By Rachel Anderson

December 14, 2018 - Almost 400 McDowell County, West Virginia children celebrated Christmas a few weeks early last night.

It was all a part of Coal Country Christmas; an idea reimagined by CEO of ArcelorMittal Mining, Michael Day.

Day approached the Children’s Home Society of WV in September and told them his plan to give back. A few months later, ArcelorMittal held a fundraiser and gave the Children’s Home Society of WV $30,000 to buy Christmas presents for children in need in McDowell County.

“Having never done this before, we just began by asking local schools to give us referrals of names of children who they thought might need some assistance for Christmas this year,” said Becky Brown, We Can Mentoring Coordinator.

Then, Becky and others with the Children’s Home Society of WV, took it a step further. They reached out to the guardians of almost 400 children to ask what the kids wanted for Christmas.

“We’ve just been working like Santa’s elves for a couple of months now!” said Joanna Boileau, the Regional Director of the Children’s Home Society of WV.

Tonight, the kids got their presents!

For ArcelorMittal, it was all about giving back to the community. The bulk of their mining operations take place in McDowell.