At Ferncliff, Mission and Outreach are at our core. Whether it is making disaster kits in our Disaster Assistance Center or learning how to install solar panels to aid in water purification in the developing world we try our best to be active helping others and provide our guests an opportunity to lend a hand.
Making Disaster Kits
Make CWS Gift-of-the-Heart Hygiene kits and bring/send to Ferncliff. Click for instructions on how to make the hygiene, school, baby care and emergency clean up bucketkits.
Volunteering at the Disaster Assistance Center (DAC)
Ferncliff is unique in having its own 10,000 sq ft Disaster Assistance Center commonly referred to as “the DAC.” The DAC has a covenant relcationship with Church World Service (CWS) and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). For CWS the warehouse is one of two centers designated to receive CWS Gift-of-the-Heart kits from churches around the country. Churches closer to Arkansas can send to Ferncliff’s DAC and churches closer to Maryland can send to the New Windsor Service Center or there are smaller depots in churches on the east coast. For PDA, the DAC serves as their national warehouse for tools and equipment used in the PDA volunteer villages around the country.
Volunteers receive/record the incoming kits, open, inspect, re-box, weigh, label, strap, palletize and shrink wrap the pallets so they are ready for reshipment. Email ferncliff@ferncliff.org to be notified if/when volunteers are needed for processing kits and preparing shipments. The nearby Fern Creek Retreat House can accommodate groups of up to 24 for work in the DAC and helping other central Arkansas outreach ministries. There are also 32 hotel rooms and 12 retreat style cabins at Ferncliff.
Getting Involved with Solar School for Solar Under the Sun
Ferncliff is host to Solar School each spring and fall. Solar School is the teaching arm of Solar Under the Sun, an outreach ministry of the Synod of the Sun. Solar School students can take either Solar 1 (leadership and assessment) or Solar 2 (technical installation) to become prepared to go on a team that installs a system in partnership with a low-income community (the first 15 systems have been installed in Haiti). Click here to learn more about Solar Under the Sun and Solar School. Click here to read a news article about the program.
