Though residents may sometimes feel like no one knows about the city, Huntington seems to have connections across the nation. As a matter of fact, the city was recently recognized by a familiar face.

“Hi there, residents of Huntington, West Virginia. It’s Katie Couric here,” the journalist said in a recent video, talking to Huntington residents about the MyHuntington movement.

Amy Frasure, founding partner of Bullseye Total Media, said the video of Couric was the product of multiple attempts and a little bit of history.

“One day, we reached out to multiple celebrities, news anchors, comedians, anyone with an influence and sent them a brief synopsis of the movement and what we were doing,” Frasure said. “Of course, in Katie’s email we tried to make it personal, mentioning Huntington was the place her former co-worker Matt Lauer got his first gig out of college at WOWK-TV. Three weeks after emailing her, I received a text message with the video and well wishes.”

The video created a storm on social media, reaching around 30,000 views on Facebook alone, which Frasure said was the plan.

“We wanted the video to make a splash on social media as we launched a brand-new advertising campaign, and it worked like a charm,” Frasure said. “We’ve had the video well over a few months but decided to release it at the ‘My Future, My Huntington’ scholarship reception at Marshall.”

“The videos just further affirm that this movement is exactly what Huntington needs,” Frasure continued. “If people from across the globe can buy in and support us, hopefully, that urges people right here at home to join in on speaking positively about the place we all call home.”

The MyHuntington movement, a fund of the Foundation for the Tri-State Community, began in 2018. Dedicated to attracting and engaging community members, the movement is detailed on Facebook.

“The concept behind the MyHuntington movement is to engage the residents, businesses, students and others in changing the narrative about the city of Huntington,” according to the MyHuntington Facebook page.

The Facebook page continues, “The movement also serves as a bridge to ultimately help the city embrace and capitalize on the America’s Best Community award title. The MyHuntington movement is designed to be versatile so that it can be used by nearly anyone to promote their business, event or activity while at the same time promoting the city. #MyHuntington.”

The organization is a “platform for everything positive going on in our community,” Frasure said.

“The media has painted Huntington as a city full of crime and drugs, and that’s simply not who we are as a city, and it’s time we fight back,” she said.

With that, Katie Couric wished Huntington and its residents luck, saying, “Okay, I hope it goes well. Good luck! Bye.”

Trey Delida can be contacted at [email protected].