Greetings Friends-
We would like to extend our gratitude for your ongoing support of ASPI as we close out our 48th year and step into our 49th. The accomplishments highlighted below are shared with more detail online at our homepage: Appalachia-spi.org. There is an archive section on the most recent blog (ASPI 2025 Update 7/11/2025) that will let you access previous blogs! If you are a Luddite like me, that would be great assistance to know!
We have had an extraordinary couple of years at ASPI. It has been a time of tremendous growth and a time of devastating loss. We are staying steady and moving through these times supporting each other and our beloved community and region. Early this year we lost Tammy Clemons, our board secretary, administrative expert and friend. Tammy was a volunteer for ASPI for over 30 years and had a love and loyalty and passion for ASPI that knew no bounds. Father Al and ASPI helped mold and shape the trajectory of our lives, and what a magnificent life it was. Tammy's illness and subsequent passing left an over year-long gap in our communication with you all and we struggled even to open sites because Tammy's password system was like breaking the codes at Fort Knox! Fortunately for us we serendipitously partnered with Notre Dame for a summer intern this year, Blayne Schwartz, who cracked the codes and got us back on track! She performed this service and so many others and for that we are eternally grateful. Thank you for your patience with us as we transform to meet our future.
With Tammy's loss we also had to elect new board members, six people who are committed to our mission and volunteering in capacities they can best serve. We have continued to expand ASPI’s programming and the response from our community is outstanding! Our yearly wholesale perennial plant order for the community is growing exponentially every year by about 25%. Our 2026 calendar is out thanks to the hard work and creativity of our dear longest serving ASPI member Mark Spencer. We have an online store ready to launch featuring ASPI shirts and hats, as well as non-perishable products from local farmers, very exciting for us.
ASPI Mushroom workshops in the spring were led by Ron Owens, doing pop up workshops at the Farmers Market with some of the farmers having recently joined our board; our well-attended monthly homesteading workshops are led by Jennifer and Lee Ruff; our seasonal plant, fungi, and tree workshops led by Andrew Ozinkias have all gained tremendous popularity and support in the region, generating community and pleasurable social interactions with good food and natural settings. My favorite thing about all of these events is watching the children play together unabashed, healthy and happy and forming bonds and memories that will last a lifetime. I wonder with a smile how they will remember, think about and perhaps serve ASPI in the future. They feel at home there and are fed healthy snacks and given room to roam and play the games I remember from childhood.
Our wilderness site location has caregivers who pay attention and care for the property, so, it is starting to open up for cookouts, hikes, and kayaking again. It brings such joy to see it slowly awaken after many years of dormancy. Part of our goal for the coming year is to work on the infrastructure of the buildings. It is such a beautiful and wild place, a rare diverse microclimate along the Rockcastle River with constant new discoveries. You can see some of the beautiful photos in our newsletter and blog posts. Our service learning program is also starting to really thrive again and take off, it went underground with the onset of the Covid era and is just springing back to life. We are very grateful for the deepening relationship with Notre Dame and the enthusiastic, respectful, curious, energetic students who make their way to us and spend time with ASPI, the local community and the region.
We have also really deepened our collaborative relationship with Mountain Association and with the help of Josh Bills received a Kentucky Utilities Grant that installed new lights and water saving devices. This has been an exciting and collaborative work that stretched far out into the region this year, assisting many local community centers and local folks doing work to serve the greater good. We also continue to build our collaborative community with Berea College, sharing many activities with them this year and with one of our board members getting a scholarship to work with the Brushy Fork Leadership Institute. In short, it has been an action packed year and next year looks to be even more so, we have big goals and dreams. We are grateful for the living earth, the place we are graced to inhabit is so incredibly beautiful, abundant and giving!
And lastly, we are so very grateful for you all, we see your names and remember you each year, your support, loyalty, and your love of our calendar. Last year we had great grandchildren carrying on their great grandparents' tradition of the calendar and to us that is stunning and beautiful.
We hope your year is full of blessings, joy, simplicity and love.
