By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
You can file this under #stevesurethoughtitwasawesome. Last Tuesday, Suzanne and I took a three-hour trip to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky where I was on tap to speak at Alice Lloyd College (ALC) to a large gathering of both students and faculty members. The whole experience — perhaps excepting the extra 25 miles we spent being lost on the way back — will bring positive memories for a long time.
As usual, my speaking topic was about everyday heroes from Kentucky, but the school asked that I center my focus on Eastern Kentuckians. I agreed to do so and easily came up with more than a dozen heroes to accentuate. “Shining Light on Eastern Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes” became the talk’s title.
Being a slow driver, we arrived after about three and a half hours from Versailles to the Pippa Passes location, in Knott County, near the town of Hindman. Sitting quaintly in a valley among green mountains, the campus appeared clean and otherwise attractive, with many newish-looking buildings. With that, we sensed that the long trip had been worth it, even before meeting anyone.
But there would be much more.
Checking for parking and other information, we talked to several students, each dressed semi-formally, with young men with ties and blazers and the women in colorful dresses. Each we talked to showed absolute courtesy and respectfulness, happy to answer our questions. We were directed to the Estelle Campbell Center, where I would speak.
I met my contact person, Phillip Arnett, then oriented myself and did a quick check of the mic and lectern. Perfect for my needs, though such is not always true at other places I’ve presented. Looking straight ahead to cushioned seats that had rows slanted upward at a 45-degree angle was exciting, maybe the first time ever for me. Note that I like to look up, rather than down, in my audience’s eyes.
The program’s start was about 30 minutes away, so we took audience seats as people trickled into the auditorium.
I talked to a man on my left who teaches history and political science at the school. He mentioned that he “had come out of retirement to do so,” and he seemed interested in me, also. We could hear the murmuring of nearby students around us, and their conversations seemed positive and without any type of blue or obscene language often thrown around casually today with many of the generation. (Sorry, but that’s where we are, I believe.) Certainly, Alice Lloyd College’s students are likely not perfect, but it is refreshing to see young people going positive against the often-crass grain of contemporary interaction.
Presently, a gentleman walked up to where I sat and introduced himself as the college’s president, Dr. Charles Marshall. He was pleasant and asked me to join him on the stage with several others who had short announcements to make before my presentation, along with the student choir, Voices of Appalachia (VOA). Dr. Marshall, incidentally, is the first ALC graduate in history to become the school’s president.
The event started with an uplifting, I thought, prayer by student Isaiah Maggard, who asked to bless the time together at the convocation. Following were sweet renderings of the National Anthem and the school’s alma mater song, “Pippa’s Song,” by the VOA, led by Kreg Godfrey. The lyrics to Pippa’s Song come from Robert Browning’s poem of the same name and is the inspiration for the name of the small community where ALC is located. Dr. Marshall then mentioned in his remarks that the school has reached its largest enrollment ever, now with over 600 students. (Students come free but also are expected to work on campus.)
I was introduced by a polite student from Whitesburg, and I started by praising the audience as the “best-looking group I’ve ever had,” thanking them for the hospitality already shown to Suzanne and me. I then asked for a moment of silence in memory of the recently deceased Lydia Jacobs, a former teacher colleague of mine in Winchester who had attended ALC. While living in the area after retiring, Lydia let me know about ALC and encouraged me to write about the school that she considered a treasure. On this day, I would actually speak about the school, and in close-up fashion.
I believe Lydia was there in spirit.
The talk I gave seemed to be well-received. I shared at least a dozen everyday hero stories of people in the audience’s region. My hope is that young minds, plus staff members present, were both informed and felt a sense of pride about the people of Eastern Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia.
After closing the talk and with the convocation meeting adjourned, several came up to me on stage to meet and chat. Three individuals were relatives of Lydia and expressed thanks for her tribute. One young gentleman noted that he has a podcast and often highlights his own everyday heroes from the area. One young man nervously gave me some information about his grandfather he never met but had heard admirable things about his character. He’d like somebody to publish a bit of his grandfather’s story. I suggested he email me with the particulars, and I’d see what I could do. A young sophomore from Virginia reflected on something I’d said about 4H Clubs and offered that she’d been a long-time 4H-er.
Suzanne and I lingered with Lydia’s niece, Allison, before we left. It was the first in-person talk we had after she messaged me about Lydia’s passing. She was kind and smart, just as Lydia was. We left her feeling like we had another life friend, and that, in itself, was a good reason to drive so far from our home in Versailles.
And, oh yes. We did make a wrong turn while leaving and that added some time to our trip back. But that wasn’t really bad because we saw even more scenic countryside in Eastern Kentucky.
I find myself looking for positive and wholesome things a lot. We found it on this day at Pippa Passes.
Steve Flairty is a teacher, public speaker and an author of seven books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and six in the Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes series, including a kids’ version. Steve’s “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #5,” was released in 2019. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly, a weekly NKyTribune columnist, and a former member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or visit his Facebook page, “Kentucky in Common: Word Sketches in Tribute.”