BECKELY -
With all of the excitement gearing up for Friends of Coal Auto fair weekend, 59 News took a look at all of the hard work going on behind the scenes.
Staff members with the YMCA tell me it takes an entire year to plan the friends of coal auto fair.
They said when vendors and volunteers begin setting up the tents, it is a great realization year of planning is becoming reality.
"I was born and raised on the coal field of Boone County," Gregory Collins with Friends of Coal Auto Fair said.
After hours of prep time, 3rd generation miner Gregory Collins' display is set-up, ready to educate the thousands of visitors expected at this years fair. Collins will show off a 1-ton coal cart used back when his grandfather was underground to give people a better appreciation of this very dangerous business.
"They will take away how my grandfather mined coal," Collins continued.
Just a few rows away from Collins exhibit, the Ladies Auxiliary Chapter in Beckley do heavy lifting to perfect their tent for the weekend's events, calling their volunteer effort a labor of love.
"There's no better to be able to help people and give back to the community that has been so good to us. Without coal there would be no Beckley WV, there would be no WV. we power the nation," Regina Fairchild with the Friends of Coal said.
As vendors light-up their grills and twist that final screw.
Workers said they are reminded this is a fair to celebrate the rich coal mining heritage deeply rooted in the mountain state.
"It is really part of our heritage and West Virginia is just a wonderful state and we are all fortunate to live here," Craig Clemens a vendor with the Fair said.
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