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The Cherokee Welcome Center's downtown kiosk is about to get solar panels and other energy-saving improvements.

In early 2012, all three buildings will be retrofitted with new lighting, HVAC systems, waterless urinals, faucet aerators and dual flush valves, and solar hot water systems will be installed in all three locations as well. Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels will be installed at the two kiosks to meet part of their electricity needs, and a small wind turbine will be installed at the downtown visitor kiosk for additional power generation.

In mid-December, Cherokee Preservation Foundation is installing its own solar PV panels. The 14 panels will produce 4,600 kilowatt hours of energy per year, about the amount used in an average 2,500 square foot home in a year.

FULL STORY

Dr. Myron  "Barney" Coulter

Cherokee Preservation Foundation and the entire western North Carolina region lost a good friend last month when Dr. Myron "Barney" Coulter died. As the founding Board chairman and long-time Board member of Cherokee Preservation Foundation, Dr. Coulter helped the Foundation navigate through its early challenges with the same good sense, integrity, civility and grace he demonstrated when he led Western Carolina University for a decade as its chancellor. Service to the region was very important to him.

As Luke D. Hyde, present chair of the Foundation noted at a celebration of Dr. Coulter's life, "Cherokee Preservation Foundation has dispersed more than $54 million in grants for projects supporting education, employment, environmental preservation, and cultural preservation for the Cherokee on the Qualla Boundary and in the seven westernmost counties of North Carolina. Those projects have created a living legacy for Barney, one that he never bragged about, but of which, privately, he was very proud."

Dr. Coulter had a favorite poem whose final line is that each of us "makes, before life is gone, a stumbling block or a stepping stone." Among the many stepping stones he helped create, Dr. Coulter took great pleasure in the development of leadership programs the Foundation has established, including the Jones-Bowman Leadership Award Program for EBCI tribal members who are college undergraduates, the youth councils established on the Qualla Boundary and in Swain, Graham, Jackson, Haywood and Macon counties, and The Right Path program for adult members of the EBCI.

Juanita Wilson

Juanita Wilson has come on board as Program Manager for The Right Path [pronounced duyug(o)dv(i) ganvnv(i)], a culture-based leadership development program for adult members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and the 2011-12 class of the program has just begun a rigorous year of learning.

The Right Path, which just finished its inaugural year, works to bridge the past and present by examining traditional cultural elements as well as contemporary leadership competencies. The purpose of adult and youth leadership programs developed by Cherokee Preservation Foundation and members of the community is to help teach the concept of selfless leadership and encourage emerging leaders to draw on Cherokee traditions in their decision making process.

The new 2011-12 class of leaders enrolled in the program includes Mike Thompson, Monaka Wildcatt, Jeremy Wilson, Patrick Hill, Damian Solis, Lucretia Hicks, Kelly Murphy and Janet Owle.  Hicks and Solis are recent alumni of the Jones-Bowman Leadership Award Program for college undergraduates, and we are gratified they have chosen to take advantage of the life-long learning programs now available to EBCI members (the Cherokee Youth Council, the Costa Rica Eco-Study Tour, the Jones-Bowman Leadership Award Program and The Right Path).

FULL STORY 

The new Seven Clans Grant Council (SCGC) is accepting youth-written grant applications for projects on the Qualla Boundary led by youth until December 12. Priority will be given to projects that address drug and alcohol addiction, suicide, disease and illness, poverty and homelessness, or abuse.

The SCGC will make grants between $100 and $1,000 for projects, which must be started by 1/10/12 and completed by 2/28/12. The SCGC is supported by the Cherokee Youth Council with financial support from Cherokee Preservation Foundation. Training and technical assistance is provided by Leading to Change, Inc., part of the North Carolina Youth Giving Network.

For more information about the grants, contact Sky Kanott, Cherokee Youth Council program manager, at skykano@nc-cherokee.com or at (828)554-6938.

SEE THE SCGC APPLICATION 

If you have not visited our completely revamped website yet, we encourage you to take a look. You should find it easy to locate information about our major programs, our grantees and grantees' successes. The site has links to each of our grantees. Please put links on your websites to www.cpfdn.org.

We are excited about the videos on the program pages within the Cultural Preservation, Economic Development and Environmental Preservation sections. We are on constant lookout for new material, so if you are a grantee who has produced short videos that may be appropriate for these pages or you know of independently produced material about Cherokee culture or other topics related to the Foundation's areas of focus, please contact Nancy Foltz at media@cpfdn.org and tell her about it.

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