​Shout out to the folks who are sharing their love to make this festival happen!  ​"LA DAMOS A LA LUZ"

Stephanie Blessing & John Wright, Jr

Stephanie and John have been involved with just about everything for the Whippoorwill festival and this year Stephanie minds the books while advising the new cat herders. Stephanie and John are from northeast Ohio and have a small permaculture education farm which includes a plant nursery of medicinal herbs, perennial vegetables, and uncommon fruits. Red Beet Row is in Ashtabula County, OH, where they attempt to grow the world they want to live in. Through hands-on classes, tours, and demonstrations, they aim to show that any person, no matter how rich or poor, can meet all of their basic needs for free. They spread their love of plants through their off-grid nursery. Shop for plants or learn about their classes at www.redbeetrow.com.  

Melissa Louise Calhoun

Melissa sports a double wide in a holler on the Peaks Mill side of Franklin County, Kentucky where she loves to let things go wild and find her medicine. This is the fourth year organizing with the fabulous crew of Whippoorwill and Melissa has returned to herd some cats! Most likely you may have met her if you work traded for the festival in the past few years, or maybe have seen her running around like she knows everything... although she'll be the first to tell ya, "I've learned how to do less of that, thanks to all in this amazing organizer cohort and their acceptance of me, and I'm so happy to be involved. Organizing this event has given me exponentially more than I have given. I heart you Whippoorwill!!" And we heart you right back Melissa!!

Skylar Childress

Skylar has volunteered for Whippoorwill Festival since 2016, and started organizing work trade in 2018. She is pursuing a BFA in Metals, so when she's not engrossed in homework or in the studio, you can find her in the mountains of Tennessee hiking or swimming with her boyfriend and their dog. Always looking for ways to pass the time, Skylar also loves creative writing, hand lettering, soap making and wire wrapping

Peter Helvey

Peter is excited to be returning for another year of helping organize the Whippoorwill Festival! From growing up in Washington, DC suburbia, Peter continues to find new ways to incorporate earth-friendly skills and principles into his daily life. After attending Whippoorwill for two years and then work-trading his third year, Peter joined the organizing collective in 2017, helping mainly with Work-Trade Coordination and the Participation Station. This year, he has returned in the role of 'cat-herder'... the organizer tasked with helping facilitate the other organizing teams and fill in gaps in the planning process, should any arise.

Bill Gordon

"Wild Bill" has over 40 years of experience teaching as an environmental educator and "nature detective." He is the founder/director of High Adventure Wilderness School. He has cruised and raced sailboats over 40,000 miles of ocean in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific, been featured on Kentucky Educational Television and in the Kentucky Everyday Heroes books, and has received numerous awards for his teaching, works, and volunteerism. He has a passion for teaching outdoors, canoeing, sailing, birdwatching, writing, and wilderness adventures. He lives off-grid in the eastern Kentucky woods near Red River Gorge in a homestead he built surrounded by organic gardens and orchards, numerous ponds and streams, and thriving forestlands. He quietly tries to be a living example of what he teaches.

Erica Gunnison

Erica has always been drawn to the intersection of natural and human communities. She has training in herbalism, first aid, mushroom cultivation, and is an avid handicrafter, gardener, and fermenter of many things. ​During a five year stint living in an intentional community in Asheville, North Carolina, Erica further developed her skills, as well as an interest in closing the gap between people and their environment.  For the past several years she's been focusing her efforts towards building self-reliant, decentralized communities, and helping individuals to live closer to the earth.  This is Erica's fourth year working with Whippoorwill and has worn many hats, currently scheduling our wonderful workshops. As a community organizer, Erica has also worked with: Amazon Mycorenewal Project, The Radical Mycology Convergence, Organic Grower's School and The Firefly Gathering – all of them sharing skills designed to empower individuals and communities while working towards harmony with our shared Earth. 

Lauren Kallmeyer

Lauren is a project manager and herbalist who credits the Whippoorwill Festival with changing the course of her life. She currently resides in Madison County, Kentucky where she is working to set up a medicinal herb sanctuary and education center. She is a member of the American Herbalists Guild and United Plant Savers and an organizer of The Kentucky Herbalism Alliance.  www.facebook.com/KentuckyHerbalAlliance/  

Alice Melendez

Alice is the co-owner/operator of Plowshares Home Improvements with her Partner In Everything, David.  She's mothering Ana and Severo, age 8 and 9, who are counting down to Whippoorwill with their neighbor-friends. She works with people in recovery in all aspects of her life and organizes with Extinction Rebellion to help us set our sights on what is necessary: to protect a livable planet for the next seven generations and to nurture collective power to protect each other. Before this round, she worked on her mother's farm, and before that for a refugee resettlement agency and an apartment developer in Houston, where she also tried to keep up with the women running the Norteño Mexican multigenerational family home where the kids started their trip on this Earth. She loves plants and animals, having almost convinced the yard police in Paris to stop issuing violations for her tall productive polyculture and her roaming dogs. She is excited to be a part of Whippoorwill 2019, a great year.

Amanda McCardle

The Whippoorwill festival and community was love at first sight in 2017 for Amanda McCardle. She quickly joined the Organizing team for 2018 realizing she wanted to ensure the growth of WF and to widen her circle of like-minded friendships. Amanda traded 75 bags she sewed out of recycled sheets and fabrics (which are filled and used as gift bags for our Instructors) for her ticket that first year and has continued to do so each year. This year she’s upped her involvement by teaching, being on the Outreach and Organizer teams and Cat Herding Apprentice! “These people have become dear friends! It brings me joy and happy, summer memories when we have our conference calls throughout the year! This community is just awesome!” AM is a Reiki Master, sewer extraordinaire, retired massage therapist, crochetter, mom, hugger and Earth-Lover. ​

Steph Berg

Stephanie is a jolly, head-strong Aries who dabbles in herbalism, astrology, and admiration for the highs and lows of the human condition.  Currently calling Louisville, Kentucky her home, she is a freelance consultant and technician at Doc Electro, a custom tube amplifier build and pro audio repair shop.  After attending the festival in 2017, she knew she found a second family among the amazing attendees and organizers and immediately signed up to volunteer for following years.  Stephanie views the Whippoorwill festival as a beautiful example of family-friendly people freely and openly coming together to share their love for nature, love for each other and life lessons and skills. This year she is acting as webmaster and part of the outreach team, hoping to find a good place for the obnoxiously loud and positive voice of hers!  
The Whippoorwill Festival - Skills for Earth Friendly Living
July 19-21, 2019
Lago Linda Hideaway, Beattyville, KY (location and weather)