RUX Returns to Estill County for our Third and Final 2023 Community Intensive

The RUX cohort returned to Estill County and explored the Twin Cities of Irvine and Ravenna.

The third and final Community Intensive of 2023 took place in Estill County from September 22-24.

The Estill County Intensive continued the personal and group development begun in the Louisville and Owensboro intensives, sharing the stories of individual and collective experiences as Kentuckians while meeting locals and exploring history, initiatives & organizations in the host community. In Estill County, we learned about the region’s music, steam railroad history & future development, Trail Town initiatives, and youth engagement efforts.

53 Kentuckians from 22 counties arrived at Camp Burnhamwood campus on September 22, and kicked off the weekend with a geographic, historical, and cultural overview of the area and reconnecting in homerooms. We then headed to Irvine, where we had dinner at the Estill County Public Library and had a community conversation centered on youth engagement. We heard from local high school student Natalie York, Tiffany Reynolds (Director, Estill County Public Library), and Joe Crawford (Executive Director, Estill Development Alliance), moderated by Sarah Schmitt (Kentucky Arts Council). After, we spent the evening at Steam Engine Pizza Pub and enjoyed music by Chelsea Nolan.

Saturday began with an optional hike or yoga with Alexis Erskine. We began the day with Abundant Futures, a program for RUX members to brainstorm and problem solve their own local issues & projects, and resource sharing among the cohort. 

We then traveled to the Estill County Historical and Genealogical Museum and had a community conversation about Trail Town initiatives, moonshine, and furnaces with Yvonne Harrison (Vice President, Estill County Historical & Genealogical Society) and Jessica Stevens (Director,  Irvine-Estill County Tourism; Board Member, Estill Action Group).

Afterwards, the cohort headed to the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp., where they had a taco bar lunch catered by El Ranchito and a self-guided museum tour. While at the Steam Heritage Museum, we heard from Jessica Stevens (Director, Irvine-Estill County Tourism), Jason Sobczynski (CMO and Founding Member, Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp.), and Chad Harpole (Vice President, Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp.) in talking about the local Steam Heritage Project and the future directions of local ecotourism.

After our time exploring the trains, the cohort returned to Camp Burnhamwood, where we reconnected in homeroom seminars and reflected on the day. We then shared dinner, catered by BackStreet Grub, with representatives from Brushy Fork Leadership Institute in nearby Berea, including Leah Van Winkle (Brushy Fork: People Ready Communities), Jessica Stevens (Operations Assistant, Estill Development Alliance; EDA; Brushy Fork), Dee Parker (Presenter, 2023 Brushy Fork Leadership Summit). We closed out the night with arts & crafts and cohort karaoke.

On Sunday, the cohort was encouraged to “catch ‘em while you can” and connect with fellow RUXers, since this marked the last intensive and end of the exchange program for the second-years in the cohort. We came together for homerooms, individual growth-mapping, and a postcard project. Before lunch, the cohort participated in a real-time evaluation of the weekend and thinking about RUX futures. After sharing a potato bar lunch, the cohort gathered for a final story circle before heading back home.

This weekend in Estill County would not have been possible without the efforts of RUX staff and our local host committee in partnership with Alight Marketing Agency, Appalshop, Art of the Rural, Estill Action Group, Estill County Chamber of Commerce, Estill County Historical & Genealogical Society, Estill Development Alliance, the Greater Clark Foundation, Hood to the Holler, Irvine-Estill County Tourism, Kentucky Arts Council, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the W. L. Lyons Brown Foundation. Thank you all for supporting our return to Estill County!