Features

Organizers said the convention on Aug. 14-15 went well, with good weather and attendance. They thanked everyone involved, including sponsors and those in attendance who made the convention a success.

Winners included:

YOUTH

Old-time Fiddle

1. Kali Taylor

2. Timothy Hale

3. Kitty Amaral

4. Abby Hensley

5. MacKenzie Maitland

Bluegrass Fiddle

1. Marlon Dean

2. Laurel Brooke

3. Sarah Bobbitt

Mandolin

1. Adam McPeak

2. Lula Furtado

HILLSVILLE — The Carroll County Fair will once again feature fun for the whole family, but at a new venue — for the first time, the event will be held at the new fairgrounds at the Southwest Virginia Farmers' Market.

The fair will display farming activities, games, a beauty pageant, music, food, amusements and much more.

The fair schedule includes:

• Wednesday — preview night with no admission charge.

Though local Kevin Fore never got to meet local old-time music legend Kyle Creed, who passed away in 1982, the banjo player forever changed Fore's life.

To Fore, Creed was his hero and he would have given anything to meet him. In fact, Creed is the reason Fore got interested in the banjo and the reason he started hand-making some of his own instruments using the Kyle Creed method.

HILLSVILLE — Organ donors save lives, as in the case of Michael Henry, who donated a kidney to his father, Bob.

Hillsville resident and businessman Bob Henry saw the quality of life deteriorate as his health declined, starting with a bout of cancer that affected his kidney.

In 2005, he had half the kidney removed, which took care of the cancer problem. But after that, Henry’s kidney functions diminished.

That led to dialysis, and he underwent surgery on his arm to prepare him for receiving the treatments. A lump over his elbow still looks purple.

Katherine Stone was known as the “flag lady of Mount Dora.”

That's the name people gave her when she lived in Florida, after many years of adorning her yard with thousands of American flags and her front porch with red, white and blue for Independence Day and any other patriotic holiday.

Now, they've brought their tradition to their new home on Calhoun Street in downtown Galax.

It made perfect sense that this year's pet show at the Galax Public Library was dedicated to the late Dr. Don Fincher, a beloved Galax veterinarian who passed away last month.

Fincher, as you'd expect, loved animals and caring for their well-being. He also loved books, making the site of the pet show the ideal venue.

The critter competition was once an annual feature of the library's summer reading program, but it hadn't been held for a few years. Children's librarian Carlene Poole brought it back to coincide with the last summer program under her direction.

Ask Derrick Davis anything about tea, and he can tell you all about it — the flavors, the health benefits, the quality, the history and the traditions.

Davis, co-owner of the family-owned and -operated Stringbean Coffee Shop and Shamrock Tea Room in downtown Galax, will host a series of tea cupping/tasting classes this summer to share his knowledge of the thousands of tea varieties.

“Tea is fun and enjoyable, and cupping is a way for people to get to know what they like to make the best purchase,” said Davis.

They are as different as, say, the next five or six people you’d meet on the street. And yet they have joined forces — and stayed joined for seven years — to promote a common goal.

That goal is to support and encourage each other in their creative work, and to share the labor and rewards of marketing it.

They are songwriters and potters, calligraphers and artists; they produce cut-paper art and unique lampshades, turned wooden bowls, and woolen rugs and mats.

The short metal shovels had dug foxholes and trenches on battlefields around the world, but on Memorial Day they turned the earth to create a peaceful place to reflect on veterans' service to their country.

Called entrenchment tools by the military, the folding shovels have been carried by U.S. soldiers for decades, as much a part of their gear as the rifle, helmet and canteen.

They were dented, worn and some of them a little rusty. The olive drab paint was chipped.