S ep tem b er-O cto b er 1988
X h e IM o u n ta in S p ir it:
The Magazine o f the Christian Appalachian Project
Septem ber-O ctober 1988
V ol. V II, N o. 5
Contents Features 4
T he C ounty T im e . . . R em em bered by M argaret G abriel A group of people in Wolfe C ounty, K entucky, have organized the Wolfe C ounty Industrial Developm ent Association, and are investigating opportunities for their county.
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Nurturing with Love, p. 20
Sm all C o m m u n ity— B ig Plans by J o h n Butwell A small com m unity in Jackson C ounty refused to sit by and watch their identity swallowed up by surrounding larger neighbors. T he result? T he Hisle C om m unity Child C are C enter.
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N urturing w ith L ove: A R eview
First Impressions, p. 14
by G iovanna Burks Godby T he Sunshine C enter, C A P ’s child developm ent center in L ancaster, has published a book of recipes. Some are children’s favorities, others are children’s concoctions.
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R ockcastle C ounty D id (Is D oin g) It! by Ike Adams A lthough there is still m uch work to be done, Ike Adam s recounts the days when Rockcastle C ounty started working tow ard attracting industry to the area.
Departments 3 9 10 14 22
From Our P resid en t Letters Around the Project The CAP Closeup Random Thoughts
The September-October Theme T h ro u g h o u t the state, you will find people w orking h ard to im prove the econom ic clim ate, and th at w ork is startin g to pay off w ith beginnings of an influx of industry. Even m ore im p o rtan t, people are realizing th at they need not look outside the area for all the answ ers. People in small tow ns an d counties are w orking together to create an inviting atm osphere for businesses and their families. O n page 4, y o u ’ll m eet the W olfe C o unty In d u strial D evelopm ent A ssociation. O n page 23, Ike A dam s will tell you how R ockcastle C o u n ty people have been w orking together. O n the C O V E R , a fun p art of the day at the H isle C o m m u n ity C hild C are C en ter (photo by Butwell, story, page 16). O n the B A C K C O V E R , a u tu m n arrives in E astern K entucky.
Published by the C h ristian A ppalachian P roject. E d itor, M a rg aret G abriel. A d visory B oard, F ath er R alph W . Beiting; M ike M cL au g h lin ; Leslie B. L arsen; Bill Begley; R an d o lp h Jo rd a n . G raphics C oordinator, D ebbie Fraley T u d o r. The Mountain Spirit is published six tim es a year. T h e an n u al subscription price is $5.00. Subscriptions and o th er correspondence should be sent to The Mountain Spirit, C h ristian A ppalachian P roject, 322 C rab O rch ard R o a d , L ancaster, K entucky 40446. C o p y rig h t, 1988, the C h ristian A ppalachian P roject, Inc. All rights reserved. M em b er, C atholic Press A ssociation. T h e C h ristian A p palachian P roject is a non-profit C h ristian service organization o p eratin g th ro u g h o u t E astern K entucky. T h e project operates on the philosophy th at “ helping people help them selves” is the best approach to A ppalachian poverty.
From Our President former schoolchildren, we all remember the towering figures of early American history: Washington, Jefferson, Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry, Hamilton, Franklin, Jay and the rest. So, too, if we sweep the next two cen turies, we think of Jackson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Wilson, and perhaps Eisenhower and Kennedy. Our political landscape has been dominated by individuals showing signs of greatness. We are a nation that loves heroes. Today we have our heroes too, but more often than not, for many of us, we seek our heroes in sports, entertainment, the glamorous spotlights. Where else could we look . . . in business perhaps? Again, as history students, we could all recall the famous inventors in our past: McCormick, Fulton, Whitney, Edison, Bell, Ford. Inventors and discoverers are not new to us, but how about the men who managed the industries created by in vention, names like Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Mellon? We may think of this later group, not as heroes, but perhaps as selfish tyrants, living off the work of others, power and greed getting out of hand. Few business leaders have captured the popular imagination like Lee Iacocco, the man who rescued Chrysler from bankruptcy. Why is this so? It may be because the nobler ethics seem, as a whole, to be removed from business life. We seldom hear stories of compassion, of gentler emotions, of charity, being exhibited by those who run the Fortune 500. Maybe such stories simply do not sell newspapers, and we like stories of the little guy beating giants, and not giants holding olive branches. We may have become conditioned to ex pect ruthlessness and lawlessness, and in fact our imaginations may be running from the facts. Whatever the case, more of us should recognize that it is business —capitalism —that has given our country the prosperity it has today, our foremost position among the nations of the world. I do not mean to extoll business, right or wrong, or to see it as a reservoir of virtue; but this system, more than any other, has brought about 200 years of im provement in our standard of living. Is it wrong, therefore, to expect more from it in the future? More controlled perhaps, more creative and in novative, smaller-sized operations, new forms of worker participation, influence, ownership —I think we can and should expect more. I think our business growth can continue. For these reasons, we at CAP are paying atten tion to motivating, making and training enSeptem ber-O ctober 1988
M ik e M cL a u g h lin .
trepreneurs. Nine out of ten new jobs will occur in small business rather than larger ones, but so many new small businesses fail, for a predictable number of reasons . . . under-capitalization, too high an interest rate on money borrowed, lack of management expertise, naive marketing strategies, poorly trained workforce with low morale and no stake in their own future, to name those most fre quently cited. We feel we can play a part here, and make a difference, in the initiation and develop ment of both expansion and new jobs in Eastern Kentucky. We need jobs, we need them desperate ly, and CAP cannot ignore its responsibility to help make them happen. In our efforts and those of others, we must not ignore the individual spirit of the entrepreneur. No one else will work quite so hard, so creatively and innovatively, with such single-minded direc tion and fortitude. No one else will suffer and en dure such hardships and misdirections, failures and mistakes, as one trying to make a stamp on the world. One who made the first step in dream ing and who struggles with any odds to make that dream a reality, will be the one —more than any agency, certainly —who creates jobs in Ap palachia. If we need to apply reins, if there are not reins enough already for society’s protection, we can do that, but we must not allow the spark to be so burdened that it extinguishes itself from the weight it needs to carry. We salute the en trepreneur, as we do the educators, the civii ser vants of governments, those in the professions, and those in the trenches, for all are going to be needed in the high task before us. 3
The County Time Remembered b y M argaret G ab riel
E ig h teen months ago, Wolfe County, Kentucky, considered itself “the county time forgot.” Its population of 7000 was decreasing rather than increasing. The small population meant a small tax base, and a small tax base meant limited services and resources in the county. The major private employer, an electronics plant, employed less than 200 people. Other people worked in retail and transportation in the county, or commuted to jobs in neighboring counties. Tom and Annette Utter moved to Campton, the county seat of Wolfe County, from Lexington in 1972 “because we thought that the mountains represented a frontier, a place where people could start a business on their own and still make it,” Tom said. “It proved to be true. Individual effort pays here.” Tom and Annette first opened a drug store, then several years later, an insurance business. Both business ventures plateaued quick ly, according to Tom. “Normally, a retail drug store will take a certain amount of time to increase its sales and grow aggressively before it hits a sales plateau. Ours plateaued in about half the national average.” Tom said that in the years between the openings of the drug store and the insurance business, the market should have matured and increased, but “instead it had actually declined. Out of frustra tion, I accepted an invitation from Pat Badgett at the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce in Frankfort to visit, vent some frustration and get some ideas. 4
“I went with the typical bad attitude: why aren’t we getting anything in Wolfe County? Why aren’t ‘they’ doing anything? The people in Frankfort were quick to tell me that there was nothing being done in my community, because my community was making no organized effort to get anything done on its own.” That was all Tom needed to hear. “I came home with a fire lit,” he said, determin ed to prove to Frankfort that if an opportunity was made available to Wolfe County, there was enough community interest to take advantage of it. Several weeks later, Tom and a group of civic leaders invited a representative of the Kentucky Commerce Cabinet to speak about the specific steps that could be taken to increase economic development in the county. “The evening of our meeting he was welcomed by a hundred people. A hundred people at a meeting like that in a community like this is amaz ing. From that moment on, we’ve had no trouble getting attention. The community proved itself that night. It proved it was almost a sleeping . . . well, you wouldn’t call it a giant, but the amount of enthusiasm was a sleeping giant,” a sleeping giant that awoke to become the Wolfe County In dustrial Development Association (WCIDA). Tom estimates that there are 50 members who elect eleven members to the board of directors. The Mountain Spirit
Fisher
D u r in g the fish fry sp onsored b y the W C ID A , en terta in m en t w as p ro v id ed b y an area grou p . T raffic w as b lo ck ed off, as the group “ clo g g ed ” for the crow d. C lo g g in g is a tra d itio n a l m o u n ta in d ance.
