Revenge Has Never Been So Sweet

What do you get when you cross a classic novel with a local mystery writer? The Revenge of the Maltese Falcon, an interactive murder mystery event, starring local suspects Lori Smith (Waynesboro City Council), Cindy Corell (The News Leader), Dr. Steve Nichols (Staunton City Schools), Nancy Sorrells (Augusta County

Board of Supervisors), and Harold Cook (Director Emeritus, Community Foundation), presented by local mystery writer Kathy Johnson.
Join the fun as the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge hosts the 2009 Big Read kick off event for Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County. This year’s featured book is Dashiell Hammett’s thriller novel, The Maltese Falcon. The kickoff will take place at the Mill Street Grill in Staunton at 5 p.m. on Thursday, February 26 with cocktails, 1930s style, free appetizers, books, readers guides, audio guides and other Big Read materials.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge received a matching grant of $10,000 to promote and carry out community-based programs to read and celebrate Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon throughout the month of March. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.

Augusta County is one of 208 communities nationwide participating in The Big Read from September 2008-June 2009. Since the program’s national launch in 2006, the NEA has funded more than 300 Big Read programs in the nation’s towns and cities. In March 2009, our community will celebrate The Maltese Falcon with a full calendar of events, including book discussions, film screenings, concerts, and lectures aimed at avid and lapsed or reluctant readers alike.

For more information on this event, contact Christiana Shields at 540.213.2150.

–Toni Mehling

$25,000 Grant Funds Community Pavilion in Waynesboro

Waynesboro will get a new pavilion along its greenway this spring, thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources. The grant was given to the Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited (VCTU), a stream, creek and fisheries conservation organization, for a new 24-by 36-foot education, conservation, and family recreation pavilion to be built on the bank of the South River in Waynesboro’s Constitution Park.

Volunteers from Dominion, Trout Unlimited and others plan to have the pavilion ready in time for this year’s Virginia Fly Fishing Festival, April 18-19.The pavilion will be used for many community events, including RiverFest, the Fly Fishing Festival and Trout in the Classroom, as well as recreational use by the community.

Dominion, the City of Waynesboro, VCTU, the Shenandoah Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc. the Fly Fishing Festival, and the Va. Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries are jointly sponsoring the project. Trout Unlimited, Dominion and VDGIF have partnered on many conservation and education projects including the handicapped pier at Sherando Lake and fence crossings on Mossy Creek, the state’s premier spring creek fishery.

Since 1999 when the festival was founded, Waynesboro and local fisheries have become known as a destination for anglers. “The South River has the potential for becoming the biggest and best free-flowing trout stream in Virginia,” said John Ross, VCTU’s chair. “We’re pleased to have had a role in bringing new resources to the city so that its residents can better enjoy the river and understand why it is such a unique natural asset.”

Trout Unlimited, Dominion and VDGIF have partnered on many conservation and education projects including the handicapped pier at Sherando Lake and fence crossings on Mossy Creek, the state’s premier spring creek fishery.

Information Courtesy of Waynesboro Downtown Development, Inc.

Business & Schools Partner to Beat the Money Crunch

by Toni Mehling

Yesterday a local business man said to me, “Everything in on the table.” In these tough economic times, business organizations and even individuals are rethinking business as usual and looking for new ways to save money and make money.

There is a silver lining to the economic crunch. The pressure is causing folks to think creatively and collaborate in new ways.

One Harrisonburg business is teaming up with local schools and organizations to help raise needed funds to support student learning. You Made It!, a do-it-yourself pottery shop in downtown, is sponsoring painted plates for auction.

Linville Edom Elementary students raised $3800 at their plate auction. Using the children’s fingerprints, classes painted themed plates and labeled them with the year and class name.

Co-owner of You Made It!, Joan Clasbey, is a former teacher from Stone Spring Elementary. She says this approach to fund raising was used by parents to raise needed money for the school.

“Every year the PTA sponsors an auction as their main money maker for the year. We started painting class plates to sell at these auctions. To make a class plate, all the children in a class put a fingerprint of paint on the plate. The plate is then embellished with the name of the school, teacher, classmates and then dated and painted,” says Clasbey

Classes have different themes that their plates portray such as “Hooked on Learning” where all the fingerprints are fish and “Egg-cellent First Graders” where all the fingerprints become eggs in an Easter basket. On the “Garden of Learners” plate, the fingerprints become flowers in a flower pot.

