Yadkin Valley Craft Guild

I am in the Yadkin Valley Craft Guild Shop on Main Street in Elkin. I'm learning the ropes to volunteer. I've got an opportunity to immerse myself in arts and craft now. I'm signing up for an on-line graphics certification with instructors graduated from my alma mater, FIT in New York. This do-it-yourself training is not helping. I want a portfolio - a real one. I need personal critiques and remember the Clayworks? I can pick up the heavy clay now, so I'm going back and making clay pieces for Christmas presents and to sell in the shop.

We are such a small place and the economy is still reeling, I expect to write to you from this computer regularly. I have a little window and I can see the door. If customers come I will jump up. But truly we've had three customers these two hours - one wanting art suppliers, one wanting to learn to do claywork, and one who grew up here wanting to talk.

I hope I can help change that over the next few months. I want to also write/look for grants.

This is should help sustain my poor resume until the jobs return or I convince myself to go it alone.

I did get a response from a house in New York to design top-of-the-bed to be made in China. She said to let her know if I was interested in moving to New York. I've got to illustrate the method of teleconferencing. Perhaps I will buy the webcam camera and software to upgrade her PC. But first I must design.

The earth is not flat. The world is flat.

I am feeling that feeling they felt when the earth was proven to not be flat. Everything opens up. Everything changes.

So, while I struggle in my pursuit of the Revolution in the South, I am uncovering many people who have already done so, and now there are profitable, national businesses draped around the American Revolution. I can't decide if I'm late or just a prophet to the masses. Perhaps only the minority and wealthy can take these tours and attend these meetings. I'm telling you, those businesses would explode when/if there is a television series filmed in Wilmington and the masses discovered their ancestors. Then those small service businesses would follow, increase the quality of life and bring back the manufacturing to NC.

If you haven't had vacation yet and can spend the same time and money as a trip to Europein the fall, try this tour. AND I say finger-shaking to us, this company organizing this history tour is from South Dakota!!! SD!!! (We have no idea what we have in NC history.)

© 2009 HistoryAmerica TOURS4265 Peridot Lane • Rapid City, SD 57702(800) 628-8542 • (605) 348-2250 • Fax (605) 342-8471

This I imagine, is like the experience I had in Japan. I lived for two weeks with a family in Osaka. We were traveling with the Friendship Force. Seems like I told you about that experience. But, anyway... our hosts, particularly the lady of the house, were interested in our Christian culture and our faith. I can't say that I overwhelmed her with my knowledge of the Bible. I have always regretted that and wondered how a person like myself could go through Sunday School for over 30 years, been baptised and born again, and NOT have a passionate story to tell. I remember being timid about all of that, not wanting to express that all Shinto faith-believers are going to hell... I don't actually believe that. I believe God is bigger than my understanding and I trust Jesus to lead me through it. Still, was an opportunity lost??? I couldn't express my own story. It is not one of those saved from drugs like Nicky Cruz or anything stories, so is it less passionate? or do I just not know what it is???!!!!!! This is an analogy to NC and the story of the Revolution in our state. Yes, we have been to Gilford courthouse. No, we do not have too many sites yet available to see from the 1700s. But still, is our story any less passionate? I guess those folks in SD are impressed enough. (South Dakota???? They'd even benefit from an increased awareness of the story of the Revolution.)

South Dakota! Come'on NC...

And PS. “Trust in the Lord and do good…commit your way to the Lord…Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” (vv. 3,4,7)

The Honest Scrap Award! a meme traveling...what does it mean?

My friend Kheli, has awarded me the Honest Scrap Award! “This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.”

I am "sweet, beautiful, smart and passionate" according to Kheli !! I am blushing, but I'm not turning it down. So, with GREAT humility I express my thanks. I think her blog, remember your karma, is far more engaging than mine. She actually makes stuff!! She makes quilts and makes them fast and makes them beautiful and then will educate you about them too and then you can probably buy them. Check her out!

