Modern Day Slavery A Look at Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking is widely defined as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, providing, or obtaining of a person for a commercial sex or labor services act, in which a commercial sex act or labor service is induced by force, fraud, or coercion” (Trafficking Victims Protection Act-TVPA). Let’s break that definition down. There are two main types of trafficking: labor and sex trafficking. Labor trafficking, in practice, looks like farm work with little to no pay and unhealthy living conditions or a false promise of a grand job in a far-away land, only for the applicant to arrive and be exploited. Sex trafficking, in practice, would be a husband selling his wife for drugs or a pimp exploiting the need for love in a 14-year-old girl and selling her to “Johns” (purchasers of sex) within the community. Unfortunately, this heinous act is occurring in communities like ours across the country. Shenandoah Women’s Center (SWC), the only licensed victim service provider in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, reported that it saw more than 80 victims of human trafficking in 2017. Out of those 80, 78 were born in the U.S., and most of them are from the Eastern Panhandle. The most common forms of trafficking throughout the I-81 corridor are familial trafficking and intimate partner trafficking. Familial trafficking involves a family member or guardian selling his or her child/family member for sex or labor services to profit. Intimate partner trafficking is a similar situation, with an intimate partner trafficking his or her partner for profit. Katie Spriggs, Executive Director at SWC, tells the story of a victim SWC served within the last few years: “She presented to us as a victim of sexual assault, but the more we heard, the more we suspected she was being trafficked. She was 19 years old when we met her, but had been trafficked by her boyfriend for more than 3 years. She met him through friends when she was 15, and he was 25. She came from a home with two successful parents and self-identified as someone who had a loving family. He took time to groom her (grooming defined in WV Code as “predatory act” means an act directed at a stranger or at a person with whom a relationship has been established or promoted for the primary purpose of victimization). He showered her with attention and love and convinced her that she was destined for more than what this small community had to offer. He told her, in order for them to get out of here, she needed to help him earn money. He convinced her that a quick way to make money...
Unite with the United Way for a Better Society
Article By: Bonnie Williamson Photos By: Josh Triggs Making life better for the residents of the West Virginia counties of Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan is the mission of the volunteer-driven nonprofit United Way of the Eastern Panhandle, Inc. Through grants, donations and hard-working volunteers, the United Way partners with a variety of community organizations to foster hope, prosperity and opportunity for everyone, according to Penny Porter, the organization’s CEO. Porter says the three areas her organization concentrates on are education, financial stability and health. “Through our Community Solutions Fund, we currently fund 34 programs at 29 different organizations in the tri-county area,” Porter says. “Those programs align with specific goals in our collective, community impact model. We also work to build partnerships that help to leverage the financial investment of our grants. Our volunteers are currently reviewing new grant applications.” Porter, who has been CEO for three years, graduated from Hedgesville High School and received her degree in accounting from then Shepherd College [now Shepherd University]. Right out of college she went to work in Washington, DC, for U.S. Senator Jay John Davison “Jay” Rockefeller IV, who represented West Virginia from 1985 to 2015. Starting a career with the United Way was a good fit. “I wanted to continue working on the issues he cared so deeply about,” she says. Porter shares that commitment. “I feel privileged to work for United Way as it provides an opportunity to help make a difference in the community I call home,” Porter says. “I grew up in Martinsburg and am grateful for the chance to raise my own daughters in our beautiful Mountain State. My family’s roots were also heavily influenced by poverty so many of the issues that we try to address at United Way are near and dear to my heart.” The United Way movement started more than 128 years ago in Colorado when interested citizens developed a central, volunteer-driven organization and process to evaluate their community’s growing charitable needs. Porter said a trophy owned by the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle notes a date of 1928, celebrating the conduct of a Martinsburg Community Fund Campaign. “Pictures and minute books note the later founding of our other county United Ways. These items are a testament to the long history of the United Way in the Eastern Panhandle. In one form or another, United Way has been making a difference in the lives of Eastern Panhandle citizens for more than 80 years,” Porter says. The United Way of the Eastern Panhandle seeks to improve the community and create opportunities to help families become financially secure. “We want to provide pathways...
