Rewriting McDowell

Once classes ended and the school bell rang, scores of bouncy children flooded into the cafeteria for dinner at Southside K-8 School, one of seven elementary schools in McDowell County, West Virginia.

But just as the children were digging into their food and cartons of juice, several sprang up and ran. In the corner of the room, a familiar face appeared and the children raced to be noticed.

Debbie King, a mild-mannered and gray-haired 61-year-old former teacher, had been retired from the school system for a few years, but she came back almost every week to check in on her babies, as she called them. She combed fingers through their hair, held their small faces in her hands and hugged a few into her side.

“Miss King.” “Miss King.” “Miss King,” the children chirped, pulling on her clothes, elbowing others aside for an extra hug.

“Hold on. Hold on. Let’s each take turns,” she said.

Some students hadn’t seen King in weeks. A recent winter break isolated many at home in the mountain hollows, and some of the children were shaking off holiday loneliness.

Some kids may hate school, but not the ones in McDowell County.

Once a place that held tremendous political sway over West Virginia, McDowell County had become one of the poorest and sickest in America.

Families had been ripped apart by joblessness, drug addiction, depression and lack of opportunity. The brokenness ran so deep, locals said, almost half of children weren’t even living with their biological parents. Drug overdoses and suicide had become the leading causes of death.

And what was left of the once thriving mining town mirrored what was happening all across America, thanks to the steady and precipitous decline of the nation’s working class. It stood, too, as a warning to cities such as Chattanooga about what happened when poverty was left to fester.

A rare experiment with the bold name “Reconnecting McDowell” was taking shape, however.

Volunteers, trying to right the ship, were building partnerships and excitement, and by 2016 their work appeared to be nudging the community toward change.