Here is how the award works:

1) Say thanks and give a link (in your next blog) to the presenter of the award

2) Share "10 Honest Things" about myself.

3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.

4) Tell those 7 people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving.

So, here goes!

10 things about me:

1. I LOVE stories! I love to visit and tell stories. I love to listen to stories. But, I do not tell jokes very well. Go figure.

2.Today is my anniversary. It is the end of the seventh year. Marriage has been a wild ride. But I see it in full bloom now. If he tells me I am "sweet, beautiful, smart and passionate" I will know the bumpy years are behind. You know when we were dating, I once told him he was so beautiful (handsome) and his response was "You're so intelligent." What? HAHAHAHAHA! He was a bit chagrined. So, I decided it was a compliment.

3. I enjoy research. Of all kinds, but especially the meaning of things, the method of things and the next BIG thing.

4. I've been told my gramma was a little clairvoyant. She "knew" things. And really every once in a very great while, I "know" things too... It has not served to keep me out of normal trouble however.

5. I love my coffee in the morning too!

6. I am spending FAR too much time on the internet. I only received permission to drive after a surgery a couple of days ago, so I"m making that my excuse.

7. I want to read a lot, but I don't make time for that regularly. I do have a collection of books that span two rooms. I keep visiting the library used book sale. I like information books, history books, classic books, picture books and science or science fiction. I just love to hold those books and I guess I will read them all by osmosis. I will do fantastic origami, yoga, southern cooking and speak Japanese. I will know all there is to know about design elements and the Southern Campaign. I will understand Einstein and the Plantagenets.

8. I love my son. He is one of the kindest and smartest people I know. He now goes after the thing that catches his attention and invests himself without prodding. I'm trying to be encouraging, but he is so ahead of me. Last night I was educated about some CAT thing on the iphone. I will have to ask him again, but I realize he is a GREAT DESIGN RESOURCE. Just don't give me a test yet. And he is SO much help especially when I could not drive or pick things up. And I love my husband. He is one of the most creative people I know banjo playing ALL the time- He is creative even more than I am and sometimes it is chaos in our house, but it is never boring. We go so much, I often just want to be home.

9. That said, I am a travel nut. AND, I love vacations. AND I love going on vacations where you do NOT have to perform or do the work, hosting or entertaining. I am about playing games, getting a tan and sweet tea. Those of you who know me, cannot believe that. When was the last time I invited you to visit for family game night, or found time to lie in the sand at the ocean, or ever ordered sweeet iced tea on purpose. However, I used to do that. I'm thinking of doing it... probably all the time. I have my priorities. This is the 21st century and we are playing with fire... doing all these things in our heads, virtually, as if we really do them.....Or thinking about when we did do them and when we were younger, only not recognising that thinking about doing things does NOT stand in for actually going outside and we are not "younger". I'm really understanding Jesus' comment about lust in the heart, only in my case its not lust, but its the virtual exercise I get sitting here thinking about family game night, or sand or sweet tea. It feels real and yet nothing really happened. So I blame my performing husband and not the internet. NOT!

10. I do love the revolutionary war. Not that I love war or revolution, but the stories! Reading a first hand account, just like reading a letter, is like visiting with the writer. For example, I have a note from my other grandmother, MaMa, that she wrote to explain the list of names on the back of an envelope from a letter written in about 1907. It is the list of relatives her father told her about when she was ten and reading it makes me hear her voice again. The note was written a very long time ago and was not a note written to me, but a note written to generations to come. Still I hear her and when I see the writing, I see my great-grandfather's handwriting. When I read about the revolution I recall that the great-grandfather of my great-grandfather was there. Its like a letter from him too.

Here are my 7 award winners in addition to remember your karma:

Bill Leslie's Carolina Conversations - Bill is married to a high school classmate of mine. I have his autograph when he played on the WKIX cagers and I was in 9th or 10th grade and he is a lead anchor at WRAL. BUT, most, importantly, he comments on your comments on his blog and its always about the life and times in NC.

