Celebrating 250 Years

Saturday, the county had what I suspect will be its last effort to celebrate its 250th anniversary, which was actually last year.

The committee, of which I was a small part, had planned an entire year's worth of marvelous activities, but then the pandemic hit. We all know what happened then. Events stopped, things shut down, and gatherings were taboo.

Efforts to try again this year sputtered to a halt again after the Delta variant began increasing numbers of folks with the Covid-19 virus.

However, they had a monument to dedicate, and Saturday was also the Historic Fincastle Festival, so they chose that day to dedicate the monument, hoping for a crowd.

Had things been better organized by Historic Fincastle, Inc., so that the damn music that was about 100 feet away from the courthouse had stopped for the whole 15 minutes the dedication ceremony lasted, there may have been a crowd. As it was, the musicians actually TURNED UP THE VOLUME when the dedication event started and I could barely hear most of the event. I suspect most people couldn't hear.

At any rate, the thing was dedicated. I was asked to be there because I'd edited the 250th Anniversary Magazine, which turned out to be about the only part of the celebration that came to fruition.

A sign about the event

Fincastle Mayor Mary Bess Smith gave a speech.

These are the women who made up the committee that did all the planning.

Steve Vest, former director of the Botetourt County Library
 system, wrote a song for the event.

His wife, Jayne, sang the song.
Too bad I could barely hear it.

Weldon Martin, former Executive Director of the
Botetourt County Historical Society, gave a speech.

Billy Martin, Blue Ridge District Supervisors, gave a speech.

Curtis Brown, President of the County-Wide League
 and a minister, gave a final prayer for the dedication.

The monument pre-reveal.

Here it is!

Here is a picture, from left, of me,
Billy Martin, Wendy Wingo, Lois Switzer,
 Donna Vaughn, and Angela Coon at the monument.