Hi folks, Lloyd here! Over the past few months, I’ve been working, planning, and recruiting for our first-ever Education Advisory Panel. This Panel consists of eight educators who will be helping us develop new resources to teach the Mine Wars, which will be made available for free through our website.

Earlier this summer, we put out a call looking for educators throughout central Appalachia to apply to the panel. The response was astounding, and making a short list of the applications we received was a challenge. The applicant pool was truly the most qualified group of educators we could have hoped for.

After reviewing the applications and final recommendations by the Museum’s education committee, we selected our panel in July and held our first meetings in August. The panelists quickly took charge and set their own goals and objectives, utilizing the Museum’s resources as well as resources that they had already developed for their own classes. Needless to say, we are all excited to see how the Education Advisory Panel develops.

You can learn more about the panelists and the work they’re doing for the museum here.

The Education Advisory Panel, and the Museum itself, cannot do the work it does without the support of people like you. We believe these powerful stories of everyday people banding together with courage and for justice belong in every classroom. Our hands-on programs let students experience the Mine Wars firsthand, learning about their legacy and the ongoing fight for workers' rights.

If you are interested in supporting the education mission of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, including projects like this one, please consider making a donation:

• $30: Helps cover the cost of shipping of a teaching trunk filled with educational materials about the Mine Wars.

• $50: Provides a classroom pack of red bandanas, a powerful symbol of solidarity and teaching tool of the Mine Wars.

• $250: Sponsors a field trip for a classroom, allowing the students to experience the Museum at no cost.

• $1,000: Funds an annual honorarium for a teacher on our Education Advisory Board.

Choose your own amount to help current and future students learn about the history and power of our region’s labor history. Your donation, no matter the size, directly impacts our wide range of education programming.