Winds of Change Newsletter, September 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

A Bushel of T H A N K S !

Margaret Chapman, Sara Bird, Sandy Fischer, Chuck Wyrostok, Mary Wildfire, Don Alexander, and Carey Lea for being legal observers at recent coalfield protests and rallies.

Mary Ellen OFarrell and Larry Gibson for getting arrested for trespassing at Goals Coal with coalfield residents and Mountain Justice Summer participants while trying to deliver demands.

Pat Barker for doing loads of research on behalf of Citizens or Clean Elections for Justice at Stakes report.

Scott Straight, Michael Morrison, Lora Varney, Chris Worth and Brandi Jacobs for their commitment to the OVEC Anti Racism Transformation Team.

Benji Burrell, Hannah Banana, Chris Dudeson, Ed Wiley, Constance Sisk, Jesse Mwaura and Hillary Hosta for working hard this summer at the Coalfield Sustainability Project; Dannielle, Chad, Ukiah and Matthew Noerpel for being super committed volunteers in the Coal River Valley and all the other good-hearted young Mountain Justice Summer people who have helped this summer and made MJS a success beyond our wildest dreams; Michael Morrison and Lora Varney for helping out with the Listening Project; Scott Straight for his time spent with us, and for all of his hard work on the Democracy Works project.

Allen Johnson and others for the Christians for the Mountains.

Sarah Stephenson for the kinds words of support that never fail to bring a smile.

Maria Gunnoe, Joan Linville, Walter and Carol Young, Leroy, Geneva and Charles Runyon, Billy Sammons and the Browns for their relentless work in Boone and Mingo counties. All the hardworking folks in the watershed group on Island Run in Logan County.

For the July 30 Rally: Christopher Runyon, George Hockley, Dan Kash, Julie Archer, and anyone we might be forgetting, who tabled for OVEC; Winnie Fox, Meagan Duffy, Joan Linville, Maria Gunnoe, Denver Mitchell, Billy Sammons, Carol & Walter Young for their help with outreach for the July 30th protest; the energetic and creative radical cheerleaders who led us in cheers; the lovely participants in the Ms. Mountaintop Removal contest; to Ron Sowell, T. Paige DalPorto, Tonya Adkins, Jen Osha, Maryanne Hitt, Danny Dolinger, and Benji Burrell for adding their musical talent; Greg Carroll for his ever-faithful technical assistance and awesome new PA; Michael Morrison for making a gazillion phone calls to OVEC members asking them to come to the rally; Michael Morrison, Adam Brown, Jesse Mwaura and others for helping us set up and take down at the rally; Mike Harman for capturing the sound; Maria Gunnoe, Walter Young, Leon Miller, Judy Bonds, Bill Price, Bo Webb, Ed Wiley, Joan Linville, Winnie Fox, Rev. Jim Lewis and Larry Gibson, who spoke about the impacts of mountaintop removal on their lives and others; Regina Hendrix for supplying a step ladder and pink slip; Kathryn Stone for supplying water, bananas and (most importantly) chocolate to the volunteers taking down rally flyers in Charleston and for constantly doing so, so much behind the scenes; and to the 400+ people who came out to the 30 July Stop Mountaintop Removal rally in Charleston! Were probably leaving someone out, so please forgive us! Your volunteerism is the lifeblood of our work!

Hillary Hosta for conducting the non-violence training at the Summit for the Mountains.

Steve Fesenmaier for leading the charge to have Battle of Blair Mountain declared an official Subject Heading by the Library of Congress.

RB for continuing and extensive support. Tom Jones for the great message of support.

Thanks to SouthWings for amazing educational efforts.

Lynda Anne Ewen for all her hard work on the Mountain Defender; Adam Brown for consultation on the newspaper, and all the committed volunteers who distributed all the copies of the paper.

Kathryn Stone, Jerry Knighten and Vicky Wolfe for volunteering as OVEC reps on the WV Public TV telethon. Forrest Hale for setting it up.

Congratulations

Congratulations to OVEC board member Elinore Taylor whose play, Appalachian Spring Postponed, about a woman running for governor in West Virginia, showed in Huntington in July. Taylor told the Herald-Dispatch that while the account is fictional, it borrows from aspects of the recent campaigns of Charlotte Pritt and Denise Giardinia, both of whom ran for governor in West Virginia.

It is an imaginary story, but the thrust of the story is true today that the two parties are pretty much beholden to certain powers in this state, Taylor told the newspaper.

Despite the humor in the play, Taylor hopes it sparks people to pay attention and take an active role in politics and issues such as mountaintop removal.

Congrats to Robert Salyer of Appalachia for finishing his documentary Sludge, about the Martin County, Ky., coal sludge disaster. Look for Jack Spadaro and OVEC and Coal River Mountain Watch folks in the film.