Author: Liz McCormick

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."

What's Next, West Virginia? Mountaineer Boys State Says It's Time for Change

Almost every year since 1936, a select group of high schools boys have attended Mountaineer Boys State, and since 1941 girls have attended Rhododendron Girls State. The week long camps, sponsored by the American Legion, focus on citizenship, leadership and patriotism. This year, Boys State focused on the nonpartisan, statewide initiative, What’s Next, West Virginia? The young men at Boys State had a great deal to add to a conversation on positive change in West Virginia during a 45 minute discussion in Charleston.

Topics included:

West Virginia’s greatest strengths.
West Virginia’s greatest challenges.
The opportunities West Virginia offers to develop a more prosperous state.
What the boys would like to see in West Virginia 20 years from now.
What they see as their role in helping West Virginia thrive.

“I think the youth is our greatest strength, because anywhere you go in West Virginia you always see, I feel, as if, I always see kids trying to take initiative with helping the future, like Boys State.”
“I think our environment, our state’s natural beauty, really makes us unique, our rolling green hills, and everything, really makes our tourist industry strong.”

“I really feel that West Virginia’s greatest asset lies with the people. Our state has had a history of adversity and overcoming it, and I think the responsibility for that has, or can be attributed to the people of our state.”

Many boys believed West Virginia’s greatest challenge was keeping its youth in the state, noting the lack of jobs for college graduates as the biggest obstacle.

“I know for me, somebody who doesn’t really plan on going into the natural gas industry or any energy industries, at least where I’m from, there really isn’t much for me…which is honestly really depressing, cause I love Wheeling, I love where I come from, but there’s just no jobs there, there’s just no where for me to go after college, other than somewhere else.”

“…most of our highly qualified, intelligent people are leaving the state and going to other states and other cities to work. What I feel we need to work on, is we need to keep these intelligent people in the state, improving the state for us.”

The students said tourism could be West Virginia’s greatest ally in building a more prosperous state, but to do this, they felt the state would need to work on refurbishing areas that are falling apart.

“You go to some of the larger cities in our state, and you see winding roads, you see dilapidated buildings. We need to focus on urban planning, because businesses that want to locate in cities don’t want to locate in cities that their employees won’t move too. Essentially, we need to focus on beautification of our cities. We need to focus on making it more applicable to the modern industry.”

“…instead of refurbishing them and making the town look better, they’re building new buildings on the outskirts of town. So I think a lot of the things we need to focus on is restoration, instead of keep building more stuff, while we have buildings that can be still used.”

Another big challenge the boys noted was West Virginia’s image.

“West Virginia also has a stereotype of being like, hillbillies or lower-class, that necessarily isn’t true. It gives us a bad name, which makes people not want to come here.”

“Not only does West Virginia have that stereotype, there’s also those people who either don’t realize or don’t remember the fact that we’re a state. You say, where are you from? West Virginia. Oh is that Richmond?”

“But if we, you know, put off as a youth, as a whole, as a state a new persona, stating that West Virginia is, you know, the wild and wonderful state that it is, then I think that will also help, you know, people come to West Virginia.”

Improving infrastructure, education, and building human capital were also specific suggestions.

“Well I like to think is our greatest opportunity lies is where we’re weakest. We’re weak and our buildings are falling apart. We’re not using our buildings. Our education is low, this means that we can use our education that is low, we can bring teachers in that are renowned teachers that know what they’re talking about, are very respected. Bring those in, you’ll be able to bring up a generation that is very respectable…this is where we have opportunity.”

“I personally believe the most critical one right now is education, because that is our future. We are our future. Each consecutive generation are going to be those who help the state, and if they are uneducated, then what hands have we put our state in?”

Twenty years from now, these young men want to see an even greener West Virginia.

“The biggest thing I’d like to see in twenty years; an expansion of renewable energy, like solar panels, wind power, and hydroelectric power, because we’re currently focusing on only temporary fixes for energy like…coal…that’s just not going to be around forever, we can’t expect to depend fully on that…The world is, entirely, is gonna have to transition over to green energy eventually. That’s hundreds years down the road, but to be in the leading forefront of everybody, to be switching to green energy would be wonderful…”

Several said the role they play begins today; that they have a responsibility to make the people around them see West Virginia as they do.

