VCU CNS

Ed McCann Is the executive director of NORML's Virginia chapter.

By Charles Couch and Amir Vera
Capital News Service

RICHMOND – After months of an undercover investigation in 2008, a Yorktown County police officer finally had enough evidence to charge Brandon Gomez, then 18, with intent to distribute marijuana.

“I had actually been just basically the middleman,” Gomez said, describing himself as an intermediary between a dealer and users in marijuana sales.

During the investigation, the undercover officer bought 4 ounces of marijuana. After Gomez spent a few nights in jail, the officer offered him a deal: If he turned in his dealer and buyers, the felony charges would be reduced to misdemeanors. Gomez reluctantly agreed, and spent the next six months betraying the people who trusted him most.

“The way I saw it, that was almost worse than me having to stay in jail – having had to deal with that for months on end,” Gomez said. “I lost friends because I tried to be honest with my close friends about what I had done about the guy I was middle-manning for.”

In 2009, Jordan McNeish was 20 years old and living in Albemarle County. His neighbors had complained several times about noise from his apartment.

When he answered the door one night, thinking it was a friend, it turned out to be a police officer responding to another noise violation. The officer saw a beer in McNeish’s hand. Knowing McNeish was underage, the officer stepped into the apartment to investigate.

“He pushed past me, came into my house, threw his flashlight around and found a bag of what was marijuana,” McNeish said. The officer sent his partner to get a search warrant. When they came back, they ended up finding 2 ounces of marijuana.

McNeish was convicted of intent to distribute marijuana – a more serious offense than possession – and sentenced to five and a half years in jail. He got out after six months for good behavior and now has three years of supervised probation.

“It was determined to be an ‘intent to distribute’ charge not because of packaging or any other evidence other than quantity. Half an ounce is automatic intent to distribute in Virginia,” McNeish said.

The cases involving Gomez and McNeish illustrate how severely Virginia deals with marijuana possession. Both men felt their punishments outweighed their crimes. And both face the long-term consequences of being convicted criminals.

Virginia treats marijuana possession more harshly than many other states, handing down years-long sentences to people arrested with small amounts of the substance. Neighboring states have decriminalized marijuana or approved it for medicinal uses, but Virginia legislators this year hardly gave serious consideration to such ideas.

An exception was Delegate Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, who proposed House Bill 485. It sought to allow individuals convicted of marijuana possession to petition for expungement, and have the charges cleared, after five years.

“I believe in second chances; I believe a person can mess up. And once they’ve atoned themselves and pay restitutions and rehabilitated themselves, they ought to be restored back whole – meaning it shouldn’t show on their record,” Ware said.

The bill died in a subcommittee of the House Courts of Justice Committee.

Former Delegate Harvey Morgan, a Republican from Gloucester, is familiar with that panel. Before retiring in 2011, he tried for five years to relax Virginia’s marijuana laws.

At first, Morgan, a pharmacist, introduced bills to expunge criminal records of marijuana charges. Then he altered his strategy and tried decriminalizing marijuana – changing the $500 criminal fine for simple possession to a $500 civil charge and eliminating the threat of prison time.

Morgan’s efforts also foundered in the House Courts of Justice Committee.

“The criminal subcommittee consisted primarily of attorneys who have been prosecutors, and they have the mindset that it (marijuana possession) should not be decriminalized,” Morgan said. “If it went to any other committee in the General Assembly, it would stand a lot better chance.”

As a result, Ware said, Virginia remains very strict concerning marijuana laws.

“Virginia is in the minority on this. Other states usually just automatically expunge your records after five or 10 years, especially on nonviolent crimes and misdemeanors. But Virginia, once again, holds the distinction of being in the very small minority. I know we have the most restricted expungement statute in the country,” Ware said.

Ed McCann, executive director of the Virginia chapter National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says Virginia is typical of the South.

“I know states with harsher laws,” McCann said. “As far as Southern states go, we’re probably in the middle.”

He said Western states generally have the most liberal marijuana laws. New England is lenient, too. Connecticut is about to become the 17th state to allow marijuana for medical reasons. Under the Connecticut law, doctors could prescribe the substance specifically to patients with debilitating diseases such as cancer or AIDS.

