Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 17: PUBLICATIONS PMSS
NOTES 2008
Fall
Nancy Adams, Director

NOTES – 2008

“Notes from The Pine Mountain Settlement School”
2008 Fall

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GALLERY: NOTES – 2008 Fall

…[H]ow does Pine Mountain Settlement School fit into a robust, sustainable society? I can think of several ways: by educating people about the natural environment and helping them understand how actions can have unintended consequences; by demonstrating more thoughtful and sustainable ways of living; through helping students learn to read; by offering instruction in traditional building skills and in the arts; by encouraging and celebrating the creative spirit that resides in all of us. – Nancy Adams, Director

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TAGS: NOTES 2008 Fall, Nancy Adams editor, Nancy Adams Executive Director, Ben Begley biography, Environmental Education, sustainability initiative, open fire cooking class, gardening, energy conservation, traditional log structures, Jim Houston, Patrick Kennedy, Big Log restoration, National Park Service, Historic Preservation workshop, Christopher Rogers, Shirley Boggs Ruyack, Elizabeth Powell, Community Cooperative School Reunion, Boggs Family, Fair Day 2008, Day Camp, Reading Camp, Virginia Ballard, Episcopal Diocese in London KY, bats in the ecosystem

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TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 2008 Fall

P. 1

NOTES FROM
THE PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL
PINE MOUNTAIN ~ HARLAN COUNTY ~ KENTUCKY
A tradition of education and service since 1913
FALL 2008

[Cover color photograph: “Ben Begley, director of environmental education, teaches a geology class to students from St. Francis School in Goshen, Kentucky.”]

P. 2

October 2008

Dear Friends,

I wish you could be here to experience this gorgeous autumn day. Leaves are changing more quickly now and colors on the mountain will peak soon. It is a perfect time for a walk in the forest.

For many people, fall is a contemplative time. I think that is especially true this year because of the global economic turmoil. What might be the short- and long-term ramifications of this crisis? What values are most important? What lessons can we learn?

I’ve thought about these questions as I’ve been reading Jared Diamond’s book, “Col- lapse.” In this book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author examines why some societies fail and others succeed. He includes chapters about societies on the Easter, Pitcairn and Henderson Islands, and in Iceland, Greenland, New Guinea, China, and Australia, and on the Maya civilization in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and parts of Central America. His research led him to conclude that five key factors contribute to the collapse of a society: damage that people inadvertently inflict on their environment, climate change, hostile neighbors, decreased support from friendly neighbors, and a society’s response to its problems. The societies included in this book all had an environmental component that contributed to the downfall. (Environmental degradation, however, is not always a factor in a society’s decline.)

Diamond emphasizes the importance of making courageous decisions when problems first present themselves, rather than being forced into reactive decision-making, such as what we have witnessed from political leaders during the current economic crisis. To thrive and endure, a society must be willing to learn lessons from the past, engage in long-term planning, and reconsider core values.

So, how does Pine Mountain Settlement School fit into a robust, sustainable society? I can think of several ways: by educating people about the natural environment and helping them understand how actions can have unintended consequences; by demonstrating more thoughtful and sustainable ways of living; through helping students learn to read; by offering instruction in traditional building skills and in the arts; by encouraging and celebrating the creative spirit that resides in all of us.

As always, we invite you to visit us when you can. We look forward to seeing you and sharing this special place with you.

In the spirit of Pine Mountain,
[Signed] Nancy Adams
Nancy Adams
Executive Director

P. 3

Sustainability Initiative

School offers new classes on gardening and energy conservation
In September, the School introduced three new classes related to sustainable living into the environmental education curriculum. The classes, part of Pine Mountain’s Sustainability Initiative, offer information and hands-on activities related to energy and agriculture. The project’s director,Randal Pfleger, created the classes with the help of Jonna Sears, a recent University of Louisville graduate and Pine Mountain intern.

Since its beginning in late 2007, the Sustainability Initiative has also compiled an energy use database of all Pine Mountain buildings, worked with energy experts to help set priorities for replacing current fossil fuel-based systems with renewable energy systems, identified ways to conserve energy, created demonstration garden beds to be used for educational purposes, worked with dining hall staff to use more Pine Mountain-grown produce, established a composting operation, introduced methods of gardening that conserve resources and lengthen the growing season, and established a community garden at the School.

