The Foxfire Fund, Inc.Foxfire NewsP.O. Box 541Mountain City, GA 30562-0541

Foxfire News2014

Beck Barn Nearing CompletionWhile the road has been long and winding, the Beck Barn journey

is nearing its culmination. Reconstruction of this local four-pen, crossed-hall barn began in 2013, and a series of community work days have been held, including during this year’s Living History Day on Saturday, April 5, to engage the public in the project. Time and the elements became critical factors this spring, though, and outside resources were tapped to finish replacing damaged logs on the fourth and final pen, set floor joists and floor the loft, and erect a completely-new tin roof. Except for the outlying shed roofs to be added back on the left and right sides, the Beck Barn is now very nearly complete.

Thanks are extended once again to the late Sam Beck for donating his family’s barn, to contractors Lloyd Bradley and Terry Pierson for their work to complete the Barn, and to former Foxfire student Sam Adams, who cut and delivered several 32-foot-long logs to replace deteriorated loft-wall beams, and then supplied a boom truck to assist setting those monsters in place, tying the Barn’s pens back together.

Replacing damaged logs in the Beck Barn required teamwork (left), careful measurement (center), and finely-tuned detail work (right) to complete.

Soon to provide a home for the Foxfire Museum’s collection of farming equipment, the Beck Barn once again stands tall as it nears completion.

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The Foxfire Fund, Inc., Board of Directors Hunter Moorman, Chair • John Erbele, Vice Chair • Burgess “Buz” Stone, SecretaryJames K. Hasson, Jr., Chair Emeritus • Dr. Janet Rechtman, Chair Emeritus • Jan Volk, Chair Emeritus • Ruta Abolins • Kaye Collins • Dr. Edward Diden

Carl Glickman • Leslie Graitcer • Wilma Hutcheson-Williams • Karon Miller • Jack Parish • Rick Story • Dr. Laura West • George WoodFoxfire Community Board Karon Miller, President • Jim Enloe, Vice-President • Dr. Scott Beck • Perry Bourlet • Dickie Chastain • Emma Chastain

Marie H. Chastain • Kaye Collins • Donna Dills • Samantha Dixon • Becky Flory • Danny Flory • Holly Henry-Perry • Ramey HensleeAmelia Herb • Richard Hopkins • Lisa McCall • Joy Phillips • Keifer Phillips • Nicole Queen • Samantha F. Ramey • Bruce Russell • Vicki York

Foxfire Staff Ann Moore, President • Barry Stiles, Museum Curator • Paulette Carpenter, Gift Shop Manager • Jessica Sheriff, Administrative AssistantFoxfire News is published once a year by The Foxfire Fund, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) non-profit education and heritage organization. Address inquiries to:

Lee Carpenter, Foxfire News, P.O. Box 541, Mountain City, GA 30562; Phone: 706-746-5828; FAX: 706-746-5829; news@foxfire.org; www.foxfire.orgArticles and photos in Foxfire News may be reprinted for use in Foxfire educational partnership publications.

