Appalachian Dispatch

XXIV.

2008-03-31T12:58:00.002-04:00

Today marks the end of my seven-month MEDA internship in West Virginia.

Looking back, there’s much to be proud of. TBAI is a stronger organization today and its impact on the community will continue to expand. Just this month, TBAI was awarded a substantial grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. This grant will help sustain operations and allow for the creation of a new in-house microlending program to assist local entrepreneurs.

I want to thank MEDA and TBAI for providing me with this opportunity. Thanks also to everyone who followed this blog!

-SB

XXIII.

2008-03-07T11:06:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I wonder what the local papers would publish if TBAI weren't around...

XXII.

2008-02-25T14:17:00.003-05:00

The Greenbrier

This past weekend I had a chance to visit one of the most interesting sites in all of West Virginia, The Greenbrier Hotel. The Greenbrier is a beautiful, old resort hotel build in 1858 around a natural sulphur spring, which is all well and good—but I don’t have the means to enjoy all that. Rather, my motivation for making the 2.5-hour drive from Kimball had to do with what lies beneath the Greenbrier Hotel: a decommissioned US government bunker that was designed to house all members of congress in the event of a nuclear attack. The bunker was kept in complete secrecy and maintained at a “state of constant readiness” for over 30 years.

The cat was let out of the bag in 1992 and it is now open to tours. The tour was fascinating—the whole thing seemed like a set from a James Bond film, with its 30-ton blast proof doors hidden behind wallpaper, decontamination showers and mockup house and senate chambers. Our tour guide had grown up in the area and could attest to the air of suspicion that hovered over the bunker’s construction carried out under the guise of the hotel’s expansion. If you ever find yourself in southeastern West Virginia, don't miss this! [Oh, and if you happen to have a $300--$500 to drop on a hotel room, I'm sure those are nice too!]

http://www.greenbrier.com/site/bunker-gallery/

XXI.

2008-02-06T13:54:00.000-05:00

Our New E-Newsletter!

The Holler
TBAI's Electronic Newsletter

Welcome to our Inaugural Issue!

	Upcoming Workshops

Microsoft Publisher Training

Thursday, February 14^th, 10am—3:30pm

Many of you have been aware that we have had to reschedule our Microsoft Publisher training due to inclement weather. Our new training will be taking place on Wednesday, February, 14 2008 at the Ashland Company Store. This training will be conducted by the Women’s Business & Training Center in Beckley.

The topics to be covered are:

Exploring the Publisher Window
Creating, editing, and saving new documents in Publisher
Working with pictures, objects, and text
Working with multi-page publications

A follow-up session will be held two weeks later on Thursday, February 28^th from 10am—3:30pm. This session will give participants additional time to work on their documents and receive personalized assistance from trainers.

Cost: Free

Seating is limited, so please call ASAP to reserve your spot!

call: Debbie Bailey or Scott Bennett (304) 862-4800

Investing For Women

Tuesday, March 4^th, 9am—2pm

A one-day workshop conducted by Dr. Elaine D. Scott, Dean of Bluefield State College School of Business.

This workshop will cover:

Setting Goals
Budgeting
Wise Use of Credit
Investment Pyramid
Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds
Retirement Planning

Cost: Free

To register, call: Debbie Bailey or Scott Bennett (304) 862-4800

New Partnerships!

TBAI is proud to announce two new working partnerships:

MicroMentor
MicroMentor connects new business owners to individuals who have successfully navigated business ownership or management in the same industry. MicroMentor is the only mentoring service that utilizes the internet to overcome geographic barriers.

ACCION USA
ACCION USA is a private, nonprofit organization that provides microloans and other financial services to low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs who are unable to access bank credit for their small businesses. With economic opportunity, these entrepreneurs can build assets, better provide for their families, and strengthen their communities.

UNSUBSCRIBE | SEND TO A FRIEND | CONTACT US | PRIVACY

Travel Beautiful Appalachia, Inc.
HC 76 Box 701
Ashland, WV 24868
Tel: (304) 862 4800

E-mail: tbai.bailey@yahoo.com
http://www.tbaiwv.org

XX.

2008-02-04T12:01:00.000-05:00

Last night I watched the Super Bowl from Bluefield, VA, home of Giants' rookie RB Ahmad Bradshaw.

Having a local playing in the big show made watching such a great game all the more exciting.

You can read about it here.

XIX.

2008-01-28T16:23:00.001-05:00

Kimball, WV: A Photo Tour

I live in a town of 411 residents. Here's an interesting fact: In 1987, West Virginia enacted a severance tax of 5% of the sale price of mined coal. In 2004, the total severance tax collected was $238,469,852.00. Of that, Kimball received $948.44.