[Color photograph: “Jonna Sears, left, helps Reading Camp students plant seeds.”]

Fall projects include designing a solar-powered food dehydrator, creating a garden irrigation system using rainwater from building roofs, insulating campus buildings, determining additional ways to reduce energy use, and raising funds for renewable energy projects.

For more information on the Sustainability Project, contact Randal Pfleger at rpfleger@pinemountainsettlementschool.com or call (606) 558-3594. Information about the new classes is on the School’s website: www.pinemountainsettlementschool.com.

Open Fire Cooking Class
This year, Pine Mountain hosted an Open Fire Cooking Class on Sept. 13 that coincided with the Log Structures Re-shingling Workshop for University of Kentucky students. Using Dutch ovens, cooking class students prepared supper for the preservation workshop students. The menu included sausage and apples, beef stew, farmer’s cabbage, mush muffins, scones and stewed chicken.

[Color photograph: “Historical interpreter Marcia Houston, left, led the Open Fire Cooking Class.”]

P. 4

Ben Begley, Director of Environmental Education

In March 1987, Ben Begley began his job as the School’s director of environmental education. He had just completed an M.A. degree in botany at East Tennessee State University. Pine Mountain seemed like a good place to start his career, he says. He planned to stay five years and then move on.

What Ben didn’t foresee is that he would fall in love with the place. He didn’t realize how much it would mean to him to work with local children during summer day camps and watch them grow up. He didn’t know how much he would enjoy teaching environmental education to visiting students. “It is very rewarding: to see their eyes light up, to see them when they make the connections in nature and how everything is all interrelated,” he says.

When Ben arrived at Pine Mountain, he found a nearly dormant program. The School had established its environmental education program in 1972, but administrative upheaval in the late ’70s and early ’80s led to its decline. Ben’s first challenge was to revive the program. He turned for help to naturalist Afton Garrison of Essie, Kentucky and Mary Rogers, a self- taught naturalist and wife of retired Pine Mountain director Burton Rogers. Together they improved existing classes and created new ones. They recruited schools to come for multi-day visits. Their efforts resulted in more than 3,000 students annually attending classes at Pine Mountain.

Ben grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. He and his three brothers spent most of their waking hours outside, playing in the meadows near his home. He was a Boy Scout and enjoyed camping and canoeing. After high school, he served four years in the U.S. Air Force. When he left the Air Force, he didn’t know what he was going to do.

“A friend suggested that we go to East Tennessee State under the G.I. Bill. He said, ‘It looks like they offer some neat classes where we can be outside.”” The first semester, Ben took three classes: ornithology, vertebrate zoology and introduction to ecology. He was hooked. He took every biology class offered by the university and graduated with a degree in zoology. He continued in graduate school at ETSU and studied with the highly regarded botanist John Warden. “He just blew my socks off. He knew everything about everything,” Ben says. “He was one of the most inspiring and knowledgeable people I have known.”

Ben’s graduate research thesis was on the vascular flora at the 2,500-acre Warrior’s Path State Park near Kingsport. That project was one of his most valuable learning experiences. At Pine Mountain, Ben and his staff, which includes his wife Pat, teach school groups for nearly seven months each year. The rest of the time he leads the School’s two spring wildflower weekends, fall color weekend, and the four-day forest study workshop “In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun.” He also helps with the School’s day camps for local children and the weeklong summer Reading Camp for third and fourth graders.

Ben is multi-talented, with skills as a musician, artist and storyteller. He uses these skills to entertain and educate students about the Appalachian culture.

He has taken on other projects to help the School: drafting the groundwater stream head protection plan for Pine Mountain’s reservoir and working on a petition in 2001 to declare 2,500 acres near the School as unsuitable for mining. In 1999, he supported efforts by groups to save the top of Black Mountain from a proposed mountaintop removal mining operation.

