Auctioneer Jacob Hornick always makes fundraising more fun, and Laura Santmyer knows lots of wonderful pie bakers. The heritage quilts preserved by Log Cabin Quilt Guild members made a beautiful contribution to the experience of touring the hundred-year-old Kump House last Saturday afternoon. It took us back to a simpler time when people could dare to care about those in need.

The quilt exhibit opened at 11 a.m. while Seth Maynard strummed his heartwarming guitar on the side portico. By noon Katy McClane’s flute music floated on warmer winds blowing away the rain clouds, and a crowd began to congregate. At 1:00 p.m. the auction began with Eleanor Roosevelt, our most distinguished guest to ever visit the Kump House. Each year she reminds us of the importance of being a caring community that supports education and the wellbeing of children.

Every year the Kump House Pie Auction gets sweeter and more interesting. We always have several kinds of fruit pies, but this was my first time to see a tomato pie. It is true that tomatoes are actually fruits too. We have seen Quiche Lorrain with ham, but it is nothing like Chris Fry’s delightful Seafood Quiche.

This year Laura Santmyer and her sister, Paula Kadyk, have been working with the Mountain School students to improve Kump flower beds, straighten the wetland barrier, and move chairs. These students are strong and willing to work. They helped me to retrieve one of the original Kump gateposts that had been mistakenly thrown over the bank last summer.

I told the Mountain School students about the hobos who left their “Code of the Road” images on the old brick gateposts during the Great Depression. The Hoe Boys [hobos] wanted to work but could not find jobs. They carried hoes and would weed a garden for a sandwich offered at the backdoors of homes where caring people lived. Hobos were not lazy tramps, but they could not read, and they had to warn each other with sign of guns or vicious dogs that would drive hungry people away from farms and homes where people were not generous and kind.

Kump House is a reminder of the Great Depression in 1932 when H.G. Kump became Governor of West Virginia and F.D. Roosevelt became President of the United States. They brought programs like the County-Unit School System, the Civilian Conservation Core, and even Social Security. They understood that people who have misfortune should not be blamed for their disadvantages. Those who have what they need should be willing to pay taxes to help those in need to develop their skills and take care of their families.

Kump said “taxes are the way that the people pay their bills.” Fair taxation of those who have what they need offers opportunities to lift the economic future of children in need.