Laurelville: A Christian Retreat Center (post-1993)

Laurelville: A Christian Retreat Center (post-1993)

Laurelville associates network, and in early 1995 when Rhea Zimmmerman of Elkhart, Indiana, heard that Laurelville was looking for an executive director, she contacted her  longtime friend from Out-spokin’ biking days: Don Rittenhouse. He was now in the real estate business in Champaign, Illinois. Was Don interested? He was--and fast. Within three months Don had sold his business, two cars, and a house. His wife Jane recalls: “It felt like someone had dumped us on a train passing by and threw us out at Laurelville!  We knew God was leading us here.” 

If Don and Jane Rittenhouse and their two young daughters Leah and Krista speedily moved to Laurelville, their background also pointed them in that direction. Both Don and Jane had worked with outdoor programs, Christian service and business ventures. For several years, they had volunteered and worked for the Mennonite’s bicycling program called Out-spokin’ and had consulted with Gene and Mary Herr in planning the Hermitage, a spirituality retreat center in Michigan. With Don’s leadership, Laurelville grew, adding a Youth Village for summer campers and a large recreation building called Shenandoah. Don was always enthusiastic about life and his faith, and Laurelville staff and guests remember his positive signature: Take Home a Blessing.  

While Don’s executive director work was sometimes all consuming, the family was able to be part of what was happening, helping lead summer camps such as Music and Drama Week. It was a busy, and sweet season for five years, Jane recalls, until tragedy struck. During the summer of 2000, at age 43, Don died in an auto accident.

But the family tragedy did not end Jane and the daughters relationship with Laurelville; it continued two decades in staff, volunteer and board work. Jane worked in the kitchen during the school hours of daughters Krista and Leah. She later served as volunteer coordinator for the many Association members who gave time and energy to Laurelville. Their daughters followed the parents in doing an extended Christian service adventure assignment in nearby Johnstown, with Leah also serving as Laurelville’s summer camp director. Eventually Leah joined the Laurelville staff year-round as the children and youth programmer, an assignment she shares half-time while also serving half-time as pastor of the Scottdale Mennonite Church. 

 

If the Rittenhouse family adopted Laurelville and the western Pennsylvania community,   Kim Miller inherited it. Born in 1955, Kim joined the Laurelville board bringing some broad instincts to the project. He grew up in Westmoreland County, attended Laurelville camps as a child, and became a visionary leader in business and agriculture. For a number of years he served as president of Pennsylvania’s sustainable agriculture organization. Among the many strong board chairs Laurelville has had over the past eight decades, Kim was among the most gregarious and decisive. When Kim was asked whether he could chair the board after two people had turned down the position, his response was: “Yes, I can, but I don’t know if I want to do it.” Silence for several minutes, and then Kim said: “I’ll do it.” 

He continued for the next 12 years when Laurelville both changed, stabilized and grew, especially becoming more regionally focused. Kim wanted Laurelville to change from being seen as an exclusive Mennonite country club to being seen as a generous Christian community center. Kim came by these feelings honestly; as a youth on staff during the 1960s he was part of the counterculture crowd who indulged in smoking pot  and petty vandalism, such as damaging Laurelville’s tennis nets and breaking into buildings. 

And he remembers a seminal experience. He and some other “hoodlums” broke into the Meetinghouse, played the piano and sang a rude song about Verna Hertzler, Laurelville’s gracious office associate. At that time an intercom system connected the office to the various buildings. And all at once the speaker came on and it was Verna’s voice: “I can hear you.” 

“We felt terrible,” Kim recalls, but Verna never said a word to anyone. Reflecting back as an adult, it was a profound experience for him: Verna’s generosity and mercy which stayed with Kim and led him to say yes in leading the board in her honor. Laurelville was a place of forgiveness and goodwill and he felt the desire to give back to this organization in light of his experience.

Kim arrived on the board when a new dining hall was built in the nineties. However spacious and needed, the building had burdensome cost overruns and resulted in a million-dollar debt. But a few providential elements converged; eight association members generously purchased about 300 adjacent wooded acres called Pine Run doubling the size of Laurelville, and Kim was vital in securing substantial gas and oil agreements which helped wipe out the indebtedness. About this same time during Kim’s board leadership, another providential change occurred: the arrival in 2016 of a new executive director Jeanette Lahm.

Lahm worked at Pittsburgh’s The Neighborhood Academy, which provides college preparatory education for underserved families and sent some students to an art and ceramics weekend at Laurelville. Teachers needed to accompany them and when one got sick, they called on their development and marketing director as a substitute: Jeanette Lahm. They knew she liked the outdoors; it was an emergency, and she could take along her young son Noah.  