This is the SHED house where I've been staying.
To be clear, the house is not a shed, the letters stand for 'Safe Housing and Economic Development,' which is the non-profit who manages the property. I live up on a hill above the town.

Note the elephant shutters

House across the street. I think of it as the precursor to this.

View looking down the hill toward townTown Hall at bottom of hill
Town
There aren't many establishments in town. Fortuitously, one of them is a good Greek restaurant.
Most of the buildings on Main Street were razed after flood damage
Caboose
Church

This is easily the premier building in Kimball. It's a monument to African-American Soldiers of World War I.
It's been completely rebuilt from its shell.

XVIII.

2008-01-24T13:40:00.001-05:00

It's not my intention to make this blog a repository for our news articles, it's just that they're so easy to post.

XVII.

2008-01-10T23:49:00.000-05:00

Training in Pittsburgh

Wednesday I attended a training session in Pittsburgh hosted by two members of MEDA’s Community Economic Development staff: Rachel Hess and Kathy Gilman. Kathy had recently finished developing a new training curriculum for MEDA’s microenterprise program and introduced it to me and representatives from MEDA’s other small business training partners in the region. It was interesting meeting with other people working towards the same goals in other communities; hearing them share their experiences and ideas was really quite insightful.

Some of the other topics covered in the daylong event dealt with tax issues and opportunities for people with low-incomes. When it was mentioned that many tax breaks go unclaimed because people are too overwhelmed by the bureaucratic procedures, I could easily relate—I’ve never felt like I fully understood my own relatively simple tax situation. It was unfortunate Debbie wasn’t able to attend the training; she’s actually worked as a professional tax preparer. Undoubtedly, she would’ve understood more than I did.

On a side note, being in Pittsburgh was a nice change of scene. Despite not fulfilling my personal goal of hearing someone say “yunz” as Pittsburghers are alleged to do, I did enjoy staying in my swank hotel. I was quickly reminded that I was back in the hills when I woke this morning to find my house was without running water.

XVI ½.

2007-12-28T16:37:00.001-05:00

MORE PR..

XVI.

2007-12-17T12:26:00.000-05:00

Some Good PRWe were recently featured in "Wonderful West Virginia" magazine whose circulation is nearly 40,000 monthly readers. That's Sharon behind the register (I had her autograph my copy).

XV.

2007-12-12T09:56:00.000-05:00

Technology Workshops

The drop in temperature has meant fewer tourists coming up the “holler,” but that doesn’t mean things haven’t been busy. Thursday and Friday of last week and Monday of this week, we hosted technology workshops in web design, e-commerce, and eBay. I had a chance to sit in on the web design workshop, which opened my eyes to many of the “behind the scenes” inner workings of the internet (though readers of this blog should not start expecting any fancy bells and whistles). The e-commerce class was the same one we’d offered in the fall, with participants sent home with brand new computers, thanks to Mission West Virginia. Here’s some photos:

web design class

Steven Graham of Mission West Virginia teaching the e-commerce workshop

e-commerce participants receiving free computers.

e-commerce workshop group

Also, the Coal Camp Café has been keeping busy with holiday catering, having three events scheduled for the upcoming week.

XIV.

2007-12-05T18:11:00.000-05:00

Final Business Class

Debbie Bailey, TBAI Director; Melissa Wellman; Marielle Jessee; Kathy Phillips; Mary Ann Drake; Kristie Shrewsbury; me

Monday night was our last business class. Our five students were recognized for successfully completing the eight-week business program, designed to help prepare participants for the complexities of business ownership.

To mark the final class, each student presented their business plan. It was great to see all their hard work come together; there’s a lot of talent and creativity represented by the group; I felt like I was seeing the future of small business in McDowell County.

In addition to receiving their certificates, everyone was surprised with personalized country signs by Marielle, whose new business, Mari Signs, produces the handmade, rustic decorations. Even Debbie and I were given a sign, ours reading: “Keep it Simple”. Marielle’s generosity really illustrated how supportive everyone was of each other. Throughout the program, they’ve been full of encouragement, valuable feedback, and boundless enthusiasm. They’ve even begun devising ways to cross-promote their products.

Our students had come to enjoy their weekly gatherings so much, that they've already discussed continuing to meet in the form of an “entrepreneur's support group.”

XIII ½.

2007-12-05T14:58:00.000-05:00

Your calender may try to convince you that winter starts on December 22nd. I say, if your office is covered in snow, autumn is over, let it go.

..I hopped down from Debbie's Jeep to snap this photo, slipped on a sheet of ice and landed square on my backside.

XIII.

