Sample Schedule
This is a suggested schedule for a week-long ASB trip - we can also customize your visit for 1 - 4 days.
Trips tend to be very busy, with lots of activities.
Trips can be any time of year, not just spring break.
Sunday
6-9:00 PM Arrive, unpack, dinner. Welcome and icebreakers.
9:00 Watch Appalshop documentary film "Morgan Sexton - Banjo Player from Bull Creek" (60 mins)
Monday - Welcome to Harlan County
9:00 Breakfast
10:00 Welcome to Harlan County
10:30 Appalachian Cultural Sensitivity and introduction to Coal Mining
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Hiking to Knobby Rock; a moderately strenuous hike up a mountain.
6:00 Dinner
7:00 - 9:00 Screening of the 1977 Academy-Award winning documentary film "Harlan County USA"
Tuesday - Introduction to Coal and Underground Coal Mining
9:00 Breakfast
10:00 Drive to Benham KY to visit the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum (guided tour by former coal miner)
12:30 Sack lunch at museum
1:30 Visit local thrift store
3:00 Tour Lynch, Kentucky (old coal company town) and Black Mountain - see mountaintop removal and Kentucky's highest peak. Learn about tourism and attempts to build and promote sustainable development activities in Lynch.
5:00 Panel discussion with local Appalachian artists - see "Agony of Gaia" sculpture with Jeff and Sharman Chapman-Crane
7:00 Dinner
8:00 Evening speaker
10:00 Reflections
Wednesday - Community Service Work
Breakfast
Service Project (variety of options)
March Service Projects - tree planting on abandoned strip mine site with ARRI, the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative
Additonal community service options include volunteering at the local Harlan homeless shelter, trail maintenance and trail building, elderly and shut-in home visits, cleaning churches, cleaning up illegal dumps, flood relief, etc.
12:00 Sack lunch
4:00 Free Time
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Speaker (past speakers have included local coal miners and school teachers, Harlan County Judge Executive Joe Greishop, and Bill Bissett, President of Kentucky Coal Association
10:00 Reflections
Thursday - Community Service Work
Breakfast
Service Projects
Additonal community service options include volunteering at the local Harlan homeless shelter, trail maintenance and trail building, elderly and shut-in home visits, cleaning churches, cleaning up illegal dumps, flood relief, etc.
12:00 Sack lunch
3:00 Finish, back to Harlan
4:00 Free Time
6:00 Dinner
9:00 Campfire
Friday - Community Service Work (Optional)
9:00 Breakfast
10:00 Community service (various options)
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Afternoon hiking or free time - visit Wileys Last Resort, Bad Branch Falls, Mountain views, sunsets
6:00 Dinner, dancing and local mountain/bluegrass music at the Campbell Branch Community Center
10:00 Reflections; Plus-minus-delta review of week
Saturday
Breakfast, pack, cleanup and Depart