Loose Leaf Notes

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on February 18, 2010.

Jayn Avery first made the connection between clean water and good health while studying Environmental Science at Cornell University College of Agriculture in Ithaca, New York. "It changed my life and is what ultimately led me to Floyd and to choose a lifestyle that honors the fundamentals of good quality water and air," Avery said.

Avery is part of a citizen planning committee that has been meeting since December to explore Floyd County water issues. The group currently consists of seven Floyd residents and is headed by hydrogeologist John Gannon, who, through a grant funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, works for the Virginia Rural Water Association.

"The primary function of this committee is to write a Source Water Protection Plan and then start to implement it," Gannon, who received his master's degree at Virginia Tech, said. The plan will involve identifying areas susceptible to contamination, implementing strategies for water protection, and outlining a contingency plan for alternative drinking water should a problem occur. "If a well goes bad, what do we do? If there's a severe drought, who are the priority water users? If there's a water emergency, who gets notified and how? If there's an oil tanker spill, what do we do?" Gannon posed.

Floyd was chosen for the Source Water project because its residents have a reputation of supporting environmental initiatives, and because of the area's geology, Gannon explained. "Floyd's water is good," he commented, stating that the only treatment added to town water is little soda ash to balance the PH.

"The good news is that because the water is local, we have control over it." Even so, studies have shown that the water supply for the Blue Ridge is highly susceptible to contamination due to the area's rocky geology. Findings report that rain water in the Blue Ridge Mountains makes its way into the ground water system in a relatively short period of time and without much natural filtration.

Gannon has conducted well location road surveys, has drafted his initial background findings, and is working with Floyd's Public Service Authority supervisor Elwood Holden, who is supportive of the Source Water Protection Plan and has attended meetings. "As of 2009, the Floyd public water system is made up of five wells and two storage tanks. The public water system was first installed in 1974 and serves approximately 1,500 people," The Source Water Plan draft reports, noting that the old water tower at the town's booster pump station on Locust Street is not connected to the water system and does not hold water.

At a recent Source Water planning meeting, held at the County Administrative Offices, the planning committee discussed a priority strategy. Jeff Walker, a certified Soil Scientist who is also authorized to permit wells and septic systems, cited the location of wells in proximity to gas stations as a priority issue for the team to address, adding that the gas stations owners he's talked to are receptive to protective guidelines and "want to be correct in their procedures."

Avery talked about the creation of a brochure for widespread distribution and mailing that would inspire interest and citizen involvement. It should outline in a concise manner what individuals can do to protect their water source, where to find resources, and should give tips for good septic care, she said. The team is also interested in promoting awareness on the use, storage, and disposal of household, agricultural, industrial, and commercially-used chemicals as a water protection strategy. Hazardous waste and stormwater management will also be studied.

Geared towards citizen involvement, rather than looking to government to solve local water issues, the Source Water planning group agrees that education is the key. "A person can drill a deep well and draw water from a neighbor's shallow well. If a septic system is not contained it can pollute the water supply of others," Avery pointed out. "Floyd has a good balance of pasture and woods, and that's important for water retention. It's important not to overgraze pasture or over-cut woods and education will help get that message out."

Another point that the committee members agree on: It's a lot easier and more economical to prevent a problem than it is to clean one up. "Water seems to be an issue that everyone depends on, but knows little about. Source water protection is in everyone's interest, though it may be a remote priority until there is a problem," Walker said.

The completed Source Water Protection document will eventually be available to the public and a version of it will be online at the County website (www.floydcova.org). The planning committee hopes to host a spring library series of informative talks by local officers and speakers from Virginia Tech who specialize in Environmental Sciences. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: Some blog disruption may occur over the weekend as Loose Leaf is moved to Wordpress. More Floyd Press stories are HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

~ The following was published in the winter 2010 issue of All About Her, a regional newspaper insert.

When Kamala Bauers was 10 years old, her 7-month-old brother James suffered complications from Spinal Meningitis that left him severely disabled. Today, Bauers and her husband Jack Wall are celebrating their 15th year as directors of Wall Residences, a business that provides foster home placements for people like James who have significant support needs. "I have the best job in the world," Bauers says, "one that makes a difference in people's lives."

Bauers met Wall in 1994 when she was employed at a residential treatment center for adolescents and finishing up her degree in social work at Radford University. He was the Intellectual Disabilities Director of Valley Community Services Board in Staunton.

"He had this idea of bringing people out of institutions and into home settings. I was drawn to it because of my brother. I wanted to see people with disabilities have real lives in spite of their challenges," says Bauers, who explained that her brother James was institutionalized for many years but now lives in a group home.

By 1995 Bauers and Wall were married and had made their first foster care placement: in their own Floyd County home. Their business quickly grew. "People saw what we were doing and started asking questions about how they could open their homes to support people with disabilities too."

Although it's not always possible or appropriate for families to provide fulltime support to adult family members with disabilities, the family system is the most functional and natural way to support them, which is why Wall Residences promotes a family model in their services. Built from the ground up, Walls innovative services are also cost effective.

"The cost of institutional care is unsustainable and a burden on taxpayers," Bauers points out. "It's an expensive process and a medical model. Most people with disabilities don't require or benefit from that level of support."

With an individualized approach and a person-centered philosophy, Wall Residences supports adults with disabilities to pursue their personal interests, build meaningful relationships, and find paid or volunteer work. "Our foster care residents are known in their communities by name, rather than by a label," Bauers says, adding that they become part of the family they live with.

Folding towels at recreation center, washing lunch trays at an elementary school, organizing and distributing food at a food bank, or sweeping floors at a rescue squad station are some of the jobs that Wall residents fill. One resident is currently taking swimming lessons.

Robert, who is non-verbal and has cerebral palsy, spent 38 years in an institutional training center before becoming part of a family in Floyd. Drawing on local services, the family connected Robert with the Radford University Speech and Language clinic where he received instruction on how to use a head pointer for communicating. Later, while on vacation with his foster family, it was discovered that Robert loves parasailing. "He'd do it all the time if had the opportunity. It's an expensive hobby," Bauers joked.

Wall Residences' foster care providers also benefit from the residential model. "It's challenging but rewarding work. Because we're a small business with low administration costs, we can reimburse our foster care providers at a high rate," Bauers says. Providers are trained and certified, as are their hourly back-up workers. They're supported by regular visits from Wall Program Managers, an important part of the team, and attend Wall's yearly conferences where nationally known speakers inspire and talk about trends in the service provider profession. Some providers have been with the agency since its inception. "Our experienced providers mentor new providers," Bauers notes.

After five years Bauers and Wall's home-based business had grown to the point where it was no longer feasible for them to provide direct support to a resident in their home. Currently, the agency supports 310 individuals in 175 homes throughout Southwest and Northern Virginia. In 2008 the couple moved their business out of their home and into a state-of-the-art energy efficient green office building that houses nine offices for staff, a conference room, kitchen, reception area, and 82 solar panels on the roof.

Apart from the work Bauers does on behalf of people with disabilities, she is a founding member of the Partnership of Floyd, a citizen group that works with the town pursuing grants for town projects. The group is currently working on the development of a downtown park. "I am a firm believer in giving back to the community and I'm committed to making things better where we live, says Bauers, who remembers joining a "Save the Whales" club at the age of 14.

Although she misses doing direct foster care out of her home, Bauers is encouraged by the excellent services Wall provides, and by the success stories she sees everyday as a result of that. "I really believe that we have an obligation to make a difference in the lives of others," she says. Bauers is doing just that, one person at a time.
~ Colleen Redman

Note: For more information go to wallresidences.com or call 540-745-4216. A story on Wall's LEED certified building is HERE. Photo is of Kamala with Donovon, a Wall foster resident. Click and scroll HERE for more Floyd Press stories.

Posted by Colleen at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

~ The following appeared in The Floyd press on February 4, 2010.

Computer consultant Ben Kiser is not your average technician. The 1999 ECPI College of Technology graduate and owner of Kiser Computing Consulting LLC not only repairs computers and keeps them running smoothly, he also makes house calls.

Kiser, a North Carolina native and father of two, had completed an associate's degree in architecture when he realized the potential of the computer field and decided to make a career change. While pursuing his degree in computer electronics and during his 9 years working as a System Engineer for Carilion Clinic, he repaired computers for his family and friends on the side.

By the time Kiser started his home-based business in the fall of 2008, he had a built-in clientele. Still, it was a leap to trust that the business would grow enough to support him and his family fulltime, Kiser said. With the growth of computer use, the advent of high speed internet in the area, and word-of-mouth referrals, Kiser's faith and skills have paid off. "I've been busier in the last two months than I've been all year," he noted.

Locally, Kiser has installed or cleaned up cable networking (for internet, phone, and TV) for The Village Green, The Station, Collin's Chiropractic Clinic, LCF Group, The Maples Bed and Breakfast, Crenshaw Lighting, Slaughters, and more. He's traveled to Hillsville and Roanoke and places in-between for work and has been all over Floyd County.

As a resident of Floyd since the 7th grade, Kiser knows his way around the county. He also understands the lack of technical skill that can make even unplugging a computer system - with its multitude of cords - an ordeal for some home users. 'We're here to help step by step. Not geek you out,' the Kiser Computing Consulting webpage (kisercomputerconsulting.com) tagline reads.

Whether working for small businesses or individuals, customer relationship is Kiser's specialty. The benefit of making house calls is that he can explain computer problems in language that his customers understand and can show them detailed strategies for solving those problems, Kiser said. If a computer needs extensive work and has to be taken back to his home shop, he returns when its fixed and reinstalls it, making sure it's working before he leaves.

Through his small business account with Dell, Kiser can order high quality business class computers at a discount and pass the savings on to his customers. He also saves customers money by directing them to free online sites that can assist in keeping their computers running fast and clean. As a follow-up to his services, he's created a youtube video that provides a step by step guide through the maintenance process.

Working from home allows Kiser to spend more time with his family. His wife, Holly (Nolen) Kiser, is a licensed day care provider who also works out of the family's home, a log home that Kiser built six miles out of town on Franklin Pike. Kiser appreciates that he has the freedom to adjust his schedule so that he can pick up his 7-year old daughter Alexis at the school bus stop, his 4-year old son Levi from pre-school, or help out his wife. "But I also put in more hours than I would at a regular job," he said about being self-employed.

Advice Kiser received from a business associate has become his company's mission. "If you want to be successful do good work and keep your customers happy," Kiser remembers being advised. Satisfied customers are important to Kiser. He also enjoys what he does. "I'm a problem solver. I work on something till it's fixed. There's a satisfaction to seeing something fixed," he said. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on January 28, 2010.

Those familiar with the culinary talents of Michael Gucciardo have waited five years for him to come back home to Floyd. A native New Yorker, Michael learned how to cook authentic Italian food from his father and other family members born in Italy. Although he has cooked in Virginia restaurants throughout the region, his Floyd following of fans was formed during his many years as chef (and sometime co-owner) of The Pine Tavern Restaurant.

Gucciardo's new place, called Mickey G's Italian Bistro and Pizzeria, was packed on Saturday night, just two nights after the restaurant's opening. One table of twelve was there to celebrate Gucciardo's return. A Frank Sinatra recording played in the background. Neighbors greeted each other, as waiters (mostly Gucciardo family members) hustled by carrying dishes that showed off Gucciardo's knack with capers, sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, olive oil, garlic, and roasted red peppers.

Some diners couldn't resist craning their necks to see menu offerings at other tables. There were mussels, fried squid, swordfish, antipasto salad, meatballs, pizza, focaccia bread, and dishes with names that were hard to pronounce, such as rapini salsiccia (pasta with broccoli raab and Italian sausage).

The portions were hearty and affordable, and the ambience in the bistro was lively. At one point Gucciardo came into the dining room area and customers toasted and applauded him. It was obvious by the turnout and the warm reception he received that Floyd is glad to have Gucciardo back in town.

Post Notes: Mickey G's is located next to the Floyd Fitness Center on Parkview Road. Menu listing and other information can be found at the Mickey G's website. A short video clip of Gucciardo interacting with diners on Saturday night can be found HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on December 10, 2009.

Mankind is my business!" bellowed the Ghost of Jacob Marley, played by Emerson Perry during a Sunday evening performance of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol at the Sun Hall. This classic tale of redemption and Christmas spirit, the latest Young Actors Co-op (YAC) production, enlisted the talents of the largest cast yet, with many parts suited for young first time performers.

Top hats and bonnets, petticoat dresses, shawls, and eerie ghostly cloaks, along with inventive set designs literally set the stage for an engaging 90 minutes of holiday entertainment, played to a full house. Period costumes from the nineteenth century were borrowed from Charlotte Atkins' private vintage collection, sewn by YAC parents Dr. Sue Osborne and Heather Spangler, and found in thrift shops. The Ghost of Christmas Present (Coriander Woodruff) adorned in a wreath of holly loomed large on walking stilts.

The addition of drop microphones by YAC light and sound engineer Woody Woodruff allowed audience members in farthest reaches of the hall to hear first time YAC actor, 7 year old Bert Avellar deliver Tiny Tim's resounding line "God bless us everyone." Special tricks of lighting projected Jacob Marley's haunting face on to Scrooge's (Cameron Woodruff) door.

"YAC strives to bring the highest standard of theater excellence to the stage, to provide a creative outlet for youths in the region, and to encourage a love and appreciation for the art of theater in young and old," the event program reads. Under the direction of Rose McCutchan, the group has proven once again that they are fulfilling that mission. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: Last chance to catch this performance is tonight at the Sun Hall at 7:00. Tickets at the door are $6 for adults and $3 dollars for children. Youtube video clips are HERE and HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on November 27, 2009

A'vie means 'for life' in French, says Ashleigh Ward, owner of the new "spa a'vie," located downstairs in the Winter Sun building. The name reflects the sense of wellbeing that Ward hopes her spa services will impart to others.

Born in D.C. and raised in Maryland and Alabama, Ward moved to Floyd from Montgomery with her mother a decade ago. She apprenticed in the spa arts and hairdressing at the Salon and Day Spa in Floyd, where she received what she describes as "hands-on real world experience." Two semesters of required book study were completed at the Roanoke Technical Education Center (ROTEC) on the Patrick Henry High School campus in Roanoke.

But her training began even before that. Her mother, Barb Gillespie, an artist and massage therapist, owned a spa in Montgomery called The Comfort Zone. "I grew up with it. I was there everyday after school," Ward remembered. As a young girl, she enjoyed giving practice pedicures to her grandmother.

Today, whether she is cutting, coloring, or styling hair; doing a manicure, a pedicure, a relaxation facial, or a body wax, Ward says she gives her customers her utmost attention. "I want them to feel amazing when they leave, as if they just had a mini-vacation," the licensed cosmetologist said.

Using her own homegrown plants and essential oils from Young Living Oils, Ward makes her own spa products - scrubs, lotions, face and foot masques. Plans are in the works to include herbs provided by local herbalists and goat's milk lotion from Faith Mountain Farm in Floyd into her products. She incorporates hot stone therapy in her treatments and reflexology (acupressure massage) in her pedicures. Her wax line is organic and shampoos are sulfate-free.

Hair products used at the spa are from Schwarzkopf Professional, a European company unique to this area and renowned for its innovation and quality. An all natural line of Schwarzkopf hair care and hair color products will soon be available in the U.S. and will be carried at spa a'vie, Ward was pleased to report.

"I can accommodate a wide range of tastes," she said about her hair cuts and styling, "from classic and sophisticated, to modern and edgy, and everything in between."

Designed by Ward and Gillespie, the spa has the feel of an old world parlor. A lamp casts a warm light on a sitting area that features a Victorian loveseat where customers can sip coffee or tea. Hanging plants and gold framed mirrors add accent to the eggplant colored walls. A bowl of fresh fruit sits on an antique wooden dresser. A small flat screen TV airs product information and can also be used for playing videos for children when their mothers are getting treatments, Ward explained.

The spa has a side room where Gillespie does massage by appointment and Ward makes her spa products. Holiday gift baskets featuring Ward's spa products will incorporate baskets from Medina, a Floyd based family run business. "I like to support local," said Ward, who hopes to one day expand the spa to include a hot tub and more.

With a focus on affordability and elegance, the spa is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays by appointment. A grand opening is planned for Saturday December 5th from 5 to 8 p.m. "I hope people will stop by and see the place and enjoy a glass of wine," Ward said.

"I'm excited to be part of the blossoming downtown scene," she added, expressing her appreciation for her family, friends, and the community. "I couldn't have done this without them." ~ Colleen Redman

Note: Scroll HERE for Floyd Press stories.

Posted by Colleen at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press newspaper on October 15, 2009.

At Camp Treehouse West children who have lost a loved one learn that they aren't alone. Hosted by Carilion Clinic Hospice, this year's 8th annual day camp was held at Camp Powhatan in Pulaski County on October 3rd. Serving Floyd, Radford, Giles, Pulaski and Montgomery Counties, the event is free to youths from ages 6 to 17. Parents are also encouraged to attend and receive guidance on how to support their child through the grieving process, said Renee Altizer, Carilion Clinic Hospice Manager.

Altizer explained that Camp Treehouse provides a safe place where children who have experienced a death in their family can express their feelings. "They identify with other children and know that they aren't the only one going through something this. Maybe they make a buddy that they can do things with after the camp," Altizer said.

Age appropriate group sessions led by hospice nurses and social workers are alternated with recreational activities. During the group sessions children are given a vocabulary to describe their feelings and are supported to tell their stories. "It's amazing. They come in shy and little by little they gain trust and start to open up," said hospice social worker Sharon Crane.

Each camper is paired with a mentor who has gone through a training to prepare for the role. Mentors accompany campers at recreational activities and often have had first hand experience with the grieving process.

Christiansburg school teacher Reva Douglas Brown lost her brother when she was 15. After serving as a mentor at the regional Camp Treehouse weekend last spring and seeing its value, she returned for the fall camp. "I figured I could help out and it would also be good for me."
First time mentor Dennis Khasu, who is studying for his doctorate in elementary education at Virginia Tech, said he heard about the camp's call for volunteers when it was announced on campus. Khasu lost both his parents and has been a father figure to his younger siblings. "I love to be with kids," the Malawi native said.

Fun is an important component of the Camp Treehouse experience. At the camp pavilion where craft tables were set up campers made kaleidoscopes, bird feeders, paintings, beaded jewelry, and personalized picture frames. Rock wall climbing was a popular activity, along with blowing giant bubbles, music therapy, soccer, and team building parachute games. A barbecue lunch was catered by Wildwood Smokehouse.

Altizer described the closing ceremony when campers, mentors, and staff gather together for a memorial service and release floating heart candles into a pond in memory of lost loved ones. "The names are read out and the chaplain does a closing prayer. It's a nice ending to a full day," she said.

Along with new friendships, each camper goes home with a journal and a blanket, handmade by a local chapter of Project Linus, a group that gifts children with blankets and quilts as a way to bolster their sense of security. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: Scroll HERE for more Floyd Press stories.

Posted by Colleen at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press newspaper on 11/12/09

Florence Rewinski's interest in healthcare reform hit home this summer when she underwent an unexpected major surgery. Single and uninsured, Rewinski felt healthy one day, the next she was saddled with medical bills.

"I've had insurance in the past but it was cost prohibitive," she said, explaining that while insured she was denied benefits for an emergency surgery because it was deemed a pre-existing condition. With a holistic approach to healthcare, her treatment choices are not generally covered as standard care. The high cost of insurance combined with lack of coverage and treatment options made health insurance unsustainable for Rewinski.

Not knowing if a large discovered internal mass was malignant or not, Rewinski faced her pending surgery with determination and trust. "It wasn't about the money. It was about my health," she recalled. Her doctor at the Floyd Community Health Clinic recommended the University of Virginia (UVA), a teaching hospital in Charlottesville, where Rewinski received a radical hysterectomy and the removal of what turned out to be benign fibroids.

An avid bio-dynamic home gardener who works for the Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamic Agriculture in Woolwine, Rewinski was denied medical assistance for her outstanding bill because she earns over $21,000 a year. Although she is grateful to have received "good caring service" at UVA, and has been making payments, it hasn't been enough. "Because the hospital is funded by the government, they follow certain payment criteria and requirements to keep their funding," she said, pointing to the possibility that her bill will be turned over to a collection agency, which could involve being served papers and facing a judge in court for non-payment.

Acting on a tip from the Laurel Creek Chinese Medicine Clinic, where she has received healthcare in the past, Rewinsky phoned the Commonwealths Attorney's office to ask about the Medical Charities of Floyd County. The fund was founded approximately two decades ago by attorney Dale Proffit and past Commonwealth Attorney Gino Williams and is still run through that office.

"The purpose of the Floyd Medical Charities is so that churches and people can do fundraisers for those in need and run the money through it," said Medical Charities' President Sheriff Shannon Zeeman. Zeeman, who is also Vice President of Floyd County Cares, explained that donations to the fund are tax deductible and the people who benefit don't have to claim income. "We don't give money to individuals, we pay their bills. Donations can be made in the name of someone in need or to an unspecified general fund," Zeeman said.

Rewinski learned from Jessica Thompson, Secretary of the Medical Charities Fund, that there was no unspecified money in the fund. Thompson suggested a fundraiser, which is when Virginia Neukirch got involved. "Florence is a friend. I knew about her health issues and that she didn't have insurance," Neukirch said, commenting on how many people today can not afford the rising cost of insurance.

A fundraiser concert to benefit Rewinski, organized by Neukirch, is scheduled for November 15th at the Sun Hall from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. It will feature a silent auction and the musical acts of Grace Note with special guests Sharon Feury and Abe Gorsky, Mike Mitchell, and Mountain Jazz with Bernie Coveney, Martin Scudder, and Tom Kingelhofer. Cost for the benefit concert is $7. "People can also donate directly to the fund in Rewinski's name," Neukirch said. (Medical Charities of Floyd County, 100 East Main Street, Room 106, Floyd VA. 24091)

"A lot of people have been helped over the years and you got to give the community credit," Zeeman said about Floyd's Medical Charities fund. Floyd Countians have a reputation for stepping up to help each other, Zeeman said, adding that "the fund is great thing for the community."

Neukirch agrees. "Florence and I would like to make doing benefit for the fund our yearly endeavor," she said.

Neukirch reports that the response to the concert to benefit Florence Rewinski has been good. She hopes that people will come out to enjoy the music and auction and spend some time together. "It should be a nice afternoon," she said.

Posted by Colleen at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

~The following recently appeared in All About HER, a regional quarterly insert of The Floyd Press and other area newspapers.

Enter quietly ... A place for meditation and contemplation ... reads the chalkboard easel in front of the Living Light Center in Floyd. Inside the spacious main room, incense burns, soft music plays, and a koi fish fountain trickles water as Shirley Ann Burgess, the center's founder, explains how she decided on the name Living Light. "I believe that beyond the personality there is a beautiful light in everyone. The center is about making space for that light to shine," she says.

A mother of three with eighteen years experience in body work, Burgess teaches yoga, is a reiki practitioner and a licensed massage therapist trained in Rolfing Structural Integration, a form of bodywork that reorganizes connective tissues and can positively alter a person's posture and body structure. She recalls sitting in a women's circle years before the center opened and setting her intention. "My vision is to have a center that will provide tools to empower the individual and their health and healing process," she recalls saying.

In Burgess's manifested vision, which became a reality in June 2008, colorful exercise balls and yoga mats invite movement. Local art adorns the walls and folding room dividers suggest versatility of space. There's a sitting area, a desk, a kitchenette, and a massage table set up in small adjoining room. Everything seems placed with an eye towards calming aesthetics.

The sense of calm that permeates the Living Light Center extends beyond the building and onto its surrounding property, where a cedar sauna, a hot tub, and a meditation garden look out onto a view of Buffalo Mountain, Floyd County's highest peak. The garden features large stone croppings - representative of the "stillness within" - placed in the center of a sea of gravel that will be raked into wave patterns. A work in progress being designed in the Japanese tradition by local artist Lora Giessler, the garden will soon be available to the public for meditation and contemplation, Burgess says.

Drawing on Burgess's expertise and the skills of other practitioners, the Living Light center offers a range of holistic healing modalities, including Swedish massage, shiatsu, hot stone therapy, reflexology, acupuncture, quantum bio-dynamics, cranial sacral therapy, naturopathy, breathwork, meditation, pilates, and yoga. Along with ongoing yoga and pilates classes, a reiki circle, and a women's circle, the eco-friendly center hosts workshops and guided hikes on the Buffalo in May and October.

Everything from a 15 minute chair massage to a 90 minute table massage followed by a hot tub is available at Living Light. Massage, sauna, and hot tub packages are offered by appointment or for walk-in traffic on Fridays and Saturday from 4 - 6 p.m. "We're geared towards working with the residents of Floyd and surrounding areas and visiting tourists. Farmers, lawyers, professors ... singles, couples, and groups ... children from infancy to people in their 80's have used our services," Burgess explains.

A leader in Floyd's growing holistic health care movement, Burgess believes in an "integrated health system" where doctors and practitioners communicate and work together. She'd like to put Floyd on the holistic health map. In May she initiated a first meeting to bring interested parties together. Approximately twenty people, mostly practitioners, attended. "Everyone from doctors to chiropractors, acupuncturists and massage therapists," Burgess remembers.

Known as the Floyd Holistic Health Network, the group meets regularly and is currently working on a directory of holistic health providers and their locations. In January, the network is scheduled to do a series of public presentations and demonstrations under the sponsorship of Floyd's Jessie Peterman Library.

Outside the Living Light Center, Burgess stands by the hot tub and sets the scene of an upcoming event: A day hike to the Buffalo with a catered picnic lunch, followed by a massage and a dip in the hot tub, where participants can soak, reflect back to the Buffalo, and enjoy the fall foliage while sipping tea.

"Yes, we serve tea," Burgess says. "It's really all about the client. What their needs are and what they want." She explains that the idea behind Living Light is to provide the encouragement and space for people to nurture themselves, so that they will then have energy to nurture others. "We want people to slow down. Go inside. Not feel hurried," she says. ~ Colleen Redman

Post notes: Shirley Ann is also a soccer mom who raisers goats. See the completed meditation garden. HERE. The last photo is of a Mother and Children's Night Out at Living Light. Scroll HERE for more Floyd Press stories.

Posted by Colleen at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

~The following was published in The Floyd Press on October 29, 2009 along with a photo spread (these and others). It also appears on the Press's online site HERE.

Under unexpected blue skies, a banner crowd turned out for the first annual SplitRail Eco-Fair on Saturday, October 24th. "It's a miracle," one of the organizers said, referring to the forecasted rainy weather that didn't happen.

Hosted by SustainFloyd, a citizen's group promoting sustainable local economy, the Eco-Fair was timed with the International Day of Climate Action, a day of worldwide rallies and events calling for grassroots actions and bold leadership on climate change issues.

The Eco-Fair featured environmentally friendly crafts and businesses; educational exhibits on land use, alternative energy, and holistic health; martial arts and dance demonstrations; local baked goods; locally grown produce; musical entertainment; live theater; and a dedication to the new Floyd Community Market where the celebration of Floyd's sounds, tastes, and talents was held.

Floyd Country Store owner and developer of the Community Market, Woody Crenshaw (left) gave the dedication address for the 3,000 square foot pavilion, which will be used for weekday parking and for selling local produce, crafts, and artwork on weekends. Saying, "This wasn't here three weeks ago," Crenshaw thanked the Professional Builders crew who constructed the structure in short order, along with the project's supporters and volunteers. The Station (the adjacent newly renovated building) investors, Healing Harvest Forest Foundation, Streamline Timberworks, Wills Ridge Supply, Turman Lumber, and participating musicians - all of whom donated materials, services, and support - were also recognized.

"It takes a dedicated group of private investors who care about this community and a helpful local government," Crenshaw said about the latest in Floyd's downtown renewal.

Recalling the words of best-selling environmental author Bill McKibben, who spoke at the Country Store in May, Crenshaw reiterated that the development of Floyd's unique local assets is what makes the community sustainable, adding, "We can't know how we are affecting the future, but we know if nothing is done - if there is no intention or vision - we kind of know what's going to happen."

Following Crenshaw's address, SustainFloyd member and Eco-Fair organizer Haden Polseno-Hensley led fair-goers in a dedication that involved the celebratory synchronized eating of local grown apples. ~ Colleen Redman

Photos: 1. The new Floyd Community Market filled with activity for first annual SplitRail Eco-Fair. 2. Rita Brown was one of the volunteers who staffed the vendor sign-up booth where SplitRail Eco-Fair commemorative T-shirts were sold. The organic cotton shirts were from Floyd's Green Label Organic Sustainable Threads. The SustainFloyd painting pictured behind Brown was done by local artist Laurelsong Cook. 3. Local business developer and SustainFloyd founding member, Woody Crenshaw said the market was an investment in Floyd's future. 4. The Young Actors Coop (YAC) presented original theater to an overflow crowd. The zany YAC play with a message about global warming was well received by the audience, whose members frequently erupted in laugher. 5. Decked out in a year's worth of plastic bags, the Plastic Bag Monster (Rowan Chantal) drew attention from fair-goers of all ages. 6. SustainFloyd fair organizer and one of the builders of the Floyd Community Market, Haden Poleseno-Hensley led SplitRail Eco-Fair goers in a dedication that involved eating local grown apples.

Video clips of the YAC play are HERE and HERE. Scroll HERE for more Floyd Press stories.

Posted by Colleen at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

~ The following appeared in The Floyd Press on October 15, 2009. The SustainFloyd Eco-Fair mentioned in the story will take place in downtown Floyd tomorrow.

The fall foliage made for a scenic drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Nancy P. Morrisette parking lot for a community photo shoot with a purpose. Carpooling was encouraged for the 350 event, an internationally coordinated action initiated by environmental author Bill McKibben to bring awareness to global warming and to influence climate change policy.

The number 350, which was prominently placed in the photo, refers to the number of parts per million that scientists say we need to lower atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels to sustain life as we know it on the planet. Global warming is happening faster than first predicted, as evidenced by the melting of the Artic, and lowering carbon dioxide levels is necessary to curb its catastrophic affect, McKibben's website, 350.org, reports.

About 120, many donned in "go green" colors and some in raincoats to ward off morning drizzle, gathered in the field that is used annually as offsite Floydfest parking. Hot coffee was served under a green tent by volunteer members of Sustainfloyd, the local citizen group that organized the event. Musical entertainment, provided from a FloydFest stage by John and Linda Franklin, was amplified by charged solar cells. Luke Staengl, who has been in the renewable energy business for that past 30 years and at one time headed up an ethanol plant in Floyd, was the guest speaker.

"We need to send this message to all the leaders of the world to start pushing for conservation and renewable energy," Staengl urged. He explained how those promoting renewable energy have been doing it alone. "It would make it easier if the government got more involved and even easier if the world governments got involved," he continued.

"We need to make it a high priority, higher than defense or populating Mars," Staengl said about promoting alternative energy sources to lower CO2 levels. He recommended that every home have a solar array and pointed out how much energy could be saved if lights were turned off at night. "Why are we lighting the planet at night? Why are we so afraid of the dark?"

Following Staengl's address, men, women, children, and a few family dogs enthusiastically paraded up a grassy incline to pose in front of Buffalo Mountain as photographer Doug Thompson waited by his tripod, ready to record the action. Although the tip of the mountain had disappeared under cloud cover, the composition was impressive. It will be linked with other action photos from 150 countries around the world and sent to the United Nations, making a visual petition in time for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

The nearly five foot 350 sign came in three parts and was handmade by papermaker Gibby Waitzkin and her apprentices. Painted blue in Waitzkin's environmentally green studio, it was constructed of cardboard made of recyclable materials. "Making the pattern was the hard part, once we got that down, we zipped through it with a sawzall," Waitzkin said.

After the photo shoot, the sign was loaded in the back of truck, headed for Blue Mountain School, where it will be used at their Go-Green Electricity Free Day to be held on October 13th. The solar powered sound system will also be used at Blue Mountain for the day of activities that will include a worm farm, making trash sculpture, a demonstration of the life of coal, musical entertainment, and a school 350 Action photo. "It's available for anyone that wants to do a 350 action," SustainFloyd member and Blue Mountain School parent Sam Steffens said about the sign.

SustainFloyd organizers hope that the sense of community and common purpose present at the 350 photo shoot will carry over to the first annual SplitRail Eco-Fair, a celebration of sustainable rural living planned to take place downtown at the new Community Market Pavilion on October 24th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. With nearly 40 vendors, local produce, environmental education, musical entertainment, and a live original performance of "An Inconvenient Spoof" by the Young Actors Coop, the free to the public fair promises plenty of activities for the whole family. ~ Colleen Redman blogs daily at Looseleafnotes.com

Note: Video clips of the 350 action photo shoot can be found HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on October 8, 2009

"I like to get my hands dirty!" shouted one Floyd Elementary School student who was digging potatoes at last week's Farm to School harvest. Another student, when asked if he grew potatoes at home answered, "No, but I kinda want to now."

Those students were part of three fifth grade classes participating in a pilot project event at a field farmed by Five Penny Farm on Shooting Creek Road. Organized by Mike Burton of Moon Indigo Farm, a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Check, the Farm to School harvest was part of a nationwide initiative to incorporate locally grown produce into school lunch programs.

With a goal of supporting local farmers and providing nutritious food to schools without the cost of travel miles, Farm to School has been authorized by Congress as a seed grant program, but has yet to be funded. Burton believes that start-up programs already in place will have a better chance of receiving support when grant funding is appropriated.

According to a recent story in the Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 2,000 Farm to School programs are active in about 40 states. "The USDA is supportive but has left it up to school divisions," said the county's school nutrition coordinator, Pam Harris, who attended the potato harvest. Harris first learned about Farm to School through a conference she attended in North Carolina. More recently, she received a memo from the state superintendent requesting that all school divisions do a Farm to School week in November, she reported.

"Does anyone know what makes a potato go green?" Burton asked the group of approximately 60 students. The students learned that there are about 1,000 varieties of potatoes and that some are purple. "Potatoes have been around for 4,000 years. What we're going to be doing today people have been doing for 1,000's of years," Burton shouted from the back of a flatbed trailer, soon be filled with potatoes.

The fifth grade students of Alice Slusher, Alice Harding, and Amanda Morgan were joined by Blue Mountain School's first and second graders who were on a day long field trip geared to learning about food. Together, the children watched a farm intern on a tractor loosen the soil with a digger before they began pulling up potatoes of all sizes and enthusiastically announcing their discoveries. Along with the Kennebec potatoes, an occasional worm, grasshopper and turnip was also found.

In less than an hour baskets and buckets were full. The potatoes were spread out on the flatbed trailer and sorted for best baking size. They will be baked and served in all the county schools, Harris said. Burton noted that as the program grows, more local farmers growing vegetables will be needed.

The students snacked on locally grown apples before boarding the bus and heading back to school. "We hope this is the start of a longstanding and worthwhile project benefiting our children, our farmers and our community," Burton said. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press September 17, 2009 and online HERE.

On October 10th, Floyd Countians are invited to join more than 1,000 communities in 100 countries around the world in a grassroots action to draw attention to global warming. The 350 action initiative was created by bestselling environmental author Bill McKibben, who was hosted by SustainFloyd to speak on resilient localized economy at The Floyd Country Store last June. The number 350 refers to NASA scientist James Hansen’s recent finding – that life as we know it on planet earth is not sustainable when the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air exceeds 350 parts per million.

“The bad news is we’re already past that number – we’re at 390, which is why the Arctic is melting … The good news is that the number 350 gives us a target to aim for,” Mckibben states on his website, 350.org.

In preparation for the International Day of Climate Action that McKibben’s has called for on October 24th, participating groups will stage creative photographs with the number 350 prominently placed. The photo planned for Floyd County will be a group shot of citizens holding a 350 banner against the backdrop of The Buffalo Mountain. Scout troops, Future Farmers of America, church groups, civic groups, and the public at large are encouraged to gather at 10:00 a.m. on October 10th at Château Morrisette Winery’s auxiliary parking lot (the same lot used for Floydfest) for the shot, said SustainFloyd member Becky Pomponio.

Pomponio explained that the photographs taken from all over the world will be linked up on the 350.org site and will be sent to the United Nations on October 24th. The action, described by McKibben as a “visual petition,” is designed to influence climate policy change in time for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in December in Denmark.

