A Family reunion for the descendents of the late Henry Campbell, SR and his wife Dorothy Landis Campbell will be held August 6 at Fincastle Baptist Church from 12 noon forward.

Terrie Vass  said, “Please bring picnic food and supplies enough to cover your family to share. ” Any questions call Vass at 314-2025.

Pastor Marla of New Beginnings AOG and husband Roger Moore would like to say thank you for all of your prayers and the great support from this great community during Roger’s recent accident. We have never lived in a community where even strangers take time to show how much they care. We are so blessed to be living here in Buchanan and Botetourt County. May God richly bless our church family and this community.

Submitted by Marla Moore.

What do Benjamin Franklin, Agatha Christie, Thomas Edison, and Christopher Paolini have in common? All of these notable persons received their education at home.

In recent years, the homeschooling movement has taken off with more and more parents opting to educate their children at home. Homeschooling provides children with one-on-one instruction, giving them the opportunity to progress faster in subjects they are strong in, while also allowing them to spend needed time on those subjects with which they struggle. Receiving their education at home allows children more family time and essentially eliminates peer pressure, as children interact with children and adults across a broad age spectrum rather than a single age group. This helps children better identify their own values and encourages independent thought.

“Homeschooling is a wonderful way in which to enrich both you and your child’s lives, but don’t try to go at it alone. There are great organizations that will help support you in your decision,” says Kathy Mitchell, former homeschooling parent and Assistant Center Director for Huntington Learning Center. Locally, there are several homeschooling organizations that provide support and social activities for homeschooling families, such as BRFUN (Blue Ridge Family Unschoolers), GRHE (Greater Roanoke Home Educators), HERF (Home Educators of Rainbow Forest), and Classical Conversations.

Parents without a background in education may be hesitant to home school their children. Many parents may fear having trouble teaching their children particular subjects or finding a learning style that best suits their child. Center Coordinator Cassandra Dove and the staff at the Greenfield Center want to assist homeschooling families in filling these gaps. “We’d like to become a valuable resource to meet the diverse needs of the homeschooling community,” says Dove.

Beginning this fall, The Greenfield Center will offer several classes for homeschooling parents and children. Partnering with instructors from Huntington Learning Center, Greenfield will offer a series of classes including such topics as teaching young children, instilling a love of reading, ending homework struggles, remedial reading, beginning mathematics, and study skills—including a class on SAT exam prep.

Other classes being offered this fall include four week-long earth science classes in September for ages 8-11, an introduction to homeschooling class for parents, and a college level Spanish 101 class for high school level students interested in earning college credit. This class is identical to Spanish 101 classes offered on the Virginia Western Community College main campus. “If more interest is expressed, we will do our best to make sure other credit classes are offered at Greenfield,” says Dove.

If you have any suggestions for educational classes or general interest seminars that you would like to see offered in Botetourt County, please contact Cassandra Dove at 540-966-3984.

Article written by Katelyn Quinley of Virginia Western.

Submitted by Sarah Olson, Virginia Western Community College, Greenfield Education and Training Center Administrative Specialist.

Summertime is hot on the mountain, too!

Tinker Mountain critters seem to be taking it slow and easy in the summer heat. Lots of bears and bobcats although the BuckeyeCam failed this period. All deer photos this 6 week period were all on one camera. At least one rabbit existed among the bobcats and coyotes. The summer showers have aided the understory growth on Tinker Mountain as there is more greenery in the woods that some of the recent drought summers. The bear wallowing on the log is rubbing scent on himself from a pipe cleaner that was nailed to the log that had an application of predator gland scent called “Mega Gland”.

I MCed a screening of a documentary “Lords of Nature” at Sweet Briar College in June. Over 70 naturalist from around Virginia were in attendance. The movie is one hour and we spent another hour with panel discussion. This is a good idea for a outdoor group program. You may read more about it and watch trailer at: http://lordsofnature.org/

–submitted by Ben Shrader

We’ve recently updated our database of where high school sports stars from the region are going — or have gone — to play college ball.

You can find it here on the Datasphere, our site for searchable data.

You can also help us keep it updated, too. And if you have photos of your kids in college, whether they’re athletes or not, you can share at news@botetourtview.com or use the “share” tool at right to upload 10 at a time.

