WHARTON, W.Va. — More than 500 families from Boone and surrounding counties received food items Tuesday from members of the WVU basketball team as part of the ongoing ‘Remember the Miners’ effort.
Coach Bob Huggins, assistant coaches and players spent more than three hours in the community of Wharton to help out laid off coal miners and their families. The group joined the Mountaineer Food Bank and Fighting Hunger.
“We got all excited,” Costa resident Michelle Halstead told WSAZ-TV. “I couldn’t believe they were here to give us food and help the community. It’s just wonderful.”
Boone County has been particularly hard hit in the steep downturn of coal, which has included hundreds of layoffs and bankruptcy filings by Patriot Coal, Alpha Natural Resources and others.
The need was apparent, Mountaineer guard Teyvon Myers said.
“Now I see that people are out here losing jobs. It’s a blessing to be able to give them some food,” Myers said. “I wanted to help any day of the week, any time of the day, if I’m helping someone’s life.”
The ‘Remember the Miners’ effort got its start after Huggins visited the grieving families who lost their loved ones in the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County. Twenty-nine men died in the blast.