Following the October 10th photo shoot, SustainFloyd will coordinate with the international action day by hosting the First Annual SplitRail Eco-Fair on October 24th. Named for Floyd’s old chestnut fences, the SplitRail theme was referred to by SustainFloyd member Fred First as “an iconic symbol of regional independence.”

The Eco-Fair will be a celebration of rural living and will take place downtown from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. under the cover of the new Floyd Community Market at the Station. Highlight features of the day will include locally grown and produced foods, live music amplified by solar energy, fresh coffee made with methane-generated power, and live theater by the Young Actors Co-op. Information on Community Supported Agriculture, sustainable business and forestry management practices, holistic health, and green education will also be available.

Founded in November 2008 with a goal of preserving and fostering Floyd’s natural resources and assets, SustainFloyd currently has a membership of upwards of 150 and is growing. One early member promoting the 350 global action, Haden Polseno-Hensley, pointed to the serious nature motivating the 350 action, saying, “In August the Pentagon released a report stating that global warming is a threat to national security.” More recently, the U.N.’s top climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, urged for world determination in lowering carbon levels to 350, citing the destructive impact inherent in climate change.

Fred First recalled that he got on board with SustainFloyd in July, after meeting McKibben and hearing his talk at the Country Store. “He’s been a hero of mine for twenty years,” First said, pointing out McKibben’s dedication, his Christian stewardship, and his renowned environmental writing. “McKibben’s been on this beat for a long time and he walks the talk,” First noted.

First thinks that using a number to draw attention to global warming is a stroke of genius. “People all over the world speak so many different languages but everyone knows numbers. In the same way we pay attention to body temperature and blood pressure numbers as a way to monitor personal health, 350 is an important number to pay attention to, he explained. “It’s an indicator of global health.”

SustainFloyd members agree with McKibben’s assessment, and those of climate scientists, that we can no longer stop climate change one light bulb at a time and that policy change is needed. But they also agree that each small individual effort adds up and suggest that citizens can help reduce greenhouse gases by using florescent light bulbs, parking the car and walking when possible, washing clothes in cold water and line drying, planting trees, and spending your time and money locally, which will save fossil fuels and assure local jobs.

Pomponio noted that 350 actions are also being planned in Blacksburg and Roanoke. She hopes that people of all ages and from all walks of life will get involved in the events and suggested those interested go to SustainFloyd.org and 350.org to learn more. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ The following is a sampling of photos that was published in The Floyd Press September 17, 2009.

1. Last weekend I took pictures for our local newspaper of the second annual Fashion Show and Silent Auction, held in the backyard garden of Jeanie and Tom O'Neill. The event is a fundraiser to benefit the New River Community Action's Emergency Assistance Fund, which helps local residents in need with their heating bills and other necessities. In a café setting, amongst pots of marigold and greenery strung in lights, ticket holders enjoyed wine and appetizers, models showcased clothing from local stores, and a musical trio entertained.

2. Host and emcee Jeanie O'Neill (left) provided a number of outfits from her line of originally designed clothing and accessories, like this ensemble, modeled by Carol Agee.

3. Little Dress Shop owner Mary Gardner, dressed and accessorized in items from her shop, posed with interior decorator Cindy Murphy. Murphy's Jeanie O'Neill ensemble is completed with one of O'Neill's signature designer bags and trendy jewelry from O'Neill's Main Street Boutique.

5. Joy Gardner walked the grassy runway in a suit from the Little Dress Shop.

6. Louise Thompson and Tom O'Neill in formalwear from the Little Dress Shop. The couple paired up for several runway walks that were highlighted with a few dance steps and the O'Neill's family dog, Max.

7. Model Susan Warner in a dress from Winter Sun posed with Temple Garrison who was decked out in a 1700's midnight blue velvet tux from Floyd Antiques. Clothing from The Meadows and The Floyd Country Store was also represented.

8. Kay Gardner, a Friday night Jamboree regular, modeled an outfit from Angels in the Attic "You'll see this at the Jamboree," O'Neill announced to the crowd. The outfit cost $25.

9. Pat Shelor, the fashion show organizer, said her outfit was custom fit and versatile. She later paired her O'Neill handmade jacket with a skirt and changed her accessories for a whole new look.

10. The models gathered for a group finale shot. O'Neill thanked them and asked the audience to mark their calendars for next year's show.

Photos from last year's fashion show are HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on August 20, 2009.

The literary flavor of summer’s Floyd County Moonshine is as striking as the bright red wildflowers on its cover and as local as the next door neighbor. The issue spotlights Floyd writers and features the poetry of the late Elliot Dabinsky.

A familiar face around Floyd for many years, Dabinsky was one of the founding members of The Floyd Writer’s Circle, a group that meets regularly to workshop members' writings. He was a contra dance enthusiast, a past photography teacher at Douglass College in New Jersey, and a man of many contradictions who was disabled by pain for much of his adult life.

Some of Dabinsky’s peers were aware that in the years leading up to his death he was working on a collection of new poetry that he viewed as his literary life’s work and that he hoped to submit for publication. After his death in the fall of 2005, two friends and fellow co-founders of the Writer’s Circle, Mara Robbins and Kathleen Ingoldsby, poured through handwritten drafts of his autobiographical free verse with a chapbook in mind.

With the inception of Moonshine, a publication that exists through proceeds from sales and the sponsorship of supporters, Robbins and Ingoldsby saw an opportunity and offered to sponsor an issue. “It seemed like a perfect way to support a local literary initiative and provide a platform for Elliot’s writing,” Ingoldsby, a history archivist, said.

Robbins, a recent Hollins University graduate and Moonshine’s poetry editor, said, “I think Elliot would be pleased with how it turned out, with the inclusion of other Floyd writers and artists, some of his photographs, and references to contra dances because he was so strongly committed to the arts.”

In the issue’s introduction, written by Robbins, she invites readers to “put aside thoughts of Dabinsky’s complicated life and his sometimes turbulent personality and focus on the fierce beauty interwoven within the difficult stories of his deeply personal words,” words that revealed the author’s passions, frustrations, and fears.

Dabinsky liked to spend time in cafés and coffee houses. He was a regular at Bollos café in Blacksburg, where he volunteered regularly at the Lyric Theatre. In one poem, set in Bollos, he writes ...Even the everyday schizophrenic, whose tick and jerk, a repetitive compulsive tapping touch, scares some, has a place here. He continues, revealing his fear, not of the schizophrenic but of being like him ... If life is like a stone skipped across a still pond, and the circling rings how close we get to living it, then I’m just one ring closer, looking for a way to reach the stone before it sinks.

“His goal was to convey a story,” Robbins noted about the Dabinsky’s poetic style. The twelve poems chosen for the issue include Love Poem Number One, Lust Poem Number One, A Remembrance of Karma, Ten Years Stuck in the House Whitlow Built, This is the Line for Mercy, It Really is Almost that Simple, and more. Dabinsky read the emotional and detailed poem about losing a girlfriend in a car accident, How Do You Spell Epiphany, to a spellbound crowd at the London Underground Pub for a Poetry Slam a year before his death. Others he read at Spoken Word events at Oddfellas Cantina and the Café del Sol.

Dabinsky’s cut-to-the punch poetry is a good fit for Moonshine, which editor-in-chief Aaron Moore said strives to be honest and to avoid being “touristy or quaint.” Moore’s long term goal for the magazine is to draw readership and contributors nationwide. It’s currently listed in Poet’s Market (a national directory of poetry publications) and he has already received a submission from someone who saw it listed there. “I want to put Floyd on the map as a literary center,” he said, pointing out that Floyd was a good place to start a literary magazine because of its creative people and active arts community.

Writings about Dabinsky by others also appear in the issue, including an interview with Dabinsky that was done by Robbins for a Gender and Woman’s Study class, a series of vignettes that revolve around Scrabble games and poetry readings that Dabinsky participated in, and an essay by Kathleen Ingoldsby based on a conversation between her and Dabinsky at a contra dance weekend.

Other Floyd contributors include Chelsea Adams, Fred First, Jayn Avery, Katherine Chantal, and Haden Polseno-Hensley. Former Floydian, Blueberry farmer and Radford University English teacher Jim Minnick has two poems in the issue.

Things I Want to Remember, Abandoned Houses, The Falls at Big Reed Island, This Place Indian Valley are the titles of some of the poetry and prose that round out the flavor of this issue of Moonshine. A Depression era short story set in Floyd County by retired Radford University Professor Parks Lanier stands out, as does a personal account by Katherine Chantal of the coming together of the Floyd community for a homemade funeral at Zephyr Farm, one of Floyd’s intentional communities.

The Floyd Moonshine is one year old. With four issues published and submissions coming in for number five, an anniversary celebration open to the public is planned on September 13th from 3 – 5 p.m. at The Black Water Loft. Contributors will read their works from the current issue and past issues, and the poetry of Elliot Dabinsky will also be represented at the event. ~ Colleen Redman

Post Notes: Today’s date reminded me that I had forgotten to post the above. I attended the anniversary reading and celebration of Elliot’s work today and recommend that people check out the publication, especially the current issue that features Elliot’s poetry. Copies are available locally at noteBooks, Café del Sol, Chic’s Antiques, Over the Moon, and can be checked out at the Jessie Peterman Library. Email floydshine@gmail.com to order an issue. The above photo of Elliot was taken by Fred First. Our August Spoken Word at Cafe del Sol included readings from Elliot's work, which you can see HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on September 10, 2009 and HERE.

Black bean paté, pork ribs from Bright Farm, bread from Sweetwater Bakery, a casserole, fresh peaches, and apple pie were some of the dishes enjoyed at the Time for Lunch potluck, held on Labor Day at the Floyd Country Store. The event was initiated by Slow Food USA to promote locally grown and produced food in public schools and was organized by Slow Food USA member Yvonne Hodgkins.

After a group of about twenty-five shared freshly prepared local food and neighborly conversation, Hodgkins addressed the crowd, outlining the campaign’s five platform points. “The nutritional quality of food in school will promote or not promote the health of our children,” she said, citing that one of the platform points is to urge Congress to invest in our children’s health by updating the Child Nutrition Act and increasing the federal reimbursement for the School Lunch Program.

The platform calls for providing financial incentives for schools to buy local food as a way to improve food choices. Another component is establishing stronger standards for food sold in schools. “When most of us were in school we never saw vending machines,” Hodgkins said. She reported that there were 307 potlucks around the country in all fifty states happening simultaneously this Labor Day, including ones in Blacksburg and Roanoke.

Villa Appalaccia Winery owner Susanne Becker, who heads up Floyd’s Slow Food USA group, spoke about the Slow Food mission of “preserving old traditions and cultures of eating.” Slow Food promotes public awareness of local food, advocates for plant diversity, and works to make local food more accessible. “We need farmers. We’re here to promote you,” Becker said.

In 2004 the Farm to School Program was approved by Congress but never funded. Mike Burton of Moon Indigo Farm spoke about giving the program a jump start and putting its principles into action with the introduction of a local pilot program this fall. “We’re going to have one day when local farms are going to provide apples, potatoes, and cabbages to all the schools.” Burton explained. He went on to report that elementary students will help to harvest the vegetables at his farm and at Five Penny Farm. Burton said the project has the support of the county school nutritionist and the school board superintendent. “It crosses all lines. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want their children to eat well,” he concluded.

Floyd Country Store owner Woody Crenshaw spoke about the construction progress of the new farmer’s market, which will be located next to The Station on South Locust Street. He reported that the project has transformed from a farmer’s market into a timber frame community market pavilion with 3,000 feet under roof. “It’s somewhat idealistic and somewhat building for the future,” he said. During the week the pavilion will provide covered parking. On weekends it will be available for public events. Crenshaw noted that the green certified timber to be used has been donated by Turman Lumber. The plan is for the Floyd Community Market to be open for the October 24th Eco-Fair, hosted by SustainFloyd (sustainfloyd.org) in conjunction with the International Day of Climate Action.

Karen Day and McCabe Coolidge updated the crowd on their community food programs under the umbrella of Plenty, a neighbor-to-neighbor growing and sharing food venture. Day reported that Plenty’s “Kids Wonder Garden” at the Floyd Elementary School is in full swing. “Kids are checking out the broccoli and talking about saving seeds,” she said.

Following Day’s description of canning sixty-two cans of donated beans at the local cannery, Coolidge explained that Plenty drivers will soon be outfitted in “Buy Local/Portable Produce” T-shirts donated by Green Label Organic. Proceeds from The CD Project of Scott Perry’s music students bought chickens from Weathertop Farm for fifty-five families on Plenty’s Portable Produce route, Coolidge said.

Hodgkins encouraged potluck goers and others to contact their representatives – sign petitions, call, and write – advocating for healthy food programs in schools. She read an excerpt from a letter written by Representative Rick Boucher in support of the Time for Lunch campaign. “I entirely share your view that our region is a focal point for local foods in many ways … I assure you that I fully support the policy agenda to place locally raised and healthy foods in the schools. I will be happy to cosponsor bills or cosign letters that are designed to support these efforts …” Boucher wrote. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on August 13th and online HERE.

The words action, pan, zoom, and cut were recently heard at The Coffee Mill in Radford where a team of local filmmakers were shooting scenes for an independent film called Boots, named for one of the film's featured players: a cat.

After living in Los Angeles for seven years and experiencing some encouraging developments in their careers, Joe Caldwell and Angela Caldwell decided they didn't want to raise their children in L.A. and have returned to the New River Valley to pursue filmmaking in this region.

Angela, the film's producer and videographer, graduated from Radford University in 2001 with a Bachelors degree in Electronic Media Production. In Los Angeles she worked for the Buchwald Talent Group, was a background actor for film and television, and produced and edited commercial and narrative projects.

Joe, who wrote and is directing Boots, graduated from Virginia Tech in 2000 with a degree in history and a dream to become a filmmaker. His first short film, Open Season, won him a best director award at a Hollywood film festival. "It landed me on the post-production studios of Fox Studios and the likes of an Emmy winning composer wanted to collaborate on my work. I expect no less on my future projects, including Boots," he said.

While scouting for shooting locations, Joe Caldwell passed by The Coffee Mill after hours and noticed an exhibit of cat portraits hanging on the wall. When he returned the next day he learned that the portraits were painted by Gretchen St. Lawrence of Floyd's Blue Ridge Art Connection at The Station. "To me it was as if God had winked at me that this would be the place," Caldwell said.

In the sun filled café, amidst customers drinking morning coffee and working on laptops, the crew began filming scenes for what Caldwell describes as a dry romantic comedy between a guy and a cat. "Guy meets girl. Girl moves in with her cat. Girl leaves guy with her cat. Now the guy, who really isn't a cat person, must come to terms with his new roommate through the process of trying to do her in," he explained.

"The girl" is played by Colleen Walsh, an actress from Richmond who answered the couple's casting call ad and auditioned for the part. Local musician Brady Stevens plays the male lead, and the rest of the cast and film crew assistants are also from the New River Valley.

The cat? The Caldwell's family cat - whose name is actually not Boots, but Jupiter - was used in all the cat scenes. St. Lawrence agreed to paint a portrait of the rising star and finished it in time to be hung as a prominent backdrop for some of the café scenes.

Capturing the cat's likeness from a photograph in 2 ½ hours, St. Lawrence worked fast but said that painting Jupiter (aka Boots) was a challenge. "Such a wild thing and with a face like that!" she said, explaining that all the cat's markings were off center. "But I wanted to get it right."

Joe Caldwell, who will soon be teaching classes combining video film arts and social studies for the Pulaski school system, explained that when the film is finished it will go into post production for editing and will then be submitted to film festivals. He hopes to show a first screening at the Coffee Mill, or perhaps at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg.

"Our goal is to work with area talent and businesses to promote filmmaking in the New River Valley," he said. "The history here is rich. It just takes a bit of talent to draw it out, and the talent is by all means here." ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

~ Blue Mountain School is hosting an Open House on Saturday, August 15th from 11 -- 3. The following story was published in The Floyd Press on 8/13/09.

There are big changes at Blue Mountain School (BMS), the independent school on 8 acres off Christiansburg Pike in Floyd. Although the school will no be longer be identified as a "Parent Run Cooperative," parents are still involved, says the new school director Shelly Emmett.

Emmett, who grew up in Michigan and moved to Floyd with her family from Rhode Island in 2006, is the school's first full time director, a position that was recently voted in by the Blue Mountain School Board of Directors, which consists largely of school parents.

With a background in community-based and school-based counseling, Emmett previously worked as a school counselor and then as a director at Tekoa, a residential facility for adolescents. Her children Madeline, 10, and Layla, 7 ½ have attended BMS in the past and are currently enrolled, along with their 4 year old brother Alonzo.

Emmett speaks with enthusiasm of the school as a living and growing entity, and in a calm and focused manner she describes the new developments in its evolution. For more than 25 years BMS has been operating as a non-profit organization providing hands-on learning to elementary and middle school aged children, an approach that will remain but one that is being reviewed and refined.

The educational philosophy currently being pursued at the school is referred to as Contemplative Progressive Education. The progressive model refers to a mission of "promoting social-emotional learning and critical thinking through experiential activities and creative expression in a collaborative, project-based curriculum," Emmett says.

The contemplative aspect of the school's philosophy reflects its commitment to assist students and staff in developing awareness, concentration, and insight. This will be accomplished through a combination of approaches, such as silence, movement, poetry, story telling, meditation, inquiry, and modeling.

"I know that the Contemplative Progressive model of education has the ability to act as a subtle but powerful agent of social change. If we can truly put into practice each of the elements of our educational model, we will have initiated a way of being with children, a way of educating children, and a way of growing them that is rare," Emmett says.

Along with administrative duties, Emmett will be responsible for supervising the teaching staff and monitoring the quality of education at the school. Outside counsel and consultation from others in the field have been employed to assist the school in designing guidelines and staying abreast of latest developments in education. Emmett is being joined by several new teachers for the 2009/2010 school year.

Amy Myers is an accredited Waldorf Early Childhood teacher with previous teaching experience. As the school's new Early Childhood teacher, she plans on focusing on crafts, outdoor play, storytelling, puppetry, and music. "Our classroom will be a warm, loving space - much like a home away from home," she says.

Dalton Bodtke, the school's Lower Elementary class teacher, says, "In my training to become a teacher, I have taught many children, but I have learned from them as well. I believe in striking a healthy balance between structure and freedom and in the importance of educating the mind, body, and spirit - thus nurturing the whole child."

Corey Avellar, who will be teaching an Upper Elementary class, has 20 years experience teaching preschool through eighth grade. She has led camps at the Roanoke Science Museum and Reynolds Museum and enjoys exploring the world through theater, music, dance, art, horseback riding, and archeological digs. Avellar, who has taught at the Blue Mountain School in the past, says her goal is for her students "to be disappointed when they have to stop school for summer vacation."

Jamie Reynolds will be teaching a second Upper Elementary class. He has a long history of working with young people in his home country of Australia. Reynolds has experience as a youth mentor, activities director, and counselor, and most recently worked as a substitute teacher for the Floyd County School system. He served as a BMS board member and as board president in the past and has been influential in forging the school's new direction.

Other BMS staff includes three Enrichment teachers. Sarah McCarthy will offer yoga and contemplative practices. Lora Giessler is on staff as the school's art teacher and Kari Kovick will head up the music program.

Another important change at BMS is that the school is seeking accreditation through the Virginia Association for Independent Schools, which will involve a two year self-study process of self-evaluation and visits and evaluations by members of the association. Opportunities and workshops for professional development for teachers and staff will be available through the program.

As in the past, BMS does not administer standardized testing, and students and teachers at the school work together to complete a portfolio of the students' work for review several times throughout the school year. The portfolio is used in place of grades.

BMS classes begin on September 8th with a tuition range of $125 to $400, depending on the number of days a student will be attending. Some scholarships and parent work-trade options are available. An open house with refreshments and planned children's activities is scheduled for Saturday the 15th from 11 - 3 p.m. Everyone is invited to come and meet the teachers and tour the school, Emmett says. ~ Colleen Redman

More about the Blue Mountain School story HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The following was published in the summer issue of All About Her, a regional newspaper insert.

When Gretchen St. Lawrence and her husband David moved from the Charlottesville area to Floyd in January 2006, they were looking to escape the traffic and congestion of city life. The couple, who had previously worked high tech jobs in the Silicone Valley of California, found Floyd through "Fragments of Floyd," the blog writings of Fred First. Upon visiting the area, they discovered they loved it and were especially impressed with Floyd's strong arts community, which would ultimately prove to be fertile ground for St. Lawrence's own creative talent to take off.

St. Lawrence grew up on the South Shore of Boston, Massachusetts, and then Canada where she studied Fine Arts at McGill University in Montreal. Over the years she made attempts to pursue her art seriously but was sidetracked with work and raising two children. Once in Floyd, she knew the timing was right to freely explore her artistic aspirations.

"It wasn't hard to find out where the action was," St Lawrence says about the one stoplight town of Floyd. With the traffic of Charlottesville far behind her, she signed up for classes at The Jacksonville Center for the Arts. She took a watercolor class with local artist Rick Cooley and followed that with pastels with Cheryl Sweeney. "I got hooked on pastels," she remembers. Cooley and Sweeney suggested she join the Floyd Figures Group, an artists group that has been drawing informally together for 25 years.

With the encouragement and support of the Floyd Figures group and other area artists, St. Lawrence's pastel skills rapidly progressed. At the request of her son, she painted several portraits of his cats and was surprised at how well they turned out. Soon she was doing pet portraits by commission, and her husband, who had a woodworking business when the couple first came to Floyd, began providing the wooden frames. As demand for St. Lawrence's portraits grew so did interest in her husband's mat cutting and framing skills and Floyd Custom Framing was born, a studio shop that David St. Lawrence runs out of the couple's home.

After drawing with Floyd Figures for more than a year, St. Lawrence joined with five other women and co-founded The Floyd Artists Association. The group opened a gallery downstairs in Winter Sun building, appropriately called "Art Under the Sun." At the gallery, the artists began putting on painting demonstrations for the public, which allowed St. Lawrence to further develop her pastel techniques and branch out to incorporate still-life and landscapes into her body of work.

St. Lawrence's ability to capture a likeness and make it shine has drawn attention. Her art has been exhibited in Jacksonville Center's Hayloft Gallery shows and in local coffee houses and restaurants. It has appeared in The Floyd Press newspaper and hangs in the Hotel Floyd, a green-lodging boutique hotel that showcases Floyd art and culture.

As a member of the Floyd Artists Association, which has grown to include nine members, St. Lawrence welcomes the opportunity to utilize her skills as a business woman. She's worked in the past as a program manager, an office manager, and for advertising agencies. She's been active in Floyd's Friends of the Library and has experience writing copy. Most recently she helped author Fred First edit his second book, What We Hold in Our Hands, and worked with others on the map for Round the Mountain Artisan Trail, which will link visitors to creative points of interest in Floyd and throughout Southwest Virginia.

With a Grand Opening in early July, the Floyd Artists Association's gallery has relocated to "The Station at South Locust," a newly renovated building across from the Floyd Country Store that was at one time the location of an Amoco gas station. The new gallery name, "Blue Ridge Art Connection," reflects the group's commitment to attracting new artists and fostering them. Classes will be held at the gallery and a different guest artist will be exhibited every First Friday, St. Lawrence says. As part of the group's outreach they will also be hosting drawing sessions in a country setting along the Little River for non-members the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month.

Currently, St. Lawrence is excited about her latest pen-and-ink class with Ron Campbell at the Jacksonville Center, which has inspired her art in a new direction. She speaks enthusiastically about the enriching benefits of the arts in the community. Carrying on the Floyd tradition of encouraging new artists, just as she was encouraged, St. Lawrence says, ""I love being a mentor to other artists. I don't think you have to be a teacher or give classes. I think just listening, encouraging them, showing them where they can get supplies, where they can take classes, or helping them shop online is important." ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press, July 23, 2009

Judging by pre-ticket sales, the Floydfest world music and art festival may just be recession proof, say festival founders Kris Hodges and Erika Johnson. “In hard times, we need more than ever to recreate, to camp, and experience music,” Johnson said.

“Some venues that have relied on corporate dollars might not be faring as well in this recession,” Hodges added. “Floydfest has relied on hard work, community involvement, and imagination.”

With home vegetable gardens, down-to-earth vacationing, and personal independence on the rise, this year’s festival theme “Revival” reflects that trend, Johnson points out.

The four day music festival (July 23- 26) located at milepost 170.5 on the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway is kicking off its 8th year today with a multi-cultural musical lineup that spans the range of genres from bluegrass, folk, afrobeat, funk, old-time, reggae, cajun, jam rock, Americana, and more.

Non-stop performances alternating on seven stages will include Grammy award winning Blues Traveler and a gospel group from Barcelona, Spain. American Dumpster and William Walter, two popular Virginia bands that have played to enthusiastic audiences at the Sun Hall in Floyd will be returning to the Floydfest stage, as will festival favorite Donna the Buffalo (Saturday at 5:00 p.m.). Local musicians include Mac and Jenny Traynham, The Jugbusters, Blue Mule, No Strings Attached, Dry Hill Draggers, and Kat Mills. New to the Floyfest stage include Grupo Fantasma, Hot 8 Brass Band, Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers, Blues & Lasers, Ouros, and more.

Eighteen year old Cherub Chatfield has been going to Floydfest since it started. “This is the first year I’m camping,” said the Floyd County resident. “I’m really excited about seeing Grace Potter. She’s from Vermont and I’ve never seen her play. I have all her C.D.s. I’m a pretty big fan.”

Erich Woodrum, coordinator of the festival’s Global village, plays the djembe drum. He’s looking forward to hearing Forro in the Dark, a Brazilian flavored high energy percussion band that will also be presenting drumming workshops. “There’s something for everyone,” Woodrum said.

Johnson and Hodges are especially proud of their Under the Radar Series, in which one audience chosen favorite band wins prize money, more exposure, and an invitation to come back next year. “It’s a big part of who we are. We’re not into recycling the same names you’re going to see at every other corporate sponsored festival all summer,” Johnson said, adding that when choosing musical acts, they keep their ear to the ground for dedicated musicians who play from the heart.

The couple’s instincts are paying off. Last year former Governor and now Senator Mark Warner visited Floydfest and spoke on the main stage. This year the Virginia Tourism Corporation will be filming the festival as “part of a statewide endeavor to acquire high quality video of selected iconic Virginia events and locations … with the purpose of promoting Virginia.” Floydfest was also recently named one of the “Ten Best Fests on the Blue Ridge” by Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine.

“Whenever you go to this festival you end up liking 12 new bands that you had never heard of before. It’s also a great thing for our society. People don’t see their neighbors very often or really do anything together. Festivals offer a social environment that provides many magical moments…” Donna the Buffalo’s Jeb Puryear was quoted as saying about Floydfest in the magazine.

The festival’s reputation as a family-centered progressive event is growing. Uriel Yard will be bringing her years of experience working Renaissance Faires, heading up the Children’s Universe where storytelling, theatrical performances and workshops are scheduled throughout the long weekend and balloons, puppets, fairies, and parading dragons make appearances.

The Healing Arts Village, sponsored by The Blue Ridge School of Massage and Yoga is a good place for festival goers to get off the beaten track, indulge in some pampering, or just unwind. The practitioners there will be offering workshops, healing arts merchandise, and body work, such as chair and deep tissue massage, shiatsu, rolfing, reiki. Nightly A.A. 12-step meetings are also hosted at the Healing Arts tent.

Another way for festival goers to get off the beaten track is to explore the 2 ½ mile biking and hiking trail that loops around the 80 acre site, a new addition to the festival scene. Culinary offerings, beer garden micro brews, and arts and crafts booths are Floydfest mainstays, as are hula hooping, bocce ball, scaling the climbing wall, dancing at the dance tent, and chilling out at the wireless café (hosted by Citizens).

Committed to the greening of the planet, festival organizers are encouraging people to bring their old cell phones for recycling and for a chance to win a prize. This year all the vending cups will be bio-degradable vegetable based, rather than made of plastic, Hodges pointed out. Eustace Conway, a North Carolinian naturalist and the subject of best selling author Elizabeth Gilbert’s book The Last American Man, will be presenting primitive life skills workshops in the Global Village.

Tickets to the festival can be purchased at the entrance and range from $40-60 dollars per day or $140 for the long weekend, which includes camping. Over a dozen non-profit groups benefit from Floydfest. The Floyd County High School Band, the Booster Club, sports teams, and Boy Scout troops trade work hours running off-site and on-site parking for donations from ticket sales to benefit their organizations. “We try to stay close to our small town roots,” Johnson said about the exchange.

Renee Lester owner of the Lawson House Inn in downtown Floyd says that guests attending Floyfest who have stayed at her Bed & Breakfast have been happy with the festivals. “It gets better every year, the organization and the music” said Lester, whose husband works for Dreaming Creek Timber Frame, builder of the festival’s main stage. Excited about festival number 8, Lester added, “Floydfest is a summer highlight that my whole family enjoys.” ~ Colleen Redman

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~ The following was published in the spring issue of All About Her, a regional newspaper insert.

By the time Avis McCutchan's five daughters were grown, the stay at home mom was ready to try something new. In 2003, McCutchan, an avid reader, opened noteBooks, an independent bookstore in the heart of downtown Floyd.

On the front of the historical cedar-sided building (built in 1911) that once housed an appliance store and then a health food store, she hung her business shingle - a large attention getting sign announcing: Art, Music, Ideas, and Coffee.

"Books and coffee go hand in hand," says her daughter Rose, manager of the Black Water Loft coffee house. The loft, which opened in 2004, sits atop the book store and features a balcony porch view of the one stoplight downtown, lots of comfy sitting nooks with couches, and an unforgettable décor that mixes hip with homey.

Inside the sunlit loft, the hiss of the milk steamer can be heard as Rose's youngest sister Grace serves cappuccino to a trio of customers perched on bar stools. Rose explains that her mother, who has read practically "everything," has a special knack for helping customers pick out books for themselves and as gifts, taking into account the interests and age of the reader.

Avis, a Maryland native, recounts how she and her husband Mac first came to the area, saying, "Mac and I went to Virginia Tech. We loved it." They never left. All five of their daughters were born and raised from kindergarten to high school graduation in Floyd. Theda, Rose, Katie, Elsie, and Grace (named after grandmothers) range in age from 18 to 33 and all have had a hand in running the family bookstore and coffee house.

Theda helped her father write the business proposal and currently writes book reviews for the bookstore blog, Blue Ridge Bookworm . Katie did most of the loft decorating. Elsie was the first loft employee. When Rose returned to Floyd after teaching children's theatre and pursuing an acting career in New York and Los Angeles, she added her past restaurant experience to Katie's to head up the running of the loft.

"When none of us can work my dad will come in and work, upstairs and downstairs," Rose says about the family run business. "We also call dad whenever something is broken," she adds with a smile.

Between the loft and the bookstore, the McCutchan family stays busy. Along with a variety of new and used books and art and music supplies, noteBooks carries the works of local authors and musicians on consignment. The store has hosted authors' book signings and reading events. When the last book of the Harry Potter fantasy series was released, noteBooks decorated accordingly and held a Harry Potter party.

In the fall of 2006 bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver came to the Floyd County High School auditorium to read from her latest book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for a fundraiser for the Jessie Peterman Library. Kingsolver, an advocate of supporting local economies, asked that a local independent bookstore provide books for the book signing that followed the readings, and noteBooks got the job. That Christmas all the McCutchan daughters got signed Kingsolver books as gifts from their mother, a Kingsolver fan.

The Black Water Loft serves a wide variety of organic and fair trade coffees and teas, all-fruit smoothies, and locally made baked goods. They feature live music on Friday nights, host poetry readings and art showings, and are available for private party rentals. All five McCutchan sisters have a background in theater arts. Once a year they host a fundraiser at the loft for Floyd County Forensics (a high school public speaking elective). Team members rehearse poetry, prose, play scenes in preparation for competition. "I'm very proud of it," Rose says of the fundraiser. "Floyd has a reputation for having a good team. They pack the house."

Rose, director of the Floyd's Young Actors Coop (YAC), points out the art displayed on the coffee house walls, wooden window frames with outdoor scenes painted on the squared panels. "They're set designs made by one of the YAC parents," she explains. The YAC group of more than a dozen 7-18 year olds has been performing a variety of plays to enthusiastic audiences since 2005 - everything from Shakespeare and comedy to a parody of NPR's The Prairie Home Companion, dubbed The Floyd Home Companion.

"Rose is energetic and has a lot of ideas. She keeps me inspired to do new things" Avis says about working with her daughter. Rose cites her mother's organizational skills as a trait she admires. Both women enjoy interacting with the public, the local community and visitors. The bookstore's stock of maps, music, and books related to Floyd, are appreciated by customers during tourist season, which runs from summer to December.

Floyd's scenic beauty and its music and art offerings have been drawing more visitors in recent years. Last year downtown underwent a series of renovations, got a new parking lot, a sitting wall, and a timber frame public rest room. A park is slated for development. "I like the way Floyd is growing," Avis says.

"And we are part of it, "Rose adds. "Our business represents family, community, arts, culture, and diversity; everything that makes Floyd great." ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press newspaper on July 9, 2009.

Any “loss” contains the potential of renewal.” Kanta Bosniak

When Kanta Bosniak left Floyd in 2007 to make a new life in her home state of Pennsylvania, she didn’t know it would include a personal battle with cancer. Today, as a cancer survivor, the holistic health practitioner is sharing her story of healing in a book titled Surviving Cancer and Other Tough Stuff: An Illustrated Journal and Workbook for Healthy and Abundant Life and Becoming Who You Really Are.

The 382 page book, part memoir and part resource guide, begins with Bosniak’s story of caregiver burnout, a divorce, and closing down her Locust Street Alpha Learning Institute where she hosted human potential workshops and conducted her hypnosis and life coaching practice. Dramatic life changes that followed her move from Floyd included working as a nanny in Pennsylvania and an online romance that developed into a serious relationship just before the discovery that she had uterine and ovarian cancer and would require radical treatment.

The treatments Bosniak sought and received combined allopathic care (surgery and chemotherapy), the direction of positive intention, nutritional improvements, reiki (a channeling of energy with the laying on of hands), prayer, and other healing arts. Braced by the wisdom gained from years as a practitioner, a Quaker, an artist, and an interfaith minister, the one time Floyd Press weight-loss columnist faced the challenge of cancer with the same determination she had previously faced losing 100 pounds, recovering from childhood traumas, and dissolving a fibroid tumor through holistic methods.

Told in a natural voice that makes for an easy paced read, Bosniak’s story is permeated with her sense of love and gratitude. It is illustrated with journal entries, the author’s whimsical drawings, photographs (before, during, and after chemo-therapy), and even original cartoons. Bosniak’s step by step account of her journey takes the reader through pre-op, operating room, and post-op procedures and provides an intimate look at how she physically and emotionally navigated through such a life threatening challenge. The book is dedicated to readers and to Bosniak’s father, who passed away this year. Familiar names of people and regional places are generously woven in.

About her surrender and pro-active approach to healing, she writes: I had an empty, scooped-out feeling. I felt simultaneous opposite emotions: Emptiness and desire for life, uncertainty and confidence. Detachment and intention. I might have to go and based on the aggressiveness of the tumor, it might be sooner rather than later. These were practical and useful feelings. I felt I couldn’t afford to overly attach myself to the idea of staying in my body if I was going to have to leave. On the other hand, I understood the power of intention. And I wanted it to make sure it was working for me.

Directing her intention, Bosniak began making a wedding guest list and imagining the life she would build with her partner. She focused on the love she had for her son Joshua, a musician, and listened to his music everyday. She visualized the cells in her body filling with positive healing love. When a colleague invited her to prepare a presentation on her creative healing process for an Association to Advance Ethical Hypnosis conference, the invitation galvanized her into action. Realizing that her experience could be an opportunity to help others, her daily journal practice changed. She began chronicling her journey more consciously and the results became the bulk of the book.

“I blogged about it and the responses I got were amazing. Much of it was from people who didn’t have cancer. I began to think maybe this book isn’t just for cancer patients,” Bosniak remembers.

In the same way her past columns in the Floyd Press were read and appreciated not only by people with weight issues, Bosniak’s book about healing from cancer hit a far-reaching chord. She realized that “motivation is motivation. Making change is making change.”