“With eleven people in such a tiny community, it forces us to have a democratic process. The way we’ve set up our elections ensures that if the com munity doesn’t like our cross-section, they can change it in a given year. We wanted anybody who wanted to have input,” he went on to say. “We wanted this whole effort to be accessible to everybody, all groups, all citizens.” As members of the association began to work, they discovered a wealth of information waiting to be tapped—resource people and groups, as they are known. “We have found an enormous pool of people who will give us assistance —I’m talking about expertise, more than money. When we got frustrated and angry, but decided to fight instead of rolling over and dying, we discovered that peo ple like that fight and tend to offer to join the struggle. “Organizations like the Christian Appalachian Project adopted the effort and began to give us en couragement.” CAP became involved with Wolfe County when Jim Stivers of the Commerce Cabinet gave Tom CAP’S name as one of the resources available to assist the association. David Fisher works as a business development coordinator for CAP and attended one of Wolfe County’s meetings in November of 1987. Accor ding to Tom, “that has become a priceless rela tionship, because, from CAP, we’ve received en thusiasm, and encouragement and direction and Septem ber-O ctober 1988
financial support, with a ‘no strings-attached’ kind of freedom.” CAP recognizes that, despite any amount of en thusiasm, it takes money to mount the kind of campaign of which Wolfe County was dreaming. WCIDA incorporated in December of 1987, and received a grant from CAP in January of 1988. They were given $2000 outright, and told that if they could raise $2000, another $2000 would be theirs. “The lift to our spirits by that recognition, was as valuable as the cash,” Tom said. “The fact that a group of non-government people was in terested in helping, validated our existence. We’d been a loosely-knit band of sincere people, and the grant made us realize that we could become a business organization. It gave some responsibility and accountability.” For many years, CAP has been concerned with the lack of employment opportunity in the moun tains. When Father Beiting first started his work in 1950, he could see, that only by helping people to find jobs, so they would not have to be depen dent on government or agencies for their day-today existance, could lasting changes and im provements be made. CAP has provided employ ment to people through several programs, but in 1986, a conversation between CAP president Mike McLaughlin and Frank Clark (a volunteer at the time, now senior director of economic develop ment) raised the question, “what more can CAP do to make a substantial impact on the unemploy ment problem in Eastern Kentucky?” 5
Gabriel
L eft, T o m U tter con d u cts a m ee tin g o f the W olfe C o u n ty In d u stria l D ev e lo p m e n t A sso cia tio n B oard o f D irecto rs. B elo w , rig h t, board m em bers R ev . D o y le T h o m a s, P h il M a d d o x and Susan N e ff d iscu ss p lan s to clean up and b ea u tify W olfe C o u n ty .
“Basically, we said that if you accept those premises, then Eastern Kentucky’s unemployment get the biggest bang for the buck when CAP helps to stimulate local leadership to create an environ ment at the community level for small business to develop and prosper.” After the decision was made that CAP would be involved with that type of activity, David was placed as a business development coordinator and was invited by local leaders to work in McCreary and Wolfe counties. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a former CAP volunteer, David has a degree in economics and a good work ing knowledge of the business world. He believes that involvement in business and economic development fits well into CAP’S mission.
In order to answer the question, Frank realized the need to more closely identify the problem. In an extensive report, he identified five parts of the unemployment problem in Eastern Kentucky: the shift of the world economy from a manufacture base to an information/service base; the low education levels of the working age population; the absence of leadership at the local level; a lack of funding for small business start-up and work ing capital; and the lack of management skills in small business. From these findings, plus the fact that 85% of the businesses in Kentucky employ fewer than twenty people (that percentage is even higher in Eastern Kentucky), Frank concluded that “there aren’t any Toyotas in the future of Eastern Kentucky. Another basic assumption: the federal goverment isn’t going to come in and dump billions of dollars into Eastern Kentucky. “From that we concluded that solutions to the unemployment problem have to be found in ex isting businesses or through small businesses established at the local level, and that local leader ship will have to create the environment for those kinds of things to happen. 6
“I’ve always been fed up with people that thought the terms ‘Christian’ and ‘businessman’ were oxymorons,” David said. “This program allows CAP, and me personally, to demonstrate that Christian organizations and people can be in volved in business and business development and they don’t have to exploit or take advantage of people, as some people assume happens in business operations.” After the first meeting that David attended in Wolfe County, “I explained to Tom what CAP is, in a thousand words or less, and what my program is. I told him that I was available to industrial and business organizations to help them set priorities, or do their legwork, whatever they needed help doing, and told him to call me if he was interested. That’s how we got started working together. “The important thing about WCIDA is that, although there’s nothing in its by-laws or articles of incorporation, it’s a very Christian organiza tion. There’s a minister on the board of directors, Tom is a pillar of his church, we start every meeting with a prayer. Most of the board members are very spiritual, and that’s assumed by them about me because I work for CAP. That makes my work a lot easier. Often, when you go into an industrial development setting with a Christian attitude, you get eaten alive.” At meetings of the board and the general membership of WCIDA, David acts as a facilitator, not an “expert.” “Many times,” he The Mountain Spirit
said, “groups come in and tell people ‘this is what you need to do, this is how you’re going to do it, this is how much it’s going to cost and this is where you’re going to get the money.’ CAP tries to enable people to think and dream about what they want. When they’ve established that, then we ask, ‘how do you think you can go about getting it?’ ” If the community needs help setting strategies, or help implementing them, then CAP will step in and help, according to David, but the community leaders set the direction and make the decisions. One of the first goals for the Wolfe County group was to raise the money needed to operate. Although CAP’S initial grant to WCIDA for operational funds was very important, both David and Tom see the matching grant as far more im portant to community development. Part of the needed $2000 was raised Memorial Day weekend with a community fish fry, sponsored by WCIDA, with the assistance of many businesses and business people. The fish fry was definitely “the place to be” in Campton during the holiday weekend, evidenced by nearly 300 people who at tended. Wolfe Countians consider the fish fry the first in a long line of fund raising events that will benefit the economic situation in the county. Tom believes that despite its success as a fund raiser, the fish fry was an even better means for folks to work together for a common cause.