2007-11-16T15:43:00.000-05:00

There’s been a lot of activity here in Ashland of late. To start, we’re now in the restaurant business. A few weeks ago, the two women leasing a restaurant beside the Company Store unexpectedly decided to throw in the proverbial towel, so TBAI decided to take on the restaurant in conjunction with the store, à la Cracker Barrel.

In what must be some sort of record, we, under Executive Director Sharon Walden’s leadership, secured a new restaurant manager (with a culinary degree no less), a new waitress, a food supplier, and upgraded the kitchen equipment- all in about 48 hours and with the café missing only one day of business.

The whole thing’s been a trial by fire, with us learning as we go everything from deciding staffing and wages, writing job descriptions, interviewing, hiring, developing a menu, designing the menu, honing our hours of operation, etc. but we’ve been keeping our heads afloat and things are falling into place. The restaurant, “Coal Camp Café,” has been doing brisk business. The kitchen is directly below my office and in the mornings I’m inundated with aromas of bacon and biscuits wafting up through the floorboards.

Coal Camp Cafe

Cafe Manager, Mary Blizzard, and Jade, our new waitress

In addition to its regular business of serving guests (primarily ATV trail riders) the café has also been getting into catering with the idea that holiday banquets will help offset the decline in ATVers that falls in lockstep with the temperature (we had our first snow fall yesterday). In fact, our first catering gig was last week when the US board of MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) was in town to assess their work in the area and deliberate future steps. Sharon and Cathy Rose discussed their partnership with MCC, as board members sat down to a traditional Appalachian meal of pinto beans and cornbread.

The Mennonite muster continued as the following week we hosted Allan Sauder, President of MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) and Rachel Hess, MEDA Director of Community Economic Development. We covered a lot of ground (both literally and figuratively) in their two-day visit, which included:

Visiting graduates of our business training program who have started their own businesses
Sitting-in on a our current business class and meeting our students
Meeting with our strategic partner, Jim Anderson of the Ashland Group, owners and operators of the neighboring KOA campground
Touring some of Sharon’s domestic violence and low-income housing projects
Seeing how our local suppliers at Coal Camp Creations produce their coal figurines
Visiting the newly renovated Kimball War Memorial (the only remaining memorial built to honor African-American veterans of World War I)
Eating at some of our favorite local spots

Although the visit was prompted by MEDA, the occasion it afforded to get out and meet with our partners and graduates was beneficial for everyone—myself especially—as I met many of our stakeholders for the first time.

from L to R: Jim Anderson, COO of the Ashland Group; Rachel Hess, Director of Community Economic Development, MEDA; me; Allan Sauder, President, MEDA; Sharon Walden, Executive Directior, TBAI, SHED & SAFE

The business class, incidentally, has been going well. The students, all women, have developed a strong rapport among themselves. They are all very supportive of each other’s ideas and have even begun discussing ways to cross-promote their products. In fact, they’ve grown so accustomed to their Monday evening classes that they have floated the idea of maintaining their gatherings in the form of a business support group.

I guess that should bring things up to speed. Y’all come back now!

XII.

2007-11-04T00:12:00.000-04:00

One of the obstacles to achieving economic growth in a struggling area is combating the flight of highly skilled workers- a condition commonly referred to as “brain drain”. Brain drain occurs when a community’s most valuable workers leave in search of better opportunities and incomes elsewhere.

Recently, I read a report titled “The Appalachian Brain Drain” which sought to analyze the education and labor conditions in Appalachia to determine if brain drain was a significant detriment to the region’s development. The results of the authors’ research did in fact confirm that Appalachia is losing a sizable portion of its educated population.

Below is a summary of the report:

§ Migration is seen as an investment because one is willing to incur the present financial and non-financial costs of relocating in the hopes that over time, their overall quality of living will increase.

§ Most migration occurs when people are relatively young, as the time to accrue the benefits from relocating is greater.

§ The “psychic costs” (e.g. stress) of moving increase commensurate with the distance moved.

§ Worker mobility also increases as education levels increase.

§ Within Appalachia, income levels are lower and job opportunities are fewer than the national average.

§ College graduates from Appalachia have the most to gain financially from relocating outside the region.

§ This is aided by Appalachia’s proximity to urban centers like Washington, DC; Atlanta, GA; and Nashville, TN.

§ There is a disincentive for higher-skilled workers from outside Appalachia to relocate to the region; they would effectively incur a financial “penalty” (i.e. reduced incomes).

§ Lower-skilled Appalachian workers are more inclined to remain where they are.

§ Meanwhile, lower skilled workers from outside the region have an incentive to immigrate into Appalachia because while their wages would be similar, the cost of living would be lower.