Box Of Peanuts- I don't know Chris, but I LOVE his tweets and I keep up with the mindset of ECU. He follows mine too.

Homesteading in a Condo - My friend and former coworker (and her husband) who is also very passionate, sweet, beautiful and VERY Smart and is also a creative who DOES STUFF, not just in her head, but with her hands, who will teach you to compost with your own worms in your own kitchen. Most incredible to me, she knows about food and grows it in container boxes and lives at the top of a large apartment/condo building in Detroit. I am in awe.

Leibson's Law - an engineering blog bringing the future to you. AND he wrote back a time or too.

Overmountain Victory Trail Association- for doing all they do to keep the story alive

Padresteve's World...Musings of a Passionate Mo...- Steve's a wonderful writer and he is also a pastor. I follow his adventures as a soldier and from time to time his analysis of baseball. I've never met him, but his writing has touched and informed me.

Pastry Methods and Techniques - This is another food blog and she is fun! Again, we've never met, but she is from near my hometown and reminds me NC can be REAL, and quite up-town too.

Thanks again to all these bloggers for your inspiration, and thanks to all who read this blog!

Riding around the Backcountry is safe and in fact tourism now.

Ride around the backcountry and see the wineries with Yadkin Valley Wine Tours. I noticed in my research there was a summary of NC in 1790 when things settled down and the country finally had a constitution. Grapes were included as an asset of the state. The attitude toward slavery is evident and distasteful. I believe it was the Ronald Reagan half-a-loaf concept. It took another 100 years to correct it and it wasn't easy. The summary follows:

NORTH-CAROLINA.
The following minutes concerning the State of North-Carolina, will tend to shew the situation and prospects of that state.

A CENTRAL seat of state government has been fixed and a State House and other necessary public buildings, have been erected at the City of Raleigh.

A University for the Education of youth, has been lately established. Formerly a liberal education was sought, at a great expence, in the more northern states.

A light house has been completed at the mouth of Cape Fear River, on which lies Wilmington, the principal sea port. use to all the other ports of North-Carolina.

A lighted Beacon, at the important inlet of Occacock, is erected and is under the same circumstances.

The complete establishment of the settlements and State of Tennessee has relieved all the counties of North-Carolina, from the inconveniences and injuries of Indian neighbours. The Tennessee settlements and State contain above 100,000 persons.

There is no extensive portion of North-Carolina in a wilderness state. It is well divided into sixty four counties, each having a court-house, and intersecting roads, and there is not one of them, which have less than 10,000 inhabitants.

Iron ore is very abundant in North Carolina. There are iron works in most of the counties of the middle and in almost every county of the Western districts. They however are not capital.

Wheat, rye, indian corn, barley, oats, upland rice, indigo, tobacco, cotton, hemp, flax, the white or Irish potatoe, the red and yellow sweet potatoe, the pumpkin, the gourd, the water melon, the musk melon, the turnip, the carrot, the parsnip, the cabbage, the grape, the peach, the pear, the apricot, the nectarine, the plumb, the clover, blue grass, timothy, spear grass, and most of the productions of the northern, middle and southern states, are raised in North-Carolina. Tar, pitch, and turpentine, rozln, spirits of turpentine, ship timber, ship plank and boards, iron, and almost every important article for the building and equipment of ships, are made in North-Carolina.

The whole state of North-Carolina lies on the easterly or Atlantic side of the blue ridge or Appalachian mountain except a part of one single district out of eight districts into which the state is divided.

The natural growths of the Eastern districts of the state, are the pine of every denomination, with cypress, live oak, and red cedar. But all the various oaks, hickory or white walnut, chesnut, poplar, maple, buckeye, mulberry, black walnut and locust, the grape-vine and pea-vine, prevail in the middle and more western districts.

Horses, neat cattle, sheep, hogs, and other animals, usually raised by farmers, in the middle and northern states, and in Europe, abound and thrive in North-Carolina. The mildness of the winters is particularly favorable to them. Even in the most rough parts, North-Carolina is not represented to be a stony country. The hills and mountains are often rich and fertile, and are said to be very seldom what is called barren, in the more northern states.

