This article originally provided by WV Metro News

September 12, 2006

Walking Grandpa In Washington

MetroNews
Arlington, Virginia

A Raleigh County grandfather will end his more than 455 mile walk on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

Ed Wiley is scheduled to start walking again from the Arlington Bridge on Thursday morning, walking with supporters for the last leg of his journey on foot that has taken more than a month.

"It's time for people for people to stand up and do what's right for our children," says Wiley who spoke with MetroNews from Arlington on Tuesday where he was resting for a day after logging 22 miles on Monday.

Wiley is walking as part of the Pennies of Promise campaign. It's an effort to raise $5 million dollars for a new school to replace Marsh Fork Elementary School in Raleigh County. Wiley has a grandchild attending school there.

The school building sits 225 feet from a coal silo that operates as part of a Massey Energy subsidiary, Goals Coal. Wiley says the operation makes the school unsafe because of, among other things, the coal dust that he says is present in the classrooms.

Along his route to Washington, Wiley says he's talked to a lot of people about the problems that he says Marsh Fork Elementary School students have to deal with everyday. "It seemed like I got a lot of support everywhere I went," says Wiley.

"People would come off their porches and talk and people would stop and give donations, ask if I needed water and there were a lot of towns where we would visit the mayors."

Independent tests in January of this year confirmed the presence of coal dust within the school. In a separate action, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered part of the school sealed off last month after asbestos was found. A sludge pond is also located near the school.

Wiley says he's calling on West Virginia's leaders in Washington to do something. "There's a lot of people who could do something if they just would."

Wiley says his goal is to meet with U.S. Senator Robert Byrd on Wednesday along with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

He left the steps of the West Virginia State Capitol on August second. Wiley's walk has taken him through Clendenin, Sutton, Buckhannon, Aurora, Romney, Shepherdstown and Harper's Ferry. He is now in Virginia.