At a recent WCIDA board meeting, members made plans to call on that spirit of cooperation again as they planned a major clean-up and beautification of downtown Campton. During the course of the meeting, each idea had two parts: first was the activity, such as the removal of old parking meters, painting curbs and making and planting window boxes for the storefronts. Part two of the question was always “who can we get to do the job?” The WCIDA recognizes that it is im portant to get the jobs done, and equally impor tant to involve as many people as possible. Groups mentioned included the Campton Women’s Club, the gardening club, the Future Farmers of America, the high school shop class, the school board, the local newspaper, the fire department, the bank and several politicians and businesses. The board also recognizes the need for long term planning, and has set up a program that assures that its work will continue. “One of our major priorities had to be that the association would keep itself regenerative,” Tom said. “In an extremely far-sighted move, the group decided to involve local students. We determined that we must go out and recruit and generate interest among people younger than ourselves. Eventually, one of the high school students will be seated as a voting board member.” The board believes that the presence of high
Gabriel
Septem ber-O ctober 1988
7
N early three h u n d red p eo p le atten d ed the co u n ty fish fry. T h e crow d in clu d ed p eo p le w h o still liv e in the co u n ty , as w ell as p eo p le w h o w ere h om e to v isit. C en ter, W C ID A w ork ers acted as cooks and servers for the ev en t; b elo w , T o m C ox and R ev . T h o m a s, W C ID A board m em b ers, en jo y the festiv itie s.
school students will give them access to the current concerns of young people in the community, and will involve young people in the developing con cerns of their county. “The students will elect the representative,” Tom went on to say. “They will have a voice, and hopefully, the student on the board and the students of the general membership will be men tored by the rest of the group. We hope that they will convey to other young people a feeling of ex citement that comes with being a working, active part of community development.” Tom said that in a very brief period, the com munity has turned 180 degrees, partly because of the way the county has started to perceive itself. For years, Wolfe County saw itself as the fringe of two locations—the bluegrass and the mountain areas of Kentucky. Because they saw themselves as “so far away” from both regions —Campton is about an hour from both Lexington and Pikeville—they felt very isolated, a small county swallowed up by the larger counties around it. With the birth of the Wolfe County Industrial Development Association, “I think we can develop our own entity,” Tom said, “if we’ll work with the surrounding area.” Making sure that people are involved with the plans and the working of the association is one of the biggest goals of the board of directors, and they work constantly on long range plans, rather than “quick fix” solutions. “We talked about, but haven’t decided how to implement, an education campaign, that will answer the question ‘what is economic development,”’ David said. “Economic development is not getting a Toyota plant. It means creating a business climate that a company might want to enter. Or it means that Joe Smith can start his own business and be successful without having to worry about feeling like an out cast if he fails.” Tom added, “We want to make sure that people understand that to get a factory to move into the area is not a goal in itself—if we get one, great, but that’s not our end goal. Our goal is to create a vibrant economy and place to live. We also want to make sure people understand that the harder we work, the luckier we’ll get.” g
The Mountain Spirit
Letters
I enjoy reading your magazine, The Mountain Spirit, the good work work that is done by the people, the teaching which is very important, helping others through education, the learning, to improve and gain their everyday living. I don’t mind at all to give or support the poor in the Appalachian area. God bless all of you.
We enjoy The Mountain Spirit, but more so, we enjoy contributing to your Christmas basket program every year. It is the true meaning of Christmas to share with others less fortunate.
I have always loved the mountains. We moved to Broadway, Virginia, and lived on a street that made it possible for me to look out over liv ing room windows and see the mountains.
Dianne L. Hummel Delanon, WI
In the spring, when the farmers burned off the brush, I liked to stand and watch it creep along the mountainside, like a fiery serpent.
Margaret Siebel New York, N Y
I am proud to be a member of CAP. As the Lord said, give and thou shall receive. It is a blessing to be able to help those who are in need. The Mountain Spirit keeps me informed that it is very important that we help as much as we can to keep the spirit of God in our hearts. May God bless you that you may keep up your good work.
A Mountain Lover Tipp City, OH There is no finer place than a mountain from which to shout out God’s love for his children. This is exemplified in the good work being done by CAP. Any work that we can do which blesses mankind is assured of success, because with God, man cannot fail. Your little publication carries with it the “scent of love.” Doris Ross Highland Park, IL
Henderson B. Moore Los Angeles, CA
I enjoy reading your magazine. I’m sure many people do not realize that this much poverty could exist in our country. I’m thankful that peo ple like you are willing to help erase some of that poverty from our land and make this a better place to live for all people. I’m glad to have an opportunity to help in a small way. Thank you for caring, and may God bless you. Although I live in Appalachia, too, this is a tourist town near the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, so that severe poverty for tunately does not exist here. Delight Cook Gatlinburg, TN Septem ber-O ctober 1988
Helping good hardworking folks to help themselves is what the CAP stands for which makes us proud to support the organization. Living in California with all its abundance, it is difficult to imagine that there are regions in the U.S. which are depriv ed. The Appalachians may lack material things, but more than make up for this in the human spirit as The Mountain Spirit shows so well.
I enjoy The Mountain Spirit very much!! Having been a resident of Western Kentucky during 1936, un til 1942, as the wife of a country doctor, I understand many of the problems faced by the rural people there. Many were among my hus band’s patients, and he delivered many babies in the homes, at a fee of $15, much of which we never were paid. However, we made many good friends, some of whom I was privileged to visit in 1985. One of those $15 babies is now a very stur dy, solid citizen of his community. I could only stand by the graves of two of the finest friends one could ever have, who are missed so much. Mrs. C.E. Pollack Davenport, FL
Ed and Mary Bernard Sylmar, CA Letters to the editor are welcome.
I was born in Timberville, Virginia, just a short eight miles to the mountains. Have been there on a Sunday School picnic.
They should not exceed 150 words in length, and we reserve the right to edit them fo r space. Address letters to The Mountain Spirit, Christian Appalachian Project, 322 Crab Orchard Road, Lancaster, Kentucky 40446.
Around the Project
by the CAP News Service
B irdhouses and Crosses K eep T y n er B usy TYNER —During an eight week period in the late fall and winter of every year, a crew of 85 to 100, working in a small factory here, produce 45,000 to 50,000 Christmas wreaths. These wreaths are sold throughout the United States and even in a few foreign countries. During the rest of the year, the factory doesn’t sit empty, though. Nine people, who are employed throughout the year, produce Memorial Day crosses and birdhouses which are marketed by Christmas Ridge Handcrafts, CAP’S marketing division. Until recently, CAP marketed craft items almost exclusively through direct mail. With the growth of the Christmas Ridge divi sion, greater efforts have been plac ed on marketing through wholesale buyers. This type of marketing has increased demand, which, in turn increases production and the number of jobs available in the area. The Memorial Day cross, which CAP has marketed for nearly ten years as a gravesite decoration, is CAP’S highest volume craft item. This year Bernie Hale, marketing manager, expects to ship 75,000 of the crosses, which are made from cedar and decorated with silk dogwood blossoms. With the production and sale of birdhouses and birdfeeders, “we’ve created our own market niche,” Ber nie said. “Traditionally, if you wanted to buy a birdhouse, you went to a hardware store. You couldn’t find a plain wooden birdhouse in a line of gift items. When I started talking with Gene [Hensley, manager of the Tyner operations] about making birdhouses, he thought I was crazy. But then, we got some advice from the National 10
T w o o f the b ird h o u ses fa sh io n ed at the p ro d u ctio n cen ter in T y n er .
Wildlife Federation and from the Audubon Society. We got some of our first designs from a woodwright in London, Kentucky, but now, our craftspeople are coming up with designs on their own.” As Christmas Ridge —and CAP’S marketing techniques—become larger and more sophisticated, there is more demand for the high quality items that are produced in Tyner. This, in turn, creates jobs in an area in great need of the economic boost created by the presence of the pro duction facility in Jackson County. It’s almost time to start producing Christmas wreaths in the factory again. Many of you will receive notification through the mail about purchasing C A P ’S C hristm as wreaths, or you may order from the coupon on page 27 of The Mountain Spirit.
