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COLUMBIANA -- An East Palestine based non-profit organization is hosting an event in Columbiana on June 8 to celebrate the resiliency of East Palestine and raise funds to put back into the village.
Seth Walker of Threshold Residential Services spoke to Columbiana Council during the May 16 meeting about the Voices For East Palestine event, and the impact that the Feb. 3 train derailment had on the organization in addition to the community as a whole.
Walker has lived in Columbiana for 20 years and is a Columbiana High School graduate. Now serving as a program director for Threshold, he said the non-profit agency provides residential care and employment services for developmentally disabled individuals and is the largest provider in Columbiana County to do so.
There are two Threshold Residential group homes in the city of Columbiana and seven group homes in East Palestine, where the main offices are located.
"We want to blend in and be a part of our communities," Walker said.
Unfortunately, like many others living in and around East Palestine, Threshold group home residents were also affected by the train derailment in early February.
Walker said that all of the group home sites were located within the mandatory evacuation zone.
"The weekend of Feb. 3 was an interesting weekend for all of us. We were glued to our televisions. Then we stopped being glued to our televisions and rushed in with our 15-passenger buses and got waved through by the National Guard to be evacuated just a few short hours prior to the controlled burn," Walker said of the effort to contain toxic gases that were threatening to cause a catastrophic explosion.
The 15-passenger buses were brought in to help get all of the residents of the group homes out of the area.
"Threshold is the largest private employer in the town of East Palestine ... so the impacts that the town feel (while we are) serving the most vulnerable among the population are really, really being felt," Walker said.
The gala event on June 8 will be held at The Barn at Firestone Farms from 5-9 p.m. and will consist of a dinner, dancing, and drinks.
The purpose of the gala is to celebrate the resiliency of East Palestine citizens, its local businesses, and its neighbors, Walker said.
"We decided that there was enough negativity, fear and doubt being sown so we started this East Palestine voices campaign to really just talk about that resiliency and lift one another up," he said. "We are trying to raise funds to be able to put back into the town of East Palestine to continue our vision of providing a high quality of care for people with developmental disabilities."
Walker also wished to thank the City of Columbiana for its help the night of the derailment, and since then.
"There was a number of agencies that reached out to us, a number of people with donations, water, any assistance. I had to start turning water bottles away, we had so many," he said.
Columbiana Mayor Rick Noel said that he and City Manager Lance Willard and Council President Skip Liston recently attended a meeting in East Palestine and that the city is continuing to look into ways to assist the village.
"It's exciting to hear all of the things people are trying to do and Threshold was brought up as a leader in that community. I think that it's really great what you are doing," Noel said.