“Facing life’s challenges requires a certain set of tools. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. Whether it’s cancer, divorce or losing a loved one, the process is the same,” she says. She began to ask herself ‘what is that process?’ Her question spurred the book and the some of the answers she came to provided material for the last two sections of the book, which features an outline of practical nutritional and lifestyle information and related resources.

Although Bosniak grew up in Philadelphia, her connection with Floyd came early in her life. When she was very young her father worked at Roanoke College and the family lived in Salem. She remembers traveling with her father through Floyd by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway and being touched by its beauty. “I was about 4 years old. It struck me hard,” she says. Drawn by the peaceful beauty of the south and the courteous kindness and of its people, she relocated here as a young mother. “Floyd will always be my home. It’s my heart connection. I’ll be going back and forth the rest of my life,” she says.

Bosniak will soon return to the home of her heart to share her uplifting story with others. A book signing and reading is scheduled at noteBooks on Locust Street on July 17 from 7 – 9 p.m. She will also be reading excerpts from Surviving Cancer and Other Tough Stuff at the next Spoken Word at the Café del Sol on July, 18th at 7:00 p.m. ~ Colleen Redman

Post Note: Bosniak’s book is available at Amazon.com. She can be reached via her website KantaBosniak.com.

Posted by Colleen at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

~The Following was published in The Floyd Press on June 4, 2009.

What do you get when you mix a talentless pop band, four teeny bopper fans, a little sister who gives a mean evil eye, an older one who is a blatant hippie, a greedy producer with a Cojo-like wardrobe, a road manager with latent talent that comes to light, a ticket scalper who wears a kilt, and an uptight investigative reporter?

With inventive costumes, creative set designs, and quick change artists reminiscent of the Saturday Night Live cast members, the Young Actors Coop (YAC) presented three packed performances of their latest play MEN2B on a recent weekend.

Directed by Rose McCutchan and written by Haden Polseno-Hensley, the play retained a comedic thread throughout, but there was also drama as the boy band being hyped as the next Beatles were exposed as fakes by investigative reporter Connie Carrington (Bedelia Burris-McGrath). The boys' British accents were entertaining but phony. They didn't really play instruments, and they had a Milli Vanilli secret, Carrington eventually revealed.

In the end, the teeny boppers - whose adventures the audience followed as they navigated their way to a concert - prevailed. Because of the catchy pop song Middle School Dance, written by Adam Parks, most in the play (and in the audience) were converted to MEN2B fans, even though the band lip synced the song.

The play included some spoofs on authoritarian parents, overly busy distracted parents, and ones that don't talk to each other. A bus scene, featuring bizarre riders who played against the four naïve girl fans, was almost a play within a play, or at least a possible Twilight Zone episode. The scene provided a chance to spotlight the talents of two gothic hipsters, Jelly and PB (played by Coriander Woodruff and Emerson Perry), who spoke a street-wise Shakespearean lingo and ended up helping the girls.

A bag boy played by the youngest YAC member, 7 year old Arlo Gilbert-Tanner, won the audience over with a tantrum in the spirit of Harpo Marx. A tough talking bus driver, a group of protesters, a newscaster named Patrick McNaughtnews (Abraham Cherrix) and his sidekick, and a ballet teacher from France rounded out MEN2B's cast of characters.

In the final concert encore scene, the boy band owns up to their fakery. Joined by their road manager onstage, they are transformed into MEN@last. Their costumes, sewed by YAC parent Sue Osborne and inspired by the cartoon Beatles on the Yellow Submarine album cover, helped set a celebratory atmosphere as the band broke out singing 'we all live in a yellow submarine' and the actors and audience sang along.

As YAC's first full feature play, with 13 scenes and 37 characters played by 19 actors, MEN2B might be the group's most ambitious production to date. And they pulled it off. ~ Colleen Redman

Photos and Video Clips: 1. MEN2B boy band fans in one of the girl's bedroom scheme plans to take a bus to the band's concert. Actors from left to right are Bethlehem Cherrix, Jessica Spangler, Avery Foster, and Vivianna Lynch. VIDEO HERE. 2. Hannah Mitchell and Abraham Cherrix play the worried parents of college girl Marcia (Bedelia Burris-McGrath) and her teeny bop sister Melissa (Avery Foster) in a scene that involves fast paced back-to-back cell phone conversations. 3. Jelly and PB. VIDEO HERE.
4. MEN2B road manager Miles Martin sets a thoughtful mood with the singing of Eleanor Rigby after discovering that the band is a fake. Miles, played by Mars Woddail, is accompanied by Floyd Music School students, and a student of Bernie Coveney, on violins and guitar. 5. Reporter Connie Carrington (Bedelia Burris-McGrath) questions ticket scalper (Cameron Woodruff) as protesters look on. 6. MEN2B, played by Cameron Woodruff, Elias Sarver-Wolf, Emerson Perry, and Ian Gammarino, sing Middle School Dance. VIDEO HERE. 7. MEN2B, transformed into MEN@last, sing Yellow Submarine. VIDEO with cast line HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The following was published in The Floyd Press newspaper on June 4, 2009 and online HERE.

Environmental activist and best selling author Bill McKibben recently spoke at The Floyd Country Store on sustainable local economy. He was hosted by Sustain Floyd, a newly formed citizen group with a mission of protecting and enhancing the natural, cultural, and economic resources of Floyd.

Scholar in Residence at Vermont's Middlebury College, McKibben lives in a Vermont town smaller than Floyd. He's a Methodist Sunday School teacher, and has written for a wide range of publications, everything from The New Yorker and The Atlantic to Christianity Today, National Geographic and Rolling Stone. His first book End of Nature has been described as being the first to bring attention to global warming. His latest, Deep Economy, questions the assumption that unlimited growth is an essential part of a healthy economy.

Rural communities once thought to be getting passed-by because they didn't have four lane highways hold the most promise for economic sustainability today, McKibben told an attentive crowd of about 140. "The curve of history is bending in a new direction. Small towns are on the right side of history," he said.

Citing the recent spike in gas prices and its inevitable return, McKibben explained the importance of asking how we can do things closer to home. "Five years ago the cost of bringing a container load of goods from China to the U.S. was $3,000. Last summer the cost of bringing a container load of goods from China to the U.S. was $18,000."

For a local economy to be sustainable, emphasis needs to be on resiliency, rather than constant growth and speed, and on what economists call "comparative advantage," McKibben explained. Comparative advantage means determining what your locality has that others are lacking, or what McKibben refers to as "playing to your strengths."

Food grown on small local farms and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms, along with homegrown music are some of Floyd's "valuable commodities" that foster its independence, Mckibben pointed out. His comments brought nods and applause from some in the crowd. After praising the county for being ahead of the curve, Mckibben added, "I predict that Floyd's biggest problem will be that it will be too desirable. It would be smart to deal with land use and planning in advance if you want to protect the things that make it so desirable."

McKibben said he wrote Deep Economy after coming across poll data showing that Americans' satisfaction with their lives peaked in 1956 and has since been on the decline, even though the material standard of our wealth has almost tripled since then.

Another study that piqued his attention was one that compared big box chain shopping with Farmers Market shopping. Sociologist's conducting the study found that shoppers at Farmers Markets had 10 times more conversation. "It's how everyone shopped for 10,000 years, since the beginning of agriculture, and how 80% of the world population still do. Local food knits communities together," McKibben said.

"China and the rest of the world are starting to use oil in large quantities. There's only so much of it in the ground." Citing a recently released report from the International Energy Administration, Mckibben reported that the world is running out of oil faster than once thought. Without cheap oil, mobility won't be as easy as it was in the past and the idea of moving everything long distances won't be as feasible, he said.

But there are also hopeful signs. "For the first time in 150 years, the number of small farms in Virginia and in others places around the country is on the rise," Mckibben noted, adding that "Farmers Markets are the fastest growing part of the food economy in this country. Wind power is the fastest growing source of electric generation around the world, and local live performances and festivals are growing very quickly."

An engaging question and answer period followed Mckibben's half-hour talk and went on for over an hour. Responding to a question on the problems of rural transportation, he suggested the use of new technologies to organize ride sharing and said we could learn a lot from young people. "They have an intuitive sense of how to build community across these new sets of technologies."

Addressing a question about climate change, the issue that McKibben spends most of his time working on, he remarked, "Policy change is important. We can't solve global warming one light bulb at time anymore. It's too big. It's happening too fast. We need huge change, but we can do some of the work ourselves."

In regard to feeding those in need during the transition from fossil fuels, and in the midst of extreme weather events predicted by scientists, he paraphrased Scripture saying "Love one's neighbor," and recommended bringing in people who don't think of themselves as environmentalists, involving local churches, and having back-up systems. "What's most important is to have strong communities where people can rely on each other," he summarized.

Founder of 350.org, a global initiative to bring awareness to climate change, Mckibben encouraged the audience to consider creative ways to get involved in the group's October 24th action project, a day of worldwide rallies, parades, and art installations designed to build a movement around the climate crisis. "It makes an impact," he said.

Towards the end of his talk Mckibben joked, "Don't you guys have to go to work at some point?" With a blend of intellect, humor, and spiritual reflection, he managed to convey an upbeat message about the global challenges ahead, predicting that the quality of life will be actually be going up. "Our problem is that we've been trying to meet non-material needs for love, respect, status, affection, and all those things humans need with material purchases, and it hasn't worked very well."

Mckibben doesn't consider himself an optimist or a pessimist. He long ago stopped thinking in those terms. "I just get up every day and try to figure out what I can do to change the odds in the right direction," he concluded. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: a video clip of McKibben at the Floyd Country Store can be found HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The following was published in The Floyd Press May 28, 2009. I saw the play last night and can highly recommend it. It's being performed tonight at 7:00 and Sunday at 5:00.

Since the fall of 2005 Floyd's Young Actors Coop (YAC) has been entertaining audiences. With over a dozen productions of original plays and stage adaptations to their credit, and building on the momentum of their well received winter performance, "Comedy through the Ages," the group has a new play opening on May 28th at the Winter Sun Music Hall, with subsequent showings on May 29th and May 31st.

The full feature play, titled MEN2B, was written by Haden Polseno-Hensley in collaboration with YAC founder and director Rose McCutchan. Polseno-Hensley and McCutchan both have theater backgrounds that began more than a decade ago at Floyd County High School under the guidance of Drama Teacher Nan Johnson and Forensics Coach Janet Keith.

According to YAC's Myspace site, MEN2B is described as having a "good mix of social commentary, humor, and music with a tip of the hat to the Beatles." It's a comedy with a plot that revolves around a Boy Band with fake British accents, their groupies, and an investigative reporter, says Polseno-Hensley.

Comedy is a good fit for Polseno-Hensley. As a member of a comedy troupe at Vassar College in New York, where Polseno-Hensley was an English major, he wrote as many as twenty skits that were performed in front of large audiences. The Floyd native recently relocated back to Floyd from Alaska, after receiving an MFA degree from the University of Alaska in Anchorage.

The four members of the fictionalized MEN2B group are played by Elias Sarver-Wolf, Cameron Woodruff, Ian Gammarino, and Emerson Perry and are loosely based on another fab four: John, Paul, George and Ringo. Perry's character, who likes to wear lots of necklaces, is named Blingo Scar. Gammarino wears a white suit like John Lennon's and Woodruff walks barefoot across Locust Street in a photo take-off on the Beatles' Abby Road album cover posted on the YAC Myspace page.

"They know nothing about the Beatles," Polseno-Hensley explains. "It's their super evil producer who has made them speak with accents, put them into clubs, told them how to act and told them who their favorite Beatle was."

Art Goldberg, the evil MEN2B producer trying to capitalize on the Beatles' popularity, is played by Abraham Cherrix. Marsden Woddail is the band's road manager, and Boy Band fans trying to get into a concert are played by Bethlehem Cherrix, Jessica Spangler, Avery Foster, and Vivianna Lynch. Alesandra Hicks plays one of the girls' little sister who threatens to tell her parents about her older sister's activities if they don't let her tag along. Bedelia Burris- McGrath is the reporter probing for the truth. Other cast members are Coriander Wooddruff, Maggie Avellar, Hanna Da'Mes, Hannah Schwenk, Hannah Mitchell, Arlo Glibert-Tanner, and Wilson Coartney.

With 37 roles played by 19 actors aged 7 to 18, MEN2B is the first YAC full feature play and the first one that Polseno-Hensley has written. Another first is the participation of Mike Mitchell's students at The Floyd Music School, expanding on the showcase of local young talent.

"There is live singing of Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby. The Floyd Music School is going to play on most everything that we do, mainly violins," says Polseno-Hensley. There is also an original piece, reminiscent of a Boy Band song that was written just for the play by Adam Parks, a musician who was recently visiting Floyd. "It has a familiar pop sensibility. I think it's brilliant. It captures exactly what we were trying to do," noted Polseno-Hensley.

McCutchan, who has a degree in Theater Performances from Marymount Manhattan College, taught an arts based afterschool program to young children and acted in Community Theater in New York before resettling in Floyd. Excited about MEN2B, McCutchan says, "It's just so much fun. The main characters are well developed and there are some sensational side characters. It's a play that shows off the kids and how amazing they are." ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

~ The following appeared (in a slightly different order) in The Floyd Press on May 21, 2009.

1. The weather cooperated for the 3rd Annual Tour de Floyd last Saturday. Under sunny skies, 98 riders made the 63 mile loop, much of it along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Participants left the Floyd Fitness Center in groups at 8:30 and arrived at the downtown stoplight soon after.

2. With a green light, bikers cycle past the Floyd County Courthouse.

3. A group of mostly women wave and smile as they pass onlookers.

4. Heading out of town for Franklin Pike and then to The Blue Ridge Parkway.

5. Rest stops at Floyd Dry Goods and Buffalo Mountain Store were sponsored by The Partnership for Floyd. Some bikers made pit stops and enjoyed the views at Smart View, Rocky Knob, or Mabry Mill. Support vans and a rescue squad vehicle were on hand if needed.

6. Blacksburg resident Jan McGilliard said she was training for Team in Training, a national biking event at Lake Tahoe that raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She rode Tour de Floyd in honor of her friend, a fellow athlete who recently died of cancer. Blogging about her fundraising efforts, McGilliard has raised $12,000 for the cause, her blog (janintraining.com) reports.

7. Wearing their Tour de Floyd T-shirts, provided by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, Crey, Jean, and Alea Lacoste make a good support team for the bikers. The turn-out for the ride was up from last year's 76 riders, Jean Lacoste said.

8. Holding more than a thumbs-up, Tour de Floyd organizer Paul Lacoste and a friend from Washington D.C. take a break from cycling to pose at the Saddle. The ride raised $3,000 for The Floyd Rescue Squad, Lacoste later said. “Everyone was all smiles and all went well,” he added, reporting that the last group of cyclists returned from the tour loop to the Floyd Fitness Center at 3:45 pm.

9. Houck and K.B. Medford from Winston Salem and Mimi and Mike Dannhardt from Vienna, Virginia, stop for fudge provided by Nancy’s Candy in Meadows of Dan. Houck Medford (seated), Director of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, came out to support the Tour de Floyd riders and take pictures.

10. A list of Tour de Floyd sponsors, pictures, and a link to a Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation slideshow of the ride, can be found on the Tour de Floyd website at tourdefloyd.swva.net. Lacoste encouraged those interested in the event to volunteer for next year, saying, “The rides have been successful and are growing. With that growth comes a lot of work. If anyone wants to be involved in ways other than riding, they can go to the website’s contact and send us an email.”

Posted by Colleen at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

~The following was published in The Floyd Press on May 14, 2009

There’s a new Friday night street attraction in downtown Floyd. Jamboree goers lined up on a recent Friday for fresh baked pizza from an open wood-fire oven on the back of a pick-up truck. John Roberts pulled pizzas in and out of the homemade oven with a long handle paddle while his friend and business partner Scott Smith laid out dough and spread sauce and toppings under the Dogtown Pizza tent.

With a special crust that Smith describes as complex and tangy, mostly local ingredients, and a name that pays tribute to a days-gone-by area in Copper Hill, the pair pooled their talents to launch Dogtown Pizza after a couple of years of testing, tasting, and perfecting their baked goods from Roberts’ wood-fire oven at his Copper Hill home.

“We thought about a restaurant but decided to take it on the road and go to places we want to go, like the Jamboree. We love being at the Jamboree,” Smith said while working the dough. He described the “Aha” moment when the idea for the portable traveling business became clear. He and Roberts had been looking online for oven designs when they saw an Old Word photo of a man pushing a pizza cart.

Already vending at the Blacksburg Farmers Market, Roberts and Smith envision Dogwood Pizza being a regular offering at the upcoming Floyd Farmers Market, which will be situated where the Pizza stand was set up between noteBooks and the old Mama Lizardo’s building being renovated by Floyd Country Store owners Jackie and Woody Crenshaw. “We plan to do baking classes too,” Smith said, gesturing to the outside venue.

“We’ve contracted with Across the Way Productions to do all their events,” he added, explaining plans to build a permanent bigger wood-fire oven at the Floyfest site on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The entrepreneurs also do catering and employ an event coordinator and pizza making line workers when needed. ‘Dogtown Pizza makes a party out of any occasion,’ their website reads.

Smith, who has cooked at the Roanoke Coop and “got the bread program going at Local Roots Café” in Roanoke, said his love of baking began while watching his Italian grandfather make pasta and bread, something he remembers from when he was a boy who could barely see above the kitchen counter. He met Roberts while shopping for building materials when Roberts headed up Eco-solutions, a green building supply company that was once based out of Floyd. Roberts and Smith soon discovered a mutual interest in local food economy and wood fire baking.

A Dogwood pizza begins with a sourdough starter. “Even our yeast is local,” Smith said, as he explained how ice water is used to retard the growth of yeast for a certain amount of time, a step that contributes to the flavorful crust. Eight inch pies start at $10. On this particular Friday night, sausage from Bright Farm in Floyd and spinach from Greenstar Farm – an organic farm in Blacksburg – were incorporated. Basil and fennel added aromatic flavor. Caramelized onions and feta cheese were also featured, along with standard pizza ingredients.

In the end, the proof is in the tasting. Homemade pizza to the strum of a fiddle under an evening sky: “It’s very good,” reported more than one satisfied diner munching on a freshly baked pie.

Posted by Colleen at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

~ The following was published in the Lawn and Garden supplement of Community Newspapers of Southwest Virginia in April 2009.

Known for its vibrant music and art scene, Floyd County has also been fertile ground for a flourishing of sustainable agriculture. Since the early 1990’s small market growers and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms have been putting down roots in the county, adding a new green twist to Floyd’s age old farming tradition.

Tenley Weaver and Dennis Dove have been at the forefront of Floyd’s local food movement, both as certified organic farmers of their Full Circle Farm and as owners of “Good Food for Good People (GFGP),” a retail and wholesale distribution business for seasonal produce. With as many as 30 local growers providing fresh organic and biologically grown vegetables and no/low spray fruit to area restaurants, stores, and consumers, GFGP is a labor of love that has really taken off.

“I can’t take any credit. It’s the cooperation of the growers and the support of the suppliers and consumers that has made it a success,” Weaver said from her office, a desk tucked in a back corner of the GFGP headquarters, known as Greens Garage.

The Garage (pictured above) houses an 8 x 10 cooler, a food store (which Weaver refers to as “a farm stand and more”), a greenhouse where garden seedlings and organic farm supplies are sold from, and room for recycling storage. The back of the garage, dubbed by Weaver as the “pack shack,” serves as a produce distribution packing station and a CSA share pick up site.

CSA fosters relationships between farmers and retail consumers. Consumers purchase shares at the start of the growing season and are paid back in produce at harvest time. Some CSA’s incorporate a “pick your own” harvest, but because of the size and variety of markets they serve, GFGP makes weekly drop-offs during the growing season (April – December) in Floyd, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Roanoke. “It’s probably the biggest CSA in the state,” Weaver noted.

Last year the GFGP’s Fruit Share, supplied by 10 regional farms, generated 250 shares. This year a Vegetable Share is being added, along with an Ala Carte Share, which will allow consumers at some CSA drop-off sites to order items carried at the Greens Garage store, such as farm fresh eggs and dairy, locally baked bread, honey, and hormone-free grass fed beef and pork.

As homesteaders who live off the grid, Weaver and Dove are reluctant business owners, but they are passionate about farming and they understand the contribution GFGP is making towards a sustainable local economy. Through GFGP they support local farmers to make a decent wage, lessen food miles, and provide “something tangible for our friends and neighbors to eat,” said Dove, a former Virginia Tech environmental researcher of crops and soil sciences. “We wake up and look out the window and see our work for the day. We’re happy for it. It’s the most rewarding work I can think of,” he added.

Weaver, who has a degree in literature, discovered her passion for wholesome food while working at a health food store in Delaware, where she went to school. She cites the “historical moment” – referring to the recent positive media attention given to green businesses and lifestyles – for helping to propel GFGP to success. “We were in the right place at the right time. We couldn’t have done this 20 years ago.”

As the country has seen with the recent bailouts of financial markets, conglomerates can be susceptible to collapse. Whether banks or farms, small local businesses offer a diversity that promotes security. “Food safety and security is increased by thriving small farms. If there’s a problem at one farm you have more to rely on,” Weaver explained. “When you focus your food source on a few multi-nationals you get things like the recent widespread peanut contamination or the outbreak of E. coli in spinach, a problem that affects many people in a severe way.”

Weaver says she spends about 40 hours a week working at Full Circle where she and Dove specialize in growing herbs and salad mixes (high dollar, short rotation crops) for fine dining establishments. Between farm work, Greens Garage, GFGP, and meetings with Blue Ridge Growers Collaborative (the core group that plans the GFGP growing season) their lives revolve around food. Recently they began employing a few part time workers at Full Circle Farm during the peak growing season. They have six part time employees at GFGP and one full time Greens Garage manager.

The work is hard and business is good, but no one is getting rich, at least not in a monetary way. “We work on a shoestring. We don’t do debt,” Weaver said. Explaining how their business is motivated by friendships, she cites an 83 year old orchardist, whose farm provides the bulk of their Fruit Share, as one of her greatest inspirations. “He’s one of the few people I know that is truly satisfied. He’s got his homestead scene together. He’s happy with what he’s created, loves his job, and isn’t striving for more and more.”

For the past four years Full Circe Farm and other GFGP suppliers have opened their farms to the public for a Mother’s Day Farm Tour. Because it has rained two out of the past four years and road access into the farm is difficult when it rains, the couple has decided to present a series of free gardening workshops at other venues this spring. Most recently Dove, a tomato seed breeder whose heirloom varieties are available in gardening catalogs, presented a workshop on growing heirloom tomatoes. Other recent changes that reflect signs of growth at GFGP include the hiring of a bookkeeper and the purchase of a GFGP delivery truck, releasing the couple from relying on their own vehicles for deliveries.

“It’s the Year of the home garden,” Weaver said enthusiastically. Dove added that everyone in the growers’ community has been inspired by Michelle Obama who recently broke ground on the first White House garden since the FDR presidency. He and Weaver concur with Obama’s sentiment that children should know where their food comes from, that garden grown fresh vegetables are good for us and taste best.

Encouraged that the issue of the economy of local food is finally getting public notice, Weaver said, “It’s not about us. It’s about changing the world. Our goal is to change the world one forkful at a time.” ~ Colleen Redman

Note: For information about GFGP CSA shares and Full Circle Farm Farmer’s Market schedule contact gfgpfruitshare@swva.net. The last photo is of Tenley, her daughter Summer Rain, and Dennis. Tenley is holding CC Ryder, who she refers to as their P.R. agent and trucking mascot. The family has five draft horses. Summer Rain is a student and trains horses.

Posted by Colleen at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press newspaper on April 30, 2009.

"But how will my friends know it is me, Barnaby, the old barn?" "Simple," said the toymaker. "Your boiler and cab are made from the logs that you had when you were a barn, and the roof of your cab is red like the red roof you had as a barn." ~ From Barnaby: The Barn Who Dared to Dream by Ron Campbell

When Ron Campbell was a young boy he played with a wooden paddleboat, handmade by his grandfather. Campbell doesn't know what happened to that heirloom toy, but he has never forgotten it. "I want to continue the cycle of passing things along," he said about the steam locomotive he built for his grandson from the wood of an old chestnut barn.

Campbell's locomotive, which is also a kaleidoscope and a nightlight, is part of his three piece exhibit, currently on display at the Jacksonville Center's "The Earth is Our Home" Hayloft Gallery show. Other works in Campbell's exhibit are his pen, ink, and watercolor drawing of a red roofed log barn, and a framed signed first copy of a children's book about a barn named Barnaby that dreamed of being a locomotive.

Both the drawing and the children's book, written and illustrated by the artist, are framed with salvaged wood from the same old log barn that the locomotive was made from. The barn sat for more than 100 years on Conner Road before it was dismantled by Campbell and his neighbor. 'Take the whole thing. I want it out of my view,' said the woman who answered Campbell's ad for "barn wood."

Born in Cullen and raised in Williamsburg, Virginia, Campbell had been working a high stress job in Atlanta before coming to Floyd. "I came out of corporate America saying, 'I've had enough of this. There's something better,'" he said. After retiring from his job and then purchasing land in 2001, he and his wife Lenny moved to the county in 2003. He had an art business in mind. "I've been drawing since I was a kid," he said.

For years Campbell worked as a computer technician. His background in electronics came in handy when he added sound effects - a bell, a whistle, and choo choo - to his heirloom locomotive. His experience as a woodworker, which Campbell says he "learned along the way," helped him to recognize the value and rarity of the old Connor barn, built with American chestnut, an important part of Floyd culture before the chestnut blight of the early 1900's.

Pointing out the wooden pegs incorporated in one of his picture frames, Campbell explained how they were commonly used to put buildings together before store bought nails were available. "There were some handmade square nails in the barn. We saved as many as we could," he said.

After building his own log home with a wrap-around porch, Campbell set about to make eight wooden swings, two for each side of the house. He completed two and sold a third, then a fourth. Soon he was filling orders. A bench with a wood burned banjo design in it was purchased by Woody Crenshaw for The Floyd Country Store. Another two benches and a swing can be found at Sweet Providence Farm Store.

Potter Jayn Avery, a Jacksonville Center board member and co-chair of the exhibit committee, remembers Campbell's hesitance when he first entered a piece for exhibit. "When he put his first bench in a show he wasn't sure it was okay," she said. Referring to his current multi-medium display, she said, "He's a wonderful carpenter who has joined all his different skills, his eye for carpentry and wood, sketching, and, as it turns out, even writing."

Another artist active at the Jacksonville Center, Marie Daniel, was instrumental in Campbell's involvement with the Center. She encouraged Campbell to show his pen and ink drawn barns after seeing them on his website and being impressed. When Campbell first came to Floyd he took classes at the Jacksonville Center, now he is teaching them. "I just finished a third class of about eight students," he noted.

Avery says that it's been fun to watch Campbell's art grow over the past few years. She thinks his story is a good example of how a person's creativity can be nurtured by a healthy arts presence in the community. "One of the Jacksonville Center's missions is to keep arts in the hands of everyday people and not have it be something out of reach," she explained, adding, "And we want people to recognize that everyone has inside them a creative aspect and that it takes many forms."

Campbell says he plans to make four more limited edition heirloom locomotives to be sold at the Country Store. The accompanying book about Barnaby the barn can be custom made to include the name of any child, just as Campbell's grandson Mason is a character in the first printing.

Although it took 2 - 3 months to hand build the first locomotive, Campbell says, "I've got a pattern of every piece now, so the next four won't be so hard or expensive." His hope is that the old Connor barn will live on through the passing down of the heirloom toys, just like the one in his story. "It was there for well over 100 years," he said about the barn. "Maybe the locomotives will be here for another 100 years. Maybe more." ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on April 9, 2009 and HERE.

“I call it ‘The New Math,’” said Harvest Moon store manager Katherine Chantal about the store’s “Healthy Snacks for Healthy Kids” display. “1+1=3. For every two snacks donated by customers, the Harvest Moon donates one more.”

Healthy Snacks for Healthy for Healthy Kids, a local program that provides snacks for school children, began last April when Karen Day, a Unitarian Universalist minister and community organizer, became aware of a need.

“I was at a planning meeting of Angel’s Bounty to address hunger and needs in Floyd County and someone said, ‘I work in the school system and I know there are some kids who come to school without snacks,”' Day explained. She remembers thinking that bringing snacks to kids was a doable task to undertake. ‘We can do that,’ she said at the time.

Day and her husband, potter and writer McCabe Coolidge, began talking to their friends and neighbors. ‘I want to help with that,’ several people said upon hearing about the project.

The first contact Day and Coolidge made was with 1st grade Floyd Elementary School teacher Becky Thompson. “You don’t want to think about a kid without a snack when others have one. Becky and some other teachers were trying to fill the gap out of their own pockets,” Coolidge said, “buying snacks out of their own paychecks.”

Healthy Snacks received a $300 seed grant from Angels in the Attic. Jeweler Anne Vaughan matched that donation. Others donated crafts for sale to go to the program. When Chantal heard about it she put Coolidge in touch with the Cliff bar Representative who supplies The Harvest Moon with all natural organic energy bars. The company donated four cases of Cliff bars and the sales rep interviewed Chantal. They're interested in spreading the Healthy Snacks idea and sponsoring other locales, Chantal said.

Pointing out the emphasis on the word “healthy” in Healthy Snacks, Coolidge said, “These are healthy snacks. Were getting the idea out to kids what is healthy.”

Initially five volunteers took turns buying snacks – crackers and cheese, granola bars, nuts, and dried fruits – and bringing them to Becky Thompson. “There’s a supply in Becky’s room now and teachers know and come in and get snacks. Kindergarteners and 1st graders only have snack time, but sometimes a teacher from an older grade comes in and gets a granola for a kid that didn’t get breakfast that day,” Day explained.

By May of last year the Healthy Snacks volunteer team was providing 100 snacks a week to the school. Efforts were stepped up when a teacher asked Day if they could supply 100 snacks a day so that every kid could have one during SOL testing.’

Day and Coolidge, who came to Floyd from North Carolina three years ago, have a long history with food. “We’ve worked in soup kitchens, started soup kitchens. I was a cook in a day care,” Coolidge said. In Asheville the couple started an urban garden project and Day was active in organizing CROP Walks (Community Responding to Overcoming Poverty), a Church World Service initiative that raises money for anti-hunger programs.

In Floyd, Day and Coolidge head up Empty Bowls, a fundraiser that benefits the New River Community Action Center’s Backpack Program, which sends some school children home for the weekend with backpacks full of food. At the end of school last year, the couple launched “Portable Produce,” delivering surplus produce from local farms to “people with no cars, mostly seniors, people with disabilities, and children involved in health intervention programs,” Day said.

The Healthy Snacks program has also been funded by a cash donation jar at the couple’s Wildfire Pots Studio in the Winter Sun building. Primarily a pottery studio, the space gives the projects visibility. “People come in and look at the snacks display, read the press coverage posted, and start asking question,” Coolidge explained.

Wildfire is growing along with the food sharing. The couple is planning to knock out a wall and expand the studio into an adjacent room to give more exposure to the projects. They hope to raise enough money for a cooler for produce, and baking healthy snacks on site is a possible future option. The studio expansion will be unveiled and celebrated at the next First Friday event, which falls on May 1st.

“Both Healthy Snacks and Portable Produce started with no money. It started with people willing to drive and to help.” Day pointed out. She refers to the food related projects as neighbor to neighbor sharing that has developed naturally, step by step. Citing the generosity of the community for making the projects successful, she said, “What we like to do is find people who want to help and make it easy for them to.”

The Healthy Snacks volunteer pool has also grown. The program now includes all four county elementary schools. The children appreciate that. Some made handmade cards thanking the volunteers for the snacks. ‘Thank you for the dilishies snacks for helping us do our SOL, one colorful card read.

Posted by Colleen at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on March 26, 2009.

As the Old Church Gallery Quilter’s Guild membership has grown so has the size of their meeting locations. Formed in 1986 as a part of The Old Church Gallery, the quilters outgrew the gallery’s original Presbyterian Church location. They met at the Wilson Street gallery location, the Jessie Peterman library, the new Presbyterian Church, and then the Bank of Floyd Community Room. When the Community Room ceased to be available, the guild began holding their bi-monthly meetings at their current location, The Jacksonville Center for the Arts.

What began with twelve quilters in 1986 has grown to over seventy. Pauline Hodges, guild treasurer and a founding member says that national and international teachers are active members of the Floyd based guild. “The majority are not from Floyd. Members come from Winston Salem, Covington, West Virginia, Blacksburg, Meadows of Dan, Smith Mountain Lake, and Roanoke,” she noted.

Still operating under the Old Church Gallery umbrella, the guild shares the gallery’s mission of preserving and showcasing local culture and art. According to the guild’s webpage, a second goal is “to establish a framework within which experienced and beginning quilters may learn from one another, sharing techniques and quilting advances.” Their bi-monthly meetings serve that purpose.

Hodges, a Floyd native who grew up with quilting, says that guild meetings draw an average attendance of about thirty members. Meetings are planned by an alternating program director and generally feature a short business portion, followed by a teaching demonstration, a workshop, or lecture. Once a month members participate in a “Show and Tell,” presenting their creative works to the group. ”

Recently the guild hosted Pennsylvania quilter George Sicliano for a lecture and a “trunk show,” which refers to the car trunk load of Sicliano’s fiber art that he brought to show. Male quilters are uncommon and there are no male members in the Floyd guild, Hodges said, but she remembers a male quilter from Asheville who was a quilt show judge.

“I don’t remember not quilting,” Hodges, said, explaining how quilts were “made from leftovers from what you sewed at home. In the past, dresses and quilts were also made from the feed sack bags that farm animal feed came in. Reproductions of feed sack bags and civil war fabrics are available today and used by some quilters, Hodges explained.

Born of ingenuity, quilting is an art that has adapted to modern times. “The majority of members use sewing machines but some do hand quilting,” guild president Karen Tauber said. “We don’t go down to the river and wash our clothes any more. We all have washing machines and are glad to have sewing machines.”

Tauber, who teaches quilting at the Blacksburg YMCA and organizes the yearly Blue Ridge Quilt Festival, remembers when guild founding member Effie Brown gave a presentation of her life’s work as a quilter and spoke about the old days of quilting. Brown, one of the eldest members, gave some advice, saying ‘if you want to do black quilt do it early in your career because later your eyesight won’t work.’

The guild has its own show in the Floyd Elementary School at the Woman’s Club annual Arts and Crafts Fair each October, displaying “over 150 entries from across the US which includes every sort of quilt from traditional to contemporary and ranging from large bed quilts, to miniature quilts, with an always impressive display of wearable art,” the guild website reads. Every year a guild member is featured and a show winner is chosen. The public is encouraged to enter their fiber art in this impressive annual exhibit.

Service work is also a guild activity. At a recent guild meeting member Kim Horne posted a pattern for making quilted bags to hang on the backs of walkers and wheel chairs for donation to area nursing homes. Quilters who brought their sewing machines got busy cutting and sewing for the project. The guild has also donated collaboratively made quilts for fundraisers. Most recently they made and donated one to benefit the Jacksonville Center for the Arts.
Guild members have sold their quilts, won show awards, and have had their designs published in books. “But family comes first,” one member said. “I still have some of my grandmother’s quilts,” said Floyd native Jane Shank.

Quilting in Floyd is a part of its mountain culture, passed down through generations and through the help of guilds like the Old Church Gallery Guild. Although the guild has expanded beyond the county and draws from talent far and wide, its traditional roots remain.

As for the guild’s next location move, they hope it will take them full circle, reuniting with the Old Church Gallery, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary. “We hope to someday have our own space with a big room with the Old Church Gallery,” Hodges said. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: For more information about The Floyd Quilter’s Guild go to http://floydquilts.freeservers.com

Posted by Colleen at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

~ The following was published in the Floyd Press news insert "Know Your County" on March 26, 2009.

The Seed Swap held at the Floyd Country Store on a recent Saturday was an encouraging start to making the event a yearly tradition. At the height of the two hour swap as many as thirty gardening enthusiasts mulled around several long tables where bowls filled with loose saved seeds had been placed.