Humbly, Timi Reedy
Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest
We would like to extend our gratitude for your ongoing support of ASPI as we close out our 48th year and step into our 49th. The accomplishments highlighted below are shared with more detail online at our homepage: Appalachia-spi.org. There is an archive section on the most recent blog (ASPI 2025 Update 7/11/2025) that will let you access previous blogs! If you are a Luddite like me, that would be great assistance to know!
We have had an extraordinary couple of years at ASPI. It has been a time of tremendous growth and a time of devastating loss. We are staying steady and moving through these times supporting each other and our beloved community and region. Early this year we lost Tammy Clemons, our board secretary, administrative expert and friend. Tammy was a volunteer for ASPI for over 30 years and had a love and loyalty and passion for ASPI that knew no bounds. Father Al and ASPI helped mold and shape the trajectory of our lives, and what a magnificent life it was. Tammy's illness and subsequent passing left an over year-long gap in our communication with you all and we struggled even to open sites because Tammy's password system was like breaking the codes at Fort Knox! Fortunately for us we serendipitously partnered with Notre Dame for a summer intern this year, Blayne Schwartz, who cracked the codes and got us back on track! She performed this service and so many others and for that we are eternally grateful. Thank you for your patience with us as we transform to meet our future.
With Tammy's loss we also had to elect new board members, six people who are committed to our mission and volunteering in capacities they can best serve. We have continued to expand ASPI’s programming and the response from our community is outstanding! Our yearly wholesale perennial plant order for the community is growing exponentially every year by about 25%. Our 2026 calendar is out thanks to the hard work and creativity of our dear longest serving ASPI member Mark Spencer. We have an online store ready to launch featuring ASPI shirts and hats, as well as non-perishable products from local farmers, very exciting for us.
ASPI Mushroom workshops in the spring were led by Ron Owens, doing pop up workshops at the Farmers Market with some of the farmers having recently joined our board; our well-attended monthly homesteading workshops are led by Jennifer and Lee Ruff; our seasonal plant, fungi, and tree workshops led by Andrew Ozinkias have all gained tremendous popularity and support in the region, generating community and pleasurable social interactions with good food and natural settings. My favorite thing about all of these events is watching the children play together unabashed, healthy and happy and forming bonds and memories that will last a lifetime. I wonder with a smile how they will remember, think about and perhaps serve ASPI in the future. They feel at home there and are fed healthy snacks and given room to roam and play the games I remember from childhood.
Our wilderness site location has caregivers who pay attention and care for the property, so, it is starting to open up for cookouts, hikes, and kayaking again. It brings such joy to see it slowly awaken after many years of dormancy. Part of our goal for the coming year is to work on the infrastructure of the buildings. It is such a beautiful and wild place, a rare diverse microclimate along the Rockcastle River with constant new discoveries. You can see some of the beautiful photos in our newsletter and blog posts. Our service learning program is also starting to really thrive again and take off, it went underground with the onset of the Covid era and is just springing back to life. We are very grateful for the deepening relationship with Notre Dame and the enthusiastic, respectful, curious, energetic students who make their way to us and spend time with ASPI, the local community and the region.
We have also really deepened our collaborative relationship with Mountain Association and with the help of Josh Bills received a Kentucky Utilities Grant that installed new lights and water saving devices. This has been an exciting and collaborative work that stretched far out into the region this year, assisting many local community centers and local folks doing work to serve the greater good. We also continue to build our collaborative community with Berea College, sharing many activities with them this year and with one of our board members getting a scholarship to work with the Brushy Fork Leadership Institute. In short, it has been an action packed year and next year looks to be even more so, we have big goals and dreams. We are grateful for the living earth, the place we are graced to inhabit is so incredibly beautiful, abundant and giving!
And lastly, we are so very grateful for you all, we see your names and remember you each year, your support, loyalty, and your love of our calendar. Last year we had great grandchildren carrying on their great grandparents' tradition of the calendar and to us that is stunning and beautiful.
We hope your year is full of blessings, joy, simplicity and love.
Humbly, Timi Reedy
Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest
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