WHEELING, W.Va. — Members of the West Virginia Appalachian Laborers District Council are taking part in charitable activities across the Mountain State.
Members have participated in a variety of activities as part of the Laborers Rising program, with the most recent being the Morgantown area community cleanups that were organized by Morgantown City Councilor Louise ‘Weez’ Michael earlier in the spring. Organizer Kyle Kull takes the lead in those efforts that take place on a near-weekly basis with direct interactions with members of the community.
“Laborers Rising is a volunteer group that we’ve started in our union; we’ve been doing it for over a year now,” said Kull. “You’re aware of the roadside cleanups that we’ve done, but throughout the state, we’ve done quite a few other things.”
Laborers Rising includes members of the West Virginia Appalachian Laborers District Council who participate in activities on a volunteer basis. This not only includes roadside maintenance efforts like the ones that were seen around West Virginia Department of Highways supervised roads around Star City near Chaplin Hill Road and Monongahela Boulevard but also State Route 705 towards the Suncrest Town Center. According to Kull, this is not just limited to cleaning up road medians.
“This is a volunteer organization, and we’ve done a lot of work with food pantries; there’s a place where we’ve built a playground, and we’ll take our members out and have them practice with Special Olympics teams,” said Kull.
In order to take part in such a wide range of volunteer activities, representatives with the West Virginia Appalachian Laborers District Council are active attendees of municipal meetings and organizational events around the Mountain State. To eventually take part in Morgantown area community cleanups, Kull spoke with Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom during one of the commission’s regular meetings, which then led to a communication with Michael ahead of 17 Laborers Rising participants from the Labor International Union of America local chapters 379 (Morgantown) and 616 (Cumberland, Maryland).
“It’ll look a little bit nicer when people are coming to the games at WVU or if they’re going to the hospital,” said Kull. “We want to have a better impression of the city, and they were willing to give up some of their free time to help out with that.”
The plan for Kull and other leaders with the West Virginia Appalachian Laborers District Council is to continue to support Mountain State residents while also being involved in the numerous crafts represented by the union. This not only includes the numerous community efforts that members participate in as part of Laborers Rising but also job training that is hosted at the Laborers Training Facility in Wood County that ranges from construction to road maintenance. For members of the WV ALDC, Laborers Rising is a way to give back to the community they work in.
“You see a contractor working for Hope Gas; they’re employing our members. The pipeline work that is happening in the area, with APEX and ACE doing the pipeline work, those are our members out doing those jobs as well,” said Kull.