Events are planned across West Virginia for International Overdose Awareness Day this week. Observed every Aug. 31, it’s an annual campaign that acknowledges those that have died from overdose.
Events are planned across West Virginia for International Overdose Awareness Day this week. Observed every Aug. 31, it’s an annual campaign that acknowledges those that have died from overdose.
Organizations like the Jefferson Day Report Center in Ranson and the Potomac Highlands Guild in Petersburg are recognizing the day by giving Narcan training and education materials to their communities.
They are two of four towns in the state with organizations officially partnering with the event, according to its website. The Pocahontas County Day Report in Marlinton is also planning an “Overdose Awareness Color Walk” this Friday, and the Potomac Highlands Guild also hosted a similar event at the Moorefield Town Park last Saturday.
Jefferson Day Report Center Executive Director Kelly Franklin says it’s a way to engage with locals to destigmatize those struggling with addiction.
“It’s generational. It’s traumatic. So there’s some other things there that we’re trying to address and educate the community,” Franklin said.
Organizations who are not directly affiliated with International Overdose Awareness Day are also preparing for similar events.
Brandon Whitehouse, who operates the West Virginia Collegiate Recovery Program at Concord University, is preparing for similar initiatives at the school as the start of National Recovery Month begins in September.
The Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center in nearby Princeton is also set for an awareness event marking the beginning of the month.
“People with substance use disorder are people and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. And we know they can get better, they can be productive,” Whitehouse said.
West Virginia is at the center of the opioid crisis – in 2020, the CDC reported the state has the highest overdose death rate in the country, with 81 deaths per 100,000 members of the population. The crisis was federally declared a public health emergency in 2017.
Earlier this month, Gov. Jim Justice announced a proclamation declaring Aug. 27 West Virginia Overdose Awareness day. In 2020, a resolution was also created by Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey to recognize the day in the U.S. Senate every Aug. 31, with Sen. Joe Manchin as one of the resolution’s sponsors.
Information about International Overdose Awareness Day events in West Virginia is available on the organization’s website.
The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission on Thursday approved two new Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs for Concord University and Glenville State University.
Gov. Jim Justice in December announced the West Virginia Nursing Workforce Expansion Program, which aims to address the ongoing nursing shortage. He said in that press briefing that the state has seen 1,700 nurses leave the field, and it’s been compounded by the stress of the coronavirus pandemic.
But the hope is the expansion program will change this trend.
“We are tremendously grateful to Gov. Justice for providing this historic funding to support the expansion of nursing education programs across West Virginia,” said Sarah Armstrong Tucker, West Virginia’s chancellor of higher education. “Through these new projects, our postsecondary education community will be better positioned to help shore up West Virginia’s nursing workforce, which, in turn, will help support our nurses working tirelessly on the front lines right now.”
The two new programs are among 27 nursing education programs at colleges, universities, schools of nursing, and career technical education centers across West Virginia that have received a total of $25.5 million through the governor’s nursing workforce expansion.
Concord will offer its own nursing program, while Glenville will offer its BSN through a partnership with Marshall University.
Concord’s BSN will be a 120 credit-hour program and will focus on meeting rural healthcare needs to help address the shortage of registered nurses in southern West Virginia.
Glenville State University will offer an educational opportunity that is not currently available in the central part of the state.
Concord’s BSN will begin in spring 2023, while Glenville’s will begin in the fall of that same year.
The HEPC on Thursday also approved university status for Bluefield State College.
The change will not go into effect until an official change is made by the school’s board of governors and the state legislature.
The criteria for university status, according to the HEPC, include offering at least one master’s-level degree program; having an approved mission statement that provides for the offering of graduate programs; obtaining the approval of the Higher Learning Commission to offer any master’s degree program; and having at least two-thirds of its faculty holding a terminal degree.
Across the state, college campuses are taking an interest in competitive video gaming. Better known as esports, these competitions require strategic thinking, excellent hand-eye coordination, and team cooperation.
Professional level competitions have steadily grown alongside video games, but didn’t find serious financial backing until the past decade. Video game publishers, corporations, Silicon Valley giants, sponsors, and international leagues started investing in the industry as it grew in popularity. In the Internet age, esports have become a huge spectator draw with millions of viewers, and many colleges are building their own programs and varsity teams.
