Building power and having fun in Wilderness Trace

Since becoming an official chapter last September, the Wilderness Trace chapter (representing Boyle, Mercer, Garrard, and Lincoln counties) has been hard at work contributing to KFTC’s statewide issue campaigns and making their presence known in the community.

Wilderness Trace made quite a splash last fall by registering 58 new voters at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in just two days and playing an active role in the Speaker's Park at the Vice Presidential Debate at Centre College. Several members spoke, including Daniel Morgan, Lee Ann Paynter, and Preston Miles, sharing their personal stories, while other members staffed a KFTC information table.

After the election, members kept momentum going with their first chapter fundraising event in December with the No Greater Task: Art and Activism poster show at V the Market in Danville, where they recruited several new members and raised more than $900 for the organization, making it one of the most successful poster show events across the state.

During the legislative session earlier this year, Wilderness Trace members were present for every major KFTC lobby day with an especially strong presence at I Love Mountains Day, when dozens of students from Boyle County took school buses to spend the day in Frankfort. Members also met with legislators and rallied with allies at the Fairness Coalition's lobby day.

Since the session’s end, members have been hard-at-work getting out in the community. Jim Porter did a great job speaking to people about KFTC’s work to protect our mountains, our streams, and our health at a community Earth Day event at the end of April. He was also able to raise money for chapter fundraising by selling books and CDs.

Much of the spring has been dedicated to planning and getting people engaged in the chapter’s first-ever large summer event, the Down Home Barn Bash. A committee of members has spent a good chunk of time planning this event with a special focus on a silent auction that will feature more than 30 items, a majority of them from local businesses and artists, including glassblower Stephen Powell.

To get people in the area out to the event, members have put up flyers, invited their friends and family, called people who are KFTC members or have connected to the organization through an event or petition, and put out a press release in the local newspaper. During the first weekend in June, several members participated in the Great American Brass Band Festival’s Great American Picnic, where they donned their KFTC green, decorated a table in a mountains and water theme, and talked to festival-goers about KFTC and the upcoming Barn Bash, all while enjoying food, fellowship, and great music.

This Saturday, June 22, the Wilderness Trace chapter will celebrate their work from the last several months with the Down Home Barn Bash from 4 to 8 p.m. at Woodwind Farm, located at 36 Yates Road in Junction City. As mentioned earlier, there will be a great silent auction to raise money for KFTC, as well as live music from The Jarflies, and a return installment of December’s poster show. Woodwind Farm provides a beautiful space for the whole family to have fun with a playground, a pond, and walking trails. Admission is free, and food will be available for purchase. Members are excited to kick-off the summer with the community and look ahead to what they’ll do next to advance KFTC’s work at the local level.