Horse Cave/Hart County Tourism Hosts BRIGHT Kentucky Class Of 2021

Sept. 2021 – Horse Cave/Hart County, Ky. – The BRIGHT Kentucky Class of 2021 recently experienced the many offerings in Hart County. During the August 18-20 session hosted by Horse Cave/Hart County Tourism and Munfordville Tourism, BRIGHT Kentucky participants visited local attractions and heard from leaders and experts on topics ranging from “How Small Cities and Towns Thrive” to the “Impact of the Film Industry in Hart County.”

BRIGHT Kentucky, which is part of Leadership Kentucky, is a program designed to build the capacity of next-generation leaders in the state’s Appalachian region to innovate, collaborate, and advance community and economic development. Hosting the event in Hart County was the brainchild of AJ Wilson, Hart County Finance Officer and graduate of the BRIGHT program.

Attendees learned from community leaders including:

• Coni Shepperd, Exec. Dir. of Munfordville Tourism and President of Southern Kentucky Film Commission, conducted a presentation on the commission’s successes in attracting and assisting filmmakers who have brought a dozen movies to the area.
• Horse Cave/Hart County Tourism Exec. Dir. and Caveland Marketing Assn. President Sandra T. Wilson spoke about the Cave Wars and the Association’s role in marketing the three-county (Hart, Barren, Edmonson) area that is home to Mammoth Cave National Park.
• Hidden River Cave/American Cave Museum Exec. Dir. Dave Foster, who is a graduate of Leadership Kentucky, hosted the group for a tour and presentation on the history of the restoration of the cave. “We were honored and thrilled to have a Leadership Kentucky event at Hidden River Cave. It was exciting to have young Kentuckians from the 54 counties of the Appalachian Regional Commission touring Hart County and visiting Hidden River Cave,” said Foster.

In addition to the group’s educational sessions, they experienced some of the area’s successful tourism attractions including Kentucky Stonehenge, Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo, Hidden River Cave/American Cave Museum and enjoyed local food.

About Horse Cave/Hart County Tourism – Hart County, located in south-central Kentucky, is dotted with gently rolling hillsides and steep “knobs” in the county’s rural countryside, as well as caves, sinkholes and underground streams. A dream for water adventure lovers, Nolin River forms the western boundary of the county, and the Green River winds through the center, flowing east to west in a series of loops and bends. Hart County contains five of Kentucky’s ten largest springs, including Gorin Mill Spring, the largest in the state. To learn more about Horse Cave/Hart County, please call 270.218.0386 or visit https://kygetaway.com/, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.