West Virginia
Dirty Birds to host fifth consecutive African American Heritage Night next week – WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.V.a. — The Charleston Dirty Birds will soon be hosting its fifth straight installment of African American Heritage Night at GoMart Ballpark.
The Dirty Birds will host the celebration next Monday, August 5, and Tuesday, August 6. The two-day event will feature a Monday reception where Roberto Clemente Jr., son of Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member Roberto Clemente, will speak. The Monday portion of the event will be sponsored by the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau, and James Beard Award-winning Chef Paul Smith will do the cooking.
Tuesday will highlight a nationally known dancer as Kida the Great will perform before the Dirty Birds welcome the Lexington Legends into town. Gates will open on Tuesday at 5 o’clock, and a pre-game showtime is set for 5:30, with a number of performers taking the field before Kida the Great begins.
Charleston Dirty Birds owner Andy Shea says this will be a big two days, but the planning process for the event spanned across the year.
“These two days are a gigantic celebration, and kind of an explanation point, but it is 365 days, on the field, off the field, in the community, pertaining to baseball, not baseball, so it is a gigantic mission of ours,” Shea said Monday afternoon.
In addition to the performances and speeches, several Dirty Birds players and manager P.J. Phillips will be leading a baseball clinic to introduce the game to the youth of Charleston. The YWCA Charleston will sponsor the clinic and is purchasing a baseball glove for each participant.
Shea says he loves that kids will get introduced to the game and see how people have made a living in baseball.
“I love that people and kids get a chance to see these guys that are playing professional baseball, that have played in the big leagues, that have played in AAA, that have made a great career and living from it, that they did it through baseball,” Shea said.
Shea also said that he had spent a multitude of years in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and in that time, he saw a couple of reasons why some youth in the African American community didn’t fall in love with the game of baseball.
“I think that accessibility and introduction to it was certainly part of it, but I also think a gigantic part of it was that the guy next to them wasn’t playing,” Shea said. “The older cousin didn’t play, the older brother didn’t play, so then they didn’t play.”
Shea said that Charleston took a big step forward in bringing kids across the city to the knowledge of baseball with nice, accessible fields.
“I think as a community, we took a major step forward, in terms of all the artificial turf fields that are within Charleston now because accessibility is a giant one,” Shea said. “Being able to have these artificial turf fields that are very accessible and that are useable pretty much 24/7, 365, that is a gigantic step.”
Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin was on hand for the conference announcing the 5th African American Heritage Night and says the team’s outreach for the youth in the community is why she always supports these events.
“Every single thing that this ballpark is now doing is centered around children,” Goodwin said. “That’s why I’m always in.”
Jennifer Pharr, a Charleston City Council member and early supporter of the team’s African American Hertiage Night, says baseball is for everybody.
“Baseball is important to everyone,” Pharr said. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re red, green, purple, black, or with pink polka dots. It matters to everybody.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – The Verizon Network is currently experiencing a widespread outage across West Virginia.
A service alert was sent to residents in Kanawha County.
Verizon customers should still be able to call 911.
If a Verizon customer experiences an issue with contacting 911, a landline should be used if possible.
However, only contact 911 if there is a true emergency.
At this time, Verizon is not giving an estimated time for restoration.
Copyright 2026 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
JACKSON COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Alyssa’s Law passed through the West Virginia Legislature, creating a fund to bring panic buttons and other life-saving technology to schools statewide.
Del. Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, who helped create Alyssa’s Law, said, “Every teacher, every staff member equipped with a wearable panic button that allows them a literal one push to the 911 center, to local law enforcement and EMS.”
Alyssa Alhadeff was a 14-year-old who died alongside 16 other students in the Parkland school shooting in 2018. Her parents are giving the first official funds to West Virginia through the organization called Make Our Schools Safe.
“They’ll make a contribution this evening of $48,888,” Pinson said. “That number 8 is recurring because it was Alyssa’s volleyball number.”
The state Department of Education is giving $348,888 to the fund, as well.
In Jackson County, local funding helped bring in panic buttons, and deputies are required to spend time in schools every week.
Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger said the panic buttons give local law enforcement maps and an alert to their phone.
“It’s a pretty big lift to get the money and we’re looking at $9.5-10 million to get this thing done, and the sad reality is if we had a school shooting tomorrow, we would bend over backwards to get you the money then, but at that point it’s too little too late,” Mellinger said.
He said he wants to be proactive and encourages other counties to do the same.
Pinson said the cost of technology will drop over time, and Alyssa’s Law allows more safety upgrades in the future.
Pinson said Jackson County is a perfect example of what kind of upgrades are possible.
“Right here in Jackson County, they are unveiling AI driven cameras that can immediately alert the school and local law enforcement if a person of concern were to come on campus,” he said.
Leaders hope this technology can save lives across West Virginia. Pinson said the initial cost for panic buttons is about $20,000 per school and the fund is held with Homeland Security until hitting the goal of about $10 million.
Copyright 2026 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
GRAFTON, W.Va. — The 159th annual West Virginia Memorial Day Parade is set to take place in Grafton on May 25th. The parade will begin at 10 a.m.
This tradition that Grafton residents hold near and dear to their hearts has been recognized nationwide as the longest continuous running Memorial Day parade in the country.
“We tightened up our boot straps, and hopefully we will put on a very nice program and remember what the day is about this year,” Scott Willis, Parade Committee Chairman, said.
In 2016, the West Virginia Legislature designated Grafton’s parade as the Official Memorial Day Parade of West Virginia, a distinction earned through unwavering devotion, remembrance, and community pride.
“Grafton does it right, we really do,” Willis stated. “We hold true to what the day is about and understand the importance of Grafton, as it has the only national cemeteries in the state.”
As the parade continues to grow, Grafton hopes that more volunteers will continue to offer aid and assistance.
“We’re always looking for volunteers,” Willis said. “We’re a complete volunteer organization that puts this on every year.”
In addition to seeking volunteers, to further prepare for this event, Grafton will be hosting organizational meetings every Monday up until Memorial Day weekend at the City Council Chambers. The meetings will begin at 7 p.m. The meetings will aid in discussing volunteer work, logistics of the entire event, and consider some of the success in previous years.
“We feel we have a responsibility not only to the participants and the patrons of this, but our biggest responsibility is to those who lay beneath the white markers at both of our national cemeteries in Grafton because that’s what the day is about,” Willis added.
Those interested in learning more about the event or seeking to volunteer, may email parade@wvmemorialday.com or visit wvmemorialday.com.
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