VANCEBURG —
Let’s say you live in Vanceburg or Garrison, and you know how to make a table from a maple log, or you’re in Quincy and would like to learn about the tourism industry.
The problem: You have not the first idea about how to get someone to buy what you make or visit your bed-and-breakfast.
There will soon be a way for Lewis County residents to learn what to do. The Center for Appalachian Philanthropy in Portsmouth has received a $75,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Business Enterprise Grant to help micro-businesses learn about marketing, writing a business plan and using social media.
The grant will officially be awarded at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Lewis County CARES, 93 Third St., Vanceburg. Applications will be taken starting then.
Mandy Hart, the center’s executive director, said the grant will pay for up to 15 participants (the program is limited to Lewis County residents who have at least a high school education) to take classes from September to May 2013 on marketing, tax preparation and using social networking to sell products. Hart said the program will focus on the tourism industry, focusing on opening a bed-and-breakfast inn and artisan crafts. “We don’t give individuals money,” Hart said. “People get the opportunity to participate in the program, and it gives them tools and resources for their business.”
Jerill Vance will teach basic woodworking, starting with using hand tools and moving to machinery. He said students don’t have to have previous experience, and the topics he’ll cover depend on what the participants want to do.
“That can be anything from a high-end furniture reproduction to something as small and simple as a bird house.
Joni Pugh, who owns the Victorian Rose Tea Room in Vanceburg, said once someone knows how to run a bed-and-breakfast, everybody else benefits because tourists will spend more money in Lewis County.
“Countless times I’ve had people come into the tea room and say this is such a lovely community, we’d love to come and stay for a weekend, where can we stay,” Pugh said. “... (Baby boomers) do like to take those little weekend trips, maybe not so far away, but just get away from the hustle and bustle. This is that kind of place.”
The class will also include eight inmates at the Lewis County Jail. Jailer Chris McCane said the plan is for the inmates to be certified in the carpentry trade by the time they are released and to build what McCane says is the first inmate-built timber frame at a state park.
McCane said the frame will be built in mid-August. He did not know the location of the park or the jail where inmates would be housed.
Once classes start in September, McCane said inmates would be working on other projects, including miniature doll houses. He said having a job is a major factor in preventing ex-convicts from reoffending, and that construction companies are often more likely to hire former inmates because young people today tend to want to go to college or somewhere less labor-intensive.
“Labor is hard work,” McCane said. “(Construction companies) need to find guys qualified and willing to work hard. For more information, call Lewis County CARES, 606-796-9957.
RAY SCHAEFER, a freelance writer, can be reached at raysally1991@bellsouth.net
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