Wood County Prevention Coalition holds town hall event | News, Sports, Jobs

From left, Greg Puckett from the national Board of Directors of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, Cathy Grewe, coordinator of school counselors and student services for Wood County Schools, Andrew Walker, associate professor of criminal justice at West Virginia University at Parkersburg, and Nancy Creighton, youth services director at Westbrook Health Services, gave presentations during Thursday’s town hall meeting by the Wood County Prevention Coalition. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Prevention Coalition held a town hall meeting Thursday in the multipurpose room at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.

Presentations were given by Greg Puckett from the national Board of Directors of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, Cathy Grewe, coordinator of school counselors and student services for Wood County Schools, Andrew Walker, associate professor of criminal justice at WVU-P, and Nancy Creighton, youth services director at Westbrook Health Services.

The focus was on drug use and mental health issues involving school-aged children in Wood County from elementary school through middle and high school.

“So when you’re discussing prevention, it is the foundation work for making sure that you have healthy families, healthy students, healthy adults, throughout their life,” Creighton said. “We recognize that with adequate prevention processes in place across our service area, it will reduce the need for mental health services, it will reduce the need for substance abuse services, but we have to look at it as a tiered approach.”

Walker spoke on the statistics gathered from 2019. In his data 30% of West Virginia students had tried alcohol in the past 30 days, with 20.6% of Wood County students saying they had.

Fifty percent of students have reported using electronic vapor products at least once, with 62% being reported in West Virginia. He also spoke about the stigma students face when seeing a counselor.

“When we look at Wood County students 60%, so three out of five, said they would feel embarrassed if someone knew they were seeing a counselor,” Walker said.

Grewe spoke about the problems Wood County Schools have with electronic vapor products and programs in place to counteract that.

“So, I think, one of the things that is working, and certainly helping to turn the tide with drug use and vaping, is our preventive programs,” Grewe said. “Which we have significantly increased over the last few years.”

Puckett talked about what a coalition can do for a community and how they can help make changes.

“They advocate, educate, equip, and empower. That’s what we do with communities.” Puckett said. “You’re going to plan those activities, you’re going to implement them, and you’re going to evaluate them. Hopefully you’re going to do that in a substainable and culturally competent way. Because I guarantee if you do it in this format, and you do that in succession, and then bouncing back and forth as needed after the succession, then you’re going to change the hearts and minds of everybody in the community.”

The Wood County Prevention Coalition is putting on a bowling event “to strike out drugs” on Sept. 18 at Pike Street Lanes in south Parkersburg from 1-3 p.m. It is free and open to parents and students. For more information call Mike Pifer at 304-295-8563 or email at

vp****@vi**********.com

Puckett concluded his presentation by saying, ” Wood County is one of the best coalitions that I have seen throughout West Virginia, because of the people that you have within the community. So keep doing the good work.”

Douglass Huxley can be reached at

dh*****@ne*************.com