By Donna Vaughn

Owner, Rags-to-Riches

For a long time I wondered what would happen to the Giles log home at Spout Springs.

I would walk there, linger on the porch, even fish in the lily-covered pond, and I would remember from Janice's books things she would write, like her need to be near the water.

Henry made it possible. The old logs seem to whisper to me. They whispered also too me. Why doesn't anyone care for the place anymore? Why isn't the grass cut? Why is the roof blown up and not nailed down afterward-and on and on.

So I talked and talked and pleaded the old log home's case to everyone I saw. Sometime around February, a group of us got together and we talked more-about grant money, fund-raisers, and anything else to get the property. But we really didn't get off the ground.

One day I saw my friend, Ed Waggener and he asked me how the effort was going and suggested that I talk to Rev. Jim Chaffin, pastor of Columbia-Union Presbyterian Church. He said that Rev. Chaffin was also working on the project and that he might already be further down the line on the project than our group.

He was certainly right. Rev. Chaffin's group was already organized and he asked me to join the effort.

An organizational meeting was held in mid-March. There was agreement that our purpose should be to 1) Buy and preserve the house, and, 2) Call attention to the works of both Janice Holt Giles and Henry Giles.

The first meeting was held at the home of Kentucky writer and Bellarmine University professor Wade Hall in Louisville. Also in attendance were Libby Hancock, Santa Fe, daughter of Janice Holt Giles; Bart Hancock, Mrs. Giles' grandson; Diane Watkins, author of Hello, Janice, who is currently working on a Janice Holt Giles and Henry Giles biography; Byron Crawford, adopted Adair Countian who has been interested in the preservation of the Giles homeplace and whose article in his column in the Courier-Journal sparked statewide interest in the preservation movement; Clara Metz-meier, assistant professor of English at Campbellsville University, Martha Neal Cook of Hawley-Cook Booksellers, Rev. Chaffin, Barbara Peterson, Evelyn McCloud, and myself.

A second meeting was held at Columbia-Union Presbyterian Church early in May. With the help of the Hancock family the group was able to acquire the house.

Ah! The Giles house is now in caring hands.

The next step will be to replace, refinish, and refurbish. This will take money.

Very simply: We need your support.

The purpose of the nonprofit foundation is to preserve and promote the legacy of Janice Holt Giles and Henry Giles, to collect materials pertinent to the Giles' heritage and legacy, to offer opportunities for the education of the public with respect to literature, authors, writers, and to raise money to carry out these purposes.

Janice Holt Giles wrote, in A Little Better Than Plumb, "There are still those who will tell you our house was built by guess and by God." Now we must add one more "g" and save the it with generosity.

It's really now up to all of us who cherish the Giles' memory and their works.

If, like myself, you wish the legacy to continue through the preservation of their house, send a generous donation and your comments to the address below. Also, watch for the Giles place cleanup date.