by Donna Morgan, communications & program associate, Brushy Fork Institute, and Ann Mary Quarandillo

In the center of Monticello, Kentucky is a small piece of greenspace - the Monticello-Wayne County Memorial Park. Parents gather in a brand new brick shelter to watch their kids enjoy new and refurbished playground equipment - equipment that is safer and much more fun.

Just off US 460 in Morgan County, Kentucky, is a modest recycling center housed in a white barn. A hand-painted sign identifies the building as the "Help Us Help You Recycling Drop-off Center." The barn stalls are packed with cardboard, newspapers, plastics, aluminum and steel cans waiting to be reused, rather than being added to an overburdened landfill.

In Pickett County, Tennessee, a recently established Chamber of Commerce promotes the natural beauty and recreational aspects of Dale Hollow Lake. Visitors are enticed by color brochures that tout boating, record-breaking bass fishing, and camping along the lush edges of the lake.

Behind the Berea College Alumni Building, a new bridge spans Brushy Fork Creek with a graceful steel arch. Across the bridge a wooden sign marks the hiking trail that winds through the hemlocks, oaks, maples and other trees that reach across the water and give the creek its name.

While these community projects are miles apart and vastly different in scope, they share a common starting place—the Brushy Fork Institute Leadership Development Program, part of the Berea College Appalachian Center. The seed for each of these projects was planted when community residents gathered in Berea for the program, which brings together diverse teams of community members from counties across central Appalachia and from the Berea campus.

The College hosts the outreach program not to provide communities with park equipment, recycling centers or walking trails but to teach and support those communities' effective, visionary leaders. Developing service-oriented leaders for Appalachian communities is central to Berea's mission. The goal of the Brushy Fork program is to send participants back home with strengthened leadership skills and perspectives on community service. The program's success lies in the fact that participants immediately put their skills to work on community improvement projects that provide tangible, appreciable results, while allowing people to develop and grow in a safe environment.

"One of the most important things I've learned is how to get things done," said Joey Tucker, a Wayne County businessman who participated in the program. "I can use these techniques in my business and in other volunteer organizations to help everyone follow through on projects."

Through the Leadership Development Program, Brushy Fork has worked with over 800 leaders from 70 central Appalachian counties and seven Berea College teams. Projects over the last ten years have addressed a myriad of community issues—recycling, tourism, education, child care, voter education, youth activities and county pride are a few.

Participants in the program come from all walks of life, and leave Berea with new or enhanced skills in running meetings, involving stakeholders, maintaining group cohesion, and creating a shared vision in a community.

"Brushy Fork's program opened my eyes to the fact that I actually did have more leadership skills than I thought," said Wayne County 4-H extension agent Larissa Hayes. The marriage of these skills and the desire to serve others results in successful projects for the common good.

The Leadership Development Program brought together a diverse group from Wayne County, Ky. The group came to the workshop knowing that they wanted to work on something concrete, with results they could see. They named themselves the WC Group - We Care/Wayne County. They decided that refurbishing the "Tot Lot" at their local park would have tangible benefits for their whole county, and would serve children, parents and other community members.

As the WC Group's effort drew attention around the community, other organizations and individuals expressed an interest in helping. The team successfully enlisted this aid and found itself strengthened through collaboration. They raised funds, got lots of publicity, and held work days at the park so community members could build, paint, clean, and feel a part of the refurbishment.

In fact, the team's biggest success was not the new swing set, painted and refurbished equipment, and the parent shelter, but the cooperation forged between many diverse people in Wayne County. And they learned how to keep that collaboration going. The skills taught through six months of intensive work are being implemented in other groups and businesses in Wayne County.

"We found that a group of people who didn't know each other could get together and form a spirit of community," commented Harold Cole, a retiree and senior member of the group. "We had an objective and learned how to carry it through."

On April 7-8, 2001 Brushy Fork Institute completed its 12^th year of service with teams from Kentucky's Clinton and Lawrence counties, West Virginia's Doddridge and Upshur counties, and a Berea College team.

The finished product!

Larissa Hayes (left) and Joey Tucker of Wayne County, Ky. at work on the new shelter at the Monticello/Wayne county memorial Park