At about 5:30 on the second Wednesday of every month this year, I walked across the New River from my house in Dun Glen to attend a town meeting in Thurmond. Once there, I joined with the town’s five permanent residents to discuss town business over dinner in Thurmond’s one-room town hall. We approved the minutes from our last meeting, went over the town’s budget, and discussed plans for upcoming town projects and events. Sometimes our meetings were interrupted by a train passing by on the tracks just a stone’s throw from our meeting place. In that event we all filed outside to wave at it as it made its way through town. Once the train passed by and the noise subsided, town meeting would resume in West Virginia’s smallest incorporated town.
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Though Thurmond is an incredibly small town, it cannot be described as sleepy. The people of Thurmond take great pride in their community. This year alone, they repaired their Main Street, installed new town banners, and started making plans to build a municipal sewer system. On top of that, they do light maintenance and mowing in the town’s public spaces and host an annual litter pick-up event called Thurmond Clean-up Day. In years not affected by a global pandemic, they host a triathlon and a family festival called Train Days.

The people of Thurmond are not alone in their efforts to care for their town. The National Park Service owns most of the property in Thurmond, including about 20 historic buildings. As an AmeriCorps member serving at the New River Gorge National River, I was involved in a project to develop a historic preservation field school using Thurmond as the “classroom” where participants will learn how to care for historic buildings. Over the course of the year, we developed a plan for our project, presented our ideas to the park’s leadership team for their approval, and contacted colleges to gauge their interest and ask them to participate. Between December and October, PAWV's executive director, Danielle Parker, alongside myself and Park Staff made great strides toward getting the project off of the ground; the project was approved at the park level, and we have six colleges interested in partnering with us in this project. The next steps will involve more in depth and specific planning and coordination to determine how we will work with colleges, and what work we will accomplish together.

Working on this field school project was an incredibly gratifying part of my term here at the New River Gorge. Not only because of how the project is coming together and how promising it is, but also because it has been a way for me to play a role in caring for the town of Thurmond, just as its residents do.

During the two years I’ve been a Preserve WV AmeriCorps member serving at the WVU BAD Buildings Program, I have been extensively involved with the work of the Abandoned Properties Coalition (https://badbuildings.wvu.edu/abandoned-properties-coalition). The APC is made up of stakeholders, partners, representatives from key organizations, and topic area experts (Including PAWV and the BAD Buildings Program) that are committed to working with communities to adequately address the issue of vacant, abandoned, and dilapidated properties across West Virginia. At the start of my service, the APC was just beginning the transition period from being headed by the WV Community Development Hub to the BAD Buildings Program. Thanks to my position, not only was I able to see the APC grow and develop, I took an active role in that progress. 

My original task for the APC was the maintenance and growth of the Abandoned Schools Inventory. One of the issues the APC is focused on is the amount of abandoned school buildings in West Virginia. Once schools are shut down or consolidated, the buildings (many of which are historic) are left to stand there and become dilapidated. The inventory was created by the Abandoned Schools Team to keep track of the buildings and to create a clearer understanding of the scale of the issue. I created a survey that would allow people to submit abandoned school buildings and all information they knew about them online so that these buildings can be added to the inventory. The survey was a great success. Thanks to it, over 80 new school buildings were added to the inventory. This inventory along with the map, that is based on it, have been important parts of the APC presentations and future plans. 

​Marilyn Creager, an AmeriCorps Member with the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia's Preserve WV AmeriCorps program, has partnered with the West Virginia Mask Army to sew masks for the public and for Pocahontas County’s healthcare workers.
 
Creager is currently placed in an AmeriCorps position at the Pocahontas County Opera House and has been supporting the Opera House through help with social media marketing, grant writing, historical research, and event planning. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Creager has switched gears to help her local community with COVID-19 relief.

“Sewing masks made me feel better about everything that was happening. Being stuck at home made me feel helpless, and I wanted to do something,” Creager said. “The Opera House is
located in a fantastic community, and I wanted to continue helping people directly.” ​

The head of the Potomac Highlands mask hub, Kim Musser, stated that the mask army is something special to her. Once Creager joined the team, she was able to add Pocahontas County to the Potomac Highlands mask hub and make it the largest hub in the West Virginia Mask Army, which was serving over six counties.
 
“Very quickly, I grew, to the point where I realized that I couldn’t take on just my county alone—being Grant county—so I became Potomac Highlands, which encompasses Grant, Hardy, Pendleton, Mineral, and Hampshire,” Musser said. “Then, the Potomac Highlands became the Eastern Panhandle once [Creager] joined in... We just grew and grew and grew.”
 
The Mask Army expanded its operations as time went on and is now switching gears to put masks on the faces of the community, rather than just healthcare workers. Each hub has a different priority. Creager is making and distributing GoreTex face shields and is distributing them through Community Care of West Virginia in Marlinton and Green Bank, as well as some through the Deer Creek Clinic in Green Bank, West Virginia.

Overall, Creager’s experience with the West Virginia Mask Army has made her feel more connected to the state.
 
