Members from Letcher and Knott counties joined the Perry County chapter members Tuesday night in Hazard at the Perry County Public Library for a Holiday feast and screening of I Was There in the Library's theater.  Around 25 people brought family, friends, and food to celebrate the upcoming holidays, another powerful year of grassroots organizing in east Kentucky, and the 79th birthday of the 2011 KFTC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, McKinley Sumner of Montgomery Creek, Vicco.  

During the party, the Perry Chapter sold two 30th anniversary DVDs, two green KFTC t-shirts, and 5 members renewed their dues to support our final fall fundraising push!  After folks filled their bellies with the spread of fried chicken, sides, and desserts, we filed into the Library theater for a group viewing of  I Was There: The First 30 Years of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth.  For many, this was their first viewing of the film, complete with stove-top popcorn!  

With a group from three counties, ages 4 to 79, and from varying walks of life, this was a great finale to the Perry chapter's work this year, our 30th anniversary of action for justice.  See if you can spot any familiar faces below and see even more pictures on our flickr, here. 

Earlier this month, 19 KFTC members and friends came together to celebrate KFTC's 30th year of action for justice with a film showing, brainstorming session and birthday cake.

Members of all ages had a part of the fun and fellowship. The evening started with a viewing of KFTC's new film "I Was There: The First 30 Years of KFTC." Member J.P. Brantley said the movie was "like a revival meeting." Folks enjoyed pointing out each other in footage from I Love Mountains days and reflecting on the work and the stories of leaders from throughout the decades.

After the viewing, Lee Ann Paynter updated the group on KFTC's current statewide and local campaigns using a slideshow she had created, and opened up the discussion for what local issues members in the Boyle County area could begin to undertake. The brainstorming session was energetic and inspiring. Members shared stories of their work and history with KFTC, and developed ideas about future local work--from doing more outreach around economic justice and voting rights issues, to getting informed and taking action on nearby coal ash storage facilities, the becoming more involved in the local Human Rights Commission and a possible Fairness campaign.

The group topped off the evening with a locally baked birthday cake, and set plans for their next meeting. Several new members joined and the event raised more than $400 in donations and sales to support KFTC's work.

All KFTC members and any others interested are welcomed and encouraged to attend the next Boyle County KFTC meeting:

Monday, December 5, 2011, at 6:00 pm
Boyle County Public Library Community Room
307 West Broadway, Danville, KY

For more information about getting involved in Boyle or surrounding counties, contact KFTC member and New Power Leader Lee Ann Paynter at aperturienne [at] gmail [dot] com or KFTC Organizer Sara Pennington at sara@kftc.org or (606) 276-9933.

This week faculty from Union College, who attended our Annual Meeting back in August, hosted a screening of "I Was There: The first 30 years of KFTC" in the Union Student Center.  At least 30 people turned out, including students, faculty, and several from the off-campus community.  Local Know County members were especially excited to have a local KFTC event to attend and connect with others interested in our work.  Five folks became new members and we raised almost $40!  The group hopes to keep meeting after the new year/ semester and perhaps mobilize a Knox County/ Union College contingent to Frankfort on February 14th for I LOVE MOUNTAINS DAY 2012!  Thanks to all who came out and made the night such a great time! 

Adam Strobel Barr (pictured left, with wife Rae) first had the idea of putting solar panels on his farm when he learned that he would need to supply power to his farm’s pond to pump out irrigation to his crops.

“The first motivation for me getting this system is that it broke my heart to think about another power line running across the farm.”

And, electric costs are rising. The farm is served by Meade County Rural Electric Cooperative, which just saw a 30% increase in rates this year. With the help of grants from both the state and the county, Adam, his father and uncle installed a solar-powered irrigation pump on their family farm – Barr Farms - earlier this fall.

While these are the first solar panels they have installed on the farm, Adam and his wife, Rae Strobel Barr are no strangers to sustainable practices. They work hard to build healthy soil and reduce the farm’s carbon footprint by using small machinery and draft horses when possible. And, they use these practices as a marketing advantage when selling farm products, which include beef, chicken, eggs and vegetables, to a largely urban, environmentally-sensitive consumer base.

Adam was excited to show off the solar pump (pictured above) to his neighbors at the house party he hosted on November 13th, to benefit Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and Community Farm Alliance.

“I know that the sun is the greatest source of energy we have available to us,” he told 20 guests as they peeked inside the pump to see how it works. “Growing plants is the most efficient way to harness the sun’s energy and we just don’t yet know how to harness it well for other uses, but we’re getting there and I wanted to try this out – to know, does it work? Will it last?”

The pump should last for 20-30 years with minimum repairs and pump 3000 gallons per day even with some cloudy days mixed in, Strobel Barr said. It cost $7000, $1700 of which was supplied from money available for on-farm clean energy projects through the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy and $2500 of which came from the Meade County Agriculture Investment Program.