Special Thanks to everyone who supported our day-to-day operations through a “greatest needs” (or undesignated) contribution to last year’s Annual Appeal fund drive: Allison Adams, Lew Allen, Barbara J. Babinchak, Frank Bachelder, Alan & Mary Barnes, John Barton, Dr. Jack Beaver, Michael & Mary Ann Best, Christina Bird-Holenda, Cheryl Blanton, Rev. Jimmy Bowden Sr., Ms. Judie Bradley, Kathy & Charlie Breithaupt, Ronnie Brooks, Wallace & Olivia Bruce, Karen Burke, Catharine Burkett, Alan Burton, Paulette Carpenter, Thurman & Kathy Carpenter, Paula Choate, Pat Clay, Sherry Cohen, Kaye Collins, Eula Connell, Conrads Family Foundation, Ann Cooley, Drucilla Copeland, Nina G. Cornett, Jeanetta Cotman, Carol Cox, Joan Rivers Cox, John Y. Dean, Norman DesRosiers, Edd Diden, Mary Dillard, Jane A. Dolan, Betty Elkins, Gary Emery, John Erbele, Harry Faircloth, Lamar & Sally Fleming, Mary Ann Frank, Randall Freysz, Bill & Patty Friend, Dale E. Fry, Ronald Geer, Carl Glickman, Ruth Gonlag, Yetta Goodman, Leslie Graitcer, Aldin & Shirley Griffin, F. Max Grist, Sharon Grist, Thomas Hair, O. Emerson Ham Jr. MD, John C. Hanson, Gary Haskins, James K. Hasson Jr., Edward Helms, Joseph Hickerson, Shannon Hobgood, Billy & Debra Hodge, Mrs. Fred Huff, Arthur Hunsicker, Wanda Sue Hunt, Wilma Hutcheson-Williams, Russell Jacobs Jr., Dave & Killeen Jensen, Sara Beth Johnson, Sandra Joiner, Fran Jones, Rev. Benjamin Jordan, Mae Keaton, Robert Kerska, Betty King, Rita Kirshstein, John Kravet, Harold Lacey Jr., Edward LaPlant, Larry Layden, Mrs. Roger Legg, Charles A. Lewis Jr., Dr. Robin & Mrs. Mary Line, Carol Jean Linn, Lloyd Lucas, Pamela Madaus, John Malone, Kay Manfrede, Virginia Martin, Ted Maznicki, McClure Family Foundation, Alan McDaniel, Richard W. McDowell, James N. McKee, Gae Noe McLendon Foundation Fund, Mary Mcl McManus, Mr. & Mrs. Richard Metzgar, Karon Miller, Michelle Miller, Morgan Miller, Jay Mitchell, Mrs. James Moon, Ann Moore, Hunter Moorman, Quinn Murk, Richard Norman, Delma Odum, Dawn Owens, Linda Garland Page, Elizabeth Parker, Lorraine Parks, Laine S. Parrott, Barbara Passmore, Charles Pater, Elizabeth Pepper, Greg & Susanna Peters, Frank Phillips, Jean Pierson, Margaret Post, Joyce Ann Priest, RJS Construction Group, Marsha Rauscher, Janet Rechtman & Doug Aiken, Barbara Reed, Jerry Reed, Kay Rich, Lou Ann Robinson, David Rothmeier, John R. Russell, Scott Sanders, Oscar Scoville, Bill Setzer, Howard Sheffer, Claudia R. Shorr, Wayne O. Sims, Rodney Skoglund, Dawne Smith, William Stack, Buz and Mary Cobb Stone, Marlin Strand, Roslyn Strickland, Richard Topper, Mark Turpen, Rodney Tyus, Ann Veal, Wanda Veal, Jan Volk, Isabelle Watkins, Gail M. Watson, Tom & Laura West, Duffie Westheimer, Frank M. White, B.F. & Beverly Wilson, Laurence & Elizabeth Wilson, Dr. Stephen Wise, J. W. & Ethel Woodruff Foundation, Barbara Woodson, Chuck & Marilyn Wright, John D. Young, Theresa Zilly. In Honor of Buz Stone: Kirk Knous. In Honor of Buz & Mary Cobb Stone: Carol & Steve Raeber. In Memory of Claud Connell: J. Lee & Betty Waller. In Memory of Butch Darnell: Janice Parker/Valley Drapery. In Memory of Andrew Prince: Oscar Brock Jr., Judy-Clem-Jenna-Clara Caprara, Yvonne Ferrelli, Amanda G. Fountain, Debbie & Mickey Justice, Marcia Levine, Jane W. McIlvaine, Susan McLaughlin, Dr. Michael & Kristen Mendoza, Pamela P. Prince, Tom & P.J. Rossi. If you made a donation marked “Greatest Needs” during the last Annual Appeal and your name is not listed here, please contact us and let us know so that we can correct our records.

Additions to Foxfire’s Board of DirectorsDr. Laura West was raised in Peak, SC, a rural town with a

population of 60. She graduated from Clemson and subsequently Wake Forest School of Medicine with honors. As a primary care physician, she has practiced in private practice and a Christian-based charitable clinic in Atlanta. After being a part-time resident for 25 years, Dr. West recently relocated to the Rabun County area and works at Clayton Medical Clinic. She finds personal satisfaction from caring for her neighbors in a community culturally closer to her roots than Atlanta. Dr. West has long appreciated those who lived a self-sufficient full life without modern day “benefits.”

