18th annual Tree Huggers' Ball to get Earth Day party started

HUNTINGTON -- Earth Day may be April 22, but in Huntington, the party starts now.

On Friday, April 16, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), the internationally known, Huntington-based grassroots environmental group which has been fighting for clean water and air since 1987, is teaming up with Marshall University's branch of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) for the 18th annual Tree Huggers' Ball to get the Earth Day party started.

The casual music, food and art-filled ball kicks up at Java Joint, 1555 3rd Ave., Huntington at 6 p.m. Friday with an all-ages event that features live music from Family Conspiracy, Jess Graham and Karen Scalf.

There will also be an environmentally themed art show, door prizes, a silent auction, a raffle and light refreshments.

Weather permitting, student coalition members will demonstrate tie-dye techniques at tables set up outside Java Joint.

"Bringing back Tree Huggers' Ball was important to me to raise awareness of the environmental concerns going on in our back yard - the destructive nature of mountaintop removal in West Virginia," said Dan Taylor, a senior regents major at MU and co-organizer of the event. "Plus, we wanted to have some fun while raising money for SEAC and OVEC."

Erin Stockhausen, a senior biomedical science major at Marshall and a SEAC member, said this is a great casual way to come out and learn about what local environmental groups are doing to go green.

"The event isn't just for people involved in the movement it is to bring in people from various backgrounds and meant to be real casual and fun for everyone," Stockhausen said. "Everyone I have talked to is just excited about coming out and checking it out."

Stockhausen got involved with SEAC after attending Powershift '09 and the Appalachian Powershift '09 conference at Marshall.

The student group has been working with the Marshall University Sustainability Department on such projects as campuswide recycling and making buildings more energy efficient. And the department is going to start giving out grants to students who can come up with viable projects for greening up campus by saving energy and money for Marshall.

There's no cover charge at Java Joint, although donations are welcome as all proceeds will be split by the two environmental groups.

The late-night ball moves over to The V Club, 741 6th Ave., at 9 p.m., filling the eclectic live music venue with everything from homegrown country in Prichard native singer/songwriter Traci Ann Stanley to Jamaican-born, Beckley-based reggae artist Shayar.

Also on the bill are Wise County, Va., resident, bluegrass-based singer/songwriter Reagan Boggs, who has twice appeared on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Mountain Stage, and Here's to the Long Haul, consisting of Joe Overton, fiddle and vocals, and Willie Dodson on guitar, banjo and vocals.

That group, based out of Washington D.C., met up at the second Mountain Justice Training Camp and has been instrumental in spreading a love of mountains and mountain music. Later this summer, Here's to the Long Haul is playing the Solar Stage at Bonnaroo, one of the world's largest music festivals.

Stanley, who will be joined by bassist Jimmy Lykens and a guitar player to be named later, said she's excited to share some new songs she's been writing and to share the stage with so many kindred spirits and friends of the mountains.

"OVEC has made many great strides and they are doing a lot of great things now, and so I'm proud to join those ranks in that initiative," Stanley said. "That is something I believe in so wholeheartedly, as far as preserving the integrity of our state's beauty and working across the nation. I am thrilled to be a part of it. I am pumped to play some good music."

At the V, cover is $10, and $5 for Marshall students with a valid ID.

OVEC executive director Janet Keating said the ball, which has been held off and on since 1990, has been a fun way to gather some of group's 600 members and celebrate life.

"I think that our work can be heart-breaking, and so it is important in order for us to keep going to get together and have fun and renew our spirits and dance and enjoy ourselves together and really just being with people who share your values can do a lot," she said.

Keating said the ball has showcased everything from bellydancers to a slew of local groups including Fuzzbucket, Big Rock and the Candy Ass Mountain Boys, Wonderful Pills, Fried Chicken and Phantom Limbs.

Keating said this year the ball kicks off an important weekend that includes Saturday's annual meeting and a membership drive. They hope to increase local support of the organization from about 12 to 20 percent to fund a myriad of environmental and social justice projects that range from work on clean elections and promoting renewable energies to such coal issues as fighting against mountaintop removal and for tighter regulations of coal slurry impoundments.

While OVEC has members in nearly every state and across Canada, Keating said they want to get more people in the Tri-State to come on board and join the effort to positively impact their future.

Keating said that while they have eight full-time staff, one part-timer and several interns, they also rely heavily on volunteer members to work on the many environmental and health issues.

"We have always believed that organizing at the grassroots level is the way to fight any issue," Keating said. "The only way to fight organized money is organized people because far more people are impacted by pollution than the people making the big money from the pollution.... We feel it is really important to shift the balance of power and we have been doing that here but doing it slowly. I think it is really important that people realize that we are not just fighting to end mountain top removal mining but to have a clean, just and sustainable West Virginia."