Liz is WVPB's Webmaster/Digital Coordinator and Eastern Panhandle Bureau Chief, based in Shepherdstown, WV on Shepherd University's campus. Liz is a native of Charleston, West Virginia. She received a M.A. in Strategic Communication from American University in 2022 and a B.A. in Communication and New Media from Shepherd in 2014. Prior to her role as webmaster, Liz was WVPB's Eastern Panhandle reporter from 2014-2022, the House of Delegates reporter on "The Legislature Today" from 2015-2017, and she covered K-12/higher education from 2020-2022. Liz has also worked as a technical assistant and associate producer on "The Legislature Today."
Mike Youngren has lived in Charleston for the last 20 years. A West Virginia Public Broadcasting alum, Youngren pursued filmmaking after retiring. When the January 9th chemical leak happened, Youngren decided the problem was widespread enough for people to stop to pay attention to what he had to say. With this in mind, he decided to develop his documentary, Elk River Blues.
Youngren’s film, Elk River Blues will have its world premiere on Friday, January 9th, at the Culture Center. It is a part of a list of special events occurring that same night commemorating the one year anniversary of a chemical spill into the Elk River near Charleston.
It was some ten days before all of the families affected by the tap water ban following Charleston’s chemical spill were able to return to life as usual within their homes. And many did just that, once again drinking, cooking and bathing with water straight from the tap. The same, however, can’t be said for every family in the valley including Lida Shepherd, who says she still won’t drink the water.
Lida Shepherd and her two-year-old daughter, Lucia live in a small apartment on the East End of Charleston. Lucia loves tea.
This time last year, tea wasn’t so easy to make. Lida and her daughter were one of many families directly affected by the January 9th chemical leak.
“When I first got the word of the chemical leak, and the chemical spill, it was very frightening,” Lida remembered, “It was very frightening to turn on the water, and that smell was, I mean it gave me headaches, I mean I had a, definitely like a physical reaction to it.”
Her reaction was similar to hundreds of Kanawha Valley residents’ reports to their doctors.
Lida and her daughter now use city water to bathe and wash dishes and laundry in, but they still refuse to drink from the tap. Instead, Lida drives 20 miles to her parent’s farm in Sissonville to collect 4 to 6 gallons of water each week from their well. It’s a practice she began a year ago when the water use ban was still in place.
“It certainly has had lasting effects on me,” she said, “It’s now, even when I travel anywhere, whereas before I absolutely, I would just drink water from tap where I go, that’s not the case anymore. I always just sort of think about where I am, and like what’s going on with the water here? There’s definitely some sort of lasting fears, and like I said, I still don’t drink the water.”
Lida is an advocate for West Virginia Free, an organization that focuses on rights for women, and she also works with the American Friends Service Committee where she directs a youth leadership program in Boone County, an area also affected by the spill.
Credit Nikthestoned / wikimedia Commons
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wikimedia Commons
“They grew up in communities where not being able to drink the water comes up a lot,” Lida noted, “This was not a new experience for them to get word that the water wasn’t safe. And so when the chemical spill happened, some of them very much reacted just like, I’m not dead yet, literally that’s one of the girls said, she’s like, oh I’m showering in it.”
Lida says some of her students, however, felt angry at their lawmakers, blaming them for letting this happen or in some cases continue to happen.
After the spill and hearing from her students, Lida says it empowered her to want to make a difference in her state. She’s often advocated for stricter regulations and held a fundraiser at the time to provide bottled water to those who needed it.
“Reflecting on the year after the chemical spill, what we’ve been able to achieve and organize around, I’m pretty impressed by. I think because Charleston, you know, sort of a population center was largely impacted; it shed light on an issue that was an issue before this chemical spill,” she said.
As for Lucia, Lida says her daughter will continue to have tea parties with drinks made from her parents’ well water. At least, for now.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a flu epidemic last week, with West Virginia among the states with widespread activity. Officials met at a Charleston elementary school today to discuss flu prevention now that schools are back in session.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Cabinet Secretary, Karen Bowling and the State Superintendent of Schools, Michael Martirano announced a partnership in education efforts to fight the flu epidemic in West Virginia Schools. The press conference was held at Mary C. Snow West Side Elementary School.
Superintendent, Martirano says this partnership and the resources it offers are critical to the health of students statewide.