“…be active in the community, take school seriously, work hard the way we like too. I think that’s our role, and I think in twenty years, if we take on that role in twenty years, I think the statistics will change. I think West Virginia will, will really be seen for what it really is.”

“I think it’s the role of our generation, and us in this room, the men of tomorrow, the leaders of tomorrow to be the pioneers for the future, and the engineers of change, because we are gonna be in these public positions, we are gonna be in charge of what changes we want to see. We have to be that change in our state that we want to see in the future.”

State Treasurer Returns Unclaimed Property to Nitro City Mayor

West Virginia State Treasurer, John Perdue returned tangible, unclaimed property items to Nitro City Mayor David Casebolt today during a presentation at Nitro City Hall. This event was a big deal for the State Treasurer and the mayor.

According to State Treasurer Perdue, it’s fairly easy to return unclaimed money, but returning unclaimed property can be very difficult, due to long dormancy periods and outdated contact information. Perdue says he’s very excited to return these items to the mayor, and that it gives a message to all West Virginians; perhaps what you thought was lost may just be a click away.

From left to right, Gina Joynes, Deputy Treasurer, Nitro City Mayor, David Casebolt, and West Virginia State Treasurer, John Perdue at Nitro City Hall.

“Go to our website, look and see, you never know, you may find that personal item that you’ve lost, that’s been misplaced by your mother or grandmother or father, something like that.”

Purdue and his staff got lucky recognizing the mayor’s name on the unclaimed property and are happy that they are able to return his personal, family treasures. Items left in safe deposit boxes that are dormant for five years or more are turned over to the State Treasury’s Unclaimed Property Division. Unclaimed property can include things like expensive jewelry, rare coins, savings bonds, unique sports cards, and other items that are commonly stored in bank safe deposit boxes.

Immunization Summit Brings Awareness of Measles Outbreak to W.Va.

The hot topic at this year’s Immunization Summit in Charleston was measles. An outbreak of the disease in Ohio has health care officials in West Virginia worried.

250 individuals representing school nurses, public and private health care providers, state health officials, and coalition members and partners from around the state attended the Immunization Summit to discuss how West Virginia can tackle Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. But Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Assistant Surgeon General, Rear Admiral, Dr. Anne Schuchat, says the biggest thing folks in West Virginia need to worry about is measles.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention Assistant Surgeon General, Rear Admiral, Dr. Anne Schuchat at the 2014 Immunization Summit.

“We’re at a twenty year high with measles, and the biggest outbreak is right next door in Ohio. Unfortunately, West Virginia has pretty low vaccine coverage against measles. Only at 85%, and that means that 15% of the children in West Virginia are vulnerable to measles. Measles can be serious and is really infectious, so I would encourage everybody to make sure their kids have gotten the recommended vaccine doses.”

According to Schuchat, there is currently a large outbreak of measles in the Philippines with over 30,000 cases. While the United States has been able to mostly prevent measles from spreading within the country, health officials did not anticipate catching it abroad.

“What happened in Ohio is that some individuals went to do mission work, to do humanitarian assistance in the Philippines, but they’d never been vaccinated. They got measles, they brought it back, they spread it within their own communities.”

Dr. Schuchat encourages adults as well as children to get their measles vaccination, and says West Virginia is a little bit behind the national average and she hopes the Immunization Summit will inspire families to get their vaccinations.

The Export-Import Bank Seeks to Empower Small Businesses in W.Va.

Those attending an event at the Culture Center in Charleston learned more about how the Export-Import Bank might help them succeed. Senator Joe Manchin and Export Import Bank Chairman, Fred Hochberg hosted the forum titled, Small Business Global Access: Your Competitive Edge.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States, also known as the Ex-Im Bank identifies as an independent, self-sustaining federal agency with the mission of financing U.S. exports to create and maintain jobs in the United States. It assumes the credit and country risks a private sector is unable or unwilling to accept, and does this work at no cost of the American taxpayer.

“We support US companies, mostly small businesses, so they can tap into overseas markets,” said Hochberg. “Ninety-five percent of the world’s consumers live outside the US, and I want to make sure that West Virginia’s companies are tapping into those rich markets.”

Senator Joe Manchin says he’s excited to have chairman Hochberg in Charleston to discuss the benefits the Ex-Im Bank would bring to small businesses in West Virginia.

