Features

MOUTH OF WILSON — Virginia native Anna Hickson shared these images of her family’s recent hike to the Mount Rogers Summit for a special Memorial Day dedication.

Hickson, along with her mother and her 4-year-old son, Ronan, took nearly 70 flags — decorated with the names of friends and family members who have been killed in action — on an 11-mile hike to the summit.

Once they were at the top, they planted the flags in remembrance of their loved ones’ brave service to the country.

MOUTH OF WILSON — Wilson, a box turtle who survived rehabilitation after a presumed automobile accident, has a new habitat at Grayson Highlands State Park.

Mallory Sullivan, AmeriCorps interpreter, searched the habitat — the fern gardens that were converted for Wilson’s homecoming — at the park’s visitor center on May 29. She eventually found him tucked under a window sill. Sullivan commented that this was a creative hiding place, especially since he has a plethora of logs in his habitat and plenty of soil to burrow under.

FRIES ― For several years, students from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., have paid visits to Fries during their Spring Break Immersion Program.

Visiting students volunteer with a variety of community service projects such as spring cleaning at the Riverview apartments and repairs/cleaning around the town and at the Fries Community Center. In turn, the students are immersed in the culture of the southern Appalachian region, and learn about the rich history of the Grayson County community.

The 42nd annual Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally, hosted by the Blue Ridge Discovery Center (BRDC), will be held May 6-8 (Friday through Sunday) this year.

This annual event is a tradition that dates back to 1975, bringing together like-minded nature lovers throughout the region. This year’s rally will highlight the 50th anniversary of the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area.

Twelve years ago, The Gazette ran a picture of something remarkable: six sets of twins, identical and fraternal, all going through the Galax school system, all in elementary school.

Now, poised at the brink of their senior year’s end, four sets of them are still in the school system and agreed to recreate the original picture.

Hope Ladies founder and president Kisha Johnson and vice president Delina Parks, who is also Johnson’s mother, are parked at a table in the kitchen area of God’s Storehouse and Community Kitchen, located in the basement of Rooftop of Virginia in Galax.

Clad in matching Williams-Sonoma aprons, they look like they should be hosting a mother-daughter version of “The Barefoot Contessa,” one of the Food Network’s most beloved anchor shows. As it turns out, though, feeding the hungry and needy is far more to their taste.

The Fisher Peak chapter of The Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway is seeking new members in their effort to preserve one of this area’s most prominent landmarks and the nation’s most-visited national park.

The group also works to educate the community and promote fellowship through its many resources.

HILLSVILLE – A group of superheroes and Mighty Max supporters showed up to the Carroll Wellness Center on March 7 to move it and shake it to raise money for Max Brown and his family.

Max, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in January, has completed his first round of treatment and has begun his second. The Zumbathon event, organized by Gretchen Lawson and other employees and instructors at the center, was a donation-only event with all proceeds going to Max and his family. The event raised $3,000.

CANA – A North Carolina couple knows what it feels like to be one in a million — given the odds, more like one in 11.7 million — after winning a $1 million dollar prize in the Virginia Lottery’s Feb. 20 Powerball drawing. The ticket was purchased just over the border in Carroll County.

Joe and Amy Shaw, of Westfield, N.C., were headed home from a church seminar when they stopped for gas at Store #3, formerly Cana Exxon, in Cana. Amy, an avid lottery player, picked up some various tickets including one for that night’s Powerball drawing.