The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center is thrilled to announce that Fairmont native Melissa Nichols will be working alongside the Folklife Center staff as a member of AmeriCorps through the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia. 

AmeriCorps is an organization of committed members assisting in service programs that take various approaches to improving lives and encouraging civic engagement. As a statewide national service initiative of AmeriCorps, the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia is an organization whose goal is to preserve unique aspects of our cultural heritage in West Virginia through education & outreach, advocacy, technical assistance, and tourism development. 

Melissa recently completed her bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in folklore studies at Fairmont State University. Melissa is working with emerita faculty Dr. Judy Byers in the Ruth Ann Musick archives. When talking about her involvement, she states, “I’m thrilled to assist Dr. Byers in her work to publish more of Dr. Musick’s collected tales, and hope they will instill a love of folklore in others the same way her previous tales did for me as a child.”

The Frank and Jane Gabor WV Folklife Center is home to the Ruth Ann Musick Folklore Archives. Dr. Musick is known for her books, The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Stories, Coffin Hollow and other Ghost Tales, and The Green Hills of Magic, West Virginia Folktales from Europe. The Folklife Center is located in an historic barn building on the campus of Fairmont State University. The Center houses minors in folklore and museum studies.