active

No button

TEXT

West Virginia State Hospital Initiative INC.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.35426-6/480100440_980374034027665_333417160069166779_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s60x60_tt6&_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=c53f8f&_nc_ohc=ZfKNIceGxTIQ7kNvgEOzCvS&_nc_oc=AdjfjOg-qEDs2M_CbvppvScAheNiSOtBHzEh1YcHk2rMkDlqRoqFgcKbfF1ZPcsv0rgiFfy9_LUZ6rxfVk27oSIX&_nc_zt=14&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&_nc_gid=AbPU-SZkJuGMar3pQjXqy2D&oh=00_AYAYN3evfbnuOH83S_XS5_PNasGpiZ6xV8vyw85b7BCIMA&oe=67B70738

PERSON_PROFILE

Historic Collaboration with Emmy-Winning APSL Featuring WVSHI Inc. Chairman & CEO, Titus Swan:

There are moments in our work when the past reaches through time, demanding to be seen, heard, and understood.

Today, WVSHI Inc. and Riverstone Community Services are proud to announce one such moment.

Our Chairman and CEO, Titus Swan, has been invited to collaborate with Allegany Preservation Society Ltd. (APSL)—an Emmy Award-winning organization celebrated for its masterful, dignified, and uncompromising approach to historical documentary production. Together, they will complete the re-edit and definitive enhancement of “An Apparatus For Lunacy,” the most comprehensive exploration to date of the history and legacy of the former Weston State Hospital.

This is more than a project. It is a reckoning. It is a chance to finally do right by those whose voices were silenced by time, stigma, and suffering.

This work will stand as definitive on Weston State Hospital’s history—a beacon of truth, stripped of myth and spectacle, demanding that the world acknowledge the lives that were lived there and the lessons that should shape our future.

The names etched into our records were once mothers, fathers, daughters, sons. People with dreams, fears, and families. People who deserved more—both in life and in death.

Names like Shirl Martin and Charles Martin, remembered with love by their descendant Kelly Martin Ozias.

Names like Mary Ann Cassell, whose memory is preserved through her niece Diana Nelson.

Names like Vada Duvall, carried forward by her descendant Susan Gay Smith.

Names like Genevieve Burkhammer, whose strength endures in her daughter Robin Campbell and through Lorn Burkhammer and Larry Burkhammer.
And others, Evan Pearl Meadows, Eldon Fernando Carle, and Flossie Speer—whose names remind us that every name holds a life, and every grave once held a hand that someone loved.

This is what WVSHI Inc. stands for. This is what our Chairman and CEO stands for. This is why we exist.

Since 2021, Titus Swan has been approached 14 times—5 in the past year alone—to lend his voice and research to media productions.

He has refused nearly every offer.

Because for him—and for us—this is not content. It is not entertainment. These are lives. This is history. This is pain. This is dignity.

He will not apologize for protecting that. We will not apologize for protecting that.

That is why this announcement matters.

The fact that our Chairman and CEO has said ‘yes’ to APSL should tell you everything you need to know about them.

APSL’s Emmy speaks to their excellence. Their soul—their dedication to honoring the truth—speaks to their purpose.

This is the team we trust to help tell the story of Weston State Hospital.

This is the work that will last.

The re-release of “An Apparatus For Lunacy” is expected within the next 1 to 3 months. When it arrives, it will not just be a documentary.

It will be the standard by which every future telling of this history will be judged.

We urge our community to follow APSL, support this documentary when it is released, and stand with us as we continue our mission to preserve the past, honor every life, and build a better future:

Preserve. Advocate. Evolve.

#WVSHI #RiverstoneCommunityServices #PreserveAdvocateEvolve #AnApparatusForLunacy #WestonStateHospital #MentalHealthHistory #FactualStorytelling #EmmyWinningProduction #APSL #TheStandardOfExcellence #TitusSwan #TruthMatters #HistoryWithDignity #TheStoryThatWillStand

West Virginia State Hospital Initiative INC.

https://www.facebook.com/wvshiinc/

NO_BUTTON