People Who Care Are Reaching Out To Protect Our Land
Friends of VA, WV, PA, MD — Hands Across Our Land
Join us on August 18, 2015, as we take a stand to protect our land and communities from the unnecessary and unwanted onslaught of new natural gas infrastructure.
The Hands Across Our Land activities in Augusta, Nelson, and Buckingham Counties in VA are timed so that participants can move from west to east and be at each action:
Hands Across Our Land – Augusta County, VA — Tuesday, August 18; 3:00 p.m. Braley Pond, 3:30 p.m. at the George Washington National Forest sign on 250
For directions to Braley Pond, click here. The group will meet at Braley Pond and then shuttle to the next stop at the George Washington National Forest sign on 250 (there is very little parking at this site, so please plan to take the shuttle with the group). Contact Deirdre Skogen (deirdre.skogen@gmail.com) or Ernie Reed (lec@wildvirginia.org) for more information.
Coordinator: Misty Boos
Hands Across Our Land – Nelson/Augusta Counties — Tuesday, August 18 at 5:15 p.m. Where: Rock bridge which connects the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive at Rt. 250 on Afton Mountain. We will meet at the top of Afton Mountain at 5:15 p.m., with photos at 5:30 p.m. on the rock bridge that joins the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Skyline Drive. This bridge has great history and certainly holds a special place in the hearts of Augusta/Nelson residents. It sits on the county line and has lots of available parking with an easy walk to the bridge. Nelson/Augusta coordinators are Marilyn Shifflett (Free Nelson) and Jennifer Lewis (Friends of Augusta). Contact freenelson3@gmail.com
Hands Across Our Land – Nelson/Buckingham Counties — Tuesday, August 18 at 6:30 p.m. Where: James River Bridge, Rt. 56, Wingina. It will be held at the bridge across the James River on Route 56 at 6:30 p.m., with photos at 6:45 p.m. Nelson’s Matt Dwyer and Buckingham’s Chad Oba are coordinating the event. Contact freenelson3@gmail.com
See entries below for “Hands Across Our Land” actions in other locations – Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and elsewhere!
We are citizens, small business owners, and farmers from every walk of life standing up for our heritage and culture in rural West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, Maryland and Pennsylvania and beyond. We are united in our goal to stop the industrialization of our properties and communities by energy companies who seek to profit by stealing our land through the misuse of eminent domain!
Dominion, Duke, Piedmont Natural Gas, AGL Resources, NextEra, EQT, Williams, Transco, Kinder Morgan and others would build their pipelines, well pads, compressor stations, and export facilities within feet of our homes, destroy thousands of acres of forested land, pollute our water supply, degrade our national treasures by crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Appalachian Trail, and pristine national forests, all in the name of profit for the few on the backs of thousands of private property owners.
Stand with us as we hold Hands Across Our Land to protect our way of life! Each community participating plans a local event in their community to be held on August 18, 2015 at a location and time of your choosing!
This is a solidarity action to let the fossil fuel industry and government officials know that while we are separate grassroots groups we stand with each other across our country in opposition to the build out of new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Here is how it works:
Local group/community plans an event in their local community at a location and time of their choice on August 18, 2015.
Make signs! For example:
- “No Eminent Domain for Private Gain”
- “We’re Rural, Not Stupid”
- “Ban Fracking”
- “No Fracked Gas Pipelines”
- “We stand with Nelson County, VA”
- Or “We stand with Lancaster, PA”
- et cetera – you get the idea!
Use “Hands Across Our Land” in the Name your Action. Example: Hands Across Our Land – Nelson County, VA
Use the hashtag #HandsAcrossOurLand when using social media.
Use the HAOL FaceBook page to share the time and place of your event, and photos of the event as it occurs. Send us your email addresses, and if you use twitter, your handle, so we can coordinate social media coverage on August 18.
Promote your action on your Facebook pages and with the press. We have sample press releases for you to use. Give us local media information and we will send a press release to your local press about your participation in this action of solidarity! If your newspaper has a calendar section, list your event there.
Hold your event and make sure to have participants hold hands to promote solidarity and symbolically create a blockade to the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Standing together, united in our cause, we will make a difference!! You may contact us at freenelson3@gmail.com
Contact Free Nelson with questions or to plan an event in your community at freenelson3@gmail.com
Here are some other “Hands Across Our Land” activities you may be close to (and, of course, there may be other events elsewhere):
Charlottesville: Hands Across Our Lands event at 4:30 pm at the Free Speech Wall on the Downtown Mall.
Front Royal: Protest Against Pipelines in Our National Forests and Parks. Gather at 4 pm at the Gazebo on Main Street. Brief speech by local anti-fracking activist, Tes Vogel. 4:30 begin marching up Main to N. Royal, then down to South Street Intersection, banner, drumming, chanting, holding hands across intersections with the signal permits. Should be over at 6 when a contingent will drive up to the Skyline pkwy for a photo with banner and mountains in background. Contact: Maya White Sparks, spiralgr@shentel.net
>>> Mark Laity-Snyder is coordinating in Franklin County VA (Mountain Valley Pipeline) Here’s a link to their event.
>>> Debra Carter is coordinating in Roanoke (Mountain Valley Pipeline). Here’s a link to their event.
>>> Michael James-Deramo is coordinating with the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition.
>>> Ann Marie Nau is coordinating Meyersville MD and Loudoun County, VA as they work together.
>>> Tina Badger and Ann Osimani are coordinators in Montgomery County, VA
>>> Deirdre Skogen (deirdre.skogen@gmail.com) has graciously volunteered to coordinate an HAOL action in the George Washington National Forest.
>>> Leslee McCarty is Greenbrier County, WV‘s coordinator. Hands Across Our Land action will take place at Ronceverte City Park. Bring your boat and meet at the boat ramp at 6 pm or walk up on the bridge over the river.
>>> Jessica Abramson is the Monroe County, WV coordinator. Monroe County is fighting the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline.
>>> Leslie Garcia is Hands Across Our Land coordinator for Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community. CCHC is fighting Dominion’s liquefaction plant to export LNG at Cove Point in Lusby, MD.
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>>> Duane Nichols is Hands Across Our Land coordinator for the Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition meeting on the Monongahela River Bridge in Pt. Marion, PA at 12:30 PM (during the noon hour) and again at 6:30 PM. Private citizens and members of other organizations from northern West Virginia will join those from Greene, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland Counties in Pennsylvania. We will form a chain across the Bridge, thus joining “Hands Across Our Land.” Come on out if you can or send a representative.
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