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A barge on the Ohio River. Photo by Huntington Area CVB.
Old Main at Marshall University. Photo by Huntington Area CVB.
A statue of Marshall
University’s mascot, Marco.
Photo by Huntington Area CVB.
SAMANTHA CART
Heritage Station. Photo by Huntington Area CVB.
Redefining Huntington
Recovery, Revitalization and Renaissance
In the afterward of his popular 2015 book “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” Sam Quinones ponders
the decline of community as a predecessor to the drug epidemic in America.
“We wound up dangerously separate from each other—whether in poverty or affluence,” he writes. “Kids no longer play in
the street. Parks are underused. Dreamland lies buried beneath a strip mall. Why then do we wonder that heroin is everywhere?
In our isolation, heroin thrives; that’s its natural habitat. A life that finds opioids turns away from family and community
and devotes itself entirely to self-gratification by buying and consuming one product—the drug that makes being alone not
just all right, but preferable. I believe more strongly than ever that the antidote to heroin is community.”
It is this same belief in the importance and transformative power of community that has taken root in Huntington, WV,
which has in the past been labeled the drug overdose capital of America.
“What I have learned in my life is when I focus just on me, I start to die inside,” says Huntington Mayor Steve Williams.
“But things change when you start to focus on others and how you are able to improve other people’s lives. My vision for
Huntington is to show we can overcome by joining together and everyone taking ownership of our problems. My expectation
is that what is defining Huntington will begin to define West Virginia and in turn define Appalachia. Then the folks of
Appalachia will look at us and say, ‘If they can do it, we can do it.’ What I want us to do in Huntington is set a standard the
rest of the nation seeks to emulate—and it’s happening.”
From becoming a model for recovery to being named America’s Best Community (ABC), the city dubbed by the media
as ground zero for the nation’s drug epidemic is making a significant comeback. The secret to its success? Collaboration.
Across neighborhoods and socioeconomic groups and industries—public and private, for-profit and nonprofit—the people of
Huntington are working together to create change and spur recovery, revitalization and renaissance in the Jewel City.
WWW.WVEXECUTIVE.COM
WINTER 2019
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