Kentucky has something else to be proud of today:  Occupy Lexington, the longest running Occupy site in the nation (wow, right?!), is celebrating its 100th day today! And in true Occupy Lexington fashion, the celebration is all about inviting people into the space, and into the movement. 

Occupy Lexington is impressive not only for its longevity but also for how participants have been facilitating community learning and engagement. There's a study group working for a People's Budget for Lexington/Fayette County (meeting tonight, and a couple of folks will be talking about the campaign at the Jan 19 KFTC CKY meeting), and Occupy Lexington has launched a campaign called Invest in Kentucky, which seeks to move our state funds back to a local financial institution.

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.

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. 

The Central KY chapter had a great celebration at Al's Bar tonight to cap off a good season of election work.  Look for some more photos and a full description of how it went later, but here are some of the first photos.

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.

The Northern Kentucky chapter of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth held a Singing For Democracy of their own Sunday at Madison Avenue Christian Church. The event, which was attended by over 40 people, featured Mike Barry and Tayna Fogle as masters of ceremony, discussed the issues of voting rights for former felons, and featured regional Gospel performers.

The event was a collaboration between People Advocating Recovery and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and featured speakers from recovery programs in Lexington, Louisville, Covington, and Florence. Their stories, which dealt with their own personal relationships with addiction in their lives and the lives around them, served as a reminder of the inequities and stereotypes people who suffer from the disease face.

Each of the speakers on the program spoke about what made them become an activist on voting rights and recovery. Charlotte Wethington recounted her loss of her son Casey, and how she was able to memorialize him through working to enact reforms in drug treatment laws; Tayna Fogle told her story of not only fighting to recover, but then having to fight to get her voting rights restored twice due to a clerical error; and Kim Moore of CHANGE Recovery House for Women spoke of the difficulty of dealing with reentry for one of your children after fighting for your own recovery so hard.

Members and attendees were hopeful that Northern Kentucky politicians would take notice of the movement in Northern Kentucky, and realize the resource that many people who are in long term recovery are for the community. The organizations hope to work together again soon to continue to highlight the need to expand and protect Kentucky's democracy.

You can also find more pictures of this event on KFTC's Flickr site. 

If you missed KFTC's 30th birthday party on August 27, here's a video that captures some of the good will, fun, energy and inspiration that flowed throughout the day. If you were there, look for yourself!

If you'd like to make a special donation in honor of KFTC's 30th birthday, you can do that here. And if you're not yet a member, join us as we work toward our next 30 years--you won't regret it! At our next celebration, you can be one of the ones who's able to share how much KFTC has meant to you.

Hard work, friendship and giving voice to ordinary people were common themes as folks reminisced about the first 30 years of KFTC and dreamed about the next 30 at KFTC’s birthday party August 27 at Cathedral Domain in Lee County.

Nearly 300 folks enjoyed a family-reunion-style picnic with music, story circles, swimming, games, a 30^th anniversary film, and a square dance. Memories flowed as long-time friends described their connection to KFTC and the work they’ve done together to build a better Kentucky.

Folks remembered the successful 1988 Broad Form Deed campaign, which resulted in a constitutional amendment to protect landowners from strip mining. Through a statewide campaign, KFTC members mobilized voters across Kentucky, and the referendum passed in every county and garnered 82% of the vote.

“I remember that evening of the vote, a bunch of us were in Hindman watching the returns … as the evening went on, it just swept every county,” said Letcher County member Sharman Chapman-Crane. “It was a David and Goliath story.”

Ray Tucker, KFTC chairperson from 1992 to 1994, remembered when KFTC helped mobilize his community to protest a proposed landfill in Pulaski County. “They knew how to get us angry, unorganized citizens focused.”

While reminiscing about their own involvement in KFTC, members also reflected on what KFTC has meant to Kentucky these past 30 years. 

“We have a responsibility to serve our state in any capacity we can, and that’s what KFTC has taught. … If you work together to stop exploitation, then you’ve got an organization that has power. That’s really what KFTC is about – empowering individuals,” Tucker said.

Patty Wallace, chairperson from 1988 to ’90 put it more simply: “Stand up and tell ’em the truth.”

Long-time members and newer members also talked about their hopes for the future.

John Rosenberg, who is credited with giving KFTC its first name – Kentucky Fair Tax Coalition, said KFTC still has much work to do: “We still aren’t where we’d like to be if we want to stop mountaintop removal.”

And Harrod expressed hope that new power is on the horizon: “We have to continue to try to move Kentucky into a whole new way of empowering our light switches and our people.”

Slideshow from the day

KFTC members and friends in Scott County got together this weekend for an ice cream social  at the Georgetown College community garden.

For more event pictures, click Here

Apart from just enjoying yummy ice cream, good company and a beautiful garden, folks got to learn a lot about KFTC, our issues, and what we do in the community.  

We met a lot of new people and many of them became new KFTC members.  A little fewer than twenty people attended. 

 Thanks especially to Marylou and Homer White for making the event a success.

A next big upcoming event for the Scott County KFTC chapter is the first official meeting of the city recycling committee at city hall this Wednesday at 5pm.

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.