SURVEYOR, WV (WOAY)- Today, they held a ribbon cutting at the Lake Stephens Overlook, where the newest swing is ready to be swung.
The Almost Heaven Swings started in 2022, and since then, 22 swings are currently around the state, including this new one.
“We are so honored to be the first site [in Raleigh County] for Almost Heaven, West Virginia swing here at Lake Stevens. All the other swings are amazing places throughout the state, and we’re honored to be included in those other places as being a great place to visit,” said Molly Williams, the executive director of Raleigh County Parks and Rec. “As you can see, this view here is phenomenal, and we’re excited to be able to share it with others.”
The program is to help promote tourism around West Virginia and its beautiful sights. To get this swing to Raleigh County, the process started a year ago.
“You have to then turn in photos of where you would like to see, where you would like [it to be], what they’re going to see,” Lisa Strader, the executive director of Visit Southern West Virginia. “You have to turn on photos of the overlook, the parking, the accessibility of it, and then you go through an approval process. Then once the site was approved, then we just had to wait for the build.”
They work with the Nicholas County Career and Technical School to have the swings built. So that means they are all built by local students.
Brenna Dugan with the Department of Tourism explains why this program started.
“So it started with, just a dream of making use in West Virginia that are Instagrammable, but quote unquote, like, not Instagrammable because people weren’t aware they existed,” explained Dugan, the organizational communications coordinator for the WV Department of Tourism. “So by putting swings in areas that are already beautiful. We kind of created this, like journey for people to go on and capture a picture and a place that they didn’t know about before, and now they’re coming to these places to see the swings and experiencing West Virginia, in a way that they never have before.”
You can use this link to view all swing locations:
