The Register-Herald: July 20, 2008-- The last day of the Friends of Coal Auto Fair was one of awards, sunshine and overall good times for everyone involved. The fair wrapped up its fifth annual three-day run at the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA’s Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex with more opportunities to check out the show cars and carnival or to take part in the all-denominations church service.
Awards were handed out at noon, but show officials said a complete list wouldn’t be available until later in the week.
YMCA CEO Jim Gilchrist was enthusiastic about this year’s show’s run.
“All of it was so great. My
favorite part was what the volunteers and staff did all weekend long. Their work
was just phenomenal.”
Many events took place over the course of the
weekend — the carnival, Saturday night’s concert featuring Randy Travis and
Taylor Made, fireworks, thousands of dollars’ worth of giveaways, specialty
vendors, displays, presentations, a flea market, arts and crafts and children’s
games.
Gilchrist said that during the course of the weekend, upward of 80,000 visitors stopped by to enjoy the festivities and cars. Friday evening’s Beckley’s Cruise-in Car and Bike Show featured a line-up of about 700 cars escorted by police from the soccer complex into Uptown Beckley.
Among the giveaways was a drawing for Jeep Grand Cherokee donated by Ramey Automotive won by Dave Fisher of Oak Hill.
Jay Rist, marketing and membership director for the Y, said his favorite part of the fair was the “whole weekend. It was just a great success and the community involvement and massive turnout was great.”
The Friends of Coal Auto Fair is made possible through
sponsorship from the Friends of Coal and many other local and coal industry
sponsors.
The fair’s platinum sponsors include:
- Massey Energy Co.
- Cecil I. Walker Machinery
- Fairchild International
- Terex SHM
- Cline Resources
- Bluestone Coal Corp.
- Ramey Ford
- Riverton Coal Production Inc.
- Brooks Run Mining
- WV Coal Recovery
- Petroleum Products Inc.
- Marshall Miller & Associates
- Nell Jean Enterprises Inc.
- Patience Inc.
- Pritchard Mining Co. Inc.
- Bucyrus America Inc.
- Eastern Arrow Corp.
- Coal News
- Summit Resources Inc.
- Little General Stores
- Vecellio & Grogan Inc.
- Brody Mining, LLC/Selah Corp./CK Coal Mining
- Eagle Coal Sales, Inc./Diamond Trucking
- WV Coal Association
- Phillips Machine Service
- Southern West Virginia Asphalt
- Gould’s Electric
- LAW River Co., LLC
- TWP Enterprises
- City of Beckley
- Newtown Energy Inc.
- Kanawha Eagle Coal, LLC
- Delta Electric
- NARCO Inc.
- Raleigh General Hospital
- ICG Beckley, LLC
- Patriot Coal Corp.
- Concept Mining Inc.
For more information about the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA and activities it offers, call 252-0715.
Source/Writer:
The Register-Herald
By: Ashley Morici