Appalachian Voices’ Volunteers and Interns Do Their Part to Protect the Mountains

Appalachian Voices’ volunteers and interns gave hundreds of hours to protect the mountains. We would like to thank them for their work and let everyone know what they accomplished!

We had 48 volunteers this semester working over 600 hours working on our Clean Air Campaign, Mountaintop Removal Campaign, the Appalachian Voice, and our Sustainable Forestry Program and held 13 volunteer nights at our Boone office. In addition, we have 41 volunteers distributing the Appalachian Voice to over 230 locations in 7 states.

We can always use more help. If you are interested in becoming an intern or volunteer, visit our volunteer section or email Shelly at outreach@appvoices.org.

Clean Air Campaign volunteers organized a bake sale in Virginia to buy AEP a scrubber for their plant in southwest Virginia. We were a few dollars short, but attracted considerable media attention and also educated hundreds of Virginia voters about clean air.

Our Clean Air volunteers also continued working to pass clean air resolutions across North Carolina. Over the last year, our volunteers have passed resolutions supporting our clean air protections in eleven cities and towns and three counties in western North Carolina.

Our Mountaintop Removal (MTR) Campaign volunteers have also accomplished some amazing things. During our volunteer nights, volunteers called members and activists across the country urging them to write their representatives and talk to their friends and families about the devastating effects of mountaintop removal coal mining. Our volunteers made hundreds of calls talking to over 200 people in 22 states, generated 28 letters to representatives and 10 letters to the editors in papers across the country.

Our MTR interns also organized our Congressional Briefing in Washington, DC at the end of February. Another intern researched the social implications of MTR and worked with Rawl, WV residents to tackle water quality issues related to mining operations. In addition, interns worked with Google Earth to make a comprehensive map of the extent of mountaintop removal in the Appalachian region.

Sustainable Forestry volunteers and interns dedicated many hours assisting our AmeriCorps member conduct research, write articles, and finalize sections of the second edition of our “Managing Your Woodlands Guide,” which will be available this June.

Many thanks to the following for the dedicated work this semester. We could not have accomplished so many great things without them! Adam Wells, Abby Pifer, Andrew Cornelius, Austin Hall, JW Randolph, Nancy Benson, Stephen Callihan, Steve Wussow, Erica Palmer, Brenda Huggins, Erin Garcia, Anita Henson, John Whilden, Judi Bell, Susan Hazlewood, Sara Ashton, Mareshah Abers, Sarah Balmer, Andrea Juliani, Ashlee Lafferty, Barbara Gravely, Daniel Brookshire, Mike McCoy, Rachel Harrington, Sarah Burkhart, Adam Johnson, Jenni Meyer, Will Moyer, Bryan Shea, Nicole Colston, Christin Ripley, Halley Jobsis, Theo Saslow, Lurissa Tucker, Samantha Caldwell, Kirk Kornegay, Ali Mandsager, Anna Heinermann, Wilson Klein, Matthew McConnell, Ryan Little, Mac Morris, Sonny Miksa, Lauren Smith, Dylan Tuno, Holly Hernandez, Patrick Casebere, Amanda Koontz, Anna Sittig, Tom Cannon, Adam Kota, Chelsi Alfaro, Georganna Morton, Thomas Allen.