C O N C E R N H old s A Successful B ib le School MARTIN —The summer closed on another successful Bible School
in Floyd County, conducted again this year by CONCERN, a group of volunteers from Rhode Island. This group of young women made its eleventh trip to Kentucky in the summer of 1988. Although they have worked wherever CAP has needed them in the past, in the last several years they have concentrated on conducting Bible schools. CAP volunteer Nancy Sherman, who teaches the second grade at the Mountain Christian Academy dur ing the regular school year, coor dinated the Bible school efforts, registering children, purchasing and taking inventory of needed supplies and making certain that the volunteer teachers had everything they needed in order to make the word of God come alive to the children of the county. The Bible school was held during the last three weeks of July, and Nancy reports that a total of 300 children, ages 5 through 16, attend ed each week. The Mountain Spirit
around the project . . . continued
P arents Are T eachers O pens N ew O ffice ESTILL COUNTY-Parents Are Teachers, CAP’S homebound pro gram for handicapped p re schoolers, opened an office and began to provide services in Jackson County in late July. Judy Brooks is coordinating the program in Estill County. A native of Bloomington, Indiana, Judy worked as a volunteer at the special needs home, with Judy Harrison, in the summer of 1985, then returned as an employee in the fall. The following January, Judy began working with PAT. On the invitation of several local agencies, Judy and Peggy Cook, program manager for PAT, visited the county and asked for a needs assessment of the area. They found no agencies serving the needs of handicapped pre-schoolers. Judy said that handicapped children from low-income families can receive physical, occupational
and speech therapies through the local home health office, if they have a medical card. There are no services available to middle income families or the many “working poor” in the county. Judy also points out that these are medical ser vices. There are no educational ser vices for handicapped pre-schoolers at all in Estill County. It is that need that Judy hopes to fill. “I won’t be able to take everyone I’d like to at first,” she said. “I still have kids in Rockcastle and Madison counties. Eventually, though, I hope to have twenty in Estill County.” Judy receives referrals from the Cabinet for Human Resources, home health, the Estill County school system and physicians. By offering education opportunities in Estill county, Judy and CAP believe they are offering choices to the parents of handicapped children. For the first time, parents will not have to move from the county or travel many miles in order to secure education for handicapped pre schoolers.
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Much of what you know about wills may be misinformation that has been floating around for years. If you think, for example, that wills are primarily for rich people, or the elderly, you may be the victim of a common misconception. The helpful booklet offered here will explain how your will can save your heirs from costly delays and con fusion. Send for your copy today. Clip and Mail
Christian Appalachian Project 322 Crab Orchard Road Lancaster, Kentucky 40446
“ P a ren ts A re T e a ch er s” sp on sored a w ork sh op at C liffv ie w L o d g e in G ar rard C o u n ty for teachers, as w ell as p aren ts o f h a n d ica p p ed ch ild ren . T h e w o rk sh op ad dressed the issu e o f ad v o ca cy .
Septem ber-O ctober 1988
Please send without obliga tion, your booklet, “37 Things People ‘Know’ About Wills That Aren’t Really So.” N am e____________________ Address __________________ C ity______________________ State_________ Zip_________
around the project . . . continued
In M em oriam On June 9, 1988, Mr. Ralph Belting, father o f CAP’S founder, passed from this life. The Beiting family is one o f CAP’S strongest supporters, and has been fo r all the years that Father Beiting, the oldest o f eleven children, has been in the mountains. Mr. Beiting, and his wife, Martha, who passed away in 1984 have been credited as CAP’S first volunteers, that we thought it fitting to reprint the obituary for Mr. Beiting which appeared in “A VE!” CAP’S volunteer newsletter. As many of you may have heard by now, Father Beiting’s father passed away on June 9, 1988, at the age of 87. As we left St. Joseph Church in Cold Springs, Kentucky, where his funeral Mass was celebrated, someone commented, “What an impact his life has had on earth!” Over the past several weeks, my thoughts often turned to that com ment, as I became more and more aware of how many wonderful things are rooted in the love of Ralph Beiting and his beautiful wife, Martha. Had they not chosen to teach their children how to love God and reflect this love in their work for others, many of our lives would be very different. When their son formed the Christian Ap palachian P roject we found ourselves, over the years, a part of this life. We were gifted not only with CAP but with each other. By becoming family and sharing this faith, hope, love and hard work, we developed deep and lasting friend ships, many of which grew into love and marriage. Memories of the Beltings’ presence in Lancaster always bring a smile. It was like having our grand parents with us: at night there’d be stories of trips to Mexico and across the country, shared by the fireplace in the rectory. And we would take particular pleasure (forgive us, Father Beiting) in watching Mr. 12
Beiting direct his son in loading or unloading the Jayco. As we grinned with delight at the sight of Father Beiting being “bossed around,” we were deeply impressed by the respect and reverence of a great man toward his father. Volunteers do not need to be told of Father Beiting’s firm belief in the intercession of the saints. Knowing that Mr. Beiting has joined his wife in this new role of support and love brings a new hope to the future of CAP, for his impact is far from over.
“ O p eration S h arin g” LANCASTER —Because of the generosity of several businesses and organizations, “Operation Sharing,” which distributes CAP’s in-kind donations to human development programs throughout Eastern Ken
tucky, is in the midst of a very suc cessful year. Earlier this year, CAP received a variety of items from “Feed the Children,” which operates out of Oklahoma City, collecting and distributing food and clothing to third world countries and across America. Much of the domestic work of the non-sectarian organiza tion is administered by organiza tions such as CAP. CAP’s seed program received vegetable seed and seed corn, which b e n e fitte d m any g ard en e rs throughout Appalachia. CAP’s home repair program received building supplies, including roofing materials and metal studs. The sup plies will enable CAP to continue expanding its home repair program and to begin working on family homes in new counties.
In early J u ly , the G arrard C o u n ty F air w as re v iv e d after 65 y ears. O ver 500 0 p eo p le a tten d ed the three d a y e v e n t, w h ich in clu d ed the lam b sh ow p ictu red h ere, a cattle sh o w , a m id w a y , and a truck p u ll.
The Mountain Spirit
around the project . . . continued
G roup H om e C hanges D irectio n CAMP NELSON-Moe Mercier, CAP’S director of human develop ment, made a difficult decision recently to close the CAP Group Home, which he founded during his time as a volunteer. For twelve years, the Group Home has served troubled boys ages 16 through 18. Moe cites the main reason for the closing as the extremely high cost of operating the program. Although Moe and the staff in no way want to place a price tag on the worth of the work of the Group Home, after a three year discerning process, they decided that a preventive program that works with teens in crisis and their parents is better stewardship of CAP’s donors’ money. Robin Barnard, manager of the Group Home, will operate “Project Turning Point,” which will serve as an alternative to the Group Home. The focus of “Project Turning Point” will be the same as that of the Group Home—to work with troubl ed youth and give them alternatives and options to unacceptable behavior. The new program will go two steps beyond the work of the Group Home, as it will work with young people starting at age 12 and with girls. In the letter circulated about the closing, Moe said, “It is most impor tant in closing the Group Home, to remember the four hundred or so boys the home has served since its opening in August of 1975. Just two weeks ago, a young man visited my hom e w ith his w ife-to -b e . Remembering his experience very well from eight years ago, now, because of the CAP Group Home, his life is different and hopeful to day. He has a home repair company with two people working for him. He came back to say thanks. After talking about the good old days, we strolled to my garden, and I filled a bag with lettuce and spinach for Septem ber-O ctober 1988
D an and Sharon B a x ter, o f G arrard C o u n ty , are tw o o f the v ery p ersisten t gardeners w h o h a v e refused to let the d rou ght d estro y th eir garden.
them, and they left with big smiles on their faces to go back to Ver sailles, Kentucky, where they now live—just another example of what CAP is truly all about.”