On Thursday July 22,  a spa day  was held at  PZAZ, the beauty school in Daleville. They shared a day of pampering 11 Teen Challenge girls. The school’s students performed shampoos, cuts, styles, manicures, and eyebrow waxing for all of the girls as well as a lunch of pizza. Said Pzaz director Phyllis Pratt, “It was a really nice sharing time for the students and the Teen Challenge young ladies. ”

Lisa Cox of Teen Challenge shared this information:

“Teen Challenge is a Christian Discipleship Training Program for people struggling with life controlling issues. It is a diverse ministry servicing all age groups and genders. Teen Challenge is an international ministry that began in 1958 located in over 200 locations in the US and in over forty different nations abroad. God is doing miracles in the lives of addicted, struggling people through this non profit ministry.”

” Eastern Appalachian Teen Challenge began in 1998 as a crisis counseling office for hurting youth and young adults and is now also a residential center for adolescent girls. Please refer to our web site for more information at teenchallenge4u.com and again thank you so much for serving our girls.”

Lisa Cox is the  EATC Program Director.

Many thanks to the staff of Pzaz the School, for sharing this wonderful experience in photos.

Shayne with Penny who has been in a least one video on the Slappy Cider Channel

In a few weeks Shayne Jennison will journey to see a new doctor in the Midwest for treatment of  his POTS. The acronym stands for an ominous sounding “Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.” There is no known cure, but there is hope. About 500,000 Americans suffer from the disease. It was first diagnosed as a medical condition in the US in 1998.  We have a previous story

Shayne turned 15 this month.

Since the spring interview, Jennison returned to Wake Forest Medical Center. He has been referred for further treatment. Time will tell as to whether he is a candidate for another more experimental treatment that has shown positive results. In the meantime he has been producing and fielding You Tube videos.  On July 23rd,  he had a 12  -3:30 p.m. online show of various videos broadcast from his Slappy Cider website. He called the project “The Slappy Cider Film Festival.” Obviously “Slappy Cider” is his icon and website’s name. He has Slappy Cider Thursdays with videos most weeks.

To raise funds for his site, he is also selling Slappy Cider T-shirts. Featuring you guessed it “Slappy Cider.”  On  many days he has health problems that are debilitating,  but he can work from the basic horizontal world he lives in using his computer.  He is also on Facebook. Though Shayne cannot operate in the typical world the average Botetourt County teenager has, he is still reaching out often and with a sense of humor through the Internet.

Stay tuned for more as the Botetourt View will update his hopes after he returns from the next stage of medical care.

Abby and John Fedor. Photo taken by Jerry Jacobsen of VFW

A surprise dinner party was given to Master Chief Petty Officer John D. Fedor, USN at the VFW hall in Daleville on July 9th. He was greeted by family, friends, fellow church members and the crew from his Amphibious Construction Battalion 2, Navy reserve unit that is based in Roanoke. Some family members came from as far as Texas to attend. John is being deployed back to Iraq for his second tour there in early August. John is a life member of the Daleville VFW post # 1841. The party was planned by his wife, Abby. The Fedor’s, of Troutville, have two children Maty (age 11) and Jack (age 8).

The Taste of the Roanoke Valley Food Expo planned for August 12, 2011, at the Daleville Town Center has been cancelled for 2011 due to lack of vendor registration.

We appreciate your continued support of Food Expo and of Virginia Cooperative Extension. You will be contacted if the event is repeated in the future. Thank you, again, for your contributions to the Taste of the Roanoke Valley Food Expo.

submitted by Cassie Driskill

Please come out and enjoy KEITH BRYANT and IRONHORSE Band tonight from 8-11.30pm!

Special menus and beverage specials!

See our attached specials menu for tonight

Hope to see you there – please pass the word out to those that love music from Country to Rock-n-Roll!

Keith Bryant is a premier Nashville recording artist and we are thrilled to have them with us in Troutville…

http://www.keithbryantmusic.com/

Pomegranate Restaurant Specials:

hand rolled flatbread $8

arugula, prosciutto, asiago cheese

p.e.i. mussels $9

tomato, garlic, white wine

bbq sliders (2) $8

with crispy fries

new england clam chowder $6

mixed green salad $6

both $10

calamari $9

chicken wings (8)

with celery $6

with blue cheese or ranch $7

botetourt burger $8

half pound burger, hoop cheddar with crispy fries

chicken tenders $8

with crispy fries & honey mustard sauce

house corn chips $3

with black beans & salsa

submitted by Pomegranate Restaurant