'I'm glad to see you'

After a weekend away from home, Michael Reeb ’74 walked into the bedroom to see his ailing father.

“He didn’t sit up,” Reeb said. “But he put his eyes up and said in the most gracious way, ‘I’m glad to see you.’”

Reeb had spent the weekend in Salyersville, Kentucky, an alumnus visiting the University of Dayton Summer Appalachia Program he had first connected with so long ago as a student. 

“And all I could say was, ‘I’m glad to see you,’” said the high school English teacher. “After that weekend in Salyersville, I intrinsically understood what he meant. We don’t have to say things in complicated fashion or be a Nobel Prize winner in literature to listen.”

Listening, being present — this is the heart and soul of the UDSAP program.

It’s a feeling he recaptured six years ago thanks to his former student, Emily Wellmann, who, like him, found her way to UD for college. Wellmann, UD Class of 2019, invited her former teacher to join the students for a visitors weekend.

The program of Campus Ministry has been opening the door to Appalachia since 1966. UD students connect with the people and culture, one that values closeness and relationships, as they run summer camps for teens and kids, and visit with elderly neighbors in a nursing home. 

Wellmann was initially worried about how she, a young woman from Baltimore, could connect with the community during UDSAP but said their tasks — in addition to living in close proximity with 13 of her peers without indoor restrooms and cell service — were key parts to building bridges.

The interactions opened her up so much that her career plans changed. Instead of international nonprofit work, she was called to direct-care and program management work for housing services, an area of need she was exposed to through UDSAP.

“You end up connecting on levels that you wouldn’t with other people just because all you can do is listen and talk and get to know each other,” Wellmann said. “So much of my relationship with spirituality comes from my time that summer. I just found so much time to be intentional about exploring spirituality, connecting with nature and with God, and finding it in other people.”

Reeb also witnessed this ethereal spirituality when he participated in UDSAP during his time at UD. He, too, found God in laughter and conversation, in the rolling mountains, in every nook and cranny.

The tasks didn’t look much different, but returning in 2017 to this place he knew so well at what he considers to be a pivotal point in his life gave him space to reflect from a seasoned perspective — and build on that foundation of community he gained nearly 50 years prior.

“It’s funny the way God looks out for us. It opened my eyes, ears and heart to things I didn’t experience in the 1970s,” Reeb said.

“Life goes on, the program goes on, and the wonderful young people keep it going.”

For all Reeb and Wellmann share as alumni of UD and UDSAP, it was completely unintentional. Wellmann found both with no input from Reeb but wasn’t surprised there was another thread connecting her to her former teacher. She said she saw it as “a sign from the universe that I was where I was supposed to be.”

As a high school student, Wellmann was in Reeb’s American literature class at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore, and they quickly bonded over books, music — Bob Dylan, in particular — and philosophy. She said he became a mentor and “profound figure” in her life from that point forward.

So, earlier this year when Wellmann was moving and found her UDSAP memorabilia, she began reflecting on the experience’s impact on her personally and professionally. She felt compelled to reach out to somebody who could understand her as a person, a Flyer and an UDSAP alumna.

She wrote a note to Reeb, reflecting on the letters they wrote to each other that summer in Kentucky six years ago.

“I’ve been thinking about the irrevocable impact that program had on me, and I was happy to revisit your letter and see that it had a similar effect on you,” Wellmann wrote. “It really sticks with you, Magoffin County. Can’t seem to shake it all these years later, and it’s nice to feel less alone in that.”