This week, coal power can be expensive. Utilities run coal-fired power plants harder in the winter and summer when demand is high. Also, two films made in West Virginia shot to the top of Netflix’s streaming charts. The state wants to encourage even more movies to be made in West Virginia by helping keep production costs down. And, an Eastern Kentucky pharmacist serves vegan food for the holidays.
Athletic Competition Trains Veterans to Heal Themselves
Listen
Share this Article
West Virginia veterans earned over 30 medals last week at the national Golden Age Games. The competition is an athletic training program for veterans 55 years old or older and is designed to help veterans lose weight and become more physically fit.
About 800 veterans competed in the Golden Age Games competition in Biloxi, Mississippi May 7-11. Veterans from the Martinsburg VA Medical Center won medals in running, swimming, badminton, shot put and bicycling. Judi Roberts, from Martinsburg won first place in the discus competition.
“I thought, how the heck could I do discus with my shoulder the way it is? And all be darned, I was so happy to be able to do discus,” said Roberts.
Credit courtesy Martinsburg VA Medical Center
/
Fred Wisner before the cycling event.
Her trainer, another veteran named Darren Yowell, says the training was able to help Roberts strengthen her shoulder muscles from an older injury.
“So now something she loves is a part of her recovery. How awesome is that?” said Yowell.
The Golden Age Games was created to help older veterans improve their overall health and help them recover from physical injuries. Veterans must be 55 years of age and older, and enrolled in VA health care.
Add WVPB as a preferred source on Google to see more from our team
In rural communities across America, there are people traveling many miles from home to deliver babies. In the past five years, nearly 125 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies or announced that they will. That’s about two closings a month. On the next Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears from families facing that change, and how it’s affecting prospects for their rural cities and towns.
The Senate Education Committee heard testimony about the real-world effects of the transfer rule on school athletics necessitating changes to mercy rules and damaging community relations.
On this West Virginia Week, the state budget is headed to Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a statewide public camping ban bill moves forward, and Inside Appalachia visits Good Hot Fish.