The latitudes of this state correspond with those in Europe, most distinguished for the value of their wool, but it will always abound in cotton.

The latitudes of this state correspond with those of Europe, which produce abundant and valuable vintages. The western district is well adapted to the vine.

The population of the state is 344,807 free persons, besides blacks which are chiefly in the eastern districts.

It has much fewer slaves in proportion to whites, than Maryland, Virginia, South-Carolina, and Georgia. All these states, have prohibited the importation of slaves. In the western district of North-Carolina, not more than one person in 16 or 18 is a black--In Delaware, they are as 1 in 7, in New-Jersey as 1 in 16 or 18, in New-York, as 1 in 18.

This state abounds in mill seats, particularly in the middle and western districts--and has in those districts, great capacities for watering grounds.

The latitudes of North-Carolina are nearly those of Arabia, Barbary and Spain, which three countries produce the three finest breeds of horses in the world--A curious attention to the breeding, management and feeding of those three kinds of horses, has improved them greatly in more rigid climates, but without great care in all those particulars, the Arabian, Barbary, and Spanish horses degenerate in countries having a very severe winter. The ass and the male have thriven well, in the latitudes of the eastern continent, corresponding with those of North-Carolina.

The rivers emptying into the sea on the coasts of North-Carolina, Virginia, and South-Carolina, afford a very great share of inland navigation to the people of this state; and two important canals are now making, which will greatly extend the natural advantages of that kind. That of the Broad River, Pacolet and Santee, is made passable by boats.

In most of the countries, brick clay is more frequent and abundant, than stone.
The land rents of New-England and New-Jersey, are at this time higher, than the price of as good lands in North-Carolina. The British land rents are far higher.

The Quakers, and the Moravians and other Germans, have made considerable and thriving settlements in North-Carolina.

The cotton ginning mill by water, is erecting in many of the counties of North-Carolina, and particularly along the South-Carolina line. There are two or three in Rutherford county. At the little town Fayeteville alone 500,000 pounds of Cotton, in the seed, are annually brought to market.

One more day to regroup

We have a Carolina Renaissance Festival. Did you know that? Well, I've heard about it. But I had no idea it was so BIG. This is the 16th year.

And the STATE FAIR starts on Thursday!

I am regrouping from my OVTA event and cleaning house, job hunting and so on. I'll get back on the counties soon.

I go to see Dr. VanDerVere tomorrow. Hopefully, I can drive tomorrow. We will see. Physical therapy is going okay. My head moves pretty well.

From Friday's event...

http://www.surrymessenger.com/ had pictures this morning!!

OVTA Field Days

The OVTA Field Days in Elkin thanks to the support of the National Parks Foundation, the Coca-Cola Foundation, Member's Credit Union and help from Comb's Hometown Butcher shop, All-Star Rentals, and Lowe's Home Improvement was... a complete success!!

However, I feel like a bride. You plan for weeks, months or years. The big event unfolds. Everyone's nerves are on edge and NOW they are telling you what to do. It rains in the morning when it wasn't supposed to, but suddenly the sun appears, you get help, everyone follows the plan, each function functions as its supposed to do, you get MIRACLES, compliments start to fly and everyone has a wonderful time.

We had about 300 kids and adults who walked 3.7 miles each inspired by our Active Trails grant. They learned about history, met Senator Broyhill, asked good questions and watched in awe as the iron in the blacksmith's fire grew red, the powder exploded in the rifles, a chicken cooked outdoors hanging on a string, candles grew, blowguns flew, they drilled, they met a native American, they walked on the trail and learned to read "the signs". They captured a tory escapee and returned him to camp but voted to parole him to fight with the patriots. It was a fun filled day full of real and imagined, past events and inspirations for their future.

Why do I feel like a bride? Well, I heard all about it. I just missed it. I was in the command center so to speak and all of it happened all around me. I have to read about it in the newspaper tomorrow. But, apparently, my plan worked out.

