Someday is now: Donate to ReTails
I wasn’t born a collector — I was raised to be a collector by my parents and grandparents. They survived the Depression and learned to find value in everything. The smallest washer, broken tool or threadbare jeans could be used, repaired or repurposed — someday.
I share this mindset — but I’m worse! I keep clothing that someday I might wear. I keep jewelry that hasn’t been worn for years. I have furniture my grandkids might want — someday! I might use those lamps when I redecorate. I’ll get the Fiestaware out of storage as soon as I pack up my “blue” collection — someday. I’ll get my car into the garage — someday!
But my someday became now when, after emptying his late parents’ home to sell, my son-in-law put his arm around my shoulder and pleaded, “Mom, I never want to do that again.”
If any of this sounds familiar, I have a wonderful solution — a thrift store in the Morgantown Mall in Westover called ReTails by M-SNAP really needs your donations today. You can drop off items at the back door every day. (Sorry no clothing or large appliances.) Your donations will be attractively displayed for sale, and the profits will help fund the Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program’s (M-SNAP) voucher program.
It fills my heart with satisfaction that my treasures will be enjoyed by someone else, that a dog or cat will be “fixed,” that my kids will be relieved and that now my car can move back into the garage.
M-SNAP is an all-volunteer nonprofit founded in 2008. Its mission is to reduce pet overpopulation, eliminating the need to euthanize dogs and cats in Mon County.
Whether you’re spring cleaning, redecorating or downsizing (like me), please donate your stuff to ReTails and make a difference. Also, please consider becoming a volunteer to help us save more animals that may not have more tomorrows.
For more information, go to www.m-snap.org or call ReTails at 304-983-8899.
Nancy Young
Morgantown
Celebrate the Cheat for National Rivers Month
It’s been over a month since the Cheat River Festival that annually celebrates and raises funds for our beloved Cheat River, and this year’s festival has flooded me with reminders of the connections the Cheat River provides.
The Cheat River connects our family to this place. Our children were born in the Cheat watershed, and our immersion with the watershed nurtures our family physically, intellectually and spiritually. We’re a family of scientists, educators and adventurers who paddle, swim and study the Cheat River.
It is through hard work and community connections that the once-polluted Cheat River now offers some of the cleanest waters in the area. The Cheat’s renewal connected a community of people from different backgrounds, creating solutions and hope for the future.
June is National Rivers Month, a great time to focus on reconnecting the Cheat to its natural state. The Cheat’s total 78 miles is interrupted by First Energy’s Albright Dam, built to feed the cooling towers of a nearby power plant. That plant closed its doors permanently in 2012, so the dangerous lowhead dam only serves as a hazard to recreationists and as a barrier to fish.
Removing the dam would improve our fish populations and allow access to a restricted section of the river. Across the country, obsolete dams are being removed to restore fish populations, revitalize communities and remove hazards and liabilities. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently allocated over $1 million toward restoring fish passage through the dam.
Use National Rivers Month as your opportunity to learn about your local river and the opportunities to form connections with the watershed. Consider joining Friends of the Cheat, attending an event, or supporting the re-connection of the river and its communities in perpetuity.
Sera Janson Zegre
Morgantown
Guns not the problem — lack of moral compass is
A lot has been said over the past weeks regarding what to do about the gun violence, which has taken several lives. The mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, brought the issue to the table again. I think the latest gun control plan is nothing more treating a symptom, not treating the disease.
Our problem isn’t firearms, it isn’t large magazines, it isn’t even that we are failing to treat the mentally ill. Our problem is we have raised several generations lacking any moral compass. We have glorified violence in movies and elsewhere. We have raised generations to believe a living being which poses an inconvenience is expendable. We have done that through abortion and euthanasia. We have wrecked the nuclear family. Far too many children today are being raised without fathers. It seems parents are more than willing to make the child, but completely unwilling to raise and care for the child. We have removed discipline from the home and school. We no longer hold people accountable for their actions. We managed to do this by removing God from the public forum.
You can confiscate all the firearms from all citizens, but you will not solve the problem. All you will do is change the tools used by people bent on harming others.
The first place to begin in solving a problem is to honestly admit there is a problem. Our problem is we have raised several generations without a moral compass. Until we admit that and start to honestly take steps to correct it, things are not going to change.
Bill Hill
Morgantown
O happy day! Stretch of Kingwood Pike is paved
Yes, it was a happy day when I traveled the Kingwood Pike recently and saw that its entire length had been repaved from the four-way stop in Reedsville in Preston County to the Monongalia County line. The center stripes have been painted also. Hopefully the numerous potholes on the Mon County side will be fixed soon.
But holy cow — when will Holland Avenue in Westover and Brockway Avenue at the Hogback Turn get the attention they need? Driving those stretches reminds us that so much improvement is needed. Both are major thoroughfares for their respective areas and don’t represent them well at all.
A gas tip: with our super high gas prices, optimal driving speeds for gas efficiency are in the 55–65 mph range, according to the internet. Truly, it is tough to slow down when on the interstates, but it may keep some money in your pocket.
Deb Miller
Reedsville
