Community members answer the question ‘what makes a good neighbor?’

A place for the community to submit poems, drawings and art.

Appalachian Outreach, Inc. is a charitable organization that provides everything from household goods to food, clothing and hygiene products with the goal of easing the burden of poverty. 

Mourning our dead is one of the oldest and most important functions of a society; but it is one that tragically too many members of our overlooked communities miss out on - either the opportunity to do so for their friends and family, or at their own passing. We offer this section - with as much information as possible and certainly in the Dorothy Day spirit that “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly” - to try our meager best to show our friends and neighbors the dignity in death that we know every person possesses.

Wheeling Street Doctor William Mercer teamed up with a big-city street medicine team during a visit to Los Angeles. The trip taught him some new techniques, while affirming the groundbreaking street medicine work that Wheeling is already doing at home. 

I cried when I first saw and spent time with the Saint John’s Bible. It was the resurrection illumination (the pictures that accompany the biblical text) with Jesus telling Mary Magdalene, and all of us, “don’t hold on to me...”

I’ve always heard crying at art was a thing. My mother and sister, both artists, could regularly get a few tears going on  family trips to the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. I’m more of a crier at things like “Les Miserables,” church, and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” always “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But never art. While I like opportunities to evoke an emotional experience,  I always wondered, what were they seeing in Monet, or Van Gogh that I was just missing? 

So when tears started at the hand painted illumination in the Saint John’s Bible, it finally  registered for me.

West Virginia is no stranger to pulling the shortest straw. 

Since its inception, this state and its people have been subject to ruthless natural resource extraction, harmful legal systems, and widespread social and political manipulation. Although the state has found itself in the grip of the so-called Make America Great Again movement, there are many here who empathize with their immigrant neighbors and are working hard behind the scenes to support them. 

Ryan was a 31-year-old convicted felon who ran the streets of Wood County as a kid, abandoned by a father he never knew and weighed down by a legacy of family addictions and dysfunction, along with the racism he endured as one of the only kids of color in his community.

He says he never really felt like he “had a place in the world” and that he was somehow “less than” the people and the world around him. Nothing in his life made him believe that he had any potential worth or value, and he found his “safety in hiding from the world.” 

Mustard Seed Mountain’s editor sat down for an interview with Ohio Valley Mutual Aid (OVMA) volunteer and organizer Libby Horacek to discuss mutual aid: what it is, what it entails, and how you can get involved.

It is nearly six months since Wheeling closed its exempted homeless camp in freezing December temperatures, displacing around sixty individuals. 

Some former camp residents are now in permanent housing, but many more are staying in abandoned buildings and local shelters. For certain groups, there is still not a clear path forward. 

Test your crossword solving skills.

As an Uplift WV member and artist,  Idle is one of the lead curators of Inside→OUT: incARceraTion, a traveling exhibit that fosters community conversations and education on mass incarceration and the need for community-driven, supportive reentry in West Virginia and across the nation. This might seem unexpected, as Idle is incarcerated at Mount Olive Correctional Facility, serving a life-without-mercy sentence. He views his work as an opportunity for restitution — to repair the harm he has caused and to help create the world he needed as a child.

I have been a Chef for almost 20 years and have worked in the restaurant/hospitality industry for 31 years. The industry is notoriously known for its “work hard, play hard” philosophy. The shifts are generally long as well as physically and mentally demanding. A lot of workers turn to substances when the shift ends to try and decompress and numb the anxiety, including myself.

For a long time, I thought fun and substances were basically the same thing. Not exactly—but close enough that I didn’t question it.

Celebrations meant using. Stress meant using. Boredom meant using. Even happiness somehow circled back to it. I told myself I was having fun. And sometimes, even in the moment, it felt that way. But the part I didn’t talk about—the part that mattered more—was what came the next morning

There are two notable references to the mustard seed in New Testament scripture that feel relevant to this Street paper and the world right now. One passage, which uses a metaphor for Heaven (Matthew 13:31-32), describes a farmer who plants the smallest of seeds, and yet it grows into a big tree that holds all the birds of the air. The other reference states that faith, even the size of a mustard seed, can move mountains and accomplish the seemingly impossible.

Dear reader,

After a two-year hiatus, I am SO excited to say that Mustard Seed Mountain, West Virginia’s first Street Paper, is back! 

My name is Niamh Coomey and I ended up in Wheeling a year and some odd months ago through a series of pretty random circumstances and decisions – just as any of us end up anywhere, I suppose.

Come party to support the relaunch of West Virginia's first street paper, Mustard Seed Mountain!

Join us at the Urban Collective on Friday, May 15 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for a night of live music from Stone Campus, Mocktails from Midge's Kitchen, exclusive merch offerings, readings from our spring issue and other activities!

Welcome to Mustard Seed Mountain’s website! My name is Niamh Coomey and I am the new editor of the Wheeling, West Virginia street newspaper working to destigmatize homelessness one story at a time. After a two-year hiatus, me and a team of awesome volunteers and nonprofit workers with the Mother Jones Center for Resilient Community are working on bringing regular editions of the paper back into publication.

The White House Historical Association recently opened a new, cutting-edge education experience in Washington, D.C., a first-of-its-kind, immersive center telling the story of the Executive Mansion, its inhabitants, and the people who have dedicated their careers to its functions.

“Like in most cities, transportation is part of the heart of our city."