“When I was in Finland travelling, I noticed that everyone had solar panels – they were everywhere, powering part of all the electricity use you could see,” said Brandenburg resident Beverly Furnival.  She wondered why we don’t have more of these in Kentucky.

Guests also learned about how the geo-thermal heating and cooling system works at Adam’s father’s house, which is located on the farm.

The system’s installer – Chuck Dever of Dever Enterprises in Elizabethtown, KY (pictured right) – told guests that geo-thermal systems are both efficient and have a quick payback. When replacing propane or heating oil the payback time is as little as 4-5 years.

Dever installs the systems in homes of all kinds, including homes as small as 1000 square feet, noting that the average system costs about 1 to 1.5 cents per square foot. He said that through word of mouth Kentuckians are starting to catch on about what an economic bargain it is to heat and cool through geo-thermal.

“I put in the first geothermal system in Hardin County. That was more than 22 years ago. And now, business is booming. It had been increasing and then the federal tax credit really helped it to grow.”
At the end of the party, Adam and Rae asked guests to join KFTC and CFA and then facilitated a discussion about what issues people care about locally. Folks mentioned interest in garnering support for the Meade County farmer’s market and getting more farm-fresh food in area schools.

The group also discussed how advocating for state energy policies that support the growth of renewable energy, such as the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, could make the clean energy systems on Barr Farms more widespread. This bill is supported by both KFTC and CFA through their partnership in the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance.

“But what’s the grand vision? What can we do to change the world, to change our situation?” asked guest Roger Furnival.

“We want to use this conversation as a starting point for talking about sustainable energy in rural Kentucky…I believe everyone changes through a conversation, just like the one we are having tonight. It’s about citizen politics – regular people using their voices,” Adam replied.

Rae highlighted why she and Adam wanted to host a friend-raiser for KFTC and CFA.  She noted that they are interested both in building community in Meade County and connecting these local issues to the larger movements effected by KFTC and CFA’s work.

“Both organizations have been transformative for us because through them, we can have a voice in changing things we care about.”

If you live in Meade or Breckenridge counties and are interested in joining this local conversation, contact nancy@kftc.org.

 Last week, Harlan County Chapter Steering Committee Rep. and New Power leader, Carl Shoupe, invited the chapter and greater Tri-Cities community into his Benham home for a showing of "I Was There: The First 30 Years of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth". 

Friends and neighbors from Benham, Lynch, and Cumberland gathered for good food, fellowship and the film screening.  The event raised $60, including donations from friends who could not attend, but sent in their support by mail ahead of time.  

During the film showing, 8 year-old Chase Gladson, of Cumberland, said in response to footage of youth meeting with the Governor's staff, "They let kids do it too?".  Sounds like Chase might have a lobby trip in his future. 

Last night, we held our annual Arty Pie Party in Scott County - an event full of great music, fun, local art, delicious pies and just plain good conversation - all to benefit Kentuckians For The Commonwealth.

The event was hosted in the beautiful home of Tim Klarer and Rosanne Fitts Klarer, which is a work of art in itself, built primarily by Tim. 

Many thanks to Tim and Rosanne, plus musicians Jeri Katherine Howell and Jeff Ellis, all of the fantastic artists that donated pieces for the silent auction, all the folks who made pies, and the 80+ folks who came out and/or donated money.  It was a blast!

Oh - and the whip cream on top? - We raised over $2,100 for Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, plus lots of new memberships and membership renewals.

 

And if you want to see even more pictures of the event, including art pieces, etc., visit the collection on our Flickr page. 

Featuring:

- Delicious Pies

- Live Musicians Jeri Katherine Howell and Jeff Ellis

- A Silent Auction of Arts and Crafts

Suggested donation is $25 or a pie.

For more information, click here.

         

KFTC members Tim Darst and Angela Lincoln have been working towards energy sustainability for quite some time. They care about it for many reasons – because of their faith, their commitment to social justice and their concern about global climate change and mountaintop removal coal mining.

Ten years ago, they began efforts to reduce their home electricity usage through lifestyle changes and energy efficiency measures. They built awnings to block excess sunlight, put lower-watt bulbs in their lamps and began using sunlight to dry their clothes, among other things.

“We looked into electricity in Kentucky and found out that more than 90% comes from coal – the dirtiest of all the fossil fuels,” Tim said. “We wanted to make some changes in our life and we started with electricity because it made the most sense.”

These efforts yielded a 70% reduction in home electricity use over time, he told a crowd of 25 at a KFTC gathering that he, Angela and neighbors Rus Funk and Amy Mudd co-hosted on October 18th. Once their usage was down, Tim and Angela invested in solar panels to provide most of their remaining electricity use.

The crowd saw Tim and Angela’s solar panel array and then toured Rus and Amy’s home geo-thermal heating and cooling system. Geo-thermal systems run water through pipes deep into the ground to keep it a steady temperature and then use a highly efficient indoor machine to heat or cool the water, which in turn heats or cools the air to the desired temperature.

