D. Keith and Ellen (Slabaugh) Helmuth, both class of \u201955, of Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, are being honored with the EMS Lifetime Service Award for 60 years of creation care\u00a0in personal and professional settings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were environmentalists before it was popular,\u201d wrote former roommate and lifelong friend, James Lapp, in his nomination, describing them as \u201chumble and unsung.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple had hoped \u2013 before coronavirus \u2013 to celebrate their 65-year class reunion at Homecoming Weekend. Instead, the group \u2013 which has a record eight married couples from the class \u2013 will connect virtually.<\/p>\n
Keith and Ellen have pursued environmental education, organic farming, community economic and social development work, writing for publication and
\npublic presentation, the founding of Quaker Institute for the Future, and book publishing on environmental themes.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything started for us from the standpoint of service and community,\u201d writes Keith, reflecting on their journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cJim Lapp and I were roommates for our senior year at EMHS,\u201d writes Keith, noting that \u201cJim, Joe Longacher, Leon Stutzman, and I were especially good friends in those days and ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leon and Keith were roommates in their junior year\u00a0of high school, and Keith and\u00a0Joe were roommates for their\u00a0first year at Eastern Mennonite College. \u201cSo I had the great benefit of a close association with each\u00a0of these remarkable men in those formative years.\u201d<\/p>\n
A photo of Jim and Keith in their pajamas in their dorm room recently came to light. The window in the photo \u201cis the one from which I waved to Ellen on Nov. 17, 1954, after she had given me a lovely Buxton leather wallet for my birthday,\u201d recalls Keith.<\/p>\n
Keith wrote extensively about the couple\u2019s passion to nurture\u00a0a small corner of creation\u00a0while sharing broadly through relationships, entrepreneurship and writing to influence others for the greater good.<\/p>\n