“Everybody needs to take a role in this. We want to make certain that our young people are healthy, happy, and safe. And so, we want to make sure our staff is in that same category, so if individuals are feeling ill, they need to make certain they’re getting the medical treatment necessary. Also, doing the preventative aspects of getting the immunization, but then also trying not to transmit those germs as well by virtue of a lot of hand washing; a lot of preventative aspects, so we want to educate our young people about that, so that we can keep them in school.”
The partnership also asks educators, students, and parents to pledge their support in preventing the spread of the flu. Martirano and Dr. Rahul Gupta the Bureau for Public Health Commissioner and State Health Officer say the pledge explains three vital things: to wash hands frequently, to cover your cough, and to sneeze into your sleeve if you don’t have a tissue on hand.
Gupta also explained by getting your flu vaccination, wiping down frequently touched surfaces with a disinfectant, and staying home when you’re sick, helps to further prevent the spread of the flu.
The man behind the lyrics of Frosty the Snowman, Peter Cottontail, and Smokey the Bear is none other than West Virginian, Jack Rollins. His song about a magical snowman coming to life and bringing holiday cheer can be heard almost everywhere this time of year. In 2011, Rollins was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Jack Rollins – West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame Induction
Rollins, who’s also known as the real Frosty the Snowman, was born in Scottdale, Pennsylvania on September 15, 1906, but he moved to Keyser, West Virginia with his family when he was three or four years old. He ended up growing up in Keyser and as an adult lived in New York, California, and Ohio, but West Virginia was always special to him.
“Your home is where your heart is, and his mother and his brother settled in Keyser, West Virginia,” said Rollins fan, Champ Zumbrun, “and he would come home at every opportunity while his mother was alive. In fact, if you go to [the] cemetery, he’s buried next to his mother.”
Zumbrun wrote an article in 2011 about Rollins’ life that was published in Allegany Magazine in Cumberland, Maryland. He’s a retired forest ranger from Maryland and he’s also a musician.
While working as a forester, he performed Jack Rollins’ song, Smokey the Bear every weekend for more than 30 years.
In 2011, Zumbrun received a surprising phone call.
“The chief of the Smokey Bear Program nationally learned that Jack Rollins, who wrote Smokey the Bear was going to be inducted to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame,” remembered Zumbrun, “and they were reaching out to the National Forest Service office to find out some information about Jack Rollins, and since I had been researching Jack Rollins, they contacted me, and connected me with the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, and they asked if I would share my information with them, and I said sure, anything to help Jack out.”
The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame also learned about Zumbrun’s history singing Smokey the Bear, so the group asked him if he would sing at Rollins’ induction ceremony. Zumbrun said yes.
The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame was, however, still looking for a family member to accept the award on Rollins’ behalf.
Credit Wikimedia Commons
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A Little Golden Book’s storybook edition based on the 1950 song of the same name. Cover art illustrated by Corinne Malvern.
That’s when Jack Rollins’ grandson, James Busemeyer from Ohio, came forward to accept the award for his grandfather.
The songhas become a classic. This time of year, we hear Frosty the Snowman playing on radio, television, movies, and in shopping centers.
It was written in 1950, but is still so popular today, and Champ Zumbrun knows why.
“Because I think people always need songs that are happy and have a message of joy and that’s what Jack was all about. If you want to know Jack Rollins just look at the lyrics in his songs. They’re happy, they’re innocent, they’re full of joy. I think people always need to celebrate and be reminded that life’s not drudgery, and there’s a spirit in life that’s joyful, and those songs if you listen to them are joyful, happy songs.”
The music of Frosty the Snowman, Peter Cottontail, and Smokey the Bear was composed by Rollins’ partner, Steve Nelson.
Common Core is an educational initiative that has been in news headlines lately due to some controversy surrounding it. At the State Capitol yesterday, Delegates, Senators, and public met on the House floor to hear from eight representatives either for or against Common Core.
Some citizens against Common Core sat in on the meeting, sporting bright, yellow t-shirts that said in bold black letters, “save our students” on one side and “stop common core” on the other. Caution tape lined the aisles of the chamber as if a crime scene had taken place.
Dr. Sandra Stotsky of the University of Arkansas, was one of six speakers from out of state to address the issue. She claims those who wrote up the standards were not qualified.