Mass Printing & Marketing Needs, All Fulfilled Locally
Article By: Bonnie Williamson Photos By: Josh Triggs It’s one of the largest independently owned graphics firms in the mid-Atlantic region, and continues to grow. Hagerstown Bookbinding & Printing, now HBP, Inc., a printing and graphic design company with plants in Hagerstown, MD. and Falls Church, VA., has been in business since 1903. Its two facilities comprise more than 165,000 square feet of reduction space. The company started out producing stationary, notices, posters, and other materials using hand-fed letter presses. It’s hard to imagine or compare printing techniques used then and at the beginning of offset printing in 1875 to the sophisticated technology on hand now. Then, an inked image was transferred [or offset] from a plate or what was called a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. Rolls with ink were utilized. It was a very labor intensive, hands-on process. HBP continued to evolve as an early adopter of technology in order to succeed in a changing industry. It is constantly adapting and remaining relevant in that rapidly changing environment. “Printing remains a vital means of communication,” says Stuart Mullendore, vice president of marketing and general services, and president of AdvantEdge Marketing Services, Inc., an HBP affiliate. HBP has successfully taken communication, as well as printing, to a whole new level. The company supports local, national and global customers by coupling offset, digital and wide format printing with a host of technological solutions that enable clients to efficiently and effectively manage sales campaigns, online storefront operations and e-marketing initiatives, according to Mullendore. Mullendore says he is particularly proud that HBP has been certified by the federal Government Printing Office (GPO) as a Level 1 Printer. “That speaks to the quality of this complicated work,” says Patrick Sell, an account executive for the company. “We recently made a calendar for NASA.” HBP manages printing and communications projects for a variety of government and industry segments, including corporations, associations, non-profit clients, healthcare and financial service providers, educational institutions and publishers. The Hagerstown HBP plant has an in-house post office. The United States Post Office (USPS) Expedited Plant Load Service provides customers with direct access to the US mail stream. “We do many direct mail campaigns. Customers don’t even have to come here. They can manage projects from their desktops,” Mullendore says. Sell adds that the in-house post office is a unique service, along with another service HBP offers: an onsite design studio. “We have a fully staffed, award winning design studio. We handle projects from the beginning to the end, right here,” says Sell. “We can produce a wide variety of graphics, banners, signs, posters and more. With elections...
Chop, Chew, Be Content, Then Repeat at Burkett’s Deli
Article By: Karen Gardner Photos By: Josh Triggs Burkett’s Deli is a neighborhood eatery right in downtown Hagerstown, the sort of place where everybody feels at home. Owner Charles Burkett and his wife Wendy took over a sandwich shop and convenience store at the same location eight and a half years ago, and Charles has turned the restaurant into the kind of place he’d like to take his own family to. Friendly, unpretentious, with the kind of home-cooked food that keeps the locals and out of town visitors returning again and again. Burkett bought the building that houses the restaurant at 23 N. Locust St. a decade ago, and when the sandwich shop closed shortly thereafter, he decided to try his dream of running a restaurant. For 20 years he operated a commercial cleaning and property management business, but he loved to cook. “It’s a lot different than what people think it is,” he said of the restaurant business. “You could make a hundred different types of cole slaw, and still not please everyone. But I’ve gotten used to not being able to please everybody.” But he has pleased a lot of people. By 1 p.m. on a gloomy March day, he had already sold out of his signature cream of crab soup. He emphasized that he makes the soup, like just about everything else, homemade, with fresh ingredients. “I make as much fresh and homemade as possible,” he said. He also knows what his clientele wants. “Being downtown for 20 years, you get to know the people,” he said. “People are my passion, even more than cooking.” Before he went into business for himself, Burkett said he lived on the streets, and struggled. A Hagerstown native, he spent much of his childhood at the San Mar Children’s Home in Boonsboro, and credits San Mar for giving him the tools to deal with his struggles as a young adult. “God blessed me, and if I can help someone else, I will,” he said. He buys his crabmeat from Potomac Seafood because the owner is a local small business owner, just like he is. “We pay a little more for it, but it supports her downtown business.” He likes being downtown, and gets a lot of support from local office workers. Burkett’s also delivers. “I don’t do a lot of advertising,” he said. “It’s mainly word of mouth.” Wendy manages the restaurant’s popular Facebook page, which has many testimonials, and Twitter page, which has the daily specials. Their youngest son, 13, helps in the restaurant one day a week. Their older three children, ages 18, 19 and 25, also spent...
