STRATTON STREET — With Christmas right around the corner, many local military and coal mining families are feeling the pressures of the holidays instead of the Christmas Spirit. However, the Friends of Coal Ladies’ Auxiliary, an organization with about 5,000 members throughout the coalfields that works year-round to promote awareness about the positive aspects of the coal industry, to educate the public about the industry, and to work on projects that support veterans, visited Logan County on Tuesday to act as “Santa’s Helpers.”
The Ladies’ Auxiliary brought toys, clothes and two weeks of food for 13 local families during their Giving Hearts operation. They took base in the Shriner’s Lodge located on Stratton Street. The Shriner’s donated the use of the building for free as their contribution to the project.
The Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary holds this Christmas Giveaway for Giving Hearts in Mabscott each year, but this is the group’s first time here in Logan. A blessing for board member Sherry McPhail, who lived in Logan as a child.
“We got a grant from the Brickstreet Foundation [to expand the project to Logan County],” McPhail said. We choose to help the families of deployed military so that their loved one overseas doesn’t worry about their families at home and what kind of Christmas their kids are having. It’s special to me to be able to come back and be of some assistance to the people I came from.”
Jamie O’Rourke, wife of deployed seaman and mother of two children, was among the recipients during the Giving Hearts program. She and her kids currently live with her parents in Holden while her husband is deployed.
“One of the joys of being in a small town is that you have people that care about you that you don’t even know,” O’Rourke said. “I’m so grateful [for all of the love and support].”
O’Rourke said that her husband was deployed this last time when their oldest was still in diapers and their youngest was just born.
“He’s going to be coming home to a kid who is completely potty trained and using words and a 9-month-old,” O’Rourke said. “He’s missing so much, but this means so much because even though he’s missing things like shopping for Christmas presents and the kids opening them on Christmas morning, he knows that we are being taken care of.”
The rest of the families that received assistance on Tuesday were laid off coal miners.
“We’re here to give a little support because it’s been terrible in the coal mines, as far as layoffs,” McPhail said. “It’s hitting them hard at Christmas and we just wanted to give them a little assistance… Each familiy receives a turkey, a ham, a bag of apples, a bag of cuties and four boxes of food.”
As for what goes in the boxes, McPhail said that the Ladies from Beckley have worked with a Food Bank to determine the best products to be donated. Families with children received personalized toys for the children, as well as clothes and winter coats.
We typcially spend an average of $600 on each family, depending on the family size and their needs,” McPhail said. “I hope to see this program grow [in Logan County] over the next few years.”
Each family that came showed much appreciation for the auxiliary and their support during this rough holiday season.
The auxiliary is involved in multiple other community outreach programs including: teaching “Coal in the Classroom” at area schools; working at the Friends of Coal Auto Fair in July; volunteering through the year at the Beckley Veterans’ Administration Hospital; providing GI phone cards to U.S. Armed Forces through the “Iraq and Afghanistan Projects” and much more.