Local Grandpa Walking to DC for Marsh Fork Kids

	Ed on the road to Washington because, as the smaller flag says, All Talk + No Action = Gov Joe Manchin.

by Amelia Pridemore, Beckley Register-Herald, July 26, 2006

Ed Wiley has already taken his concerns about the children at Marsh Fork Elementary to the governor literally.

Now, he plans to take his campaign to build a new school in the Marsh Fork community straight to the nations capital on foot.

Wiley, 49, of Rock Creek, plans to leave Charleston on Aug. 2 and arrive in Washington, D.C., Sept. 12, representing Pennies of Promise, a campaign to raise funds for a new school in the Marsh Fork area, according to Coal River Mountain Watch, a Coal River Valley-based environmental organization.

	Debbie Jarrell and Ed Wiley at the start of the march in Charleston, WV.

The campaign is also designed to raise awareness for what the group and some residents believe are problems facing the children at the Sundial school.

"Our local and state leaders have turned a blind eye to this problem and a deaf ear to our concerns," Wiley said. "Im walking to Washington, D.C., to get some help."

Wileys 11-year-old granddaughter recently graduated from the school.

CRMW members and other concerned citizens contend dust and other chemicals used at Goals are making children at the school sick.

These citizens are now calling for a new school to be constructed in the Marsh Fork area and for it to house grades kindergarten through 12. This is due to long bus rides older students have faced since Marsh Fork High School closed

Through the Pennies of Promise web site at www.penniesofpromise.org, Wiley said they have received donations and calls from all over the United States, Europe and Australia. (See related stories pages 10-11)