Mountaintop Removal Research Trip to AppalachiaMountaintop Removal Research Trip to Appalachiahttp://www.haverford.edu/calendar/details/216611Appalachia2012-10-14T08:00:002012-10-19T22:00:00
October 14, 8:00AM - October 19, 10:00PM
Appalachia
Depart HC, Sun 10/14. Return Fri 10/19. TriCo students interested in organizing against climate change will travel to Appalachia to learn directly about economic, political, and environmental impacts of extreme coal extraction.
On the road to end mountaintop removal
Description
This event has been approved by the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship. Grants to cover the cost to Haverford Students are available. Applications are due to Walter Hjelt Sullivan (wsulliva@haverford.edu) by September 28th. Email Walter for a copy of the application.
Between 10 and 20 students from the Tri-Co community will travel to Appalachia over Fall Break, 2012. Students will spend five nights and four days in two or three communities in West Virginia or Kentucky directly affected by mountaintop removal coal mining.
Sites will be selected in consultation with the Alliance for Appalachia (http://www.theallianceforappalachia.org/), Earth Quaker Action Team (http://greenpnc.org/), and contacts made by students from Swarthmore College in their Fall trip to Appalachia in 2011.
Site will be selected where students can provide substantive service to the community, visit mountaintop removal coal mining sites, engage with community activists working to end mountaintop removal coal mining, and meet community members whose lives are directly affected by the economic and environmental impacts of extreme coal extraction.
Students will observe, listen, and engage local community members and activists in conversation about the impact of extreme energy extraction on the community, the history, and practice of organizing and maintaining a movement for economic and environmental justice.
In exchange for their generous donation of time and attention, students will offer their time and energy in service to the community that they have visited.
Upon return, some of the students will participate in a day-long action training offered by Earth Quaker Action Team. The workshop is currently in its design phase, but the goal is to convene activists from across the state to learn the skills of strategic planning and action design required to organize an effective nonviolent direct action event as part of EQAT's BLAM! (Bank Like Appalachia Matters!) campaign. Participants will then return to their local communities, start to organize membership and design an action with support and guidance from EQAT membership. Johanna CordonHill and Karen Lietner, students at Bryn Mawr and members of EQAT, will provide leadership to the inter-campus organizing of student groups and an action day at the end of the semester or the beginning of spring.
For More Info
Walter Hjelt Sullivan
610-896-1020
addr
Responsible at Event
Walter Hjelt Sullivan wsulliva@haverford.edu 215-588-5417