§ The end result is a region that supplies its neighbors with higher-skilled workers while receiving their lower-skilled workers.

This is brain drain, and it is not conducive to revitalizing a local economy.

One of the projects I’ve been working on here at TBAI seeks to address this issue. We have been actively working to bring Junior Achievement (JA) into the area. JA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to better-educate youth about free enterprise, fiscal responsibility, and entrepreneurship. JA has been serving that mission for the last 88 years, now reaching approximately 8 million students annually in over 100 countries worldwide.

What makes JA so unique (and arguably, effective) is that it utilizes volunteers from the local business community to come into classrooms and teach the program. This de-mystifies “business” to students- rather than seeing it as solely the domain of urbanites in suites high in glass towers, they also see it embodied in Ms. Smith down the street running the bakery. The effect can be enormously empowering for students.

Debrin Jenkins is the unflagging president of Junior Achievement of West Virginia and the Advantage Valley (small part of eastern Kentucky). In her year-plus tenure as president, Ms. Jenkins has seen JA’s presence in West Virginia grow from five counties to 26. We’re working to see McDowell County become the 27th.

To that end, I’ve been brokering meetings between Ms. Jenkins and key members of the local community. Two weeks ago, we met with the Rotary Club. Last Wednesday we met with the Assistant Superintendent of the School Board and also addressed the McDowell County Chamber of Commerce.

Jack Caffrey, President of the McDowell County Chamber of Commerce
and Debrin Jenkins, President of Junior Achievement of West Virginia and the Advantage Valley.

Each JA class program consists of a kit of materials including workbooks, instructor’s guidebook, DVDs, etc. and costs roughly $500. Ms. Jenkins has already secured grant funding for the first four classes. The only piece missing are local businesspeople willing to volunteer their time (an hour a week for about eight weeks) to teach the program.

When students understand that business is something within their ability that can be conducted without having to leave their hometowns, brain drain can be mitigated. As Ms. Jenkins, who is herself a native of southern West Virginia’s coalfields, put it before the McDowell County Chamber: “We know that manufacturing isn't coming back. If we want our children to be able to stay here, to make their livelihoods and raise their families here, it’s up to us.”

Here’s hoping those volunteers step forward.

XI.

2007-10-24T17:03:00.000-04:00

Every day on the way to and from work, I pass through the town of Keystone, WV. The decaying and unassuming town of 500 belies its claim to being the backdrop to one of the largest cases of bank fraud in U.S. history.

The First National Bank of Keystone was founded in 1904. Having survived the Great Depression, it boasted the slogan “time-tried, panic tested” on its exterior wall. But by the 1970s, the decline of the coal industry caused economic collapse and double-digit unemployment in most of the coal towns in southern West Virginia and Keystone was no exception.

First National, with assets of $17 million and only $5 million in loans, was struggling to stay afloat. Enter J. Knox McConnell. Hired in 1977 as the new manager, the skinflint Pittsburgh native was an experienced banker whose previous position was managing a federal development bank on the Pacific island of Saipan.

McConnell was an idiosyncratic manager who, despite being worth a reported $23 million, drove and old Buick, and wore threadbare suits. To prevent office romances, McConnell made it bank policy to hire only women and his staff, which included two former Pennsylvania banking colleges Billie Cherry and Terry Church, earned the epithet “Knox’s Foxes.”

McConnell worked quickly. Within three years he had risen to the rank of chairperson and president. He wielded his power to reduce the size of the board of directors from 14 to six and stacked it with submissive members. One of McConnell’s designs for the bank was to purchase other bank’s risky debt, repackage it and sell it as securities. To finance this endeavor, First National used a line of credit from another bank and began offering some of the country’s highest interest rates to solicit depositors nationwide.

By 1987, the bank had assets of $65 million.

By 1990, they were $85 million.

By 1992, they were up to $102 million. The bank was attracting a lot of attention, including that of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which began investigating the bank. But the on-site inspectors didn’t slow down First National’s momentum.

The rise of the bank was a boon to the struggling local economy. In a town with an unemployment rate over 30%, the bank was far and away the town’s largest employer. Its annual taxes accounted for two-thirds of Keystone’s revenue and practically every business in town came under ownership of either Cherry or Church. Many residents of the small town bought stock in First National, whose share price rocketed to over $300.

By 1995, First National reported $235 million in assets with a return on equity of 83%. The bank was named top-performing small bank in the nation three times in the mid-1990s by American Banker, a respected industry journal.

In October of 1997, J. Knox McConnell passed away and was succeeded by Billie Cherry. Despite being stonewalled and intimidated by armed guards, inspectors were still investigating the bank, fueled by the profligate spending habits of bank directors that included bank employee bonuses of brand new cars.

