Eric & Colleen Fitts -- Bethlehem Farm -- West Virginia

Learn More About Eric, Colleen & Bethlehem Farm

Eric & Colleen Fitts are Caretakers and co-founders of Bethlehem Farm, a Catholic community in Appalachia that transforms lives through serving with the local community and teaching sustainable practices. Eric & Colleen have three children: Miriam, Isaiah, and Clare. The Fitts family lives in community with seven other full-time staff (called Caretakers). The Caretaker Community invites volunteers to join them in living the Gospel cornerstones of prayer, community, simplicity, and service. Please consider supporting their efforts by donating here.

Bethlehem Farm has several programs:

• Service-Retreat Week: weeks are set aside for high school and college students, families, and adults to join the cornerstone lifestyle for a week-long retreat grounded in daily prayer and daily work
• Repairing Homes, Renewing Communities: service-retreat volunteers work with low-income families in need of home repair. Our labor is given freely and families only repay for materials used on a zero-interest loan
• Green Neighbors: in partnership with the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters, this program aims to empower the local community to employ sustainable practices, including weatherization to reduce home heating and cooling costs and emissions, sustainable upgrades to environmentally-friendly, durable, non-toxic, and/or super-insulating products, and renewable energy installations.
• Tomorrow's Sustainable Leaders: service-retreat volunteers see Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' in action as care for creation is infused throughout their retreat experience including: composting, organic gardening, farm-to-table meals, non-toxic household cleaning products, electricity conservation, solar and wood heat, collecting rainwater to irrigate our gardens and flush our toilets, solar hot water heating, and generating  all of our electricity through solar power. Participants join us as we continually improve our conservation efforts and explore alternative visions of a just and sustainable future.
• Summer Servant: volunteers 18 and over can join the Caretaker Community for 3 weeks to 3 months to experience intentional Christian community and serve the mission deeply

Resources from Bethlehem Farm:

• https://bethlehemfarm.net/bf-news/videos gives a quick visual of our mission in action
• https://bethlehemfarm.net/bf-in-the-media shares some media accounts of our mission and life over the years
• Photos can be found on our blog and on our Facebook page.

Bethlehem Farm is a lean organization focused on channeling our resources to the most vulnerable members of our community (primarily through low-income home repair):

• For example, all but one of our staff are full-time volunteers living on small stipends, with new members beginning on $150/mo stipend plus room and board (for example, our Executive Director of 16 years receives a $900/mo stipend plus room and board)
• We live this sparing-sharing lifestyle in part to maximize the benefit that foundation grants, individual and corporate giving, and service-retreat participation fees return for our low-income clients
• Please consider partnering in mission with us in one of these ways:
  • Time: come serve with us on a service-retreat week
  • Talent: do you have special skills to offer in carpentry, electrical, grant writing, farming...you name it? Ask Eric about special ops service activities.
  • Treasure: you may donate here, set up a monthly gift, or send a tool from our online gift registry.

Where exactly is Bethlehem Farm?

 
View Larger Map