Gardening magazines and other resources were available. Long time gardeners shared tips about planting, soil preparation, and dealing with garden pests with those who were new to gardening. Some attendees took notes.

The gathering was informal. At one point Ed Cohn, who organized the event, addressed the crowd, encouraging those who were interested to stay in touch by signing an email list. Cohn is co-director of Miracle Farm Bed & Breakfast Spa and Resort, which is also a sustainable living center and animal sanctuary

Collecting seeds in a small brown paper packet, Miriam Brancato said, "I can't wait to get in the garden." Others talked of being in the first stages of planning their gardens for spring.

On one table there was a written list of how long seeds can be saved for propagation, anywhere from two to ten years, depending on the type. Seeds can continuously be collected directly from non-hybrid plants that have gone to seed and be used for planting, bio dynamic gardener Florence Rewinski said.

Gloria Gerritz brought her vast flower seed collection to share. Set up at the corner of one table, hers was a popular gathering spot for gardeners attending the swap.

"I'm very pleased with how this has all gone," Cohn said. "There was a good variety of seeds and a diverse segment of the community came out."

Posted by Colleen at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

~ The following was published in the winter issue of All About Her, a regional news insert.

She's affectionately known by some as "The Countess of Coffee," and is the "Little Diva" in the band "Little Diva and the G-Strings." Co-owner of Floyd's Café del Sol and vocalist performer with a degree in Music Therapy, Sally Walker says her love of music and good coffee are about to converge.

"I've started to work on a new CD. All the songs are about coffee," Walker said in between bites of a tuna salad lunch and with the afternoon sun beaming in the large café windows.

Sally and her husband Frank opened their café four years ago after missing the lattes (espresso with steamed milk) they had in Seattle while visiting Frank's daughter, Sarah. "We wanted to have quality lattes here in Floyd," Sally said about the couple's initial interest in opening a café. That interest was further piqued when the owner of the Winter Sun building, a renovated textile factory, made a comment early on in the building's renovation, saying she thought the corner spot of the building (where the café now sits) would make a cute café.

"Cafés are fun places where a lot culture and networking happen," Walker said, citing another impetus behind the conception of Café del Sol. She was also tired of commuting for her music therapy practice, which took her into the school systems of Roanoke and Allegany Highlands.

Once the Walkers let their adventurous spirits win over the prospect of the hard work they knew opening a café would involve, they did their own renovations. Frank built the cafe tables. His daughter Sarah, who ran cafés in Seattle, flew in to teach barista arts to the Walkers and their staff - which has included two daughters, a son, and a son-in-law.

Today, Café del Sol is a hub in the downtown landscape of the one stoplight town. Along with a variety of coffee drinks and teas, the café serves lunch and desserts, and offers wireless internet access. Besides their regular hours of operation, they host a Friday Night Music series (which Sally sometimes sits in on), and the third Saturday Spoken Word Open Mic. The café is also home to what Walker calls a "rotating cast of characters," referring to the café "regulars" and any combination of the café's twelve young employees, many of whom Walker says she has watched grow up.

"It's a fun place to work. I think we keep it fun behind the counter," Walker said. Judging from the tip jar that says "Afraid of Change, Leave it Here" on one side and "Support Counter Intelligence" on the other side, the CD soundtrack, the comfy couch in the corner, and the rotating local art that graces the bright gold walls, it's clear that Walker and her staff strive to provide an atmosphere for relaxing and focusing on the lighter side of life.

"We freshly grind each draw," Walker said, explaining the art of making a good latte. "Steaming milk is a multi-sensory skill," she continued, describing how attention must be paid to the look of the drink and the sound of the steam wand as it changes pitch. Pitch is something the musician barista knows about.

Since she was a child Sally has been drawn to performing. In the 70's she played folk music in coffee houses and joined the River Flow Band. In the 80's she sang with Just Jake, a band whose name Walker coined when she plunked the dictionary and her finger landed on "jake" (which means A-OK). Her musical background cumulated in 2003 with the release of her first CD - World on a String - a collection of jazz standards that showcase her sultry smooth vocals.

It's hard to imagine with all Walker juggles that she still finds time for music gigs, but she does. This past year she has performed at a wedding, a benefit, a private party, along with gigs at Oddfellas Cantina and the Zion Church Oak Grove Pavilion Summer music series. She still has a few music therapy clients in Roanoke. "On Tuesdays I go to Roanoke, see my clients, pick up bagels, and then go to Sam's Club for café supplies," she quipped.

Walker is looking forward to some extended time in the recording studio in February, saying "I love being in the studio." If all goes well, a visit to the Café in late spring might include a café signature latte, a tasty treat, and some good conversation, all to the tune of Walker's new songs playing on the CD stereo. ~ Colleen Redman

Post note: Sally records her CD's at Floyd's own Mountain Fever Studio. Locals can hear her sing Friday night February 27 at Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd or click HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on February 12, 2009.

Floyd Fitness Center Manager Ellen Wright organized her first Swing Dance Class at the Winter Sun Music Hall. At that time her eldest son was a member of the Floyd County High School Band, which held yearly Jazz and Swing Dance Concerts. “They were well attended but not well danced,” Wright remembered about the events.

Realizing that most of the band members didn’t know how to dance together, she enlisted the help of Christiansburg’s Sapphire Ballroom and Dance Center for a Swing Dance Class for ages fourteen and up. “It was a successful class with 30 students. Half of those were teens,” she said.

When Wright took the position as manager of the Floyd Fitness Center in the fall of 2007, she recruited the dance center once again to teach local dance classes. After the fitness center’s Grand Opening in the winter of 2008, dance classes were added to the gym’s program and began the following summer.

“Everything we do is partner dance, whether it be the waltz, the fox trot, swing or salsa,” said Linda Stancill, Sapphire Dance Center owner and instructor. The dance center, which opened in the summer of 2004, offers private lessons, workshops, and group classes. They also hold events, such as the 2009 Valentine Lovers Ball, described on their webpage as a romantic evening of dining and dancing.

Other dances taught through the Sapphire Dance Center include Country Two-step, Ballroom Dancing, Essential Latin, Tango, Rumba, and the Carolina Shag – a swing dance style that originated in North Carolina and involves leg kicks and fancy lead-follow footwork. Based on requests, Carolina Shag classes will be offered at the Floyd Fitness Center in March, Stancill said. Essential Ballroom and Salsa classes are scheduled on the same night as the Carolina Shag. A Country Two-step class is slated for April.

Although the dances taught at both centers are partner dances, you don’t need a partner to sign up. At Thursday’s Swing Dance Class at the Floyd Fitness Center more than twenty students were nearly evenly divided between men and women. The group of adults-of-all-ages lined up to watch instructor Dennis Williams review what was taught in previous classes before pairing up and practicing their steps to music on the classroom’s hardwood floors. The 25 x 28 foot room, which features natural light from skylights, a sound system, a ballet barre, and a walled mirror, is also used for CPR classes, Holistic Health Seminars, and is available to gym members when classes are not being conducted, Wright said.

The collective mood of the Floyd Swing Class was upbeat. Students followed Williams’ instructions as he called out Spins, Hammerlocks, and Belt Turns. One of seven Sapphire Dance Center instructors, Williams has fifteen years combined dance experience in jazz, tap, hip-hip and clogging. He has participated in musicals with Summer Musical Enterprise as an actor, dancer, and choreographer and is a former lead singer of Virginia Tech’s New Virginians.

Announcing to the students that he would not be available for next week’s class, Williams told the class that his fellow Sapphire dance instructor Lane Mattox would be instructing the last class of the series. He encouraged them to show off their skills to Mattox, who some were familiar with from past classes she has taught in Floyd.

Dancing is fun, social, and it’s beneficial to one’s wellbeing. It’s also a good way for couples to spend time together. A Sapphire Dance Class Gift Certificate for an upcoming class would make a nice Valentine gift, Wright suggested.

“I’m really pleased with how it’s going,” Stancill said about the classes in Floyd. Considering the smiling faces of some Floyd dancers as they left the gym after class, it appeared that they were pleased as well. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: For more Floyd Press stories click HERE and scroll.

Posted by Colleen at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

~The following was published in The Floyd Press on January 22, 2009.

The idea for The Floyd Compass visitor’s guide was born when out-of-town guests asked owners of The Hotel Floyd what there was to do in Floyd, said Kamala Bauers, one of the hotel owners.

In an effort to address visitors’ questions Bauers contacted Elaine Martinez of Design Omnea, after being impressed with the graphic design work that Martinez did for the FloydFest music festival program. Bauers also enlisted the help of artist Rio Semione, who has produced calendars in the past.

Working together in 2008, the group put out the first two issues of the bi-annual guide, which includes feature articles on local artists and musicians, stories about visitor related businesses, live music and events listings, a lodging and restaurant directory, and more. The 2009 spring/summer issue is currently in the works.

Like the FloydFest program, the Floyd Compass is printed on recycled paper, using color and black and white photography and graphics. It is produced “in an artistic, ethical, and eco-friendly manner representing the best of our community’s goals and ideals,” the ad rate sheet sent out to businesses states.

“It provides a cost effective way to support local businesses,” Bauers said about the grassroots publication at a recent Compass meeting held at the Hotel Floyd Conference Room in The Village Green.

With a focus on sharing local culture and natural resources, the Compass also includes mountain lore, seasonal recipes, gardening tips, and information about local hikes and the best area outdoor activities.

“I love the idea of sharing what’s special about Floyd with the world,” said Semione who did the cover art for the premiere issue and created the centerfold map of Floyd, complete with Fun Facts about Floyd.

The publication is also committed to publishing stories related to agritourism and green living, Bauers explained. She is co-owner of Wall Residences, a business that provides foster care placement for individuals with disabilities. The Wall Residences office building is the first LEED certified green building in the area. The Hotel Floyd, which Bauers co-owns with her husband Jack Wall, was also built using green technology.

Circulation of the Compass has doubled from the first issue to the second. Fifteen-thousand copies are distributed to six regional Visitors Centers, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and local businesses and lodging establishments in the area. Issues are also mailed to people across the country who request information about visiting Floyd. “And we are expanding the spring/summer issue from thirty-two pages to forty,” Martinez said. An online version of the guide with archives of past issues is soon to be launched.

Martinez and Semione both write for the publication. Semione provides artwork and Martinez contributes photography. The Compass also draws on the creative talents of other local writers and contributors. “All contributors to the magazine are paid a stipend for their work, in appreciation of the value we place on the creative spirit that is so important to Floyd,” the Compass rate sheet reads.

There is still time to list your event or place an ad, Martinez said about the new issue, due out in mid March. “If your ad is in the Compass you are in every room in The Hotel Floyd, Oak Haven Lodge, The Lawson House and other establishments,” Bauers added, pointing out that the Compass will increase its distribution as requests come forth by local visitor related businesses.

Bauers, Martinez, and Semione believe that Floyd’s strength lies in its culture, natural beauty, live music and art and that a weekend or weeklong visit to Floyd is a destination choice that can provide an affordable and fulfilling get-away in today’s down-turned economy.

“If people can come visit us and take home a little gift, whether it’s a clay bowl they bought, an experience in nature, some music that touched them, or a feeling; that’s meaningful,” Semione said.

Posted by Colleen at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on January 15, 2009 and online HERE.

Cloe Franko’s wrists are covered with string prayer bracelets, gifted to her by villagers in Northeast Thailand where she recently spent four months living, studying, and working for the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE).

The villagers were friendly and generous, intrigued by white skin and curly hair, Franko told a group who were gathered at the Hotel Floyd Conference Room to see a power point presentation of her adventures. “It was hard to leave,” she said, referring to the bonds that were forged between cultures.

A 2006 Floyd County High School graduate, currently majoring in Environmental Studies at Richmond University, Franko said she and twenty-five other students traveled to one of the most impoverished parts of Thailand for the purpose of “understanding developmental issues in Thailand as they relate to human rights and the environment from a people to people perspective.”

During her time in the Issan region of Thailand, Franko, slept on floors, lived without electricity, ate silkworms and grasshoppers (along with sticky rice, green plantain salad, fish and hot pepper sauce) and sometimes wore a pha sin (a traditional long tubular skirt). She also saw 2,000 year old cave drawings, visited an elephant sanctuary, and caught some break dancing moves in nearby Cambodia before heading home to Floyd for the holidays. The dance was performed by a former Los Angeles gang member who was deported back to his homeland after a conviction and is currently making news teaching dance to urban teens at risk.

Under the guidance of CIEE staff, Franko and her fellow international exchange students alternated living in rural villages with host families with campus time at Khon Kaen University, where they wrote human rights letters and position papers, and engaged in group reflections. They also relayed the villagers’ concerns to local corporations and government ministries involved in the damming and mining developments that are putting the rural villagers’ agrarian lifestyle at risk.

One of the photos projected from Franko’s laptop showed her working with others on a premature rice harvest that was standing in stagnant water, a result of a nearby dam (and another new dam – Ban Koum – is being planned). Another photo shows Franko participating in a candle floating ceremony on the Mekong River. The villagers rely on the river and the ceremony is done to apologize for any harm done to it, she said. “They consider the river a member of the community.”

Thailand is a monarchy and although the King doesn’t have much political power, reverent images of him were everywhere, Franko said. Lack of education and political pressure not to speak out are two obstacles that inhibit the villagers from effectively protecting their way of life. Government corruption is another. The gaudy gold temples were a striking contrast to the poverty of rural Thai people, she pointed out.

The right to culture is a human right, one that involves rights to water, traditional agrarian systems and livelihood, Franko (in green above) explained. “We give a legal voice to the villagers,” she said.

One of the results of the CIEE group’s work in Thailand has been the recent formation of an alliance for upholding human rights in Issan. “And our human rights reports were picked up by people in Bangkok and by Amnesty International,” Franko reported.

The vast majority of Thailand people are Buddhist and Franko described seeing many of them paying alms to monks, a custom that honors and supports the monks with the exchange of food for blessings from them. The people are generally shy and hugging is not a Thai custom, she explained. A common Thai greeting is bowing with hands clasped together. The level and the degree of bowing is determined by the status of the person being greeted.

Even so, the Thai people are affectionate and Franko received some goodbye hugs before leaving the country. One villager was direct when he said to her, ‘I want you to tell the world that we don’t want this new dam.’ ~Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press, January 8, 2009.

The Young Actors Co-op (YAC) played to a full house in their last performance of Comedy Through the Ages at the Sun Music Hall on Sunday. The production took the audience through the history of comedy from the Greek classics to Saturday Night Live. The journey began with “Dawn of Man,” a skit in which a caveman slips on a banana peel. It ended with a futuristic scene in which a Captain Kirk character shared the stage with Princess Leah and Luke Skywalker and talked into a banana phone.

The historic scenes were introduced by “The Laughter Piece Theater” (a take-off on Masterpiece Theater) written by Haden Polseno-Hensley and played David Diaz, as “Paw Paw” in silk pajamas, and Marsden Woddail as his grandson. Marsden’s character played the straight man to the grandfather who was apparently getting misinformation about the history of comedy from the internet. The two actors provided a comedic structure for period and modern comedy scenes (and a chance for YAC members to change the sets).

Victorian melodrama, a scene from a Shakespeare play, vaudeville, radio, sketch comedy, and parody all figured into the production. A corrupt King, a hunchback, a harlequin (Italian jester), soap opera characters, and a dead parrot in a Monty Python skit played by Abraham Cherrix and Ian Gammarino were also represented.

Marsden Woddail (pictured above) performed comedy without out words as pantomime actor Charlie Chapman. Coriander Woodruff romped around the stage dancing, riding a unicycle, and taking pratfalls to “Make Em Laugh,” a song from the 1952 musical “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Another scene, involving a cast of characters in a kingdom, enlisted audience participation by way of prompt signs that read “Boo” or “Cheer.” Actor’s lines were delivered with punch authentic sounding accents.

One high energy highlight was when the entire cast jumped off the stage for an MTV-like dance performance to Al Yankovic’s “Eat it,” a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat it.”

Zany material by radio comics Burns and Allen was believably performed by Gammarino as George Burns, Belinda Burris-McGrath as the ditsy Gracie Allen, and others (pictured above).

Two months of practice and 159 (impressive) costumes were cited by cast members at the final bow. The group of thirteen actors thanked parents who were instrumental in bringing the production to the stage, writer Haden Polseno-Hensley, and YAC director Rose McCutchan.

Judging by the laughter and applause from the audience during the show, the tongue-in-cheek bios in the production program, and the bunch of bananas presented by the cast to McCutchan at the end of the evening, it’s clear that comedy is this group’s forte.

Post Notes: Watch video clips of Monty Python Dead Parrot, Beat it Dance, Make Em Laugh, The Sword and Styrofoam from the performance. For more information about YAC go www.myspace.com/FloydYAC

Posted by Colleen at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

~ The following appeared in the Floyd Press on Thursday January 1, 2009 and HERE.

Whether purchased as a quality keepsake or for use as a functional calendar, the 2009 Floyd County Historical Society (FCHS) Calendar is a way to own a bit of Floyd history. Created by FCHS photograph archivist Kathleen Ingoldsby as a fundraiser for the society, this second annual publication features a visual history of Floyd told through postcards of the past.

Penny postcard images, restored old photos, and informative narrative tell the story of wars, moonshine stills, early schools, mills, and mail delivery. Antique stamps and postmarks, one as old as 1809, are arranged on the black glossy backgrounds of full-color monthly pages and bring to light the history of postcards and the early days of the Rural Free Delivery (RFD).

The RFD came to Floyd in 1902, and during its heyday, dozens of post offices with names like Amos, Aria, Bay, Carthage, Ego, Pax, and Posey dotted the county. A photo of a mailman delivering the mail by a horse and buggy appears with the calendar’s introduction. Next to it is a photo of the Nasturtium Post Office, no bigger than a small one room cabin.

The Hotel Brame postcard, featured for July, was one geared towards tourism, reading ‘Floyd’s Summer Resort 2900 Ft. above Sea Level.’ Built in 1904 where Dee’s Country Places Realty is now located, the Hotel Brame was once a hub of activity where one went for lunch, “to dance, to buy furniture, do banking, have a tooth pulled, to shop for fine clothing, visit the telephone switchboard, go to the butcher, or (with indoor plumbing) for a refined overnight stay,” the calendar states. A horse hitching post is shown in the forefront of the postcard.

“Back then it was as common to see oxen hitched there as it was to see horses,” Ingoldsby said, explaining that Locust Street was once known as Jockey Street because people sold and traded horses there on Court Day, a day when many countians came to town.

Drawn from the FCHS archives, the postcards and photos illustrate trends and the hairstyles and fashions of the day. The month of March shows the Noah Reed family in Sunday dress, posed in front of their home with a family pony included in the shot. A painted canvas backdrop is draped behind them to simulate a studio setting. February’s page presents a colorful display of valentine themed postcards.

In the upstairs Historical Society office on Locust Street, stored in boxes in a closet, there are 1800 photos and some postcards that have been numbered, described, scanned and stored in a database by Ingoldsby. “It’s a treasure and a wealth of a community resource,” she said, un-wrapping an album of postcards with protective gloves on her hands.

Although the closet where the items are stored is monitored for humidity levels and each box contains a black archiving sheet that absorbs acid and moisture, the space is less than ideal for long term storage. Eventually the items will be kept at the Jessie Peterman Library in a climate controlled area, and the digital data base will be available to the public. “The library partnership is a fine example of the community working together to accomplish major goals,” Ingoldsby said.

Many of Ingoldsby’s pursuits are related to her love of history and its preservation. She is an active member of the Floyd County Historical Preservation Trust, on the Old Church Gallery board, and has produced digital films of historical relevance. In 2005 she participated in an intensive three week course at the National Archives in Washington D.C. to learn “all aspects of archiving and collection management.” Ingoldsby also designed and authored the Walking Tour Historic Guide, another fundraiser for the FCHS, which lists forty-five sites of historic interest, most within walking distance of downtown Floyd.

“It’s touching to be able to look back and look into people’s lives,” Ingoldsby said about her archival work. She encourages people to do their own family research.

With images of early life in Floyd, along with holidays and current events listed, the calendar brings together the past and present. As the FCHS’s major yearly fundraiser, it supports their further work in a way that entertains, educates, and celebrates those who came before us.

On the back page of the 2009 calendar, sneak previews of coming attractions includes a postcard of the Farmers Supply building with gas pumps and Model-T cars out front. ‘Greetings from Main Street, Floyd Virginia,’ the card announces, ending this year’s calendar on a high note with the promise of more to come.

Post Notes: Calendars are $10 and can be purchased at the Floyd Chamber of Commerce, The Floyd Country Store and other places around town. They are also available by mail for $12.50, which includes postage and handling, from the Floyd County Historical Society, P.O. Box 292, Floyd, VA 24091. For more information, visit www.floydhistoricalsociety.org. Emails can be sent to floydhistoricalsociety@yahoo.com. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Mrs. Claus at the local café is a new take on the Department Store Santa. Ann Bower, a.k.a. Mrs. Claus, says she has a direct line to Santa. “I tell Santa what they want,” she said about the children who sit on her lap and reveal their Christmas wishes to her.

Children and the young at heart can have their photo taken with Mrs. Claus, receive an ornament and a Christmas gift at the Café Del Sol on Saturday, December 20th at noon. Mrs. Claus made a recent appearance at The Floyd Country Store and will be spreading Christmas cheer with Santa at The Bank of Floyd on Christmas Eve day from 10-2 pm.

Post Notes: A photo not included here of Mrs. Claus with a baby appeared in yesterday’s Floyd Press. Here we have: 1. Mrs. Claus at the Café Del Sol 2. Indigo, daughter of Emily Williamson and Asa Pickford, holding a gift from Mrs. Claus. Indigo says, “Merry Christmas."

Posted by Colleen at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on December 4, 2008.

Natural Awakenings of Southwest Virginia made its debut appearance in November. The 32 page magazine, printed on recycled newsprint with soy based inks, is a monthly guide to "healthier, more natural and environmentally friendly living," writes publisher Stacy Hairfield in the premier issue.

Hairfield, who was born in Richmond and grew up in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, lived in Charlotte for fifteen years before moving with her family to Floyd in February of 2008. The family first came to Floyd during a visit to Hairfield's husband's father who lives in Patrick County. "We stumbled upon Floyd years ago, buying honey and tea from the Harvest Moon," she said.

They liked Floyd and never forgot it. So when the homeschooling stay-at-home mother of three decided she wanted to contribute to the family's finances and felt ready to share her passionate talents more widely, Floyd was the chosen location to launch a local version of the franchised national publication.

The first Natural Awakenings was founded in 1994 in Naples Florida by Sharon Bruckman and expanded in 1999 into a franchise network. Today the network, Natural Awakening Publishing Corporation, consists of 54 markets and serves a community of over 2 million readers, the magazine's national website states.

"I had been reading Natural Awakenings in Charlotte for years. I picked it up while working in a health food store and I loved it. I learned so much and integrated so many of the ideas from the magazine into our lives," Hairfield explained.

She was reading the magazine regularly, when one day she noticed an ad in it, "Own Your Own Natural Awakenings." The opportunities offered - low investment, working at home, access to a great support team, marketing tools, and a meaningful new career - appealed to Hairfield. 'I can do that. I can be a publisher. I love writing,' she said to herself, and the seed for the Southwestern Virginia publication was planted.

Now settled in Floyd, with her children enrolled in Willis Elementary School and her husband, a home builder, commuting daily to North Carolina to work, Hairfield is busy writing, following leads for local stories, and lining up advertisers. As a publisher, she employs an editor, and a small advertising, design and production staff. Compensation for her time comes through ad revenues from the magazine, which is free to the public.

Turning off her ringing cell phone, Harfield explained how much thought she put into her first "Letter from the Publisher," introducing the premiere issue. She wanted to speak from her heart, but also convey an underlying theme "that we all need to honor each other, the good we do and the things we have in common, rather than focus on differences," she said.

According to a description on the index page of the first edition, the magazine's commitment is to provide readers with "cutting edge information on natural health, nutrition, fitness, personal growth, green living, creative expression, and the products and services that support a healthy lifestyle." Each issue also includes the latest News Briefs, Health Briefs, and Global Briefs, along with regular features on raising healthy kids and natural pet care.

Like other Natural Awakenings across the country, the Southwestern Virginia affiliate draws from the national data base for some of its informative, solution-geared feature articles, such as the one that appeared in November's issue by Jim Motavalli, titled "Clean Energy Crossroads."

Other articles in November's issue include those on such topics as Socially Responsible Investing, Managing Moods with Foods, and Talking to Teens. There's a story on Local Roots Café in Roanoke, one on Tender Grass Farm in Rocky Mount (a farm that supplies raw milk by offering families shares in a Jersey Milk Cow), and another on the Hypnosis Practice of Michael McGee, LPC, of Blacksburg.

The magazine's central distribution takes place in Roanoke. It's also distributed anywhere within an hour of the city, and is most recently available in Stuart, Hairfield said. "Eventually we'll be in Richmond and Lexington," she added. Floyd readers can pick up copies of the magazine from the Château Morrisette to Sweet Providence Farm and in many downtown locations in-between, including The Jessie Peterman Library.

The November issue was well received and December's issue is hot off the press with a holiday theme that includes Survival Tips for the Holi-daze, The Gift Every Child Wants, a story on Chateau Morrisette's new chef, and another on how to be a Santa to a senior.

"Tis the season of giving and receiving," Hairfield writes in the December issue. She encourages readers to give a smile to a stressed sales clerk, patience to a demanding relative, time to a child, and quiet time to yourself because "It is in giving that we receive and in graciously receiving we return the blessings to the giver," Hairfield so wisely reminds us.

With the sharing of information and resources, the magazine Natural Awakenings could be described as a venture in giving and receiving. Hairfield hopes that it will act as a vehicle to connect the regional community and that each issue will be received in the spirit it is offered, one of educational and inspirational enrichment for the benefit of everyone involved.

Post Note: For more information on Natural Awakenings of Southwest Virginia, visit their website HERE where issues can be read online. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on November 13, 2008.

Floyd County Moonshine is described on the publication’s MySpace page as “Floyd’s first Literary and Arts Magazine.” Its editor, Aaron Moore, is a graduate of Floyd County High School, Radford University, and is currently a graduate student of Literature at Florida State University. For the premier fall issue, Moore brought together a collection of short stories and poetry by a range of predominately regional writers. The 68 page chapbook style magazine, which features an old farmhouse in need of paint on the cover, also contains artwork.

The name, Floyd County Moonshine, is not a literal reflection of the magazine’s content, but is “designed to arouse quaint associations of a local or regional Southern/Appalachian flavor,” says Moore in the Editor’s Preface. The publication’s subtitle, “Local Color Literature” is more specific to what it offers. Moore hopes the offering will appeal to wide variety of people, from literary academics to everyday readers. The mix of fresh voices blended with those of more established writers lends itself to crossing literary boundaries.

Although the publication is not one about moonshine, the word does appear on one occasion and several pieces include scenes set in bars, which seems fitting for the issue’s loosely held theme that Moore describes as “affairs of the heart in conflict with itself.”

Moore’s own short story, "13 Titanium Screws," sets the stage for a literary ride with a back road journey that involves an old motorcycle, a red Audi with a broken odometer, and an ambulance. Moore’s piece, which includes a midway stop at a bar called Whiskers, is followed by "High Lonesome," a poem by high school English teacher and Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative (SAWC) member David Hampton, which also includes a bar scene. Another, by Florida State University doctoral of English candidate Steve Kistulentz, bears the intriguing title, “For Every Woman Who’s Made a Fool Out of a Man, There’s One Who’s Made a Man Out of a Fool.”

Although much of the work presented is fictional, some of the place names will be recognizable to readers from Floyd and the New River Valley, such as the Riner "Pig Path," and the title of Jeffery Saperstein’s poem, "Radford Pawn and Coin." … The three balls, painted that color … between stop and go … hang like heavy fruit just below …GUNS ANTIQUES DIAMONDS GOLD …

Saperstein teaches at Radford University, as does Chelsea Adams, whose foreboding poem about branches in a wind storm was written the morning of and just before the Virginia Tech shootings of April 16, 2007. … Even when clothed in leaves, I see … their evil elbows jab, their need to taunt me … with their wrinkled bark, their woody skeletons … writhing just underneath … the sumptuous green …

The Moonshine collection includes some surprising twists – such as a barber whose end of life involves his late wife’s pink bowling ball in a short story by Philip Ferguson – as well as some sharp turns in time, as evidenced by Rodney Smith’s poem, "Lee in Winter," set in Lexington in 1867.

“We’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback and so much support,” Moore recently said. He explained that the first issue was financed on faith by a handful of sponsors whose names are listed in the magazine. “But we can’t continue to exist on sponsors alone,” he added. Moore is hopeful that advertisers will come forth and that more local writers and artists will submit work. “Prior publication has no bearing on what is chosen,” he noted.

Geared towards a mature audience, the collection draws on the talents of Radford University and Florida State University professors and students, members of SAWC and those of The Floyd Writers Circle, a local writers’ workshop that co-hosts a monthly Spoken Word event at Café Del Sol.

Floyd Writers’ Circle member and Hollins University Horizon student, Mara Robbins, whose poem, "Broken Laptop on Bourbon Street," appears in the issue, said she’s impressed with the first effort and looks forward to seeing more issues. “As a poet who has been writing, working, and performing in Floyd for most of my life, it’s an honor to be part of Floyd’s first literary publication,” Robbins said.

Post notes: The Floyd Moonshine cover design was done by Jake Cohen. The publication’s staff includes Associate Editor, Jay Settle; Art Director and Layout designer, Cara Williams; and Production Coordinator Jennie Settle. Editor, Aaron Moore and others whose works appear in Floyd County Moonshine will be reading from the magazine at the Black Water Loft on November 15th from 7-9. Issues are available locally for $7 per issue at Lapointe’s Used Books, noteBooks, Over the Moon, and Café Del Sol. Submissions for the next issue can be emailed to floydshine@gmail.com. For more information about Floyd County Moonshine go to: www.myspace.com/floydcountymoonshine.

Posted by Colleen at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on October 30, 2008 and at the FP online HERE.

A Democratic fundraising rally for the Barack Obama/Joe Biden presidential campaign was held at the Sun Hall on Friday night. “The 9th District could prove to play a pivotal role in the November Presidential Election,” said local musician Joel Vendetti, one of the organizers of the grassroots event.

Vendetti, who provided some of the evening’s entertainment and also MC’d, said the goal of the rally was to promote a kind and thoughtful Democratic presence in Floyd, one based on smart politics and not on divisiveness. “The idea is to educate people on the issues so that they can make informed choices on November 4th,” Vendetti said.

Local activist Deborah Baum worked with Vendetti, sending out rally mailings, organizing refreshments, signing up speakers and musical acts, and setting up the hall.
At the rally, which was free and open to the public, Baum sold Obama/Biden bumper stickers. Behind a booth decorated with red, white, and blue balloons, Floyd Democratic Party Chairperson Kim Chiapetto signed up volunteers to do door-to-door canvassing and to help at the polls on Election Day. Signs for Obama-Biden and Warner were prominent throughout the hall. Flowers donated by the Flower and Gift Shop adorned a long table full of food.

Folk singer Lee Pinkerson warmed up the crowd, playing Bob Dylan’s The Times They are A’Changing and other songs. She was followed by gospel singing from members of Floyd’s New Beginning Christian Church Choir. “What a great feeling to be participating in history,” choir member and New River Community Action Center’s (NRCA) director Tammy Lemons said. Later, the New Beginning group joined Grant Helms and members of The Little River Missionary Baptist Church Choir on stage for more gospel singing.

Local poet Mara Robbins spoke to the crowd about the education the presidential campaign has been providing for her eleven year old daughter, sharing their experiences hearing Obama speak at the October 17th rally in Roanoke. Robbins, who was joined on stage by her daughter, read a poem titled Poet for President and lead the crowd in rousing chant… Say ho! (Ho!) Say hey! (Hey!) … This is the thing we wanted to say … Say true! (True!) Say blue! (Blue!) … Virginia is ready for change that is new… Diplomacy, the Environment, Alternative Energy, Health Care, Education, and Woman’s Rights are some of the issues Robbins said she and her daughter felt hopeful that an Obama administration would address.

Another rally speaker, Vice Chair of the Floyd’s Democratic Party, Nolan Goad told the crowd to “Look around,” referring to the full hall. “Aren’t you proud to be in Floyd? Aren’t you proud to be a Democrat?” he asked. Goad pointed out that the last time Virginia voted Democrat was in 1964. “This year it can happen again,” he said, urging rally goers to canvas door to door, to talk to their neighbors, and to get out and vote.

At the height of the evening the 130 chairs, donated by Woods Funeral Home for the evening, were filled. Some rally goers stood against the back wall or mingled in the seating aisles. NRCA’s RSVP (Retired and Seniors Volunteer Program) director, Judy Weitzenfeld announced a November 4th fundraising dinner for the program’s transportation service at Floyd Elementary School from 4-7. The fundraiser will be important to maintaining RSVP transportation services, she said.

Mac and Jenny Traynham, fresh from the Friday Night Jamboree, provided some old time country tunes. Before performing a song titled “You Will Be My Closest Neighbor Up There,” Jenny Traynham said, “We like this song because it’s about loving each other and every one being your neighbor.” The duo was accompanied by Phil Woddail on harmonica.

Fiddle player Mike Mitchell, joined by Blue Moonshine band mate Phil Norman on guitar and Abe Gorsky on mandolin, closed the evening with harmonies set to some foot stomping instrumentation.

Diane Geissler, one of the foot stompers who stayed till the end of the rally, said she enjoyed all the performances, and especially enjoyed the interaction between the speakers and the crowd. Geissler said, “It really was a rally. We rallied around our patriotism.”

Baum said she was thrilled with the turnout and the contagious enthusiasm shown from people from all walks of life for Obama. “It’s amazing how many people called and showed up to help with the rally. We could not have done it without them,” she said.

Photos: 1. Kim Chiapetto. 2. Rally goers eating and socializing. 3. Grant Helms (at the mic) and the Little River Missionary are joined by members of the New Beginning Choir for some hand clapping gospel songs. 5. Poet Mara Robbins and her daughter. 6. Joel Vendetti (right) at the refreshment table with others. 7. Members of Blue Moonshine entertain the hall. Video clips: New Beginning Gospel Choir HERE and Mac and Jenny Traynham singing You'll Be My Closest Neighbor HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on October 23, 2008 and online HERE.

The name “Carolyn” came like a premonition to Carolyn Kirby’s mother long before she had children. “It means “great singer,”’ sixteen-year-old Caroline Kirby said. She was sitting with her mother, Leslie Romano, on an outdoor bench, overlooking the family farm where several goats were grazing in an open pasture.

The oldest of six children, Kirby has lived with her family all over the country – Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Massachusetts, and Virginia – landing in Floyd from Louisa County in the spring of 2007. Setting down roots in the Coles Knob part of the county, the family strives to live a wholesome and simple lifestyle, which includes homesteading, homeschooling, and book publishing. Kirby’s step-father, Paul Romano has recently written, illustrated, and published a book titled “My Friend Within.” Leslie Romano chronicles the family’s farm life on her blog “Pockets of the Future”. In one entry she describes her eldest daughter as having a “focus on reading classics, writing poetry and singing opera.”

As a Floyd County High School junior and honor student who will be graduating this coming year, the range of Kirby’s voice and her musical accomplishments belie her age. She regularly performs with Opera Unlimited, a summer youth program in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and recently won a Bland Music Competition in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Most recently, Kirby auditioned, along with 800 seniors from all over the state, and was one of 18 second sopranos chosen for Honors Choir. The Choir will be performing at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia, this November.

Kirby, who will be performing seven songs at a benefit for the Jacksonville Center on Saturday, says that music is universal, and so “it can touch people universally.” She believes that one of the main purposes of music is for making human connections. “Connecting with people’s hearts and souls is more important than winning awards or being famous,” she said. “I’d rather touch someone’s heart than be technically perfect, but technique is important because it allows you to do that,” she added.

Kirby is already touching others through song. Jaws have been known to drop and tears have come to people’s eyes while listening to Kirby sing, her mother explained. Even the family’s first milking cow was smitten by her singing. When Romano was healing from an injury, her daughter took over her milking chores. Singing as she milked, Kirby soon discovered that their red and white cow named Pezra loved classical music, especially Mozart.