In August of 1999, with bank assets recorded at $1.1 billion, inspectors finally got a breakthrough. They discovered $515 million worth of sold assets still sitting on the bank’s books. With the board unable to explain the discrepancy, the OCC declared the bank insolvent and forced it to shutdown. The following month, inspectors uncovered 370 file boxes full of bank documents buried in a 100-foot-long trench on Church’s mountaintop ranch. Further investigations revealed that the bank had technically been insolvent for the past three years.

By 2000 Terry Church was charged with obstructing justice. Billie Cherry, also a former Keystone mayor, was found guilty of forging McConnell’s will after his death to increase her share of his estate. Several other bank employees were charged with insider trading by the SEC after unloading shares upon realizing the bank’s perilous state. Eventually, through various convictions of fraud, conspiracy and embezzlement, Church would be sentenced to serve 27 years in federal prison and Cherry to 16.

Bank loses cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation $800 million, making it the costliest bailout since the savings and loans crisis of the 1980s and one of the ten largest bailouts in U.S. history. $15 million in deposits beyond the FDIC’s $100,000/account limit were lost and $132 million of equity evaporated when the stock plummeted.

Currently, there are only two banks in all of McDowell County, neither of which operates nationally. Memories of scandal and lack of competition have resulted in a feeble banking environment.

It is in this context that TBAI is working to create a new lending initiative. We are seeking to create a loan fund to disburse small loans to local entrepreneurs to start and invest in their business ventures. This fund will be a revolving loan fund, meaning that all repayments received will be returned and used for additional loans. Loan clients will be graduates of our business training program and will have completed and sufficiently-researched business plans.

There are still many opportunities for businesses to thrive here in McDowell County and with the right support, new jobs and improved livelihoods can be created. Any readers interested in contributing to TBAI’s loan fund are encouraged to contact us.

Sources:

Wild West Virginia Bank Failure

Poor Town, Rich Bank

Federal Banking Regulators Failed to Move on Keystone Problems

Case Study: First National Bank of Keystone

The Collapse of Keystone

X.

2007-10-20T19:10:00.001-04:00

...the other two mottoes of West Virginia are "Almost Heaven" and "Wild & Wonderful." -I snapped these Friday after work.

IX.

2007-10-16T10:27:00.000-04:00

The current motto of West Virginia is “Open for Business;” a misnomer that is regarded as ironic, starry-eyed, or desperate, but rarely taken at face value. This morning I was sent this link:

http://www.wvclosedforbusiness.com/

The site is impressive, with data linked from several sources, cataloging the state’s economic hardships and calling for action. But when they identified the root cause as a “bad legal environment” and “lawsuit abuse,” I didn’t see the logical connection. It turns out that the more interesting story is not what is written on the website, but who wrote it.

The site was created by West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (WVCALA) who describe themselves as “a non-profit citizen watchdog group committed to equal justice for all West Virginians.” But a quick Google search yielded this article:

http://www.centerjd.org/lib/cala.htm

According to the above article, the citizen watchdog group in question is comprised of very few citizens. They go on to write that Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse is actually a front group supported by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA). ATRA is a lobbying organization that works on behalf of companies that usually get hit with big lawsuits (e.g. tobacco companies, chemical companies, etc.).

Front groups operate on the assumption that people judge the merit of a message on not only what is said, but also who is saying it. People wouldn’t likely believe that, let's say, chocolate was vital to a healthy diet if the message came from Hershey, but they might pay more attention if the same assertion were posited by a scientist from the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). What they won’t mention is that Hershey funds ACSH.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that lawsuits get extremely expensive for certain businesses, or that those businesses work to reduce those costs in a number of ways. I don’t even mean to suggest that tort laws are not in need of reform – I know nothing about them. But when a message is presented in a deliberately clandestine manner, it comes off as disingenuous and invites skepticism.

VIII.

2007-10-15T12:06:00.001-04:00

Technology training.

On Friday there was a technology workshop in the community room above the store. The training focused on ways the internet can be used as a tool for promoting and streamlining businesses. Fifteen members of the local community attended the event, many of whom already operated their own cottage-industry businesses and have items sold in TBAI’s store. In fact, Paynesville resident Geneva Steele, one of the store’s consignees, was upstairs attending the training while a visitor from Pennsylvania was purchasing her “coalminer quilt” (which incidentally, can be seen in a previous photo behind the store counter).

The event was sponsored by the Women’s Business Center of West Virginia and the training was conductd by Mission West Virginia. After the day-long training, all participants were given free brand-new desktop computers to take home and put their newly learned knowledge into practice!

VII.

2007-10-10T10:19:00.000-04:00

I graced the papers four times in the past month..

