One team we can all cheer for
Who’s your favorite team? The Mariners? Yankees? Cubs?
How about Hecla Mining Company? Don’t laugh: They’re good. Really good.
Tomorrow through Thursday, Hecla’s Lucky Friday Mine Rescue Team will compete in the national mine rescue competition in Kentucky. The contest between 40 or so teams is sponsored by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and it’s a big deal. Hecla’s team is in it to win it.
In May, the Hecla team swept the regional competition in Alaska. It’s the first time Hecla had ever swept.
There’s more to this World Series for miners than meets the eye, of course. According to a press release from Hecla, these are training contests that “help train and prepare the mine rescue teams and individual members to conduct some of the riskiest emergency responses undertaken, as they are called to travel deep into the underground mines to find missing or trapped miners, or recover mining operations following mine fires, explosions or cave-ins.”
And now for a bit of inspiration. The Hecla team came together in April 2017, roughly one month after striking United Steelworkers Union local 5114 brought work at the Lucky Friday to a standstill.
According to Hecla, which is headquartered in Coeur d’Alene, former mine rescue team members were brought back so they could compete, including Geoff Parker, Bob Burden and Zac Thomas. They joined Jeff Hunter, Nick Furlin, Dustin Wuolle and Scott Hogamier for 77 years of combined competition experience.
“These are really some of the best of the best when it comes to mine rescue,” said Hecla’s Tim Kilbreath. “You won’t find a more dedicated or professional group of individuals. Their actions and efforts really exemplify what it means to have safety as a core value of our culture at Lucky Friday.”
While Hecla and its 300 or so local miners remain at a labor impasse, stunting production and paralyzing the Silver Valley economy, this is as good a time as any to pull together and cheer for the Hecla Seven.
Here’s hoping the teamwork is contagious.