“Shake, Rattle, and Roll” rocked down the halls of Snyder’s Nursing Home on Tuesday, June 24. The Salem Senior Singers visit the home the last Tuesday of every month, singing songs to residents and guests. This go-round included the “Chatanooga Choo Choo,” “Me and My Gal,” traditional church hymns, and showtunes.

“Songs you can’t hear on the radio anymore,” Wilton Coleman, the choir’s director, said, “you can hear here from the Salem Senior Singers.”

Most of the group’s members have a love for, and a history of working with music. Pianist Jeanne Browning played at Locust Grove Methodist Church for 25 years, and she now plays with the Singers everywhere they go. The group will sing for churches and nursing homes, most recently working out a monthly scheme with Our Lady of the Valley.

Read more »

Robin Ferguson sent us a few pictures of the Stitch-and-Pitch event at the Salem Avalanche game on June 19. She writes in her blog:

“I think I can say that a good time was had by ALL! We had about 22 show up, including hubby’s & kids…a wonderful family night!
I know I had a blast! Here in SW Virginia you make do with what you have, we don’t have a MLB team so we gathered at our MiLB team, the Salem Avalanche. Farm team of the Houston Astros…but not for long, next year it’s the RED SOX baby!! …
A big THANK YOU is owed to all those area shops that donated to our goody bags…first TNNA for the Stitch-n-Pitch goody bags themselves~~ Knitters Knook in Boones Mill, VA (Ravelry link); On The Lamb in Staunton, VA; Orchardside Yarn Shop in Raphine, VA; Sereknity Yarn Shop in Roanoke and Yarn Theory in Bedford, VA.
Without their contributions I couldn’t have pulled off the special surprise for the attendees!”

Check out Robin Ferguson’s or Pam Winchell’s blog for more about the event. Our last post about the knitters was on June 16.

Read more »

It all started with finding little ways to save money, like making homemade laundry detergent and cooking meals from scratch.

Then Carrie Cox, founder of the environmental group Big Lick Green Drinks, decided that she wanted to be organic. She had some experience by working at the Natural Foods Co-op on Grandin Road, but the prices for natural and organic food were still out of reach. “Once you see the effects of how your food is raised … you can’t unsee it” she said.

“I started thinking, what did our grandparents and great-grandparents do during the Depression…they obviously did something to get by, they obviously didn’t die off, so what did they do and how did they do it?” Cox said.

She’s got deep enough roots in Salem’s history to know. Her great grandmother Carrie Brown-Taney, she said, used to live where Roanoke College’s Fintel Library stands now. “She gardened all the way down the hill and across Thompson Memorial, which wasn’t there then…I think you can still see the outline of the chicken coop,” she remembered. Her ancestor later moved into the family house on Academy Street where Cox lives now.

While Brown-Taney didn’t take chickens to the new house, she did garden in the lot out back. “There used to be horses in the field behind her house,” Cox said. Her eco-friendly approach to natural foods falls in line with an old-fashioned way of thinking, when neighbors dropped off vegetables, eggs, and baked goods off on one another’s porches and when a family didn’t buy something at the store when they could make it at home.

Read more »

Salem Parks & Recreation is holding a lacrosse clinic for 4th to 9th graders at Salem High School this week. A total of 45 players have signed up for the clinic (30 boys, 15 girls) and we have a photo gallery of 16 photos.

Do you have sports photos involving teams or players from Salem or western Roanoke County? If so, you can share them at news@sosalem.com

Photos by Erin Millar

We have a photo gallery of 16 photos from Monday’s game between the Mason’s Cove Eagles and the South County Astros in the RAYSA Softball Tournament at Moyer Sports Complex. Here, Shayna Palmer of Mason’s Cove pitches. Mason’s Cove won 12-5.

Photos by Erin Millar

Do you have sports photos of teams or players from Salem or western Roanoke County? If so, you can share them at news@sosalem.com

Graduation season has come and gone, and left Jorge Cuestas Jr. — Lee to friends — with a high school diploma.
An almost-diploma, really, since he has a session of summer school first. But in his 17 years, Lee has traveled farther than most seniors to put on a cap and gown and get, as he puts it, that “piece of paper.”
He has bounced between coasts and lived overseas, been kicked out of school and learned self-discipline at a Baptist residential care facility on a hill in Salem.
And on June 13, Lee joined the largest graduating class in the history of the center’s Gus Mitchell School: four.
We have a story and video that give a good look into the not-so-typical life of one Salem student.

Photo by Josh Meltzer

Here’s something free you can take the kids to:

This Friday (June 27) through Monday (June 30), Roanoke College students as the characters Brer Rabbit, Brer Rox, Brer Terrapin, and Brer Bear will enact Remus Tales, adapted from the stories of Joel Chandler Harris, by Stanley Vincent Longman.

Showtime is 8 p.m.

The play’s location is slated for the outdoor amphitheater next to Olin Hall on High Street, on Roanoke College campus. If the weather doesn’t hold up, the play will move inside, says director Lisa Warren.

The play is suitable for all ages and admission is free!

Photo, from left: Brer Rabbit, played by Haley Thompson; Brer Bear, played by Ryan Webster; Brer Fox, played by Cory Lawson; and Brer Terrapin, played by Chelsea Stroker.

The American Cancer Society fundraiser, Relay for Life, which took place at Salem High School last Friday, surpassed their fundraising goal of $142,000 bringing in a total of $161,596.

“And the money is still coming in,” said Colleen Turner, a Relay community manager. Turner would like to thank Melvin and Becky Crowder and the rest of the committee for doing “an awesome job” and making this event a success. She would also like to thank community manager Annie Cooper.

We had a previous post about the Salem Relay for Life — with a photo gallery — on June 21.

The 21st annual Salem Fair will open Thursday, July 3 at 4 p.m., and carnival riders can buy a $10 pass for all night before 6 p.m. The fair will run through Sunday, July 13, opening at 4 p.m. on July 3 and 11, and at noon every other day. The fairgrounds will be open until 11 p.m., with other attractions closing earlier.

While there won’t be any more fireworks due to recent business development on land below Elizabeth Campus, everything else should all but make up for it. The Navy Fleet Forces Bands Four Star Edition will also be playing on the free stage July 7, 8, and 9—performing nightly at 7 and 8:30 p.m.

As well as daily attractions like the USA Basketball Red, White, and Blue tour, Pirates of the Colombian Caribbean Aerial Highwire show, and Elephant Encounter, an opportunity for fame will grace the Salem Civic Center grounds.

WDBJ7 is offering fairgoers a chance to tape a 3 minute audition for the popular CBS reality show, Survivor, on July 9 from 5 to 8 p.m. Who knows? A Roanoke Valley resident may be the next “Cao Boi Bui” (Christiansburg native, 2006 season.)

Above: The Elephant Encounter troupe performs a trick called “the elephant leg lift.”

What’s your favorite thing about the Salem Fair? Leave a comment below or email us at news@sosalem.com

The U.S. Olympic softball team is coming to Salem July 24 to play an exhibition before it heads to the Beijing games — and today the Salem Parks and Recreation Department released the roster of regional all-stars who will suit up against the Olympians.

No Angela Tincher, the Virginia Tech softball star. But a number of other Hokies made the list. Here’s the official release:

Read more »