Features

FRIES — Blue Cat on the New has reeled in the contract for a pilot program to increase accessibility on the New River Trail State Park.
Only this outfitter, with locations in Fries and Draper, has received permission from the state to host tours of portions of the popular trail using golf carts.
Business owner Donnie Turner’s application was accepted last winter when the state park system sought proposals.
The tours out of the Fries location can stretch to about 2.5 hours and extend as far as Byllesby Dam and the Gambetta area.

The 9th Annual Smoke on the Mountain barbecue championship will offer a dual competition for participants this year. In addition to scoring points in the traditional Memphis BBQ Network competition, vendors can also place in the Kansas City BBQ Society contest.
Smoke on the Mountain, the official state barbecue cook-off, is held in downtown Galax each year in July. This year's event is July 19-20. The smell of authentic barbecue prepared by award-winning vendors is enough to draw in thousands of people each year for the two-day event.

INDEPENDENCE — One thing’s for sure – when it’s time for a baby to be born, it’s going to happen when it’s time, whether it’s in a hospital or in the back of a rescue squad ambulance.
This was the case early June 6 when the Independence Volunteer Rescue Squad was en route to Twin County Regional Hospital in Galax with a maternity patient.
The squad was dispatched to the residence of Jessica Billings on Old Bridle Creek. They loaded her onto the ambulance at 2:10 a.m.

Fourth of July celebrations are abundant this Thursday, with parades, fireworks, music and more in multiple locations. Here’s a guide to the Fourth festivities in Independence, Galax, Hillsville, Fries, Lambsburg and Ivanhoe

Independence
The Town of Independence will offer a full day of events.
The festivities will kick off at 10 a.m. with the annual parade, which will start at the intersection of U.S. 58 and U.S. 21 at the 1908 Courthouse and end at the Food City parking lot at the Guynn Shopping Center.

WALES, United Kingdom — The team that won a competition to highlight the importance of a copperworks in the Industrial Revolution drew its focus from Jared Bowers, a Carroll County native and 2001 graduate of Carroll County High School.
 Bowers is a doctoral candidate at the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.

The annual Galax Firemen’s Carnival begins its festivities on June 24 and continues through June 29 at Felts Park in Galax.
Normally held on the week of July 4, the carnival was pushed back this year due to scheduling conflicts, according to the fire department. “Normally, when a carnival is booked, it is from a previous year with a city or town. We have recently been carnival shopping and these dates are what we got,” department officials explained on the GVFD’s Facebook page.

HILLSVILLE — Members of the Grover King VFW Post 1115 and Ladies Auxiliary held a special ceremony on Flag Day to honor a beautiful symbol of the United States’ national pride, according to organizer Don Dobbins.
The Stars and Stripes is the fourth-oldest banner in the world, older than even the flags of Great Britain and France.
“Their countries might be older than ours, but our flag is older than theirs,” he said.

In January, Vatress Williams of Woodlawn handed the Carroll Chapter of Project Linus over to Sarah Melton of Independence.

Williams had served Project Linus for about five years and got the chapter to supply 4,030 blankets to children in the area.

Luke Hampton, an Alleghany County wrestler paralyzed after his spine was injured during a match, is now running his own business and training young grapplers. On Sunday, a free concert in Sparta, N.C., will benefit Alleghany Special Olympics in honor of Hampton.