Melody Pickens

Why West Virginians in coal country are turning to beekeeping Leisa Moten has a stable job as a church administrative assistant in West Virginia, but like some others in her town of Pipestem, which has a population of 846, she is living below the poverty line, earning $15,800 a year. Where she lives in southern West Virginia, the poverty rate reaches as high as 28 percent in certain areas, and unemployment in some counties is more than twice the national average. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Beekeeping- an alternative for West Virginia Plagued by poverty and unemployment due to the decline in the coal industry, West Virginia is looking to reinvent itself. Beekeeping just might be the answer. Appalachian Beekeeping Collective is a new nonprofit in southern West Virginia teaching those affected by the plummeting coal industry a new trade. With the help of locals, they are hel...

For my Capstone project, I am hoping to work with the Animal Welfare Society of Jefferson County developing a social media campaign for their Facebook page. For this project, I am looking at two research sources, one from ASPCA and the other from the No Kill Advocacy Center . The ASPCA article outlines approximately how many pets pass through-and remain- in humane societies and adoption centers annually in the US. It also goes into detail about how many people have pets within their household and the approximate surrender rate. The article from the No Kill Advocacy Center goes into detail about percentage of cats and dogs that get euthanized in the United States, with the vast majority of them having a good quality of life remaining. This source also contains helpful statistics on pets and the care that their adopters provide for them. From these sources, I have learned that there is a significantly larger number of animals being euthanized needlessly within the US. I also learned t...