By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
When I gave up technical writing, moved home to Kentucky, and returned to journalism, I knew that one of the things I wanted to focus on was highlighting Appalachian arts and culture. Too often when the national media focuses on Appalachia – and particularly Kentucky – it’s to shine a spotlight on the negatives.
The poverty.
The addiction crisis.
The environmental and physical dangers of coal mining.
If it isn’t coal mines, moonshine, and pill mills, it’s the jokes about toothless hillbillies and marriage between cousins. And it’s true, all those things happen here. (Though they obviously aren’t unique to here.)
But if you listened to the national news, especially during the early years of the opioid crisis, you’d have thought that “hillbilly heroin” was the new defining feature of our region. On top of all the old stereotypes, now we were all junkies. Just another reason to write the region off and sweep it and its people under the rug.
I knew we were more than that, though. And I wanted to be a part of highlighting the talented writers, musicians, artists, and the amazing natural beauty and opportunities our area has to offer.
So, imagine my delight when I came home to eastern Kentucky and took a job in Grayson to find that not only was I going to be able to write about those things, but that we had someone in the city who was already doing the hard work to help highlight, promote, and sustain the very things I wanted to write about.
I’m speaking, of course, of Mindy Woods-Click.
Click was recently elected to the role of secretary for Grayson Tourism. This isn’t a new affiliation for Click though, who just completed a stint as Chair of the group. She has, in fact, filled several positions in this organization which she helped start. From the Sports Park to any of the various tourism supported seasonal events, if Grayson Tourism has been involved, Mindy’s fingerprints are in there somewhere.
But it isn’t just tourism that has benefited from her attention. Mindy serves, and has served, in integral roles with the Board of the Carter County Public Library, the Chamber of Commerce, and – along with her husband Dan – The Grayson Gallery and Art Center. Under her guidance and leadership, the Grayson branch of the library secured significant grant funding for a necessary repair of the library roof. She and Dan have also worked to bring a Main Street program back to Grayson, and through the Grayson Gallery they’ve given venue and voice not only to visual and performance artists, but also to local musicians and writers – serving as sponsors for my Holler Down the Holler poetry slam from its inception until Covid-19 (and my growing responsibilities as a father and newspaper editor) put that event on an extended hiatus.
Mindy and Dan have also been instrumental in mentoring and encouraging the next generation of leaders in eastern Kentucky, eagerly sharing the lessons they’ve taken from programs like the Brushy Fork Institute associated with Berea College and continuing to learn, network, and serve as powerful ambassadors for all the wonderful things Carter County and eastern Kentucky have to offer the state and the region. And, when she’s faced criticism – as anyone involved with the public inevitably will – she’s handled it with the level of grace and aplomb I can only aspire to.
When I started this new series for the opinion page I titled the first installment, “Recognition where it’s due.” And when it comes to supporting and promoting our art, culture, literature, and all the amazing beauty of place and spirit that make me proud to call eastern Kentucky my home, I can’t think of anyone else more deserving of that recognition.
So, thanks Mindy. We see you. We appreciate you. And our community is demonstrably better for your involvement in it.
Contact the writer at [email protected]