One such program is gaining relevance at Concord University, led by esports director Austin Clay. Concord’s esports program has grown to include multiple teams that specialize in different genres of games, from fighters that focus on individual competition like Super Smash Bros. to cooperative team shooters like Apex Legends and Call of Duty.
“My big thing a lot of people don’t realize — when people say esport, they think it’s just one game. It’s esports with an S,” Clay said.
In 2014, esports broke through to college campuses when Robert Morris University in Illinois formed the first varsity esports program and provided scholarships. Today there are almost 200 varsity esports programs around the nation.
In fall of 2019, Concord University became the first public institution in West Virginia to have a varsity and junior varsity esports program, as well as a new interdisciplinary esports management major. The major itself includes several study areas from within the esports field, from multimedia production to graphic design.
As the esports director at Concord, Clay teaches esports management classes at the school. He is responsible for sponsorships, recruiting, and facility upgrades, among other duties that are traditionally handled by a school’s athletic director.
“As collegiate esports evolve from being on a club-level to a varsity-level, you’re gonna see a rise in professionalism,” Clay said. “You’re just gonna see better, more organized, well-ran teams, which means competition is gonna be higher.”
Clay says his esports players usually earn an extra $2,000 to $4,000 in scholarship money on top of their existing academic scholarships.
“The big thing for us is getting West Virginia on the map,” Clay said. “It’s nice to know that even a small college with only 2,000 kids attending can get nationally recognized.”
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Concord University esports player Liam Fogarty
Marshall and WVU are taking a cue from Concord and getting in on the esports boom. Many gamers from around the state are enthusiastic about this, including Artem Gavrilev, former esports captain at WVU.
“I am pretty excited to see schools open up esports majors or even scholarships sometimes,” he said. “Fifteen years from now, every school is gonna have an esports wing… I think that’s the future.”
Last Thursday, WVU announced an esports minor alongside a full-fledged esports team.
Marshall University is also developing its own esports program. The Marshall Esports Club Association is a growing student organization with around 410 members.
Caleb Patrick, executive director of the Marshall Esports Club Association, says that WVU’s announcement of its esport minor is a promising sign for the future of esports in the state.
“This has fanned the flames of our motivation, and inspired us to push even harder towards creating a program that’s unrivaled in terms of community, production efforts and quality, and pure competitive prowess,” he said.
Kevin Bryant, the competitive affairs manager for Marshall esports, said that esports is an equalizing competition for different size universities.
“It doesn’t matter what size school you are, it doesn’t matter your resources or capabilities,” Bryant said. “It really is a wild wild west of who can put in that more effort and who can want it more.”
Bryant sees esports as an opportunity for West Virginia to develop competitive in-state rivalries that have been absent in traditional college sports. “It’s been a long time since West Virginia has been given its proper rivalry. That’s left WVU to go on to make sure that their top 25 was secured in football every year,” Bryant said, “They didn’t want to jeopardize it with some podunk rivalry with Marshall University.”
To Bryant, the most important part of bringing esports to West Virginia campuses is to give West Virginian students the opportunity to enter the industry.
“Forcing these students to go out of state to chase opportunities that they love kinda sucks, right? I mean, out-of-state tuition is way more than in-state tuition. It would be really nice if we can give West Virginian students an opportunity to do what they love.”
WVU announced its first big esports recruit last Thursday. Top-ranked player Noah Johnson specializes in the popular football simulation game Madden NFL. Meanwhile, Marshall has recruited three players at the rank of Grand Champion III for the school’s Rocket League team.
The Marshall Esports Club Association, along with the older Marshall Smashers Student Organization, is hosting a statewide tournament of Super Smash Bros Ultimate called “Campus Clash,” on Nov. 13. Next semester, Campus Clash will be hosted by WVU.
Fayetteville native and Concord University alum Jonathan Gore hopes to inspire other people with a disability by sharing his story. Gore made it to this year’s Paralympics. Next week, he’s the featured speaker at a special event in southern West Virginia.
Gore was a standout track and field athlete at Concord University. Shortly after graduation, Gore lost the lower part of his leg in a lawnmower accident.
But that didn’t stop his Olympic aspirations. Gore went on to not only compete in two events of the 2021 Paralympics, but finished fourth in the 200-meter dash in Tokyo.
