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Join us on a tour of 11 historic homes throughout the Roanoke Valley on May 7-8! Many of the sites will feature special events, like a wagon ride at the Jeter Homeplace and a Civil War Reenactment at Jubal Early Homeplace. Learn a bit of history at every home and see area of your hometown not generally open to the public.

Submitted by Roanoke County Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

The Bent Mountain Womans Club will hold its annual yard and bake sale at the Bent Mountain Fruit Market, located at 9513 Bent Mountain Road, on Saturday, May 14, 2011, from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.  Proceeds from the sale will help fund the Club’s scholarship and community projects.

For more information, please call Lois Overstreet at 929-4289 or Gloriadene Lancaster at 929-4793.

Submitted by Lois Overstreet.

Construct a beautiful fabric purse to accent your spring wardrobe. This design uses coordinating fabrics to make a personal and unique bag with lots of pockets to store your goodies. Must bring your own sewing machine and supplies. Supply list will be given when minimum registration is met. Three week program for just $45. Meets Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.at Conference room 2F Brambleton.

For veterans: There is a free hot dog/hamburger cookout at Windsor Hills United Methodist Church in Roanoke at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 13. They will have a speaker, Evie Sweet, who published His Name was Donn – My Brother’s Letters from Vietnam. There will be a love offering to support the Military Family Support Center.

For more information, call the Salem MFSC/food pantry at 540-400-8301.

Submitted by Jerry Brittain.

It’s the event that you readers have named best high school event, best elementary/middle school event and best community event in this year’s Best Of SWoCo results. Project Faith, a community service project and fundraiser for Faith Christian School, connected over 500 volunteer students, parents and teachers with area organizations and non-profits in need of service.

Project Faith started ten years ago as an effort to better reflect Faith Christian’s vision statement: “A mind for truth, a heart for Christ, a will to serve.” The fundraiser started out as Faith Walk, a walk-a-thon, from 1997 to 2000. But in 2001, “we wanted to do something as a whole school and make it more tangible,” said Susan Childs, marketing and public relations director for Faith Christian. ”We are awed and humbled at how God has grown this.”

Each student was responsible for sending out sponsorship letters–at least 15 letters per student for the lower school and 20 per student for the middle and upper schools. Some students went above and beyond, sending out over 100 letters, according to Childs.

Addison Lilley, a fifth grader, sent out 167 letters, according to her mom, Stacey Lilley, chair of the Project Faith Committee. “Addison said she wanted to send out the most letters in the school,” Lilley said. On Thursday, May 5, Faith Christian will hold an assembly to announce which student really did send out the most sponsorship letters–and they will announce the final fundraising total.

This year, Faith Christian partnered with Mill Mountain Zoo, Mill Mountain Garden Club, the Mill Mountain Discovery Center and Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

“We choose organizations and non-profits that have a great need that they can’t get filled,” Childs said. “Each year, it starts out as being a service project and fundraiser and we end up getting blessed beyond our wildest imaginations and getting an understanding of what it means to serve.”

Kindergarten through second grades worked at Mill Mountain gardens spreading mulch over the trails and walkways. Third through fifth grades (and some sixth and seventh graders) worked at the Roanoke Mountain Campground to clean up, clear leaves, and spread gravel at the camp sites. Sixth and seventh grades worked to clean and clear the horse trails near Yellow Mountain Road. Eighth through 12th grades worked at the Roanoke River Trail building benches and foot bridges and clearing out leaves.

“The students have worked really hard,” said Rod Broker at the Roanoke Mountain Campground site. Rod directs volunteers for Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway. “Faith Christian does a tremendous job organizing the whole effort. They show a good positive spirit.”

After several hours of much-needed (and, at times, grueling) service work, everyone returned to Faith Christian School for a celebration with food, drinks, music, an inflatable slide and moon bounce and a school-wide game of crab soccer–a first this year.

Check back next week for the final fundraising totals and more results from Project Faith.

Discover the beauty and history of Roanoke County with a fun day of Geocaching!

