Coalbie’s Warrior Walk to raise funds for Growing Up Greene expansion
Therapy dog will travel trail to raise funds for Growing Up Greene expansion
When Aaron Houser was trying to think of the archetypal Greene County trek for an upcoming fundraiser for the child advocacy nonprofit Growing Up Greene, it came down to two options: a longwall mine, or the Warrior Trail.
He chose the one with more sunlight — and more walking.
The 67-mile trail was created by Native Americans for hunting, trading and communications between the Ohio River in northern West Virginia and the Monongahela River at the eastern edge of Greene County.
The trail has endured, both in the roadways tracing in path and the thousands who hike and bike along the trail each year.
Over the next week, it’ll have two more: Houser, Growing Up Greene’s executive director, and its therapy dog Coalbie, who comforts children during their appearances in dependency court.
“Because it traverses the whole of Greene County, we thought that it would be a perfect opportunity to raise awareness for the child welfare system in general, and also to serve as a fundraiser if Coalbie could travel the entirety of the Warrior Trail,” Houser said.
Coalbie’s Warrior Walk will help raise funds for Growing Up Greene’s new expansion, which will convert the Observer-Reporter’s former Greene County office on Church Street in Waynesburg into what Houser hopes will become “a hub for child welfare agencies and service providers, so that families and kids have a more of a one-stop shopping experience in getting certain things.”
Starting eight years ago with one program, Growing Up Greene has since expanded to seven programs in the child welfare system.
And those programs have gotten bigger.
The children’s winter gear distribution has grown tenfold since it began in 2020, Houser said. The expansion of the emergency overnight housing program, which has sheltered Children and Youth Services clients and their juvenile wards, has caused Growing Up Greene to “literally run out of floor space,” Houser said.
While Houser was searching for someplace bigger than Growing Up Greene’s 2,800-square-foot office, just down the street from where Growing Up Greene sits a historic building without a current use.
Designed by famed Pittsburgh architect Frederick Scheibler Jr., the 10,000-square-foot building dates back to 1939, when it was constructed for the Democrat Messenger. It later served as the Observer-Reporter’s Greene County office.
“The same time that we were coming to that realization that we were out of floor space, is the same time that the Observer-Reporter approached us about the possibility of taking over this wonderful piece of history in Greene County,” Houser said. “I come back to this idea of using this piece of history and transforming it into a place where families can write the next chapter of their story.”
Although the building was donated, the nearly 90-year-old building was showing its age. Growing Up Greene is looking to raise $1 million to cover the estimated cost of the first phase of improvements, which will include roof repairs and a complete remediation of the building’s interior, “so that we are able to start from scratch on this amazing project,” Houser said.
They hope to create a hybrid supervised visitation space, where parents who were successful in their supervised visits with Children and Youth Services can carry out the visits in a home-like environment.
In that space, both parents and children would be able to prove their skills in getting along and dealing with issues like completing homework or preparing a small meal.
“Once that program is brought online, that’s going to be able to show real, tangible progress in terms of reunification, or it’s going to show that maybe there are deficiencies that the child welfare system didn’t even know about yet,” Houser said. “So it’s either going to speed the process of reunification up, or it’s going to show us that, ‘Hey, there’s more work to do in these particular areas,’ and more information is always better.”
The walk toward the next chapter begins on Monday morning south of Moundsville, W.Va., where Fish Creek meets the Ohio River.
Some of Greene County’s ministers will hold a prayer circle before Houser and Coalbie set off into the Maryland wilderness. From there, they’ll try to tackle about 10 miles per day, heading through the West Virginia panhandle before winding through the southern third of Greene County, ending up in Greensboro.
Both Houser and Coalbie have been training in advance of the walk. On the trail, Coalbie will walk alongside Houser; for the portions that overlap with the roadway, she will ride in a wagon.
Houser will be chronicling the trip along the way on Growing Up Greene’s Instagram and Facebook page, as well as Coalbie’s Snapchat account, @coalbie.
Coalbie’s page has been a popular way for the kids she comforts to keep up with the 4-year-old beagle mix between their hearings in dependency court, Houser said.
Growing Up Greene based the child victim therapy dog program on one developed in Allegheny County. Through a grant from the CORE Cares Foundation, and with approval from then-President Judge Lou Dayich, they launched the program in Greene County at the start of 2024.
The courtroom is an impressive sight, with high ceilings, a towering bench and portraits of past judges lining the walls. But the very thing that makes it a draw for history buffs like Houser can make it intimidating for a 6-year-old child walking into a court hearing.
Houser said Coalbie has been a “game changer” for those children, who can rely on her to soothe them when they’re in the waiting room, and even when they have to testify in court.
Coalbie has an unerring sense for knowing who needs her the most, Houser said.
“She will make a priorities list of who to visit first, and when a kid is having a really tough time with that process – a lot of times she knows it before the rest of the adults do – and she’s right there providing comfort,” he said.
Houser had been keeping a tight lid on the walk, unveiling the news on social media Saturday. But those who’ve been in the loop have rallied around the idea of Greene County’s child therapy dog doing a public demonstration of the county’s commitment to its most vulnerable children and families, Houser said.
That $1 million benchmark is already on the way to being reached, courtesy of anonymous donors.
“The first $135,000 raised will be matched dollar for dollar, and it’s a wonderful rocket booster for the fundraising campaign,” Houser said.
For more information, go to growingupgreene.org. To donate to the GoFundMe page, go to give.gofundme.com/warriorwalk.