From the Director

By Katherine McGraw, Executive Director, Smithers & Friends Community Group, Inc.

Everyone in the Upper Kanawha Valley knows the list by heart:

We lost Kroger.
We lost more than two dozen small businesses.
We lost WV Tech.
We lost our high school.

One by one, the storefronts emptied, the paychecks left town, and the story being told about this place narrowed down to a single theme: loss.

But that’s never been the whole picture.

Because while the big institutions disappeared, the people didn’t.
The talent didn’t.
The creativity didn’t.
The willingness to show up for one another didn’t.

And that’s exactly where Smithers & Friends began, not in the shadow of what closed, but in the light of what we noticed was still here, and we want to deliver hope!

Skill Swaps: When Community Spaces Vanished, We Built New Ones

Seven workshops.
Fifty adults learning.
Dozens of kids participating.
Ten local instructors leading the way.

Not professionals flown in.
Neighbors.

And our latest?
A Winter Scene Paint Swap so full we squeezed 13 people into 10 seats.
The kind of “problem” most towns would give anything to have.

When the formal spaces closed, our community made its own classrooms.

Events & Outreach: Showing Up Wherever People Gather

When gathering places dwindled, we got creative.

• 250 residents served at Trunk-or-Treat

• 200 community interactions throughout the valley

• 500+ neighbors engaged in the last two quarters

Parking lots, gym floors, pop-ups, sidewalks... if people are there, so are we.

Opportunity doesn’t return on its own.
We carry it with us.

Smithers Creek Watch: Filling the Gaps Left Behind

When environmental programs left the region, the monitoring stopped.
But the need didn’t.

So we stepped in.

With support from a $2,500 WV Rivers Community Action Mini-Grant, we are launching the Smithers Creek Watch, including:

• Water testing kits for volunteers

• Beginner-friendly kits housed at the Montgomery Public Library

• Partnerships with SciStarter and the library to widen access

This isn’t “outsiders studying us.”
This is neighbors collecting their own data, protecting their own creek.

That matters!

Heritage & Creative: Holding On to What Makes This Place Ours

When a region loses institutions, it can start losing pieces of itself, too.

So we held on tight.

• 100 community cookbooks printed

• $500 raised for local projects

This cookbook is only the beginning with over 300 recipes submitted by surrounding residents, we hope to continue with a series! We hope to include ALL neighbors, even those we keep in fond remembrance. Cookbooks, recipes, delicious foods... that's how you keep memories alive.

A Thought Before You Go

These last two quarters weren’t built with corporate dollars, or big grants, or long-standing institutions.

If this is what we can do with imagination, cooperation, and a few borrowed rooms… just imagine the next six months.

We’re not rebuilding the past.
We’re building forward, using the lessons of our pasts to learn, teach, and GROW!

And we’re doing it together.

Love y'all!

-K. McGraw