After the mine disaster,
Parkwood resident is giving back

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

While last week marked two years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, Jessica Johnson found herself focused on another struggling area of the country.
Throughout the summer, the 22-year-old Parkwood resident has amassed everything from bedside bureaus to books to donate to Upshur County, W. Va., an impoverished Appalachian area and the site of the tragic mine collapse that killed 12 miners last summer.
"Appalachians are the poorest people in the country," said Johnson, an Archbishop Ryan High School graduate. "But no aid goes there."
On Saturday, she and her father made the six-hour trek to the mountain region with two truckloads of items. The clothes, books, furniture and other goods will go to the Upshur House, which shelters mostly children, Johnson said. About 83 percent of the town’s youngsters are homeless.
Interviewed before the trip, Johnson, who in December will graduate from Penn State Abington with a degree in corporate communications, expressed surprise that her endeavor even got off the ground.
She organized the donation drive, which she’s tentatively calling Aid for Appalachia, on her own, but used her affiliation with AMVETS, a veterans and community service group whose Southampton club she joined last year, to lend credibility to her cause.
"I didn’t even think this was going to work," she admitted.
But it did. In July, Johnson started distributing fliers and got her contact information posted in the bulletin at St. Anselm’s Church. Soon, people were calling every day, wanting to donate.
"The calls would start at like seven o’clock in the morning and go all day," Johnson said.
Though she accepted used items, many donors went out and bought new things. One of the largest donations Johnson received included 600 schoolbooks from St. Anselm’s.
Johnson’s mom Pat is proud of her daughter’s efforts.
"I don’t know what did it," she said. "I think other places were getting a lot of attention and Appalachia wasn’t."
Other groups, such as the college-run Project Appalachia, send students to the region to build houses for the poor. Johnson claims, however, that few aid organizations exist near the impoverished areas.
She attributes the poor conditions there to the dependence on mining for work and the recurring nature of poverty. According to Poverty in America, an analysis by the Penn State EMS Environment Institute, Upshur’s unemployment rate is about 17 percent above the national rate.
"It’s like a vicious cycle," Johnson said.
In addition to her volunteer work with that group, Johnson is passionate about helping children and taking on the issue of global warming. In her spare time, she rock-climbs and attends jazz shows. Though she eventually wants to do communications for an environmental agency, she plans to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard after college.
Johnson hopes to make Aid for Appalachia a biannual event and set up drop-off points for donations throughout the Northeast. She recommends that other volunteer-minded people throw themselves into an idea.
"Just don’t think about it," she said. "Do it." ••
For more information on how you can donate to Johnson’s cause, contact her at 215-805-6689.
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com