G ardeners K eep O n K e e p in ’ O n Despite the drought-like condi tions that have persisted over much of the south for many weeks, the gardeners that participate in CAP’s seed program are making the best of a bad situation. According to Keith Gilbertson, program manager, the gardens are far behind where they usually are at this point in the growing season, and crops will be smaller, but by no means are the gardens totally lost. “Some people waited for a few weeks and planted things later, and some people planted their beans twice. Others saved their dish water to water their gardens,” Keith said. “It just goes to show you what a lit tle persistence will do!” Keith admits that the long-term effects of the drought remain to be
seen, but says that the same per sistence will go a long way toward seeing families through tough times.
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Mail to: The Mountain Spirit, 322 Crab Orchard Road Lancaster, KY 40446. 13
The C A P Closeup
Ritchey
A G reat F irst Im p ressio n ! Kathy O ’Donnell Kluesener
by the CAP News Service K a th y , T o n y and tw o o f th eir ch ild re n , L o u is an d M a u reen .
F i r s t impressions are made only once. If they’re favorable, gates can open that lead to beautiful relationships, lifelong friendships and years of companionship and trust. If that first im pression falters, those gates can remain forever closed and the relationships that could have been remain unknown. For more than 15 years, the Christian Ap palachian Project has entrusted some very impor tant first impressions to one person. Hers has been
the voice on the other end of the phone when peo ple call to ask about becoming a CAP volunteer. Hers has been the hand that has penned letters to the thousands of individuals who have offered to serve the people of Appalachian Kentucky. And she has continued to demonstrate a unique and loving care and concern for the people of the region —a concern that has awed and inspired thousands of volunteers who have come to know her. Kathy O’Donnell Kluesener has been a great first impression for the Christian Appalachian Project. In 1971, Kathy first heard about CAP when she was serving as a youth counselor at LaSallette Retreat Center in Attleboro, Massachusetts. Moe Mercier, who worked at the center and later became CAP’S director of human development, had just brought a group of college students to Kentucky, and was impressed by CAP. From Moe’s description, CAP sounded like the oppor tunity for which Kathy had been looking. In the summer of 1972, she left her home in Mansfield, Massachusetts, and traveled to Lan caster to work as a temporary volunteer at Cliffview Lodge, “When I finished Cliffview I wanted to come as a permanent volunteer but was too young.”
K a th y is in the b ack grou n d , on the rig h t, d u rin g a v o lu n tee r b o a tin g excu rsion in 1975.
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Kathy returned the following summer hoping to again work at the summer camp for girls. “When I came in ’73, it was as a temporary volunteer. The whole time I was here, I was thinking about the The Mountain Spirit
CAP Archives
possibility of staying on as a ‘permanent.’ I wanted to work at Cliffview again but they were overstaff ed, so they asked a few of us to go to Mount Ver non.” There is little doubt that divine providence was in action as Kathy traveled to the volunteer com munity of Mount Vernon. “There was such a peaceful feeling among the volunteer community that I decided I wanted to stay.” She had made her decision; now it was up to Father Beiting. Kathy had only seen CAP’S founder a couple of times, but she remembers her first “big” meeting with the priest. “I was working in the Attic store one day in Mount Vernon and he came in. While I had only seen him once or twice, I knew it must be him, since he was so,” Kathy hesitated, “BIG!” Later, when Kathy asked if she could stay on as a permanent volunteer, Father Beiting replied, “Let me think about it. I’ll let you know in about a week.” Fifteen years years later, his answer is quite evident. At the end of her summer in Mount Vernon, Kathy went home for a brief vacation. When she returned in late August, she hoped to begin her permanent volunteer tenure with the same Mount Vernon community, but other things were in store for her. Upon returning to CAP, Kathy explained, “I wanted to work in Mount Vernon because of the good experience I had during the summer, but I was willing to go where I was needed.” Kathy’s willingness to serve was, and remains, a blessing to the community in which she lives. In those early days, “people told me to keep quiet if I could type. The person who had been the volunteer coordinator was leaving so Father was looking for someone to take her place. I became volunteer coordinator in Lancaster since I could type. I set up temporary volunteers and groups (wanting to volunteer), and I took applications for permanent volunteers so Father Beiting could in terview them.” Kathy’s work was not limited to the back office of St. William Church (where CAP had its humble beginnings). As she became more adept at her coordinator’s job, she also drove people to doc tors’ offices, took food to shut-ins and visited peo ple in the Christmas basket program. Why did she do all of this? “Since my office was in the back of the rectory, people just came to me.” In 1977, Kathy’s work expanded to include putting in a half-day in the Sunshine Center (CAP’S child development center in Lancaster). “We were a jack-of-all trades then,” Kathy states with a matter-of-fact pride. In 1978 Kathy started paying special attention to a young fellow she’d met five years earlier. In Septem ber-O ctober 1988
As h ead v o lu n tee r, on e o f K a th y ’s m a n y resp o n sib ilitie s w as to see that the cars ran. N o t an easy task , g iv e n the age o f the “ fle e t!”
December of 1973, Kathy recalls, “Marilyn (Stefanski) had signed Tony up to be Joseph in a Christmas play. I was Mary . . . but I never paid much attention to him; he was just around.” Tony Kluesener had been a volunteer for CAP in 1972. Originally from Cincinnati, Tony so lik ed the lifestyle of the people in Eastern Kentucky that he decided to stay on in the area after his volunteer term ended. Kathy didn’t know him as a volunteer, though. “Tony used to do a lot of stuff with the youth of area,’ Kathy explained.” “Several times he asked Kathleen Leavell and me to help out. After that, he seemed to come around the church more often. We started to do things together . . . I didn’t know at the time if this was a brother and sister thing or what —but when he in vited me to an awards dinner that he had to go to —then I knew!” Kathy O’Donnell and Tony Kluesener were mar ried in October of 1980 at St. William Church in Lancaster. Kathy, Tony and their four children —Louis, age 7; Erin, 5; Maureen, 3; and Patrick, 7 months —still live in Lancaster and still serve the people of their community. Kathy con tinues to contact prospective volunteers while Tony works as a welder/fitter in nearby Danville. Whether it’s by helping a teenage mother through a difficult pregnancy or an elderly friend get to the market, they remain a constant source of Christ’s love for the people they meet. When Father Beiting searched for that typist in 1973, he was looking for much more. He needed a person who would be willing to echo Christ’s call to come and follow Him. He was looking for some one who would be a reflection of love and con cern. He was looking for Kathy Kluesener . . . and he found her. First impressions do last. 15
Small C om m unity— B ig Plans
L ela H is e l, o f Ja ck so n C o u n ty , K e n tu c k y , p ro u d ly d isp la y s the H ise l C o m m u n ity C h ild C are C en ter
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The Mountain Spirit
story and photos by John Butwell
T h e children help their teacher tape a paper banner up on a playground wall. The sun of a warm spring morning shines on a large green square, a red triangle, and orange circle . . . The teacher hands a little boy a squirt bottle full of water, asking him to wet the red triangle. The boy needs no encouragement. He eagerly selects the right crayoned shape. The other children squirm, but not with boredom. They, too, want to squirt a shape. Later, when the three-year-olds’ attention spans have been stretched far enough and the squirting becomes more interesting than the learning, head teacher Pam Ptasnik goes with the flow, so to speak. What the heck —it’s the next-to-last day of classes in late May, and temperatures are in the upper 80s. Pam tells the kids to sit down and stick their toes out. The kids are in for a treat: wet feet. First she squirts their little toes; then they take turns squirting hers. “We teach in a child-centered way,” commented Mary Margaret Gabbard, manager of Hisel Com munity Child Care, CAP’s child development center in Jackson County. “We don’t sit kids down at a table for hours at a time and make them do worksheets.” The center in Hisel is a nifty place for kids. A wood-shingled little ex-churchhouse serves as a single roof for the child care center and a com munity center for the Appalachian Communities for Children (ACC), which co-sponsors the center. CAP volunteers and employees work with local parents and citizens, who are unwilling to let their isolated but friendly Jackson County community fade away. Once you travel to the community, you may wonder where it is. The houses are there but they’re scattered among the trees of the Daniel Boone National Forest, not clustered along village streets. The buildings that mark Hisel’s existence are (surprise!) Hisel Community Child Care and Hisel Elementary School. Septem ber-O ctober 1988