Midwestern states are still pretty strict, McCann said. The mid-Atlantic states vary in how they treat marijuana users.

North Carolina has decriminalized the substance. So if you’re arrested there with a marijuana cigarette, you might get the equivalent of a parking ticket.

If you smoke marijuana in Maryland as treatment for glaucoma, judges might let you off. Maryland legislators are debating proposals to legalize marijuana for medical uses.

But if you’re arrested smoking marijuana in Virginia, even for medical reasons, you could face hard time – 30 days in a state prison on a first offense or as much as 10 years on a subsequent offense.

McCann says that’s unfair.

“There are a lot of pot smokers in Virginia, you know. We’re all regular people, and we need to be respected and not arrested anymore,” McCann said.

NORML’s goal is to legalize the use of marijuana by adults. The group supports having a regulated system allowing adults to buy marijuana for recreational, medical and spiritual use.

“In other words, just like alcohol – with restrictions and regulations that are approved by the community so that people know where marijuana’s being sold, they know who’s selling it and when it’s being done,” McCann said. “They can collect the taxes and they can make the regulation so that kids aren’t being allowed to access it.”

An initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol will be on the ballot in Colorado in November. The state of Washington is planning a similar referendum.

Those elections may determine how the rest of the nation will view reforming marijuana laws, McNeish said.

“If that passes, I think that other states will probably find this goal is more realistic,” McNeish said. “But if that fails and gets pushed back another two years, I think it could be seven or 10 years before Virginia could do anything like that, because Virginia’s not going to be the first state to legalize it – that’s for sure.”

Before Virginia’s laws on marijuana can change, Ware and Morgan said, the mindset in the General Assembly must change – starting with the House Courts of Justice Committee.

“It never gets out of committee … The people that run it are prosecutors, and they don’t believe giving any break to anybody. Once you’re a criminal, they don’t believe in giving breaks. It’s just a difference in philosophy, so they kill the bill,” Ware said.

In the meantime, people like McNeish and Gomez must live with the consequences of being caught with marijuana. Their criminal records will haunt them the rest of their lives, making it hard to find work or housing and even vote.

Gomez is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He’d like to join the Navy SEALs. But because of his record, that might not be possible.

“They passed this new mandate that said that no one, because they’re overfilled right now, with any sort of drug charges is allowed in,” Gomez said. “I know I have potential. I’ve always wanted to join the military, but now I may not be able to join.”

McNeish, who works doing auto restoration, said he has had issues applying for housing.

“I’ve been lucky with jobs,” McNeish said. “But I have noticed that it’s been extremely hard for me to find a place. Lots of applications ask if you have any criminal record; other applications only ask for felonies.”

On the Web

For more about the Virginia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, visit www.virginianorml.org.

A map showing the laws in each state is at http://norml.org/laws.

Capital News Service is a student news-gathering program sponsored by the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Don Audette | Rappahannock News

VDOT's 1929 engineering and plans for the Sperryville bridge.

Of historic interest is the Proposed Truss Bridge over the Thornton River near Sperryville, as laid out by the Virginia Department of Highways on November 19, 1928.   Figures shown nearby include the overall design plan, plus enlargements of parts of that plan. These include: the title of the plan, a close up of the side view of the bridge, and a general note about the bridge.  For the latter, of particular interest is the roadway being 24 feet wide, and the bridge having a capacity to handle two 15-ton trucks passing.

As built by the Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works in 1929, using steel from Bethlehem Steel, the bridge in Sperryville is technically called a “pony Warren truss bridge.”  Pony is the name given to short bridges that have no top.  Warren is the name of the bridge design patented in 1848 by Englishman James Warren (and Willoughby Theobald Monzani, who probably had too complicated a name to include in the name of a bridge type).  Engineering-wise, a truss bridge is, essentially, a number of easily and ruggedly constructed triangles, designed to handle heavy loads for long periods of time by constantly transferring any moving weights on the bridge to the ground.