From the time that she was a baby, Kirby’s love of music was evident. Sharing a story she learned from her mother, she said, “When I was really little and nothing could stop me from crying, my father sang an African Spiritual and I instantly stopped. My eyes opened wide and I listened.” She remembers singing rounds with her mother and dancing to Enya as a young girl. When she was eight years old and living in Green County, Virginia, Romano enrolled Kirby in her first Community Choir, hoping that her daughter would discover a purpose to focus on.

Although she loved singing in the choir, it wasn’t until Kirby was in 7th grade in Louisa County that she began to feel very strongly about singing. “That was when I knew music was my thing,” she said.

“I had a fabulous teacher. She chose the most beautiful music and made everything fun and exiting,” Kirby continued. At that time, she realized she wanted voice lessons and began working with Frank Johnson, a teacher and choral conductor in Albuquerque. Kirby noted that the Santa Fe Opera, based just north of Albuquerque, is world renowned and that being in an area where so many people knew so much about opera increased her enthusiasm for it.

More recently, Floyd high school Choir teacher Sandra Smith has helped Kirby improve some of the technical aspects of her talent. Under Smith’s guidance Kirby improved her ability to sight sing, a skill she needed for her Honors Choir audition. “She’s very dedicated to her students and is a great pianist,” Kirby said about Smith. Ed Cohn is Kirby’s local voice teacher. Cohn sang with the San Francisco Opera and is currently a co-host of Miracle Farm Bed & Breakfast Spa and Resort in Floyd, which is also a non-profit Sustainable Living Center and Animal Sanctuary.

Kirby sings in five languages (Latin, Italian, English, German, and French). She loves singing opera and is open to wherever that love will take her, but her interests aren’t limited to one style of singing, she said. Her musical influences are as varied as the places she has lived and include Nora Jones; Ella Fitzgerald; Amos Lee; Angela Gheorghiu, a contemporary prominent Romanian operatic soprano; and Hildegard of Bingen the 10th century German abbess, physician, and visionary who composed and staged liturgical dramas, which could be described as distant precursors to opera.

Since she was a young girl, Kirby has written poetry. “Her writing developed before her singing,” Romano said. Kirby’s love of writing and her love of music recently converged when she wrote her first libretto, the script of an operetta (an opera with spoken words). The operetta, called “When Marriage Becomes Necessary,” is designed for children to perform and has a fairytale theme. Kirby is working to improve her piano skills in order to complete the music for it. She’s also interested in learning to play guitar and has been writing folk songs that she hopes will allow her to share her voice even more widely.

With open field acoustics and to the chirping of a grasshopper, Kirby broke out in song. Her resounding voice, which could be described as transcendent, would convince any listener of her talent. It’s a talent that will likely take her far, in whatever musical direction she chooses to pursue.

Post Notes: Carolyn will be singing a selection of baroque opera and country folk songs at Music for An Autumn Evening, a benefit for the Jacksonville Center for the Arts tonight at 7:30 p.m. Judy Bevans on harpsichord and violinist Linda Plaut, both with impressive backgrounds in music, will also be featured. The trio will be performing 17th and 18th century European chamber and dance music. A Champagne and Wine Reception will follow the performance. To hear a video clip of Kirby singing, go HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on October 16, 2008

1. Attendees of last Saturday’s Charity Fashion Show and Silent Auction had a bright and breezy autumn day to enjoy a colorful sampling of some of Floyd’s finest fashions.

2. Tammy Lemons (pictured right), Area Director of The New River Community Action Center (NRCA), said proceeds from the benefit event will go to The Floyd Emergency Fund, an NRCA program that assists families in need pay for rent, electric, water, heating oil, medical prescriptions, and gas. Held in conjunction with Poverty Awareness Month, the event came “just in time for winter,” Lemons said, referring to the high cost of home heating and the troubled economy.

3. Pat Shelor, who has served for many years on the NRCA board of directors and is a current member of the NRCA advisory board, came up with the fashion show idea and organized the event. “It’s a win-win,” Shelor said. The fundraiser promotes shopping locally, offers an enjoyable activity in a lawn party setting, and raises money for a worthy cause.

4. The gardens behind the home of Tom and Jeanie O’Neill and The Jeanie O’Neill Studio provided a festive backdrop for the fall fashion show. Host, Jeanie O’Neill also MC’d the event, describing the fashion ensembles and citing which local stores they came from as the models made their way to a gazebo stage. O’Neill’s own one-of-a-kind handmade bags and fashions from her Boutique shop were also showcased.

5. Fashions represented on the day’s grassy runway ranged from period pieces, provided by Floyd Antiques, to stylishly thrifty Angels in the Attic outfits. Abraham Cherrix said the Floyd Antiques’ tailed tuxedo he wore was made in 1910. His black and white patent dress shoes were provided by McCabes Clothing Store, as were other men’s fashions of the day. Other stores represented included The Meadows, Little Dress Shop, and The Floyd Country Store.

6. Attendees and volunteer models browsed through the silent auction items or enjoyed cider and hot stew under lawn furniture umbrellas, while NRCA advisory board member Bobbi Shoemaker announced door prize winners at the mic. Sue Nunn, who modeled clothing from The Meadows, won a box of chocolates from Nancy’s Candy Store. Another fashion show attendee won a Crooked Road T-shirt.

7. Lemons said she was grateful for the efforts of the fashion show volunteers, calling them “invaluable.” Shelor said she would like to see the event become an annual fundraiser.

8. An evening fashion show serving wine and appetizers was scheduled to follow the daytime show.

Photos -- Just some of those taken that day: 1. Fashion show attendees socializing under lawn chair umbrellas. 2. NRCA area director, Tammy Lemons served cider to models and fashion show attendees. 3. Sally Johnson started the show with an outfit that cost under $20 from Angels in the Attic. 4. Jeanie O’Neil introduced each model by describing what they were wearing and telling the audience what local shop their outfits came from. 5. Coriander Woodruff and Bethlehem Cherrix stroll in their period attire, provided by Floyd Antiques on Locust Street. 6. Barb Gillespie in one of her several changes, wearing Jeanie O’Neill from head to toe and carrying one of O’Neill’s signature designer bags. O’Neill pointed out that many of the shoes she sells are made from recycled tires. 7. Lorrie Morris models a complete ensemble. Everything from her socks to her hat came from The Meadows. 8. Kay Gordon said she first wore her red Angels in the Attic gown to the Friday Night Jamboree when a friend offered to make a donation to the charity of her choice if she would. More recently, Gordon found matching red pantaloons to complete her look, also from Angels in the Attic. She estimated her outfit to have cost about $15.

Posted by Colleen at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

~The following was published in The Floyd Press on October 9, 2008.

Wall Residences has a new address. The Floyd business has been providing residential foster care placement for individuals with disabilities since 1995. After thirteen years of operation, the business has grown to include a total of 40 employees, 140 family providers (14 of those are in Floyd), and 277 individuals being served. In late September the agency’s founders, Jack Wall and Kamala Bauers, moved their offices out of their Huckleberry Ridge Road home and into a new building on Franklin Pike Road. By October 1st their office staff was back to work in new offices, even as last minute construction continued.

But this is not an ordinary office building with ordinary office rooms. Its aesthetics and architectural appeal are obvious as soon as one steps through the timber-framed gabled entrance and into the brightly spacious foyer, where a Crenshaw Lighting fixture hangs. The building’s uniqueness as a model for green construction is apparent by the large Photovoltaic solar panels on the back roof, situated above a large outdoor patio that looks out onto a mountain view.

The 4,700 square foot building has been generating interest from curious neighbors, interviewers, and environmentalists since construction first began in the fall of 2007. Built with energy efficient, sustainable, and non-polluting technologies, it’s the first building in the area that is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certified. It will be heated and cooled using Geothermal technology, which takes advantage of the earth’s constant temperature just below its surface.

“We’re flushing our toilets with rainwater,” Bauers, a licensed social worker and the sister of a sibling with special needs, said. In the basement, she pointed out an 8,000 gallon cistern for collecting rainwater, used for watering plants and flushing toilets. Across from the cistern is a station of battery packets, where collected sunlight from the solar panels is converted into electricity and stored. “This would make a good class trip for school children,” Bauers noted.

On the ground floor, the focal point of the agency’s conference room is a long wooden table made by Phoenix Hardwoods. Under the table top there are a series of electrical outlets for plugging in laptops. There’s a flat monitor screen on the wall. Wall Residences is the 3rd local business to be on Citizens fiber optics, Bauers said.

Adjacent to the conference room is a staff kitchen. Among the common kitchen items and appliances there is a single unit energy efficient machine that combines washing and drying clothes in the same drum space. “These are becoming common in Europe where people need to save space,” Bauers said.

Why a washer and dryer in an office building? Rather than use throw-away paper products, all towels and napkins will be washable cloth. There is also a shower on the premises. Some of the counter tops are made from granite from the New River. Brightly colored tiles in the bathroom are made from recycled glass. Containers for recycling waste materials will be located in a laundry room-size space in the basement, and there are plans for a composting system in the kitchen.

The upkeep of the building and grounds will provide jobs for some of Wall’s foster resident clients, as evidenced by the Floyd man who arrived with his service provider for his first day of work shredding paper, greeting Bauers as he passed by.

Office space accommodates 12 office employees. Throughout the building natural sunlight shines in through reflecting solar tubes, which work more efficiently than skylights. One room provides space for Wall’s son David, the general contractor who will be developing an Eco-community on the 78 acre property. Wall’s other son, Derrick, manages The Hotel Floyd in town, also owned by Wall and Bauers. The hotel incorporates green products and technologies but is not LEED certified.

“We wanted to demonstrate that building green is doable and can be beautiful,” Bauers said about the Wall Residences building. When asked about the motivation for going to such lengths to build green, Bauers said she felt it was her responsibility. She paraphrased a line from the Bible, her motto: “From those to whom much is given, much is expected.”

Wall cited Thomas Friedman’s latest book – Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America – as making the case for the environmental revolution needed to keep up with the world’s growing demands for resources. “We need to do more than change the kind of light bulbs we use,” he said.

Wall, who was director of Mental Retardation Services for two Virginia Community Service Boards before heading up Wall Residences, recently attended the annual Commonwealth of Virginia Energy and Sustainability Conference in Richmond. Another Floyd resident, Billy Weizenfeld, executive director of AECP (the Association of Environment and Conservation Professionals) also attended. Wall credits Weizenfeld for putting him in touch with many of the right people, whose knowledge helped during the green building project.

At the conference, top contractors, architects, policy makers, and others came together and participated in presentations on energy efficient technologies and sustainability. Governor Kaine spoke at the event, saying “Government has to set the example.” As part of his commitment to energy efficiency in Virginia, the Governor recently mandated that every new state building be LEEDS certified.

“It cost more initially to build with energy efficient technology but it’s an investment and you get the return in the future,” Wall explained. He believes that building with sustainable and non polluting technologies has to take-off the way automobile efficiency is starting to. Pointing out that a house built today will be around for the next 100 years, Wall said “It’s a lot easier to build energy efficient than it is to retrofit an existing building.”

Now that their business offices are no longer located in their home, Bauers says she intends to reclaim her home life, but when asked if she is enjoying having her house back, she answered, “I don’t know yet.” With all the activity, excitement, and work of moving, she hasn’t been home enough to know.

Post note: This is the agency I worked for for nine years, providing foster care for an adult with disabilities and still work for part time. That's Kamala pictured in the last shot.

Posted by Colleen at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

~ The following appeared in The Floyd Press on September 18, 2008.

Having a Personal Fitness Trainer isn't just for city dwellers or celebrities like Oprah. Floyd native, Rowan Chantal recently received certification as a Personal Trainer from the American College of Sports Medicine and has set up shop at The Floyd Fitness Center. Chantal, a Blue Mountain School Alumni and a 2003 Floyd High School graduate, also has a degree in Physical Education from Berea College in Kentucky.

The youngest of five brothers in a family of talented athletes, Chantal broke from the family tradition of playing baseball to play soccer in high school. Excelling at the sport, he earned MVP and Floyd Press Player of the Year for soccer in his senior year.

Inspired by his older brothers Santosha, an actor and builder of set designs in Chicago, and Kamal, a Physician's Assistant at the Orthopedic Center in Lynchburg, Chantal planned to pursue his duel interests in Drama and Athletic Training at Berea. It wasn't long before his interests converged and his dramatic talents were channeled into teaching.

Berea is a small college dedicated to providing full scholarship education to promising students regardless of their financial means. The school requires that each student fulfill a minimum of ten hours a week in service jobs on campus or in the community. Chantal's first work exchange position involved creating and implementing physical education lesson plans for elementary school students at a nearby school. It was through that job that he discovered his love of teaching.

When an injury sidelined his soccer career at Berea, Chantal turned to his interest in personal fitness and stepped up his weight training routine. The results were impressive. His physical appearance modeled what good fitness training can do and soon he had other students asking him to create fitness programs for them.

"Part of the reason I got into this because I saw so many people at the gym working-out incorrectly," he explained.

A Fitness program under Chantal's direction takes into account form, safety, and best ways to achieve the best results. It begins with a consultation to determine a client's goals. The consultation is followed by a review of dietary and lifestyle habits and an introduction to the exercise machines that will be used. Fitness testing to see where a client is at and to track improvements is also conducted. Testing involves weighing, assessing body fat, taking body measurements, and taking pulse and respiratory rates before after exercise.

With a realistic approach to health, Chantal's upbeat personality adds to his effectiveness as a trainer. During a recent consultation with a prospective client he said, "Don't deprive yourself of the foods you love, just use them in moderation." He recommends having high protein snacks on hand, such as trail mix or hard boiled eggs. "Most protein bars have a lot of sugar in them. Eggs have good fat," he said.

His workout programs include cardiovascular exercises and full body weight lifting regiments. "Whatever your goals are - whether they are to build muscle mass, to get lean and toned, be better at your sport, put on or lose weight - I can help," Chantal said. "I like to help people set and meet goals," he added.

Being fit is a key factor to living an active life, Chantal explained, and he is proof of that. He divides his time providing fitness training with a landscaping job. Recently he returned to Blue Mountain School to coach a summer soccer camp. More recently, he has signed on to be the head soccer coach at Floyd High School.

Committed to healthy living, Chantal believes that fitness training is one of the best preventative medicine practices for physical and mental health. "It's great for relieving stress relief and it feels good too," he said. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: Rowan can be reached at rowanchantal_10@hotmail.com

Posted by Colleen at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on September 11, 2008.

The Jessie Peterman Memorial Library celebrated its new Sunday hours with cookies and punch and an afternoon of entertainment in the library’s new Community Room. A Junior Jamboree was performed by students of the Floyd Music School.

Floyd Music School founder and director Mike Mitchell introduced the roster of students whose performances featured piano, violin, fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar playing.

Housed upstairs at the Floyd Country Store, The Floyd Music School offers private music lessons and hosts student recitals. In less than two years, the school has grown to accommodate seventy students and has recently added two new music teachers, Mitchell said.

The Sunday Junior Jamboree marked the joining of Floyd with other area library branches in being open on Sundays from Labor Day till Memorial Day each year.

Library Branch Supervisor Cathy Whitten said that more family entertainment is being planned for Sundays at the library and will include more Junior Jamborees, along with family movies to be shown on the library’s flat screen TV or their large pull down movie screen, and other entertainment. ~ Colleen Redman

Post Notes: Floyd Music School students will be performing Saturday September 20th at the Floyd Harvest Festival from 11 a.m. to 12 and again from 1 to 2 p.m. The festival is held at the Floyd Recreational Park.

Photos: 1. Three brothers play Amazing Grace on guitar, mandolin, and banjo. The mandolin was made by the boy's grandfather. 2. Six year old student, shown playing the fiddle, is not the Floyd Music School’s youngest student. Mitchell said the school has students as young as five years old.

Posted by Colleen at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on August 28, 2008 and is a follow-up to a previous story HERE.

“You can pull up the weeds but if you don’t get the root, they’ll come back,” Abraham Cherrix recently told a Medical Ethics class at the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg.

It seemed an unlikely statement for an eighteen year old young man to make to a lecture hall full of future doctors. But Cherrix – who made national news in 2005 when he refused radiation and a second round of chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s disease – was talking about his approach to wellness.

Invited by Professor Robert Miller for his second speaking engagement at the College, Abraham was accompanied by his mother, Rose Cherrix. Rose and Abraham’s father were found guilty of medical neglect for supporting Abraham’s decision to forgo more standard cancer treatments. She and her five children moved to Floyd County from Chincoteague Island, Virginia, in the spring of 2007, after losing their home and businesses to mounting medical bills, but winning their court case appeal. It was a case that prompted the passing of a new Virginia Law in Abraham’s name, one that gives teenagers the right to have a say in their health care decisions.

“I’m a big fan of positive thinking,” Abraham told the class, referring to his fourteen month cancer-free status as evidence of his being “cured.” Considering that one oncologist testified in court that Abraham’s chance of surviving the second round of prescribed treatment was 15 – 25%, and that his first oncologist outlined the way he would die if he didn’t accept the treatment, Abraham’s come-back is remarkable.

From a speaker’s podium, Abraham explained to the class that he almost died (or wanted to) from the first round of adult chemotherapy. “My father said I stopped breathing a few times.” When his cancer returned, the success rate of chemo and radiation treatments for it declined. Abraham’s intuition told him to pursue alternatives. But the holistic treatments he traveled to Mexico to undergo were interrupted by the court. Eventually Abraham came under the care of Doctor Arnold Smith, an oncologist from Mississippi who uses low dose radiation treatments, spread out over a long period of time, along with complimentary alternative therapies and vitamin supplements.

The classroom hall of nearly two-hundred medical students listened to Abraham’s story with rapt attention. The medical tradition they are studying is one that teaches a focus on treatment of the whole person rather than primarily on the disease. The College webpage reads:

The practice of osteopathic medicine includes using the most current scientific knowledge to promote health and prevention and to diagnose and treat patients with disease. Osteopathic physicians prescribe medications, perform surgery, and use osteopathic manipulative medicine as a tool to diagnose and treat patients. The philosophy of osteopathic medicine originated from the teachings of Virginian Andrew Taylor Still over 100 years ago and is based on the beliefs that, given the optimum conditions, the human body has the amazing ability to heal, that the structure of the human body is directly related to the function, and that the health of the individual is related to the body, mind, and spirit.

Following Abraham’s narrative, the class engaged in an hour long question and answer period. Many of the student’s questions revolved around the diet and lifestyle changes that Abraham says have contributed to his healing.

Abraham pointed out that the re-occurrence of his tumors and the degree they returned seemed to correlate with his diet, especially with the ingestion of too much sugar. “Tumors feed on sugar,” Dr. Smith answered when Abraham asked if he could eat donuts.

Currently Abraham is committed to an alkaline diet that includes lots of vegetables, no sugar, and no artificial additives. He spoke of other preventative therapies he uses to maintain his well being, such as a detox foot bath and Laser Therapy, administered by local chiropractor Garry Collins to stimulate or inhibit certain cell function and to boost immune function.

One student asked Abraham how he managed high school during his illness. Primarily a homeschooler, Abraham was doing a combination of public high school and homeschooling when his education was interrupted by cancer. He is planning to get his GED and is interested in possibly becoming a Naturopath, saying, “I might even be joining you here in this class.” He also designs WebPages and does Reiki (a hands-on healing modality) and would like to pursue those interests more.

Another question posed to Abraham was one about his religious faith. With a Christian background, Abraham responded that “Jehovah, God, Great Spirit, or whatever you call Him or Her” helped him cope with his illness.

Both Abraham and his mother stressed the importance of mainstream medical treatments, but said they would like to see those combined with alternative therapies that don’t create side effects. “I’ve talked to hundreds who have been cured with alternative therapies. How can I not think they can work?” Abraham said.

“What we hope is by telling Abraham’s story, people can work together with the medical community for a broader understanding and that someone else won’t have to go through what we went through,” Rose added. She commended the students for wanting to help people heal.

Abraham, who recently turned eighteen and can now legally make his own health care choices, reminded the class of how important it is for doctors to listen to patients and to communicate positively. “When you talk to your patients, you affect them,” he said.

After the class, students lined up to ask further questions and to personally meet Abraham and his mother. Many commented on Abraham’s positive attitude and on what an inspiration he was. Professor Miller encouraged Abraham to continue his education, saying, “You’re a bright young man.” ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press, July 31, 2008

Summer camp is an all-American tradition for many teens. But what kind of camp teaches kindness as part of its curriculum, or instructs campers to disconnect from their high-tech, high paced lives in order to sit still and listen?

At the second annual Earthsong Teen Meditation Retreat teenagers from Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Maine, and all over Virginia agreed to undertake five prerequisite commitments, one of which was to speak truthfully and kindly. They learned sitting and walking meditation skills and were given the opportunity to explore yoga, martial arts, visual and performance arts, primitive life skills, and to participate in a traditional Native American sweat lodge ceremony.

Hosted by Earthsong Farm and Retreat in Patrick County, Virginia, the week long event was held July 6 - 12 at a camp adjacent to Earthsong, thirty minutes from downtown Floyd. Rolling green meadows dotted with cabins, a pavilion, a large room for gathering, wooded pathways, and a nearby creek set the stage for a teen camp experience with retreat as its focus.

The founder of Earthsong, Maury Cooke, is an entrepreneur from Portsmouth, Virginia, who heads up The Center for Community Development, a non-profit organization that promotes affordable housing, arts and culture, and microenterprise. After the death of his son in a car accident, Cooke, a longtime meditater, vowed to find a way to mentor youth. When he met Erin Hill, a teen meditation teacher from California, and was inspired by her to attend a meditation retreat, he knew he had found the way.

For the Virginia retreat, teachers skilled at working with teens were flown in from California and Ohio. They included Hill, Tempel Smith, Marvin Beltzer, and Jason Murphy (CSAC). Smith has lived as a monk in Burma. Belzer, a Professor of Philosophy, helped develop youth retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. Other teachers included twenty-nine year old Jessica Morey, who began practicing meditation at the age of fourteen at the Insight Meditation Society, and Joe Klein, LPC, who also helped to organize and managed the retreat. Assistant teachers were drawn from Floyd and surrounding areas and included Alan Forrest, head of Counselor Education at Radford University. Commenting on the retreat Forrest said, "What was amazing is that it was a transformative experience not just for the teens but also for the staff."

In some ways the retreat resembled any other summer camp experience. Friendships were formed. Guitars were played around an open fire. But rather than the traditional marshmallows being roasted, teens munched on wild berry cobbler and other locally grown food. Teachers gave nightly talks. Teens were encouraged to use "wise speech," and periods of silence were observed at designated times throughout the day.

The meditation techniques introduced to the teens were drawn from the Vipassana tradition, an ancient practice of self observation where attention to the breath is used to anchor the mind in the present. Vipassana, a Sanskrit word for "insight," is sometimes referred to as "mindfulness." The Teen Meditation Retreat brochure reads: "Meditation clears the mind, allows a sense of calm, and supports more appreciation and happiness. It is an avenue that empowers by allowing more control of our states of mind and emotions."

"We're giving kids skills to maintain their own mental, physical, and spiritual health," said Klein. "They're learning to practice loving kindness towards themselves as well as towards others," he added.

Even mealtimes at the retreat provided opportunities to practice mindfulness, as teens were encouraged to slow down while eating and guess the ingredients of the chef's savory nightly soups. Clean-up was also encouraged to be done with mindful concentration.

Although developing meditation skills was the primary focus of the retreat, several of the sixteen teens who participated expressed their appreciation for the daily inclusion of small discussion groups, where feelings were expressed, barriers broke down, and the challenges of group dynamics were explored.

"At first I was sort of shy and then I started to warm up," said Devin Deerheat Gamache. Gamache, who grew up in Floyd but now lives in Arkansas, attended last year's retreat and returned this year. He credited a small group game called "If you really knew me, you'd know that ..." for helping him quickly forge friendships. Liota Weinbaum, another retreater, said the small groups were "a unique social situation where relationships got more real and meaningful."

The retreat culminated in a spirited Community Sharing the night before the end of the retreat. After dinner teens and teachers shared poetry, songs, drumming, and dancing in an open mic atmosphere. They also presented theatrical performances, learned in workshops throughout the week.

At an Appreciation Circle the next morning, feelings of gratitude were verbalized. One teen described the retreat as "the single best week of my life." Another remarked that he enjoyed learning drumming and how to use poi lights (a string of LED glow lights that change colors and make a light show when swung at night). Others used the forum to voice gratitude for what they had learned and to thank the adults for making the retreat happen.

As the week wound to a close, goodbyes were exchanged with humor, hugs, and emotion. Many of the teens expressed enthusiasm for coming back to next retreat. "Everyone here was so loving. I just felt loved," said fifteen year old Maya Matlack before heading back to her home in Pennsylvania. ~ Colleen Redman

Post notes: Earthsong Farm and Retreat will host two more Teen Meditation Retreats before the return of the annual retreat next summer. The first one is scheduled for Columbus Day weekend, October 10 - 13. A second longer retreat is planned for New Year's weekend, December 28 - January 2nd. The cost for the October Retreat is $125. The January Retreat is $500. Teen Meditation Retreat organizers are seeking sponsors so that they can offer scholarships to some teens. Please contact Joe Klein at joklein@swva.net to make a scholarship donation or for more information about the retreats. The Earthsong Farm and Retreat webpage is earthsongretreat.com.

Read an article on the retreat that appeared in the Roanoke Times HERE and one from The Virginian Pilot, written by a recent high school graduate who participated in the retreat HERE. The Virginian Pilot also did a July 12th feature on Maury Cooke, which appears as an excerpt HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

The following appeared in the Floyd Press on July 24, 2008 and also online HERE.

The theme of this year’s Floydfest, “A Family Affair,” came about at the end of last year’s festival when festival co-founder Kris Hodges realized that everyone involved – patrons, volunteers, staff, and vendors – felt like family.

But the feeling of family extends beyond the 400 yearly volunteers, the 40 paid event staff, and others who work together to make the summer music festival a success. The theme, which takes its name from the popular 70’s song by Sly and the Family Stone, is a reflection of Hodges’ overview of the event, held off the Blue Ridge Parkway this July 24 – 27. “It’s a celebration of tolerance for each other, all of us sharing this planet,” he said.

His partner and co-founder, Erika Johnson said her appreciation for the theme was reinforced by a recent Tom Petty concert she attended at a large venue in Raleigh, North Carolina. The event was ruined for her by the impersonal nature of the venue and the rowdy drinking behavior of the packed-in crowd. “For the same amount of money, you could come to Floyd Fest for the weekend,” Hodges noted.

Floyd Fest, about to begin its seventh year, is older than Hodges and Johnson’s daughter Chloe. In keeping with the family theme, this year will be the first that the six year old will be attending all four days of the festival with her ten year old brother, Tristen,” her mother said.

With Chloe on her lap, Johnson pointed out the new playground in the Children’s Universe, built by the Pennsylvanian Amish as an ark. Pointing out the building expansion project at the dance tent site, she explained that each year festival-goers are encouraged with the chance to win free tickets to fill out a survey listing what they liked about the festival and what they would like to see at future events. A bigger dance floor was at the top of the list.

“We’re doubling the dance space,” said Bob Forman, a FloydFest staff member who was onsite to work on the project.

Another new FloydFest feature, added for the enjoyment of children and adults alike, is a trapeze. Run by the Trapeze Academy, the event is an interactive one and will have a central location, overlooking Hill Holler Stage. “It takes you up sixty feet and you can learn how to flip,” said Johnson.

Although the festival continues to offer a range of children’s activities, healing arts, a contained beer and wine garden, a variety of vending tents for food, arts, and crafts; the main focus remains the same. “This festival is for music lovers,” Hodges said.

Headliners this year include the return of FloydFest favorite, Donna the Buffalo, along with Railroad Earth, Tea Leaf Green, The David Grisman Quintet, Golem, Ivan Neville, the Avett Brothers, and Amos Lee; who Hodges says has been likened to Bob Dylan. Bands will be coming from San Francisco and Brooklyn and everywhere in between.

“Virginia bands are well represented,” Hodges said. He listed Roanoke, Blacksburg, Richmond, and Charlottesville as regional areas the bands will be coming from. No Speed Limit, a bluegrass band from Galax, described on the FloyFest webpage (atwproductions.com) as “in the fast lane in regards to their musical careers,” will be performing. Floyd musicians on the roster include Mac and Jenny Traynham, and The Aliens. Floyd’s Starroot will return to the Children’s Universe with her band Somersault.

Hodges is particularly excited about the festival’s emerging artist series. Thirty-five musical acts from nearby and around the country will compete for an audience choice vote. The winner will return next year for a main stage performance. The audience favorite will also receive $1,000, recording time at Red Room Studio in Roanoke, and $500 to spend on marketing merchandise to be sold at the FloydFest store, Hodges explained.

With thousands of festival-goers camping and gathering on the sprawling festival site, with seven stages for four days of nonstop music, and a village of vending tents, FloydFest is a big undertaking. “We get a lot of help,” Hodges said. “This year the sponsors really stepped up.”

“The Food Lion is providing water and soda. Citizens is hosting the Cyber Café, and local landscaper John Beegle has donated landscaping,” Johnson said.

This year 80 bands will hit the Floyd Fest stages, as compared to 72 last year. Judging by pre-ticket sales, which are up 30% from last year, Hodges and Johnson are enthusiastic.

“People want an intimate, wholesome experience, and FloydFest offers that, Hodges said. “We’re having fun. We feel blessed every day to be doing this,” Johnson added. ~ Colleen Redman

Photos: 1. FloydFest founders Erika Johnson and Kris Hodges with their daughter Chloe at the festival site. 2. Flowers in the Beer Garden ready for landscaping, which is headed-up by Barb Gillespie of Floyd. 3. Ongoing questions about whether Pink Floyd will be playing at FloydFest prompted the redesign of the Beer Garden Stage, now known as the Pink Floyd stage. 4. Large stringed instrument sculpture at the festival entrance was made by Floyd metal fabricator Asa Pickford. More photos and fun tales to come… Click HERE and scroll down for past Floyd Fest stories and photos

Posted by Colleen at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on July 10 and on their online site HERE.

When Rose Cherrix and her son Abraham first participated in the Spoken Word Open Mic at Floyd's Café Del Sol, they received a rousing round of applause when Rose told the crowd that Abraham recently had cancer but was now cancer free. A few in the audience remembered their story. It made national news when, at the age of sixteen, Abraham declined a high-dose round of chemotherapy and radiation and his parents were charged with medical neglect for supporting his decision.

In August of 2005, the Cherrix family was living on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, when Abraham discovered a lump in his neck while working at his computer. After it was determined that he had Hodgkin's disease - cancer of the lymphatic system - he received the standard round of adult chemotherapy. Although the treatment made him very ill, it seemed worth it when he learned the cancer was gone. But two months later it returned. Abraham didn't think he could bear a second stronger round of chemotherapy and the radiation that his oncologist recommended. "I was so weak my father had to carry me," he said about the first round of treatment.

His mother explained that chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin's disease offers an 80 - 85% chance of recovery, but if the cancer comes back a second time the percentage rate goes way down. "An oncologist testified on our behalf that Abraham's chance of surviving the second round of chemotherapy and the radiation was only 15-25%," she said.

Considering those odds, the Cherrixes did some extensive online research and opted to try an alternative, all-natural treatment. Abraham made two trips to a clinic in Mexico where he received Hoxsey therapy, an herbal tonic that has been banned as a cancer treatment in the U.S. Using the tonic and an improved diet, his strength returned, and he felt hopeful hearing the success stories of others he met at the clinic, he said. But his treatment was interrupted by a court order.

When Abraham's refusal of prescribed treatment was reported to Social Services, a chain of events began that would thrust the Cherrixes in the media spotlight. Rose and Abraham's father, Jay, faced possible jail time after they were found guilty of medical neglect by the Juvenile Court. Abraham was threatened with foster care placement or juvenile detention if he didn't abide by the prescribed treatment. Now the family had two battles to fight - Abraham's cancer and the courts.

"On the day we were ordered to deliver Abraham to the Children's Hospital in Norfolk, to do whatever they said, we were in Circuit Court with an appeal. The judge approved the appeal. A week later we won the case," Rose remembered.

Meanwhile, Abraham became a patient of Dr. Smith, an oncologist in Mississippi who uses a combination of alternative and standard cancer treatments, including Immunotherapy, a therapy that involves stimulating a patient's immune system to attack malignant tumor cells. The authorities were comfortable knowing Abraham was being treated by a U.S. oncologist who was providing treatments with some proven success. The Cherrixes were comfortable with Dr. Smith's approach. They were also pleased with the results. Under Dr. Smith's care, Abraham has been cancer free for over a year.

Abraham's illness and the court battles that followed took a heavy toll on the Cherrix family. They lost their home, their kayak tour business, and Rose's marriage to Abraham's father fell apart. But as bad as things were, many people came forward to offer support and kindness. "We got to see the good in the world and the genuine caring of so many," Rose stressed.

One of the people who came to the Cherrix's aid was a woman that Rose refers to as "our angel." Sharon Smith, a private citizen who the Cherrixes didn't know beforehand, was so inspired by their story that she contacted them to offer help. "She found Dr. Smith (no relation), our attorneys, handled the media, and put herself on the line financially, Rose said.

Elizabeth Simpson, a newspaper reporter for the Virginian-Pilot, played a key role in bringing attention to the Cherrix's plight for health care freedom, and she still keeps in touch with the family. The local radio station also got involved. "Without the media I don't think we could have done it," Abraham said.

State and local government also came to the Cherrix's aid. Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonald filed a brief to the Circuit Court in support of the Cherrix's right of appeal and allowing time for it to play out. Virginia Beach Delegate John Welch III made a statement quoted in the Associated Press, saying Abraham's parents were "fiercely devoted to their son, and have fully dedicated the family's resources to helping him get well." Believing that the medical community had "no reason to take over parental rights," he drafted a bill bearing Abraham's name that would allow children fourteen and over to help make their own medical choices.
"Abraham's Law" was passed by the General Assembly in 2007 and signed into law by Governor Kaine. Abraham spoke on his own behalf at a congressional hearing in Richmond in the lead-up to the bill being passed.

Neither Rose nor Abraham hold any grudges related to their ordeal. "We tried to concentrate on making something good come from something bad," Rose said. Abraham is able to find humor and irony in what he has been through. "It was the most fun time of my life. I like to meet new people. I took my first plane ride, a cross country bus trip, and went to a foreign country," he joked.

The Cherrixes landed in Floyd in the spring of 2007 by way of an unlikely sequence of events. After losing their home, Rose began looking online for rentals. She needed something affordable and large enough to raise her five children, two of whom have autism. While online, she was browsing through emails on Abraham's website, a site dedicated to sharing health information and providing updates on Abraham's progress. Rose explained that she and Abraham had to stop reading the emails because there were so many. But on that day, a name caught her eye. Because Abraham's full name is Starchild Abraham Cherrix, she felt an affinity when she saw another unique name in an email written by a Floyd girl named "Cherub."

Abraham and Cherub became friends and when Rose discovered a rental listing for a farmhouse off Route 8 in Floyd, she asked Cherub's mother, Linda Kearn, to check it out. The roomy size of the house and the natural rural setting seemed a perfect place for the Cherrix family to thrive, and for Abraham to pursue his interests in art and the study of computer engineering.

Abraham and Rose both agree they are in the right place. "We call Floyd a healing place. Everyone has been so welcoming and accepting," Rose said. "People do what the want and no one is criticized for what they believe," added Abraham, who is now receiving holistic health care from Floyd's Dr. Garry Collins.

Mother and son recently returned to the Spoken Word stage to share their original poetry. Another round of applause ensued when Rose announced that Abraham had just turned eighteen. Abraham, who recently added "Dreaming Wolf" to his name, read a poem about a wolf. Rose read a tribute for her son's birthday, titled "Loving You by Letting Go." ... Instead of me giving you strength ... You gave me strength ... When our world was falling apart ... You were there for me ... Loving me - holding me ... So wise beyond your years ... Yet so much to learn still ... she read.

