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Thirty members of the latest class of Experience Your Smokies (EYS) of Blount County graduated recently at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. The evening featured a keynote presentation by renowned local storyteller, Charles Maynard.

In addition, the Tremont staff served up a gourmet reception while guests enjoyed a photographic review of the past year's activities, followed by certificate presentations and remarks from Kevin Fitzgerald, deputy superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Noting that the national park is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2009, Fitzgerald called attention to more than 100 official anniversary events in communities around the park, including a Sept. 13 EYS alumni family reunion at Maryville's Greenbelt Park.

"More than 75 years ago, businesses, individuals, artists, photographers, educators, naturalists and others recognized that this park was work preserving," Fitzgerald says. "It took partnerships to create this park, and it takes partners like EYS to keep this park strong. EYS graduates are advocates who are informed about what we do and why. In addition, they give us input. It's important for us to hear from our constituents."

The graduation event also celebrated the eighth anniversary of EYS leadership classes in Blount County. The program gives leaders from Blount County a unique perspective on the Great Smoky Mountains with behind-the-scenes, hands-on educational experiences related to the activities and issues inside the park.

Class topics included air quality, archaeology, historic preservation, citizen science, wildlife management, and dealing with the hemlock wooly adelgid. Participants were selected based on their leadership within the community, interest in the national park and commitment to stewardship. This year's class was the fourth to complete a service project when they harvested beardgrass seed in Cades Cove.

Also an author and development director at Holston Conference Camp and Retreat Ministry, Maynard shared stories about the first written accounts of Blount County, when Spanish conquistador Juan Pardo became a bit lost on his way from South Carolina to Mexico. Maynard noted that people have lived in these mountains for 12,000 years, and noted that when compared to a foot-long ruler, that time frame means Europeans first arrived at the 11.5-inch mark.

Quoting poet Robert Frost in "The Literate Farmer and the Planet Venus," Maynard says, "We need these mountains. We need the interruption of the landscape 'to ease attention off from overtight, to break our logic in too long a flight, and ask us if our premises are right.'" He contends that partnerships like EYS help community leaders understand what goes into preserving such a rich resource as the Great Smoky Mountains.

Experience Your Smokies, Inc. Blount County is a collaborative endeavor between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's Resource Education Division and Blount County citizens. The program is incorporated and administered by a local volunteer board of directors and representatives from the national park. Nominations for the Class of 2009, which begins in July, are currently being accepted.

For more information or a copy of the nomination form, call 982-2466.