The interesting point of the Sperryville bridge of 1929 is that the roadbed passes through the bridge part way up from the bottom of the bridge and not along the bottom.  The reason is that the Sperryville bridge of 1929 had no “rollers” at one end to compensate for the expansion and contraction of the bridge metal due to hot or cold weather.  The expansion and contraction was shifted to the roadbed.  This loosey-goosey approach was the source of the vibrations felt on the bridge.

VDOT’s plan for the new bridge (as shown in the photo below) is meant to emulate the look of the old bridge.

Don Audette | Rappahannock News

The bridge as it looked in late April 2012.

VDOT

VDOT's simulation of the new bridge over the south fork of the Thornton River at U.S. 522.

Don Audette

From the Bekins website: "Since 1891, Bekins has been providing our customers with the best value and service. No other van line has more experience than Bekins."

As in the photo above sent in this week by Don Audette, who happened to be among the drivers who had to wait while a truck driver and his partner tried to back their rig out of a bad situation, tractor-trailers have been tying up U.S. 211 in Sperryville trying to make the hairpin turn at Main Street – a turn that big orange detour signs in Madison, Warrenton, Front Royal and Culpeper warn them they won’t be able to make (or, in making, will destroy the new guardrail VDOT just put in, shown below) until the reconstruction of the U.S. 211 bridge over the Thornton River is complete — most likely sometime in late June.

Meantime, if you happen to be in Sperryville when a big rig shows up and attempts to circumvent traffic laws (not to mention the laws of physics), get out that camera and send us your photos — including one of the license number, if possible.

We’ll try to pass the photos on to the proper authorities, or at least the nearest remedial sign-reading school. If you’re a truck driver and you’re reading this, we’ll try to be understanding of how tough it’s gotten, financially and otherwise, to make a living moving freight around on 18 wheels — but you’re still a nimrod, not just for ignoring the detour signs, for speeding down Main Street in a 10,000-pound death machine and for risking lives and property to save 45 minutes.

J.D. Hartman, who owns High on the Hog BBQ right next to the difficult detour intersection, said he flagged down a tractor-trailer driver this week who’d just made the hairpin turn and was driving toward Sperryville down Main Street. Hartman told the driver to watch out because he would likely get a ticket from the deputies Sheriff Connie C. Smith says are now detailed to catch the detour-runners. The driver’s response, according to Hartman: “Well f— you, and them, too.”

Hartman said it seems truck drivers are frustrated by the situation, and recounted another instance last week when a truck bumped the telephone pole next to the damaged guard rail, which shook the power lines dramatically all the way down the street. “There’s going to be an accident right at that turn,” he said. “Mark my words.”

Raymond Boc | Rappahannock News

A guardrail just reinstalled by VDOT, damaged last week by an unidentified trucker.

Main Street resident Christopher Ramey, three houses down from High on the Hog, said he and a Thornton River Grille coworker were sitting on his porch overlooking the south fork of the Thornton River at about 10:30 p.m. the other night when they heard the truck attempting to make the illegal turn onto Main Street crush the new guardrail. “We just sat there watching and listening, and after the driver made the turn, he just kept on going and didn’t seem to look back,” said Ramey, who wasn’t able to see the license plate. Ramey thinks that trucks are more confident to make that turn at night because it is unlikely that police will witness the act.

“We’re down there working traffic, catching speeders,” said Sheriff Smith. “And if we see any trucks going down Water Street or making that turn at High on the Hog – they’re not supposed to be there – so we’re enforcing that.”

Rappahannock County Administrator John McCarthy said at last Monday night’s supervisors meeting that some truck drivers headed north from Culpeper on U.S. 522 apparently have been using their GPS navigation to reroute in Woodville onto the paved but narrow Rudasill Mill Road (and from there to Rock Mills Road and U.S. 211 near the high school). McCarthy said he was concerned that at least one of the bridges on Rudasill Mill was not designed for tractor-trailer traffic.

More historical background

Engineering plans, photos and more are included in this web-only sidebar compiled by Don Audette.

The Sperryville bridge has come to the end of its life. It was a brave little bridge. Day and night, for 82 years, it helped vehicles cross the south branch of the Thornton River at Sperryville. Cars, trucks with giant logs, pickup trucks, tractor-trailers, farm vehicles, bikers, gravel trucks, cement trucks, emergency vehicles, you name it. Only 60 feet long, it went unnoticed by most travelers. It gave its heart and soul to Sperryville. Brave little bridge, we will miss you.