P. 5

During his tenure, Ben has witnessed dramatic, destructive changes to the natural environment. When he first came to the area, he remembers standing on the crest of Pine Mountain, looking out over the unbroken forest of the Cumberland Plateau. Today, that view is much different. Mountaintop removal mining sites are visible in many places. “It’s been discouraging and demoralizing to watch the mountaintop removal jobs steadily march toward us. Someday, Pine Mountain will be an island in the sky surrounded by strip mines,” he says. Ben is a 15-year member of Kentucky Society of Natural History (KSNH) and served as its president for two years. In 1992, KSNH selected him as “Naturalist of the Year.” In January, Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center (AMERC) presented him with the Spirit of AMERC Award. AMERC students come to Pine Mountain every winter. Ben works with them throughout their weeklong residency. Ben Poage, former AMERC executive director, says, “Ben has an innate ability to communicate what he knows. He is one of the best teachers I have ever met in my experience with AMERC.”

In recent years, Ben has enjoyed the School’s partnerships with Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission (KSNPC) and Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, which is working to preserve special natural areas on Pine Mountain. He counts as one of his best memories the day he spent with KSNPC botanists looking for the rare small purple-fringed orchid (Platanthera psycodes). After climbing over rough terrain, they found several orchids. Later that day, Ben stopped at Bad Branch State Nature Preserve in Letcher County to photograph the rare rose pogonia (Arethusa ophioglossoides). He was shadowed by a black bear. ‘It was,” he says, “a botanist’s dream day.”

Living in one place for 21 years and getting to know that place well has provided Ben with many pleasures. He is always thrilled to see the first harbinger of spring (Erigenia bulbosa) behind the Chapel in early March; to hear the song of the blue-headed vireo, the first neotropical migrant; to see rose-breasted grosbeaks at his feeders in May, the endangered small yellow lady’s slippers (Cypripedium parviflorum) along Little Shepherd Trail, the three birds orchids (Triphora trianthophora) in August; the alpenglow on Pine Mountain just before sunset; and the magical transition of the forest in autumn.

At home, he keeps a stack of field guides and books beside the couch. His time at Pine Mountain has allowed him the opportunity to observe and deepen his knowledge of the natural world. “I’ve learned more since I’ve been here than I did in undergraduate school. I also never tire of spending time in the forest with my colleagues: Hugh Archer, Tom Barnes, Marc Evans, Kyle Napier, and Wally Roberts. “We are always learning from each other.”

[Color photograph: “Ben leads several hikes each year to Bad Branch State Nature Preserve.”]

Ben’s dedication to his profession has earned respect and praise from colleagues. Marc Evans, senior ecologist for the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission, is among those people. “Ben is an outstanding naturalist and biologist, a pre-eminent environmental educator, a strong conservationist, and a talented and creative storyteller and artist, not to mention a wonderful, warm-hearted person.”

P. 6

Reunions

Community School Reunion
More than 70 former students and their families attended the annual Pine Mountain Community School reunion on Sept. 6th. The Community School, which operated from 1949 until 1972, served Harlan County children on the north side of Pine Mountain. The highlight of the reunion was the opportunity to visit with classmates. The former students also toured the campus and enjoyed seeing photographs from their school days. Cora Campbell, a Community School teacher, visited with many of her former students.

Reunion organizers presented Christopher Rogers, son of the late Burton and Mary Rogers, with a set of wind chimes in honor of his mother and father. Oscar Farley received a plaque in honor of his late wife, Edna Jean Farley, for her many years of service to the Pine Mountain community.

The 2009 Community School Reunion will be on Sept. 5th. Make plans now to join us!

[Color photograph: “Christopher Rogers, son of the late Burton and Mary Rogers, attended the reunion with his wife Bonnie.”]

Alumni Homecoming
The annual Homecoming of the Pine Mountain Association of Alumni and Friends drew more than 60 students and their families to the School during the second weekend in August. The students are alumni from the boarding high school era, from 1930 to 1949. Highlights of the weekend included the chance to visit with old friends, lunch on Saturday, and the viewing of a new presentation about the Settlement School.

[Color photograph: “From left: La Ange Boggs Ginavan, Gerry Boggs Malloy, Debbie Gordon, and Shirley Boggs Ruyack of Kansas share a good time at Homecoming.”]

During the business meeting, the Association’s members elected officers for the next two years: Johnny Mills, president; Elizabeth Powell, vice-president; Sarah Jane Howard, secretary; and Fred Hall, treasurer. They also voted to contribute money toward the new roof for Draper Building and to buy baggers for the School’s lawn mowers.

