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December 2008
Description
West Virginia is not currently responding to a recent disaster, although historically we are aware that this can change without a moment’s notice. Through disaster recovery projects since 2001 (following flooding), we have built up momentum and a volunteer base as well as a full summer mission team program. Our current response will be in the areas of advocacy and in mitigation against further disaster in areas where poverty compounds disaster.
West Virginia Ministry of Advocacy and Workcamps, Inc. (WVMAW), was started as the Disaster Recovery arm of the Presbytery of West Virginia in September 2001. The organization was incorporated in May 2002. WVMAW’s executive director reports to a board, which represents Presbyterians from around the state. The executive director also periodically presents reports to the presbytery, is an agency member of the Social and Ecumenical Ministry Committee and a clergy member of the Congregational Development Committee.
Volunteers
Sixty work groups volunteered with WVMAW in 2008. They came from Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Michigan, South Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, Indiana and even West Virginia.
857 individuals have worked 202 days. This has translated to approximately 24,127 work hours, and $425,841.55 in volunteer labor based on volunteer allowance figures.
Individuals served
Montgomery, WV: Repairs and projects for 11 families representing 20 people; construction of a new food pantry that will serve approximately 60 families per week; work on a church with approximately 20 members; creation of a ministry that serves breakfast to approximately 50 individuals weekly.
Kopperston, WV: Repairs and projects for 14 families representing 31 people.
Colcord, WV: Repairs and projects for 21 families representing 39 people and two churches representing 70 members total.
Welch, WV: Repairs and projects for 3 families representing 6 people.
Ashland, WV: An alternative wastewater treatment project has begun that will serve twenty five households representing approximately fifty people. It is located at the trailhead of a Hatfield and McCoy Trail for all terrain vehicles, and it is a tourist destination. A new KOA Campground was completed in 2007.
Type of Work
Montgomery, W.Va.: Projects have included replacing roofing and repairing extensive interior water damage in homes, extensive interior reconstruction, rebuilding porches and building a wheel chair ramp. A room was renovated and shelving for a food pantry was constructed for a small community. A drop ceiling was put in the mission center at Montgomery Presbyterian that will help to efficiently heat and cool the facility that houses over 350 volunteers each year.
Kopperston, W.Va.: Projects have included siding, painting, sheet rock, plumbing, electrical, and wheel chair ramp construction.
Colcord, W.Va.: Projects have included siding, wheel chair ramp construction, replacing roofs, porch construction, sheet rock and interior reconstruction.
Welch, W.Va.: Projects have included replacing flooring, rebuilding kitchen walls and replacing cabinets with donated cabinets, rebuilding porch, steps and interior wall repair.
Ashland, W.Va.: Volunteers have continued to dig drainage ditches for an alternative wastewater treatment system in a community that currently has no wastewater treatment.
Examples of how Presbyterian congregations worked in partnership with other faith-based organizations
- The Montgomery Presbyterian Church has facilities to house up to 32 workers. Through membership in the ministerial association, the church has an ecumenical food pantry, crisis closet and clothing closet for outreach in the community. Mission workers from Texas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia brought boxes of food for the pantry, items for the crisis closet, and monetary donations for food items. They also built shelving and helped to organize the crisis closet items.
- Volunteers helped create an ecumenical coffee ministry to serve people who come to the clothing closet on a weekly basis. The clothing closet is staffed by church women of various denominations in the ministerial association.
- The Delilah Methodist Church of Oceana, West Virginia, hosted several family dinners for the volunteers in Kopperston as a thank you for the work they did in the community.
- A food pantry was constructed for a community church in Mammoth, West Virginia, that will serve approximately 60 families.
- Volunteers helped to paint inside Cabin Creek Methodist Church in Cabin Creek, West Virginia, for a congregation that had to move from their sanctuary to the basement because of utility costs. They were encouraged that a group of volunteers would help their little congregation.
- Joan Stewart, executive director of WVMAW, is the acting secretary for the West Virginia Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD). VOAD works in partnership with other faith based and volunteer organizations to respond to disasters in West Virginia. Currently the focus is on preparation, prevention and mitigation.
- Joan Stewart, executive director of WVMAW, is the representative for disaster recovery on the Board of the West Virginia Council of Churches.
- Colcord location hosted a group from St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Beckley, West Virginia. They held mass in the Colcord Presbyterian Church as a response to their time of mission.
Advocacy
WVMAW involvement in helping to implement the alternative wastewater treatment system for Ashland, West Virginia, continues.
Background (taken from previous report): WVMAW is a collaborative partner with the Wastewater Treatment Coalition (WTC) of McDowell County. The WTC was formed after the 2001 floods and the necessity of addressing the lack of wastewater treatment came to the attention of many entities and individuals. WVMAW became involved because the lack of wastewater treatment is a social justice issue that continues to keep the county from economic development, and therefore keeps many residents of the county in poverty conditions.
In McDowell County, West Virginia, 67 percent of all wastewater is straight-piped directly from homes into the rivers and streams. Because of geographic diversity, mountain barriers, and the depressed economy, typical sewage treatment is not feasible for most of the county. The Wastewater Treatment Coalition has completed a plan proposal for every household and business in the county.
Ashland, West Virginia, is located at the headwaters of the Elkhorn Creek. A small community of about 21 houses, the WTC chose to put in an alternative wastewater treatment system, technically called a Septic Tank Effluent Gravity collection system with constructed wetland treatment cells. An oversimplified explanation is that the system works by pumping effluent uphill to a drain field that has low pressure pipe dispersal, working like a giant septic system. This alternative system was designed by Canaan Valley Institute engineers, along with contracted assistance from Stafford Engineering and consultation with Maxim Engineering. Because the drain field is located in a wetlands area of the mountain, it is important to keep the area as natural as possible. Six teams of volunteers from WVMAW helped to dig these drain fields this past year.
Current: Funding for the total project is coming in part from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (funds have been in place and held since 2004 for implementation of a wastewater treatment project). Other funds that have been secured include West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the McDavid Foundation, SAFE Housing and Economic Development, Canaan Valley Institute, West Virginia Stream Partners program, and a possible grant from the Governor’s Partnership. Additional funding is being sought through the Self Development of People grant through Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) funding. Target date for completion is now May, 2009. Final hook up will be funded by individual homeowners.
Future: The next town downstream is the town of Crumpler. A community meeting was held on October 20, and the enthusiasm of the people to participate was overwhelming. That is the first step in the feasibility study that will begin implementation of the next project in the county.
The Wastewater Treatment Coalition of McDowell County, of which WVMAW is a partner, is working diligently to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Karen Robinson, treasurer and board Member of WVMAW, is on the personnel committee and advisor for the team that is forming the corporation.
Stories of Hope
Future
As of this writing there are 37 groups on schedule for 2009, with several weeks in the summer completely filled—including deposits paid! The enthusiasm with which many groups continue to return and the new groups that contact us looking for mission opportunities helps to affirm that God is truly calling us to this ministry of outreach.
We continue to pray for those places where disaster has consumed homes and devastated the lives of many families. West Virginians have known that devastation many times, and will again. We pray that the skills folks learn with WVMAW will translate to skills that will be used to reach out in other places where recovery may be needed, or where mitigation will make the difference between minimal loss and total disaster. |
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