The Jackson County School Board has tried repeatedly to close the four room grade school, saying there aren’t enough students to justify the expense. Instead, the school board has wanted to bus all Hisel students to the consolidated school in Sand Gap. Repeatedly, Hisel folks have stood up for their school, defending it by agreeing to repair and paint it, or by going to court and obtaining injunc tions against proposed closings. In the same way, parents have fought to keep their pre-school open. The child care center, built in 1952 as a Reformed Church, was purchased by the newly formed ACC during the “War on Pover ty” days of the late 1960s. Contracting with the ACC, the Kentucky Youth Research Council opened the pre-school in 1971, and operated for 11 years under the federal Head Start program. “But then, the KYRC went bankrupt,” Mary Margaret said, “and the Kentucky River Foothills Corporation ran the pre-school for one year as a Head Start center. Next, the development council decided Hisel was too remote,” she continued, “and moved the Head Start to a different rural community closer to Sand Gap.” The Hisel center was simply closed during the ’84-’85 school year. But anyone who expected that to be the end didn’t reckon with the determination of Hisel folk who belong to the ACC, or with the willingness of CAP to help. The ACC asked CAP to help and center reopen ed in November ’85. Under the new set-up, CAP provides staff, transportation and materials for the child care center, and the ACC provides the building, utilities, some of the equipment and much community support. “We really have worked hard at our relationship with the ACC,” Mary Margaret continued. “CAP didn’t want to come in and push the ACC out. They wanted to keep it a community center. We’ve had liaison meetings, and worked out all kinds of problems. I’m not saying we’ve worked them all out, but underlying it is the basic idea —we want to share.” 17
Meanwhile, inside the ACC activities room, crafts teacher Laura Rogers colored a duck with crayons —a get-well card for class participant Carol Marcum’s sister. “What color eyeballs do you want?” she asked Carol. “We had an Easter party and made decora tions—we colored and colored and colored!” Laura said. At the Halloween party, everybody bobbed for apples, Carol said. “I thought this one boy was go ing to drown, he stayed under so long!” she said. For the Christmas party,, “we went out and cut the ‘humongous’ tree,” she continued.
Vickie Tillery was in a hurry, sharply dressed in a black pantsuit, and adjusting her cuffs for the year-end public presentation she was about to make. But she had time to chat for a few minutes. Vickie, the ACC’s building coordinator for the Hisel center, was off to a 10 a.m. ceremony at Hisel Elementary School, where some lucky pupils would receive prizes for perfect attendance. Pupils qualifying to participate in the ACCsponsored contest would get their names put in a hat, and the winning fifth through eighth-grader would receive a $125 scholarship (donated by the Salvation Army) to attend summer camp. The winning first through fourth-grader would receive a “jam box” or portable radio, from the ACC. “So that’s a pretty good incentive to go to school,” Vickie commented.
This particular spring morning, the two women were the crafts class. “We usually try to plan for 10, and usually eight or nine show up,” Laura said. “But it’s that time of year —’baccer setting.” (In East Kentucky, all available hands on any farm are required to set out the cabbage-like starts of that major cash crop, burley tobacco.) Carol was painting a blue jacket onto a “Sleepy Boy” figurine which the class had cast in plaster earlier. “We’ve done Cabbage Patch (style) dolls and dried flowers and macrame plant-hangers and appliqued wall-hangings and ‘chicken scratch’ pillows . . . ” she enthused. Carol picked up a “Sleepy Boy” to paint herself, and explained about “chicken scratching,” or snowflake-pattern embroidery. “Snowflaking is what the actual name is, but we call it ‘chicken scratching’ because that’s what it looks like in the back.” Another big success for the ACC has been its community dances. Sixty-five people showed up for the last one at Hisel, Laura said. The dances are free, and non-alcoholic drinks, chips and music are provided. Two local girls donate the use of their mirrored “disco ball” and strobe light for people to enjoy while rock music is played—then the crowd may demand a switch to bluegrass music so they can clog, Laura added. “There have been people 60 years old out there dancing —they play ‘String Bean’ and get out there and stomp the floor,” she said.
U p p er le ft, arts and crafts teach er, L aura R ogers, p a in ts a “ S leep y B o y ;” le ft, cook L o retta G old en w ashes lu n ch d ishes; u p p er rig h t, ch ild ren p la y on the p la y g ro u n d eq u ip m en t that w as set up b y lo ca l p arents; rig h t, p a ren t-v o lu n te er L in d a M c K in n e y .
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The Mountain Spirit
“We play what everybody wants to hear. A lot of centers, they just play straight rock’n’roll, not country.” The women discussed plans for another dance in two weeks. “This time, it’s in honor of a girl’s 16th birthday,” Laura said. “Her mother called and asked us to plan a party.” The women good-naturedly complained about the work they’ve done for the ACC —but I suspect that was really a “humble” form of bragging. For instance, the ACC recently bought a wooden swingset and play platform for the pre school for $2,000. But it would have cost $800 more if the parents hadn’t helped put it up, Carol commented. “It couldn’t have been under 87 degrees out there,” she said, adding: “After school’s out, we plan on building a ballpark down here.” “Yeah, that’ll be fun,” Laura put in. “I ain’t never poured no concrete in my life before.” But she plans to try, she said. About that time, Linda McKinney, a parent volunteer for the day, stepped into the room. She had been helping prepare lunch. “I ain’t takin’ no exercise class today,” she moaned, referring to the ACC’s usual Thursday afternoon activity. “I’ve been up those stairs and down—you ain’t counted how many bowls I’ve set out!” But again, I suspect Linda was bragging, not complaining. “I’ve been here more than any parent this year, I think,” she stated proudly, later. Everyone agrees, however, that the Hisel residents involved longest with the pre-school are Roy and Lela Hisel, who live next door and tend the fire at the center during the winter. Lela was around the day I visited, testing the center’s water purity. She remembered its early days as a Reformed Church. “It first started up at the Sinking Valley Schoolhouse,” she said. “That’s where we joined, and then they moved it up here. We gave them the land to build the church, and my son built some on it.” After the ACC bought the building, Lela became its fire-tender. “I start it with the kindling, then pile the coal on. Back then, I could carry two coal buckets. Now, in the winter —I have to keep fire all day and night. Before the day’s out, one bucket is beginning to slip out of my hand.” She also remembers how “that was a terrible cold building, before they put the shingles on. Just Septem ber-O ctober 1988
_
the plain ol’ blocks, and it not even painted. If it had been painted, it would have helped some. We went to church and nearly froze our feet . . . “It was takin’ so much cold, and the pipes was bustin’ so bad, that they thought of puttin’ up those shingles, and I never was so proud.” One vestige of the center’s churchhouse days re mains the bell in the tower. “It hadn’t been rung for 20 years,” center cook Loretta Golden (of Waneta in Jackson County) commented. “We tried ringing it the other day, and broke the clap per. But we’re going to replace it —it’s kind of nice to have.” Perhaps the bell is like the community center in Hisel —something the people of the area expect to be there, part of home, part of the community, something to bring people together. Kind of nice to have.
