Over the past 2 years my Birthday Fundraisers have raised nearly $10,000 for three different, very important organizations: Sweet Springs Resort Park Foundation, WV Rivers Coalition on Facebook and Indian Creek Watershed Association with GoFundMe. I certainly appreciate the support.

This year I decided not to do a Facebook Fundraiser …… but in the past few days I realized that there were two individuals who do a great deal for many people in our community, whether it be within the community of Hans Creek, Monroe County or the greater community that is working to save the region from way too many threats. Those two people are Herman and Paula Mann. They do photography and video work for many important causes and events open free to the public with little or no financial support.

This past Tuesday they took that to a whole new level. We needed pictures from the top of Peters Mountain and getting up there has proven to be difficult. But Herman, age 86 & Paula took a 9.5 hour hike, carrying all their supplies on their backs to get the photos that are needed by so many people for the US Forest Service and the US Army Corp of Engineers comment period. To say this was hard would be an understatement. It was actually an incredible feat.

One immediate need they have is to replace one of the two computers Paula uses to make videos. She also needs to send the one that just crashed to the shop to recover valuable files and have have the other one serviced.

To see the nearly 100 videos she has made since 2016, you can go to her YouTube Page:

https://www.youtube.com/@OliverPhotographyGreenville/videos

Therefore, my request for this year’s Birthday Fundraiser (2-16-23) is that people make a donation to Paula’s GoFundMe. The link is here:

https://www.gofundme.com/awareness-of-impacts-of-a-pipeline

Thanks, Maury of Monroe County, WV

P.S. Your support will help her to continue her valuable community work.