Prior to his appointment with the University of Georgia’s Archway Partnership, Rick Story served as the Director of Georgia Operations for FrogueClark and managed the firm’s Atlanta office. Serving as a member of Governor Nathan Deal’s senior staff in Washington and Atlanta for well over a decade, Mr. Story served as the Director of Executive Appointments. Mr. Story attended the University of Georgia before receiving a Liberal Arts degree from Young Harris College and a B.B.A. in Marketing from the University of West Georgia. He currently resides in Rabun County.

George Wood is currently Superintendent of Schools at Federal Hocking Local Schools, Stewart, OH. Prior to that, he served 18 years as principal of Federal Hocking High School—named a Mentor School by the Gates Foundation, a First Amendment School by ASCD, an Ohio’s Best School by the Ohio Department of Education, and one of America’s Best Schools by Readers’ Digest. He came to Federal Hocking from a professorship at Ohio University, where he studied the work of Foxfire, that inquiry appearing in his book, Schools that Work. He is the chair of the Coalition of Essential Schools and also serves on the Board of the Paideia Foundation. His wife, Marcia, retired in 2014 from over three decades of teaching kindergarten.

Jack Parish serves as the Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement

in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. He began his work in education as a teacher in the Clayton County School District. After 7 years at Riverdale High School, he spent twenty-two years in administrative positions in the Henry County School District. Upon retirement in June 2008, Dr. Parish began his work at the UGA College of Education’s Department of Lifelong Education, Administration & Policy. He is a past-president of the Georgia School Superintendents Association (GSSA), and has worked as the Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL). He currently serves on the steering committee of the Georgia Educational Leadership Faculty Association. He and his wife, Ashley, reside in Athens with their dog, Sam.

Carl Glickman is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Georgia and President of the Institute for Schools, Education, and Democracy. His career began as a Teacher Corps intern in the rural South and later he was a principal of award-winning schools in Maine and New Hampshire. He joined the faculty of UGA in 1979 and founded the Georgia League of Professional Schools. His honors include the University Professorship, and he was chosen by students as the faculty member who had “most contributed to their lives, inside and outside the classroom.” In 2004, he received The John Dewey Award for “Extraordinary Contributions to the Education of Young People in America” by the Vermont Society for The Study of Education.

Ruta Abolins is the Director of the Brown Media Archive & Peabody Awards Collection housed in the Russell Special Collections Building at the University of Georgia. She has over 20 years of experience working with archival audiovisual materials and several years experience curating exhibits. Ruta has served on the board of the Association of Moving Image Archivists and works closely with the Board of Visitors for the UGA Libraries. With degrees in filmmaking, popular culture, and library science, her background is particularly suited to her current work. In her personal time Ruta enjoys hiking and the outdoors.

Giving Back—Julia Fleet/Foxfire ScholarshipsFor over 35 years, Rabun County high school students involved

in Foxfire programs have received scholarship assistance from The Foxfire Fund, Inc. These scholarships are currently funded through an endowment established by philanthropist Julia B. Fleet, who came to Foxfire looking for a way to express her affinity for the mountains of north Georgia and the people she met here.

To receive a Julia Fleet/Foxfire scholarship, students must have participated in The Foxfire Magazine program at Rabun County High School. Consideration is given to quantity and quality of participation—Foxfire classes taken, number of articles written, leadership positions held, and involvement with any special projects, events, or committees. Scholarship recipients are encouraged to maintain active volunteer involvement with Foxfire—volunteerism is promoted as a way to help the students maintain ties to Foxfire itself, and, more importantly, to maintain ties to their home community.

Scholarship awards are based on five criteria, including participation in the Magazine program, financial need, volunteerism (outside the classroom) for Foxfire, potential for success, and academic achievement. Each year, the applicant pool is narrowed down to 5 candidates or less, and each applicant is interviewed by the Scholarship Committee to determine final award levels. Each scholarship recipient receives a fixed award amount for four contiguous years of college,

assuming they maintain full-time student status and a minimum 2.5 GPA. Community Board members Danny Flory, Ramey Henslee, Karon Miller, Nicole Queen, Samantha Ramey, and Bruce Russell, Jr. served as this year's Scholarship Committee.