Nutrition with Love: A Review J u l i a Child, beware! There may not be enough room in this world for both your culinary delights and those of the three to five year olds at CAP’S Sunshine Center. And, dear Julia, think again before publishing another cookbook, because the Sunshine Center kids have just published their first collection —Nutrition With Love: Children’s Recipes (And Other Stuff) —and it is truly a classic. Crepe Suzette? Chicken Cordon Bleu? Chocolate Mousse? Typical fare for any cookbook. Nutrition With Love takes the art of cooking a step (sometimes several steps) further to the realm of adventure . . . or even fantasy. One of the contributing chefs, five-year-old Christina Snow, suggests her specialty:
Som e recip es take a lot o f im a g in a tio n .
Applesauce
3 pears Cook pears in pan at low temperature for one minute. Eat hot. And believe me, you haven’t cooked spaghetti until you’ve used five-year-old Kenneth Dismeaux’s spaghetti recipe which calls for only one ingredient—three apples. Try making jello out of a “a whole bunch of Kool-Aid.” Four-year-old Grant Eason does and loves it. If you lean toward more traditional fare, perhaps five-year-old Brian Lamb’s recipe will whet your whistle: Corn
5 corns 5 glasses water Cook all day on low temperature. Eat.
T h e “ S u n sh in e S tu d e n ts” d em on strate som e o f the secrets from “ N u tr itio n W ith L o v e .”
Tired of serving company the same old thing? Perhaps five-year-old Alana Abbott’s recipe for fish is just what you need to turn a dinner party in to a topic of conversation for months afterward:
story and photos by Giovanna Burks Godby microwave section, and some recipes that look suspiciously adult. I do not profess to be a whiz in the kitchen, but I do know good reading, childlike honesty, and imagination when I see it. And, I see just that in Nutrition With Love: Children’s Recipes (And Other Stuff). This cookbook is a MUST for any kitchen. My favorite recipe is that of four-year-old Erica Norris, which suits my skills in the kitchen quite well: Cereal
Put milk on it. Has this child been to my house for supper, and I didn’t know it?
Fish
Ketchup Chicken Fish Fish Skin Bread Crumbs Put fish in a big deep pan. Put fish skin on the fish and put chicken inside it. Put pan in oven at 142° for two minutes. Take out of oven. Put on plate. Put ketchup on the skin and eat it. A tasty accompaniment to this entree is fouryear-old Ben Woodman’s salad: Salad
Every sort of vegetable you have. Chop them up and put them in there. We put in everything that is good for your teeth except milk. You can put dressing on it if you want to, but I don’t like dressing. First we put it in a salad bowl, then we pick it out in little bowls so whoever wants dressing can put it on. The cookbook also includes some helpful kit chen hints, substitution guide, equivalent charts,
C hris and E rica are rea lly con centratin g!
Random Thoughts Dear Nanny, You asked me to write and tell you what I do. My job is nebulous and hard to explain, but I will try to give you a feel for the area, the peo ple, and how my job tries to help them. I am involved in the economic development arm of CAP. About a year ago, my boss, Frank Clark, undertook a research project to learn what the people thought the economic problems were, what was causing them, and how they thought they could be solved. His research showed a critical situation: 50% of the people were out of work; income levels were around $5000 per person, including food stamps and other welfare; less than half the kids finished high school; about 60% of the adults had less than a high school education. Eastern Kentucky was a third world country, within the wealthiest society the world has ever known. More troubling than the statistics were the causes people gave for why things weren’t get ting better: political in-fighting; a lack of leader ship in the community; young people moving away to find work. Coal mining —once a bright spot —was fading as the mines closed or mechanized and hired fewer workers. Less than half of those able were actually looking for work. Many had been unemployed for so long they had exhausted their unemployment in surance payments. Our suspicion was con firmed—the economy was bad, the workers discouraged, and only a major change in outlook was going to help. The only way things were going to get better was if the people were willing to take risks and try things they had never done before. We decided to help do that. Since the War on Poverty in 1964, many peo ple have come here with “the answer.” Federal, state and volunteer programs all came. Some worked, most didn’t. Usually, the ideas were good, but “do gooders” brought them in, set them up, and ran them. When the War on Poverty lost its shine, people moved on, leaving behind a program only they knew how to operate. To really help, a program must be developed, set up, implemented, and run by the people it is meant to help. How can people be expected to help themselves if they are “done for” all the time? Can they do it alone when you leave? Not usually, or at least not as well. We want to show people that they have the resources, knowledge and talent to do whatever they put their minds to. We are here to help 22
D a v id F ish er, right.
them, if they want or need help, but the deci sions of what is tried and how is up to them—they eventually have to sink or swim. Finally, this is where my job comes in. I am called a “business development coordinator,” a fancy term for “general aide.” I work with groups that are working toward economic development in their county. I work with them only if they want me and only in areas they want help. In effect, I am “loaned” to the group to do their “legwork.” Many of these groups are comprised of people who must tend their jobs and businesses and do not have time to write by-laws and make con tacts around the state. They don’t have time to plan work sessions or even correspond in some cases. So, my job is to do that legwork —travel to the state capital on their behalf, make con tacts with area development staff people and other economic development experts. It is my job to help them put their dreams and visions into words, and then to expand those words into action plans and real, tangible developments. I am confident that, if they follow their plan, they will have a more dynamic, interested citizenry, because the youth will be leading them. See? I told you it was nebulous, but I think that’s why I like it so much. I believe that, through this job, I am using my talents to the best of my abilities for the betterment of God’s people. I hope you’re feeling well —talk to you soon. Your loving grandson, David David Fisher is CAP’S business development coordinator in Wolfe and McCreary counties. A 1985 graduate o f the University o f Notre Dame, David is a former CAP volunteer. The Mountain Spirit
In 1975, thenumber o f industrial jobs in Rockcastle County could be counted on a single person ’s fingers and toes. The Board o f Education was, by far, the largest employer in the county. In fact, it accounted for about half of the total non-agricultural jobs, and with the exception of a sprinkling of practitioners in the legal, banking and medical professions, educators were also the leading wage earners. Nearly half the population depended on one form of transfer payment or another—public assistance, food stamps, Social Security. The general work force either commuted more than a hundred miles daily to jobs in other cities or eked out a living by making do with what it could market from small farm production. The economic outlook was bleak and getting bleaker every time an unemployment report came out. By 1979, real unemployment in Rockcastle County was well over 40%. Retail merchants were either closing or losing money, because farmers were doing the same thing. It appeared that the county was simply going to dry up and blow away. And that was a particular frustration held by numerous civic and business leaders, because they had been working hard for years in attempts to turn the local economy around. Interstate 75 had been completed, and it ran through the middle of the county. Local leaders had spent thousands of hours pleading with state and federal officials to have the new road form a dam, which gave them a 120-acre lake. That water supply became the foundation of a system that provided “city water” for most of the county. The railroad had already offered service from one end of the county to the other, and two electrical utilities offered unlimited competitive power rates. With an infrastructure in place that rivaled communities more than 20 times its size, Rockcastle Countians figured that it was just a matter of time before industrial prospects would be beating their doors down.
R ockcastle C ou n ty D id (Is D o in g ) It!
