Description
Meeting needs in the community continues.
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 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.
Brief description of the structure established to coordinate the response by the middle governing body (MGB)
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 and individuals served
There are currently 55 work groups on schedule for 2008, as well as four teams of two that will join with other groups. As of this date, seven groups have worked in West Virginia.
So far, 83 individuals have worked 16 days.
In Montgomery, repairs and projects assisted two families, representing 12 people.
In Ashland, an alternative wastewater treatment project has begun that will serve 21 households, representing approximately fifty people. It is located at the trailhead of a Hatfield and McCoy Trail for all terrain vehicles and is a tourist destination. A new KOA Campground was completed in 2007.
Type of Work
Beckwith, West Virginia
The work in one home has consisted of repairing ceilings and walls that had been severely damaged by water leaking from a roof that has been repaired. Groups also insulated the ceilings and beneath the flooring. Also, two beds were built for a family of four whose two children had been sleeping on the floor.
Ashland, West Virginia
Volunteers dug 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 a food pantry and clothing closet for outreach in the community. Mission workers from State College of Pennsylvania brought carloads of boxes of food for the pantry and met with pantry volunteers from the Kimberly Baptist Church and the Montgomery Baptist Church to present them with the food and a check. It was a very meaningful day for all who were present!
When WVMAW was notified that a family needed two beds for their children, I made a phone call to two leaders of women’s groups in the community. One was to Smithers Presbyterian Women and the other to the American Baptist Women in Montgomery. WVMAW volunteers would build the beds if the groups could provide mattresses and sheets. Like wildfire news of need spread in the community, and within four days this young family had 2 sturdy beds built by volunteers and brand new mattresses and sheets provided by donations from the Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist women.
On Palm Sunday the Montgomery Presbyterian Church hosted a Ministerial Association Lent service. Volunteers from the University of Wisconsin, made up of students from Lutheran, Catholic and United Church of Christ denominations, helped to lead the service that was shared with Presbyterian, Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Disciples of Christ and Methodist congregations. The theme was “Evidence of Love” and was based on Christ’s passion and our call to mission.
The Montgomery location has been working with the United Methodist Church in arranging cases where help is needed in neighboring Clay County.
Volunteers from Holy Ghost Prep School, a Catholic preparatory school for boys, spent Holy Week with WVMAW working on the wastewater treatment project. They have been coming to West Virginia for work projects since 1991 and have been with WVMAW since it was formed in 2002.
Improving wastewater options will benefit the entire community. Advocacy
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, 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, located at the headwaters of the Elkhorn River, is 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. Bringing in machinery to dig the ditches would disturb the natural lay of the land and the trees. It was decided that volunteers could help to dig the drain field and thus cause as little damage to the environment as possible.
Three groups of volunteers spent their spring breaks helping implement this system. Students from Notre Dame University spend a week each spring and fall with WVMAW as they experience the “immersion phase” of their class on Appalachia. After orienting the students to the wastewater project, they spent most of the week clearing brush and green briar, and began digging some of the drain field. The following week volunteers from First Presbyterian Church of Granville, Ohio, and then students from the Holy Ghost Prep School in Pennsylvania continued to dig the first quarter of the drain field, lay the drainage pipe and gravel and get it covered. Ed Winant, engineer and designer of the project from Canaan Valley Institute, and Harry Drake, site supervisor from WVMAW, oversaw the labor.
Several groups that will be coming to West Virginia in June have been contacted about continuing this work project. We have been overwhelmed at the positive response from most of them. We will have alternative projects in place, but many of the teams that will stay in Welch and Bluefield in the month of June will help to finish digging the drain field.
Completion of construction is projected for October, 2008.
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. Final hook-up will be funded by individual homeowners.
Dave Clark, engineer with Canaan Valley Institute and representative with the Wastewater Treatment Coalition, was pleased with the collaboration of volunteers through WVMAW. He said, “… the work with WVMAW and the recent volunteers is unprecedented in West Virginia. This is a phenomenal model that has enormous potential, I think. I honestly believe that the last three weeks have done as much to further the cause than anything else we’ve done.”
History of WVMAW Involvement in Wastewater Issues
In 2004 Presbyterian Disaster Assistance helped to fund an alternative wastewater treatment system demonstration project in the Big Sandy Head Start Center in Big Sandy, West Virginia. An interpretive sign has been placed to help educate the public about the system, noting that funding was through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.
In 2005 a comprehensive plan for all households and businesses in McDowell County was published. WVMAW was able, through grants through the PC(USA), to provide funding for this publication. An update was published in 2007 for which we provided partial funding as well.
WVMAW has been able to provide partial funding for hiring a VISTA worker for the Wastewater Treatment Coalition. This worker helps to coordinate WTC activities and education in McDowell County.
Stories of Hope
Future
It is only the first quarter of 2008, and already the stories of grace, love and transformation are overwhelming. Transformation happens with volunteers, with the families and communities that they serve and also within the churches with which we are affiliated for accommodations.
When First Presbyterian in Welch made the decision to use their manse as a boarding house for construction workers, they did not want to lose the prospect of housing mission teams. So they have completed showers inside their church and are converting unused Sunday School rooms for dormitories that will be ready by June. Colcord and Montgomery are ready to bring in teams once again, already arranging groups that will lead worship, share with Vacation Bible School and participate in local activities.
WVMAW is excited to be able to welcome two new churches which have seen beyond their doors to open their buildings to the invasion of mission teams. First Presbyterian in Bluefield has been temporarily housing mission teams working in Ashland. They have graciously offered to allow teams to stay this summer while the project is completed. Kopperston Presbyterian in Kopperston has opened their doors to WVMAW volunteers, and the Gilbert location will be phased out as the permanent location is moved. Both churches have been welcoming and flexible, recognizing that their calling is not what is inside their walls, but outside in God’s kingdom.
With all of these places singing “Here I Am Lord,” there is no telling what God will have in store for us. |
