Early Stories of The Ridge House

-Michael Lee Clymer

And it was a ministry. Ridge House started in 1981 by a small group of Kairos members who sought to still serve prisoners after they were released.

Kairos: a funny word. Let’s start by defining what kairos is and the Kairos ministry, because both Ridge House and the Kairos ministry are heavily entwined. Actually, kairos is a Greek word which means “In God’s Time”, as opposed to chronos, or clock time. Whereas chronos is divided up in unique, measurable segments, kairos has no measurable segments, God works in his own, variable, time.

Before 1981, but not much before, a group of Christians, primarily from First United Methodist Church in Reno, Nevada, felt a calling to go into the Nevada prisons and sing phrase music. They were called The Grin Again Gang. They entered the Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC) and Nevada State Prison (NSP) on a regular basis with guitars, music stands, song books, hugs, and especially, smiles. They would sing phrase music, and get the prisoners to sing with them. They grew quite popular, but they realized that there was something lacking. They were not preaching the word.

They heard of a ministry that was entering the Florida prisons called Kairos. At least three brave souls, maybe more, attended a Kairos weekend at Union C I in Raiford. Doug McCoy, Mike Falstick, and Skip Rackley came back changed men. They brought the ministry to northern Nevada. There is a whole web site devoted to the Kairos ministry, and if you want more information, please go there.

The weekends were happening with a steadily increasing list of free (outside) volunteers, and an increasing list of incarcerated (inside) volunteers. It branched from NNCC, the men’s prison, to the women’s prison. The outside and inside members became a strong support group for each other.

The outside Kairos members were seeing some of their inside friends being released from prison. This is a wonderful blessing, but the prisoners were not set up to succeed in the outside environment. They were basically given a stippling by the prison and told to be good little girls and boys. Many, who were incarcerated for years, failed and were sent back to prison. The outside members did not have the skill set to assist their released friends. They saw a great need for some kind of facility where the released prisoners could stay in a safe environment while they learned the life skills and discipline necessary to succeed in the outside world.

Again, this group saw a calling. They stepped out in total faith to open the Ridge House. There was no funding. There was no paid professional staff. There wasn’t even a similar ministry model to emulate.

An old Reno house was rented right downtown, on Ridge Street. Paralleling Ridge Street one block to the north is Court Street. Paralleling Ridge Street one block to the south is Liberty Street. Ridge House: right between court and liberty. An appropriate name if there ever was one. A way too small office for the staff was rented in an old dingy building on Ridge Street about two blocks from the house. The very first men’s housing facility opened.

The group worked with Parole and Probation to set up rules and regulations, for the volunteers as well as the released prisoners. I am sure P and P had some really good laughs at our early attempts. Doug McCoy, and Methodist Minister, became the “Spiritual Voice” for the Ridge House. Skip Rackley became the house manager. We had volunteer counselors, like Steve Sevenau and Tom Magruder. Volunteers also conducted Bible Studies and organized Kairos meetings, Christmas parties and other social and spiritual gatherings.

The Ridge was not a place for the men to flop. There was a program they had to follow. In the first place, they had to fill out an application and request an interview for acceptance into ridge. We knew our limitations and we wanted to make sure the client was compatible with our program. About once a month, Doug, and maybe Skip and Steve, would go down to Carson City to interview the potential clients. If they were accepted, then when they were released, they would be picked up by one of the Ridge staff and brought to the housing facility. Their residency was only to last around seven weeks. During that time, they had strict rules to follow. There was a curfew. They had to attend AA an NA meetings if that was one of their problems. They had to get a job within the first two weeks. Through money management classes and counseling they had to save a portion of their pay, plus pay rent. By the time they had been there seven weeks, they were much better prepared to strike out on their own.
As I wrote above, we had no funding. The house was furnished by what the Kairos members could spare. Each time there was a Kairos or Cursillo event, a basket was passed for donations for Ridge House. It was a month by month worry if we were going to be able to make the rent. We were all asked that when we shopped, if we would throw in extra toilet paper and peanut butter “For the Ridge”. Doug McCoy tirelessly went from church to church, asking for donations and drumming up volunteers for the Ridge.

One of P and P’s regulations is that parolees cannot gather together. They allowed it at Ridge House, as long as we had an outside volunteer present. This was a major issue for the ministry, as we all had husbands or wives and families and other responsibilities. None of us could spend the night on a regular basis. A monthly schedule was made up with a phone list. At the beginning of the month, someone would call the outside community for volunteers to spend at least one night at Ridge. There was a private bedroom with its own bathroom set aside for the overnighter. I have no clue what I would have done if there was an ‘incident’ while I was spending the night. This was most definitely a coffee table ministry.

After a couple of years, some grant money started to trickle in. This eased the rent and food problems. Also, a paid position was created for a full time director. Doug McCoy had that position. I don’t think it was very much money, I am sure his salary was supplemented by First United Methodist Church. Also, there was enough income to hire a house manager and a secretary.
The Ridge House board at that time consisted totally of outside Kairos members. I think there were three or four board members, plus the director. I was one of those members, and I became the president of the board during the next adventure.
At some time around 1984 or 1985, the owner put the property up for sale and gave us notice. It was a prime piece of real estate. In fact, there is now a stock brokerage on the property. Now we had a problem. We had a successful and growing ministry, but the facility was being pulled out from under us. Again, it was time to step out in faith. We needed to by our own house.

Doug, with all the boundless energy of a minister on a mission, pulled together some funding for a down payment and searched Reno for a house. Finding a house is not easy, because of the type of residents, there has to be approval from the city counsel and the neighbors. Doug came up with three candidates, and the board visited each one, looked at the price and payments, and made a decision. The house is still in use as one of our major facilities. As with any purchase, there were a ton of little details to solve. Doug called me a lot (as the president) and we had a bunch of emergency board meetings to get things in place. Finally, the contract was ready to sign. I can tell you, it is pretty scary signing a contract making you liable for a loan that is over twice the value of your present home. Thanks to God and more funding, the house was paid off in a couple of years.

The house needed some work. The kitchen was really tiny, and sometime during its long history, it was turned into apartments. We needed to remove the dividing walls and make it a single residence again. It consisted of two stories, plus a basement. The second story was accessed by a long, outside staircase to an outside landing. From the landing you entered into a great room, with one room and a tiny bathroom off to the side. The plan was to make the second story the new Ridge House office. The rent saved could be applied to the mortgage. On the front of the house was a wraparound porch which was converted into a bedroom for two clients.

Through donated services from the carpenters, electricians, and plumbers unions, a Fernley 4H group, and a lot of sweat, the place was cleaned up, spruced up, fixed up, and converted into a wonderful housing facility.

Notice that even though I mentioned Karios women, we had no facility for them. We knew there was a need, but we did not have the resources to open a women’s house too. It was always a dream we had, but we could not accomplish it during the early years. About two years after we purchased our first house, we were able to buy another house for the women.
It hasn’t even slowed down since then.

I hope this gives an idea of the early history of Ridge House. It was an exciting time to be involved. We did a lot of praying and depending on God to lead us. He must have, because it is a pretty remarkable story. I know that I, and probably everyone else involved in those first few years, did not even dream or imagine how Ridge House would morph and grow. I have been blessed and feel deeply honored to be part of this ministry. Thank you for reading this article.