An eighteenth birthday is a milestone in any young person's life. In Abraham's case it's especially true. "I guess I got smarter overnight," he joked, referring to his newfound freedom to legally make his own health care choices. "Age is not the issue. Health care choice should be based on maturity level," he added. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: More about Abraham and his mother at the Spoken Word Open Mic in Floyd is HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

~ The following was published in the Floyd Press on 6/19/08

Thirteen branches were represented at the 300th year anniversary celebration of the Brethren Church, which was founded in Germany in 1708. The event took place at the Beaver Creek Church of the Brethren on Saturday and drew a full house of church members and guests. It was the first social event held in the church’s recently built Social Hall.

Members of the church dressed in period clothing, in styles that dated back to 1790 when Brethren from Pennsylvania first settled on the land that is known today as Floyd County. Event tables showcased historical church items, some of which were provided by Beaver Creek Brethren church member Donna (Spangler) Graham.

Graham lives in the house that once belonged to her grandparents. The house remains home to a number of family heirlooms. She pointed out an antique church songbook that had her grandmother’s name, Clara B. Vest, inscribed in it. It was a gift given to her grandmother by her grandfather prior to their marriage in 1919. Graham said her grandfather, Herman Spangler, preached at several Floyd Brethren churches, including the original Beaver Creek church, which moved to the current Ridgeview Road location in 1945. Among Graham’s collection of church memorabilia was a photo of a past congregation of men in front of the old Beaver Creek church. There was also a small bell she remembered as a child being rung when it was time for church to start.

Lester and Judy Weddle began the scheduled musical entertainment, leading the group in song. Judy Weddle is the daughter of a previous Brethren church pastor.

Guest speaker at the themed celebration was District Executive David Shumate. Mixing humor, prayer, and storytelling, Shumate spoke on the history of the church and on his own Floyd roots. He noted that Floyd has the distinction of being the first to allow English speaking members into the Brethren church in large numbers, which was considered very liberal in 1800.
~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

~ The Following was published in the Floyd Press on June 12, 2008

Floyd County’s chapter of the Humane Society was founded in 1999 by the late Aletha Pearson. An earlier version of the chapter existed during the 80’s but was short lived. In the nine years that the current chapter has been active, the group has accomplished much, heightening community awareness of responsible ownership of pets, promoting the neutering/spaying of pets, and facilitating adoptions of homeless cats and dogs.

At the Society’s annual Stand up for Strays event, held at the Cross Creek Complex this past Saturday, Michele Harvell, a longtime Humane Society member, explained that the event is a fundraiser that also serves as community outreach.

Under the shade of the adoption tent, where four dogs needing homes were in cages, Harvell explained how the group takes animals from the pound and places them in foster homes until they can find adoptive families.

The all volunteer, donation supported group, which has about fifteen active members, meets at the New River Community Action Center at 6:30 P.M. on the second and forth Tuesday of each month. “We get great support from the community – cat food, dog food, and other donations,” Harvell said. She and her daughter Sarah brought two of their dogs from home. One, a dwarf dachshund named Anna was rescued by the Harvells when it was discovered that the dog was about to be dumped.

Sunny Bernardine, who was dubbed by Aletha Pearson as a Humane Society “life time member,” currently has four personal dogs and four fosters, she said. Two of her foster dogs, a white Brittany mix and a Catahoula, were at the event looking for adoption prospects. When Bernardine was asked if she had help caring for so many dogs, she joked, “I need help!” The Humane Society has built a total of four roofed kennels on Bernardine’s property.

Music played as event goers browsed through the yard sale tent or enjoyed a hot dog. Some blew bubbles at the Games Tent. A dog was being washed in a tub of flea and tick dip. Darcie Luster, the current Humane Society president, was spritzing water on young kittens that were wilting in the 90 degree heat.

Two Girl Scout volunteers, Denise Schmeitzel and Hannah Ballinger, ran a raffle booth. They were happy to rattle off possible prizes to passersby. Prizes included a Floyd Fest ticket, A Hokie game ticket, and some original art. When Ballinger was asked if she was a Human Society member, she smiled and said, “I’m going to be when I grow up.” ~ Colleen Redman

Post Notes: Michele Harvell is pictured in the first photo, petting Sunny Bernardine's foster dogs who are in need of a permanent home. For more information on the Humane Society, you can visit their website HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The following was published in the Floyd Press on May 15, 2008

We all work together with a giggle and a grin. With a wiggle and a giggle and a google and a goggle and a jigger and a jagger and a giggle and a grin. ~ Woody Guthrie

It was a jamboree of a different kind at the Floyd Country Store this past Saturday morning when kids from all over the county took to the dance floor to wiggle and giggle to the music of Kari Kovick. Some were students of Kovick’s Early Childhood Music Program. Others came with their parents for the morning’s interactive concert and joined in the infectious fun. Kovick was accompanied by her band, Windfall, which features Dave Fason on banjo and guitar, Rusty May on acoustic bass, and her husband Michael Kovick on fiddle and harmonica.

Known for her angelic singing voice and her engaging stage presence, Kovick also plays guitar. When babies and young children are in the audience she knows how to tune into them and turn up the volume of fun.

“We didn’t get enough snow this winter, so we made some of our own,” Kovick said from the stage before producing two large bags full of fluffy white balls and emptying them onto the dance floor. She hopped down from the stage, and a snowball fight ensued to the tune of an old time jig played intermittently by Windfall. Every time the band stopped playing, the dancers froze in their places.

Other interactive songs included a tickle game, which parents participated in, and a two part harmony between children in the role of crows and others acting as songbirds. Community is important to Kovick. “Music is a fun way to bring us all together,” she said. She closed the hour-long show with a lullaby, with those who knew the words singing along.

A round of applause was given for the concert sponsors, The Community Foundation of the New River Valley and the Floyd Foundation, when Kovick cited their involvement. Thanks also went to Jackie and Woody Crenshaw for providing the space for musicians and dancers of all ages.

Windfall is scheduled to perform at Oddfellas on May 24th from 6 – 9. When not doing children’s music, the acoustic quartet plays folk, blues, rock, Celtic, as well as old time and bluegrass standards. There website is HERE. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on May 15, 2008.

The rain didn’t deter garden lovers from participating in the Mother’s Day Farm Tour at Full Circle and Five Penny Farms in Floyd this past Sunday. Traffic up and down the long dirt driveway into Full Circle Farm for the open house event was steady in spite of weather.

The Farm Tour, now in its 4th year, has been growing in attendance each year. “We had about two hundred visitors last year,” said Tenley Weaver (pictured in blue shirt and boots). Weaver runs the certified organic farm off Spangler Mill Road with her partner, Dennis Dove. “I grow the flowers and herbs and Dennis does the vegetables,” she said.

It seems that flowers and garden greenery go hand in hand with Mother’s Day. One family shopping for plants traveled up to Floyd from Roanoke after meeting Dove recently at the Roanoke Natural Food Store and hearing about the Farm Tour from him. Enjoying their Mother’s Day outing, the family was purchasing plant seedlings for their garden. “We’re trying to go organic,” the mother said.

Weaver and Dove are not only full-time market growers; they operate Good Food-Good People, a local fresh produce distributing network. “It’s a private cooperative business,” Weaver said. “We represent twenty-five to thirty growers from the backyard farmer to bigger farms. We wholesale to restaurants in Blacksburg, Roanoke, the New River Valley, on the Parkway, and to health food stores,” she explained.

The Full Circle Farm Tour featured several large greenhouses filled with flowers, herbs, and vegetables starts. Booth displays of local products overlooked rows of growing greens and included those from Weathertop Farms, Brights Farm and Chef Natasha Shishkevish. A horse pull activity was canceled because of the rain, but Abe Goorsky played fiddle in the early part of the day, Weaver reported.

Pointing out pots of pineapple and tangerine sage, Weaver broke a leaf off from one of the plants to release its aroma. “It’s not like turkey sage,” she said. “It’s used for culinary purposes and it makes a nice tea,” she added. Everything grown on the Full Circle Farm is edible, even the flowers. There were pansies, nasturtiums, snap dragons, and calendula.

“My goal is to grow every culinary herb that any chef could want,” Weaver said. She also runs Greens Garage, which provides local products to the neighborhood and to word-of-mouth traffic. The Garage, described by Weaver as “a farm stand and more,” is open year-round and sells fresh organic and biologically-grown vegetables, local free range and grass fed beef and pork, local honey, fresh eggs, regional cheeses, and more.

When asked if there’s ever a lull in the farm work, Weaver said, “It never slows down.” In the winter months she focuses on sales and marketing, and “lots of meetings” to coordinate with GFGP members who will be growing what in the upcoming year.

The sun broke out in the afternoon. At Five Penny Farm on Thomas Farm Road, two musicians performed on the deck of the wooden building that will soon house “The Shooting Creek Brewery.” The Brewery, on the Blue Ridge Wine Trail, has a planned grand opening in June, said farm owner Johanna Nichols. The farm, now in its fourth year of operation, is certified organic.

Children played on the grounds, a dog stretched out on the grass, and shoppers mulled through the hanging baskets of flowers and trays of leafy green farm grown plants. Some of the Farm Tour goers strolled up and down the rows of growing hop plants. The plants, prickly vines climbing up a string pole fence, will be used in special seasonal brews, Five Penny co-owner Brett Nichols said. ~ Colleen Redman

Note: The first two photos were taken at Full Circle Farm and the second two at Five Penny Farm.

Posted by Colleen at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

~ The following was published in the Floyd Press on May 1, 2008.

Rosemary Wyman's business, New Day, has been providing home health care and support to individuals and their families since 2005. The business is a natural extension of a life long interest of Wyman's.

"Whenever I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would always say a nurse," Wyman, a tomboy who grew up in New York, said. "The only reason I played with dolls was to use them as patients," she added.

Wyman and her family moved to Floyd from Charlotte, North Carolina in 1999. She and her husband, Walter Charnley, have been parents to eight in a blended family that Wyman refers to as, "his, mine, and ours."

Certified in hospice and as a palliative nurse assistant, Wyman has extensive experience with end of life care and has been educating others about this life passage. She's worked for Good Samaritan Hospice in Roanoke and has done fill-in work at The Beulah Hospice House in Dublin. Although she's provided care to a number of Alzheimer patients - including her own father - and has a special interest in the needs of the aging population, not all her clients are elderly. Last year Wyman provided care for two young women with terminal illnesses.

Tom Vangunten, who lost his wife, Laura, to cancer last fall thinks the contribution Wyman makes is "invaluable." Like Wyman, he believes people would benefit from more education and preparation for end of life.

"We don't prepare for death. I can't believe I got to be forty-nine and didn't know a thing about this. I think grief and loss should be taught in school along with Driver's Ed and how to balance your check book," he said.

Vangunten, who is now a single parent to his and his wife's two young sons, explains how the support Wyman offered was for the whole family. "For people dealing with terminal illness, it affects everyone in your family. It's helpful if you have someone who can guide you through it. What Rosemary did was invaluable. She coordinated with doctors and other care givers, and provided the personal. What ever needed to be done - if someone needed a hug - she stepped-up," he said.

Many families dealing with the terminal illness of a loved one need more support than the one or two hours a day a hospice worker provides. New Day can offer what Wyman refers to as "hospice support." While she gives direct care to clients - which might include bathing, wound dressing, and assisting with pain management - much of Wyman's work is more subtle than that. Her presence often has a calming effect because she accepts people from where they are and can approach each new situation without family history, she says. "Sometimes things not being addressed can be addressed easier with someone outside the family. I like to go in like a breath of fresh air."

Not all of Wyman's clients are dealing with a terminal illness. Riner resident, Betty Bowman has a handicap that inhibits her balance and mobility. Wyman visits her one day a week to clean, organize, assist with personal care and grooming, and whatever else Bowman needs.

"She takes me to the doctor and the grocery store," Bowman said. When asked if Wyman helps with cooking, Bowman explained that since her mother died four years ago she's been heating up frozen dinners in the microwave for herself; although she did remember a delicious bean salad that Wyman prepared from a recipe Bowman provided.

"Cleaning and cooking equal care. Whatever makes someone feel better is care," Wyman said, recalling a day she spent washing one client's entire knick knack collection. "Sometimes people feel better when their homes are clean and their lives are organized," she added.

Since the inception of New Day, Wyman has worked with approximately twenty clients. Some have been referred to her by other agencies, but most come by word of mouth. Although she provides services considered typical in her field, sometimes her work involves the unusual and requires some on the spot problem solving.

On one such occasion, she was flown to NY to transport a local family's elderly aunt, who had broken an ankle and was in rehab, back to Floyd. Upon arriving in New York and after locating the woman's apartment, Wyman packed a month's worth of whatever she thought the woman might need. She then negotiated the transport, first with rehab staff, and then with overzealous airport security, all the while reassuring the woman - who didn't know Wyman - that everything was okay. Her short term memory was failing but "she had a great sense of humor," Wyman remembered.

Support for care givers is an important component of Wyman's work. In 2004, after being approached by Our Lady of the Valley, an assisted Living and Nursing Care facility in Roanoke, Wyman presented an "Intuitive Emotional Clearing" workshop for care givers that involved guiding them through the use of creative outlets, such as music, art, and movement. Wyman has also facilitated the formation of a "Share the Care" circle in Floyd, based on the book of the same name. She says when she first saw the book, which outlines a step-by-step model for organizing group care for someone ill, she knew it was "the wave of the future."

Another aspect of the educational side of Wyman's work played out when she participated in a day long event called "Successful Elder Care," hosted by the Social Justice Committee of the Lutheran Churches of Floyd. She had planned to share a presentation about home assessment for people with limitations, something she and her husband do together, but ended up talking about Alzheimer care when another workshop leader who was scheduled to do that was unable to attend. Wyman remembers a fellow-presenter at the event who cited a Virginia Tech study on the growing needs of the aging population. "It was sobering," she remarked.

Following her involvement in the Zion Lutheran Church day of resource sharing, Wyman embarked on a new venture, "End of Life Development," with the intention of building on the educational outreach aspect of her work. Immediate plans include the formation of an advisory board made up of various professionals, social workers, doctors, clergy, and nurses - to determine what the greatest needs are for the aging population, she says. She also envisions workshops on how to manage progressive care, advance medical directives, and to set up proxy care for decision making. "Plans should be made before we are in crisis," she said.

Last month Wyman received non-profit status as a subsidy of the Community Educational Resource Cooperative (CERC) for "End of Life Development," along with a small seed grant. This support will be instrumental in assisting her educational initiatives in the community. It will also be helpful in allowing her do what she does best: easing the discomfort and grief of others and making it more viable for individuals at the end of life to remain home with their loved ones. "I consider every day spent at home a success. And sometimes you have to count these successes in days," Wyman says. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The following appeared in the All About Her regional newspaper insert on May 1, 2008.

Appreciating nature in our own backyard can be a first step to being a good steward of the earth. Pam Cadmus, owner of Specialty Garden Design, wants more people to enjoy their home surroundings. “We don’t love our habitat enough,” she said.

Sitting on a white wooden bench in the front yard of her Floyd County home, daffodils and hellebores were in bloom as she explained the evolution of her landscaping business.

Raised in New York, Pam moved from California to Floyd in 1978. “I wanted to be part of a community and to take care of myself in a real way,” she said. Soon she was growing vegetables and chopping wood.

In 1979 Pam became the branch librarian of the Floyd library when it was housed in the basement of the Floyd County courthouse. Her job as librarian continued after the move to the new Jessie Peterman Memorial Library building. She also served as librarian in Blacksburg for four years, and is currently on the board of the Floyd County Library Building Fund, which recently oversaw a building expansion.

Pam liked being a librarian, but often found herself looking out the window, dreaming of starting an herb garden or something similar that would allow her to work outside.

In 1997 she created the “Specialty Garden Design” business logo and set about to manifest her dream, one garden at a time. “When I hit fifty, it was do or die,” she said. Initially, she had a partner but became sole owner a couple of years into the business.

It’s easy to see that Pam has a special affection for dwarf conifers, which feature prominently in her home gardens. “They give color, texture, and form all year round,” she said, pointing them out and spouting off the names and varieties like a horticultural whiz. She’s also fond of ornamental grasses and frequently includes them in designs to compliment perennials, flowering trees, and shrubs.

Specialty Garden Design, now in its 11th year, has grown mostly by word of mouth. Although most of Pam’s work is residential, she has designed for local restaurants and an arts and crafts center. She has clients from all over the region, including Blacksburg’s Virginia Tech professor and renowned poet, Nikki Giovanni.

“We work together finding ways to create natural habitats for birds. Nikki loves birds,” Pam said.

According to Pam’s website, specialtygardendesign.com, she works closely with the experienced gardener, the novice, and everyone in between. Her work includes designs for small and large properties, ponds, patios, walls, and walkways. She has created formal entrances, English borders, and native landscapes.

In 2002, when Floyd’s Harvest Moon Food Store moved to a new and expanded location, Pam designed and installed showcase gardens on the grounds, working alongside the small crew she employs. A member of the Virginia Society of Landscape Gardens, she was the recipient of the 2005 Town of Blacksburg Award for Design/Landscaping.

The fifteen acre property Pam and her husband have owned since 1982 has about two acres of gardens, including a vegetable plot. She uses slow releasing organic fertilizers and stresses the importance of watering when plants are getting established. When asked about pesticides, she said, “There’s no substitute for getting on your hands and knees and weeding, pulling up weeds at the roots.” She recommends using mulch to control weeds and hold in moisture and has confirmed that a half buried cat food can filled with beer will keep the slug population down. “Slugs like Bud Light and Coors Light, so you can go cheap,” she joked.

Now that she’s 60, Pam is thinking about the next phase of her business plan. She wants to do more design and less installation and hopes to start a nursery of dwarf conifers and ornamental grasses. But she doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. Spring is one of her busiest seasons. At home, she’s moving one garden to make room for an addition to the house and has plans for a wildflower meadow.

Another upcoming project will bring Pam back to the library. Using plants that have been donated by local nurseries, she and another landscaper have volunteered to do the landscaping at the new Jessie Peterman Library addition.

By assisting homeowners to fulfill their visions of creating beautiful surroundings, Pam has made more than her own dream come true. Her talent for enhancing the inherent richness of private and public environments benefits us all, encouraging us to enjoy nature and to spend more time outside. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

This story was published in The Floyd Press on May 1, 2008. It was also featured on the newspaper's website HERE.

"This is getting to be a real good smelling poetry reading,” said visiting poet Jim Webb in reference to the scent of popcorn coming from the front of the Floyd Country Store.

Webb and seven other members of The Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative (SAWC) were at the Country Store Friday afternoon for a round-robin poetry swap with members of the Floyd Writers Circle. The evening before, the visiting writers attended an event at Radford University (RU), celebrating the publication of All There is to Keep, a book of poetry by Rita Riddle, an RU English professor and SAWC member who died of cancer in 2006.

Webb works for Appalshop, a media arts center in Kentucky that produces documentaries, some of which have aired nationally on PBS. He was recording the Floyd readings for Kentucky’s WMMT FM, a mountain community, listener-supported station affiliated with Appalshop.

Floyd Press columnist Fred First, both a member of SAWC and the Floyd Writer’s Circle, hosted the Floyd event. Robert Cumming, Iris Press book publisher from Tennessee, was also present.

Readings of mostly poetry spanned subjects ranging from love and death to farming and tea drinking.

First read an essay from his book, Slow Road Home, about his childhood dread of asparagus. … My parents claimed this was a vegetable. To my mind, this vile substance was never anything more than a green poison created by children-loathing adults on the other side of the Iron Curtain ...”

Dana Wildsmith, whose most recent book, One Good Hand, is a reference to her life of alternating farm chores with writing poetry, read a poem called “Southern Love Poem.” … You’re slicker than Talladega, as classic as Gone with the Wind, more hometown than Patty Loveless or REM, sweeter than Iris Dement. How could my heart not be yours? … Wildsmith, a teacher of writing and an ESL instructor from Georgia, authored a poem titled "Making a Living,” which was read on NPR by Garrison Keillor.

Webb, wearing a bright pistachio green shirt with one of his poems printed on it, read an impassioned poem decrying mountaintop removal. He lives on the second highest mountain peak in Kentucky, second in height only to another peak that he can see from his home, which is being strip-mined, he explained. … As close to heaven as you can get … Why doesn’t God complain … Call the cops … he read. Webb told the group, “until they stop mountain removal, I’m going to read this poem at every reading.”

Radford University teacher and former Floyd Countian Jim Minick edited the posthumously published book of Riddle's poetry and hosted the Thursday night book release event at RU. At the Floyd reading, Minick read some of his new poetry that will be included in a soon to be published collection. He spoke of the readings the night before and the impact of hearing SAWC members read Riddle’s poems. Members of SAWC and Iris Press were involved in the publication of All There is to Keep, and many were friends of Riddle.

Chelsea B. Adams, Floyd poet and writing teacher at RU, joined the circle, reading poems that Riddle had commented on when she and Riddle were in the same writers workshop group. Adams is author of Looking for a Landing, and Java Poems.

Other SWAC members attending were Ron Houchin, who has had three poetry books published in the U.S. and Ireland; Felicia Mitchell, a poet and writer who teaches at Emory & Henry College; David Hampton, who teaches high school English in North Carolina; and Beto Cumming, a book designer and editor for Iris Press.

Five members of the Floyd Writer’s Circle who shared their original work included First, Katherine Chantal, Jayn Avery, Mara Robbins, and Colleen Redman.

After the readings, the group mulled around a table display of their books, signing, selling, and trading them with each other. Writing resources and stories also got swapped. The visiting writers had dinner at Oddfellas Cantina and attended the Friday Night Jamboree. ~ Colleen Redman

Post Notes: To learn more about the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative, go to sawc.us. The mission statement on their website states an intention to foster community between Appalachian writers and encourage the publication of their works.

Photos: 1. Beto Cumming reading poetry at the SAWC/Floyd Writers Circle meet-up. 2. Dana Wildsmith reading as (left) Felicia Mitchell and (right) Robert Cumming listen. 3. Jim Webb reads a poem condemning the practice of mountain top removal. Doug Thompson has posted some nice photos HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The following is the third and final installment of a story I wrote about our local art scene for a Floyd Press special insert. Part I is HERE. Part II is HERE.

The literary arts also have a presence in Floyd, with a monthly open mic night and at least two writing workshop groups. Poets and writers of all literary styles gather once a month for a Spoken Word Open Mic at the Café Del Sol. Books by local authors can be found in downtown shops, as can an abundance of music CDs. Open mics provide a performing stage for established musicians and writers, and also act as an outreach to those getting started in those arts. Blackwater Loft and Oddfellas Cantina both host monthly open mics, mainly for music.

Some of the venues for the arts in Floyd are seasonal and involve grass, lawn chairs, pavilions, or decks. The Oak Grove Pavilion at the Zion Lutheran Church hosts a summer schedule of music and plays, which are supported by donations that the church passes on to local charities and causes. The Pine Tavern has hosted some well received acts on their outdoor Pavilion stage. Tuggles Gap Motel and Restaurant has a weekend outdoor music series, and Jazz Festivals at Château Morrisette Winery attract crowds from far and wide.

Floyd isn’t just a venue for local musicians. Famous talents have played here. Maria Muldaur performed at the Pine Tavern. Leon Russell has played there and at the Winter Sun. The Country Store has featured Wayne Henderson with Jeff Little, The King Wilkie Band, Ronnie Stoneman of Hee Haw fame, and more. Floyd Fest, a world music festival on 80 acres off the Blue Ridge Parkway, features camping, vending, children’s activities, and six stages for musical performances. The festival, about to begin their 7th year, has helped to secure Floyd’s place on the music map. They welcome community participation, headline well known national and international acts, and feature emerging talent from the region.

Other signs that Floyd is a flourishing community of many artists turn up in unusual places. Outdoor wood sculptures by Charlie Brouwer and Lanny Bean can be found around town. The main desk at the Jessie Peterman Library was carved by Ernest Bryant, whose Celtic mantel fireplace was featured in a story for the Washington Post and a 2004 issue of Fine Homebuilding. The Hotel Floyd, which opened this past fall, enlisted the help the arts community to decorate and furnish their guest rooms and suites. The fourteen theme rooms showcase Floyd culture and art.

The arts in Floyd have come far since The Old Church Gallery paved the way when it opened in 1978. With a focus on cultural arts and local history, the Gallery is about to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Many of the wide range plans that Pauley and others envisioned the Gallery taking on have manifested, either at the Gallery or through other organizations in town.

“The more the merrier. I love it when lots and lots of creative things are going on,” Pauley said. “I never cared who did what, just as long as it got done,” she added.

Instrument makers, fiber artists, jewelers, woodworkers, painters, potters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, writers, and actors have all been attracted to Floyd. The same qualities that drew the first influx of artists in the 1970’s continue to draw talented people today. Today’s Floyd artists enjoy an expanded local appreciation for the arts, a variety of welcoming venues, and a growing interest in Floyd as a creative community that values country life. ~ Colleen Redman

Photos: 1. Spoken Word Open Mic collage. 2. Happy Wanderers, a sculpture by Charlie Brouwer at Over the Moon, inspired by a grade school song and a hike with his grandson.

Posted by Colleen at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

A Flourishing of Arts in Floyd, Part I is HERE. This story originally appeared in The Floyd Press on March 27, 2008.

Another sign that the arts have grown in the community is Floyd’s active nightlife. Music lovers and fiddle players spilling over into the streets for the Friday Night Jamboree is part of Floyd’s heritage and its music reputation. Held at the Floyd Country Store, the Jamboree has been written about in the Washington Post and other regional and national publications. People from all over the country and the world have attended. Most recently a home schooling family of four red-head girls and three boys from Alaska performed on the Jamboree stage. On the road with their band, The Redhead Express, learning more about Bluegrass music was part of their home schooling curriculum.

“They found us online and asked to play,” Jackie Crenshaw, one of the Floyd Country Store owners said. “They loved seeing the multi-generational mix – adults and little kids – and were especially surprised to see the teenagers here,” she added.

The Jamboree and the County Sales store, renowned for providing an extensive selection of Old Time and Bluegrass recordings since 1965, are two of the good reasons why Floyd is part of the Crooked Road, a 250 mile Heritage Music Trail that winds through the Appalachian region of Southwest Virginia.

Although Floyd’s musical reputation has been built on Old Time and Bluegrass music, on any given weekend night residents and visitors might also hear Reggae, Salsa, Rock and Roll, or Blues. While dancers are flat-footing at the Floyd Country Store, others are dosey-doeing at the monthly Contra Dance held at The Winter Sun Music Hall, or enjoying a jig at Oddfellas’ monthly Irish Night.

The Winter Sun Music Hall, where an African dance troupe and a South American band are promoted and booked from, has played a role in stimulating a cultural exchange of the arts in Floyd. International, national, and regional acts have played on the Winter Sun stage. The Music Hall’s sprawling wood floor is great for dancing or practicing yoga at one of the classes they offer. Part of a complex of businesses housed in an old renovated textile factory building, the Music Hall has hosted a Halloween costume party, several benefits, and provides a stage for Floyd’s Young Actors Coop.

In many cases the venues in Floyd that feature dining and live music also promote the visual arts. Café Del Sol, Oddfellas Cantina, and Blackwater Loft all have regular rotating art exhibits on display. Over the Moon, above the Harvest Moon Food Store, is a café as well as a fine arts gallery.

Some establishments focus entirely on the arts and have built on the momentum of earlier community efforts. The June Bug Center specializes in the performing arts, everything from Shakespeare to Kid-interactive Story Theater and dance classes. Last year they hosted a Middle Eastern celebration called a Hafla, and a Poetry slam that brought the youth of the community together. Before the June Bug Center, The Floyd Theater Group filled the niche for community theater, hosting plays and Skit Night during the 80’s and 90’s. Around that same time the Mountain Rose Dance Center’s yearly dance recitals filled the high school auditorium with attendees.

The Jacksonville Center for the Arts, a renovated dairy barn, was home to the Winterfest Arts and Craft Fair before the renovations and before it was heated. Today at the Jacksonville Center you can take a class on blacksmithing, glass works, pot throwing, paper making and more. Their Hayloft Gallery is a popular venue that regularly features exciting exhibits of contemporary and folk art of local, national, and international artists. Winterfest, still going strong at the Jacksonville Center, will be hosting their 13th annual fair this coming winter.

Although much of Floyd’s art and music scene happens downtown, stretching from one end of Locust Street to the other, county residents have been creative in the way they showcase their arts. 16 Hands, a group of ceramic artists and one woodworker, helped set the stage for the recent surge of arts in Floyd with their biyearly self-guided studio tours. The open house tours began in 1998 and have grown to include visiting artists. Members of 16 Hands have gained national and international recognition for their art. Catherine Pauley recalls that several of the founding members were some of the earliest artisans to move to Floyd and believes that other artists coming to Floyd twenty years ago may have followed on their reputation.

Musical events held in farmhouses and local inns, known as House Concerts, are an old country tradition that is becoming popular again. Blues musician Scott Perry, who teaches music and hosts “Back Porch” concerts at his music store, The Pickin’ Porch, thinks they’re great.

“They’re music and musician focused events, as opposed to the music being secondary to dining and drinking.” Perry said.

Perry, who recently performed his second House Concert at Ambrosia Farm Bed & Breakfast, appreciates that at these venues he can do what he does best without having to think about asking for tips. Concert-goers are happy to pay a reasonable pre-set musician’s donation in exchange for a front row seat in an informal setting that includes a chance to meet and talk with the performer.

Post Notes: Photos are of The Floyd Country Store (home of the Friday Night Jamboree), and a sculpture in front of the Jacksonville Center, made by high school students who attended a week long sample course in the arts last year. Click HERE for the final installment of this story.

Posted by Colleen at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is the first installment of a three part reprint from a story that originally appeared in a Floyd Press special insert on March 27, 2008. A post about the process I went through writing this retrospective on Floyd arts can be found HERE.

Whether it’s food and shelter, or creative arts and entertainment, Floyd Countians have a long tradition of providing it for themselves. Although Floyd has been home to talented musicians, quilters, woodworkers, and resourceful types for many generations, the county has recently been experiencing a renaissance of creative arts.

Native Floydian and high school art teacher, Catherine Pauley doesn’t remember anything organized going on in Floyd in the area of fine arts in the late 1970’s when she and several others decided to start an art association, which would become The Old Church Gallery. She does remember their earliest efforts promoting the arts in Floyd as playful.

“We were doing sidewalk art and art shows on the courthouse lawn. We ran wire along metal posts and hung up paintings. Kids, adults, everyone made them,” Pauley recalled.

Around the same time that The Old Church Gallery was being formed, young artists and musicians, pursuing the self-sufficient lifestyle and natural beauty Floyd has to offer, began moving to the area. Adding their input to the existing creative culture, they developed markets that showcased their arts, such as The Barter Faire, a Renaissance style event that was once held yearly on the Pine Tavern lawn. The Annual Floyd County Arts and Crafts Festival – which started in the high school cafeteria and has since spread onto the grounds and elementary school – was also taking off during this time of seeding the arts.

Many of the homespun endeavors that groups began back then to highlight the arts have recently been coming to fruition or have spawned new growth. New venues and businesses related to the arts have been cropping up, more music and art classes are being taught, and downtown improvements and opportunities for entertainment are drawing more visitors to Floyd.

Jayn Avery has been making her living in ceramic arts for more than thirty years. She’s recently been able to retire from traveling long distances to craft shows, finding more market venues at home. Weekend treks to sell her wares at The Roanoke Farmer’s Market have proven successful.

“Since doing the Roanoke Market, my sales in Floyd have increased. It’s provided consistent exposure and a new clientèle. When people ask where they can get my work, I send them up to Floyd,” Avery said.

Avery’s lace impressed production pottery has always sold well at the New Mountain Mercantile, one of Floyd’s earliest shops to feature local arts and crafts. Her large hand built vessels and blue glazed heron sculptures were first exhibited at Floyd’s Jacksonville Center for the Arts, where she is an active board member.

“My higher end art pieces are selling in Floyd now, and they never used to,” Avery said. The range of interest in her art has also increased.

“The Bell Gallery has sold pieces to people across the country,” she added.

Some artists, like Avery, work at their craft full-time out of their home studios. Others support themselves by combining their art with part time jobs. Still others wait till they retire to tap their creativity.

Bob Grubel, a founding member of the band Grace Note, supplements the income his music brings in with a job supporting individuals with disabilities. Over the years Grubel has recorded nearly a dozen tapes and CDs of his original music and the music of Grace Note. He sings and plays piano at local and regional venues and even finds time to keep a large garden, although he gave up his goats a decade ago when his music career started to take off.

“I enjoy wearing a different hat several times a day, going from music to supporting the individuals I work with, to farm activities,” Grubel said.

Grubel, who also performs at churches in the region, is set up to record music at his home. He also uses recording studios throughout the New River Valley.

“I love being in a community with so many musicians finding their niches,” he said.

Gretchen St. Lawrence, who relocated to Floyd with her husband David two years ago, is a late blooming artist, retired from years of working in the corporate world. The availability of art classes at Floyd’s Jacksonville Center was a factor in the St. Lawrence’s move to Floyd, but Gretchen says the main draw was the friendly and encouraging people. One of her first connections with Floyd artists was through The Floyd Figures Art Group, a non instructional art group that first began meeting in the early 1990’s and uses live models for figure drawing.

“Artists here foster each other. Everyone at the Floyd Figures group accepted me without question or judgment,” St. Lawrence said.

St. Lawrence, who is currently a member of Art Under the Sun – a grassroots art association that hosts a gallery and offers art classes – explained that the support of other artists helped her to feel comfortable as an artist. From that place of acceptance her work flourished.

“It just took off. People started commissioning me to do pet portraits,” she said.

Post note: The photo is of a Floyd sign in front of noteBooks and the Black Water Loft. Click HERE to continue this story.

Posted by Colleen at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on April 10, 2008.

Floyd County poet, Mara Robbins (pictured on the left) was one of three students representing nine regional schools to receive a first place award at a Poetry Symposium this past weekend. The symposium, titled "The Power of Poetry," was a first time event, sponsored by Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington. Robbins, a Hollins University senior with a major in creative writing, is a founding member of the Floyd Writer's Circle and one of the hosts of the third Saturday Spoken Word Night at Floyd's Café Del Sol. She was chosen from area college applicants to present in both featured categories, original poetry and critical papers on poetry.

The two day symposium began with a Friday evening reading by guest poets, Claudia Emerson and Bruce Weigl. Emerson, Professor of English at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, is from Chatham, Virginia, and at one time was a rural mail carrier in Danville. In 2006, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her third collection of poetry, "Late Wife." The book was aptly described by Jeffery Brown when he interviewed Emerson for the PBS NewsHour as one about "loves lost through death and divorce." He also rightly called it an examination of the newfound love between Emerson and her second husband, who came together late in life. The poetry Emerson shared at her reading revealed her masterful ability to use concrete images - the furnace, the hairbrush, a quilt - to relate indirectly to underlying emotions.

Weigl, also a professor of English, is best known for his Vietnam War poetry. At the reading, he followed his first poem, about witnessing a young Vietnamese girl after she had been napalmed, by saying, "I'm not going to gloss these." Weigl, who was just out of high school in Ohio when he was sent to Vietnam, says in his memoir, "The Circle of Hanh," "The paradox of my life as a writer is that the war ruined my life and in return gave me my voice."

It might seem unlikely that a poetry symposium, especially one hosting a poet like Weigl, who writes with graphic honesty about war, be held at a military academy. On the VMI (Virginia Military Institute) news website, symposium organizer and VMI professor of English and fine arts, Gordon Ball, explains the institute's interest in poetry, "Today's creative writing classes are filled to capacity, and the student literary magazine "Sounding Brass" showcases our many student poets; the symposium capitalizes on such interest and productivity." Ball, who has documented the beat poet generation through film and words, was close friends with beat poet, Allen Ginsberg. He points out that Iraq War veteran, poet, and author of "Here, Bullet," had also read at VMI. At The Power of Poetry Symposium, a number of VMI cadets participated in poetry and prose readings. One revealed during a question and answer segment that he wrote much of his poetry in his head while marching on the drill field.

The symposium readings of papers and poetry by a total of thirty-six students were broken up with a luncheon and keynote address given by Emerson. Speaking on "The Power of Poetry," and the measure of it, as opposed to the meter, Emerson said, "Poetry is a way to measure emotion and manage events ... We measure what we care about." Emerson spoke about her past experiences as a literacy volunteer and of her love of Emily Dickinson's poetry. She also shared what her students had to say about the power of poetry. "Poetry is measured by alcohol proof and not by nutrient fact," one student had said.