In the scholarship program’s 38 years, 322 local students have been awarded a total of approximately $917,000. For the 2014–2015 academic year, four new scholarships have been awarded to John Lyle Moore (attending Young Harris College), Jesse Owens (University of North Georgia), Ethan Phillips (Piedmont College), and Taylor Shirley (North Georgia Technical College). Nine other Rabun County students are continuing their higher education this fall with the assistance of the Julia Fleet/Foxfire Scholarship program: Kaley Boatwright, Christina Dills, Brittany Houck, Alyssa LaManna, Katie Lunsford, Kayla Mullen, Alex Owens, Anna Phillips, and Shanda Speed. Together, these 13 students were awarded a total of approximately $34,000 in support for continuing their educations.

Now in its 48th year, Foxfire continues its tradition of giving back to Rabun County through the documentation of our local heritage in The Foxfire Magazine, preservation of the Southern Appalachian way of life at The Foxfire Museum & Heritage Center in Mountain City, and helping our students further their education through the Julia Fleet/Foxfire Scholarship program.

For the 2014–2015 academic year, the newest recipients of Julia Fleet/Foxfire Scholarships: visiting the Foxfire Museum’s woodworking shop, (L-R) Ethan Phillips (holding a mallet), Jesse Owens (with a broad axe), Taylor Shirley (an auger), and John Lyle Moore (a crosscut saw).

Action-Packed Year at Foxfire MuseumThe Foxfire Museum & Heritage Center has played host to a wide

variety of events and groups this year. In addition to providing a window into Southern Appalachia’s past for thousands of casual visitors and dozens of tour groups, 2014 has seen the Museum facilities provide a site for both private and public workshops, week-long, camp-style teacher training courses, two major public events, and a couple of in-house work projects.

Kicking off the season on Saturday, April 5, Foxfire’s Living History Day (photos in column at left) again brought the Museum to life with volunteers in period clothing, demonstrating the every-day skills and crafts of 1800s Appalachia for visitors, and inviting

This smiling, laughing group of students and teachers spent most of the summer working out of the Museum’s archive building. Curious what (Top to Bottom) Ethan Phillips, Jon Blackstock, Ross Lunsford, Jesse Owens, Katie Lunsford, Kaye Collins, and Jessica Phillips were up to this summer? Here’s a hint: Foxfire has a relatively major anniversary coming up in 2016, just two short years from now.

(Top) Living History Day visitors fill the Savannah House yard, watching (and helping) former student Christy Dills do laundry, 1800s-style. (Above) Blacksmith Wind Chapman (tophat) and former Foxfire student David Campbell fire the forge and ring the anvils in the blacksmith shop. (Below) Former student Jennifer Mitcham assists the little ones in churning butter.

Action-Packed Year at Foxfire Museumthem to try their own hands at things like making rope with a simple machine and doing laundry without a machine—just wooden tubs and a wood paddle.

The remaining spring months saw numerous school group tours, including the annual visit from Rabun County’s own fourth grade classes, taking three days to accommodate the grade’s 200+ students, each of whom return to school with a Museum activity booklet and other goodies. The Museum’s conference and dorm facilities were occupied for much of June with groups of older students during week-long, immersive summer courses in the Foxfire Approach to Instruction. Offered through Foxfire’s partnership with nearby Piedmont College, the courses give insight into the educational ideas and choices that allowed early Foxfire Magazine students to make decisions and grow their learning process beyond their rural mountain classroom and ultimately around the world.

June also saw the introduction of two new Museum programs. Foxfire curator Barry Stiles set aside time each Wednesday afternoon in June, July, and August to lead open guided tours of the Museum. Wednesday Wanders allowed casual visitors to experience a guided tour of the Museum without the normal scheduling or group size requirements. Then, each Friday afternoon of those same summer months, the Museum invited a different traditional crafter or folk artist to demonstrate and/or display their wares on the grounds. Friday Folk gave Museum visitors a chance to meet and chat with a variety of the region’s practicing traditional artists and craftsfolk.

Early July saw the first of this year’s three Children’s Heritage Day workshops (photos below), offering ages 8–18 a day of hands-on experience with woodworking, blacksmithing, candle-making, folk art painting, and other traditional skills.

The Museum’s folk art extravaganza, Folk on The Mountain (photos in column at right) moved to July 26 this year, which afforded much better weather than last year’s rainy mess for the folk artists filling the Bungalow field and the gift shop yard.