It certainly arrived at a propitious time back in 1929. Construction of Lee Highway was fast approaching Sperryville from east and west. Lee Highway was meant to be the South’s counterpart to the Lincoln Highway. Both were transcontinental highways starting in New York City and ending in San Francisco. The vision for Lee Highway, from Washington, D.C. to New Market in the Shenandoah Valley, was that of a magnificent tree-lined, dual-lane boulevard, with flanking auxiliary roads at its sides for local traffic. It required a 200-foot right-of-way. (You can still see elements of the design near the beginning of Arlington Boulevard, U.S. Route 50, just outside of Washington, D.C.)

Back in the 1920s, it was expected that visitors from all over the western U.S. would approach the nation’s capital via Lee Highway, descending out of the Blue Ridge Mountains along a wide boulevard that eventually rose up over the hill at Fort Myer to reveal a spectacular vista laid out before them: the nation’s capital, from the new Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Mall, the White House and the Washington Monument, and the Capitol in the distance.

Lee Highway never lived up to its dream. Tight-fisted citizens along the way would not give up their land for a right-of-way, speculators and developers drove up prices and heated arguments arose about the route. In the end, Lee Highway was completed on a much smaller scale, but still significant for the times.

Rappahannock County was a laggard in this project. In a slick publication put out by the Lee Highway Association in 1926, describing the transcontinental highway in some detail, it notes a section east of Ben Venue, going toward Amissville, as follows: “This road is now under construction eastward to connect with the pavement west of Warrenton. This is one of the few gaps totaling 200 miles, which breaks the continuity of a transcontinental highway. The State has graded this section and keeps it in good condition. It is even now a very good road, except that it is slippery after rain.”

In Sperryville, Lee Highway followed Water Street and Main Street. How could Main Street – or especially Water Street – handle millions of potential visitors traveling to and from the West? Hence the building of the bypass of current U.S. 211, plus the Sperryville bridge to siphon off local traffic and make connections with Culpeper and Madison. Water Street and Main Street were thus saved by the Sperryville bridge from certain destruction. But, for a short time, they were part of Lee Highway.

There is not much known about the installation of the Sperryville bridge. The Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Highways (the forerunner of VDOT) had prepared a schematic of the proposed bridge, dated Nov. 19, 1928. It was built – as its nameplates proclaimed for more than 80 years – by the Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works, Inc., of Walnut Street SE, in Roanoke. The company was founded in Roanoke in 1915 and by 1930 had 236 employees. Since the Virginia Department of Transportation standardized metal truss bridge plans after 1909, there were 59 such bridges constructed in Virginia the 1920s. The Sperryville bridge was one of them: in place and on time.

But what of that unfinished portion of Lee Highway? It was a really sore point with the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors. At a supervisors’ meeting on Nov. 7, 1929, the board passed a stern resolution to be sent to each member of the Virginia Highway Commission. It cited three facts – the Virginia General Assembly in 1922 created Lee Highway in memory of Gen. Robert E. Lee; the gap in the construction in Rappahannock County; and the imminent opening of the new Arlington Memorial Bridge in 1931 – and then got to the heart of the matter.

Virginia, it said, “ . . . is getting very adverse advertising by reason of the condition of this stretch of road which cannot be properly maintained owing to the present character of construction of this road and the heavy traffic on it. In fact, people outside of the state traveling over this road remark that Virginia has constructed no memorial to our great leader, if the road they are traveling over can be considered such a memorial.”

The Virginia Commissioner of Highways – Mr. Wade H. Massie of Rappahannock County – got the message. Improvements were made to complete the work on Lee Highway here. This work joined the new bypass. And the Sperryville bridge was ready for its future.

So long, little buddy.

Food Pantry Day
Saturday, May 12

At the Pantry

9:30 a.m. – Pet Parade led by 11-year-old bagpiper Jacob Laughlin. Prizes awarded in three categories (dogs, cats, others), registration begins at 9, entry fee is donation of dog food or cat food (no entry fee for Pantry customers).