Overnight Lahm had watch duties with the students at the kiln for the ceramic art project. With her son in a sleeping bag nearby and drinking hot chocolate with ceramics staffer Keith Hershberger, Lahm mentioned that she might be interested in this type of work again. She had been involved with outdoor camping in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Hershberger connected her to the executive director Michael Yoder who was leaving to join his brother’s business in Ohio. She told him of her background, and Yoder said Laurelville is looking for someone exactly like her.

During her meeting with the search committee which included the current board chair Larry Miller, she finally said: “But you recognize that I am not Mennonite?” Yes, they did and that was a part of her qualifications, in a manner of speaking. She brought a new set of eyes to Laurelville, outside the denominational circle. Lahm had grown up among Lutheran Christians and was now attending a large non-denominational church in the Pittsburgh suburbs.  

But Lahm was also inside the circle, singularly prepared to lead a Christian retreat center. As a teen, she led high adventure canoe trips, horse programs and high ropes. By her 20s she had a university degree in recreation and communications and had worked as a YMCA leader in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In recent years, she was a development and marketing officer with various non-profits.  

Today, she enjoys Laurelville immensely: “It has been incredibly rewarding to see the path God led you on to gain experience in so many facets, then to have those skills come together in a role that makes a difference in the lives of so many.” She, Kim Miller and the Board teamed up in continuing to turn toward the community, adopting the name Laurelville Retreat Center. A new pool draws a large summer attendance and an adjacent gathering center building with a well-marked parking area welcomes all arrivals. Next up in 2023, the board chaired by Larry Miller took up building a gathering place building project to help Laurelville build capacity as it heads into its next 80 years. Lahm confessed: “It’s exhilarating and an honor to be a part of Laurelville’s important mission.”  

The Laurelville story, executive director Lahm says, is God’s story, and in human terms so are the guests, staff, neighbors, association members, volunteers and supporters. It is people, creation, and a creek, Jacobs Creek. So, we’ll conclude this brief biographical history by noting people who Laurelville has named the Creekside Circle. This award has been given to people who in many ways represent the hundreds of people who have supported Laurelville over the decades. 

AJ (1902-1996) and Alta (1905-2000) Metzler: The Metzlers were introduced earlier in this text and could be considered the founders of the 1943 Laurelville. Their  legacy continues in Alice and Willard Roth and Joyce and Jep Hostetler of Goshen, Indiana.    

CF Yake (1889-1974): Clayton and Martha Yake of Scottdale were key supporters of the Mennonite chapter in 1943. They were associated with Mennonite publishing, and CF served as board secretary; he preferred the name Camp Rhododendron.   

Dwight Hartman (1923-2017): Dwight and Ellen Hartman of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and their family were staunch board, financial and programming supporters during the second half of the century. 

Cleo Weaver (1921-2013): Cleo and Edith Metzler Weaver lived and worked in College Park, Maryland, for forty years. Cleo served as board president and was a sports and music enthusiast, organizing various golf and tennis benefits for Laurelville. 

Arnold Cressman (1928-1998): Arnold and Rhoda Cressman of Scottdale were key Laurelville leaders during the second half of the century. Arnold was introduced earlier in the text.

Nelson, Henry, Joe (1935-2018) and Perry (1932-1991) Brunk: The Brunk brothers and their wives Ruth, Edna, Mary Louise, and Fern were originally from the DC Maryland metro area; for decades they were key financial and building supporters of Laurelville.    

Maynard and Jan Brubaker: In the 1960s camp manager Kenneth (1919-2001) and Laura Ann (1923-2019) King of Goshen, Indiana, brought their children Jan and Maynard Brubaker who also brought their children Rachel and Mike Weaver, all still supporting Laurelville.  

Dan and Mary Miller: The Millers with much experience in hospitality services from Walnut Creek, Ohio, have been steadfast supporters of Laurelville projects and programs, as have their children Eric and Jody Burkholder Miller.   

Ed and Carol Nofziger: The Nofziger family of Archbold, Ohio, has brought its entrepreneurial, philanthropic, music and worship gifts to Laurelville since the 1970s. Their devotion and financial support has been crucial to many Laurelville projects.     

Don (1957-2000) and Jane Rittenhouse: The Rittenhouse family has been involved with Laurelville since 1995, and were profiled above. 

A Christian Retreat Center (post-1993)

This section was written from reviewing annual reports and also from conversations with current (2023) staff and board members.