Max Smith is among an alarmingly low number of West Virginia’s sons who have reason to hope. That hope wasn’t quite so alive for the boy from Morgantown at age 13. Max’s parents, Chris and Diane Smith, didn’t hold much hope for him, either, as they worried over and constantly fought with a son getting all Fs in seventh grade.
Max’s attending school on a laptop at home during COVID didn’t help; demotivated, the teenager flicked his self-display black, which was allowed, and slept during most of his classes. Indeed, had Max not found Chestnut Mountain Ranch, his father says, the boy would not be living at home today. Had things not changed (for the better), where might Max, now 16, have ended up?
