LEARN: Our Community

 

City of Spokane

Spokane is a great little city with a friendly, small town atmosphere and big city attractions. Spokane is the biggest city between Minneapolis, MN and Seattle. People come from far away to visit Spokane and its many attractions.    On their days off, Assistants can walk the beautiful Centennial trail to the down-town area, where they will find a mall, the library, interesting little shops, theaters, churches and other places of worship, coffee places with character, and all kinds of great places to eat. Other malls, shopping centers, movie theaters and restaurants are a short bus ride away.

For nature lovers, there is Manito Park, Riverside State Park, and many hiking trails. For lovers of art and theater there are an abundance of theaters offering musicals, plays, operas, concerts and ballets.  There are art galleries, sculpture walks and an annual art festival.  Spokane is home to the Spokane Indians baseball team, Spokane Chiefs ice hockey team, the Shocks arena football team, plus much more!  If participating in, rather than watching sports is your hobby, you will be delighted to find many close skiing facilities, the Bloomsday race and various other running events, in addition to 3 nearby YMCA facilities that offer low membership rates.

 

L'Arche Spokane

 

L’Arche Spokane is a diverse and lively community of 12 core members, 6 live in assistants, 4 live-out assistants, 2 Jesuit Volunteers, 2 Gonzaga University work-study students, a strong administrative and leadership team, 5 board members, and many friends and volunteers.  We are of varying ages, religions, political parties, ethnicities and abilities.  We learn from each other, play together, laugh together, argue, and live community.  We enjoy eating dinner, going out for coffee, going to the movies, having picnics, and going to St. Al’s church on Sunday mornings. Dinner together, prayer and celebration are integral parts of the community. Probably the most special time of day is dinner, where everyone sits down together and shares delicious food, conversation and laughter.  Prayer follows dinner, and is an opportunity for the whole household to share their roses (highlights of their life), buds (what they are looking forward to, and thorns (things that are bugging them).  We celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, the changing of seasons, accomplishments and other special times.  The celebrations are simple, and serve to honor a person, or the community and serve to bring us closer together, to have fun and to stop and enjoy the moment.  We have many special events that we do together as a community, some planned and some spontaneous. Summer time is a special time filled with many picnics and barbecues. Summer is also a good time for themed fiestas. Lent is also a special time, as the two houses pray together weekly. Possibly the most anticipated activity is the yearly retreats. We head up to the Immaculate Heart Retreat center, and spend the weekend relaxing, reflecting, praying, eating and being silly together. We are a community where love walks and talks.

 

L'Arche Spokane Communities

 

1. Harvest House

Harvest is located at 703 E Nora Avenue, and is home to 6 core members and 3 live in assistants.  Harvest begins its day at 6:00 A.M. and settles down by 9:00 PM. The early hours are a flurry of excitement as core members get ready for work, volunteering or their day programs.   Afternoons are a time of relaxing and enjoying hobbies (sewing, vacuuming, making posters, reading, coloring, watching the Hallmark channel [I love Lucy, Golden Girls, Little House on the Prairie, and Touched By an Angel] and Dr. Oz, and exercising are Harvest House favorites). Dinner time caps off the afternoon, and is a lively hour of chatter, laughter and prayer. We also love to have dinner guests!! After dinner, we spend time together cleaning up, watching T.V., taking walks if it is nice, and settling down for bed around 9:00 P.M. Each day is liberally sprinkled with laughter, hugs, pranks, dance parties and lunch and coffee dates.

 

2. Trinity House

Trinity house is located at the corner of Sinto and Standard.  It is home to 3 live in assistants, 6 core members and a fish named Toby.  The core members at Trinity are younger, and the house is filled with great excitement.  Daily routines begin a bit later, at 8:00 A.M., but don’t generally settle down until around 10:00 P.M. In addition to their work, day programs and volunteering outside the home, Trinity house core members enjoy playing Wii (especially dancing, singing, Jeopardy and Bowling), watching sports, Cops, Texas Ranger and musicals, feeding the birds and helping in the garden, playing cards and exercising. Dinner time is special at Trinity house as well, and prayer is special fixture. After dinner, the core-members and assistants enjoy playing cards, Wii, and relaxing. Being silly, hugging and teasing each other are also common activities at Trinity house.