Homecoming in 2009 is scheduled for Aug. 7 through 9. Hope to see you then!

P. 7

Community

Fair Day
The largest crowd in recent years turned out for the annual Fair Day celebration on Sept. 13 on Settlement School grounds. Community members and visitors lined up for the Nolen Lodge’s pig roast dinner on the picnic grounds, while men gathered to play horseshoes nearby. On the library porch, people browsed through stacks of books on sale; on the library lawn, children and adults played Cornhole, a popular beanbag game. On the playground, children tried their best to win prizes at games of chance and skill.

Local organizations set up informational booths. These included the Harlan County Health Department, Air Evac Lifeteam, and Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Local artisans displayed quilts, crocheted items, corn shuck flowers, jams and jellies, wood carvings and pottery. Gene Harris and Terry Harris provided mountain gospel music.

At the Fair Day competition, community members vied for blue ribbons for their handmade items, produce, canned goods, photographs and flowers. Phyllis Turner of Bledsoe took home nineteen blue ribbons for her vegetables. The winner of the Pine Mountain Homemakers Club quilt raffle was Carolyn Poore of Oregon. Raffle proceeds will be used to buy canopies and first aid kits for the School.

[Color photograph: “Fern Cornett of Pine Mountain demonstrated how to spin yarn.”]

We thank the many volunteers who helped make Fair Day a wonderful community event. Al Cornett from Tri-City Funeral Home in Harlan provided tents and Harold Lewis of Flav-O-Rich Inc. donated ice cream. Competition judges were Raymond and Donna Cox, Theresa Howard, and Jeremy Williams from the Harlan County Cooperative Extension Office. 

Day Camps
Every summer, Pine Mountain sponsors two weeklong day camps for local children. Activities include crafts, hikes, folk dances, environmental education classes, and arts projects.

[Color photograph: “This year, young campers presented a puppet show adapted from the folktale, the ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff,’ for their families and friends.”]

[Color photograph: “Teenagers put finishing touches on their bat boxes during Pine Mountain Day Camp. Eastern Kentucky Pride provided funding for a project about the important role bats play in ecosystems.”]

P. 8

Reading Camp

An enthusiastic group of twenty-eight students from Bell and Harlan counties and thirty-three teachers and counselors took up residence for a week in July for the annual Reading Camp. The camp at Pine Mountain is a partnership between the Settlement School and the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington, which sponsors reading camps in central and eastern Kentucky for third and fourth graders who cannot read at grade level. The primary goals of Reading Camp are to help students gain confidence in themselves and master basic reading skills.

During the camp, students spent mornings working on reading skills. In the afternoons and evenings, they took environmental education classes, attended special programs and played outdoor games.

One of this year’s special activities was the study of the role of bats in ecosystems. Students constructed bat boxes to take home and received copies of the book, Bat Loves the Night, by Nicola Davies. Funding for this activity was provided by Eastern Kentucky PRIDE. Other guests were Harlan County native and author George Ella Lyon, who talked to students about how she writes stories, and Cumberland Gap National Park ranger Scott Teodorski, who presented a program on the night sky. Volunteers help with Reading Camp for many reasons. One teacher, Virginia Ballard of Versailles, has come to the Pine Mountain camp for four years. She grew up in nearby Whitesburg and understands the educational hurdles that Eastern Kentucky students face. She wants to do what she can to help them. “When children learn to read, they can learn about anything they are interested in without having to leave their homes,” she says.

Funding for the camp was provided by the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington, the Berea College Appalachian Fund, Pine Mountain Settlement School and the Glenna Rice Fund. This year’s camp directors were Allison Asay and Rob Coulston, who also found time to post entries on the Reading Camp http://readingcamprocks.blogspot.com/.

[Color photograph: “2008 Reading Camp Students and Volunteers”]

A student from the 2007 Reading Camp wrote this letter to her teacher earlier this year. We wanted to share it with you. “… When I went back to school for 5th grade, I got A+ and a B+ for reading. And I got to start CATS testing. I remembered what the teachers taught me: how to sound out the words I got stuck on. That helped me a lot. And I got a most improvement award, and I passed 5th grade. And I am going to 6th grade. Thanks a lot!”

