Minden Revealed Documentary Fund

People are getting sick in Minden, West Virginia.

In the 1980s, Shaffer Equipment Company dumped a dangerous chemical linked to cancer and birth defects - called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) - in an abandoned mine in Minden, West Virginia (WV). While the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sealed the mine and claimed that the chemicals posed no health risk to local residents, families and advocates in the area have argued that local cancer rates - well above the national average - are telling a wildly different story. The EPA re-tested the area in the summer of 2017, and Minden's residents still await the results.

My brother Blake and I hail from Fayette County, WV, in the heart of WV's coal country. We have partnered with Zubaer Khan - a documentary filmmaker -  and Xavior Robinson - a healthcare consultant - to interview Minden residents and other stakeholders, with the mission of developing a documentary that brings attention to Minden's story, in hopes that bearing witness to those stories will lead to real solutions.

Please consider donating to this GoFundMe campaign to support the development of a short documentary. We are raising $8,000 to support the first phase of production, including staff time for planning, interviewing, and editing; video supplies; travel and lodging; marketing/outreach; and other documentary-related expenses. We hope to start interviewing and filming in January. 

Maya Angelou once wrote that "there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." Heroes in this town are telling their stories, and we want to help turn up the volume. We are so grateful for your consideration, and this donation would mean the world to us. 

For more information on this issue, check out these links:

- EPA press release: 
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-conduct-soil-water-sampling-minden-w-va 
- Local news report: 
http://www.register-herald.com/news/epa-begins-sampling-but-minden-residents-remain-distrustful/article_8e0ed062-0cec-5b8d-af53-58ff2f380aa5.html 
-  Samples of Zubaer Khan's work:  http://zubaerkhan.com