Clasbey says You Made It! is also involved in fundraising projects and business partnerships with sororities and other student groups at JMU, area churches, scout troops, A Dream Come True Playground Fund, Susan G Komen Foundation and more.

Spring Butterflies

by Toni Mehling

Everyone seems to be ready for spring.

While the official season is still too many weeks away, you can snatch a sample this Friday. Shenandoah Valley photographer Gail Napora appears at the historic Hardesty-Higgins House in Harrisonburg with her collection of butterfly photographs and products. Napora photographs 23 native Virginia varieties of butterflies that live on the property surrounding her home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She uses the photographs to make prints, bookmarks, notecards, tote bags, suncatchers and other decorative items. She will have items for sale Friday during the exhibit.

And while you’re there, have a sandwich or salad and cup of tea for lunch at Mrs. Hardesty’s Tea House. Napora’s event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20 at the Hardesty-Higgins House.

To learn more about Napora, visit her website. You’ll find hundreds of butterfly photos, nature slideshows, and products.

A crocus and a robin bring hope

This is probably my least favorite time of year. The anticipation and excitement of Christmas is past. The days are short and cold. Sickness usually strikes our family at least once.

It’s enough to make me long to hibernate at times, and not come out until the temperatures are back in the 60s.

Two things have given me hope this week that spring is not far away: a crocus and a robin.

I was in my back yard with one of our dogs earlier this week and happened to notice a bright yellow crocus that had pushed its way out of the frozen soil.

This morning, as I ventured out in the gusting winds to get the newspaper, I spotted a robin, the first one I’ve seen since late 2008.

Both these heralds of warmer things turned my mind momentarily away from contemplating another dreary month to envisioning light breezes, daffodils and tulips, and waking to the sound of birds twittering in the trees on a beautiful morning.

Of course, I’m not naive enough to think that mild weather is a mere week or so away. When I first moved to the area 13 years ago, I was astonished that chilly, even snowy, weather lingered into mid-April. Having grown up in the Deep South, I previously took for granted that things warmed up by the end of March.

The anticipation of Spring that a crocus and a robin awake in me is one of the things I love about the Shenandoah Valley. After a long, cold, and sometimes snowy winter, it’s good to look forward to renewal as Creation reawakens.

~~Colleen

Even the Woolly Mammoths Are Ready for Spring

by Toni Mehling

Take a Winter Ride on Horseback
The ground still muddy from the thaw, I took to the outdoors last weekend. These unseasonable temps make me think spring is playing hide-and-seek, and I was willing to join the game.

I’m a hibernator. I find even the most enjoyable outdoor activities less desirable in cold weather. Hence, my horses get a break over winter. But the air was so delectable this weekend, even my woolly-coated creatures, their coats thickened for cold temperatures, seemed ready to play.

And so, my weight-challenged mare (She can’t help it–We say she metabolically challenged) got some much-needed exercise, my stubborn and thoroughly spoiled Paint started her re-training, and my thoroughbred filly carried her first rider, ever (see the attached pic of me–her first rider. She is appropriately named Summer because that is when she came to live with us). They were all willing playmates.

Last May’s kittens joined in the fun, romping across our paths as we rode down the lane, the crisp air and unexpected activity sparring their spirits. The horses just bobbed their heads down to sniff their furry little kitten bodies and say, “Hey, what’s with all the flipping and flopping?.”

Winter will be upon us again soon, I have no doubt. A friend recently emailed me about a winter ride she took in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago when the snow was fresh on the ground. Horseback riding is a popular fall activity in the mountains when folks are looking for the changing of the leaves. I had never thought of seeing the beauty of snow and ice covering the Valley and surrounding mountains from the top of one of my equine buddies.

So, maybe my woolly friends and I will go out to play together during the next snow fall.

If you would like to witness winter–or spring, summer or fall, for that matter–on horseback, take a trip to Keezlenutten Farms in Keeletown at the base of Massanutten Mountain. They will take you on a guided trail ride up the western slope of the mountain.

These places also offer trail rides:

Fort Valley Ranch

Jordan Hollow Stables

The Wagon Wheel Ranch