11 a.m. – Gardening workshop led by Farm to Table coordinator Jen Rattigan and master gardener Mark Cuppet from Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School.

1-3 p.m. – Food Pantry Open House

Also, Trinity Episcopal Church’s lemonade stand and St. Peter’s Catholic Church’s bake sale, both to benefit the pantry.

At the home of Beverly and John Fox Sullivan

6-9 p.m. Fundraising dinner and wine auction at the mayor’s home in Washington; tickets, $85, available by emailing PantryDay@RappahannockPantry.org, visiting RappahannockPantry.org or calling 540-937-4038.

This Saturday’s Food Pantry Day is giving youngsters an opportunity to develop a sense of responsibility for their community and build the habit of helping neighbors less fortunate than themselves. On their own or through scouting and school programs, kids from Sperryville to Amissville are observing Rappahannock County Food Pantry Day on May 12 and simultaneously learning the importance and satisfaction of making a difference.

For the girls in the Rappahannock Service Unit of the Girl Scouts, a food drive was the perfect way to participate, to honor scouting’s 100th birthday and earn the special anniversary patch commemorating their good work. Every Rappahannock Girl Scout, from kindergarten to 9th grade, is taking part in the campaign.

 “Courage, competence and character. That’s what Girl Scouting is all about, and this food drive advances all three of those goals,” explained Janet Robey, leader of the seventh-grade cadet troop and Brownies. “It’s a girl-led project. The girls looked at the needs in this county, and they wanted to focus on combating hunger.”

Basing the collection of non-perishables at the elementary school, the girls made and decorated food boxes for every home room. They went class to class, describing hunger in Rappahannock, explaining the needs and exhorting their friends to help. They made food drive announcements and reported progress over the school’s public address system. On Fridays, the seventh-grade cadets hauled a wagon through the halls, stopping at each home room to collect cans, bottles and boxes. “It was amazing to see the kids pouring out of the rooms loaded down with food. The first Friday, we had to stop and empty the wagon twice!” Robey noted.

And it only got worse . . . or better, depending on the perspective. To earn the 100th anniversary patch, the girls had to achieve 100 of something – pounds, items, hours, anything, as long as it totaled 100 or multiples thereof.

On opening day of the drive, the scouts beat their goal, collecting 209 items that weighed in at 212 pounds. So they upped the target to 1,000, and in week two, they were at 993 pounds – only seven short of the new goal, with the drive only half way through and two weeks of collecting still to go. “It’s been a wonderful success,” Robey added, “and the girls have been able to see the results of doing something for others.”

For those who want to assist the Girl Scouts with the food drive, there’s still time. Perishables may be dropped up at the elementary school through this Friday (May 11.)

For the teenagers in Rappahannock County High School’s Farm-to-Table program, support of the Food Pantry is a continuing effort, with produce picked, bagged and delivered weekly. From cool weather greens, peas and broccoli to the tomatoes, herbs, corn, beans and squash of high summer, hundreds of pounds of high-school grown vegetables filled the pantry’s bushel baskets last year. “It isn’t just the horticulture and agriculture classes,” said Jen Rattigan, who teaches agriculture and coordinates the F2T program. “Every class is somehow involved in our interdisciplinary approach.” For instance, shop classes built the raised beds at the Food Pantry and the Senior Center. Math classes do the numbers, working out plot sizes, plant spacing, cost and output. For school lunches, culinary art students prepare cooked vegetables and salad bar fixings harvested from the Farm to Table gardens.

“After every delivery to the Food Pantry, we report the next day on the experience. It means a lot to the kids,” Rattigan said. “They harvest for themselves, and they look forward to the fruits of their labors, but they gladly give up their shares when they know we’re harvesting for the Food Pantry.”

Students from Belle Meade School are collecting and donating eggs from the farm’s flock to the pantry. At Hearthstone School, kids are holding a food drive. Children from the Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School in Flint Hill, where the Plant-A-Row hoop house is installed, grow, bag and deliver greens to the pantry. At Stuart Field in Amissville, young athletes in the Rappahannock Culpeper Baseball League will be conducting a food drive during Saturday’s games (the drop for donations is at the concession stand.)

