by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
“In the domain of the heart, the weak and wounded are the teachers of the wise and robust.” That’s a quote by Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, an international federation of communities — 120 of them in 30 countries — where mentally handicapped adults are provided with creative opportunities for personal growth.
From The Rainbow, the house on Jack Road near University Boulevard, the Jacksonville chapter of L’Arche works with disabled adults to learn arts and crafts and prepare for the Mother’s Day Sale at Assumption Catholic School Thursday and Friday.
Local artists dedicated to a concept called mutuality teach the “core members” how to make paper, clay jewelry, pottery, decorative mirrors, pins and pens. It’s a way to raise money for a beautiful charity, sure. But more than that, it gives purpose and meaning to lives that would otherwise be painted with a less rewarding brush.
With a pottery kiln purchased at a discount from the local Cerebral Palsy chapter, and using materials like shells from the beach and recycled paper. The Rainbow is the workshop where people such as Robert McCormick, Cheryl Bridges and Brenda Viera, who range in disability from profound developmental disorders, palsy and blindness to mild mental retardation, work for about four hours a day creating what is stamped with a play on words, Works of Heart.
L’Arche was founded in 1964 in France, but first surfaced in Jacksonville in 1985 when six women moved into Harbor House on Arlington Road. Harbor House joined the L’Arche Federation in 1992 and has grown to four homes, plus The Rainbow, where employees and volunteers — people of tremendous faith and immense patience — dedicate their lives to helping others rediscover their value, and find meaning through art and through each other.
“Our reason for existing is for our core members,” said Patrick Mayhew, the new executive director of L’Arche Harbor House, who recently presided over a board of directors meeting that focused as much on spirituality as it did on finance. “So at our meeting we talked about how to be a better family and how to be better stewards.”
According to Mayhew, the fundamental precept of L’Arche is mutuality, the belief that because no one person is more or less valuable than any other, the core members teach the employees and volunteers just as much as the system works in the reverse.
“It’s almost existentialist,” said Mayhew, a former CSX executive with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown and an master’s degree in business administration from Florida State University. “Our existence is their existence.” Mayhew’s classmates at Georgetown included Bill Clinton and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, president of the Philippines.
L’Arche, or The Ark (based on Noah’s Ark where every one of God’s creatures was equal) teaches that everyone in the community — core members, volunteers, employees — are in the same boat.
“Everyone has unique gifts,” said Mayhew. “So we try to maximize everyone’s ability to use those gifts.”
There are elements to L’Arche that make it more of a transcendental experience than a home for the disabled. Mayhew had just come back from a meeting with his “accompanier,” a guide or mentor, someone from the L’Arche community who is trusted to talk things through and discuss ideas. The federation has its roots in the Catholic Church and has been recognized by the pope as one of the most significant Christian ministries of the 20th Century. But it has grown to include members of different faiths, all equally as interested in enriching the spirituality of the core members as much as caring for their basic needs.
Naturally, L’Arche operates on a circular management structure, where core members, their families, assistants, volunteers and board members all are invited to participate in the long range planning of the community. Currently, there are 19 core members ages 30-60 who, with assistance, can navigate through life. One core member, Chip, is training for the Best Buddies Bike Race from Providence, R.I. to the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport this summer. Jacksonville L’Arche employees 18 people full-time.
Dottie Klein, former executive director of L’Arche and the person who runs the Rainbow said that she is consistently moved by the level of understanding and integrity of the core members. “We all learn so much from each other,” said Klein. “We all grow and become more whole because of our experiences here.”
Mayhew said that because less than half of L’Arche’s money (they operate on about a $500,000 budget) comes from government sources, fundraisers like the one at Assumption this week are critical for their ability to function.
“But it makes us work harder,” said Mayhew. “And we love what we do.” Mayhew considers his work at L’Arche to be an opportunity to pay the world back for a rich life.
A critical part of the L’Arche charter is to recruit assistants who come on faith-based initiatives to learn from the wonderment, spontaneity and directness of the mentally handicapped. Americorps volunteers and other members of L’Arche worldwide come to Jacksonville to live and work at the homes.
“A lot of people can’t believe that we do all this for 19 people,” said Mayhew. “But if you meet them, you’ll understand.”