That's 7:30 PM!

:-) !

They're here!

They're here! They're here! OVTA has arrived in Elkin. They freaked out the folks at the Bonfires Steak House, but they were really handsome in those backcountry outfits... handsome and scary.

Okay, tomorrow is a huge day! I will be occupied until Saturday morning. Hope I get back to my e-visiting then.

By the way, if you are within driving distance, the OVTA will present a dramatic re-telling of the campaign to Kings Mountain to the public about 7;30 at Elkin City Park.
Y'all drive up or down.

OVTA has found the computer

www.ovta-org.blogspot.com

Enough said. Check them out. It's Oct. 5. In two days they will be at Kings Mountain.
"Hang your head and mourn, George III". It's the beginning of the end of the British rule in the United States.

More News!

Last interesting news..... from my friend I have yet to meet below Charlotte - Free interesting things to do with the American Revolution in NC/SC. I've got to get myself there.

Revolutionary War Enthusiast:
We have some exciting programs lined up for the fall which you are invited to attend:

October 10, 2009 – Saluda, SC – Corps of Discovery - free, public invited carpool tour of Saluda County, SC historic sites, some F & I War, Revolutionary War, some later, but all interesting. Tour led by guides Dean Hunt and Roy Vandergrift, III. Rain or shine. For more information see http://www.southerncampaign.org/cod.php

October 31, 2009 – Grover, NC – Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Roundtable at The Inn of The Patriots. If you are interested in attending this meeting please contact Charles B. Baxley. For location see: http://theinnofthepatriots.com and more information: http://www.southerncampaign.org/rt.php

November 6 – 7, 2009 – Camden, SC – SC Archives and History Foundation Annual Meeting. Starting Friday, November 6th at 1:00 pm with lectures: “The Journey of Explorer and Naturalist John Lawson, 1700-1701” - Val Green; “Joseph Kershaw and the Founding of Camden” – archaeologist Kenneth E. Lewis; “The Revolutionary War in the Carolina Backcountry” – historian and author Michael C. Scoggins; “Churches in the Revolutionary Era in South Carolina” – historian Daniel Tortora; and “The Cash-Shannon Duel” – William B. “Rusty” DePass, Jr. Saturday, November 7th tours: Clarence Mahoney will lead the Quaker Cemetery waking tours; Battle of Camden led by Charles B. Baxley and Dr. Jim Piecuch bus tours; tour of Camden’s historic churches led by Walter “Buddy” Clark bus tours; and the Battle of Hobkirk Hill bus tour led by David P. Reuwer and John Allison. 5:00 pm to 5:30 pm - Gen. Francis Marion Papers Project – David Neilan. Sunday, November 8th - 9:30 am - brunch at the antebellum home of Gov. John G. Richards in Liberty Hill, SC. For fees and registration information: http://www.palmettohistory.org

November 21, 2009 – Charlotte, NC - Historic Mapping Congress – Central Piedmont Community Collegehttp://www.southerncampaign.org/merch.php

We hope to see you at these events. For other Revolutionary War events see our on-lone calendar at: http://www.southerncampaign.org/coe.php

Charles B. Baxley
Publisher
Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution
www.southerncampaign.org
cbbaxley@truvista.net

Just how many Apple festivals are there in NC?

Today is the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival. Guess where RG is? I should have gone probably, but remember that house I live in and my surprise guest? Well, shame works wonders. If we just lived in an RV and traveled, we could invite folks to the great outdoors or under a fly during rain or snow. I knew there was some reason I liked 18th century America.

Anyway it occurred to me that there are lots of apple festivals in NC. So I have set about looking for them. Here are some more:
NC Apple Festival oops missed it..
Apple Festival, Bethabara, -rained out? Maybe next year.
Lincolnton Apple Festival - oops , another miss and same day as Winston!!
The Historic Orchard at Altapass - is one year long festival, but special when OVTA comes - missed it again!!!!
Apple Harvest Festival in Waynesville, Oct. 18th -- there is still time!!!!!
Taylorsville Hometown Apple Festival, Oct 17th - another one, two in one weekend. go west!
Eden Apple Festival - hummmmm, maybe not be one this year, can't find it....
APPLE FESTIVAL ARTS AND CRAFTS FAIR in Murphy?

well....