Main Hutcheson of Amissville is building a 10-by-12-foot storage shed for the pantry as his Eagle Scout project, and scouts will help with activities at the pantry on Saturday as well as park cars at the fundraising dinner and wine auction that night at the Sullivans’ home. Jacob Laughlin, whose grandmother Annie lives in Huntly, will lead the pet parade on Food Pantry Day with his bagpipes. The 11-year-old ranks fifth in the nation as a bagpipe player for his age group.

 “These young people all have one thing in common – they care,” said Mimi Forbes, Food Pantry director. “They’re in training to carry on the tradition of this caring and compassionate community”

Most of the regular volunteers at the Food Pantry are retirees with time to donate to community causes. Occasionally, a teenager or 20-something will tag along to help parent or grandparent with an afternoon shift at the pantry, but rarely do they become steady helpers. There’s so much else to do, they’re too busy, job and school pose conflicts, or they have family responsibilities. Twenty-seven-year-old Jen Green of Amissville is the exception.

Daphne Hutchinson | Rappahannock News

Two years ago, struggling with severe social anxiety, Jen saw the Food Pantry as an opportunity – a small, safe place where she could practice socialization. Her excellent computer skills made her instantly indispensable; her kind and helpful manner made her an instant favorite with customers. It was a good match. She took on additional responsibilities, her confidence growing as her competence increased, and in no time, she was tapped as deputy – the mini-Mimi – in charge when the director is on leave, comfortable with the authority, at ease in the position, with no trace of anxiety.

How did the transformation happen?

“It’s simple. There’s such camaraderie between the volunteers. It’s fun! And I think I accomplish something positive at the Food Pantry,” Jen explained.

It’s almost Food Pantry Day! Saturday (May 12) will begin with a Washington pet parade at 9:30 a.m., followed by a gardening demonstration at 11, then an open house from 1 to 3 at the Rappahannock Pantry (603 Mount Salem Ave., Washington) – and the day will end with a big party and wine auction at the home of Beverly and John Fox Sullivan in Washington, sponsored by Flavor magazine and a number of local businesses. Food and wine for the event have been donated by local farmers, restaurants, and wineries, and the party is a fundraiser for the Pantry. Ticket price is $85 per person.

Find out more about Food Pantry Day in the story and box on page 2. Support the Pantry not only with food and money but also by joining the celebration. You can also sign up to be a volunteer at the Pantry. While there are many regular volunteers, there is often also a need for a volunteer for an hour or two once in awhile. Signing up won’t commit you to being a regular volunteer.

Montpelier: historic house, ‘happy home’

Kathy Christie | Rappahannock News

The view from the porch at Montpelier.

At Montpelier, the historic F.T. Valley residence of Sarah and James Wildasin, hosts for Belle Meade School’s upcoming fundraiser Saturday (May 12), guests will have a unique opportunity to view a careful, caring restoration of a treasured historic house (shown here is the view from the porch, which features railings that owner Sarah Wildasin carefully reproduced, of the Blue Ridge mountains and some of Montpelier’s horses in background).

“This is a happy home, a very happy home,” Wildasin declares, noting that three generations of her family are enjoying life fully at Montpelier, the evidence supplied by the dogs underfoot and the young folk grooming and riding horses nearby.

The transformation of a Rappahannock gem in the aftermath of a tragic vandalism episode was begun five years ago by Sophie and Roger Scruton, from whom the Wildasins purchased Montpelier in 2010.  But it’s clear that Sarah Wildasin, in the time since, has been busy attending to the details of a long “to do” list.  Old wood floors and walls are cleaned and polished; walls re-plastered and repaired and paints applied in historically accurate colors; baths, closets and kitchen fixed or updated. All the fireplaces operate now with marble facades scrounged from salvage and antique dealers, as well as matches found for missing door knobs, sink fittings and chandeliers.

Saturday’s guests will gain a rare glimpse of a superb and ongoing restoration of a privately owned historic house that is lived in and enjoyed as a home – one, which in days gone by, frequently hosted George Washington, his horse, Buckskin, stabled then in what is now a state-of-the-art  equestrian barn.

