In celebration of West Virginia Day (June 20), Create WV is pleased to participate in a statewide blogging “carnival” organized by Jason Keeling of abetterwestvirginia.com. The goal? To collaborate in building and communicating the “new” stereotype of West Virginia.

We think this is a brilliant concept. We all know the negative stereotypes which originated from outsiders visiting West Virginia in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s who wanted sensational angles to report to their East Coast publishers. Now, it’s time to get off the defensive and into the offensive task of defining who we are from within.

My wife and I were brainstorming about this post last night. She is a Pittsburgh native seeing West Virginia with fresh eyes since moving here with me in late 2006. I am a West Virginia native, filled with the innate pride and desire to return to these hills that almost all natives have, and thrilled to be back home. Together, we created a list of 10 attributes we’ve observed that make up the “new” WV stereotype.

We’ll be posting examples of each of these attributes today and throughout West Virginia Day. We hope you will add to this post and enjoy the other blogs who are helping build this new, affirming, true image of the people of our state!

Here’s our list:

• Talented, but extraordinarily down-to-earth
• Committed to building community-based culture
• Connected to home and hills
• Ability to make innovative lemonade out of lemons
• Preserving history and community in innovative ways
• Ready with a warm welcome and a helping hand
• Embracing technology in practical ways
• Ingenious, quirky entrepreneurial spirit
• Don’t take ourselves too seriously…and expose those who do
• Spunky, “under the radar” leaders taking on big challenges 

Do you think this list reflects today’s stereotype? What would you add to this list? How can we package this new stereotype in a “sticky” way to share with the world? 

In the following posts, we’re going to introduce folks to you that we think reflect these characteristics. Some you know, some you may not. But we hope you’ll help make the stereotype real by sharing your examples. Let’s get started!