A third grade class at St. Francis is the first in Beckley to participate in the Coal in the Classroom program. Yesterday was the second week of the program. The topic was surface mining. As part of the program, third-graders were given a Friends of Coal bag with a pencil, pen, packet of crayons, and a foam lump of coal-all stamped with the Friends of Coal logo. There was also a real lump of coal, a bracelet that read, "Friends of Coal" and a booklet with activities in it like connecting the dots to make earth-moving machines.
Now the class is scheduled to start in the Raleigh County public school system in the fall.
