Event organiser and United for Coal Virginia volunteer Tracy Miller told regional newspaper the Bristol Herald Courier that thousands were expected October 13.
The prayer chain, as the region refers to it, will run from US 23 in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, to the Kentucky state line, through the southern Kentucky town of Paintsville and toward Chillicothe, Ohio. Attendees will also line up on US 119 from Pikeville, Kentucky, toward Williamson in southern West Virginia.
United for Coal has put together the chain in support of thousands of coal miners and power plant workers laid off this year in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
No operator has been immune to the closure trend. In fact, one of the largest furloughs in the Appalachian region has been 1200 workers cut and eight mines idled by Alpha Natural Resources last month.
“No one really hears our voices down here and knows what's going on," Miller said.
“Coal makes our life in southwest Virginia. In our house, it's scary day by day [and] you don't know how the industry is going.
“Everybody's just really concerned. What's going to be in the future if we can't pay our bills?"
United for Coal has been selling T-shirts for the event and received co-operation from the Virginia Department of Transportation on safety issues associated with the chain. Miller said that the event would focus on prayer, not politics.
"It's hard not to become political," she told the Bristol News.
"I don't want to make it political one bit. [Prayer] is going to help us more than any political event."
The gathering will start at 2pm. The day itself will kick off at 12.30pm with a prayer by a pastor on a local radio station. Specific parking areas have been designated for participants in Big Stone Gap, Wise, Virginia and Pound.
Miller said she was hopeful that the chains would join together across all states.
"We're pretty excited about it," Miller said. "It's just to let people know we depend on coal in southwest Virginia."
“Hands of Coal”, held in Kentucky in August, attracted supported from Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