(Left) Children’s Heritage Day woodworking assistant Grey Bourlet demonstrates draw-knife and shaving horse technique. (Right) A CHD participant proudly displays the hand-dipped candle that she had just completed.

(Above) Visitors come to Folk on the Mountain to look at the region’s amazing folk art. (Below) Sometimes, the folk art looks back at the visitors! (Right) Randall Castleberry’s hand-painted snakes were a huge hit with the young crowd.

Foxfire Archive Audio PreservationAs reported in last year’s News, Foxfire was chosen to receive

funding from Rhapsody in Rabun, a neighboring non-profit organization in Clayton, GA, that exists solely to support other local non-profits. Rhapsody in Rabun’s annual fund-raising event is a black-tie charity gala evening with dinner, dancing, and live and silent auctions. Raising money for one hopeful organization each year, Rhapsody chooses recipients carefully, based on presented proposals outlining very specific projects the organizations hope to accomplish. Foxfire applied in 2012, hoping to receive funds to apply toward digitizing thousands of hours of interviews recorded on old magnetic, analog audiotape over the Foxfire Magazine’s 46-year history. Audiotape is a moderately fragile media, subject to degradation and failure with age, and Foxfire hoped to duplicate as much as possible of the tape collection in one big push, before early signs of integrity and quality issues became more serious. Foxfire was successful in their bid with Rhapsody, and was chosen to receive the 2013 Rhapsody in Rabun event proceeds for this project.

Foxfire received $50,000 from Rhapsody for the project in November 2013, and an additional $10,000 from Dr. Anna Noe, who learned of the project and wanted to help ensure the preservation of Foxfire’s interview recordings. The project budget included minimal equipment purchases, relying on donated and/or sufficiently-capable used hardware whenever possible, so that the bulk of the funding could be applied toward labor costs in order to put a handful of unemployed area residents to work on the project. Based on calculations, it was determined that the project could employ four part-time workers for just short of a year. Earline Carver Benefield, Tucker Dixon, Lisa Gibson, and Holly Williamson were hired and started operating tape decks and recording software on December 2, 2013, mere weeks after the funds were delivered to Foxfire.

The stated goal of the project is to digitize as much audiotape source material as possible, primarily to preserve the contents for the future. Priority was placed on older and more-fragile tapes,

with newer and more stable media to be processed later, as time and funds allowed. Work progressed steadily through the winter months, with Holly and Tucker digitizing material from 1/4” reel-to-reel tapes while Earline and Lisa worked with more-modern (but lower quality) audio cassette tapes. In late February, Tucker landed a new, full-time job (congratulations!) and left the project. The decision was made, based on progress to date at the time, not to replace him, and Holly, Earline, and Lisa continued on.

In mid-July, Earline and Lisa completed the main cataloged collection of audio cassettes, and moved on to special collections, miscellaneous tapes, and relatively recent materials, including material from the 45th Anniversary Book. After the 36th week of work (early August), they had together generated approximately 3,200 digital audio recordings (each side of a cassette tape is counted separately), with recordings ranging from mere minutes to full tapes containing 30, 45, or sometimes 60 minutes per side.

Just under 800 digital audio recordings have been generated

Holly Williamson operates the lone functional reel-to-reel deck, an Otari deck donated late last year by Clayton, GA, radio station Sky 104, WRBN.

Work has progressed steadily since last December, with a couple hundred reel-to-reel tapes remaining to be digitized and nearly all cassette tapes completed.

Lisa Gibson operates an older TASCAM professional audio cassette deck feeding into a modern TASCAM digital audio interface.

from reel-to-reel tapes by Tucker’s early work and Holly’s solo work since the beginning of March. Reel-to-reel tapes typically contain 60 minutes per side, and the reel-to-reel tapes tend to be filled completely. The one logistical issue at present is that while nearly all available cassettes have now been digitized, there are an estimated 250 reel-to-reel tapes still waiting. Unfortunately, the reel deck Tucker was using failed completely just after he left, leaving Holly’s reel deck as the only one currently operational. An additional reel deck has been ordered, and either Lisa or Earline will move over to that format and help balance the remaining workload once it arrives.

