Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
UP: To the Actors Guild of Parkersburg’s renovation and expansion projects, which will be the first major renovations to the building in 40 years. This fall, the guild will kick off a capital campaign by presenting giving opportunities to patrons, members and the general public. Given the degree to which the Actors Guild enriches life here in the Mid-Ohio Valley, surely there will be plenty of folks lined up to find out how they can help.
UP: To the largest attendance in recent years at the Very Spectacular Arts Festival this week, hosted by Artsbridge. School children with disabilities from throughout the region were brought to West Virginia University at Parkersburg to experience artistic endeavors ranging from creative movement to work on clay pots. Among those showing off his own art was a former festival attendee, Clark Queen, who is now working with clay sculpting and paints. Being an artist at the Arts Festival “is fun,” he said.
UP: To a pilot program in Ohio that will provide intensive trauma counseling and other services to children of parents addicted to painkillers and heroin. Public Children Services Association of Ohio estimates half of the children placed in foster care in 2015 were there because their abuse and neglect was associated with their parents’ drug use. The situation has gotten so bad that the director of Gallia County Children Services says there are five infants in the county right now who tested positive for opiates at birth.
UP: To more than three decades as a Tree City USA for Williamstown. As Mayor Jean Ford put it, “In Williamstown we love our trees. They are good for our air and our health.”