InTouch with Southern Kentucky March 2020 | Page 14

5
Q uestions
with
Jamie
Fitzwater
BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS
S
COMMONWEALTH JOURNAL
he’s the Queen of Green in
Pulaski County. If you’ve
ever visited the Kentucky
Green Living Fair, held each
year at The Center for Rural
Development, you can thank Jamie
Fitzwater. Entering its seventh year,
the sprawling event celebrates
sustainability and environmental-
ly-friendly living, but does so in a
way that’s both fun and educational,
with live music, food trucks, and
fun animals to pet in addition to
vendors and workshops. This year’s
Kentucky Green Living Fair will be
held on Saturday, April 11, from 10
a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 and
kids ages 12 and under get in for
free.Fitzwater is a freelance writer
as well as the fair’s organizer. She is
a momma to three boys and lives in
Nancy with her family, two dogs, a
slew of chickens, and a goat named
14 • I n T ouch with S outhern K entucky 
Marmaduke. When not hosting
large-scale events at The Center,
she and husband John contribute
to locally-produced goods reaching
consumers by owning and oper-
ating the Market on Main, a Ken-
tucky Proud food and gift store at
stoplight no. 21 on South U.S. 27 in
Somerset.
Following are Jamie Fitzwater’s
responses to five questions put to
her by the Commonwealth Journal
regarding the Kentucky Green Living
Fair:
1
What does sustain-
ability mean to you in
the hustle and bustle of
modern life?
Jamie Fitzwater:
So many times people think “sus-
tainability” is some hippie liberal
buzzword that means we don’t
want people to be able to drive cars
or fly airplanes. Although there is
certainly that contingent, the sort of
sustainability that we like to pro-
mote at the fair is really a return to
our grandparent’s values. Let’s buy
less. Let’s repair things instead of
tossing them out. Let’s grow some
of the things we eat. Let’s take care
of the little patch of earth that God
has given us to preserve it for future
generations. This isn’t a Republican
or a Democrat idea—this is just the
way people used to live and take for
granted as normal. It can be hard—
our grandparents lived different
lifestyles than we do now. Both
parents weren’t working outside
the house, kids didn’t need to go to
soccer practice and math tutoring
and ballet. It’s always easy when we
are busy to reach for what is fast
and convenient, like throw away
plates or single serve coffee pods.
But small changes can make a big
difference not just for the environ-
ment but for our pocket books.
M arch 2020