All total, as of the 36th week, just shy of 4,100 digital audio recordings have been produced, estimated to contain over 2,300 hours of interviews. Each recording is stored in two formats —the recording software’s native format and the near-universal .wav format—all of which total up to roughly 4.25 terabytes of data. The project’s early estimate has been revised, with the archive currently expected to yield a little over 3,000 total hours of interviews—a target that is expected to be easily attainable with the project funds.

Each of the crew has something that they have truly appreciated from their time listening to decades of Foxfire contacts. Holly enjoyed listening to interviews of Harriet Echols and Marie Mellinger, and especially noted that some of the interviews of Aunt Arie Carpenter were recorded in stereo, directly onto reel-to-reel, and that format’s superior audio quality made it sound like Aunt Arie was in the same room and speaking directly to her. Earline personally knew many of the contacts whose recordings she digitized, and noted that while she enjoyed learning new information and occasionally new phrases or words along the way, hearing some of the contacts again “makes you miss the folks.” Mary Carpenter, Lawton Brooks, and Janie P. Taylor were among her favorite contacts to listen to. Lisa also enjoyed Lawton Brooks, as well as Earline’s father Buck Carver and more recent material from former Foxfire Museum curator Robert Murray. Lisa also commented on the large number of things she’s learned from the interviews, and how enjoyable it has been, with the typically-quiet work routinely punctuated with chuckles, snorts, and outright rolling laughter. Holly summed it up by saying, “There is an unimaginable treasure trove here in these tapes.”

Decades of Foxfire interviews were recorded onto standard cassette tapes, with backup duplicates dubbed onto 1/4” reel-to-reel tapes.

Box after box of audio cassettes has been digitized over the last 9 months, with many more tapes than expected found in storage at the Georgia State Archive.

Earline Carver Benefield adds her latest digitized audio cassette to the project’s log book, a reference used to track all of the completed tapes.

In just a few weeks, on October 4, Foxfire invites you to attend the Foxfire Mountaineer Festival—a jam-packed celebration of the heritage of Southern Appalachia, held at the Rabun County Civic Center in Clayton, GA. The Festival brings together a spectacular mix of arts, crafts, music, food, and fun—all while honoring the people who carved our homes from the Appalachian wilderness, the skills and crafts that helped them survive, the traditional music they kept alive, and the good times they enjoyed when the day’s work was done.

Quilters, broom-makers, candlemakers, woodworkers, potters, metalsmiths, weavers, luthiers, and more—the folks who keep the skills and crafts of Southern Appalachia alive—will fill the Civic Center and its surrounding grounds. Visitors can browse these folks’ amazing handiwork, observe them at work creating their goods, and occasionally get a chance to try their own hands at a few of these activities that Appalachian settlers performed every day. Great regional music will fill the air throughout the day—and after the event as well, with a street dance on Main Street, near the Universal Joint, from 6pm until 8pm.

Arts, crafts, and music make for a fun-filled day, but for the more energetic folks—young or young at heart—wear comfortable, stainable clothes, and get ready for some traditional non-electronic fun! See how long it takes to saw through a log with a two-man crosscut saw. Demonstrate strength, endurance, and coordination with an axe in the wood-chopping contest. Show teamwork in the three-legged race. Let the kids see what it’s like to chase after their dinner in the greased-pig chases (don’t worry, the pigs leave happy at the end of the day). The Rascal Race returns this year, too—get your soapbox derby car ready and check the Festival website for entry details. Ribbons and/or prizes will be awarded for most field events.

Plenty of good mountain food will be available at the Festival, along with the field events, mountain crafts, a raffle and silent auction featuring items donated by local and regional businesses, and so much more! Join the fun in downtown Clayton, GA, at the Rabun County Civic Center on Saturday, October 4, from 10am until 5pm. Admission is $5, kids 5 & under get in free, and there is a maximum charge of $25 per family. Visit www.foxfiremountaineer.org for more information, driving directions, and current exhibitor, music, and field-event details.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

MountaineerFestival

The heriTage of SouThern appalachiaSKILLS • CRAFTS • MUSIC • GAMES • FOOD • FUN

@ Rabun County Civic Center, 201 West Savannah Street, Clayton

foxfiremountaineer.orgThe Foxfire Mountaineer Festival is produced by Foxfire’s Community Board, and is funded in part by donations from local businesses. Most event proceeds

support Foxfire’s local programs, helping our local high school students grow stronger ties to their community and their rich mountain heritage.