip is highly dependent on proper preparation, and that is true for packing. Every participant should download the packing list and follow the instructions very carefully. Please click on the Individual Packing box at the top of this page.
