And then, one fairy night, May became June. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I am unsure if it was fairies or Father Time that sped this calendar up to flip the page to June. We are already half way done with the year. Where are you on your 2025 Goals list? Myself, behind but making small steps toward progress.
May was filled with meetings and events. The Chamber hosted our lunch and learn “Pre-Venture Planning for Entrepreneurs” on Tuesday, May 6th. We had a great turnout and look forward to working with the individuals who attended as they work to develop their business ideas.
I attended the luncheon for the Patrick County Education Foundation. The Foundation is raising funds to be able to initiate their Patrick Promise. This program covers the cost of tuition for Patrick County students to attend Patrick & Henry Community College for free. Thank you to the Board of Supervisors, the County EDA, Primland, and many private donors who are making this program a reality for our youth and investing in education for Patrick County.
The big event for the month for the Chamber was attending the Federal Bank of Richmond’s Investing in Rural conference. This year’s conference spotlighted the strategies and solutions that support economic strength in rural communities — embracing empowerment, working together, and leveraging assets.
These extra meetings were in addition to the regular monthly meetings that involved the Downtown Revitalization project for Stuart. This project is slowly moving along. We hope to be completely under contract for construction of facade improvements by the end of July.
I attended the Outdoor Recreation plan meeting at Reynolds Homestead. This meeting highlighted some of the initial plans for enhancing outdoor recreation in Patrick County.
I would also like to highlight a few events that took place with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. They received news that their large implementation grant for Blue Ridge Rising was awarded. Blue Ridge Rising is the initiative to unify all the gateway communities that are along the Blue Ridge Parkway. This action plan provides a comprehensive regional strategic plan to advance travel, outdoor recreation, and related economic development in the 29 counties and gateway communities along the parkway. This action plan is the result of over two years of community meetings and strategic planning that the Chamber and other community stakeholders were a part of. One aspect of the plan is to have an ambassador representative from each of the 29 counties. I am the ambassador for Patrick County. We had a conference call this month to share the news of the grant award and work on the next steps. Due to my role as ambassador, I was able to meet with Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation staff at Mabry Mill this past Friday to talk with news outlets about the restoration work that is starting on Mabry Mill’s roof and then moving on to the Puckett Cabin. I know how much we all love the parkway and want to see it maintained and enhanced for visitors and residents. I invite anyone to register and attend the Blue Ridge Rising Summit, which will be held July 8-10th in Roanoke.
All these meetings were in addition to our many local events that start the summer seasons. Both our farmers’ market, Stuart and Fairy Stone, opened for the season. The First Friday Summer Jam season kicked off in May as well as the Strawberry Festival that turned out to have a great weather day for record vendor turnout.
June looks to be as busy. Longer daylight means more time to get out there and enjoy Patrick County. For complete event listings, visit the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce’s website at www.patrickchamber.com or call the office (276) 694-6012.
(Adcock is the executive director of the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce)
