Judy Hensley tells us: "We live in Canterbury Park. Two years ago, on an August, Sunday afternoon a black bear ventured into our backyard, down the side, crossed the street and disappeared in the neighbors' yards. When I called 911, the dispatcher said since he/she was just passing through, to stay indoors and leave it alone."
Have you seen a bear in Southwest Roanoke County? If so, let us know at news@swo-co.com.
Garden Club members from all over the area gathered on Wednesday, September 30, at 11:30 a.m. at the Garden Club Center to have lunch together and enjoy a fashion show. The event is an annual fundraiser for the Sugar Loaf Garden Club.
The money raised will be used to award a scholarship to a Virginia Western Community college horticulture student and donate the Arboretum, upgrading and maintaining their award-winning butterfly garden at Oak Grove Elementary School, present a program at a local nursing home, supporting Valley Beautiful and Clean Valley Council, VA Hospital Veteran's cookie plates at Christmas, support Friends of the Blue Ridge parkway and Scenic Virignia - planting trees, and support of Southwester Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank.
Garden Club member, Lydia Celin said that this is the fourth annual and largest fundraiser that the Sugar Loaf Garden Club does. She also said that the scholarship has been increasing every year. 80 tickets were
The afternoon began with a welcome and a luncheon and the fashion show by Henri Kessler Furs and Second Hand Rose. A silent auction was also going on during the event.
Door Prizes were also given out and there was a raffle drawing. The door prizes and raffles were created by donors which include, gotekgo.com (Susan Lucas), William Adkins CLU-ChFC with Nationwide Ins., Maria Lin Jewelry, Lavender Dreams, Colors & You, Plantagenet Rose, White Oak Tavern, Townside Gardens, Cindy's Greenery, VA Greenhouse, Showtimers, Mulch 'n More, Doreen's Gourmet, Virginia Western Arboretum, Sanctuary Spa, Taubman Museum of Art, Wine Gourmet, Toad'ly Kids, Petal Pushers, Glebe Gardens, Hallmark, Chocolate Paper, Willow Grove, and Star City Playhouse.
Hidden Valley hosts Northside tonight. Cave Spring has a bye.
So what kind of weather should you expect? We asked weather journalist Kevin Myatt and here's what he tells us:
There is a small chance of showers with an approaching front. Any rain that does occur will be brief, and most places won't see any. Beyond that, looks like a good football evening, with temperatures mostly in the 60s. Could be a little breezy to start the evening, but that will die down. Saturday looks sunny with highs in the 70s.
As always, if you're going to the game, you can share photos at news@swo-co.com.
Lisa Lauria recently read our article "Bears spotted in Southwest Roanoke County" on Sept. 18 and wanted to email to let us know about her experience. This is what she had to say: "I wanted to email to let you know that my family also lives in Fairway Forest and has experienced the bears. Beginning three years ago this October, we had a large bear tear our garage door in two and enter our garage at approximately 1 a.m. He then proceeded to our refrigerator in our garage. He helped himself to chocolate chip cookie dough, sticks of butter and cinnamon toast sticks. He opened frozen organic corn and refrigerated pizza but left those items. We called 911 and were told there was nothing they could do, but we should call the game warden in our area. The game warden did visit our house the next day and talked to us but said there was nothing he could do because the bear was not a nuisance and this area was not he usual habitat as he was probably passing through. We shared that we were concerned for our kids who often go out to garage for a drink from that refrigerator, but he said the bear would probably be more scared of them and knock them over and keep running! We couldn't believe it. It is now three years later and we continue quite often to have bear visits in our garbage can which is outside of the garage."
Do you have a bear experience that you would like to tell us about? If so, let us know at news@swo-co.com.
It may have been windy... and a bit chilly yesterday morning, but that didn't stop about 50 Faith Christian students from digging in the dirt and planting about 12,000 plants.
Every year, each grade level at Faith Christian School (FCS) conducts some sort of community service project, and this year the 3rd and 4th-graders joined man-power at the Salem VA Medical Center. Together they helped plant about 3,000 pots and 12,000 red, white, and blue flowers in shape of the American Flag to kick of the VAMC's 75th Anniversary.
The plants came from the VA's CWT Greenhouse on site, which employs Veterans and sells to the community.
"I've been buying from here forever," Anna Grubb, parent organizer for the service project at FCS said.
Grubb learned about the 75th anniversary coming up and asked if there was any way that they could help. That's when the plan to plant flowers in the shape of the American Flag was born.
Grubb said that her and Sandra Lane, the Horticulturist and CWT Coordinator at the VA have been planning the since about mid-summer.
"It's wonderful. There's no way we could do it without them," Lane said. "We got really ambitious. The flag is something I've wanted to do for a while now."
The 75th anniversary celebration which be held on the baseball field at the VA on Oct. 19 beginning at 1 p.m.
"They are going to try to recreate the ceremony they had when they opened the VA in the 30's when President Roosevelt came," Grubb said.
After the FCS students finished their work for the day, the VA release 200 balloons to represent the start of their 75th anniversary celebration.
Students were hard at work from 9 a.m. to after 1 p.m. and took great pride in helping their community.
"We're making it better when people pass by," Emily Kagey, a 4th-grader at FCS said. "When people pass by they will see that we are serving the Lord."
View photos from the service project above in our slideshow, 0r click here for a more traditional view.
Jennifer Romeiser sent us these photos from a recent trip out west to pick us her son after going to Philmont. Jennifer said:
"In July, we flew out to Denver and drove down to pick up Dan (my son in picture) who had just completed a 90 mile trek at the Boy Scout Ranch Philmont in Cimmeron, NM. We drove to Sedona, Grand Canyon, Telluride, CO & Breckenridgd, CO. This is a picture of my kids Dan Romeiser & Anna Romeiser in Breckenridge. We had just completed a ATV
ride, and our elevation in the picture is above 13,900 ft. Gorgeous
Courtesy of Jennifer Romeiser
views!"
Send us your vacation photos. Email them to us at news@swo-co.com!
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About this blog
Welcome to The Notebook, the community gathering place for news and tidbits from SWoCo, by community journalist Emily Flora. You can share your comments, stories, links and ideas here, too. This is your community conversation.
For more news and information from Southwest County -- and to see the photo galleries, stories and letters from the SWoCo print edition, check out www.swo-co.com.
