By Betty Gandee
Students gathered for a special assembly Wednesday morning, as U.S. Senator Shelley Moore-Capito had a surprise for the Clay County High School softball team.
Senator Capito presented practice equipment for the softball team to use, donated by companies involved with softball games between Congress and the press that raise money for breast cancer survivors. Principal Crystal Gibson began the assembly by stating some facts about Capito’s career.
Capito was elected as West Virginia’s first female senator in 2014, winning by the largest margin in state history with more than 62 percent of the vote. Having served West Virginia’s second congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for 14 years and as a member of the WV House of Delegates for four years prior, Capito decided to run for Senate to be a strong voice for the mountain state. Senator Capito is a lifelong West Virginian and resides in Charleston, WV, with her husband Charles.
Senator Capito spoke about how her husband came to deliver a graduation speech, intended for her, to a prior graduating class of CCHS. Speaker of the House member Roger Hanshaw, a former graduate of CCHS, accompanied Capito and showed her around the high school. Capito says that the environment of Clay County and its schools is special in that every teacher, principal, board member supports their students and invest their time to help ensure the greatest future available.
While working within the Senate, Capito says that they developed a softball game to be played between Congress members and the press to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Young Survivor Fund. The average age of the women on the Congress softball team is 50, and the average age of the press team is 30, so the Congress team has only won 1 of the 10 games played.
With playing and funding these games, many companies donated equipment to be used. When asked if they knew of a team that could use donated practice equipment, Capito says that Clay County High School was at the top of her list. She came out Wednesday to donate several gloves, shoes, batting gear, and much more to the girls.
