By Jessica Farrish, The Register Herald
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Lush nature is a birthright to those in West Virginia.
From the budding trees each spring to the blue lakes and green hillsides of summer, from the blaze of orange, yellow and red that covers the mountains every autumn and the snow on the ski slopes each winter, the Mountain State’s beauty is captivating.
Sherrie Hunter, granddaughter of Italian immigrants, is a native West Virginian. She has spent the majority of her life in Raleigh County. She serves as at-large councilwoman on Beckley Common Council.
For the past 20 years, she has made the county and state greener and cleaner.
She’s a member of the Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce’s Make It Shine Committee and is actively involved in litter sweeps and Butt Busters, a cigarette butt pick-up campaign that she started.
Since 2001, Hunter, who is director of education at the Raleigh County Solid Waste Authority and co-chair of the West Virginia Association of Solid Waste Authorities, has gone into district schools to teach children the importance of recycling. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) has used her school recycling program as a template for the state…