News Updates
- Waynesboro: Fly Fishing Festival unveils new logo
- Waynesboro: Registrations on for the Soap Box Derby
- Staunton: Stuart Hall athletes honored
- Staunton: Historical Society to talk about the West Augusta Guard
- Staunton: Police department collecting used cell phones
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Waynesboro: Fly Fishing Festival unveils new logo In honor of its 10th annual festival, The Virginia Fly Fishing Festival committee unveiled a new logo for this year’s event, scheduled April 17 and 18 in Constitution Park, Downtown Waynesboro.
“Our new logo highlights the growing attraction of wine tasting to our festival,” said Len Poulin, festival co-chair. “This year we welcome many local wineries again to the festival, offering wine tasting (included in festival fee) or wine purchase by the glass or bottle.”
The Virginia Fly Fishing Festival is the largest outdoor fly fishing event in the country that offers on-stream instruction on the South River. With more than 1,500 visitors expected for the weekend, the festival provides a special weekend getaway for folks from around the country. “Each year,” said Dana Quillen, festival co-chair, “local hotels, and bed and breakfast inns are sold out for the weekend. Our visitors keep local restaurants busy, too.”
A Children’s Catch and Release Trout Pool will be featured this year. For a small fee, members of the Federation of Fly Fishers will help children catch native brook trout from the on-site pond and, with parent’s help, release them into the South River.
Returning fly fishing icon Lefty Kreh will be joined by many other noted fly fishing anglers for the weekend event. They will all provide lectures, on-site casting classes, and discussions about this fast growing sport. Daily admission to the festival is $15 per person (under 16 free with adult) and the festival runs from 9am to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday.
The weekend highlight is the Festival Foundation Dinner to be held Saturday evening at the Waynesboro Country Club. Tickets for this event sell out well in advance and may be ordered from the festival website. For more information and to order tickets and other items, visit the Festival website at www.vaflyfishingfestival.org.
Waynesboro: Registrations on for the Soap Box Derby Blue Ridge Soap Box Derby Classic registrations have begun for the annual Soap Box Derby race to be run this year on Saturday, May 22nd in Downtown Waynesboro.
Registrations will be taken until the mandatory clinic on April 14th. Registration fees are $60 for all racers and will be discounted to $50 if registered before April 14th.
Girls and boys from 8 to 17 years of age are invited to register for the derby either in Stock, Super Stock or Masters divisions by the deadline of April 14th. The Blue Ridge Soap Box franchise area includes Albemarle, Augusta, Rockbridge, Bath, Highland and Louisa counties and the cities therein.
Last year we had one of the top ten races in the nation with more than 70 boys and girls racing for the championship in four divisions. These champs went on to represent Waynesboro in the All-American Derby in Akron in late July. This year the Derby will be racing cars in the Stock, Super Stock and Masters Class divisions.
Letters are being sent out to all last year’s drivers. If you do not receive yours, please contact Derby Director Alan White at 540.294.2374.
More information is also available online at www.brsoapbox.com.
Staunton: Stuart Hall athletes honored Four Stuart Hall School Varsity players earned individual awards from the Virginia Association of Christian Athletics Conference. These awards are voted on by the other schools; Stuart Hall cannot vote for her athletes.
Junior Thomas Dabney was selected second-team All-District. Junior Christina Reid was selected second-team All-District. Senior Sydney Leonard was selected first-team All-District, first-team All-Region, first-team All-State, and North Region Player-of-the-Year.
Dabney is the son of Scarlet Whitlock and Stuart Dabney of Staunton. Reid is the daughter of Charleston and Theresa Dunbar-Reid of Gaithersburg, Md Leonard is the daughter of Maria Thebaud-Leonard of Upper Marlboro, Md.
Staunton: Historical Society to talk about the West Augusta Guard The Augusta County Historical Society’s Stuart Speaker Series will feature a program on “The West Augusta Guard: Interpreting Heritage through Living History.”
Members of this Augusta County Civil War re-enacting unit will talk about the group’s history as well as about the educational outreach that they carry on today.
The event is set for Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Smith Center for History and Art, 20 S. New St., Staunton.
In December of 1859, members of the local militia unit known as the West Augusta Guard witnessed history in the making. They stood guard at the hanging of John Brown in Harpers Ferry. In keeping with its ongoing commemoration of the Civil War’s Sesquicentennial, the Augusta County Historical Society welcomes members of the West Augusta Guard re-enacting group.
For the guard, John Brown’s hanging was just the beginning. Over the next five years, the company, formed in 1858, would witness more than enough history for many lifetimes, as they became intimately involved in the tragic conflict known as the American Civil War. Soon after war broke out in 1861, the unit melded into the Confederate army as part of what eventually became known as the famed Stonewall Brigade.
The modern-day West Augusta Guard formed in the fall of 2007 in order to remember and document those original soldiers. Today, in addition to traditional battle re-enacting, the group has dedicated itself to educating the public about the life of the common soldiers and civilians through accurate living history demonstrations and educational outreach to schools and groups.
Several military and civilian re-enactors, in appropriate 19th-century attire, will present the evening program. In addition to presenting the history of the company and explaining what sources have been used to document their activities, they will talk about some of the living history programs with which they have been involved.
Thursday’s talk is the second of the Alexander H.H. Stuart Speaker Series. The program will be held in the second floor lecture room of the Smith Center, in Downtown Staunton. The program is free to historical society members and is $5 for non-members.
Staunton: Police department collecting used cell phones The Staunton Police Department has joined with 911 Cell Phone Bank to collect used cell phones to help provide emergency communications for senior citizens and victims of domestic violence.
The collected cell phones are turned over to 911 Cell Phone Bank, cleaned, re-furbished, and then provided free of charge to senior citizens and crime victims.
If you have used cell phones, here is a great opportunity to donate them to a good cause. It is preferable, but not necessary to have the charger and/or battery with the cell phone.
Robert E. Lee High School students have decorated boxes that will be used to collect the phones at sites around the city: the first floor of City Hall, the Police Department lobby, the Staunton Public Library, Shelburne Middle School, and Robert E. Lee High School.
