Schedule Announced for Our Labor Day Weekend Gospel Music Festival

On Labor Day Weekend, come celebrate at the Gospel Music Weekend with Larry Gibson and his family at their Stanley Heirs Park on Kayford Mountain. Music, speakers, food, fellowship, and fun will start on Saturday, September 1st at 1:00 PM and the main day of the Festival will be Sunday, September 2nd where preachers, gospel sings, bands, and more will all start at Noon.

Here's the Weekend Schedule:

Saturday

1 PM The Huffman Family
2 PM The Daltons
3 PM Tom Campbell
4 PM Caleb Diller
5 PM BJ Gudmundsson
6 PM Maya Nye
7 PM Sage Russo with Hymn Singing by the Crosses on the hill.

Sunday

12 PM Clayton Stevens Preaching
1230 PM Clayton Stevens Family's Music
1 PM Penny Anderson's Music
130 PM Debra Wolf's Music
2:00 PM Sis. Fox Preaching
230 PM Sis. Fox Preaching
3 PM The Hobbs Family Music
3:30 Sage Russo or Penny Anderson or BJ Gudmundsson

Please invite friends to this free festival at the event's facebook page (although donations are encouraged at the festival or ahead of time through  http://bit.ly/kotmdonate) and you're encouraged to camp out overnight on Saturday night.  This is a drug & alcohol free event and directions can be found here.  We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Volunteers Help Stanley Heirs Park Recover

On June 29th, 2012 a historic Derecho storm swept across the Eastern United States and caused terrible damage across West Virginia.  The storm directly caused twenty-two deaths across the affected region and caused approximately 672,000 power outages across West Virginia.  Those camping in Stanley Heirs Park during the storm remember feeling winds that felt like tornado-speed winds.  While the July Fourth "Mountain Keepers" Festival was held on June 30th & July 1st, the damage to Stanley Heirs Park was severe in parts.  The wind speeds knocked trees over that damaged many porches, blew away a small solar panel, blocked access to many cabins, and fallen trees damaged two cabins beyond repair. Festival attendees helped Stanley Heirs Park residents clean up their land from fallen trees and the following weekend volunteers traveled to the Park and cleared access to cabins located in the "Apple Orchard" section of the Park.

We say THANK YOU to all those who gave their time and labor in the heat of early July!

Damage to Stanley Heirs Park, Photos taken on June 30th, 2012

Photo by James Prutilpac

Photo by James Prutilpac

Photo by Danny Chiotos

Photo by James Prutilpac

Photo by James Prutilpac

Festival Attendees Help Clean Up Stanley Heirs Park on July 1st, 2012:

Photo by James Prutilpac

Photo by James Prutilpac

Photo by James Prutilpac

Volunteers Travel to Help Clear Access to Cabins on July 7th, 2012

Photo by Danny Chiotos

Photo by Danny Chiotos

Photo by Danny Chiotos

Photo by Danny Chiotos

Photo by Danny Chiotos

July Fourth Festival a Success!

The 2012 July Fourth Festival, held despite the impact of the historic Derecho Storm that ravaged West Virginia, was a resounding success. While the crowd was small and personal, the fellowship was strong and the music was great. On Sunday, all festival attendees spent the morning volunteering in the hot weather to help Larry's family remove fallen trees from their land and great conversation with family members.  While the Derecho drove down attendance, the family members and volunteers were able to still put on a fun festival and respond to the storm.

Enjoy these pictures and videos showing the great time we had this weekend.

Larry and Carol share the Festival's First Dance, photo by
James Prutilpac

Andy Park is joined by his wife Rebecca to start the
festival off, photo by James Prutilpac 

John Lilly performed an eclectic set
and was later joined by both of
his sons on stage, photo by James Prutilpac 

Larry leads the Festival attendees on a tour of the destruction of
Kayford Mountain photo by  James Prutilpac

Brothers Billy and Matt Parsons give the festival a
great set, photo by James Prutilpac

Penny Anderson played amazing dulcimer
and led the crowd in singing an original song,
"Mountain Keepers" written special for this
Festival photo by James Prutilpac

T. Paige Dalporto rocked the house with many coal-themed
songs, photo by James Prutilpac

This guy, Adam Greico (Larry's cousin), had a great time