This third annual free, state of the art, Geocaching event is a treasure hunt and an amazing race all tied into one. On Saturday, May 14, 2011 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting at Roanoke County’s Green Ridge Recreation Center (7415 Wood Haven Road in Roanoke) the hunt begins. At 10 a.m. we will host a social hour for both experienced geocachers and beginners to mix and mingle. Pre-register to ensure your spot or arrive at 10 a.m. to register the day of the event. All participants must return to Green Ridge Recreation Center by 3 p.m., so points can be tallied and prizes awarded.

Using a hand-held GPS, longitudes and latitudes, a well thought out game plan and pure tenacity will get you to all the various sites within Roanoke County. At each site there will be a cache/caches and inside each cache lies your “treasure.” There will be one gold colored coin valued at five points, one silver colored coin at three points and “gems” with a value of one point each. The object will be to accumulate as many points as possible, taking only one coin or gem from each location. You may compete as an individual, family or in teams. We strongly suggest there be two people per car (at least one navigator).

Submitted by Amy Hanek.

Read on for more information about the treasure hunt.

Read more »

Billy Hite, assistant to the head coach and senior advisor for the Virginia Tech football program, will be a guest speaker at a fundraising event for Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley (LVRV), presented by Valley Bank.  The event will be held Thursday, May 26, 2011, at Hunting Hills Country Club.  The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. with a reception and cash bar, and Hite’s remarks will begin at 6:15 p.m.

Hite is the longest continuously serving assistant at a division I-A school.  He has worked with some of the best players to pass through the Hokies’ program, including coaching 26 running backs who signed with NFL teams.

Reservations for the event are $30 and can be made by calling the office of LVRV in advance at 540-265-9339.  All proceeds will go to LVRV, which has been operating in the Roanoke Valley for more than 25 years in helping adults achieve functional literacy.

For more information, contact the Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley at 540-265-9339 or visit www.lvarv.org.

Submitted by Russ Merritt, Executive Director.

Spend Mother’s Day doing what you really want: paddling on a scenic stretch of the New River with one of our experienced guides.

Enjoy class I/ II rapids on an individual sit-on-top kayak. No experience necessary. Must be a competent swimmer and capable of prolonged physical activity.

Transportation, equipment and guides included. Ages 14 and up are welcome. Registration is limited to 12 participants.

Trips run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on your choice of Saturday or Sunday. Departs from Kessler Mill Road in Salem.

Submitted by Roanoke County Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

For the third year in a row, we asked readers of SWoCo to pick The Best of Southwest Roanoke County. The votes poured in; nearly double the number in 2010 and nearly seven times the number of votes we got our first year. So there’s a lot more competition. In some cases, we had repeat winners, we’ve noted those with an asterisk (*) who won last year, as well. Those with a double asterisk (**) have won all three years. But we also had some new winners — and some new categories, too.

So without further ado, here’s who you picked as this year’s Best Of . . .

Read more »

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 marked the fifth annual 31 Cent Scoop Night at Baskin-Robbins, and ice cream lovers came out in droves to take advantage of the great deal.

“Everybody comes out of the woodwork for Scoop Night,” said employee Kyle Walker.

Indeed, Wednesday night, every space in the parking lot was full, with additional cars waiting for a spot or parking at a nearby gas station.

In addition to the store’s regular business, “we waited on approximately  250 extra transactions–and that’s just transactions. Some of those are families six or seven people deep,” said manager Adam Dove.

Dove has worked all five 31  Cent Scoop Nights. Attendance, he said, seemed to be slightly less this year than last. However, he still had to make preparations for the night.

“I stockpile about an extra 20 tubs of ice cream, and then you have your extra cups, spoons and lids,” Dove said.

With all of that ice cream, it seemed hard for some to pick just one favorite flavor. Choices ranged from mint chocolate chip to pralines and cream to orange sherbert–and, of course, the classic favorites, chocolate and vanilla.

Baskin-Robbins will donate $100,000 to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation as part of “Scooping up Thanks for Our Firefighters.”

Baskin-Robbins is located at 3620 Franklin Road SW in Roanoke. Read more here.