The Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary is launching a new front in the fight to maintain coal as the nation’s leading energy source—kids’ classrooms. The ladies group is an auxiliary of the Friends of Coal – an advocacy wing of the West Virginia Coal Association, which claims to have more than 5,000 members around the state committed to extolling the virtues of coal and the industry’s commitment to communities across the state. As reported last year in the West Virginia State Journal, the group is hard at work “to show that the coal industry doesn’t just mine and leave but gives back to the community, too.”

Beginning with traditionally benevolent activities like charity drives and visits to children’s hospitals (with “Mr. Coal” the stuffed puppy handed out as gifts), Coal in the Classroom is an effort to take the message directly to schools, particularly those located in the state’s 26 coal producing counties. The Raleigh County school board approved the curriculum in October 2009.

After enlisting retired teachers to create curriculum, the auxiliary began distributing its Let’s Learn About Coal activity guide, a 16-page illustrated primer replete with hands-on activities and coloring opportunities for impressionable fourth graders. In one section, titled “The Advantages of Coal,” students are instructed to unscramble two sentences: “Lots coal we of have!” and “Than coal other cheaper is fuels.”

According to the Journal, the state’s coal association had previously offered 4-day seminars to educators on how to teach about coal, but they had never attempted the more direct tact. The article reported that one public elementary school – in the mining town of Beckley in southern West Virginia – had already agreed to do a 20-minute program every Wednesday afternoon that spring, including planned guest speakers like the president of the coal association and “an environmentalist,” as well as a field trip to the local mine – with free lunch and a t-shirt.

Auxiliary chairwoman Regina Fairchild told the Journal: “We’d really like this to be statewide, that it be mandatory in schools, that they learn about coal.”

The ladies auxiliary is yet another weapon in the Friends of Coal’s expansive public relations arsenal: The group has sponsored or initiated football games, basketball practices, plane jumps, fishing events, coal-friendly messages on license plates and school scholarships, reports Think Progress. More recently, the group released “Coal is West Virginia” ringtones, available for free download in six different musical versions – from bluegrass twang to New Orleans brass band.