West Virginia at the Center of Nationwide Honor Your Hometown Campaign
A West Virginia Native Co-Founded the Initiative with Filmmaker Ken Burns and
Country Music Star Marty Stuart
Prominent West Virginians Are Featured
Charleston, WV. Nitro native Dan McGinn is a co-creator of the Honor Your Hometown campaign with celebrated documentary producer Ken Burns and Country Music Hall of Famer Marty Stuart. The campaign, which was inspired by McGinn’s memories of Nitro, is an attempt to remind all Americans that what we have in common is greater and far more important than any differences we may have.
Honor Your Hometown was launched Tuesday, October 26th with profiles on both the Today Show and CBS Mornings as well as in other national and regional media. More than 150 celebrities, leaders of our most revered arts, history and culture and veterans’ institutions, and mayors from across America have produced short videos in honor of their hometowns.
Some of the more prominent participants include Dolly Parton, the late General Powell, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Broadway star Kristen Chenoweth and Oscar winner Jon Batiste.
“West Virginia is the foundation of this program,” said McGinn. “Great memories of Nitro were my inspiration and some of our first and best videos came from prominent West Virginians,” he added.
West Virginians participating in the program include:
— Country Music Star, Kathy Mattea, talking about her pride for the stoplight in her hometown of Cross Lanes.
— Bill Danoff (not from WV), Co-Writer of “Country Roads Take Me Home” tells of its origins and sings a verse in honor of its 50th anniversary.
— Charleston Mayor, Amy Goodwin, who submitted the first mayoral video, praises the late artist, Charly Jupiter Hamilton.
— Mountain Stage host and Co-creator, Larry Groce sings the theme song for the legendary radio program.
— American University – and Hinton native – Sylvia Matthews Burwell, sits in front of multiple WV maps and expresses her devotion to the State.
— Nitro Historic Commission President, Rich Hively (who was featured on the NBC Nightly News Tuesday evening) brags about the homemade pie at Diehl’s.
— Huntington Mayor, Steve Williams, says the first time he visited Huntington he thought that’s what NY City must look like.
— Charleston designer John Auge who designed the national “Honor Your Hometown” Logo.
“West Virginia launched the movement to create Mother’s Day in the early 1900s. And West Virginia can take the lead in creating a National Day of Celebration for Hometowns,” McGinn commented.
“This is exactly the kind of initiative we need right now,” says filmmaker Ken Burns. A celebration of where we come from. My family’s roots are in West Virginia, also, so I’m especially proud of the Mountain State’s leadership in this good and worthy cause.”
Honor Your Hometown,a non-partisan, non-profit initiative, encourages all Americans to join this important effort to celebrate hometowns across the nation to help foster greater national unity. Anyone interested in participating is welcome to post short videos on their individual social media platforms, highlighting what they love most about their hometown, using the campaign hashtag: #HonorYourHometown. For more information and links to the inaugural Honor Your Hometown videos, please visit http://www.honoryourhometown.com/.