October 2024 Employee of the Month Skye McFarland

Skye McFarland is the Community Program Specialist at the McKinney Center. Skye has worked for the town for over ten years, starting out as a part time host at the Visitors Center. She began at the McKinney Center in 2017 as a part time employee and became full time by the end of 2019. As the community program specialist, Skye does the center’s community outreach events, manages volunteers, records a monthly podcast, manages the center’s social media accounts, and so much more.

This month Skye did a lot of work on the current McKinney Center exhibit Living Here: A Portrait of Jonesborough, which features 35 different people who live and work in Jonesborough. Everyone was interviewed by Isaac Wood, which was recorded by Skye. Skye then took a portrait of everyone. These interviews included family history, what they like about Jonesborough, working in Jonesborough, the Jonesborough community, and much more. Every interview lasted between 30 minutes to an hour. Skye edited each of the 35 videos down to 10 minutes long. Skye created a YouTube playlist of said videos so the Jonesborough community can hear stories from their neighbors. Skye spent time with Isaac reviewing the videos so he could pick out what quote from each video had the most impact. Skye spent Thursday and Friday of that week working on the presentation of the portraits in the auditorium so that the exhibition would look amazing for the opening reception that celebrated the lives of 35 community members.

The center does community outreach to share information about the center, introduce people to what the center does, and provides free crafts for people to engage in. Skye picks out the major festivals and events in the surrounding areas for staff to attend. Skye signs up to attend crafts at the Farmers Market in downtown Jonesborough once a month and helps to decide which downtown events we do outreach at. Skye attended the UMOJA festival on September 14th from 11 am-8pm to do a bead craft with children who attended the festival and to just share general information about the center. Skye plans to attend the Farmers Market in downtown Jonesborough on September 21st from 8am to noon with our new Arts and Culture Education Assistant AmeriCorps Volunteer Martha. They will be doing a popsicle scarecrow craft and passing out information about upcoming events at the center.

As the coordinator of community outreach, Skye has the greatest need for volunteers in the center. Skye gets three volunteers for every 2-3 hour period of doing outreach at festivals and events. Skye must organize when she needs volunteers, send out the information to get volunteers to sign up, typically multiple times, and then coordinate the volunteers on where to go once the festival begins. Skye then instructs volunteers on how to do the craft. Skye also gets volunteers for special events that the center hosts, such as the Masterpiece Mingle, art receptions, and fundraisers. Skye organizes the volunteers for the StoryTown radio show, volunteers who usher and run the concessions stand.

Skye started producing Conversations That Matter the Podcast in July 2020. The podcast began with Michelle Treece and Katelyn Yarbrough as moderators. Michelle Treece and Brittany Butler are the current moderators. Each episode of Conversations That Matter has two individuals that live or work in the Jonesborough/Johnson City area that get together and discuss how their lives are different and how they are alike. Topics of each episode vary depending on the guests for that area, although there are general overarching questions that each episode tends to touch on. In 2024, there have been episodes discussing the Jonesborough Area Ministerial Association Food Pantry, the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance, Langston Centre’s Health Task Force, and two teachers from Science Hill High School. It is beautiful that Skye can get people together every month to discuss what it means to be a part of the community in East Tennessee, especially Jonesborough and Johnson City.

Skye manages the social media sites for the McKinney Center, such as the McKinney Center Facebook and instagram pages. She helps the Program Manager and the AmeriCorps Volunteer StoryTown Assistant with the StoryTown Facebook and instagram pages. Skye is the one who makes graphics for each event we have and makes event pages on social media. These event pages and sharing general posts on a regular basis are why the McKinney Center events are so well attended. Skye promotes each class we have periodically throughout the semester, which is why our classes are able to make and even fill up. Skye takes the graphics she designed and has them printed out so that way staff can distribute them throughout Jonesborough and Johnson City to help attract attention to catch different crowds that are outside of the normal fan base.

Thank you, Skye! You are appreciated!