West Virginia Blue
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I woke up early this morning wondering, how can I let my mother know how much I appreciate her? Years ago, when I was feeling flush, I sent her flowers several Mother's Day in a row. Now, with the budget tight, I know she'll be happy with time on the phone. Still, I wanted to do something more.
So, in honor of my mother today I share a happy story.
Thank you, Mom
My mother grew up on a farm. Her family was certainly not wealthy, but they never went hungry, either. They were fortunate to own their own land and to own a herd of dairy cattle (along with a sundry assortment of other barn yard animals).
On the other hand, once she was old enough to work outside of the house, my mother spent her summers working in the kitchen of the summer camp down the road where the rich city kids went. While most of the kids her age where at the camp for long days of fun, she and her sisters spent long days preparing their meals.
From grade school until high school my mother attended a one room school house. She do so well in her studies the teacher passed her straight from 5th grade to 7th grade. Even so, she graduated as valedictorian of her high school class and went on to college. Perhaps in part because her parents were willing to sacrifice to send her to college, my mother did the same for me and my siblings.
After college, my mother did something to help others with even less than she had growing up. She joined the International Voluntary Services (a pre-cursor to the Peace Corp) and spend over a year in Southeast Asia helping villagers there.
All this is a long way of saying, thank you mom. Thank you for providing a bright shining example through your life of helping others. Your life story continues to inspire me to want to help others just as you have.
A Happy Story
A few months back I posted several diaries here asking for help to plant a seed. Since then, residents in Coal River Valley have been hit hard by the Upper Big Branch mining incident. Yet, through the generous response of many of you here, many seeds have also been planted.
Today, I'm pleased to share with you an email I received from the project organizer:
Here is a little update on the greenhouse for you. I'm attaching pictures of the greenhouse and also the shitake mushroom workshop we had the other weekend.
In the middle of so many reminders of the sadness and injustice we're up against these days, we do have a little bit of hope popping up in the Coal River Valley. Some of you may remember that, months ago, this blog posted an announcement and request for support for a community project that was just developing in the heart of the southern WV coalfields. Your response was beautifully generous, and we surprised and grateful.
What did we do with the donations -- what's happened since then?
Well, the community group has only grown in strength and numbers, as well as in its own sense of identity. Our monthly meetings number in the 20s, when we gather in a restaurant where the two forks of the Coal River meeting, to enjoy soup and cornbread homemade by the restaurant owners. We now have a name that the whole group voted on -- Seeds of Unity and Hope for Coal River.
We have a slogan -- "Many voices, many projects, one community." We have working groups, everything from a greenhouse group to a canning kitchen group, community renewable energy, craftspeople group, media spokespeople group, and a nonprofit working group dedicated to obtaining official nonprofit status for us. We have a mission statement, brainstormed collectively:
"We are committed to growing unity and hope through community projects, so the next generation can bloom. We are preserving our roots and sowing seeds for the future through hard work and shared resources."
The mission statement is open-ended on purpose, to allow room for the interests and passions of the members to shape the projects we take on. The bottom line is that we want to work on projects that are good for the community, in the triple-bottom-line way -- good economically, socially, and environmentally.
A beautiful vision is not enough -- everyone wanted to take action, to build something real. So we built a community greenhouse. That's where your donations have gone, to this structure that is the perfect symbol of planting something small which we hope will grow into something big. After several work parties, we have now finished the building and planted our first seeds. We hope to sell the seedlings later this spring (we're taking orders, by the way!), vegetables in raised beds through the summer, and then continue on with food production through the winter.
We have big dreams for our greenhouse -- employment for folks from the community, an educational center, a gathering place. We are excited to be able to hire a part-time summer caretaker this year, and we have already held our first community workshop, learning how to grow shitake mushrooms on logs, which can be a surprisingly profitable project. We hope this is only the beginning.
So thank you -- for your support and your faith in us. I think it's an appropriate time to quote Thoreau here, who said, "I have great faith in a seed...Convince me you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders."
Our fund-raising drive for the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Diversity (SEED) community project at Coal River Mountain Watch is off to a great start. A huge thank you to those of you who have already contributed. I'm going to be writing more diaries on the topic over the next week.
