I was one of the 12,000 amazing individuals who attended Power Shift ’09, and I can honestly say it was life changing—I’ve already changed career paths. While I was enjoying the great company, excellent panels, and awesome music, I was also totally immersing myself in the environmental movement. I put my contact information on anything I thought I could help with, and lo and behold Danny Chiotos gave me a call right before my Spring Break to ask if I’d be willing to try and schedule a meeting with my district’s House representative, Nick Rahall. I accepted the challenge, telling myself this would be a great way to prove to anyone that I am seriously committed to making a change in West Virginia.
Obtaining a meeting with Congressman Nick Rahall seemed like a fruitless endeavor, so one can imagine my surprise when my short, fairly informal request received a response from his scheduler only a couple days later. Once the initial shock wore off, I got in touch with Danny, knowing he would know what to do next. He helped spread the word to other organizations including OVEC and the Coal River Wind Project, while I worked on getting more Marshall students involved. In the end we had six people at the meeting: Bob Kincaid and his wife Annette, Robin Blakeman, Lorelei Scarbro, Danny, and myself.
Continue reading ‘Meeting with Congressman Nick Rahall’