“I never thought that we as West Virginians had access or knew enough to access the Import-Export Bank,” said Manchin, “and all the things they can do and help us open up a whole global market, was something I was excited about. So I asked Fred, I said Fred would you come to West Virginia? He said, be happy too. So he’s here today, because of the enthusiasm that we have to try to help West Virginians create more business to create more jobs, and that’s really what it’s about.”

The Ex-Im Bank assists small businesses in four ways:

Providing payment coverage for both commercial and political risks.
Extending credit to buyers which allows exporters to sell on competitive “open account” terms instead of acquiring cash-in-advance, credit cards, etc.
Guaranteeing an exporter’s inventory be turned into eligible collateral for the lender.
Through term financing where foreign buyers may obtain financing at competitive rates and extended repayment terms.

“We’ve got companies here in the full range in the service industry, manufacturing, company that makes scales that weighs Konawa, Konawa Scale Company that weighs heavy equipment, Level Tech, equipment manufacturers, energy, a full range of products, products and services. What we need to do is, West Virginia has a lot of talent, a lot of great businesses, we need to make sure that West Virginia companies are hitting global markets and building in sales and then supporting more jobs here at home.”
Manchin noted that many West Virginians with small businesses want to stay in the state but they worry they can’t make a living here. Manchin thinks that if you have an idea and the work ethic, you should be able to live anywhere and support yourself, and by seeking the aid of the Export-Import Bank, you can do this.

“What we do at the Export-Import Bank, we’re about supporting businesses, small businesses with export sales so that [they’re] better jobs here at home, and this is all about jobs. Like the senator said, more people can make a living, a good living here, by tapping into worldwide markets.”

Sen. Joe Manchin Says Our Troops Need to Come Home

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin continues to speak out against keeping US troops in Afghanistan after this year, and he is questioning continued US involvement in Iraq as well.

Last month, President Obama announced that the current 32,000 troops in Afghanistan will be drawn down to 9,800 by the start of next year. The President plans to withdraw those 9,800 by 2016. Senator Joe Manchin sent the President a letter on June 9th expressing his opposition to his decision of keeping any troops in Afghanistan after this year.

“If the sectarian forces are greater than any, ideologically or philosophical, we have to understand that. We cannot change the culture. We have not been successful with money or military might to change that part of the world, we would’ve done it by now.”

Manchin says both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the United States trillions of dollars. More than 6,000 soldiers have died fighting in the two countries. Manchin says unless the people of Iraq and Afghanistan rise to the level of wanting to defend themselves from terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda, the United States can’t do anything else for them. Manchin does not think the US needs to have a permanent presence in a country if we are unable to change the minds and ideas of the people there.

“I’ve said this, we can stay in Iraq or we can stay in Afghanistan for another year, another ten years, or twenty years, [but] unless we intend to stay in perpetuity, forever, to try to keep some type of force because they don’t have the will or the backbone to defend themselves, they don’t have the desire to basically die for their homeland, or fight and die for their homeland, as Americans have for ours, and it’s a sectarian type of war. Only thing we can do is offer help to those who want to help themselves. You can’t force them to enter the fight. If the Sunnis are not going to fight against their own sectarian brothers and sisters, the Sunnis, we can’t make them do that. If it’s going to separate into a sectarian civil war, such as you have the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shiites, that’s where it’s been, that’s where it’s gonna go maybe, and that’s maybe territorial, I don’t know. We can’t force that to stay together as a country, Iraq or Syria, if it’s not going to be the will of the people.”

Manchin says the US has been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq longer than any war in the country’s history and he says neither have been successful.

Duck and Cover, Because "The Blob" is Coming to FestivALL

In September 1958, The Blob, an independent horror, science-fiction film was released by Paramount Pictures and Umbrella Entertainment. Starring Steve McQueen in his debut role, the film left a permanent mark in Americans’ minds, and in 2006, Charleston’s Contemporary Youth Arts Company took the film a step further, writing their own adaptation of the classic film in the form of a musical.

“It’s the Steve McQueen movie,” said playwright and director Dan Kehde, “and we just thought wouldn’t it be fun to put it on stage. We turned it into a full-fledged musical, so this is song and dance. And it’s not high-tech and there’s no…it’s an interesting Blob when you see it. It’s just campy. But it’s been a lot of fun, and over the years, I finally…actually we got permission from Jack Harris, who was the original producer of the original movie, who’s still alive, to go ahead and do this for FestivALL this year. And it’s been pretty exciting. But it’s funny, and it’s family friendly, and the worst thing that’s gonna happen is parents are gonna have to explain the history of the Cold War to their kids. But besides that it’s just a lot of fun.”