For today, I just have this simple request. As I write, we're at 17% of our fund-raising target. Please take a moment to contribute now. Let's hit 25% of the target today.
If enough of us contribute, maybe we can even shame the more, how-you-say, cantankerous members of West Virginia Blue into chipping in $17, too. If that's not enough motivation for you, just think how many flat-earther climate change denialist's heads will explode when we hit our target!
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty frustrated by the pace of change in West Virginia. I get angry when state politicians say they'll speak with 'one voice' for coal interests while ignoring the rest of us. I'm ready to send a signal that even here in Appalachia we are committed to addressing the deteriorating atmosphere.
So many of the debates going on today are remote and distant, sometimes it feels hard to impact what's going on in Charleston, Washington, or Copenhagen. I've spent a lot of time thinking about what we can do today, something that can have an positive immediate impact and I've finally found something.
Contribute today to Sustainable Economic and Energy Diversification in Coal River valley.
We've talked many times about the importance and difficulties of developing sustainable diverse economic opportunities in West Virginia. Thankfully, there are committed grass-roots activists working hard at these efforts.
Blasts have reverberated off the top of Coal River Mountain since mid-October. Each boom is a reminder of how much is at stake in the Coal River Valley. For two years, residents of the Coal River Valley campaigned for the mountain's preservation for development as an industrial-scale wind farm. A wind farm in the Coal River Valley would chart a new course for the region and pose a true threat to those who seek to demolish West Virginia's natural resources and heritage for short term profit. Though blasting has begun, the battle for Coal River Mountain is far from over, and in the valley below, residents are increasingly taking sustainable development into their own hands as part of Coal River Mountain Watch's Sustainable Economic and Energy Diversification (SEED) project.
SEED is a community organizing project designed to connect residents of the Coal River Valley to one another and the outside resources they need to make their small business and renewable energy ventures a reality. We began by meeting with twelve families in the valley over the summer and fall, and identified three inspiring projects to pursue. Two families are in the beginning stages of a community owned wind development project. One group of woodworkers are building a wood kiln to dry and increase the value of sustainably forested lumber. The SEED Community Team formed as a group of locals generating new ideas for community revival and economic diversification in monthly meetings. In their latest meeting, they resolved to build a community owned greenhouse and plan to break ground on the project in the winter. The entrepreneurial spirit is spreading!
SEED volunteers help with construction of a community center building in Rock Creek, WV
SEED is structured to ensure accountability to community members. It begins with listening to community members, and the Community Team ensures that project organizers do not veer off course in the collaborative process of small business development.
Judy Gunnoe lives at the head of Lick Creek Hollow, nestled between two toes of Coal River Mountain. "I think there are other options beyond coal because coal's not gonna be here forever - our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, what are they gonna do when coal's not here? There needs to be some kind of other jobs besides coal. I think there's a lot of smaller businesses that would like to be in this area, but they're scared off because of the mining. If you can get a few things started, you can get a few people to work - you can even employ these high school graduates. There's not a lot of young people; what ones are here, they leave or they go in the mines because that's the only thing to do, and by the time they're 30, they're half-dead." The Gunnoes are SEED community leaders and are building a community center and hope to put wind turbines on the ridge above their home.
Organizers are working on two wind development projects in the the valley. They need to start raising funds today to be able to purchase and install a 100 kilowatt wind turbines as soon as possible and stake the community's claim on the toe of Coal River Mountain. This single-turbine installation lays the groundwork for larger wind development in the future.
Like any volunteer effort, the SEED project cannot be sustained by sweat equity alone. It needs your help. There is an immediate need for anemometers to measure wind feasibility, then there are additional costs associated with the purchase and installation of wind turbines in the Coal River Valley.
Community members visit a wind farm in April, 2009
Contribute $17, $34, or even $170 today to safe, clean, homegrown Sustainable Energy and Environmental Development for West Virginia Coal River valley. Send a clear signal that you want to that target to be at least 17%.
When we all work together, we can change our climate for good.
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