Building a bright future on Pine Mountain

The Letcher County chapter has worked hard over the past year to raise local visibility of their work, build collaboration with neighboring chapters, and increasingly plan and participate in local trainings and events.  With radio talk shows, newspaper ads and editorials, an increased facebook presence and more, the chapter is reaching and involving more and more people, from Blackey to Oven Fork.  Through work with the Appalachia’s Bright Future conference silent auction, the Letcher Chapter has already raised over three fourths of their annual fundraising goal! The last calendar year alone has included potlucks, water testing and citizen lobbying trainings, art raffles, voter empowerment drives, and countless appearances at fiscal court meetings to speak out for clean water and safe mining in our communities.

Just in the last month, Letcher County KFTC members spoke out at a Public Service Commission hearing about a Kentucky Power proposal to raise local electric rates.  They shared a message of vision, possibility and responsibility the company has to provide local ratepayers with the “least cost options” for long term, sustainable solutions. 

Also in May, over 30 Letcher County members and friends spent a whole Saturday cleaning and celebrating on top of Pine Mountain at Wiley’s Last Resort (WLR).  Letcher County’s favorite campground, WLR, is owned and operated by long time KFTC member, author, poet, rabble-rouser, and radio extraordinaire, Jim Webb.  After slipping quietly into retirement from Appalshop’s WMMT, Jim was celebrated back in March at the 2^nd annual Potluck on Pine Mountain with the Harlan chapter, for his decades of lively action and advocacy for a better world. There, KFTC members from both sides of the mountain agreed to spend a Saturday in May honoring and supportin Jim's work.  We helped to get his beautiful and funky campground in great shape for the upcoming season of “the preservation & perpetuation of wildlife, music, poetry, fun and communing with Nature”, according to www.wileyslastresort.com.

Growing from the Appalachia’s Bright Future theme, Building a bright future on Pine Mountain, as the event became known, featured several projects that involved cleaning up camp sites, fire pits, trails, outdoor furniture, music stages, and much more.  After a long day of campground work, people gathered together at the ‘Sandbar and Gorilla’ and ‘Walled-In Pond’ for a big potluck and late night rock n roll show, with poetry and stories. 

This event helped to launch not just several more months of campground community this year, including the annual Rotary picnic, MARS fest and the Soirée, but also an annual clean up/ kick off event each year, sponsored by KFTC friends near and far.  As Wiley (Jim) puts it, “It’s a wonderful thing!”

Wiley's Last Resort is a perfect place for families and friends alike to camp, swim, hike and enjoy Pine Mountain. May is the perfect time to kick off the camping season and help get Wiley’s in tiptop shape for friends, neighbors, and travelers.  Jim would specifically like to extend an invitation to next year's event to KFTC members throughout the state. So, everyone mark your calendars for next year’s big summer kick off at Wiley’s Last Resort, Saturday, May 18^th, 2014!  Jeff Chapman Crane, who generously ran a chainsaw at this year’s event, said, “This is a great way to honor Jim and bring everyone together.” Jeff is also the artist behind the amazing flamingo and cattail mosaic on Wiley's dock that captured lots of attention throughout the evening.

This summer and fall the Letcher Chapter already has plans for an evening in July at the brand new Fleming-Neon Public Library, including a tour and Q & A with architect Bill Richardson, as well as an advanced water testing training in September.  This month, the chapter is hosting its Annual Chapter meeting as a potluck picnic at the Valley of the Winds Art Gallery in beautiful Eolia, up on Pine Mountain.