The Barbour County Chamber of Commerce has selected Delegate Mary Poling, D-Barbour, and Brenda Hunt, executive director of Heart and Hand House, as members of the month for July.
Poling is a retired public school teacher and represents Barbour and Upshur counties in the West Virginia House of Delegates.
She was born and raised in Philippi and graduated from Philip Barbour High School. She earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in mathematics and language arts at West Virginia University. Poling taught mathematics in Barbour County schools from 1968 to 2002 when she retired. She was first elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 2001.
Poling is a member of the Barbour County Development Authority, Barbour County Association of Retired School Employees and the West Virginia 4-H All-Stars. She was the Barbour Chamber's Corporate Citizen of the Year in 2010, was named Legislator of the Year by the West Virginia Education Association and was elected Barbour County Teacher of the Year.
"Serving as chair of the House of Delegates Committee on Education allows me to apply what I learned from 34 years in the classroom to the legislative process of determining education funding and policy for our state," Poling said. "As a mother of two sons and grandmother of six, the quality of our education system has become even more of a personal interest to me than ever. Serving a rural area such as my delegate district in Barbour and Upshur County is a role that I enjoy because of the background and ongoing lifestyle that I and my family have established on our family farm."
Hunt, an Elkins native, earned a bachelor's degree in management from Davis & Elkins College, and a continuing education certificate in non-profit management from West Virginia University. She completed her management internship at Davis Trust Company in Elkins.
She was communications coordinator, then practice development manager for Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. She has also served as an admissions counselor at Alderson-Broaddus College. She was the administrative assistant at Heart and Hand House in Philippi for five years before being named executive director in 2009.
Hunt is a lay speaker and charge treasurer for the Belington Circuit United Methodist Churches, a trustee of Corley United Methodist Church and treasurer of Barbour County CROP Walk. She is a member of the board of directors, vice president and chair of the finance committee for the West Virginia Famrers Market Association. She is a member of the Philippi Main Street Committee and a volunteer for Energy Express and Adopt-a-Highway.
Heart and Hand House is a nonprofit mission project affiliated with the United Methodist Church in north central West Virginia, and provides emergency assistance to residents of Barbour County.
"Our ministry includes a food pantry, home repair and construction, assistance with utilities, rent and certain medical expenses, a program of layettes for newborn babies, a garden market and the operation of two thrift stores," Hunt said.
