We would like to take this opportunity to familiarize you with the Friends of Coal Ladies’ Auxiliary and explain our mission and involvement within the community.
In July, 2007, a group of concerned women decided that it was time someone began to promote coal and its role in our state and national energy policies. We felt that a group without direct economic ties to coal companies could enhance the image of coal and combat some of the adverse publicity coal receives on a daily basis in the press and from many organized environmental groups. Our mission has been to educate the public and raise the awareness of citizens to the benefits of coal. To date our efforts have been received by the business community with welcoming arms; we have been pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback and interest we have received from the press. The Ladies’ Auxiliary has been accepted as an unbiased group whose greatest concern is educating the public on the importance of coal as part of our national energy plan.
Since our organization, we have met bi-monthly and had many members joining to give freely of their time, personal resources and energy to this united cause. To briefly bring you up to date, thus far our accomplishments include:
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- Completing our by-laws, mission statement, and our information brochure for the Ladies’ Auxiliary to distribute within the community
- Prepared and distributed coal buckets with cookies inside to all businesses who supported us through donations as we organized as an expression of our gratitude
- Worked a booth at the 2007 Bluefield Coal Show enrolled new members in an effort to increase membership and began our awareness campaign
- Our ladies personally, and with the help of local businesses, collected truck loads of food to donate to the Salvation Army throughout the year
- A campaign at Christmas allowed us to raise $2,000 for Burlington House. This allowed us to provide each resident a pair of shoes and haircut for a Christmas present along toiletries for each child provided by donations from local businesses
- We provided personnel coverage for 5 days at the Coal Classic to distribute material for the Friends of Coal and the Ladies Auxiliary in an effort to increase membership and awareness
- Worked a booth at the 2008 and 2009 Women’s Expo where we enrolled over a 1000 people for Friends of Coal and over 500 ladies for the Ladies’ Auxiliary
- Attended the Southern Living Cooking Show and provided 1500 ladies with information about Friends of Coal; distributing 1500 recipe requests for a future Ladies’ Auxiliary cookbook
- Participated in Beckley’s Chili Night where we gave tattoos to children, sold baked goods donated by members and sold raffle tickets for a donated compound bow and home made quilt
- Entered a float in the 2007 and 2008 Beckley Christmas Parade where Jeremy Stark joined us providing his truck and boats; along with the brownie troops,
- we p assed out candy to parade attendees
- Communicated to our vast mailing list the importance of contacting Kroger regarding their policy involving the OVEC
- Joined the Beckley Chamber of Commerce - in April
- Received awards for our food drives and giving from the Salvation Army at their annual awards dinner with the presentation of a plaques for 2008 and 2009
- Printed our first brochure for distribution which was donated by Doug Epling, owner of Hanover Resources
- Arranged to have both television and newspaper coverage for all events where we participate. Allowing for spots on the local news stations to highlight our involvement and newspaper articles to raise the awareness of our contributions within the area
- Increased membership for the Auxiliary and the Friends of Coal because we feel our strength comes from our numbers
- Designed and published the first Friends of Coal Ladies’ Auxiliary Cookbook in an effort to make money for our cause
- Designed a stuffed dog that we named “Mr. Coal”, Mr. Coal is similar to a black lab, to distribute to nurseries, preschools, sick and the elderly. Reminding everyone that people of coal…..CARE
- Started the Giving Hearts program November 2009 a partnership with the Salvation Army to help families in need. Giving Hearts program was so successful we have continued to help provide for families in need throughout the year. In conjunction with Giving Hearts program a Coal Closet was formed for all members to bring ready to wear clothing, appliances and furniture
- Designed and sold our first 2008-2009 Christmas bulb, again in an effort to make money for our cause
- We worked with Raleigh County Vo Tech students to design the Friends of Coal vanity license plate to promote revenue for our state and to promote the awareness of coal
- In October 2008 we began the FOC Juniors. This group will be for all young adults between the ages of 9 and 17 who desire to work with the FOC and FOCLA to help those in need, improving our environment, and earn community service points.
- Members created a raffle basket for 2009 Mother’s Day with the proceeds being used to fund our projects
- We have designed a workbook called Coal in the Classroom which has been approved by the Raleigh County Board of Education for us to use for presentations in the classroom for 3rd and 4th graders to educate about the importance of our most valuable resource coal
- We have partnered with John Eye’s Big Sandy to distribute “charity bucks” within our community. These may be used at any John Eye location in West Virginia for discounts on purchases and the FOCLA will receive a $20 donation each time they are used on a purchase In coordination with April Trent, from the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team (ACCWT), who is in partnership with the Office of Surface Mining, Ameri Corps VISTA and the Citizens Conservation the FOCLA has agreed to supply gloves and water for between 5-6 tree planting projects in 2009
As you can see from this list, our members have been very busy and very generous with their time in establishing the Ladies’ Auxiliary and a presence within our community. However, we are now beginning to feel the frustration of having to continually concentrate our efforts on fund raising to be able to accomplish the goals we have set for ourselves. We would like to be able to direct our energies to some very important issues and have plans in the future to:
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- Continue to increase membership for the Auxiliary and the Friends of Coal because we feel our strength comes from our numbers
- Organize other chapters to fill the desire to participate in our cause
- Attend the upcoming Women’s Expo in Bluefield and Charleston
- Arrange meetings with local political candidates to review their platforms and its effect on coal
- Design a web page to distribute information nationally
- Continue and expand with April Trent, from the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team (ACCWT), who is in partnership with the Office of Surface Mining, Ameri Corps VISTA and the Citizens Conservation the FOCLA has agreed to supply gloves and water for between 5-6 tree planting projects
- We will organize, design and work the booth for the FOC Auto Fair to promote coal and will furnish hand outs for adults and children
- FOCLA will have at least two food drives this year with the Salvation Army
- We will continue the Coal in the Classroom project which began September 2009 and will be comprised of six weeks of classroom instruction one day per week for one hour. The last week will feature a field trip to either the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, SGS Lab, Phillips Machine and/or Terex/SHM
- Our members attend each WCAC annual meeting at The Greenbrier
- We will set up a booth at the 2009 Bluefield Coal Show September 16th thru 18th and solicit new members while raising awareness on coal
- Members will participate in the Giving Hearts project with a kick off for a Christmas date
- Again this year, we will participate in the annual Christmas Parade in Beckley on December 5th
- We plan to continue working with LES Productions to develop a Power Point Presentation show to promote and further our cause of education to the benefits of coal
- Our members will continue to attend all upcoming community and coal related events. We will take every opportunity available to schedule appearances to give speeches at local clubs and organizations to raise awareness for the coal industry.
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Our members are anxious to promote the organization and devote long hours of volunteer work to community and educational projects. However, because a great deal of time must be used to raise funds for our projects, few members have additional time for the actual work of the auxiliary. In this circumstance, we have a great deal of talent that is not utilized for our goal of promoting the coal industry. We have realized that to be able to accomplish our goals we need to find corporate sponsors to help fund our projects and to allow our members time to participate in the projects and interact with the community.
We know that the entire coal industry will benefit from all awareness we can provide in the local communities concerning coal and its role in our economic welfare. At this time, there are many special interest groups working actively to delete coal from future use. We feel that it is more vital than ever to have an active, dedicated group who are willing to stand up and point out all the benefits of coal to both our nation and especially our state.
Please contact Regina Fairchild at (304) 763-4503 concerning membership and/or your availability for a future meeting. We thank you in advance for any support and suggestions you can provide.