“Because we have all had to work together to flatten the curve—to varying success—and because there were so many volunteers working with the West Virginia Mask Army to help the state, I felt more connected to the state than I have in a long time. It feels special to be involved with such an amazing group that helped when help was few and far in between,” Creager said.
 
Musser agrees. “I met so many friends, [Creager] included, throughout the state, and I am just so proud of the state and how we all came together,” she said.
 
So, as this public health crisis continues, Creager is currently looking for volunteers to continue the sewing project to help community members in Pocahontas County while the state adjusts to the current reality. If you would like to participate, please email Creager at [email protected] and she can discuss volunteering with you.
 
For more information about the West Virginia Mask Army, please visit https://sites.google.com/view/wv-mask-army/home. 

​On Friday March 20th, we had a small group of volunteers which included middle and high school students.  We set up an assembly line and implemented social distancing by keeping ourselves apart, washing our hands, and being careful about not touching any switches and door handles.  We made 322 emergency food boxes.  On Saturday March 21st, we only had four people, including fellow AmeriCorps member Morgan Agee who normally serves at Trout Unlimited under the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area.  Despite the small number, by the end of the day we were still able to prepare 82 emergency food boxes for the needy.  It was hard work but we felt a real sense of accomplishment looking at the finished boxes ready to be loaded onto trucks!   
 
I learned what a complicated logistical operation a food bank is! Imagine when you get a call and are offered two truckloads of Fruit Loops; you don't want to say no, but you have to figure out where to store them and how to work them into your food rotation. The director Kathryn Porter is extremely well organized and deals with this type of issue every day.  She is a practical problem solver of the first degree – think of a cross between a drill sergeant and an elementary school teacher and throw in some humor as well because you must have some fun too!   

AmeriCorps members serving with the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia will hold a Civic Service Project in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Mount Hope Community Center on January 21st, 2019.

The primary goal for this service project, A Clean City Starts with You, is to remove unused equipment and debris from the community center in order to help prepare it for future use. The historic Loup Creek YMCA, now commonly known as the Mount Hope Community Center houses an operational commercial kitchen, a large conference space commonly referred to as the Band Room, and operates as a sports complex for 25% of the year. Other local nonprofits and organizations including Harmony For Hope, Dubois on Main, volunteers from West Virginia University, and Sarah Soup’s will be participating during the event as well. Projects will begin at 8am and will continue throughout the day.

“As AmeriCorps members, our civic service projects often turn out to be some of our most significant projects during the service year. Through these projects we are able to connect with communities and local volunteers to come together and really make a difference.” explains co-organizer Kyle Bailey.

If you are interested in volunteering for this event, contact Kyle Bailey at [email protected]. 

By Sharell Harmon, Preserve WV AmeriCorps

What started as a conversation, quickly turned into my first project as a Preserve WV AmeriCorps member…

My name is Sharell Harmon, and I am a Preserve WV AmeriCorps member serving with the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia (PAWV).  My term with Preserve WV started August 28, 2017.  This is my third contract with AmeriCorps, but my first contract serving in Historic Preservation.

I was extremely excited to take on my first historic preservation project at the Manos Theatre in Grafton, Taylor County.  The purpose of this project was to create an inventory report regarding the condition of the theater's seats for the International Mother’s Day Shrine (current non-profit owners of the Manos).  The Shrine requested an inventory report of the seats in the Manos Theatre with hopes to bid seats to donors for rehabilitation.  Rehabilitation of the theater seats will bring the Shrine one step closer to re-opening this special place.

About the Manos Theatre
This theater has over the years operated under three different names. Originally known as, the Hippodrome, the theater was built by Messrs. Necessary, Cady and Hiehle and opened on August 12, 1912. The first show featured the Vaudeville acts the Great Henri French, dancer and impersonator; blackface performer Goff Phillips; the singing and dancing Church Sisters, as well as two photoplays.  John Lester Bush, owner of the Dixie Theater also in Grafton, purchased the building and upon returning from World War I reopened it as The Strand.

The final incarnation, the Manos Theater opened June 27, 1949 with a grand inauguration beginning with a parade from the Post Office. The first show featured a cartoon, sports review, musical and the full-length film The Life of Riley. It was named for Michael Manos, President of the Elkins Theaters Co. which managed the theater.  The Manos closed in 1995 after 46 years in business. Following a very brief reopening, the Manos closed for good in 1998.

The Preservation Work Day
On November 20, 2017— 14 AmeriCorps members from sponsor organizations like PAWV and Appalachian Forest Heritage Area partnered together with a local volunteer to participate in a preservation work day at the Manos Theatre  Members and volunteers cleaned all theater seats, took inventory on each of the seats condition, and photographed every seat in the theater (which were utilized for the inventory report I created for the Shrine).  All of the participants enjoyed a tour of both historic properties—the Shrine and the Manos Theatre.  The project was a great success! 

Thank you, to all volunteers that were involved with this Civic Service Project, the International Mother’s Day Shrine and Dottie at Biggies Restaurant in Grafton for providing lunch to the service members and the volunteer.

If you are interested in volunteering for a Preserve WV AmeriCorps project, contact Sharell at [email protected].