There are two very unlikely words that say economic development and community healing to me: "swamp" and "gravy."

"This guy has lost his mind!" you say. "How in the world could either swamp or gravy possibly refer to any type of development or healing?"

Let me explain.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the residents of Colquitt, Ga., were facing some dire times. Agriculture, which had sustained their economy for generations, was fading. The jobs were gone. Residents were emotionally and financially devastated. The town was dead.

A few of the residents, instead of giving up, decided that they had to do something -- anything -- to save their town. They hatched an idea based on the one thing left in Colquitt: the people; and the people were great storytellers. They loved to weave long yarns, both factual and fictional, about their town, their families, friends and neighbors. What if they could bring people together to tell their stories -- could that help heal some of the community's wounds?

In 1990, a Colquitt resident bumped into a doctoral student who was writing his thesis on using theater as a community-building tool. They agreed to work together to develop a play based on the stories from Colquitt's residents and named the project "Swamp Gravy" after a local soup made in the fish camps of southwest Georgia. The musical opened in 1992. Since then it has been performed across the South, at the Olympic Games in Atlanta and twice at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. First held in an elementary school gymnasium and conceived as a one-time show, Swamp Gravy now has its own theater, a restored cotton warehouse, where 32 performances are held every year.

The stories are still local, as are the volunteer performers. The impact on Colquitt has been transforming. In addition to running the Swamp Gravy productions, the group provides theatrical training, arts education, workshops and exhibitions. They've also launched downtown beautification projects, developed the Swamp Gravy Institute to teach other communities how to fabricate their own projects, and renovated six downtown buildings -- transforming empty spaces into inns, galleries and restaurants.

Hearing this story at a Create Huntington Forum this year, a group of local residents agreed that we could do that same thing here and formed the Storytellers Group to do so. We have an abundance of musical and theatrical resources -- and plenty of stories to tell. If we could bring our resources together we might just create something very special in Huntington. The Storytellers Group meets weekly at the Chat 'n' Chews and wants to hear from writers, actors, educators, theatrical groups, musicians, musical groups, historians and others who would like to be part of telling Huntington's story using the theater as an engine to develop Huntington's economy to tell the world our amazing stories.

As we look toward the one-year anniversary of the Create Huntington Chat 'n' Chews, I find great inspiration from the residents of Colquitt, Ga. They took what little they had and worked together to create something very special. To get involved in the Storytellers Group or any of the other teams working to improve the quality of life in Huntington, join us at the Chat 'n' Chew, held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. every Thursday in the lobby of the Frederick Building.

For more information, go to www.createhuntington.com. If you'd like to get involved with the Storytellers Group or any other project, but can't attend the Chat 'n' Chews, simply provide your contact information, comments, and area of interest at www.createhuntington.com/contact.php.

Thomas McChesney is a Huntington resident.

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