In my e-search, I hear a lot of northerners, my fellow Cary/ChapelHillites complaining about the lack of variety and great apples. They are simply not down there, though I have wonderful memories of the little tart green apple-pie apples in my aunt's yard which still stand in someone else's yard near Miss Georgia Court in Cary (named for my Gramma "Georgia").

Come to the mountains - TODAY! you can make it to the Brushys from the Triangle in 3 hours by car. It's NOT RAINING!!! 70 degrees! (F, for the rest of the world - its not hot)

And then there is this Black Walnut Festival in Bethania. Now that's what I want to see. Maybe I can get my mother-in-law to make the famous Elkin fruitcake she saved from the Winston-Salem Journal article of 1963 (made by the grandmother-in-law of one of my friends in Elkin who sings in Community Chorus with me and now is a famous facebook buddy)

I'm here to tell you the news!

All this social networking is simply a brave new world. I sent a wild email via linkedin to a former boss. We had lost contact. We have both remarried and changed names since we worked together. Anyway I took a wild guess and it was her! The other day she just showed up on my doorstep. My house was strewn with papers and graphics I'm working out for the program for our event and thus piled-up dishes , laundry, stacks of reference books, and general mayhem. (AHHHggH!) My beautiful southern living room is invaded with amplifiers, various musical instruments, picks, pliers and dust cloths because RG is off and running this time of year with all these festivals and book signings. Let me not talk about PJ's bathroom which is supposed to be the main/guest bath, but which since no one EVER comes over has ...well... evolved. I blamed my neckbrace, drew a deep breath and invited her in. We had a wonderful catching up talk. Inspite of that, I am just determined to give everything I own and live in a box with my computer to avoid having all these things to take care of. Unannounced visitors are the purpose of libraries and country clubs. This is after all the 21st century.

If I really want to go back in time when every grand house was a rest stop for travelers I have recently found all this great news! The Inn of the Patriots for example and its adventureous American Revolutionary War Living History Experience in Cleveland county at Grover, NC. They even have a Colonel Cleaveland Museum!!! (note: old weird spelling for good 'ol Roundabout) Shelby, NC, named for Isaac Shelby of Kings Mountain fame, is the county seat.

Okay, this is the filming related to Ken Burns

Saturday October 10th 2009 Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail/W. Kerr Scott Dam & Reservoir7:30 AM - 4:00 PMSaturday October 10th 2009 will be National Public Lands Day/NC Big Sweep from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. as the public is invited to help care for our public lands by planting trees, work on trails, and clean up litter. Free lunch will be provided to volunteers and afterwards everyone is encouraged to enjoy the many exhibits we will have such as live snakes, a bee cage, traditional archers, mountain biking, and much more. The Overmountain National Historic Trail Association will have revolutionary war re-enactors, demonstrate traditional crafts, and provide guided tours of the Overmountain Victory Trail. There will be a book swap hosted by UNC-TV's Read-A-Roo. Kids....remember to bring an old book you would like to trade! Click here for activities.

Well its too bad we missed the Aug. 29th meeting of the OVTA board due to two surgeries. I wouldn't have led you astray... I found the email with the NPS director's notes and discovered the OVNHT is not in Ken Burn's series. I still have 50 minutes to hear even a mention of it. Tonight they already included the Appalachian Trail which is part of the Parks Service. Since the trail was not a park until 1980, maybe, just maybe they will mention it.

In 2005, I talked to Ken Burn's agent to inquire what it would take to get him to our anniversary event. I had heard him speak in Charlotte. I knew he would be interested in our history story. Well, it takes A LOT to get Ken Burns to speak. But I did convey the idea.

