For twenty-five years, the Jesse Stuart Foundation has existed to preserve "the legacy of Jesse Stuart and the Appalachian way of life." Toward those ends, I announce three recent initiatives:

1. We are developing a special Jesse Stuart Room to house collectible items, including First Editions, rare editions, letters, manuscript material, and other personal items that relate to Stuart’s life and works. It will be a great place for collectors to visit.
2. The Jesse Stuart Foundation has become the permanent home of the Ashland Area Woodcarvers, who will meet in our building each Thursday evening from 5:30 - 7:30. Members will display and sell their products in the JSF store and may be involved in other JSF programs and presentations.
3. We plan to broaden our offering of local and regional history books, and in that regard I am writing to suggest an exchange of materials. The Jesse Stuart Foundation has been publishing books about Kentucky and Appalachia for more than two decades. We also have a broad range of visual arts and crafts in our store.

We are currently developing a reference section of local histories and genealogical books, and I am writing in the hope that we can do some "old fashioned trading."

If you have books or materials which you can exchange, please bring the item or items to the Jesse Stuart Foundation at 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland.

You may pick an equivalent amount of material from our stock. For example, if you donate two books which have a retail value of $50, you may select $50 worth of merchandise from our inventory.

For exchange purposes we are only interested in non-fiction studies that focus on Kentucky, West Virginia, or Southern Ohio, but we will also consider books that relate to other parts of Appalachia.

If you need to discuss this offer in more detail my telephone number in Ashland is (606)326-1667, and my email address is jsf@jsfbooks.com.

Regional Readers meet Tuesday at 5:45 pm to discuss "Clay’s Quilt" by Silas House. The public is invited to join this reading group which meets once per month to discuss a book that pertains to the history, literature, and culture of our region.

The Jesse Stuart Foundation Bookstore now includes a large gift shop section of Kentucky items that will be of interest to area residents, as well as tourists.