About Us

Dave Cooper is a resident of Lexington, Kentucky. He worked for 20 years as a mechanical engineer in various industries, but left his manufacturing job shortly after seeing a mountaintop removal mine on Kayford Mountain, West Virginia to become a full-time volunteer.

From 2003-2011, he was on a national speaking tour to educate communities across America about mountaintop removal coal mining, speaking over 100 times per year at colleges and universities including Yale, Vanderbilt, and Duke Universities. www.mountainroadshow.com

He is the founder of the Whippoorwill Festival - Skills for Earth-Friendly Living, which offers earth-friendly and Appalachian skills workshops every summer.

www.whippoorwillfest.com

Patty Draus of Lexington, Kentucky is a nurse with over 30 years experience working at the University of Kentucky Hospital. Patty enjoys hiking, bicycling and gardening and visiting Appalachia.

Patty loves volunteering with student groups and ASB and she is a tireless worker. She especially enjoys leading the community service trips to plant trees and weatherize low-income homes in the Harlan County area, and she also likes to bake chocolate chip cookies late at night.

Our cook Scott Ellis of Knoxville, Tennessee passed away on April 30, 2014 due to an accidental drowning in Eagen Tennessee, where he was cooking for a group training session conducted by the Beehive Collective.

Scott was a hard working person and was very diligent and conscientious in preparing meals.

Scott took a lot of pride in the meals he prepared and shared his knowledge about healthy foods and good Appalachian music with the students who volunteered in our ASB kitchen.

He loved to cook with interesting spices and

healthy oils. Sometimes he used too many spices. But he made the best French Toast (with orange zest!) I have ever eaten.

Rest in peace, Scott. You are loved and missed.