Here's a secret. I conveyed the idea again this week to a star and I asked him to adopt it. We will see.

My Press Release to any who wish to publish Nationwide

Press Release---
Oct 1, 2009
Wilkes-Surry OVTA

The National Park Service and the Overmountain Victory Trail Association are pleased to announce that the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail is a recipient of the 2009 National Parks Foundation “Active Trails” grant. The Wilkes-Surry Chapter of the OVTA assisted by Elkin JROTC will host an OVTA Field Day on Friday Oct. 9th for Elkin students in the 4th and 8th grades with the proceeds from this NPF grant funded by the Coca-Cola foundation and with donations from local supporters.

Special guest, Senator James Broyhill will address the students at 12:00 pm in Elkin City Park about the efforts to establish the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, as a part of the National Park Service in 1980.

There are eight National Parks that will receive the grant this year and this is the first time a National Historic Trail has been selected. The purpose of the “Active Trails” program is to provide funding to National Parks to bring people to trails.

The National Park Service and the National Overmountain Victory Trail Association formed a partnership comprised of Paul Carson, Alan Bowen, Fran Dahl, R.G. Absher of Elkin, Marc Bowen and Mike Dahl to put this grant to work. This committee developed and submitted a plan to the National Parks Foundation on June 19th . It was approved later this past summer.

The plan specifies that OVTA will manage the grant and support the communities to plan these events that will bring people to the Trail during the annual OVTA March in September and October and again on National Trails Day on June 5, 2010.

The National Parks Foundation Active Trails grant will be used to assist and support communities in starting new events and programs, or to expand existing events and programs, that will attract visitors to enjoy the recreational opportunities and learn the historic significance of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail in their community.

The communities that were specified in the grant request to receive funding are Abingdon, Virginia, Bluff City, TN, Spruce Pine, NC, Morganton, NC, Rutherfordton, NC, Polk County, NC, Elkin,NC and Cowpens National Battlefield.

The anticipated benefits derived from employing the grant will include increased community awareness of improved health derived from outdoor activities, an increased sense of ownership by the communities for their heritage, a stronger community willingness to expand and grow the events and programs in future years and increased membership in the OVTA.”

The grant has a provision that allows matching funds up to $10,000 with the National
Parks Foundation. If successful, this could increase the grant up to $70,000. Elkin has received a financial donation from Member’s Credit Union in support of this match. In addition, All-Star Rentals, Comb’s Hometown Butcher Shop, and the North Carolina Forest Service in Dobson have provided in-kind donations in support of this event..

Students will spend one school day walking between stations to meet period re-enactors and to participate in hands-on learning experiences. The stations explain how people lived in the Yadkin Valley during 178O. Students will accomplish activities incorporating math, science, history, writing, visual and performance arts when they encounter colonial soldiers, long hunters, women, and militia. They will discuss loyalists, patriots, African-Americans, Native Americans and Surry families; explore textile creation, candle making, cooking, games, blacksmithing and other necessary colonial skills; and experience modern trail discovery by walking the original path followed by Yadkin Valley men to the battle of Kings Mountain. Each child will accomplish walking approximately two miles during this focus on Active Trails.
This is the fourth event of this type in Elkin since 2003. Modeled after an award-winning event in Abingdon, Va., this year’s event is intended to create and grow an annual program in Yadkin Valley counties.

END

Dear Press,
We appreciate your interest in this story and in the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.
The Schools are prepared for you to join us. We invite you to attend and report as you wish. The events will primarily take place in Elkin City Park at the trailhead of the OVNHT and continue along the trail by the Yadkin River. Fourth graders will work in activity stations in the morning and walk the trail after lunch. Eighth graders will walk the trail in the morning and participate in activities after lunch. Sen. Broyhill will speak at noon. www.nps.gov/ovvi, www.ovta.org, www.ovta-org.blogspot.com


Donna Absher
Project Coordinator
donnaaa@embarqmail.com
Elkin, NC