The
HEART of Appalachian Ohio
Project

The focus of our grant application is to highlight the uniqueness of Appalachian Ohio through its people, cultures, natural beauty, and ecology. Our goal is to cast aside the stereotypes and stigmas that are associated with the region, or the emphasis that is placed on the younger generations that if they want to be successful in life, they need to escape the region.

Through this grant, we want to change the narrative and invoke change. We want people far and wide to see the richness and natural beauty of Appalachian Ohio from its rugged hills to its pristine streams and rivers. We want people to be able to walk among the rocky outcroppings covered with waves of white trillium in the spring and draped with the hues of the aster in the falls. We want them to walk along the sun dappled streams flowing beneath the majestic sycamores and hear the calls of the belted kingfisher and learn the plight of our endangered eastern hellbenders. We want them to breathe in the fresh crisp air of a fall morning and feel the flutter of their heart when they see a doe and her fawn walk across their path or a bald eagle soar above their heads. We want them to emerge from their visit from the places we hope to restore and conserve through this grant and have their lives forever be changed. We want them to walk away from the natural beauty of Appalachian Ohio that they will want to protect this great ecosystem here and around the world.

Through this grant, we want to show people the integrity, depth, and sacrifice of the people that have come from Appalachian Ohio. We are tired of only sports figures and entertainers being hailed as heroes versus those whose blood, great risks, and sacrifices have interwoven their story to shape the DNA of all those who have followed. We want people to visit the locations we are putting up for consideration and learn of the determination of the Appalachian Ohioan and be influenced by the power of their story. We want the people to feel the pain and anger of Chief Logan whose family was massacred on the banks of Yellow Creek because of racial hatred. We want them to feel the hope and promise that the Lenape people felt when their leader, White Eyes, spoke to the Continental Congress a month after the Declaration of Independence was signed and finalized a treaty allowing the Lenape to become American Citizens and their civilization to be considered the 14th colony of the United States. We want the people to feel the uncertainty that those Lenape people felt after White Eyes was killed, and the treaty was nullified. We want the people to feel the sweat and hardships of the immigrants who came to the region to work the iron furnaces coal mines, and steel mills in the hopes of building a better future for generations to follow. We want the people to hear all the accents and taste all the foods that were brewed in the melting pot of the region. We want the people to feel the grief that Martha McCook felt when she lost her husband and seven sons during their service to the country in the name of freedom and the solemn pride that was her to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom. We want the people to see the beauty of the region as the landscape artist Thomas Cole did, which inspired him to begin to paint. We want the people to learn of a girl from Appalachian Ohio who dared to dream and see the world that lays between boundaries and where opposites meet which through the power of her vision allowed an opportunity for a nation to reconcile its past and begin to heal.

We want to create a competitive grant application that if realized will alter the course of the region and ripple throughout the nation and world. If we are successful Appalachian Ohio will be a Mecca for people to come and learn from our past, experience the natural beauty, and be urged to move to the region. Most importantly, our project will hopefully elevate and improve the quality of life for all who live here, challenge them to dream big dreams, and inspire them to invoke positive change.