This past weekend I had the honor of speaking at Larry Gibson's memorial service in Charleston, West Virginia. It was a beautiful service filled with hundreds of people who loved and were inspired by Larry, a long-time fighter of mountaintop-removal coal mining and lover of mountains.

The Charleston Gazette put together this wonderful video tribute to Larry with highlights from Sunday's service.

 

And here's my speech from Larry's celebration:

My name is Mary Anne Hitt. I live in Shepherstown, West Virginia, with my family -- this is my daughter Hazel. I’m the director of the Beyond Coal Campaign at the Sierra Club, and I knew Larry through my work over the past decade to end mountaintop removal and move America beyond coal, to clean energy.

One of my great friends and mentors, Lenny Kohm of Appalachian Voices, once gave me this advice -- when you start a new campaign, one of the first things you should do is plan the victory party. You’re in it to win, and you need to act like it from the beginning.

I have to tell you -- I always imagined when we won the fight to end mountaintop removal, I always assumed ...

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