Preserve WV AmeriCorps Members

Preserve WV Members' service emphasizes community development and revitalization through projects focused on historic preservation, volunteer management, and cultural heritage tourism development. Learn more about our new class of Members below and visit Preserve WV Stories to read about the service they are providing to revitalize our Mountain State.

Carrie Kidd

Fayette County Resource Coordinator's Office
Fayette County
 2018-2019 Service Term

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Carrie Kidd is a Mount Hope, WV native. In the fall of 2013, with the help of area residents, she founded Harmony for Hope, a nonprofit organization working to unite Southern West Virginia communities through music and art projects.  Working with that organization propelled her own career aspirations to enroll at Marshall University as a graduate student where she will graduate December 2018 with a master’s degree as a Leadership Specialist in Nonprofit and Public Agency.  By becoming involved with PAWV, she will be able to help revitalize our community by adding area attractions through the creation of the historic walking trail as well as finding opportunities for the preservation of the buildings and culture of the Mount Hope area.  

Carrie's project area is in Mount Hope, WV and she is currently helping with the promotion and creation of the Mount Hope Historic Walking Tour. The project began with the installation of a large-scale mural with the commissioning of public art from four Appalachian Artists.  Each piece was designed to incorporate an aspect of Mount Hope’s rich heritage and are prominently displayed in the Main Street windows along Mount Hope’s Downtown Historic District with a full-color brochure highlighting the public arts project along with 18 historic structures. Her role will be to expand downtown signage throughout the area to showcase the historic structures chosen for the brochure. Additionally, she will be utilizing Clio as a resource to guide tourists along the route. Currently, Carrie is collaborating with Michael and Carrie Kline, oral historians, to organize oral histories previously recorded in the Mount Hope area to incorporate an audio component to the route.  It is Carrie's intention to document the structures along the route to encourage tourism into the area and promote interest in the current preservation efforts being made throughout the town.

Kara Gordon

Cockayne Farmstead
Glen Dale, Marshall County
2018-2019 Service Term

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​Kara Gordon is a West Virginia native.  She holds a Bachelor's degree in History from Wheeling Jesuit University.  While in school, Kara also worked, volunteered, or interned at several museums and archives, including the Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, the Mansion Museum at Oglebay Institute, and the West Virginia and Regional History Center.  She loves studying everyday history in many forms but is especially interested in material culture, and most especially, clothing and textiles. In the summer of 2017, she interned at Colonial Williamsburg in the Margaret Hunter Millinery Shop.

Kara is looking forward to taking on the greater challenges and responsibilities that come with serving in a place where her ideas and actions can truly make a difference, instead of being lost in the crowd. She believes the Cockayne Farmstead is a place and a story you can truly become attached to, and she looks forward to serving here for the coming year. 

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SUMMER PHILLIPS

Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center
Morgantown, Monongalia County
 2018-2019 Service Term

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Summer Phillips is the 2018-2019 Preserve WV AmeriCorps member serving with the WVU BAD Buildings Program. Born and raised in Morgantown, Summer graduated from University High School in 2015. She then went on to study English Literary and Cultural Studies and Women and Gender Studies at WVU. During the course of her time in the university, she studied Appalachian culture and worked at a research lab to study West Virginian dialects.
 
After graduating in May 2018, she began looking for a way to serve her home state and help West Virginian communities. This mission lead her to Preserve WV AmeriCorps program and to the WVU BAD Buildings service site. While there, Summer is excited to help provide rural communities the resources, assistance, and advice they need to address abandoned and dilapidated properties. 

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