AmeriCorps Vista member and Dana Myslinsky gives an informative community outreach presentation to the Wetzel County Chamber of Commerce during their Board of Directors meeting held on June 29.

The Wetzel County Chamber of Commerce welcomed Dana Myslinsky to their Board of Directors meeting held June 29 to share what a Vista volunteer from AmeriCorps could do to increase community outreach. The chamber is actively pursuing the hiring of a Vista volunteer to help better engage the chamber with the entire county.

Volunteers In Service To America was founded in West Virginia in 1965. Vista was born in conjunction to The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which was developed to serve the needs of the poorest Americans.

To that end, Vista builds capacity in non-profit organizations and communities to help bring individuals and communities out of poverty, as they have for over 45 years.

To date, nearly 6,000 Vista members serve in hundreds of non-profit organizations and public agencies throughout the country, working to promote literacy, improve health services, create businesses, increase housing opportunities, or bridge the digital divide.

As a Vista member presently working for the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia in Charleston, W.Va., Myslinsky focused on many ways Vista volunteers fight the war on poverty; notably the poverty of spirit.

Myslinsky stated many don’t know how to engage and work in their community. “The chamber could tackle that with a Vista member,” she said.

To that end, the chamber brainstormed on why those in the community might feel a poverty of spirit and how the chamber could help raise those spirits.

Job availability and poor health and self-worth were among those aspects listed that contribute to individuals’ lowering spirits.

Myslinsky added that having pride in where you come from was a huge aspect to finding the spirit needed to become active in the community. “Through the chamber you can enable people,” Myslinsky stated.

Chamber President Don Riggenbach added the chamber needed to recognize these problems affecting the citizens of Wetzel County, noting he himself did not get the “feel of the poverty problem” that is here. “We need to start the process of making Wetzel County aware of these problems,” he affirmed.

The chamber hopes adding a Vista member would help bridge the physical and communicational gaps between citizens in the county, particularly those in outlying areas, to help increase community involvement and allow the chamber to better serve the county.