It was Robbins' paper, titled "The Sacred and Everyday in Two Ancient Goddess Poems" that won her formal recognition, a monetary gift, and complimentary books by Emerson and Weigl. The paper (which tied for first place with another student's) compared two ancient Goddess poems, one of which was originally written in cuneiform, the earliest known form of written script created by the Sumerians in 3,000 BC. The other, "Invocation to Aphrodite," the Greek Goddess of Love, was written by the ancient Greek female poet Sappho. Robbins read, Spirituality has elements of mystery, and we need a sense of mystery and ritual in our lives. We also need to eat, drink, sleep, bathe, and procreate, and when the divine is set apart from these necessary activities it becomes less applicable, and therefore less meaningful. In order for the sacred to be sustainable it must have a place in people's daily lives ...

Katherine Swett, a student from Virginia Tech, won the poetry component of the symposium. One of her poems, "A Documentation of Grief" (which she referred to as 4/16 poem), particularly struck a chord with those in attendance. My first thought was that the literacy journal would have to have a special edition ... or specifically not have a special addition ... and that this wasn't the right kind of first thought ... I was in my towel and was thinking about the fact that I was in my towel and that I would probably always remember that I was in my towel ... Swett read and then continued... I didn't cry at the convocation ... it was too much like a football game, Nikki's words echoing in the stadium ... like an alien in our heads ...

On the steps of VMI's Preston Library, after the award announcements, Robbins was exhilarated and exhausted as she recalled how her Hollins professor, Jeanne Larsen, encouraged her to submit to the symposium. She expressed excitement at having met and interacted with Bruce Weigl, who she dedicated a first line to in one of the poems she read that day. "Poem beginning with a line from Bruce Weigl," it was called.

"Claudia Emerson is my hero," Robbins, who was primarily home-schooled as a girl, announced. Daughter of Wayne and Vera Bradburn, Robbins relates to Emerson's rural Southern background and was inspired by her keynote address. "Her reason for writing made more sense to me than any successful published writer. She doesn't write because she has to. She doesn't write because someone told her to. She writes because it is essential to her existence," Robbins said.

As a student and single parent of a nine year old daughter, Robbins would soon need to get back to the routines of everyday life. But for this weekend, she was content to savor her experiences. Surrounded by friends and few new admirers, she paused to take a phone call from her sister, who was calling from Floyd to offer congratulations on Robbins' outstanding accomplishment.

Post notes: VMI Poetry Symposium Outtake Photos are HERE. The first photo in this post is of Mara (on the left) and Katherine. The last one is of Mara with other Hollins poets who participated in the symposium. Left to right: Melanie Lynn Huber, Sharon Mirtaheri, Julie Lawrence Abernethy, and Mara. To read more about Mara, click on my sidebar archive category under SCRABBLE or SPOKEN WORD and scroll.

Posted by Colleen at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on March 27, 2008.

Those monthly Scrabble games I've been playing with friends at the Café Del Sol have paid off. I was one of three players from our informal group representing Floyd in a Scrabble Tournament to benefit the Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke this past Thursday. With a score of 458, Virginia Nathan, a literacy volunteer; Chelsea Adams, a Radford University writing teacher; and I played as a team and earned a first place prize for one of the two games played.

More than one-hundred players filled Fitzpatrick Hall in the Jefferson Center for the 3rd annual competition, hosted by the Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley and the Roanoke Library Foundation. The games were played in two teams of three with two rounds lasting forty minutes each, just enough time to use all the letter tiles if we adhered to the three minute time limit for each play. For a $30 entry fee, the fundraising event included two games, a light supper, and desserts. A member of the Literacy Volunteers made introductions and announced the game rules from the podium stage. Shanna Flowers (pictured to the right above), a Roanoke Times columnist, was our gracious master of ceremonies.

The pre-game atmosphere was festive, but once the games commenced the pressure was on and everything but the task at hand faded into the background. Immersed in our team huddles, we were playing against the whole room for the best score. At our Floyd café games an occasional play might take as long as ten minutes. In this case we had only three minutes, but, working as a team, we had three brains between us. Virginia, the calmest of our group, sat in the middle, adjusting the tiles while listening to input from Chelsea and me. Chelsea kept score and I drew the letters from the drawstring bag, which I had to do quickly. During the first game my hands shook as I placed the seven tile letters on our rack and tried not to drop them. By the second game, we were all more confident in our abilities and teamwork.

In between games, we socialized with other word lovers. There was a strong showing of employees from the Roanoke Times, one of the tournament sponsors. All of the six players on the teams we competed with were from the Times. George Kegley, a retired business editor for the Roanoke Times, was the evening's official Scrabble judge.

Some teams boosted their team spirit by wearing matching clothes. One group of three women stood out, with feathered boas around their necks and large floppy hats with letter cards attached to them on their heads. T-shirts with words and Scrabble logos were worn by some players and volunteers.

Dictionary look-ups were allowed but cost an additional $3 donation. Every table was equipped with a Scrabble board, a timer, and three colored flags. With a wave of a yellow flag a volunteer would appear to assist with a dictionary look-up. A red flag brought the Scrabble judge to determine if a "challenged" word was acceptable or not. A green flag could be waved if players needed rules clarified.

I learned from my teammates that JENNIES are female mules. It was a word that could have scored us a Scrabble Bingo worth 50 bonus points if we had found a place on the board to play it. LATHER, JAILED, QAT, ZEES, TOKEN, and RODEOS were some of the words our team put down. We were able to make as many as three words in one play when we played a word that attached to existing ones on the board, expanding on them.

Our prize for the best score of the second round was a $50 gift certificate from Barnes and Noble for each of us. Prizes for the lowest team score of each game were copies of the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary. A prize for the most interesting word, HALOGEN, was a round of golf for four at Westlake Golf and Country Club in Smith Mountain Lake. The best team name also won a golf package. Some of the team names this year were Victorious Secrets, Word Warriors, The Tilettes, and "Surely, This Name Will Win the Name Contest." The award went to the Chixtionaries.

At the close of the evening, Virginia, Chelsea, and I (aka Two C's and a V) struck up a conversation with a fellow player about the 2008 National Scrabble Association's Tournament, which is being held this summer in Orlando. I don't know if any of us will ever make it to National Tournament, but I'm pretty sure we'll all be back in Roanoke next year for the Literacy Volunteer's 4th annual tournament. In the meantime, maybe we'll purchase some books about Scrabble with our Barnes and Noble's gift certificates that will help us improve our game.

Post Notes: More information about the Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke can be found at www.lvarv.org/. Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley's webpage is www.lvnrv.org. The first photo is of, left to right, Colleen, Chelsea, Virginia, and Shanna Flowers. Read "Bag Ladies Ready for Tournament" HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

The Following appeared in the regional newspaper insert “All About Her” in January 08.

Coriander Woodruff has been her own kind of musician since she was a toddler making drums from empty coffee cans.

When she was ten years old, she heard a segment on NPR radio about GarageBand, a software program that features a virtual soundboard for mixing and recording sound. She knew it was the next step in her music exploration. With GarageBand, Coriander could sample a variety of instruments, loop sequences, and synthesized sound to create her own musical collages in the comfort of her home.

Her father is a computer programmer and her mother is an artist. Her older brother leads a Floyd Ghost Tour with a theatrical flair, and another member of the Woodruff household is a musician. Considering Coriander’s background, it’s no wonder that by the time she was thirteen years old she had composed and produced two CD’s of electronica music.

“What was your party like?” I asked her. We were in the Black Water Loft, a café in downtown Floyd where the October release party for her second CD, Black Light Blue Frog, was held.

“There were plasma balls and lava lights,” she answered. She described how her father projected a light show onto the café wall. And what would electronica music, also known as house party music, be without a black light? There was one, she said.

In between sips of tea, Coriander’s mother, Pat Woodrufff, told me that the October 26th CD Release Party was also Coriander’s 13th Birthday Party. Coriander described how the black and white costume she wore to the party and in the photo on her newest CD cover came from a Halloween costume search. “I wanted to be an “optical illusion,”’ she said.

According to Coriander, her early music was “awful stuff that had me pulling out my hair.” In the first year working with GarageBand, she did a lot of “testing.” It took a year before she composed something she was proud of, a song from her first CD, Spirit Web, entitled Galaxy Seeker. More recently some of her music was featured in “Floyd Home Companion,” a parody of Garrison Keillor’s Radio Show, Prairie Home Companion, with a Floyd twist. The play was recently performed in Floyd by Coriander and other cast members of Floyd’s Young Actors Co-op.

As with her early coffee can drumming, Coriander has been using a computer since she was very young. She taught herself touch typing after being involved in an “adventure chat room” in which you had to type fast to keep up with the game. That kind of self-motivation is a thread that runs through her and her family’s life. As a homeschooler, Coriander’s curriculum is based on the learning that is inherent in pursuing her interests. Her parents encourage her hands-on learning style. Working with GarageBand puts music making in Coriander’s own hands. It also allows her family to avoid expense recording session fees.

We left the Black Water Loft and went to Coriander’s home, where she showed me her digital audio workstation and explained how she can find a sound to match the mood of a piece by searching under headings, such as Happy, Relaxing, or Dark. She can also overlay everyday sounds into her compositions. One of my personal favorite examples of this is in a song called “Please Turn Off Your Cell Phone,” in which she incorporates recorded phone sounds into a beat, everything from dial tone, to ‘if you would like to make a call, please hang up and try again,’ and her brother talking on the phone.

When I asked her if she was working on a new CD, she explained that she wanted to create music that would feel like the stars and the beginning of the universe. “It’s going to be hard, but I want to do it.” She added that making a CD takes a year or two because she can only work when she feels inspired.

At one time electronic music was a genre of its own, but these days many well known musicians incorporate it into their songs. The term “electronica” was first used in the early 1990’s to describe the rave movement and global-influenced dance music, but now it is also created for forefront and background listening. Also known as techno-music, electronica is a fusion of many types of music. It was once categorized with jazz and has been used heavily in New Age Music.

To those who think electronica music isn’t real music because it’s more about composing and mixing than it is about playing an instrument or singing, Coriander says, “If it effects you makes you happy, and moves you; it’s music. She promised me she’d invite me to her next CD Release Party. ~Colleen Redman

Note: Coriander Woodruff’s CD’s, Spirit Web and Black Light Blue Frog, are available at noteBooks in downtown Floyd. They can be purchased by mailing $10 plus $2 postage to Gryphon Studios, PO Box 190, Emporium, PA, 15834. You can visit www.myspace.com/musicCoriander to hear selections from her CD’s.

Posted by Colleen at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on January 24, 2008.

Bernie Coveney – who has played with Grammy award winner Emmylou Harris, contributed to the soundtrack of King of the Gypsies, and taught Robert Duval how to play guitar for his role in Tender Mercies – has just released a first CD of his own music.

One of the CD’s best reviews came from his neighbor’s mother who received a copy from her son for Christmas. “There’s no yelling. There’s no swearing. And the man plays from his heart,” she said, thanking her son for the gift.

Coveney’s music has been described as mix of gypsy, jazz, and bluegrass. When asked about the meaning of gypsy music, he explained it as a musical style, both emotional and ethnic, rooted in the folk tradition of roving tribal people. The CD, named Whispering Pines, is an instrumental collection of original old and new songs that reflect the inner and outer journeys of Coveney’s life story.

Born in Massachusetts and raised in New Jersey and New York, Coveney already had an impressive musical history when he and his wife Lucy came to Floyd in the mid 90’s to escape crowded city life. It was Lucy who first fell in love with Floyd, while Bernie wondered what he would do for work in a small rural town and worried that his life as a musician would suffer. He had no idea at the time that Floyd had an active and historical music scene.

It didn’t take him long to discover the Friday Night Jamboree and to feel like he had come full circle, back to some of his earliest roots in country music. When he met Jimmy DeHart, a prominent Floyd musician and jamboree mainstay, Coveney discovered an eerie connection to Floyd that had preceded his own arrival.

In the late 1970’s when Coveney was a single father of two, he sold his old Martin guitar to a collector because he needed the money. DeHart’s daughter later bought it in Ohio for her father. It was Coveney’s first time at the Country Store jamboree when he recognized the hole near the pick guard. It took a photo of Coveney with the guitar and a matched up serial number to fully convince DeHart (who has since passed away) that such an unlikely coincidence was indeed true.

The cover design of Whispering Pines is from a photograph by Doug Thomspon. The music was mixed and recorded at Martin Scudder’s Mountain Lighthouse Studio in Floyd. Scudder also plays electric violin on many of the songs. Other Floyd musicians who are well featured on the CD include acoustic violinist, Mike Mitchell, mandolinist, Abe Gorskey, and bassist Chris Luster. Luster’s bass accompanies Coveney’s guitar throughout the CD and is highlighted in a solo segment on a song titled “Coming Home.” Another song features the rise and fall and weaving together violins in a duo by Scudder and Mitchell. Gorskey’s mandolin adds a spirited up-beat to two of the selections.

The first song on the CD, Lucky Lou, was written for Lucy who died from cancer in 2002. It’s a playful song, composed soon after they had met. “I felt so lucky to have found her,” Coveney said.

The title song, Whispering Pines, named by Lucy and inspired by the pine trees that border Coveney’s Floyd property, opens with the sound of wind and the cry of a hawk.

“BJ’s Rag,” the shortest song in the collection bears the name of Coveney’s vanity license plate and was written when his first son, BJ, was born. “The fretting reminds me of tickling a baby,” Coveney writes in the liner notes.

“Still I Wonder” was inspired by a Virginia setting where Trappists Monks once meditated. It includes the only vocals on the recording. The ethereal voices of Dorian Dugger and Kari Kovick add a sense of mystery to the penetrating melody.

“En La Frontera” is a border song written when Bernie lived in San Antonio, Texas. It was named by a local resident and plays out like the soundtrack to a cowboy adventure, complete with a love story.

For “New Love,” a song about exploring the freedom of expression, Coveney traveled to New Jersey to record it with his high school friend and fellow musician, John Carlini. Country music wasn’t widely popular in the Tri-state area in the 1960’s when Carlini and Coveney would listen to it on a car radio. They liked it so much that they traveled to Pennsylvania to hear the Campbell Hour radio show, broadcast from the back of Ola Belle Reed and Alex Campbell’s store, where Coveney and Carlini eventually were invited to play on the air. Carlini went on to play with New Jersey native David Grisman, who was a forerunner in the fusion of bluegrass into what is sometimes referred to as “newgrass.” Grisham gained some notoriety through his musical collaborations with Gerry Garcia and has played at Floyd Fest.

Coveney, who makes his living teaching music and playing private events, has headed up bands since first coming to Floyd and has finally settled on a name: Bernie Coveney with Natural Selection. Natural Selection refers to the roving roster of musicians he plays with. Besides the musicians featured on his CD, Coveney frequently plays with actor and former owner of Oddfellas Cantina, Rob Neukirch who sings as well as plays guitar.

Bernie says developing one’s own recognizable sound is what is important to him as a musician and what he encourages his students to work towards. On Whispering Pines, he closes out the rounded sound of the CD with a signature sweet guitar solo, the last plunk of which plays like a period at the end of rich conversation. ~ Colleen Redman

Post Notes: For more information, visit berniecoveney.com. Whispering Pines can be purchased for $15 locally at Blue Ridge Muse, Café Del Sol, New Mountain Mercantile, and The Floyd Country Store, or online at cdbaby.com where the songs can also be heard. Photos are: 1. Bernie at Over the Moon Café. 2. Whispering Pines CD. 3. Bernie giving a porch guitar lesson to Joe.

Posted by Colleen at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

The following was published in the January 17, 2008 issue of The Floyd Press and also appears online HERE.

About fifteen knitters showed up to have their knitting questions answered by Margaret Radcliffe at the Jessie Peterman Library this past Sunday afternoon. Radcliffe, a Blacksburg resident who has been knitting for forty-five years, is the author of The Knitting Answer Handbook. She travels the country teaching knitting techniques and answering knitting questions. Her business, Maggie’s Rags, is a wholesale outlet for her original handknitting patterns.

Eleven year old Jessica Spangler, one of the event’s attendees, has been teaching herself to knit using a book her mother gave her. She asked Radcliffe one of the first questions. Several women worked on their knitting as Radcliffe, donned in an eggplant colored hand knitted vest, answered Spangler’s question about fading yarn.

“Anything that is dyed can fade,” Radcliffe said. She advised not to keep knitted yarn sitting in the sun and to watch if knitted clothing runs the first time it is immersed in water for hand washing.

Knitting has been regaining popularity, as evidenced by the number of new yarn shops and online knitting businesses, Radcliffe told the crowd.

“If you spend a lot of time knitting, people come to you, yarn comes to you,” she said, explaining how she came to teach knitting.

When asked how long she had been knitting, Eleva Smith, another attendee, laughed and answered, “Just since I got here.” She has been crocheting Afghans for years, so she picked up the knitting stitches pretty quickly. She also welcomed the help of the knitter sitting next to her.

A Floyd woman originally from Michigan spoke of a wool sweater that her mother had knitted for her sister in the 1950’s. Her sister still wears the sweater.

“As it should be,” Radcliffe said. “Knitted wool clothing lasts a long time,” she said as she moved around the room offering tips.

Towards the end of the hour long meet-up, knitters browsed through tubs of clothes that Radcliffe had brought, admiring the finished prototypes of Radcliffe’s design patterns that included sweaters, shawls, vests, socks, hats, and more.

Several women purchased Radcliffe’s book and she signed copies for them. The book has been reprinted in several languages and includes chapters titled Casting on, The Basics, Binding Off, Tools, Yarn, Reading Patterns, Stitches, Circular Knitting, Color, Shaping, Fitting, and Embellishments. It can be purchased for $14.95 through Amazon.com and in some knitting shops.

A list of stores that carry her original handmade patterns can be found on her website, maggiesrags.com, Radcliffe said. The webpage also features knitting tips, a schedule of her classes, and a color catalog of her knitting designs. She suggests interested knitters ask local stores to carry her products for easy access.

Artist and avid knitter, Cheryl Sweeney announced to the group that an informal knitting club has been meeting monthly on Wednesday nights at the Floyd Country Store. She suggested that anyone interested contact her for the next scheduled date. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

AKA: Ahh…A Day at the Spa

The Following appeared in the regional newspaper insert “All About Her” in October. Although I sent the editor more than six photos to go with the piece, she chose only this one, assuring that my foot would be viewed by readers from all over South West Virginia.

Most young girls who play with dolls confine their hairdressing games to brushing and styling. Some are brave enough to give a haircut. As the daughter of a hairdresser, Elaine Braley (pictured in the photo) showed signs at an early age that she would follow in the family business. While other girls her age were perfecting the use of barrettes and making ponytails, she was dying her Barbie doll’s hair.

Eight years ago, Elaine made her interest in beauty and personal care official when she became a licensed cosmetologist, after graduating from the Virginia Hair Academy. In the spring of 2005, she opened “The Salon and Day Spa,” Floyd County’s first full service spa. Located at the Cross Creek Complex in a bright, plant filled suite, the spa offers manicures, pedicures, foot reflexology, body waxing, massage, and facials. Hairdressing services are also available and are provided by Elaine’s mother, Ellen Ambrose, whose business card reads, “Master Stylist.”

I tried hard to stay out of the garden in the days leading up to my scheduled manicure, but it was harvest time and there were potatoes to dig. “I guess I’m not they type who cleans the house before the maid comes,” I told Elaine, explaining the rough condition of my fingernails. She assured me that she had seen nails dirtier than mine and, as a gardener herself, she understood.

Although I’m hard on my fingernails, they are strong and grow easily. Some people have nails that peel and split, Elaine explained. For that problem she recommends taking Vitamin B, ingesting gelatin, which can be purchased at the supermarket, and following a regiment that includes the regular use of a nail hardener.

“Genes and diet determine whether you have good nails or not,” she said while rubbing exfoliating crystals into my hands and forearms. “If you’re having a problem it will show up first in your nails and hair.”

She hydrated my cuticles with almond oil. “Olive oil will do the same thing,” she said while applying a base coat to my nails, followed by two coats of polish and a top coat, which acts a sealant. The color I chose for my newly filed, buffed, and soaked in warm lotion nails was a neutral one with a shimmer of pink, called “Privacy Please.”

Nails are a big part of the spa business, especially at prom time and during the wedding season. Elaine applies artificial nails made of acrylic, but most often recommends gel nails because they are hypo-allergenic, odorless, and non-porous.

“How do you decide on what products you use?” I asked.

“Personal experience,” she answered. Her favorite products are from the Creative brand. She continues her cosmetology education and keeps up with the latest trends through study and by attending regular seminars.

“It keeps you excited,” she said.

We moved to a small alcove in the front of the salon where pedicures are done. There, I became convinced of the importance of using a pumice stone on my heels, which are prone to dry and crack. Following Elaine’s direction, I briefly soaked my feet water to which eucalyptus oil was added for its germicidal and anti-bacterial properties. She sat on a pedicure cart that looked like a hassock on wheels with pockets on either side to hold products. She clipped, shaved, buffed, and polished with the deftness of a skilled technician, but when she talked about the products she uses and why, she made the beauty business sound like a science.

My favorite part of the pedicure was when she rubbed an exfoliating cream made from lavender and sea salt on my feet and ankles. I learned that my heels will be less likely to harden, peel, and crack if I regularly remove a layer of dead skin with an exfoliant and a pumice stone. Although she isn’t a certified foot reflexologist, like the masseuse who works out of the spa, Elaine has studied it and uses reflexology massage techniques while doing pedicures.

“Oh! This is my new favorite part,” I said as she massaged reflexology points on my feet. Some people fall asleep during pedicures. Others are ticklish during a pedicure, she told me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could have drifted off but found myself instead following the hubbub of spa activities; several women getting haircuts came and went, a few friends dropped by to say hello, a woman and her daughter came in to inquire about getting matching dyed purple streaks in their hair.

“We’re having a mother and daughter day,” she told Elaine, who explained the difference between permanent dye and a stain that washes out but can be reapplied when desired. Decided on the stain, but still deliberating on whether to go with purple or fuchsia, they agreed to come back in 20 minutes.

After Elaine had put the final touches on my toenails with a polish named St. Petersburg Burgundy, I was admiring the color and marveling at how soft my heels felt when the woman and her daughter returned.

They took their places in the salon swivel chairs that faced a row of mirrors. Elaine, Ellen, and Paige (Elaine’s apprentice) gathered around them enthusiastically making plans for the matching streaks, as I got ready to leave. I didn't stay long enough to find out whether the streaks would be purple or fuchsia, but I imagined I would run into them later in town and give a knowing nod.

“By the way, my feet haven’t felt this good since I was a baby!” I shouted out as I left.

~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on January 3, 2008.

You know the saying ‘everything under the sun?’ Now you can get Mexican food there. A new restaurant called El Charro recently opened in the lower level of the Winter Sun building on Locust Street in downtown Floyd.

El Charro means “the cowboy” in Spanish, said Malena, wife of one of the new restaurant owners. She pointed out a large sombrero on the terra cotta wall to my husband and me while describing the traditional dress of a Mexican cowboy. Her father was a cattle raising cowboy, she told us as she wrote down our lunch order.

The restaurant is a family business, owned and operated by two brothers, a cousin, and their families. The extended family lives in Galax and has one other restaurant in Radford, Malena explained.

“You’re all going to love Floyd and want to move here,” I joked to her. She motioned to her daughter who was cleaning off a nearby table and explained that her daughter wouldn’t want to change schools or move away from her friends.

From our comfortable booth by a big picture window, my husband and I watched Christmas shoppers stroll up and down the tiled hallway just outside the restaurant. The hallway and restaurant décor continues the South American theme that began with the first shop in the building, the one that bears its name – Winter Sun – an outlet featuring clothing hand painted in Ecuador.

I don’t remember what my husband ordered because I was happy with my own meal – grilled chicken fajitas, sautéed onions and peppers, guacamole, salsa, and beans – and so I was not tempted by his. It was a few days before Christmas and the atmosphere was festive. A family of about fifteen was celebrating together at a group of tables that had been put together to make one long one. Many of them had arrived carrying stacks of wrapped gifts, which they deposited in a pile nearby.

El Charro is the newest establishment in the building that once housed a textile factory before it was purchased and renovated by Winter Sun clothing store owner, Anga Miller. Other shops in the recently remodeled downstairs include The Craft Cottage, which sells homemade candles and soaps; Art Under the Sun, a Floyd Artist Association's working gallery; Studio One, which offers art instruction to students of all ages; Wildfire Pottery; and the Anderson Gallery and Press. Upstairs is home to Café Del Sol; Winter Sun clothing store; and Winter Sun Hall, where performance art, dances, and concerts take place.

“This is about as close as Floyd gets to a Mall,” I said to my husband, impressed that everything in the building was so inviting, conveniently located, and locally owned. Looking out the restaurant window and waving to a friend, I added, “And the food here gets my four stars.”

Posted by Colleen at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

The following was published in the Floyd Press on December 13, 2007.

The Floyd Home Companion is a theatrical performance scheduled to open at the Winter Sun Hall on Friday and Saturday, December 14th and 15th at 7 p.m. and Sunday December 16th at 5 p.m. The show is a take-off on The Prairie Home Companion, a satirical radio show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. It will be performed by The Young Actors Co-op, a Floyd theater group.

Inspiration for Keillor's popular variety show, which airs live from Minnesota Saturday afternoons on Public Radio, came from the Grand Ole Opry. Both Keillor's show and Floyd version of the show include comedy skits, musical acts, fake ads, and storytelling featuring local references.

There's also a movie based on The Prairie Home Companion, directed by Robert Altman and staring Keillor, Meryl Streep, Lilly Tomlin, Lindsey Lohan and others. The director of The Floyd Home Companion, Rose McCutchan (pictured below), hasn't seen the film. She doesn't want the pressure of comparing the local production with a Hollywood one, she said.

Rose, who graduated from Floyd High School in 1997, has lived in New York City, Los Angeles, and Baltimore, where she's acted in community theater, auditioned for TV and film roles, and has had what she calls "brief moments of minor successes." But she began to feel like a "tiny fish in a great sea," especially in Los Angeles, so eventually she moved back to Floyd, where she manages The Black Water Loft, part of the McCutchan family business.

Both Rose and her husband, Josh Bosniak, graduated with degrees in theater from Mary Mount Manhattan College, where Rose first directed children's theater classes. I sat next to Josh, a musician who graduated from Floyd High in 1996, at a recent play practice. He explained the premise of the play and Rose's contribution as writer and director.

"What's your role in it? I asked.

"Everything else," he answered, referring to the support he gives Rose doing whatever is needed.

Upon her return to Floyd, Rose was asked to share her theater training at a children's camp hosted by the owners of Ambrosia Farm, a local B&B. The Young Actors Co-op was formed and productions hosted by the Jacksonville Center were performed throughout 2005 and 2006.

The current Young Actors Co-op is made up of twelve actors who range in age from eight to sixteen. Most have written their own skits. Their parents are also involved. Because of the parents, "we have professional tickets stubs, a play bill, ad spots, and so much more," Rose said.

Pat Woodruff, a parent with two children in the play explained how sound effects are a big part of the radio variety show, just as they were during the Golden Age of Radio. I watched as two girls practiced their lines while pulling a chain across a wooden board. Pat explained that they were creating the sound of children climbing up a tree house while carrying a kitten for a skit Coriander Woodruff wrote, called "A Sleepover is an Oxymoron."

Many of the skits are holiday themed. Two other young actors were rehearsing for Christmas skit titled "The Cat and The Stocking." They used paper clips attached to gloves for the sound of cat claws scampering across the floor. A box of beads and bells were shook at the appropriate time to mimic the sound of a Christmas tree falling down.

Coriander, who is thirteen years old and has recorded two CDs of her electronica music, has contributed much of the music production's soundtrack. Josh Bosniak and local musician A'court Bason have also provided original music.

In some ways the production is a play within a play. Many of the children have duel roles, first playing stage managers getting ready to air a show, and then taking on the roles of radio show performers. A game show of Floyd Trivia, a skit about a UFO landing in Floyd, and an ad for Oddfellas Cantina in which three actors perform dressed in the Oddfellas logo - a farmer, a hippie, and a businessman - are all part of the show.

The Floyd Home Companion, a play about what it's like to put on a variety radio show, is scheduled to be aired on a real radio show. Hickory Dickory Dock, a children's program on Virginia Tech's Independent Radio Station, WUVT-FM 90.7, which airs on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 11, plans to play recordings of the show.

Post Notes: Also this weekend in Floyd, my son, Josh Copus, is hosting a Hometown Pottery Open House Saturday and Sunday from 12 - 6 at my house off the Blue Ridge Parkway. He'll be showing new work and telling lively stories about the Noborigama kiln he built this past summer. Photo albums and press generated from the project will be on hand, along with cider and light refreshments.

Floyd Home Companion UPDATE: A December 17th email message from Pat Woodruff says: Floyd Home Companion's Saturday performance was canceled due to the ice storm. So if you have pre-sale tickets you didn't get to use or if you wanted to get to the show, but were away that weekend, now's your chance! There will be a repeat performance on Friday, December 21 at 7 PM. Tickets at the door are $6 for adults and $3 for kids.

Posted by Colleen at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on December 6, 2007.

Roberta Flack meets Bob Marley, that’s how I first described the music of Emily Brass when she was lead singer for the popular Floyd-based band, Foundation Stone. Back then I considered Foundation Stone to be a hometown “house band.” They regularly played at The Pine Tavern Restaurant, renowned for its Sunday Night Open Mic, community gatherings, and the Italian cooking of chef, Michael Gucciardo.

But then the Pine Tavern closed and later Foundation Stone folded when Emily and her husband, Jacques, the band’s bass guitarist, broke up. It felt like the end of an era, significant losses that would lessen my opportunities to dance with and socialize locally with friends.

The Pine Tavern has been open under the new management of Reed and Jane Embrey for over two years now. They serve down home Southern cooking that the Roanoke Times has rated with 4 ½ stars. Tom Ryan, a satirist who authors the online Floyd Enquirer, tends bar in The Tavern Room. This past Friday night, the venue and the sound of Foundation Stone were reunited. Emily, a singer, songwriter, and saxophonist, hosted a party for the release of her new CD with her new band, The Emily Brass Band.

In the old days bands played in the restaurant’s main room. Tables were moved to make room for dancing. Over the years, I and others wore down some of the Tavern’s wood floor shine with our enthusiastic and persistent dance steps. Since then the place has expanded. On this night, the last of November, we danced under the Tavern Pavilion, closed in with plastic and warmed with portable heaters. But it didn’t take long for people to throw their coats over the backs of chairs. Emily has a stage presence that encourages a feeling of celebration, and when she plays sax she reminds me of snake charmer with a talent for getting everyone up and shaking to her rhythmic grooves.

“Who knew?” I asked more than once of those who danced near me, after hearing lead guitarist Richard Ursomarso play. I’ve known Richard, a Floyd Market Gardener, for years but didn’t know he could play guitar riffs like a top chart musician. Other band members who rounded out the reggae, jazz, and hip-hop influenced sound were bass guitarist John Lindsey, keyboardist James Pace, and Foundation Stone drummer Dave Brown.

Emily, who is originally from Montreal Canada, is an environmental activist, and her lyrics reflect that. We once shared a group bus ride to Washington D.C. to protest the start of the Iraq War. She wore a large silver Statue of Liberty crown to go with her hand painted sign that read “Protest is our Patriotic Duty," one of the slogans we came up with at a sign painting party the night before the march. She volunteers her time to help put a local newsletter together, which frequently happens on my kitchen table, and sells Guatemalan clothing when she’s not busy writing and playing music.

The name of her new CD, “Open Door,” suggests the hopefulness that is an integral part of Emily’s style. With a sultry voice ranging from soothing to commanding, she raps and sings lyrics that prod listeners to think about how they live, urging global awareness with a hip upbeat that causes me to look around and smile at my dancing neighbors.

Although most of the songs Emily performed were new ones off her CD, every now and then she would shout out to the crowd that it was time for a “Foundation Stone fix,” and the audience would cheer and prepare to sing along.

Emily’s website, emilybrass.com, best describes her music and what it’s like to dance to: Like a musical shape-shifter, Emily Brass takes you on a psychedelic hippie-hop journey, channeling the ghosts of old school rap, rock-steady reggae, ragtime jazz, and 60's rock & soul, while relentlessly keeping you in a sweat-inducing, smile-inspiring trance-dance, all night long.

Maybe not all night long for some of us, but when it comes to the music of Emily Brass, I’m good for at least a first two hour set.

Post notes: HERE'S a short video clip of the band on the Pine Tavern Pavilion Stage Friday night. And HERE is a Roanoke Times write-up about Emily which links to audio of two of Emily’s songs. Emily’s CD can be purchased online HERE. It is also available in Floyd at noteBooks, Café Del Sol, and New Mountain Mercantile; and in Roanoke at Seeds of Light.

Posted by Colleen at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

This is what I did last weekend. The story (posted below) that resulted from the day appeared in The Floyd Press yesterday, November 15, 2007.

Last Spring Floyd County Historical Society archivist, Kathleen Ingoldsby, and Joe Klein, an integrative education advocate, traveled to Bland County to learn about Place Based Education from John Dobson, a Rocky Gap High School teacher. Dobson, a past winner of the McLaughlin Award for teaching excellence has been using Placed Based Education successfully for the past fourteen years. He teaches a class on History and Technology in which students learn to collect and archive oral histories from local residents.

“Place-based education is learning from what’s going on in your community through hands on experience. It involves geography, biography, culture, values, and learning directly from your elders,” said Klein.

This fall a collaboration of Floyd County High School, The Floyd County Historic Society, The Old Church Gallery, and Radford University resulted in the inception of an Oral History Pilot Program involving eight Floyd high school students who agreed to volunteer for the extra-curriculum project. About the benefits of such a program, Floyd County High School Principal, Barry Hollandsworth, said, “It ties the community together. Young and old alike all have something in common, and whenever we can connect them, it’s good for the school and the community.”

After the students participated in a follow-up visit to Mr. Dobson’s class, and then a visit to the Old Church Gallery, where local art and culture is showcased, their enthusiasm was peaked. In preparation to conduct interviews in the community, they began meeting weekly to draft questions, practice interview skills, and learn about taping technology. The group is being mentored at the high school by Radford University Anthropology Professor, Melinda Wagner; Anthropology graduate, Ashley Herwald; Kathleen Ingoldsby; and Catherine Pauley, director of the Old Church Gallery.

Last week the students conducted their first interview, which took place in the Old Church Gallery Suite, one of the new locally themed rooms at The Hotel Floyd. Another interview is scheduled for this week.

Although the overall project goal is to record a variety of stories about past life in Floyd County, the students are initially focusing on WWII Veteran histories. That focus got a jump start when the group was invited by the American Legion Auxiliary to meet local veterans at a VFW luncheon on Veterans Day.

Two students of the Oral History Project were able to participate. High School Senior, Donald Broome, and tenth grader, Dakota “DJ” Jarrell, first attended the Veterans Ceremony at the Courthouse where they took some video footage, and then the luncheon, held at the VFW Hall. After being introduced by Auxiliary member, Barbara Spangler, they explained the project to a full house of veterans and their families.

“My grandfather served in WWII, but he passed away before I could get his story,” Broome said. He told the vets that he was interested in the project to learn more about what his grandfather went through. Jarrell was initially drawn to the project because he wanted to learn about media technology.

After a lunch of ham, cabbage, and all the fixings, VFW Post Commander, David Poff, introduced the students to Willard Dulaney, a highly decorated WWII veteran born and raised in Floyd County. Mr. Dulaney agreed to an impromptu interview, which was conducted by Broome and videotaped by Jarrell in a corner of the noisy hall. Mr. Dulaney shared some of his experiences participating in D-Day and other campaigns throughout France and Germany. When Broome asked what stood out the most about his war experiences, Dulaney responded, “Will I ever get home?” It was a question ever present in his mind.

Later, at the Canteen, held near the staging area of the Veterans Day Parade, Dulaney introduced the students to his buddy Robert Bugg, assuring them that Bugg had some good stories to tell. Bugg, whose nickname is “Patton” because of a direct encounter with General Patton, was paired up with Jarrell for a brief interview before the parade.

