Corey Lilly, outdoor community development manager for the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative at WVU, will be a featured guest speaker in a national webinar to celebrate the launch of the Rural Economic Development Toolkit created by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable.
The live event will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Jan. 24) on Zoom.
The toolkit aims to help small rural communities create an outdoor economy while showcasing three years of research on best practices for rural economic development through outdoor recreation. The kit also highlights the Smith OEDC team and its work throughout West Virginia.
Lilly, who has received national recognition for his work, will discuss his efforts to chart a bright future for Beckley centered on outdoor recreation as a tool for economic diversification.
The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, the leading coalition of outdoor recreation associations, plans to showcase Beckley and the work of the Smith OEDC at WVU in its rural development presentations around the country throughout the year.