He will share his journey of determination at the event called, “America’s Recovery: Powered by Inclusion.” It’s meant to show how employing people with disabilities can help the nation recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. There are more than 590,000 people with disabilities in West Virginia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The event begins on Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. on Concord’s Athens campus in the ballroom of the Jean and Jerry L. Beasley Student Center.
Fayetteville native Jonathan Gore finished seventh in the 100-meter dash in the 2021 Paralympics on Monday in Tokyo — the first of two races he will run.
The Concord University assistant track and field coach, and former student standout, was celebrated on the Athens campus this morning.
About 20 people from the Concord community joined to cheer on Gore via television as he ran in the 100-meter final. Supporters clapped, cheered and took photos on cell phones as his name was announced and he took his mark.
Jessica Lilly
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The Concord University community watched assistant coach, Jonathan Gore on a flat screen TV.
Those rooting for Gore included current students, local residents, a few folks from the athletic department along with Mike Cox, Concord’s head track and field coach.
“Just seeing someone that you’ve coached that you now work with, get on that stage, you know, what he’s gone through to get to that point — is just remarkable,” Cox told West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Gore was a standout runner at Concord University from 2013 to 2017. Shortly after graduation he lost his leg in a lawnmower accident, but Cox, his former coach, said Gore wasn’t ready to give up.
Jessica Lilly
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Concord Athletics hosted a watch party to support assistant track and field coach, Jonathan Gore as he raced in the paralympics.
“At the hospital, they just cut his leg off. I’m crying,” Cox said. “And he just looked right at me and said, ‘I’m going to the Paralympics, coach.’ And here we are.”
Gore qualified on Sunday for the final 100 meter race. Cox says Gore’s running time — which earned him that seventh place finish — was one of his best. The strongest chance at a medal for Gore though, will come later this week.
“I knew the 100 was gonna be harder than the two for him,” Cox said. “I mean, other than his finish today, everything was good. He ran the third fastest time here in the last year. I think the 200, he’s gonna do some damage in this (200-meter race).”
Gore will race in the 200-meter preliminary round Friday evening.
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Jonathan Gore supporters placed encouraging posters around the classroom where the watch party was held.
Fayetteville native Jonathan Gore qualified for the Paralympics that will be hosted in Japan in a few weeks. He’s ranked second in the world in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes behind fellow American and three-time Paralympic qualifier Jerryd Wallace.
He’s trained for the trials with Concord Track and Field Coaches Mike Cox and RJ Anderson for about two years.
“I always was a runner when I had both my legs,” Gore said. “But when I lost my leg, went to surgery, I was already ready to start running again.”
Shortly after he graduated, an accident would change his running career forever.
“I was in a lawn mower accident three years ago that cut my heel off, and it resulted in me having my leg amputated,” Gore said.
After the accident, he got a call from Coach Cox to return to Concord for graduate school and an assistant coaching position. Gore said being a new amputee was tough, at first.
“But once I had my goals set, I just went for it and kept my mind on the goal,” Gore said.
It was Gore’s support system at home and his faith that helped him to keep going.
“First of all God (helped me) because I could have easily let this break me,” Gore said. “I have amazing parents where my dad is always the rock of our family. The first thing he always said is “if you want something, work for it.”
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Jonathan Gore’s colleagues celebrated by sharing an American themed cake.
Gore seemed focused and calm as he joined his colleagues at Concord to eat celebratory cake before he left for Tokyo. “I’m just working to try to execute my race so nothing’s really hitting me yet,” Gore said.
He’s proud to represent Fayette County, West Virginia and the USA on the Paralympic global stage.
“It’s amazing because you really don’t hear of anybody from West Virginia doing something that big,” Gore said. “My goal is just to trust my training and execute my race. And if I do that, then I can compete for a medal.”
Gore will run the 100-meter trials on Aug. 29. If he advances, he will compete in the finals on Aug. 30. He’ll also run the 200-meter trials on Sept. 4. If he advances in the 200-meter trial, he’ll run in the finals later that same day. The races will happen sometime between 6-9 a.m EST.
This year’s Paralympics will be live-streamed on NBCOlympics.com.
About 4,400 athletes are expected to compete this year in 540 events across 22 sports.
