There is nothing more worthwhile in my mind than sitting on a front porch and listening to someone tell his or her story. This summer, I had the pleasure of doing just that – listening to the stories of the courageous individuals in the environmental justice movement who are standing up to the coal industry to hold it accountable.

Their stories have become part of my story – the story I take with me back to Oregon, where I’m in graduate school, to share with the students I teach and the friends with whom I talk.

The coalfields of West Virginia became part of my story back in 1999 when I first came to Cabin Creek in southeastern Kanawha County to work as a service-learning intern at Cabin Creek Health Center.

I moved out to Oregon in 2005 to the University of Oregon. I’ve spent parts of the last two summers volunteering with the environmental justice movement and collecting interviews for what will (hopefully) become a dissertation some day.

My project this summer focused on those individuals who are speaking out against mountaintop removal and other coalfield injustices. This is the story of the community – the family – that has emerged within the environmental justice movement. People talked about the unconditional support and strength they feel from the people they have met through their work. While some people admitted that they have lost some friends due to speaking out against coal, they were quick to tell me that they have made far more friends than they have lost. These quotes speak to that story:

"I guess the only way I can put it, I really didn’t realize that there was so many caring people out there. And, what makes it even greater – to see so many young people out there wanting to make something better – you know, it just, I guess like Kathy Mattea said yesterday, the word "overwhelms"… I think about that so much. I’ve met so many friends and everybody’s been great to me." – Donetta Blankenship