But it didn’t happen. While small towns, just a few miles north or south, announced one factory location after another, Rockcastle County didn’t even get a serious inquiry and was rapidly becoming a bedroom community. Many local people were Septem ber-O ctober 1988
b y Ik e A dam s
working in other communities and also spending their paychecks in other towns. As they could afford it, people were also moving away. In 1976, there were more homes, per capita, for sale in Rockcastle County than anywhere else in Eastern Kentucky. The high school dropout rate was one of the highest in the state, even though the county boasted a brand new vocational school and probably the most modern secondary education facility in the region. Finally, a group of community leaders called a meeting at the court house. At the end of that meeting, more than forty people had decided that “We ain’t done yet!” * * *
I was at that meeting as a representative of Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, which was then a fledgling economic and community development organization. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was actually on the first date of a relationship that is still a love affair today. I was then, and am still now, fascinated with what Rockcastle Countians can do when they get the determination worked up. The first decision was to reactivate an organization that had been dormant for a few years, called the Rockcastle Improvement Council. Its membership is open to anyone in the county who is willing to pay $10.00 annual membership dues and serve on one or more committees. The first action taken by RIC was to determine why the county was missing out on industrial development. Naturally, we sent a contingent to Frankfort to meet with the Department of Commerce. That’s what everybody else did. At the end of that meeting, the DOC agreed to send a team of experts in the field of industrial development to Rockcastle County and help local folks “take inventory.” More than a hundred citizens turned out when that team came to town two weeks later. We had arranged with the school system to 24
borrow a couple of buses, and we spent most of the day showing ourselves off to several highranking officials from Frankfort, as well as to the presidents of several manufacturing companies who had located in other communities. We had spent days sprucing up in preparation for their visit. Teenagers had combed the roadsides for garbage. Windows had been washed and storefronts painted. We had been told to pretend that the industrial development team was an actual industrial prospect and to treat them as such. At the end of the day, the team would tell us whether or not it would locate a plant in Rockcastle County and give us the reasons behind that decision. At the end of the fateful day, we were told that our town was still dirty, and that our industrial site might have some utility as a softball field —if we leveled it off. We were told that our hospital and high school were fantastic for a community our size, but that our work force was woefully undertrained (a polite way of saying stupid). We were told that our road system and traffic congestion problems were major deterrents to any sort of industrial location decision. And we were told that we basically didn’t know anything about industrial recruiting. We were so insulted, that more than one person wanted to tar and feather the members of the industrial development team before it left town. I, personally, was picking chickens! A few nights later, the tone of the improvement council changed from one of “we ain’t done yet” to “it looks like we ain’t got started yet.” An impromptu committee began immediate discussions of likely farms that might be purchased for industrial site development. The bank agreed to hire a vice-president in charge of industrial development and began an immediate recruiting campaign. Still another group decided to organize a campaign to improve civic pride. In the next few months, the Rockcastle The Mountain Spirit
Improvement Council became a clearing house for new ideas as well as a forum for reporting progress. The bank did hire an officer who possessed impressive credentials in industrial development. A 100-acre farm bordering the city limits was analyzed and subsequently purchased cheaply for industrial development, through a combination of grants, loans and bonds from several different funding sources. An Industrial Development Authority was formed as a branch of the RIC, and within a year it had raised nearly a million dollars to develop the site. In the meantime, another group had organized local merchants into an “All Kentucky City” campaign. The All Kentucky City program was, at that time, a major effort on the part of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce to recognize communities that were making extraordinary efforts to improve themselves and their quality of life. Rockcastle County/Mount Vernon struck out in 1976, but the Chamber was so impressed by its efforts that it offered free consultation by a top-notch professional chamber director for community improvement over the next year. In 1977, we were told that we were almost there, but not quite. Most communities might have given up, but we were excited. Putting together a presentation for the state chamber required thousands of volunteer hours. We weren’t excited that we didn’t win on that second effort, but we were excited that we had a sound documentation of just how far we had come and how much progress we had made community-wide, in only twelve months. We were excited because we were making progress. We were excited because we had real, sound reasons to feel good about ourselves. Later that year we got our first real industrial prospect. By then, we knew how to treat an industrial prospect. A dozen or so of us performed an exhaustive labor survey. Another group that had Septem ber-O ctober 1988
established firm relationships with both public and private financial resources, demonstrated that it could offer attractive plant financing rates, and yet another group demonstrated that it had taken steps to insure that a major by-pass was on the drawing tables, which would solve that traffic problem. We had laid major water lines into the industrial site, and we had the utilities committed to doing whatever was necessary to supply electrical power. Initial employment at the plant, a cut and sew operation, would be around 100. We had over 3000 qualified job applications for the first 100 jobs. By 1979, that plant was almost completed and another one was under construction as a result of our second affirmative nod from our second industrial prospect. In the summer of 1979, we gained AllKentucky City recognition along with 12 other Kentucky communities. There were more than 150 entries and we were, by several thousand in population, the smallest of the winners. In terms of self-esteem and self-confidence, though, we were the largest. Not because we had won a plaque and two or three road signs that announced our achievement. Not because we were in Louisville at a plush hotel to accept the award. A young physician from Montreal, who had recently decided to practice medicine in Mount Vernon, was with our little group as we sat around the hotel pool that evening. “This plaque is worth about twenty-five bucks,” he noted. “These signs probably cost twenty dollars apiece and the recognition that we’ll get in tomorrow’s paper probably isn’t worth a dime to us. What we have been, is a cheerleading squad for a big bunch of people who have really made a difference in Rockcastle County. So let’s give those folks a cheer.” We started calling out the names of people that we knew to have made a substantial contribution of time and effort toward the progress the community had made. I have that list before me as I write this, and it would fill 25
the magazine, if we listed names and simply identified the individual contributions that each of them made. Suffice it to say, that we cheered until our throats were sore. ***
As of this writing, Rockcastle County has three major industrial manufacturing employers that count for just over 500 steady jobs. In 1978, we didn’t have any. Our unemployment rate has dropped down to the state average. One of our plants has expanded three times. Another had expanded twice and the third is considering an expansion at this writing. Two of those plants are on our industrial site and another bought land and built on a nearby piece of property. Ten years ago this was all a dream. It’s true that our factories don’t pay Detroit wages. It’s true that our work force is still basically uneducated. It’s true that many, many folks still live in poverty in this county, but it’s also true that a lot of our folks now take pride in working down at the factory. We need 3000 jobs just to take care of our unemployment needs. Over the next couple of years, we’ll probably get a hundred or so more from the existing factories. God willing, we’ll most likely land a plant that supplies electronics to the Toyota people that will give us upwards of fifty new jobs by the middle of 1989. But, that doesn’t come close to keeping up with the talent that we graduate from high school or through CAP’s secondary education program. It does, however, at the very least, offer a glimmer of hope. Young people are going to continue to leave this county in search of work opportunities, if they can’t get jobs here. But at least they know that they have to have a high school education to even compete for any job. That, in itself, is an incentive to finish school. And our young folks do want jobs! We aren’t going to land a Toyota plant in Mount Vernon. We are going to have to make 26
concessions in the form of training and tax breaks to keep what we already have, but, in the long run, we are going to keep people off the welfare rolls, and we are going to keep a lot of our talent at home. Ultimately, we are going to insure that several hundred families have a livelihood here that would not otherwise have had the opportunity. There aren’t a lot of rich people in Rockcastle County. I’m trying right now to think of just one person with a net worth exceeding half a million dollars. Not one. I can count on my fingers the number of people whose net worth exceeds one hundred thousand dollars. Nobody in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, is wallowing in money. But we are all a bit better off than we were ten years ago, simply because more of us are working. We are also better off, because our folks are better educated. And we have the Christian Appalachian Project to thank for that, along with our local school system. CAP has graduated more than 300 adults through certified high school equivalency programs and encouraged twice that number of young folks who would likely have dropped out, to stay in school. After looking at land and its amenities, industrialists look at education. When the 1990 census reports comes out, Rockcastle County will be the most improved county in Kentucky in terms of educational advancement. We’re gong to need more industrial space in the near future. It won’t solve all our problems, but believe me, we sure are looking. * * *
The author, Ike Adams, worked fo r Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, as a Community Developer, fo r over ten years before joining CAP in June o f 1986. A t CAP, he started and now runs a program fo r teenagers in Rockcastle County. In his spare time, he sits on boards o f directors that have to do with economic development in Eastern Kentucky. He writes a weekly newspaper column and takes lots o f photographs o f the good things that are going on in CAP. The Mountain Spirit
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