The Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Friends of Coal is so honored to make our second appearance before the West Virginia Coal Association and to let all of you know that we have recently celebrated our first anniversary.
When we attended this conference last year we were in the first stages of organization. We had many comments from skeptics that warned us how hard it would be to keep a volunteer group enthusiastic and committed to working for change. However, as the old adage says “Never underestimate the power of a woman!”
We have been so blessed to have a group of volunteers that have a sincere interest in promoting the coal industry. Most members are affected either directly – by having a family member who is working within the coal industry - or indirectly – by being part of the business community that services these families. Our members have exhibited a real commitment to promoting coal and its importance within our communities, our state, and the nation. At this time please join me in a around of applause for our members.
We would like to thank the following companies and individuals whom have been instrumental from the beginning with their faith and financial support that has allowed us to attain our goals thus far; they are: Andrew Jordan, Warren Hylton, Everett Cook, Jim Bunn, West Virginia Coal Alliance, Rudd Equipment, Bill Bright, Fairchild International, Gary White International Industries, Bob and Brenda Raines, Steve Antoline, Terex/SHM, Taggart, LLC, The Tractor Company, Swanson Industries, Lee Supply Company.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the coal association that who have been so generous in their support for our efforts. Through your support we are now able to concentrate our efforts on projects to make a difference instead of worrying about raising funds to be able to accomplish our goals.
During this year, with the assistance of the Friends of Coal, we have established a permanent headquarters for our monthly meetings and special activities.
Again this year, we had a booth at the Friends of Coal Auto Fair in Beckley. We were able to raise awareness of the benefits of coal and obtain well over a thousand new members through the membership cards we distributed. We realize that our greatest strength comes from the volume of members we represent.
Our auxiliary has worked with the Salvation Army to assure that their food pantry remains stocked so they can continue their efforts of caring for the less fortunate. We received a service award from the Salvation Army for the truck load of food we gathered. This remains an ongoing project for our auxiliary.
We have published a cookbook from recipes of our members which we are selling with the community as a fund raiser for our group.
On the center of most of the tables, let me introduce to you, “Mr. Coal” a Friend for Life this is our stuffed dog, we plan to distribute “Mr. Coal” to sick children in area hospitals.
Our auxiliary attended the Women’s Expo this year in Beckley, and enrolled 500 ladies in the Ladies’ Auxiliary and over a 1,000 into the Friends of Coal.
We have sponsored ‘meet the candidate’ these meetings during the election season have help our members to become more familiar with the politicians that have the interests of coal in mind; which in turn; helped us; to be more informed on how to properly place our votes.
These are just the highlights from our past year. As you can see all of our members have remained extremely busy and active within the community. We have finalized the plans for one of our projects that we are most proud. This fall we will begin working with the board of education to bring the coal message into the public schools. We will work with 4th grade students one day a week for 4-6 weeks to teach 20 minute lessons on coal and its origins through science, writing activities, and growing a coal garden. We realize that by working with these students we will begin to educate the citizens of the future and, at the same time, bring the message into the households of these students to reach their families. We are extremely excited at the prospect of informing many people who, previously, were only exposed to negative publicity concerning coal. We see many endless possibilities in this project and our goal is to continue to expand our participation at the school level.
Again, we thank each of you for your support during the past year. We would also like to ask at this time to sincerely thank Warren Hylton for his personal time, financial support and his addictive passion for Friends of Coal. Without this man; the Ladies’ Auxiliary would not be here today; Warren; the ladies thank you for the opportunity!
We ask that you continue to help us get the message of coal out into the communities. Our goal this year is to organize auxiliaries in several counties so more members can become active and to form junior auxiliaries so more young people can start to speak out on the benefits of coal. We realize that only by speaking as one voice can we combat the negative image of coal and the industry.
Our top priority remains educating the public. Only then will our citizens realize the opportunities generated by the most valuable resource in our state – COAL.