Two hundred miles is a long way to travel. And it’s an incredibly long way to run. But that’s exactly what a group of Messiah College employees and community members did earlier this spring.

Tim Ferret (residence director of Smith and Grantham residence halls) and his wife Annie (who works at Soccer Shots, a company owned by Messiah alumni); Ben Taylor (director of student involvement and leadership programs) and his wife Kerrie (Agape Center); Amy VanDerWerf (director of residence life); Aletheia Schmidt (former residence director of Hess and Kelly residence halls); Dave Downey (residence director of Mountain View residence hall) and his wife Emily; Jay McClymont (director of alumni and parent relations); Mandy Hoffman (residence director of Witmer residence hall); Robin Tilley and Zack Kraehmer (both of Soccer Shots); and Geoff Knight competed in the American Odyssey Relay Race as a part of team Lover of Our Soles. (more…)

Elizabeth Arnold ’08 recounts experience of working in Grand Teton National Park in this excerpt of her essay, “Never Lost”

In the months between my junior and senior year of college, I took a job wrangling at a guest ranch in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest in Grand Teton National Park. I was hoping for nothing more than the chance to ride some good ranch horses and to live — at least for a while — in a place that claims to be “the last of the great West.”

One of my first nights on the ranch, while sitting on the porch of the bunkhouse and looking out into the valley, I watched as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, casting purple shadows across the thick strings of the Buffalo Fork River and the backs of the horses grazing in the lower meadow. I realized in that moment that I would never get tired of the view. No matter how many times I looked out beyond the ranch, the Tetons would always be there, standing behind the river like a promise. And I would always be surprised by how unexpectedly they rose straight and clean out of the valley floor, piercing through thin layers of clouds and cutting into sharp blue sky. In that moment, I knew that this was more than a summer job — that there is a reason people are drawn to this place, to a landscape still wild and powerful. (more…)