VI.

2007-10-09T10:41:00.000-04:00

First Business Class

Monday evening we had our first business training class. With four participants, we didn’t get a lot of people, but we got the right people. All of our students evidenced the entrepreneurial spirit. They know what’s missing in the community and what could be successful. They want to seize the opportunities. As one woman put it, “I’m tired of having an idea and writing it down and watching someone else act on it.”

Some of those barriers are lack of knowledge, lack of confidence, and lack of capital. Last night we began building up that knowledge, covering personal budgeting, licenses, and legal structures. Participants begin the class with a blank business plan. Each week they add a little bit more information. After eight weeks of training, the plans are complete, and knowledge and confidence levels will have increased commensurately.

In order to more clearly see where the money goes, students are asked to keep track of every single expense they incur for a whole month. In a show of solidarity (not to mention my own fiscal responsibility) I will also be tracking my expenses for the month. Should be ~~tedious~~ enlightening.

V.

2007-10-07T18:10:00.001-04:00

Rocket Boys Festival

I was excited Saturday because it was the day of nearby Coalwood’s “Rocket Boys” festival. Coalwood is the old coal company town where Homer Hickam and his high school friends gained fame for building their own rockets, as immortalized in the 1998 film “October Sky,” which I’d mentioned in a previous post.

On the first Saturday of every October, Hickam and his old classmates return to Coalwood to commemorate their achievement. This year was notable for being the 50^th anniversary of Sputnik, the Soviet satellite that served as their inspiration. I unfortunately didn’t get to meet Hickam as I’d envisioned; he was kept sequestered in the church, buffered by a steady stream of autograph seekers.

I did however, run into Enoch Hicks and Edna Cadiz, who I’d met at the Ashland store last month. Both grew up in War, WV, another old coal town. Hicks penned a history of the region entitled “Appalachian Legacy and the Quest” and Cadiz recently finished a documentary film about the coal industry. Both endeavors where self-financed and self-published- quite remarkable achievements for a pair of septuagenarians. They were at the festival selling their respective works and as I was walking by, they recognized me immediately, greeted me with a hug, and after several minutes of conversing, sent me off with two complimentary DVDs.

The Coalwood festival takes place in two locations: the primary festival in the town’s center, and the ceremonial rocket launching event, which takes place 7 miles down the road. There was a trolleybus employed to take festivalgoers to the launch site, but it was grossly inadequate to transport the large crowd, waiting statically beneath the blazing sun.

After about 30 minutes of waiting with no trolley in sight, I found myself chatting with the woman beside me. She was a science teacher from Pittsburgh who had driven down the day before after a full day of teaching. She mentioned how she showed “October Sky” to her students, how she’d just caught wind of the festival 3 days before and how she was making the trek in memory of her father who had instilled an interest in science in her and had recently passed away.

It was another 30 minutes before the trolleybus finally came by, but just as it opened its doors to take on new passengers, the line of revelers degenerated into a an exasperated mob. By the time I climbed aboard the trolley, it was already full and I was deemed the last passenger. I looked back to see the teacher behind me, told to wait for the next pickup. I turned, stepped down and gave her my spot. Admittedly, my motive wasn’t entirely altruistic, the thought of waiting another hour under the sun for the return trip made watching rockets markedly less appealing and I returned home for a lazy afternoon nap.

IV.

2007-10-01T15:39:00.000-04:00

Saturday evening was an Open House celebration at the KOA campground up the road from the Ashland store. The event marked the success the campsite has met in its year since opening. The KOA and Ashland Company Store were developed concurrently to cater to riders of the recently-opened Hatfield McCoy ATV trail.

The ATV trail system has been a boon to southern West Virginia’s economic development, bringing much-needed capital to the area. In the year since opening, the KOA and Ashland store have sold a combined $70,000 in trail permits. Further, the KOA’s cabins are virtually booked solid every weekend of the year with riders who spend an average of $150 each on their trip.

That the Ashland store, campground, and ATV trail have formed a successful synergy is a testament to the vision, partnership and dedication of many local players. Helping turn the vision into a reality was Ken Bazzle, who put up the land and capital for all three ventures. Mr. Bazzle and his family were in attendance Saturday and he was dutifully fêted throughout the evening.

The weather was beautiful and it was a genuine community event, with catering by Markella Gianto, a local second-generation restaurateur, and music supplied by Alan Johnston and South 52, a local bluegrass band. Sharon also introduced me to Kimball’s writer laureate, Jean Battlo, who’s written several books and plays about the local history and culture.

