Union College plans trip to I Love Mountains Day!

Monday evening, Union College had their third overall KFTC meeting/ event, but their first one of the new semester.  First, KFTC members at Union tabled near the dining hall entrance at dinner time and invited passersby to make a paper pinwheel to be entered into a free raffle for the Beehive Collective's True Cost of Coal Poster, while learning all about I Love Mountains Day 2012!  

Close to 25 pinwheels where made and more than a dozen people entered the raffle. The poster was raffled off at the advertised campus "KFTC meeting" later that evening and given to senior Cortni Thrasher of Somerset. Cortni (pictured in center below) said she is "really excited for the rally!" after learning more about the poster, the Stream Saver Bill, and I Love Mountains Day! 

At that meeting, 5 people confirmed their plans to meet up with the EKY bus to Frankfort on Feb. 14th, and several more are still trying to determine if they can go.  

Late last year/ semester, members at Union College organized 2 monthly KFTC gatherings, the second being a very well attended film screening of I Was There.  It was at that meeting they decided to first focus their energy this semester on I Love Mountains Day turnout.  

At both the film screening and yesterday's event, a local reporter with The Advocate attended to cover the local growing momentum around KFTC!  Members at Union have filed to become an associate student organization called Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and hope to build enough support to eventually petition to be recognized as a KFTC chapter!  They've planned their next meeting for Monday, March 5 at 8:30 p.m.  

One of the driving forces of this new energy is Susan Deaton of Corbin, a professor at Union. She attended a Mountain Witness Tour a few years ago and has been increasingly active with KFTC since. She attended the last KFTC annual meeting and plans to attend I Love Mountains Day.  She is pictured here with her artwork, inspired by that Mountain Witness Tour, currently displayed in the Sharp Academic Center at Union College. Susan is an amazing artist and certainly one of the extraordinary people who make Kentucky a better home for everyone!