E-town students return to Thistle Farms after a successful service trip last academic year.
“Thistle Farms has taught me so much about being strong and extending love to everyone,” said Sarah Creme, of her service trip to Thistle Farms. Creme is a fifth-year occupational therapy major at Elizabethtown College. The popularity and positive experience of last year’s trip has convinced the College’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement to sponsor another Spring Break service trip to Thistle Farms this year.
Located in Nashville, Tenn., Thistle Farms is a social enterprise and part of Magdalene, a residential program for women who have survived lives of prostitution, human trafficking and drugs or addiction. At Thistle Farms, the women learn skills in manufacturing, packaging, marketing and sales that help them earn a wage.
“Working with the women of Thistle Farms was an incredible experience that has had a lasting effect on me,” said Creme. “They put their hope and trust in one another and worked together not only to overcome the challenges against them, but to thrive and improve their lives.”
These women shared personal experiences and allowed us to become a part of their stories…”
Last year, at Thistle Farms, the E-town College volunteers participated in papermaking, meditation and provided a meal to the women. They joined a morning group of graduates and current members of the farm to discuss their thoughts for the day.
“These women shared personal experiences and allowed us to become a part of their stories,” said Creme. Besides Thistle Farms, the group volunteered at a facility that educates and helps residents with AIDS, a church and a food bank. “Before we even got home, it was pretty much determined we would be returning,” said Nancy Valkenburg, director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement.
This year, the group will participate in similar activities as last year. “We will be volunteering at Thistle Farms for a couple of days and at a nonprofit organization called Open Table Nashville,” said Valkenburg. The latter organization’s aim is to get the homeless off the streets. The volunteers will help some of them move and set up their homes. The group will be staying at St. Augustine’s Chapel at Vanderbilt University. “It’s a very nice place to be,” said Valkenburg. “It’s very warm and close to the edge of campus, so we were able to walk through and see a lot.”
Creme said she wanted to go back to Thistle Farms this year because “being surrounded by the women is an overpowering and inspirational experience,” she said. “These kind of Spring Break service trips allow students to take a break from their classes and come back energized and refreshed with a new perspective on life.”
This service trip along with others offered by the Center for Civic and Community Engagement is open to all majors.