Brownsburg Update: August 12, 2022

Fun Weekend in Northern Rockbridge!

Tomorrow, August 13, Rockbridge Vineyard and Brewery will celebrate their 29h annual festival with wine, beer, music, food and vendors! This festival was originally scheduled for July 9, which was a pretty wet Saturday. Good decision to reschedule, because the weather tomorrow should be perfect for mid-August! Wine will be sold by the glass or bottle; beer will be sold by pint or flight.  Bring your lawn chairs, popup tents and blankets. Admission is $10/person, $5/person for current wine club members. Proceeds will help benefit the Augusta Regional SPCA. Admission for children is an item for the SPCA (canned or bagged food for dogs and cats, litter, blankets or towels). Jimmy O will be providing music from 12 noon to 2:30 pm, followed by The Findells from 3-6 pm. The Island Wheels (Caribbean fusion) food truck will be providing food.

Another food option will be offered at the nearby Season’s Yield Farm. John Pedersen of Verdant Acres Farm will be grilling brats and sweet Italian sausages from 10 am to 2 pm, which will be served on Season’s Yield’s fresh baked organic wheat buns. Yum! Come out and support your local winery, brewery, and two very special family-owned local farms – and the Augusta County SPCA!

Brownsburg Gardeners

Some local folks have complained that all the rain has ruined their tomatoes……but not the Brownsburg Gardeners!  Each week, Jim Zimmerman makes a delivery to the Rockbridge Area Relief Organization’s Food Pantry, and the offerings the last couple of weeks have been amazing!  If you have extra produce, please consider becoming a “Brownsburg Gardener” by dropping off your produce on the Moore’s front porch (2664 Brownsburg Turnpike) by noon each Thursday. Jim will collect it for delivery to the Food Pantry. Here are pictures of some of the beautiful produce that Jim delivered the past couple of weeks.

Mark Your Calendars!

Don’t forget the BCA Annual Pot Luck Picnic will take place on August 28 at the Wade’s Mill Pavilion starting at 5 pm, with dinner at 6 pm (ish).  The BCA will be providing the usual fried chicken, country ham and drinks and will rely on Brownsburg neighbors (that means YOU!) for the sides and desserts.  The picnic will include the following;

• 2023 Calendar preview along with ability to order calendars
• A Silent Auction to help raise money for our local causes (If you have Silent Auction items which the BCA can use in the auction, please contact John Siegfried at 540-348-1400)
• New at this year’s picnic will be a 50/50 Raffle as well as door prizes for participating in the festivities.
• Children’s games will include Cornhole, Beachball and there will be a new Dessert Competition (more to follow on this).
• Please see the Picnic Poster at the Post Office with more details 

Fingers crossed for nice weather.  We do have several new families in the greater Brownsburg area.  If they’re your neighbors, please make sure they know about the picnic so they can join us for a fun evening!

And…………….  don’t forget to mark your Brownsburg calendar for the 5th Annual Run of the Mill taking place on September 17.  More to follow on this as the BCA will be looking for volunteers and more participants than ever before.  

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Brownsburg Update: May 30, 2022

Flags are Up!

Many thanks to the BCA for repairing some of the flag brackets and poles and hanging the village flags in time for the Memorial Day weekend. They look great! The 2022 BCA Flag Team (pictured below) consisted of Jeremy Cosgriff, Mike Strickler and Vern Lochausen.  The photo was taken by John Siegfried who was also part of the team.  When you see these fellows, please thank them for a job well done!

2022 BCA Scholarships

The Brownsburg Community Association Board of Directors would like to congratulate all Brownsburg area high school and college graduates.  Because of the pandemic, the last two years have been difficult, but our local grads have persevered and reached a significant milestone!

The BCA awarded two $1,000 scholarships to high school seniors this year thanks in part to a significant donation from a Brownsburg area resident.  The BCA Board of Directors had a difficult time choosing winners from the 13 applicants who submitted essays. As these students were still in “pandemic mode” for their final year of high school, they were asked to write an essay addressing the question, “What advice would you give a student in the future if their school year was also impacted by a pandemic?”

The Rockbridge County High School winner is Clara Fleshman.  She was awarded the BCA Whipple Scholarship in honor of Claudia Whipple, who was a librarian at Rockbridge High School for many years.  Clara is enrolled in the nursing program at Longwood University and intends to earn a Bachelor of Science nursing degree.  She plans to become a labor and delivery or neonatal nurse.

The Riverheads High School winner is William Tanner Bowles.  Tanner plans to start his future education at Blue Ridge Community College before transferring to a four-year college.  He plans to major in business and after college hopes to one day start his own business in the local community.

Again congratulations to all of the Brownsburg area seniors!

Plant an Extra Row!

The Brownsburg Gardeners Program (the brainchild of Jim Zimmerman) began in 2015, and in the seven years since, has given 9,517 pounds of fruits and vegetables and 332 pounds of health/hygiene items to the Rockbridge Area Relief Association’s Food Pantry. [NOTE: That’s just short of 5 TONS!]  In 2020, the community donated 2,020 pounds of produce; in 2021 the combined total of produce and health/hygiene items was 2,021 pounds.  You know what this means: our target this year is 2,022 pounds!!! To make this another banner year for the Brownsburg Gardeners Program, we’re asking all the gardeners out there to plant a few extra tomatoes or zucchini or watermelons (which are really heavy and add nicely to our tonnage. . .), etc. Here’s what you need to know:  The starting date this year will be Thursday, June 30. Drop off your produce before noon each Thursday on Jason and Amy Moore’s front porch (2664 Brownsburg Turnpike) and Jim will deliver it to the Food Pantry.  Jim asks that you include your name with your donation so that he can keep track of participants.  Items needed include fruit and veggies; health and hygiene items (including those items available in your hotel rooms if you’re traveling); and odds and ends such as children’s books and all that free stuff you get in the mail like calendars, greeting cards, and notepads.  If you have questions, or need to arrange an alternative drop-off time, contact Jim Zimmerman at 348-6999 or pandjzim@gmail.com.  Thank you, Jim, for continuing to coordinate this important program!

Historian, Scholar and Author Visits

Dr. Charles B. Dew, historian, scholar, professor and author of “Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge” visited Brownsburg on Friday, May 27.  Accompanied by Paul Hahn, Larry Spurgeon, and Dr. David Green, he visited the five slave dwellings featured in the “Still Standing” tour. Dr. Dew’s presentation on Saturday was sponsored by Historic Lexington Foundation, and was extremely well-attended and informative. “Bond of Iron” focuses on the interaction of masters and slaves at Buffalo Forge near Glasgow, VA.  Through extensive research of surviving documents, Dr. Dew was able to focus on individual slaves and their families and convey a sense of life at Buffalo Forge both during and after slavery. Larry Spurgeon has shared a few pictures from Dr. Dew’s visit.