Appalachia's Hometown Heroes [View all]

If you know of an individual or group dedicated to improving the lives of people in Appalachia, please let us know about it in this thread so we can duly celebrate them!

I'll start this off today with this article...

http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/news/home_top-news/150116546/Steven-A.-Hunter-Hope-Fund-benefits-from-dental-program
The Portsmouth Times (Ohio)
Steven A. Hunter Hope Fund benefits from dental program
by Frank Lewia
October 11, 2014

Dr. Tracy Murray and his team, through the Crown Council Annual Smiles for Life campaign, have provided teeth whitening services to patients at reduced rates and donated 100 percent of the proceeds to children who face disabilities, serious illnesses, lack of medical care and decreased opportunities. Half of the funds go to a local charity.

Thursday afternoon at Murray’s office located at 1010 Gallia Street in Portsmouth Murray, his wife Rhonda Murray, and their staff presented a check for $2,080 to Mark and Virgie Hunter of the Steven A. Hunter Hope Fund as their local charity. The goal of the Steven A Hunter Hope Fund is to provide goods, services, and resources for the benefit of the students of Scioto County with financial needs in Hunter’s memory...

... Mark Hunter said, with last year’s donation, Murray had provided over $20,000 since 2006. And with this year’s donation, the total stands at over $22,000. Hunter said the important figure is the amount of children those $22,000 have fed. That money provides almost 30,000 meals.

“Our budget, just for food now is up to $75,000-plus a year,” Mark Hunter said. “I know we’re out there a lot asking people for help and working to get grants but it takes an awful lot of different pieces to work out and certainly Dr. Murray and his team is a fantastic part. The Hope fund is a community effort, both in the funds that are raised and the volunteers in the schools - the teachers who make it run. The teachers who determine which children go on because they see them every day. The teachers do the distribution. They keep the records. It really is a whole community effort all around that makes this work. That’s why we’re confident the help really gets to the kids that need it.”.... MORE at link provided above.

For more on the Stephen A. Hunter Hope Fund, see: http://www.stevenshopefund.org/