Both veterans invited the students for a longer follow-up interview in which they plan to invite a third WWII vet buddy. Several other veterans also offered stories and signed up to participate in the project.

The students of the Oral History Program plan to produce written transcripts and edit audio and video versions of the interviews for storage in the Old Church Gallery Archives. A Story Center at The Old Church Gallery is an idea that is being explored. Future plans also include a database and webpage where residents can access written transcripts, audio, and video recordings of interviews. ~ Colleen Redman

Posted by Colleen at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

The following was published in the Floyd Press on September 20, 2007.

The "beef naturally" sausage dished up by Larry Bright of Bright's farm in Floyd was a hit. There was a line of people at the main tasting tent waiting to sample Paul Hooper's pasta sauce. Jim Politis, of Riner's Buffalo Store fame, provided a crock pot full of buffalo meat slow-cooked in its own juices.

I met these vendors and others at the third annual Taste of Floyd, a fundraising event sponsored by Slow Food USA in conjunction with the Floyd Harvest Festival. It was hosted by the Harvest Moon Food Store, which is a member of the Blue Ridge Convivium, an offshoot of Slow Food USA.

According to the Slow Food USA website, they are a non-profit educational organization dedicated to supporting the social and economic benefits of a sustainable food system, regional food traditions, the pleasures of the table, and a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.

Colorful vending tents and tables alongside the Harvest Moon parking lot housed a variety of locally produced foods. But there were also soaps and lotions to sample made by Willis resident, Alice Moyer, owner of Shady Grove Soaps. There was mead from Dugspur's Blacksnake Farm Winery and cider from Foggy Ridge Farm to be sipped. Fred First was selling note cards featuring his photographs of Floyd County scenes, and his book, which seemed aptly named for the event, A Slow Road Home: A Blue Ridge Book of Days.

Slow Food volunteer, Gretchen St. Lawrence, said the tents went up the night before in the rain. She was happy for a sunny day and for having only the wind to contend with.

While shifting through brochures from some of the small local businesses being represented, I overheard a woman ask Paul Hooper, the Martinsville owner of Hooper's Pasta Sauces, if he grows his own tomatoes. He joked that the world would not be a better place with him as a farmer.

"Everything is homemade in small batches," he offered, but was tight lipped about the ingredient sources for his special recipes, the names of which included Basil-icious, The Angry Tomato (hot), Happy Hour (made with vodka), and Marinara Sauce.

Browsing by the festively designed booths, I stopped to chat with Sarah Shannon from Weathertop Farm in Check. I recognized the farm name and told her I had purchased her eggs before, which are sold at The Harvest Moon. I learned that her family farm, which includes her husband Cedric, children, and in-laws, produces pasture-raised chickens, pigs, rabbits, and turkeys.

Looking at photos of Weathertop Farm turkeys reminded me of Barbara Kingsolver, the bestselling author who attended A Taste of Floyd last year and later gave a well-attended talk at Floyd County High School. At the time, Barbara and her family had just moved to Virginia and she was writing Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a book about spending an entire year eating only food she grew herself or purchased from neighborhood farms. At the Floyd high auditorium talk, Barbara read a hilarious chapter from the book about a turkey that took a particular liking to her husband.

Margie Reddit, the Harvest Moon owner, told me that Barbara was invited to this year's event but wasn't able to attend because of her book touring schedule.

On the Harvest Moon lawn, under a blue and gold tent, customers were sipping glasses of wine. Volunteers were taking orders and serving lunch cooked with all local ingredients by Over the Moon chef Scott Hutchinson. I recognized the voice of Floydian Tina Liza Jones, singing "Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortening Bread," coming from a neighboring tent, so I moved in closer to listen.

"Are you going to sing all songs about food?" I jokingly asked her. Her husband was accompanying her banjo with a fiddle. Another fiddle player and a guitarist rounded out the group. When I asked her if she was playing with was a new band or jam group, she explained that they were a foursome of two married couples, dubbed "Double Date," just for their Taste of Floyd gig. Other music provided throughout the day was also homegrown. Sally Walker sang before Double Date's set, and Grace Note also performed while I was there.

When talking with Sarah from Weathertop Farm she told me that her family sometimes uses meat processing equipment from Bright's Farm, a neighboring county farm that raises pasture raised pork and chickens, as well as beef that contains no prophylactic antibiotics, steroids, or growth hormones. I was impressed with the cooperative community spirit between local farms and saw more of that when I visited the Good Food - Good People (GFGP) booth.

Tenley Weaver from Full Circle Farm and Brett and Johanna Nichols from Five Penny Farm are owners of certified organic farms in Floyd and GFGP members. Their displays - next to the Indigo Farm Seafood truck and behind a table of Ethiopian cuisine - stretched across the back of the vending tent area and, because of the wide variety of products offered, resembled a grocery store aisle. Fresh garlic, local honey and molasses, exotic eggplant and squash varieties, cut flowers, baskets full of apples and potatoes, and tomatoes of varying shapes and color made a vibrantly attractive presentation.

A general event fee of $3 included more tasting inside the Harvest Moon, where cheeses from Meadow Creek Dairy in Galax, peanut butter made with Virginia peanuts, South Carolina rice, and tea from the Carolina Tea Plantation were available for sampling.

"It's the only tea grown in this country," Harvest Moon staffer, Katherine Chantal said.

Posted by Colleen at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on September 6, 2007 with the title “They Specialize in the Catch of the Day.”

I’ve nicknamed them the Indigo Girls, after the female singing duo from Atlanta. But this Floyd County duo goes by the name of Indigo Farms. Indigo Farms owners, Teresa Nester and Susan Handy, don’t sing. They don’t make CD’s. They sell fish.

From the back of their white refrigerated truck, they sell everything from Artic Char to Wahoo; from salmon, scallops, and snapper to catfish, crabmeat, and cod. But it all started with shrimp.

On a warm day in late August in front of the Harvest Moon Food Store, a popular stop on their fish truck route, I learned the history of Indigo Farms. What began with recreational trips to the North Carolina coast to visit Teresa’s sister became Indigo Farms in 1993 when Teresa and Susan began supplying fresh seafood to the Pine Tavern Restaurant, back when Michael Gucciardo was the chef.

Now they make weekly treks to the coast, bringing back seafood for restaurants from the Château Morrisette to those in Mountain Lake and a few in Roanoke. They also sell to the public. Besides the Harvest Moon and other Floyd locations, they make retails stops in Riner and Blacksburg. Their schedule is outlined in detail on their website, where they also share seafood recipes and photos of their trips, complete with ocean sound effects.

As the Pine Tavern began incorporating fresh seafood into their menu and receiving positive feedback for it, others started making requests, Susan, the former Floyd recreational department director explained.

“In the beginning it was only shrimp. Now we’re into octopus and squid,” Teresa joked. The best part of running their own business has been the people they come in contact with, she told me.

“We’ve become part of their lives and they’ve become part of ours. We’ve watched their kids grow up,” remarked Teresa, who was previously employed as a technical writer at the Radford Arsenal.

“Even the customers get to know one another,” I responded. “I’ve met some new people and caught up with old friends while standing in line waiting for fish. I’ve been in a line of as many as four people. Do you ever get lines longer than that?” I asked.

Teresa’s answer surprised me. “Oh, at least twenty and we’ve probably served as many as two hundred in Blacksburg in one stop.”

“Blacksburg people love fish!” she said.

Their Blacksburg connection started when a woman asked them to make her house one of the stops on their route. “If you come, I’ll tell my friends,” the woman told Susan.

Susan and Teresa know many of their customers by name and some are on nickname basis, like “Salmon Man,” who I met soon after Susan mentioned his name when he pulled up for his weekly purchase of salmon. Earlier, a customer shared details of her recent fishing vacation; another one remarked that she started buying fish from of the back of the Indigo Farms’ truck when her now teenager was a baby in diapers.

In the winter the women wear insulated jumpsuits to keep warm as they work. In the summer they carry extra ice and pack it in with customer orders.

“I’m like the family butcher,” Teresa said, referring to the fact that she knows what their regular customers like. Some order ahead. Others mosey over to the truck and check out the list on the Indigo Farms dry erase board before making their menu decisions.

It was late in the afternoon on Saturday, so many of their most popular offerings had sold out, as evidenced by their names being crossed out on the board. The blue flag on top of their truck flapped in the breeze as I settled on a pound of catfish for my order. I snapped a photo of Susan in her Indigo Farms blue T-shirt talking to “Salmon Man,” as Teresa bagged up my fresh fish. She packed it with extra ice.

Post Notes: Visit www.indigofarmsseafood.com for more information. This story went online HERE. Another fish story is HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I’ve never paid much attention to football. It took two big names, John Mayer and the Dave Matthews Band in concert together to finally get me into Virginia Tech’s Lane stadium. This free concert was conceived by Matthews, the Grammy award winning musician from Charlottesville, Virginia, as a way to show support for Tech after the deadly shootings of last April. Showing their Hokie spirit by wearing school colors, Tech students, staff, faculty, and friends filled the stadium with wall-to-wall maroon and orange.

Mayer, an avid blogger with school boy good looks, plays the guitar as if it was an extension of his body. Just seeing him appear on stage wearing a maroon Hokie T-shirt caused the crowd to erupt in ear piercing applause. Hearing him belt out his Grammy winning hit, “Waiting on the World to Change,” so close to home was a thrill.

“This is my prayer for you,” he told the Tech crowd before letting the lyrics of his song “Gravity” speak for him. Oh gravity … Stay the hell away from me … Oh gravity … Has taken better men than me … Now how can that be? … Just keep me where the light is … Just keep me where the light is … The blues that oozed from his red electric guitar were matched by the soulful facial expressions that Mayer made as he played.

I’m a dancer who needs a big space to move around in, but our seats were set up for watching football. I’m sure I stepped on my neighbor’s toes a time or two, and I might have knocked over someone’s drink while dancing. During the intermission between bands, I looked around and saw a few familiar faces, but I had never seen so many Hokies in one place. It was my first time witnessing the coordinated effort of Hokie fans as they rippled like dominoes from one end of the stadium to another doing their signature cheer. Let's go ... Hokies ... Let's go ... Hokies ...

Even though I knew that South African born Dave Matthews was from Virginia, I was surprised to hear the twang of his accent when he said things like, “”Thanks ya’ll … and all of that stuff.” Admittedly shy, Matthews sings better than he talks on his feet into the mic. Although, he did manage to speak about coming down from Charlottesville in a red van to play at much smaller Blacksburg venues many years ago. And his words were especially appreciated and met with applause when he said, “These are some dark times and the dark side, but I can’t think of anywhere else in the world I’d rather be than with y’all.”

The song that Dave Matthews Band chose to open with, “Two Step," related well to the reason we had all come together. Celebrate we will … Cause life is short but sweet for certain … Hey, we climb on two by two … To be sure these days continue … Things we cannot change …

I have a lot of respect for Matthews, who has weathered the premature deaths of close family members, and has lent his support for farm aid, rebuilding New Orleans, and other worthy causes. But who knew that he could dance like James Brown flat footing at the local jamboree?

The fact that my husband and I didn’t stay till the end wasn’t a reflection on the show. As performances go, it was one with a big impact, a spectacular light show, and the big brass and rousing fiddle jam sound that the Dave Matthews Band is famous for. But after three hours of high volume music and crowded dancing, I was tired and hungry.

We had taken our bikes to the concert to avoid the stadium traffic. As we pedaled off into the warm night, the band was well into their second hour of playing. We could hear them singing the familiar refrain from Bob Marley’s "Three Little Birds." ... Don’t worry about a thing … Every little thing gonna be all right … Singing: don’t worry about a thing … cause every little thing gonna be all right.

The song trailed off as we glided downhill in search of good pizza and a cold beer.

Video clips: 1. John Mayer sings “Waiting on the World to Change” at Tech HERE. 2. Hokie Spirit Cheer HERE. 3. Dave Matthews Band sings Two Step at Tech HERE. The above was published in The Floyd Press on September 13, 2007.

Posted by Colleen at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

The following was published in the Floyd Press on August 9, 2007.

Local poets stepped up their presence at FloydFest this year by way of a stage in the Global Village. We moved from our soapbox stand under the Poetree at the festival entrance because with continuous bands playing on two near-by stages, we could hardly hear our own alliterations. At the village stage, under the shade of a brightly striped orange tent, we had mics and room to stomp around. Our group was also featured in the Floyd Fest program, which guaranteed some festival goers would make the trek off the beaten path to attend. And they did.

The theme of the collective performance, OUTLOUD, was on woman’s issues, and there were six of us representing a variety of related subjects. Besides me, other FloydFest Poetree Players featured were Tabitha Humphrey, Bekah Parker, and fellow Floyd Writer’s Circle members Mara Robbins, Rima Sultzen, and Rosemary Wyman.

Mara, FloydFest Poetree organizer since the festival’s inception in 2002, began by welcoming the audience, introducing the collective, and giving a little background on the history of the spoken word at FloydFest.

Wearing a long hot pink scarf, I opened the show with an original poem titled “Woman: a Definition.” I’m fire and magenta … Tahitian red magma …I announced as I flipped my scarf for effect. Rosemary, adorned in another shade of pink answered from her mic, I’m murmurs and contours … I’m cradles and curbs …

Magnetic … I’m Venus … compass and radius ... I countered. Our poetic conversation continued as momentum built.

Several poems were presented in this two way conversational style, others were read as a group, and a few were done solo. The most theatrical performance piece was one on perfectionism, titled “For What I’m Worth.” Written by Rosemary Wyman, mother of a blended family with eight children, it was like an abbreviated one act play.

“Where is it written that I must measure each breath I take? Why am I driven to strive for perfection? And if I am not determined to have the perfect body, make perfect grades, keep a perfect house, raise a perfect family, why am I considered a slouch … or worst of all a selfish woman?” Rosemary pondered out loud. Her performance rose to an empowering conclusion and was accompanied by the rest of the troupe who recited chorus lines and improvised movement, complete with measuring tapes and rulers as props.

The poets took on some controversial issues, but it wasn’t about dividing working mothers from stay at home ones, woman on opposite ends of the political spectrum, of different ages or lifestyles. The spirit of the performance was upbeat, meant to encourage diversity and remind us that we are all more alike than we are different.

Bekah, who works at the Women’s Resource Center in Radford shared her rousing signature poem “Rebelution” with a B. “Declaration of Independence,” a manifesto written by a 15 year old girl recovering from anorexia, was read by the group.

Tabitha Humphrey, an award winning poetry slammer gave a moving delivery of an original prose piece called “Will I be pretty?” It was a serious look with a humorous undertone at our culture’s focus on outer beauty. You’ll have porcelain skin as soon as we can see a dermatologist; you sucked you thumb that’s why your teeth look like that; you were hit with a Frisbee when you were six; otherwise your nose would be just fine. Don’t worry we’ll get it all fixed.

The poets didn’t completely abandon the soap box. It was used throughout the four day festival at a variety of venues, as Mara and other poets hopped up on it, spouting poetry like FloydFest town criers and encouraging others to do the same.

One impromptu soapbox reading took place Saturday evening at the coffee bus and was a round robin dialogue of poetic interpretations on the story of Peter Pan. Mara revived her poem, “Wendy Fallen” from the OUTLOUD performance. … Here on the island where we all wear pajamas, I’m the only one with a dress and an apron … Rosemary’s poem described Wendy sewing Peter Pan’s shadow on at his death bed. Arden Hill, an MFA Creative Writing graduate from Hollins University shared several Peter Pan poems.

From the soapbox, I shouted out to the crowd … Before I knew that a grown woman named Mary Martin was playing Peter’s part … I already didn’t want to wear a tie ... Festival goers coming from a main stage musical performance stopped to listen. I was girl determined … not to be tied to a 9 to 5 … wearing panty hose and stilettos … in the middle of July … As I concluded my poem and jumped off the soap box to make room for the next poet, I imagined I was jumping off Captain Hook’s plank.

Lezlie, a poet who traveled from Charlottesville closed the soap box set with some improvised stream of consciousness poetics urging passersby to get involved in making the world a better place.

Post Note: The OUTLOUD performance will be repeated at the August’s Spoken Word Open Mic held at the Café Del Sol on August 18th from 7 – 9. Photos: 1. Rosemary and Colleen. 2. Colleen, Rima, Bekah, Rosemary, and Mara. 3. The group. 4. Mara on the poetry soap box shouts, "Attention shoppers!" See a short video clip of the tail end of Rosemary's piece HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on May 10, 2007.
On a warm Valentine’s Day in 2005, while shopping at the Harvest Moon Food Store, something unusual caught my eye. I was making my way down a store aisle, filling my basket when I noticed a woman who looked overdressed for grocery shopping. Her short white dress swished as she passed by me. She was wearing jewelry and lipstick. Her pump heels clicked as she walked, and her long curly hair was pulled back with barrettes. I watched curiously as she spoke to Harvest Moon staff member, Katherine Chantal.

I don’t remember if I invited myself or if an invitation was offered, but I ended up taking wedding photos that day. The woman in white was joined by her groom in the front of the Harvest Moon where Katherine pronounced them husband and wife as their young child in a baby carriage looked on.

Most people who know Katherine Chantal know her as an herbalist and the mother of five sons, many of whose names were frequently seen in the sports section of the Floyd Press during their high school years. A lesser known fact about Katherine is that she’s been guiding life passages and ceremonies for the past twenty-five years and that she performs a considerable number of our county’s weddings.

Although Valentine’s Day of 2005 wasn’t the first or last time she took a break from her Harvest Moon duties to marry someone impromptu, the majority of weddings Katherine performs are planned in advance and some happen well beyond the borders of Floyd County. After being flown to Utah to marry one couple, and then later to the coast of Rhode Island to marry Willis residents Ryan Turman and Heather Gordon, she joked about having a business card printed up announcing “have wedding will travel.”

Katherine, who is legally certified in the state of Virginia to perform weddings, has a background in sociology, psychology, philosophy and world religions. As a Rites of Passage Ceremonialist and ordained Priestess, the life events she has facilitated have ranged from those of birth to death. The weddings she has done have drawn from a variety of traditions, including Celtic, Christian, Sufi, Judaic, and Native American (North and South). “Y ofrezco las bodas Espanol tambien,” her website says, which I believe means that she can do weddings in Spanish.

Besides the Harvest Moon garden weddings, she has married couples in trailer parks and national parks. Ten years ago she officiated at my wedding, which took place at the Blue Ridge Parkway Saddle overlook on a blue moon in June. Under her guidance my husband and I were supported to design a meaningful and custom fit ceremony. Wearing a flowing blue velvet dress, she pronounced us united as the setting sun and the rising moon faced each other like a bride and groom in the sky.

“You should write a book!” I recently told her, as we were remembering one wedding she did in a big red barn. Another one, which took place at the Daddy Rabbit’s Campground, had a Scottish theme. “Men wore kilts and a haggis (sheep dish) was cooking over an open fire,” she said.
Her talents have been appreciated in her own family. She has presided over two of her sons weddings, one of which was done twice, once in Spain and then on the Zephyr farm grounds where she lives. Another in Pennsylvania was attended by dozens of Floydians who traveled to be part of the celebration. How did you keep from crying?” I asked her.

She laughed as she answered, “I made a promise I wouldn’t.” She did cry after and before those ceremonies, she admitted.

The wedding season is gearing up and Katherine has been busy. In the last two weeks, she’s performed two weddings on the Harvest Moon lawn. The first was for a couple who were both in their 80’s. More recently, a dozen friends and family members of a young military couple gathered together to witness their marriage. The couple, a marine and a naval servicewoman, graciously allowed me to take photos. “Are you the father?” I asked the man standing next to me who was also snapping photos and appeared to be emotional. “Yes,” he answered, slightly teary-eyed.

Every wedding is unique and the stories so colorful. Katherine recently told me, “I’m working with a couple who are planning a June wedding. They’re thinking of doing it on horseback.”

Post Notes: Photos number 1 &2 are of the April 14th wedding of the military couple mentioned above, performed in front of the Harvest Moon. The final photo is of Katherine officiating at her son Rahim and his bride Gema’s wedding at Zephyr Farm in Floyd this past September. It was taken by her youngest son, Rowan. For more information go to Katherine’s website lifeceremoniesbykatherine.com

Posted by Colleen at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The following was originally a WVTF radio essay. It appeared in The Floyd Press yesterday, May 10th, titled "It's Never Too Late to Get to Know Your Mother," and on Loose Leaf last year with more photos, the uncut text, and a link to a story about writing and recording it HERE.

Last December a co-worker came to our home on the Blue Ridge Parkway bearing a festive basket of Christmas fruit. Our tree was up and Christmas lights hung from the windows. Upon stepping through the door, she glanced around once before settling her eyes on the white-painted bookcase where a collection of framed photographs was displayed.

“Who’s that beautiful woman?!” she gasped. Picking up a photo of my mother as a young woman, she said, “She looks likes a movie star. Is it Natalie Wood?”

The image my friend held in her hand was similar to one in my mother’s high school yearbook, which my siblings and I leafed through as children while giggling at the “old fashioned” graduating class of 1944. And when we found the boy my mother had a crush on whose name was Jake, someone, although no one ever confessed to it, wrote “Jake the Snake” next to his picture in loyalty to our father.

My mother, Barbara, the oldest of three children, came from a family of divorce, which was uncommon during the time she grew up. She was raised by her father in a repressed German Lutheran home in Squantum, Massachusetts, and from an early age she carried a heavy weight of responsibility, which became a theme in her life. First, as the hardworking eldest child in her father’s home, and then as the mother of nine children and the wife of a man who struggled with alcoholism for most of their married life.

My mother was the physical center from which everything happened in our family. To use her own manner of speaking, she “doesn’t miss a trick.” Although it wasn’t easy as a child to get one-on-one time with my mother, when I look at an elementary school picture of myself, I see now that it was her hands that buttoned up my dress, brushed my hair, and hung a string of pearls around my neck so that I would feel special for school picture day. And she cared for each of us that way.

The trait I admire most about my mother is that she continues to learn and can admit her own past mistakes. I also admire what she does for others, such as driving my uncle Vinnie back and forth to his cancer treatments years ago, planting flowers in other people’s gardens to cheer them up, and taking care of her last two grandsons so my sister could go back to work. It was because of the bond forged with her youngest grandsons that she was able to express regret for some missed opportunities of quality time spent with her own children when they were young, probably because there were so many of us.

This year my mother turned 80. She’s still a stunningly beautiful woman, even though when I asked her why she doesn’t go to the beach, 4 houses down from her house, she told me she won’t put on a bathing suit because, “Who wants to look at these old legs?”

Now that my own children are grown, I have more time to spend with my mother. She likes to travel and in the past few years we’ve taken short trips together, short because she hasn’t wanted to leave my dad home alone for too long. This past summer, my sister, my mother, and I drove to New Hampshire to visit an aunt. It was then, while driving through New Hampshire’s White Mountains that I was surprised to find out that my mother had been skiing before. “I’ll try anything once,” I remember her saying.

Four months after our New Hampshire trip and two months before my parent’s 60th wedding anniversary, my father died unexpectedly. We were all heartbroken, and our grief was complicated by the previous loss of two of my brothers, just 4 years before.

It was hard to imagine my mother without my father, but as the months passed by; her new life began to emerge. In the midst of loneliness, she carries on, and after caring for others all her life, her time now is her own.

I recently called her to see how she was. Her news was exciting. After reporting that she now knows how to use the TV remote, VCR, and copy machine, all things that my father wouldn’t allow anyone to touch, I learned that has a new kitten, is planning a trip south with girlfriends, and to attend my youngest son’s wedding here in Virginia in July. I was most surprised to find out that she’s thinking about getting a computer. I didn’t know my mother cared for cats or was interested in learning to use a computer.

I told her I loved her and hung up the phone, knowing that her “try anything once” attitude was seeing her through. I smiled as I relished the thought that it’s never too late to get to know my mother better and to learn something new about her.

Posted by Colleen at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

The following was originally published in The Floyd Press newspaper on 3/29/07 as "Hotel rooms to showcase aspects of Floyd's talent."

It’s official. The first item for the Floyd Writer's Room, one of the themed guest rooms planned for the Hotel Floyd, has been purchased. It’s an antique writing desk with lots of interesting drawers, slots for letters, and a hinged work space that opens and closes.

After our Scrabble game at the café last week, Kathleen Ingoldsby and I walked over to the hotel building site, located downtown and just behind the Old Jacksonville Cemetery. There, we met with Katherine Chantal, who took a break from her job at the Harvest Moon to join us. We, all members of the Floyd Writer’s Circle, hoped to see the location and size of the actual room. Because of the unfinished construction, we soon discovered that wouldn’t be possible, unless we wanted to climb up one of the long metal ladders. So, we headed over to the nearest antique dealer and picked out the desk.

The Hotel Floyd, contracted by Jack Wall and Kamala Bauers, is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2007. Jack and Kamala are the directors of Wall Residences, an agency based in Floyd that provides foster care options for adults with developmental disabilities.

Besides the Local Writers Room, other themed rooms planned for the hotel include: The Crooked Road Room, The Blue Ridge Parkway Room, The Country Store Room, The Jacksonville Center Room, Floyd Fest Room, Harvest Moon Room, Winter Sun Room, Jeanie O’Neill Room, Malawi Room, Bell Gallery Room, Old Church Gallery Room, Floyd Figures Drawing Room, and the Chateau Morrisette Bridal Suite. All the rooms are being designed to showcase Floyd talent. Everything from what will hang on the walls to the furniture, most of which will be locally made, will highlight what our county and region have to offer. With environmental sustainability in mind, the hotel is being built using green technology. Eco-solutions, a small business that sells environmentally friendly building supplies in the Copper Hill part of Floyd County, will be providing much of the construction materials.

When Jack contacted me in February, inviting me to get involved in the themed room project, I immediately had ideas. “It should look like a study, done in warm earth tones. We’ll need bookcases, a desk, an old typewriter and Scrabble board displayed,” I told him as I jotted down the beginnings of a list. Soon after our conversation, I spoke with other members of the Floyd Writer’s Circle, contacted a couple of other local writers, and a small brainstorming group was formed.

With the input of others, my list of ideas grew longer. Kathleen, archivist for the Floyd Historical Society, envisioned a collection of books by Floydians and about Floyd that would span the past 100 years. Fred First, author of Slow Road Home suggested the room have audio capability on a computer for guests to hear local writers reading.

Simple, classic, warm, and uncluttered were some of the words we used to convey our vision to Jeanie O’Neill, interior decorator working on the hotel project. Jeanie, artist and owner of “The O’Neill Gallery and Boutique” agreed to hold our first brainstorming session at her house.

By the end of that first meeting, the long list of ideas I had been collecting had shortened, as we divided up tasks among us. Katherine had a tip for fair trade oriental rugs in Buchanan that she agreed to check into. Kathleen would begin looking for books for the bookcase. I would research the purchase of an antique typewriter, and Jeanie offered to bring swatches of paint colors and samples of tiles to our next meeting.

We hope as the creation of Floyd Writer’s Room unfolds other local writers will come forth with ideas and historic resources. Those who have something to share can contact me at credman@swva.net.

Post note: An article about the Hotel Floyd, written by Wanda Combs, the Floyd Press editor, which appeared the same day that the above one did can be found HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

The following originally appeared in "The Floyd Press" newspaper on March 22nd.

"Say Green!" someone called out as Max Charnley snapped a photo of spoken word performers at the Café Del Sol this past Saturday night. Because the Open Mic, scheduled every third Saturday, was on St. Patrick's Day this month many in attendance were donned in green clothing.

"I want you all to know that I take reading poetry on St. Patrick's Day very serious," I announced to the audience as I began my 10 minute reading slot. I was wearing a sage green sweater that was purchased in Ireland and had the word "Blarney" sewed in the tag. "I don't know whether blarney refers to a bunch of baloney or the gift of eloquence. It's probably something in between," I joked.

Earlier that day I had been reading from Thomas Cahill's bestseller book, "How the Irish Saved Civilization." The title is a reference to the Irish monks who, at the fall of the Roman Empire when literature and artifacts were being burned by barbarians, hand copied the Greek, Roman, Judeo-Christian classics, which would have otherwise been lost to us.

Said to have invented rhyme, the Irish tradition was an oral one in which their history was preserved by way of spoken verse. Literacy came late to the out-of-way island, but once it did, the Irish made up for lost time. In one generation they learned Greek, Latin, and some Hebrew; they devised Irish grammars, and copied the whole of their native oral history. But they didn't just copy. The Irish are credited with inventing the codex, the first prototype of a book (before that scrolls were used), and they produced the most magically illustrated manuscripts the world has ever seen. The Book of Kells, which includes four gospels and the Bible in Latin, is one such example.

I read a few excerpts from Cahill's book about the Irish, their playful love of the alphabet, and their reverence for language. "The Irish enshrined literacy as their central religious act," Cahill wrote. Even at the earliest stage of their development, "the Irish were intoxicated by the power of words. Every noble Irish family maintained a family of ancestral poets," I shared with the café crowd.

I knew from other reading that in the old Irish tradition the only position more noble than a poet was a king. In the spirit of the Irish poets, I introduced myself. "I am Colleen, which means "girl" in Irish Gaelic. I'm the granddaughter of Ellen Bergin of Youghal, County Cork, great granddaughter of Mary Murray, Margaret Keating, and Theresa Dineen from Cork, Tipperary, and Offaly," I said before beginning my poem titled "My Grandmother's Brogue" (which I read, in part, with a brogue).

The Irish theme continued when Katherine Chantal read a poem that wove two trips to Ireland together. In the early 70's she traveled through the country with a backpack. Then, while on a more recent trip, she navigated the narrow country roads there while driving with her sister on the left side. ... When wind is ever present in a land ... How then to be still? ... Those emerald hills ... The constancy of the ocean's voice ... Presents its own quiet ... And projected us back to ... Our ancestors who once walked the same ... She read.

Four of the nine members of the Floyd Writer's Circle, including myself, were in attendance. Most of us were already warmed up from reading two nights earlier at the Jessie Peterman Library where Friends of the Library hosted us as part of their Floyd Naturally! program. Our writer's group is dedicated to promoting the spoken word in the community and has been co-hosting the Spoken Word Night with the café once a month since October 2005.

Writer's Circle founding member Mara Robbins is a Hollins University student and a recent finalist in the undergraduate poetry competition at the 47th annual Lex Allen Literary Festival. She read several poems, one of which was about writing poetry forms, such as pantoums, haikus, sonnets, and villanelles. Jayn Avery, just back in town from selling her pottery on the Roanoke Market, read a hopeful poem about the coming of spring. Rosemary Wyman was inspired to write the poem she shared when she saw an acquaintance and his caregiver walking down the street.

Sally Walker, Café Del Sol owner and master ad libber, introduced readers and helped to make them comfortable by adjusting the mic when needed. There were two first timers. Young Mars read and essay about losing his beloved cat, and Martha Taylor shared the words of a poet she admired. Greg returned to the mic to read a poem that explained his recent haircut.

Poetry wasn't the only evening's offering of entertainment. Some in the crowd hummed along to a ballad that Chris Youngblood crooned a capella. Foot tapping and handclapping could be heard when Joe Klein belted out "The Star of County Down" (which I hummed then and continued to for the entire next day)

As Joe sang, I closed my eyes. Sitting on the café's comfy couch and sipping my cold amber brew, I imagined us all in an Irish pub. I couldn't think of a more appropriate and fulfilling way to spend a St. Patrick's Day evening.

Post Notes: THIS is a video of me reading "My Grandmother's Brogue." Photos: 1. From left to right backrow: Mars, Mary, Greg, Colleen, Jayn, Mara, Rosemary, Walter. Front row: Joe and Katherine. 2. Martha reads. 3. Jayn reads. 4. Mara on a chair. 5. Colleen and Joe on the comfy couch. Jeanie O'Neil's paintings are displayed in the background. Scroll down HERE to read more posts about Floyd's Spoken Word events.

Posted by Colleen at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

~ The following originally appeared in the Floyd Press on February 22nd.

I don’t play a musical instrument or a sport, but I dance. The small Massachusetts beach town I grew up in was home to The Surf Ballroom, a club with a big dance floor that hosted musical acts, some as well known as Sonny and Cher. Since I was a Surf-going teenager, dance has been an important part of my life, which is why I was thrilled when I learned in 2004 that Dance Free was coming to Floyd.

Local artist, dancer, and founder of Floyd’s Dance Free, Lora Giessler tells me that Dance Free was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 60’s. Its purpose of providing a safe, smoke and alcohol free atmosphere for self expression through free style dance remains the same today.

“About 9 years ago, Olivia, a beautiful dancer and teacher from Paris and Boston did a spontaneous workshop with a group of us in Floyd that had been in a creative improv class together,” Lora told me. "He spoke of Dance Free New England. I was so inspired by this form of Dance and by him that I traveled to Boston to find out what it was all about,” she continued.

I was familiar with Dance Free from the book “Tuesdays with Morrie,” written by Mitch Albom, the bestselling author who also wrote “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” Morrie Shwartz, the man behind the book’s title, had been Albom’s college professor and was a Dance Free regular in the early days of its existence. Ironically and sadly, Morrie contracted Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), a fatal neurological disease that destroys muscle, and had to give up dancing.

In his book, Albom writes of Morrie’s winning spirit and how it shone throughout his decline into ALS. About Morrie’s involvement with Dance Free, Albom says: “They had flashing lights and booming speakers and Morrie would wander in among the mostly student crowd, wearing a white T-shirt and black sweatpants and a towel around his neck, and whatever music was playing, that's the music to which he danced. He'd do the lindy to Jimi Hendrix … Once, he brought a tango tape and got them to play it over the speakers. Then he commandeered the floor, shooting back and forth like some hot Latin lover. When he finished, everyone applauded.”

The original Dance Free, which actually took place in Cambridge, a subway stop away from downtown Boston, was only 24 miles from my hometown and yet, I never went. By the time I read “Tuesday’s with Morrie,” I lived in Virginia and was two decades too late to see Morrie dance.

I remember how excited Lora was when she got back from her trip to Boston, where she experienced Dance Free first hand. I thought of the scene from Albom’s book as we mused together about how much fun it would be to have a Dance Free in Floyd. But it didn’t happen then.

Several years after Lora’s trip, Floyd resident Maria Becke approached Lora and expressed her interest in helping to bring Dance Free to Floyd. Maria, a certified DansKinetics instructor with disc jockeying experience, offered to DJ the dances. Arrangements were made to host it once a month at the Winter Sun Music Hall, where the spacious hardwood floor has just the right slip and slide for a dancer’s feet.

Since the winter of 2004 on the fourth Friday of each month dancers twirl, whirl, shake, rattle and roll – sometimes with a partner but mostly alone – to the wide variety of music that Maria plays. Maria’s selections are representative of many kinds of music with influences from all corners of the world. She knows I love it when she throws an old Motown standard into the mix, a reggae favorite, or an occasional disco hit. Sometimes she can’t help herself and hops down from the stage where she serves up the mix and dances with us.

I’m grateful to have such an outlet for creative movement right here in Floyd. I love to dance the way my husband loves to play soccer, and when Dance Free night rolls around, I treat it like a favorite sport and as if I was preparing for a marathon. I rest during the day and when the time comes to go, I fill up a jug of water and fix myself a high protein snack. I want to make sure I can keep up my energy level because I know once the Dance Free music starts I won’t sit down until it stops.

Last year I wrote about Dance Free here at Loose Leaf: “With my eyes closed and slightly dizzy from spinning, I could have been back at The Surf, dancing in 1969,” I wrote.

Post Notes: Photos - 1. Maria, Dance Free DJ, adjusts the sound. 2. Lora doing improv while other dancers dance in the background. You can read more about Dance Free on the Winter Sun website HERE. The next one is scheduled for March 23rd. Dance Free, the poem, is HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

The following originally appeared in The Floyd Press on January 18, 2007

She showed up about the same time as “A Taste of Floyd,” the slow food event that was hosted at the Harvest Moon Food Store last September. But some had spotted her even before that, with pups. The staff at the Harvest Moon has been collecting suggestions for names in a big glass cookie jar that sits on the check-out counter, along with donations to have her spayed. Meanwhile, they call her Ms. Hound.

Ms. Hound lives on the Harvest Moon grounds o