“When we get to actually who wrote the standards, which is where I came into action on the validation committee, it then turns out that most of the key writers for both the ELA and the math standards had no K-12 teaching experience at all,” said Stotsky, “the ELA, English Language Arts writers had no degree in English or English literature, they had no prior involvement with K-12 education, indeed they were totally unknown to everyone in the field. Who chose them, why they were chosen, to this day, we still don’t know, because everything was done non-transparently.”
One of the speakers supporting common core was Dave Spence, the President of the Southern Regional Education Board. He argues that the level of success since Common Core was adopted, has significantly impacted education levels.
“So having one set of standards is critically important along with insuring they are rigorous enough to predict readiness for post-secondary education,” said Spence, “At SREB, since 2007, we have argued that all states should have standard meeting these criteria relating to college and career readiness. We also believe that there’s not only one set of standards in literacy and math that would meet these readiness requirements. We do believe that the common core state standards rise to the level of college and career readiness. That is why and how they were developed and researched. What I hope we don’t lose sight of as states, is that where states were seven to eight years ago, before the common core, somewhere near 40 states, either in English Literacy, Math, or both, did not come up to the level of college and career readiness.”
Delegate Amanda Pasdon, the incoming chair on Education, says there’s a lot that needs to be discussed once the Legislature is in session.
“We need to have standards for our children,” Pasdon said, “certainly everybody needs accountability and we need standards set in education. What we’re learning about Common Core is that we had some challenges with the rollout, there was some challenges with implementation, and there’s been some backlash for that, and that’s understandable, so what we want to make sure more than anything that we do is get it right for our students and get it right for our children.”
So Pasdon agrees we need standards in West Virginia, either Common Core or not Common Core.
According the 2013 American Community Survey, one in three children in West Virginia under the age of 5 lives in poverty. It’s something the Our Children, Our Future Campaign to End Child Poverty in West Virginia is focused on. The group met at the state capitol yesterday to reveal the top ten priorities it will tackle during the 2015 Legislative Session.
There was an air of confidence from each presenter at the Our Children, Our Future Campaign’s announcement, as high expectations were expressed for continual support from lawmakers during the 2015 Legislative Session.
The top ten priorities of the campaign were revealed, and of those top ten, the top five were spoken about at length. The biggest focus was on funding for family support programs and early childhood services.
Shane Brown is a father from Doddridge County and a member of the Doddridge County Starting Points Center. He stood holding his young daughter in front of supporters and media to express how imperative it is to fund family and children’s programs in the state.
“West Virginia as a whole needs this,” said Brown, “Our communities need this, you know. I know probably a lot of you have kids here. What would you do if you didn’t have a resource to go too? If you didn’t have some[one] say, hey, you know, we have something that could help you, we got your back. And I don’t know about everyone else, but I like having my back…someone having my back don’t you?”
According to policy analysts at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, investing in early childhood development programs is likely to have major payoffs in terms of decreasing rates of incarceration, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, and other symptoms of poverty that are pervasive throughout the state.
This past May, the Our Children, Our Future Campaign was able to bring both Democrats and Republicans almost unanimously together and agree to restore funds to family and child service programs which had been cut from the state budget by Governor Tomblin. This year, the Our Children, Our Future Campaign hopes that support will continue.
Jim McKay is the State Director of Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia.
“We worked across the aisle. We worked with Republican leaders, Democratic leaders, we worked with the Governor’s office as best we could to try to find any solution possible,” said McKay, “and we were very pleased to have just grassroots support that the Our Children, Our Future Campaign was able to mobilize from all across the state who kept coming to the capitol, kept meeting with lawmakers, and we were pleased to have Republican support, Democrat support, and ultimately the support of the Governor in affirming the importance of these programs.”
McKay says the campaign was able to access some limited revenues from the lottery proceeds and sustain the programs at the previous levels. He says this saved over 50 jobs and services to thousands of West Virginians.
McKay hopes support from lawmakers will continue in 2015.
“We hope the Governor will propose a budget that preserves that funding,” McKay said, “We know that there are declining state revenues and access to the state’s Rainy Day Fund is a concern, but we hope the Governor will continue the agreement that was made last year and we want to just fortify that.”
The other top five issues presented were Juvenile Justice Reform, Drinking Water Protection, and expanding Medicaid Access to Mental Health Therapy.
