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Ashlie Howard 8/4/26 Ashlie Howard 8/4/26

Quenton “Q” Northcraft: The Quiet Mountain Mover

Some people make an impression the moment you meet them. They carry themselves with a quiet confidence, possess a seemingly endless well of knowledge, and have an uncanny ability to solve problems that leave everyone else scratching their heads. More importantly, they use those gifts not for recognition, but to make life better for the people around them. Quenton “Q” Northcraft is one of those rare people.

The Market Crew 8/4/26 The Market Crew 8/4/26

Getting Free at the Really Really Free Market

Last October, seeing a need in our community, a group of local friends decided to create a temporary space where people could access resources they needed without paying money or asking the state for help. By starting the Really Really Free Market (RRFM) in Wheeling, we were carrying on a modern-day anarchist tradition that many diverse communities have engaged in over the past twenty years.

Niamh Coomey 8/3/26 Niamh Coomey 8/3/26

Editor’s Desk: Issue 8

Dear reader,

There’s a certain kind of magic in Wheeling during the summer. The way the lush, green hills cascade around The Ohio; the way the city comes alive with outdoor music and festivals; the way the air becomes heavier and hazy yet everything feels a little lighter.

But it’s important to note that this summer hasn’t been easy for some of our neighbors. When the Valley was hit with a dangerous heatwave over the Fourth of July weekend, little to no efforts were made on the part of the city to provide cool, safe spaces for unhoused people. There is actually no city emergency plan for extreme weather for unhoused individuals.

Kate Marshall 8/3/26 Kate Marshall 8/3/26

Director’s Desk: Issue 8

Recently, the City of Wheeling announced the creation of a “Homeless Task Force” and, more recently, announced that Rabbi Joshua Lief would serve as chair of the committee and as one of several faith leaders. This is a very helpful lens to bring to conversations about homelessness for many reasons, especially when the stigma of being “homeless” often comes with being dehumanized for lacking one main material thing – money. But it is not money that gives human life value – or at least it shouldn’t.

Staff 8/3/26 Staff 8/3/26

Setting the Stage for Wheeling’s Homeless Taskforce

In June, Mayor Denny Magruder announced the formation of a new taskforce to address the issue of homelessness in Wheeling. Magruder said the taskforce will be “guided by local clerics” and is intended to “balance compassion with accountability.” At the time of publication, the council has released little information about the makeup and specifics of the group aside from its chair – Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom. As Wheeling’s ‘Homeless Taskforce’ takes shape, Mustard Seed Mountain reflects on the last decade of advocacy for our homeless neighbors.

Justice Hudson 8/3/26 Justice Hudson 8/3/26

Demanding Due Diligence: Warwood Organizes Against a Data Center

As the sun rises over Ohio County, J. Arnold steps out her front door overlooking the southern portion of Warwood, a Wheeling neighborhood two miles north of the city’s urban core. It’s a quiet neighborhood, all things considered. Arnold can see the mighty Ohio River with the town of Martins Ferry, Ohio, to the west. Through her neighbor’s yards, she can see a shopping complex close enough to hear conversations held in the parking lot. South of the former Save-a-Lot, Arnold sees the historic Centre Foundry and its gray-blue walls.

When Arnold first bought her home, Centre Foundry was still an operating steel mill – the same steel mill that lasted some 183 years since its founding before West Virginia was even a state. In 2023, the foundry quieted as its furnaces ran cold, parking lots emptied, jobs evaporated, and its doors closed for one final time. Now, a new business is preparing to move in; and it’s a neighbor Arnold, and other Warwood residents, are concerned about.

Ashlie Howard 6/15/26 Ashlie Howard 6/15/26

“Tri-me-delphia” — A Flood Story

June 14th was a productive day for me. I had just replaced the banister railings on both sides of my steps that led up to my back porch, cleaned off the porch, and set up the new storage bench I had put together the day before. I had also laid a new patio the previous weekend. The place was really coming together. I had been steadily working on my trailer almost every weekend since 2023. My plan was to sell it and use that money for a down payment on purchasing a house.

Staff 6/3/26 Staff 6/3/26

Street Stickies

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

Staff 6/1/26 Staff 6/1/26

Arts & Culture

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

Staff 6/1/26 Staff 6/1/26

Heard it on the Mountain

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.

Staff 6/1/26 Staff 6/1/26

Obituaries

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.

Niamh Coomey 5/27/26 Niamh Coomey 5/27/26

A Wheeling Street Doctor Takes L.A.

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.

Vincent DeGeorge 5/27/26 Vincent DeGeorge 5/27/26

The First Handwritten Bible in 500 Years Visits Wheeling

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.

Oceanna Smith 5/26/26 Oceanna Smith 5/26/26

Know Your Rights with ICE

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.

Betsy Steinfeld Jividen 5/26/26 Betsy Steinfeld Jividen 5/26/26

Finding Common Ground

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.”

Niamh Coomey 5/22/26 Niamh Coomey 5/22/26

“Neighbors Helping Neighbors”: What is Mutual Aid?

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.

Niamh Coomey 5/21/26 Niamh Coomey 5/21/26

The Camp Closure — What’s Next?

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.

Hannah Hedrick 5/20/26 Hannah Hedrick 5/20/26

She’ll be Coming ‘Round the (Mustard Seed) Mountain

Test your crossword solving skills.

Kate Marshall 5/20/26 Kate Marshall 5/20/26

Beyond The Walls: From Cell to Sacred

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.

Melissa Rebholz 5/20/26 Melissa Rebholz 5/20/26

I’m A Chef and I’m Sober

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.