P. 9

How You Can Help

Individual Contributions
We appreciate all contributions. We are prudent in our use of financial resources. Your financial contributions make it possible for Pine Mountain to carry out its mission and to continue to be a strong institution in an underserved area.

Income to operate the programs and maintain the physical plant of Pine Mountain Settlement School comes from three sources: interest income from the School’s endowment fund, earned income, and contributions. From time to time, we seek grant funding to help with particular projects, equipment and building maintenance needs. Pine Mountain Settlement School is an educational institution and community center. Our goals are to:

• • Teach others about the natural environment and promote protection of ecosystems • Incorporate into our operation energy conservation, renewable energy sources, local materials and healthy food, and share this knowledge with others
  • Provide supplemental educational experiences for local students which strengthen, enrich, and extend their academic education
  • Protect and maintain natural lands and historic structures at the Settlement School
  • Celebrate, interpret, and promote the cultural heritage of central and southern Appalachia
  • Serve as a center for recreation, fellowship, and lifelong learning, welcoming all who come

Pine Mountain is a private, 501(c) (3), non-profit corporation. Contributions to Pine Mountain are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Pine Mountain is now accepting online contributions through Network for Good. Please see our website for more details.

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NEEDS LIST

Those interested in helping with any of these items may donate part or all of the cost.

ADMINISTRATIVE
Dell Computer – $800
Color Laserjet Printer – $500

KITCHEN/HOUSEKEEPING
Stainless Steel Tables – $650
Twin- or Full-Size Sheet Sets – $20/$30 each
Towel Sets $7 – each
Freezer Containers – $100

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Audible Audubon Bird Call Recorder – $300
Two-way Magnifying Viewer – $10 each
Plastic Animal Skulls and Skeletons – $300
Bird Blind Materials – $100
New Educational Posters – $400
Hand Held Magnifying Lenses – $150
Golden Guides – $500
Weaving Supplies – $200

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE
Fruit Trees and Berry Plants – $300
Garden Cart – $215
Perennial Vegetable Plants -$200

MAINTENANCE/FARM
Utility Trailer – $500
Chainsaw – $250

COMMUNITY PROGRAM
Canopies – $200
Children’s Books – $100

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P. 10

EVENTS CALENDAR

Community Potluck Dinner & Singing     November 21, 2008
Nativity Play    December 14, 2008
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Community Family Night    March 20, 2009
Volunteers Weekend     March 27-29, 2009
Pine Mountain Wildflower Weekend    April 17-19, 2009
Black Mountain Wildflower Weekend    May 1-3, 2009
Community Family Night     June 5, 2009
In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun    June 10-14, 2009
Community Youth Day Camp (K-6th)    June 15-19, 2009
Community Youth Day Camp (7-12th)    June 22-26, 2009
Reading Camp    July 26 through August 1, 2009
Alumni Homecoming    August 7-9, 2009
Creech Family Reunion    August 9, 2009
In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun    August 12-16, 2009
Community Family Night    August 21, 2009
Fair Day    August 29, 2009
Community School Reunion    September 5, 2009
Fall Arts Weekend    October 9-11, 2009
The Art of Building Dry Stone Walls Workshop    October 9-11, 2009
Fall Color Weekend    October 16-18, 2009
Community Children’s Fall Party October 24, 2009
Community Potluck Dinner & Singing    November 20, 2009
Nativity Play    December 13, 2009
Practical Historic Preservation Workshops    To Be Announced

For more information or to make on-line reservations, please visit our website at www.pinemountainsettlementschool.com or call (606) 558-3571 or 558-3542 between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

You may also write to: Events Coordinator, Pine Mountain Settlement School, 36 HWY 510, Pine Mountain, KY 40810-8289 or e-mail:
office@pinemountainsettlementschool.com.

[Color photograph: “The Pine Mountain Trail Conference members meet annually at PMSS for a weeklong work retreat. This year’s volunteers came from Michigan, Iowa, Alabama and Kentucky to repair and reconstruct the School’s trails.”]

[PENDING: SPRING 2008]

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Previous:
NOTES – 2007
Next:
NOTES – 2009

See Also:
BEN BEGLEY Staff Biography

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NOTES Index