III

2007-09-28T19:04:00.000-04:00

Driving along Route 52 through McDowell County, WV can be depressing. The evidence of the area’s population exodus is apparent in the boarded storefronts and derelict houses. Earlier I mentioned that the county’s population has declined by 75% since its 1950 peak and a good deal of that loss stems directly from the dual factors of reduced coal extraction and mining automation- but not all. It certainly doesn’t account for the assaulted appearance of many of the buildings. That was caused by flooding.

On June 8^th 2001, several communities in southern West Virginia were devastated by flooding. Six hours of heavy rainfall caused water levels to rise as much as 6.5 feet. The damage to the towns was immense; McDowell County is more than 90 percent hillside, so the only places where towns can be erected are in the narrow valleys between the mountains. It was into these valleys where the water surged, damaging 3,500 homes in its path.

Locals speculated that the mining and timber industries were responsible, but authorities called it a “hundred year flood” and regarded as a fluke. With the help of several outside agencies and organizations, the people began rebuilding their lives. But ten months later, in May of 2002, McDowell County was struck by yet another overwhelming flood.

By this time, people were less willing to accept the “Act of God” hypothesis. That valleys filled in with slag, or mountainsides cleared of vegetation might affect the ecology no longer seemed such a contentious premise. For many, the “hundred year flood of 2002” served as an impetus for discontented residents who have seen their friends and neighbors move away to finally leave themselves.

The fact that the 2002 storm wasn’t even considered especially severe evoked the specter of “Buffalo Creek”. Buffalo Creek in nearby Logan County was the site of one of the nation’s most notorious mining disasters; 125 people were killed when a mining dam burst, releasing 132 million gallons of sludge water through the 16 mining communities in the valley below. The torrent was reportedly up to 20 feet high, causing $50 million of damage and leaving 4,000 people homeless.

Many new regulations were created out of the Buffalo Creek disaster, but there are still coal sludge damns on mountaintops, and they are still causing damage. This makes many people nervous- north of here in the town of Sundial, there is a 2.8 billion gallon sludge dam looming above an elementary school.

Reaction arising from the “hundred year flood of 2001” came to embody what has come to be called by some as the “Mennonite Response”. In the direct aftermath of both the 2001 and 2002 floods, area residents received assistance from the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). MDS provided direct aid to the flood victims and worked to move them out of the flood plains and into higher ground.

After the immediate relief effort, MDS stepped out, but passed the proverbial baton to the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a separate organization that has been rehabilitating the housing stock of the area using visiting volunteer work teams. MCC is still operating in McDowell County and provides a great deal of pro bono labor to local housing non-profit SAFE Housing and Economic Development (SHED). SHED’s Executive Director is Sharon Walden, whom you may remember is also the Executive Director of TBAI, the local economic development organization where I am serving.

It was through MCC that TBAI formed a partnership with MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates). Since 2005, TBAI has been in partnership with MEDA and conducting business education programs using MEDA’s Assets+ curriculum.

MEDA had also been considering other ways of supporting TBAI and that’s how the idea of a MEDA intern (me) came about. In fact, I’m told that I am the first MEDA intern placed in North America and the first non-Canadian intern.

So- what exactly does a MEDA intern do?

Keep following this blog to find out…

II

2007-09-25T14:20:00.000-04:00

As mentioned previously, TBAI oversees the Ashland Company Store. The building was originally owned by the local Ashland Coal & Coke Company. Like many towns in the area, Ashland was initially a “company town.” Company towns represent a bygone phase in America’s development. When coal was first extracted from Appalachia, the landscape was sparsely populated. In order for the coal companies to attract enough workers to staff the mines, they literally built their own towns, complete with houses, schools, clinics, post offices, theaters and stores. Often, workers were paid in the company’s own “scrip” that was only valid in the company store, ensuring a monopolistic grip on prices.

Through hard work and partnership, Ashland’s turn-of-the-century building was placed on the historical register and painstakingly restored at a cost of over $800,000. The building, as you can see, is beautiful.

TBAI’s ability to turn a hazardous public eyesore into an oasis of pride made such an impression on the community that Sharon Walden, TBAI’s Executive Director, was handed the deed to another neglected historic company building six miles down the road.

This second building was the former home of the Algoma Coal & Coke Company and was built in the 1930s. The uses of the building have moved in step with the changes that have swept through the area. Initially, it served as a grand centerpiece of the Algoma company up until the 1950s, and two successive coal firms through the 1960s. When the last coal company moved out, the building was converted into a clinic and used to treat the former miners left suffering from Black Lung. As the population dwindled, the clinic shut down and fell into disrepair. Now, under the auspices of TBAI, there is again hope for the building and its vicinity.