The dinner is 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday (May 12) at Montpelier (26 Montpelier La., Sperryville) and features music by Dontez Inferno and a Belle Meade Farm menu by chef Sylvie Rowand with local wines. Visit bellemeadeschool.org or call 540-987-8970 for details or to purchase tickets.

– Kathy Christie

Celebrate Mary Beth, and farming

Courtesy photo

Mary Beth Williams

The Mary Beth Williams Memorial Fund’s annual dinner and bluegrass music gala begins at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 19 at High Thicket (367 Fletchers Mill Road, Woodville). Mary Beth Williams (pictured here), whose life has become a symbol of spring, was tragically killed in an automobile accident on Route 729 in May of 1997. She was 18.

Mary Beth’s greatest passion was agriculture. And so the theme of the event is “farming in Virginia.” Bluegrass music will be provided by the Shenandoah Travelers. Political commentary, with a focus on agriculture, will be provided by Del. Michael Webert (R-18th), who is a Fauquier-based farmer when he’s not in Richmond attending to General Assembly business.

The Williams memorial fund finances scholarships for higher education, camp attendance and other activities for Rappahannock youth. To date, there have been contributions of more than $61,000 to the fund. Scholarships awarded since 1997 exceed $46,000.

Tickets for the May 19 fundraiser ($80 per couple or $40 per person) may be purchased at the Rappahannock County Extension Office (540-675-3619). Children 12 and younger get in free. All residents of the county surrounding area are invited.

Pam Owen | Rappahannock News

The brightly colored Zebra Swallowtail butterfly depends on Paw Paw trees as a host for its larva, but the adults get nutrients from the nectar of several flowering forest plants as well as other sources of nutrients.

Spring’s been racing along two to three weeks ahead of schedule: Bloodroot, Eastern Redbud and American Dogwood all bloomed early, followed by Star Chickweed and, by mid-April, Mayapple. Ladyslippers’ have been blooming for weeks under conifers in forested areas, and Cranesbill, or Wild Geranium, is now everywhere along the forest paths near my house. Ragwort is blooming in bright yellow waves in low, damp areas of the county and here and there in higher areas, and the white blooms of native raspberry and blackberry and the purple of wild phlox are appearing throughout the region.

Last week, to see how spring was progressing in the lower elevations of Shenandoah National Park, I loaded my dog into the car and headed up the hollow to Thornton River Trail, one of my favorite local spots for an easy but beautiful stroll through nature. Stepping onto the trail, I could see a small cloud of butterflies up ahead and, spotting fresh horse dung on the trail as well, I knew why the butterflies were there. While dung – or scat, as wildlife biologists prefer to call it – is not what most hikers go to the park to see, such deposits attract a wide variety insects, including diverse species of butterflies, flies, bees and wasps. The tiny critters take advantage of the nutrients and moisture that are made available through the donors’ digestion process.

Pam Owen | Rappahannock News

A butterfly acquires nutrients from scat left by a passing mammal. While the butterfly’s coloring makes it blend into its woodland landscape, a close look reveals subtle but lovely peach-colored markings that point to its being a species of duskywing.

A canid (dog, fox or coyote) had also left a deposit that was of particular interest to the insect gathering, which to my delight included a large dung beetle. I’ve been enchanted by large beetles since I was first hissed at by stag beetles in Germany, one of my first fond childhood memories. The dung beetle in question, a female most likely in the scarab-beetle family, was valiantly trying to extract a good-sized ball from the larger scat deposit so she could store it in her underground den for either her own use or to provide it as a nutrient source on which to deposit her eggs.

For a few minutes I watched the large beetle – shiny black and flat-headed – wrestle with her prize, but wanted to get further down the trail to a spot in the river suitable for my dog to soak away some of her arthritis discomfort. On the way back, about 20 minutes later, I stopped to see how the beetle had progressed in her task. She was still wrestling with the ball, working under and around it with little success at moving it to her burrow. I managed to get a few photographs to help with species identification later. Noting other insect species that were flitting around, briefly landing on the scat, I snapped a shot of a small, brownish butterfly before it took off again.

