TBAI Wins Volunteerism Flex-E-Grant

Travel Beautiful Appalachia, Inc. (TBAI) has recently received a West Virginia Development Office Flex-E-Grant to promote volunteerism in McDowell County .

As a first step, TBAI will offer professional training in Volunteer Recruitment and Management, which will be at no cost and open to all non-profit organizations. This hands-on training, with special emphasis on how to recruit and utilize volunteers to enhance the mission of your organization, will be presented by West Virginia University Extension Volunteer Specialists on the afternoon of February 22 and morning of February 23 at the Kimball World War Memorial. Call Becky Abel, Jay Chatman, or Debbie Bailey at 862-4800 for more information and to register.

In addition to providing this special training to many organizations, TBAI, a

non-profit economic development organization, hopes to recruit a group of 20 – 25 volunteers to provide business assistance to local entrepreneurs, plan and manage events at TBAI's Ashland Company Store, and promote cultural heritage tourism. The grant provides funding for professional training of volunteers in such areas as marketing and event management, hospitality and tourism development, collecting oral histories, cultural heritage programming, and business advising,

According to Becky Abel, TBAI project coordinator, “We are very excited that we can bring state and national experts to our area to help develop our volunteer program. The Ashland Company Store is becoming a magnet for coal history fans as well as an outlet for local craft and food producers. Tourists and ATV riders are among our best customers in the store and in the Coal Camp Café, and we see many opportunities developing around cultural heritage tourism. By creating, training, and utilizing a network of volunteers, TBAI will be able to take advantage of these emerging opportunities and create immediate impacts on local businesses, community economic development, and destination tourism. We'd particularly like to involve some young people in our oral history project to bring young and old together to record the local stories and the amazing history of this area. Overall, this is a wonderful opportunity for people with an interest in these areas to get involved and gain some great skills in return.”

To learn more about volunteering with TBAI, or to register for training, call Becky Abel, Jay Chatman, or Debbie Bailey at (304) 862-4800 or 585-7419.