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

We had 117 volunteers and interns this semester working over 4000 hours on our Clean Air Campaign, Mountaintop Removal Campaign, the Appalachian Voice, our annual events: Dine Out for the Mountains, Pickin’ for the Mountains, and our Sustainable Forestry Program. In addition we held 22 volunteer nights at our Boone office.

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 44 resolutions supporting our clean air protections in 38 cities and towns and 6 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 and our first ever Week in Washington in September. 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 month. Also, these volunteers continue to post sustainable forestry news items on our Front Porch Blog.

Our Appalachian Voice volunteers spent over 1000 hours delivering the newspaper to over 300 locations in 8 states.

Last, but certainly not least, volunteers and interns worked to make our two annual events a smashing success. Dine Out for the Mountains, which happens every Earth Day raised over $2,500 and our 2006 Pickin’ for the Mountains raised almost $6,000!

We can always use more help. If you are interested in becoming an intern or volunteer, visit our volunteer section or email us at {encode=”outreach@appvoices.org” title=”outreach@appvoices.org”}.

Many thanks to the following for the dedicated work this year; we could not have accomplished so many great things without their help! Mareshah Abers, Chelsie Alfaro, Thomas Allen, Blake Atchison, Harvard Ayers, Sarah Balmer, Rebecca Barger, Lauren Benningfield, Nancy Benson, Jere Bidwell, Derrick Blaylock, Tamara Boozell, Charlie Bowles, Jane Branham, Steve Brooks, Daniel Brookshire, Lucas Brown, Sarah Burkhart, Samantha Caldwell, Stephen Callihan, tom Cannon, Patrick Casebere, Casey Chambers, Kimbrough Charbonneau, Ed Clark, Helen Clark, Chris Cloud, Kathleen Colburn, Nicole Colston, Tom cook, Andrew Cornelius, James Crew, Danielle Crouse, April Crowe, Joslynn Crutchfield, Barbara Dangler, Jeff Deal, Sandra Diaz, Riley Dickey, Lowell Dodge, Jade Doolan, Revonda Crow, Dave Gilliam, Barbara Gravely, Audrey Green, Kim Green McClure, Ruth Gutierrez, Leslie Harbourt, Rachel Harrington, Susan Hazlewood, Anna Heiniermann, Anita Henson, Holly Hernandez, Jennifer Honeycutt, Annie Hostetter, Brenda Huggins, Larry Huggins, Halley Jobsis, Adam Johnson, Allen Johnson, Andrea Juliani, Todd King, Wilson Klein, Amanda Koontz, Kirk Kornegay, Adam Kota, Ashlee Lafferty, Frances Lambert, Ryan Little, Matt Long, Jessica Luthringshauser, Ali Mandsager, Gail Marney, Matthew McConnell, Mike McCoy, Mike McKinney, Jenni Meyer, Sonny Miksa, Sara Mills, Taylor Minton, Kate Mitchell, Kalin Moore, Mac Morris, Georganna Morton, Will Moyer, Dennis Murphy, Catherine Murray, Dave payne, Abby Pifer, James Randolph, Christin Ripley, Mary Rogers, Richard Roth, Jason Sain, Anna Santo, Theo Saslow, Gerry Scardo, Charlotte Schlesinger, Irene Seiler, Bryan Shea, Jim Shumate, Olivia Simeone, Anna Sittig, Lauren Smith, Jessica Spears, Jennifer Stertzer, Dylan Tano, Bevin Tighe, Lurissa Tucker, William Wasserman, Annette Watson, Adam Wells, John wilden, Dean Whitworth, Casey Woodruff, Steve Wussow