Healing Through Art
Article By: M.T. Decker One of the most devastating sentences a woman or man can hear is “You have cancer.” It’s the start of a shocking roller coaster ride that can leave anyone reeling. Your life can become wrapped around that diagnosis. Treatment options, surgery, chemo, radiation; facing the options can seem worse than the diagnosis. Then there is the treatment itself. It’s a battle that is lived, and your life becomes all about the struggle. In the case of breast cancer, a mastectomy is often necessary, adding physical alterations along with the chemical ones. As one breast cancer survivor said, “The first thing people do when they discover that you’re a breast cancer survivor is they look at your chest. I mean, they just do! Like, “Oh, I see you still have two!” or “Oh gee, you have part of one,” or whatever. It can’t be helped; that’s just what you do, you look.” The Bodice Project has its roots in breast cancer awareness, but it has become something so much more. Working with Identity Crisis, a nonprofit organization that benefits Breast Cancer Awareness – Cumberland Valley (BCA-CV)— the original idea was to put a half silhouette or mannequin in each shop window in Shepherdstown, WV, each representing a breast cancer survivor. Cynthia Fraula-Hahn wanted to do something meaningful and artistic for her best friend from childhood who’d just diagnosed with breast cancer. Since she was a painter, she decided she would use plaster embedded gauze to wrap breast cancer survivors’ torsos. Then each one was painted to represent the essence of these women and men who bravely volunteered for this project. The concept was to show the reality and diversity of what breast cancer looks like, in a manner that sensitively honors each survivor through the visual arts. During the process, her friend said something that to this day sense shivers up Cynthia’s spine. She told Cynthia that going through the process of being wrapped, she no longer felt isolated and alone. It gave her a sense of community. As she began the project, she enlisted other artists in the Shepherdstown area to participate, all of whom said yes. By the end of the awareness campaign, they had amassed a significant amount of artwork displayed in storefront windows in Shepherdstown. Since the results were displayed separately, Cynthia was curious to see how they would look all together. Her curiosity was answered when they were invited to exhibit all the work at the Hagerstown Community College’s art gallery. And the Bodice Project was born. “When you wrap someone, there is this connection between the artist and the survivor,”...
Working to keep customers healthy
Article By: Bonnie Williamson Photos By: Josh Triggs She considers herself to be a translator. No, she doesn’t work for the United Nations or for an embassy in Washington, DC. Kristine Knott, the owner of Shepherdstown Pharmacy in Shepherdstown, WV, says she works to translate what doctors say or fail to say to their patients. Knott, who technically is Dr. Knott having earned her Doctorate of Pharmacy Degree from West Virginia University in 2002, says doctors are sometimes too busy to talk to patients. “We are approachable and accessible to our customers,” Knott says. “We talk to them about their prescriptions. We also talk to doctors to make sure nothing is overlooked like allergies. It’s good to have several eyes, multiple checkpoints.” Knott even made sure the physical layout of the pharmacy was conducive to communicating with customers when she started the business in 2011 with husband Luke, who assists with bookkeeping and other duties as office manager. “We can all see people as soon as they come in,” Knott says. “My staff is within earshot of conversations. I’ll eavesdrop to make sure we know what’s going on at all times. It’s like an old-fashioned pharmacy. We know everyone and they know us. We’re nice to people, which is a dying service. We try to be like the traditional pharmacy people remember. We don’t have the soda fountain kind of counter, but we try for the same feeling.” Knott says the fact that many of her customers travel miles out of their way to come to her pharmacy attests to the quality of work the pharmacy offers. “We get them their prescriptions in a timely manner, as well as making sure those prescriptions are correct and customer questions are answered. We let people know when they are due for vaccinations, too,” Knott says. Shepherdstown Pharmacy also offers its customers a variety of medical equipment supplies other pharmacies don’t such as knee braces, wheelchairs, canes, walkers or blood pressure monitors. The staff will assist customers in picking out the right product, as well as helping customers use products like nebulizers, a drug delivery device. Knott says her pharmacy is also the only one in the area that carries shoes for diabetics. “The shoes have special inserts that prevent slippage and wider toes,” Knott says. The pharmacy is a Diabetes Specialized Care Center. Staff can provide extensive training, expertise and the tools necessary for diabetic patients. Most major insurance carriers and government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are billed for the service. The pharmacy carries a wide range of meters and other diabetes supplies with varying technology levels. Staff can...
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