This is the third time the Contemporary Youth Arts Company of Charleston will produce The Blob, the first of which was in September 2006 and the second in September 2009. The story takes place in the year 1957 in the small town of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. One fateful night, a meteor falls from space and lands in the middle of a farm, where a curious farmer goes to investigate. What he finds however, is a small oozing blob slinking out of the meteor. To the farmer’s horror, the Blob attaches itself to his arm, and soon after, Steve and Jane, the main characters, find the farmer pleading for help. They agree to aide him, and the two teens take the farmer to the town’s doctor.

“And his arm is slowly being consumed, and so the doctor calls in the nurse, and as the doctor calls in the nurse, the Blob consumes the farmer, and then the Blob consumes the nurse, and then the Blob consumes the doctor. And nobody believes the two teenagers who found the original, the farmer, that there’s a monster out there. So they’re running around the town trying to convince the town that there’s a monster out there.”

Kehde says that even though this is CYAC’s third time producing The Blob, things haven’t necessarily gotten easier and that with each new production, they are presented with new ideas and new challenges.

“To try to adapt a movie onto the stage, without any kind of camera angles, close-ups, special effects, it’s very difficult. It’s very hard to make it entertaining and keep the plot line going, and I don’t know what the hardest thing was, I guess maybe that final scene with the diner and the fire-extinguishers has always been tricky, it should work this time. We’re going to build the diner on stage. Yeah, that would be the toughest one. And to educate everybody in the cast what this thing is about, and about the Cold War and about people worried about flying saucers, and the whole nine-yards.”

The Contemporary Youth Arts Company was founded in 1995 by Kehde, his wife, Penny, and composer Mark Scarpelli and they have been producing original theater in and around the Charleston area ever since. The Blob is just one of many shows Kehde and Scarpelli have written together. Their first show, MARY: A Rock Opera was met with critical acclaim, and they continue to perform it annually around Christmastime. Kehde says CYAC began with a small group of high school kids who were looking for a theater outlet that spoke to them.

The Contemporary Youth Arts Company’s, The Blob

“Just a bunch of kids showed up at my front doorstep, actually. And were looking for a place where they could do shows that usually weren’t acceptable on the high school level, that were a little bit more sophisticated. And that they could have time for, because most of the kids were taking advanced classes, and nobody was going to accommodate them. So we started Contemporary Youth Arts for them, and their friends, and then started to incorporate some original pieces that Mark and I were interested in writing as we went along, until we got a pretty good mix now of kids coming in to do kind of fringy theater as well as a couple of goofy things like The Blob. And we get to write new pieces all the time, and try out new stuff all the time.”

Since its inception, CYAC has expanded to include performers of all ages, but with special emphasis on giving roles to younger people when possible.

“We work with young ones from knee-high, you know all the way up to, you know young adults,” Scarpelli reflected, “of course The Blob actually has some older folks, mom and dad type characters too, just you know, community theater, that’s the fun of it is just being involved and meeting new people, and just watching some of the talents develop on stage. It’s pretty exciting.”

Caitlin Moore and Austin Susman, two recent graduates from George Washington High School are regulars of the Contemporary Youth Arts Company and both say it’s the atmosphere of the company that keeps bringing them back.

“I love that the pieces are challenging,” said Moore, “and they’re new and it’s different from what every other theater company is doing.”

“It’s the shows and the people,” said Susman, “You know, Dan and Mark write some wonderful shows, and I’ve made some great friends with other cast members and a really great relationship with Dan and Mark as well. And also the theater, the Capitol Theater is a beautiful venue, and I love to perform here any chance I get.”

“CYAC has kind of become my second family,” Moore noted, “I’ve only been doing shows for two-in-half-years, but it was the first time I ever stepped on stage, acting, and I fell in love with it as soon as I did it. So ever since then, I cannot bring myself to take a break.”

“The Blob is a really cheesy show,” Susman said, “but it’s a lot of fun, and you can’t leave this theater without smiling.”

The Blob will open at the West Virginia State University Capitol Center Theater on June 19^th^.