One recent September morning, Sharon, Debbie, and I went to take a tour of the property to better assess the building’s potential. Flashlights in hand, we explored the building. I had my camera with me and below are some of the images I managed to capture. Needless to say, this building needs a lot of work…

I.

2007-09-17T19:05:00.001-04:00

West Virginia?

I admit it may seem a non-sequitor after Latin America, Northern Africa and Central Asia, but just so we’re all on the same page, consider the following data:

	McDowell County, WV	U.S.A
Median annual household income	$19,090	$41,994
Unemployment Rate, %	7.8	4.6
Poverty Rate, %	33	12.7
Percent adults w/ high school diploma	50	80.4
Percent adults w/ college degree	5.6	24.4
Percent adults w/ a disability	43	17
Average value of owner-occupied housing units	$22,600	$119,600

The gravity of the situation in McDowell County, West Virginia is evident in its present redevelopment strategy of:

New Wal-Mart
New federal prison
New landfill

Most communities rally to prevent these elements from permeating their neighborhoods. Here, they are courted for jobs.

Undoubtedly, any poverty is regrettable; but what makes this situation tragic is that at one time, McDowell County and southern West Virginia were positively bustling, cosmopolitan and affluent. Nearby Bluefield, once referred to as “Little New York”, was notorious for its evening rush hours that saturated the streets with cars. The town of Bramwell, with its brick streets lined with the stately mansions of coal barons, was once the richest town of its size in America. Today the population of McDowell County is a quarter of its 1950s high of 100,000; but the older generations remember. They see the banks and hotels where now only blighted buildings remain. They grew up in an area integral to the nation’s industrial ascent and have since witnessed its slow decline.

The Ngo

Sharon Walden is a proud native of McDowell County whose vision for resuscitating the area doesn’t hinge on prisons or landfills. Ms. Walden is the Executive Director of Travel Beautiful Appalachia, Inc. (TBAI), a local economic development NGO that promotes entrepreneurship and tourism. TBAI operates out of a recently renovated coal company store. The facility houses a retail space where local craftspeople and artisans are able to sell their products to tourists, many of whom come from out of state to ride the miles of ATV trails nearby. It is with TBAI that I will be interning for the next seven months.

Arrival.

I arrived in southern West Virginia on the last day of August. The house where I was supposed to be staying wasn’t yet ready so I was put up in a house that now serves as the office of a local housing NGO (also overseen by Ms. Walden). I was greeted at the door by Ann, an Americorps volunteer, who showed me around the house and led me up to my room. A few days later I discovered Ann had overlooked one important detail about my accommodations- even though I don’t begin work until 9 o’clock in the morning, my bedroom becomes someone else’s office at 8am. While leaving to brush my teeth Tuesday morning, I was met outside my door by a woman sitting in a chair reading a magazine, waiting; each of us thinking “who IS this person?”

Later, when I brought up the incident to Ann, she replied that she hadn’t mentioned it because she thought it was obvious- after all, there was a DESK in there…

First Week.

Tuesday after Labor Day, I rode with Sharon as she took me to the sites of all of her various projects. Between stops to her woman’s shelter and housing properties, she filled me in on the history of the area, its complex relationship with the mining industry, and the resultant ecological consequences. At one point, we drove to a “mountaintop removal” mining site and I took a few photos. You can see how severely it alters the landscape, as they remove the coal and fill in the valleys with the remaining slag.

The rest of the week I spent at the Ashland Company Store, getting to know Debbie Bailey, who manages the store and conducts TBAI’s business training classes.

To help pass the evenings in the while boarding at the housing office, and also to orientate Ann and I to our new surroundings, Sharon gave us two films to watch: “Matewan” and “October Sky”. Both were based on true events that happened locally (and incidentally feature Chris Cooper). Metawan tells the story of a miners’ labor struggle in nearby Mingo County that ended in a bloody massacre. October Sky was more uplifting, telling the story of local hero Homer Hickam and the “Rocket Boys”. Homer and his friends grew up in the mining town of Coalwood. Through equal parts inspiration and stubbornness, Hickam and three high school classmates decided to build their own rocket in the face of resistance from the coal company, their parents, the police, and their principal. Eventually, they won first place at the 1960 National Science Fair, earned college scholarships and in Hickam’s case, even landed a job with NASA.

The inspiring story ensured Coalwood’s spot on the map, despite evaporating into a virtual ghost town once the coal company--which literally owned the town--closed the mine. Every October Hickem and his friends return to Coalwood to celebrate their achievement. Hopefully, I’ll be able to check out this year’s festival..

Well, so anyway, that’s my update for now. In subsequent entries, I hope to flesh out some of the interesting stories about the history and people, and how MEDA and I manage to fit in with it all.