2018 Rogers Scholar delivers care baskets to patients at Heritage Nursing Home

Graduate of The Center for Rural Development Rogers Scholars program organizes care baskets for community service project

For several months, Kenzie Lacefield has accompanied Central Baptist Church every Tuesday night to minister to the patients at Heritage Nursing Home in Corbin.

Lacefield, a 2018 graduate of The Center for Rural Development’s Rogers Scholars program, decided to organize nursing home care baskets for her community service project.

“When I was at Heritage Nursing Home, I saw patients who just wanted someone to love them and show them that they cared,” said Lacefield, a senior at Corbin High School. “I saw an opportunity to help spread love to a group of people who needed it. I was able to do that through this community service project.”

Lacefield coordinated the project with nursing home officials to see what she needed to include in the care baskets. Each basket contained a bottle of lotion, a tube of chapstick, an activity book, and a box of Kleenex.

She collected the items through community donations and delivered the baskets to 85 nursing home patients.

“Several patients asked me, ‘Why did you do this for me?’ with tears in their eyes,” Lacefield recalled. “My only response was, ‘Because we love you.’ This project hit close to home, because for several months I have been investing in these people’s lives on Tuesday nights, just trying to show them that they are loved. I believe this project sealed the deal to show them just how much they are loved by the people around them.”
Lacefield is the daughter of Jim and Tammy Lacefield.

Each Rogers Scholars graduate is required to complete a community service project within one year after graduating from the program.

Rogers Scholars—The Center for Rural Development’s flagship youth program—is an intensive, one-week summer camp that provides valuable leadership experience and exclusive college scholarship opportunities to help rising high school juniors in Southern and Eastern Kentucky seize their full potential as the region’s next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs.

For more information about Rogers Scholars, contact Allison Cross, community liaison and youth programs coordinator, at 606-677-6019 or email across@centertech.com.

Visit www.centeryouthprograms.com to learn more about the Rogers Scholars program.