Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities Director Sylvia Shurbutt moderates a question-and-answer session at an event sponsored by Allies for Appalachia last month in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History & Education. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Last month, award-winning author Crystal Wilkinson made a stop at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History & Education on her nationwide book tour for her newest publication, “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks.” The highly popular event, which saw nearly every seat in the Byrd Center auditorium filled, was sponsored by a local group entering its fourth year of supporting cultural preservation and enrichment programming in the area.

“Special thanks to Allies for Appalachia,” said Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities Director Sylvia Shurbutt at the event. “Shepherd University loves the Appalachian Studies Program, but there is no direct line that we have that supports our program, so really it’s up to the community [on whether or not we are financially able to continue to host events like this one].”

Back in fall 2021, Shurbutt first announced the establishment of the Allies for Appalachia group, to secure her program’s future and provide scholarships for students to attend trips led by the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities. She described the Allies for Appalachia as “a group of socially conscious and educationally minds individuals supporting the work and community outreach of the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities at Shepherd University and its campus programs, with the goal of telling the Appalachian story and enhancing the state and region, both economically and culturally.”

“For the 20 years that we have brought writers like Henry Louis Gates and Charles Frazier and Karen Spears Zacharias here to Shepherd University, we have had to do it through the hustling of writing our books and anthologies, and also through the hustling of writing for grants,” Shurbutt said at the time. “I would like to certainly leave one day a situation at Shepherd University where there is an endowment, and that endowment will take care of the bulk of these programs. Also, we have to have an endowment for scholarships for our students and travel scholarships.”

According to Shurbutt, membership levels for Allies for Appalachia range from an annual membership donation of $50 to a lifetime membership donation of $5,000. All allies receive free access to classes within the program; early notification of community programming; preferential access to Celtic Roots Global Appalachia travel programs; and access and early invitations to all programs and events, including teacher institute presentations and storytelling events associated with the center. Upper tier memberships receive special perks, such as a copy of each year’s new Anthology of Appalachian Writers, dinner invitations with visiting artists, programming input and Celtic Roots Global Appalachia travel program input.

“The main thing that you’ll be doing, is supporting our students when they give a paper at an Appalachian Studies conference, when they travel on our Celtic Roots Global Appalachia travel and study abroad programs, when they do community service,” Shurbutt said. “All of those things that we do, you support by being a member of Allies for Appalachia.”

Those interested in becoming an Ally for Appalachia should visit https://www.shepherd.edu/appalachian/allies-for-appalachia or call the Shepherd University Foundation at 304-876-5021.