Amy, Kiernan and Rus, in the process of having an addition put onto their home, explored the possibility of going to geo-thermal as a way of attempting to reduce their carbon footprint.  They said that the installation process was messy and loud, with lots of dust coming from the drilling process, but they feel like it was well worth it.

"We knew that Tim and Angela had gone solar and liked the idea, but knew that there was no way we could have afforded that option. geo-thermal was something we could work in the budget of our addition, and we'd get the money returned to us in savings much more quickly then we could have via solar."

Ron Neal, of Louisville-based Allgeier Air (pictured, right) – the company that installed Rus and Amy’s system - told the crowd that residential and commercial use of geothermal heating and cooling is really taking off in Kentucky.

“With a 7-to-10-year average payback, geothermal is catching on quickly.  A few years ago, we saw a steady 1-2% increase in our installations every year. In 2009, our business increased 20%. In 2010, 30% and 2011, 40%.”

He went on to describe the success that 50 Kentucky schools have been using geothermal systems. One school built a new building 4 times the size of the previous one. With efficiency measures and a geothermal system, energy bills in the bigger building are just ¼ of the school’s previous bill costs.

KFTC member Jane Walsh brought her two kids to tour the homes. “We were inspired,” Jane said. Her daughter, Mae Alice Harrell is a reporter for the Bloom Elementary "Bloom Report," a weekly program of her school's media club. She filmed the event to help educate her schoolmates about how families can use less energy.

The party raised both friends and funds for KFTC - thirteen new members signed up! And, the event motivated many people present to lobby their legislators in order to make these clean energy systems more affordable for Kentuckians.

“I love the idea of solar panel and geothermal technology. I would love to save money on my utilities and minimize my carbon footprint, but these projects are expensive for the average middle income household,” said participant and property manager Debbie Rosenstein. “This is why it is so important for us to contact our legislators regarding the Clean Energy Opportunity Act. Clean energy needs to be an affordable alternative for everyone.”

If you are interested in telling your legislator that you want affordable, clean energy solutions in Kentucky, contact nancy@kftc.org.

Members of the Central Kentucky chapter's economic justice work team went door to door once again in the Ohio Walnut neighborhood to talk to folks about economic justice issues. In just a couple of hours they were able to conduct 21 surveys with folks and have some really good and important conversations about the future of jobs in Lexington, the state of rental property and support for young people.

On Sunday, central Kentucky member Jessica Mohler held a house party to educate people about the importance of voting and to gain their support for house bill 70 - KFTC and Rep. Jesse Crenshaw's bill to restore voting rights to former felons who've served their time. About 20 folks attended and watched the film Democracy's Ghosts which is about the disenfranchisement of former felons across the country.

"I have been a KFTC member for eight years and this issue is very important to me. There is no reason to continue punishing people once they've served their time." - Jessica Mohler.

Six folks joined KFTC at the party and three folks renewed their memberships. People had a really great time.

If you'd like to host a house party benefit for KFTC please contact your local organizer. In the Lexington area you may get in touch with Ondine at ondine@kftc.org

Sixteen people gathered on Tuesday night in Shelbyville to get to know one another and to celebrate KFTC's 30th anniversary (some are shown, left). Several existing Shelby County members turned out for the gathering as well as a handful of folks new to KFTC. 

Participants expressed enthusiasm about meeting one another and feeling less alone locally right from the start.

After introducing herself, member Averie King said, "It's so refreshing to meet people that share these ideas because I did not think many of them existed in Kentucky let alone Shelby County." 

Member Jerry Scrogham added, "I have driven into Jefferson County for chapter meetings, but for as long as I have lived here, I have never thought of the idea that we could gather here (in Shelby County) and have this going on."

Shelby County member Carlen Pippin (shown above, far right), along with two others present, discussed efforts to improve the democracy and transparency in the Shelby County Electric Co-op. The Shelby County co-op is part of the East Kentucky Power Cooperative, the reformation of which has been a part of KFTC's statewide work for more than two years. Jefferson County member Beth Bissmeyer gave a broad overview of KFTC as well.

Everyone was interested in the topics discussed and several people signed up to get involved in the electric co-op reform work. Several at the table immediately connected that making the co-op more transparent would also open the doors to increasing demand for efficiency and renewable energy from EKPC. Carlen Pippin, who has just become a New Power Leader, plans to form a New Power cluster of the people who signed up to engage more deeply in the co-op reform work.

After the gathering was over, two families committed to coming to KFTC's 30th birthday bash in Irvine on August 27th. Other folks discussed printing a local voter guide and forming a chapter at some point in the future as action steps to follow up to the meeting.

As the gathering came to a close, Bill Young, a teacher who has run twice for local offices in Shelby County, identified strongly with KFTC's vision and action around democracy-building and civic engagement.

"I cannot even believe it. Me and my friends were talking the other day about forming an organization just like KFTC. and THIS IS IT!I can't believe I never knew you all existed. I feel like i have come home," Bill said.

To learn more about this event or sustainable energy solutions, contact Nancy Reinhart at nancy@kftc.org.