Published in the May 2006 American Longwall Magazine

President Georgene Robertson said while the non-profit group has just a few dozen volunteers, it works hard to send a positive message to students as well as the community.

“We want to make sure every child knows that there are a lot of positive things about the coal industry.”

She added that, while CEDAR of SVW commenced its program in 2001, its predecessor, CEDAR of east Kentucky, began in 1993. For both organisations, the major priority is to “enable citizens to form a factual and unbiased opinion of the industry”

Five West Virginia counties are included in CEDAR of SWV – Mingo, Logan, Boone, McDowell and Wyoming – within which there are 109 schools educating students from kindergarten through the 12th grade. To support ongoing efforts and to be able to give back to the schools as they do, the group holds two regular programs as well as an annual golf fundraiser.

The first, a Coal Study Unit program, works with schools’ teachers to provide financial and other resources to allow them to have class units dedicated to various topics surrounding coal. In the spring of every year, nine programs are chosen to receive an award for their efforts at a banquet.

Robertson added that the Coal Study Unit program would not be successful without the efforts of its manager, volunteer Susan Dingess, who works with the teachers to ensure the program’s success year after year.

The other annually-held event is the Regional Coal Fair, which CEDAR hosts to encourage students to show off their skills and talents through coal-related projects in subjects such as English, art, music, math, social studies, technology/multimedia and science. Members of the teaching sector, the professional sector and industry representatives then judge the projects and cash awards are given to winning students at an annual luncheon.

That program has gained such popularity that more than 1000 people visited the exhibits at the Harless Community Center for the 2006 fair. Robertson said its success is thanks to Debbie Mudd, the coal fair’s manager. “[Debbie and Susan] are two important parts; without their work this could not happen.”

For the first time, Robertson said, CEDAR is happy to be giving back in yet another big way through a joint effort between it, a local college and the West Virginia Development Office. “We partnered with Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, and we’re offering 10 $1,000 scholarships to students in our participating counties.

[They] would be [for] high school students that would be going to Southern; it’s a one-time $1000 scholarship,” she said, adding that the response from applications so far has been great.

Of course, such plans cannot succeed for a non-profit, volunteer organisation such as CEDAR of SWV without financial support, which the group gains through fundraising. The cornerstone of that is the annual golf tournament at the local Twisted Gun Golf Course, a venue borne from prior mine reclamation efforts.

“This is our fourth year [for the event],” said Robertson. “This year it has grown so much we expanded it to two days.” Three more CEDAR volunteers – Martha Dameron, Dave Dingess and Bud Clapp – have helped to do that, Robertson said.

In additional to raising funds, the event is important to its participants because of potential networking opportunities with others in the industry as well as to share ideas.

“We’ve got teams from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio ... where you have the coal industry teams, you have vendors that want to come in so [that] they have time to talk.”

CEDAR is also lucky to have a strong backing of professionals on its board of directors, including representatives from industry and the teaching sector. It is that support, Robertson said, that is imperative should anyone want to help grow the organisation’s efforts by establishing a similar group in another area.

“Anybody that’s interested in having a similar program anywhere, you have got to have an industry support group.”

CEDAR’s mission, she said, really says it all about its past, present and future and the part it is playing to ensure the next generation appreciates all coal has to offer – to “facilitate the increase in knowledge and understanding of the many benefits the coal industry provides in our daily lives”.