Thank You, Damon Crouse.

Over the years, I’ve been blessed to work alongside many incredible people who have freely offered their gifts, talents, and time to the neighbors of The Root Cellar. Some stay for a short while. Some for a season. Some for a year.

And then there are the few who become an integral part of the story that God is authoring at The Root Cellar.

Damon Crouse is one of those people.

This week marks Damon’s final week as an employee of The Root Cellar, and while transitions like this are part of ministry life, some are harder than others. We gathered together yesterday with about a hundred neighbors, former staff, volunteers, kids, and of course a few dozen teens—each wanting to share just how much Damon has meant to them and honor his incredible contribution to this ministry.

We all agreed: you cannot replace a Damon Crouse.

His creativity. His passion. His willingness to chase an idea that seemed just a little crazy. His deep love of God and neighbor. His boldness to dream. His willingness to jump in wherever needed. His heart.

Those things are rare.

Over the last decade, The Root Cellar’s presence and effectiveness in Lewiston has grown significantly. Damon has been right in the middle of so much of it.

Long before many of our programs had names, systems, or measurable outcomes attached to them, Damon was there—usually with a big idea.

The earliest version of Lew Crew included a lawn care team. There was Damon—alongside Zach Nolt—mentoring young men, teaching them how to work hard, showing them responsibility, and sharing whatever he had with them.

He helped build a culture of adventure and discipleship that now runs deep through our youth programs. Alongside Alyssa McKay, he helped create what has become a winter tradition for so many of our teens—ski days, Skimo laps at Lost Valley, mountain adventures, and moments that shaped lives far beyond the slopes. From local hills to Mt. Washington, Damon understood something important: discipleship often happens shoulder to shoulder, in vans, on trails, and in ordinary moments where trust is built.

Common Grounds Cafe—serving neighbors experiencing homelessness and isolation each week—began with Damon’s creativity and compassion.

The Path Forward, our workforce development initiative helping adults build stability, work readiness, and community, carries Damon’s fingerprints too. His imagination and persistence helped shape a program that today is creating opportunity and hope for hundreds of neighbors.

Over the past year, he initiated Men of Valor. This group brings together high school students and mentors from local churches for outdoor adventures, discipleship, object lessons, and conversations about what it means to be a man.

This winter, these young men even helped lead a worship service at Sunday River—stepping forward to share Scripture and the Gospel. Earlier this week, Damon led several of these young men on a three-day canoe trip just outside Jackman, testing their limits and learning to rely on one another and their Heavenly Father.

And somehow, in the middle of all that, Damon still holds the record for The Root Cellar’s most successful single-day fundraiser. The annual Skimo event has raised more than $35,000 in a single day—resources that directly translate into mentoring, food, opportunity, discipleship, and hope.

When I think about Damon, a few words come to mind: faithful, friend, adventurer. But maybe above all else, servant.

Damon started his journey at The Root Cellar through Brethren Volunteer Service. He gave a full year to living simply and serving neighbors in Lewiston. He lived on Horton Street. He showed up consistently. He invested deeply in relationships. He stayed present.

And as often happens around here, Lewiston got stuck on him.

After his volunteer year ended, Damon moved into my basement, kept volunteering, kept serving, and somehow survived largely on cereal and determination.

Along the way, he also met Vicky.

What began through shared ministry and a shared love for neighbors eventually became something much more. Damon married Vicky Crouse, now serving as The Root Cellar’s Director of Operations, and together they have faithfully poured themselves into this work and this community.

The story God was writing in Damon’s life became deeply intertwined with the story God was writing at The Root Cellar.

That ministry extended far beyond our walls and program hours. For years, Damon and Vicky have opened their home week after week to host what many teens simply know as “Jesus Parties”—creating space for teenagers to ask hard questions, study Scripture, build friendships, eat together, laugh together, and experience what Christian community can look like.

Over the years, they have discipled dozens of teenagers.

They didn’t simply create programs; they created a family—a place where teens were known, welcomed, challenged, and loved.

When an opportunity came along to officially join The Root Cellar team five years ago, Damon jumped at it. Lew Crew Lawn Care, Abundant Food Shares, Work Readiness Training for Teens and Adults, Common Grounds Cafe, The Path Forward, and Men of Valor—each ministry has been directly led by or heavily influenced by Damon, touching thousands of lives.

The Kingdom impact of Damon’s faithfulness stretches farther than numbers will ever show. It lives in teenagers who learned confidence, resilience, and responsibility; in young men who found purpose and direction; in neighbors who experienced dignity, belonging, and hope; in coworkers strengthened by friendship and challenged to love more deeply; and in volunteers who found themselves becoming leading characters in the story that God is writing through The Root Cellar.

It lives in ski lifts and lawn mowers, in early mornings and long days, in coffee shared with neighbors, in work crews and mountain trails, and in ordinary moments that God used to do extraordinary things. It lives in countless quiet acts of faithfulness that only God fully sees.

Scripture reminds us in Galatians 6:9:

"Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

Damon never gave up. He kept climbing mountains—sometimes literally, but more often helping others believe they could climb theirs. He faithfully showed up. He loved God deeply. He loved neighbors well. Through years of ordinary faithfulness, God used him to help shape this ministry and strengthen this community.

Because of that, the Kingdom of God has advanced in ways that only eternity will fully reveal.

Damon, thank you.

Thank you for loving God deeply.

Thank you for moving into my basement and choosing to stay.

Thank you for loving neighbors faithfully.

Thank you for chasing crazy ideas and always being willing to try more.

Thank you for teaching young men to work hard, dream big, and follow Jesus.

Thank you for opening your home.

Thank you for your friendship - despite being a Laker/Eagles/Duke fan.

Thank you for seeking first the Kingdom and for helping shape The Root Cellar—and Lewiston—into what it is today.

You will be missed, but we’re grateful that this isn’t goodbye. You’ll continue investing in young men, serving neighbors, and walking alongside many of the people you’ve impacted over the years. We’re excited to see what God does in this next season. Knowing you, it will probably involve a mountain, a canoe or skis, coffee, and a whole lot of faith.

We love you, bro.