Pam Owen | Rappahannock News

Spring is well underway along the Thornton River Trail in Shenandoah National Park.

I kept stopping at every scat deposit on the trail to see the many species of woodland butterflies attracted to them, including a few species that were easy to identify, such as the tiny bright-blue Spring Azures and the much bigger Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (males in their yellow and black stripes and some females in black). Other smaller, quicker species in subtler shades of brown and gray flitted by: nymphs and other satyrs as well as skippers. I knew my camera was no match for these speedy little guys, but I did manage to capture shots of two brightly colored Zebra Swallowtails after a lot of patient waiting.

While adult butterflies find nutrition from several sources, they depend on plants to feed their caterpillars. In forested areas, trees are the most likely hosts. Eastern Tiger Swallowtails use a variety of host trees, but other butterfly species are obligated to just a few or even only one plant species. Zebra Swallowtails, for example, need Paw Paws, which are common in these lower, damper areas of the park, and Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies similarly need spicebush as hosts for their young.

Pam Owen | Rappahannock News

Cranesbill, or Wild Geranium, blooms in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

When I got back home, I took a close look at the photos of the little brown butterfly I’d taken. In my brief look at it in the field, it had looked drab, but on my big monitor I could see small but lovely peach-colored triangles on the top of its wings, a subtle accent I’d missed that helped me with identification. Even then, I could only narrow it down to two similar skipper species in the same genus, the Mottled Duskywing (Erynnis martialis) or the Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae), named for one of its host plants.

I also started researching the dung beetle I’d photographed, although it was hard to get enough angles to be sure of the species. She was too busy digging under and around the ball of scat to try to gain command over it to model for me, and I didn’t want to disturb her work. Look for more about dung beetles, which are a lot more interesting and important to the environment than the casual observer might think, in an upcoming column.

Photo courtesy RCSO

James Carlton Benkelman

After 10 months in the local jail, 48-year-old James Carlton Benkelman of Amissville – who’d been indicted on 73 felony charges related to possessing child pornography and molesting two young boys – was given an opportunity to speak before his sentencing in Rappahannock County Circuit Court Monday (May 7).

Benkelman removed a folded piece of paper from his pinstriped jumpsuit pocket, and through fits of tears, read a heartbreaking apology to the victims.

Benkelman, who worked as an arborist for an area landscaping company until he was arrested last July at his Rappahannock Lakes home, was sentenced Monday to 101 years in state prison on 11 felony counts of possession and reproduction of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to the charges Feb. 13.

In exchange for the pleas, Benkelman received 32 years of active prison time. On good behavior, he will serve 85 percent of that term, or about 27 years, meaning he’ll be released at age 76. As part of the plea agreement, the remaining 62 charges – including several counts of aggravated sexual assault involving two young boys – were dropped.

Before Judge Herman A. Whisenant handed down the prison sentence, Benkelman asked to make a statement.

“I apologize to everyone. I’m so sorry any of this got started. I especially apologize to [the two victims’] families, and pray that I haven’t caused any permanent harm to anyone,” Benkelman said, choking out his written statement through fits of sobbing and tears. “I hope someday they can forgive me, not for my sake, but for theirs. Please don’t let your hate for me affect others.”

Benkelman said that his mother died during the 10 months that he’s been in jail and that he was not able to attend her funeral. “I hope I can get out one day to help my father and my family, but I doubt it . . . I ask the court to please judge me as an individual, and not as a group of numbers.” Benkelman thanked his family for being a “great support.”

Judge Whisenant suspended 69 years of the 101-year sentence, for offenses related to the possession and reproduction of child pornography (the terms run consecutively). Upon release, Benkelman would have 20 years of supervised probation and no contact with any child under the age of 18 without the court’s permission. He was also ordered to pay $833.30 in restitution to the mother of one of the young victims, for transportation and counselling costs. The other victim’s family did not request restitution.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Art Goff said he agreed to drop the child molestation charges to protect the victims and their families – one of which was in the courtroom Monday. The minimum mandatory sentences on the pornography charges, Goff said, would “send him to prison more than likely for the rest of his life, without having to subject the victims to testifying in an open court.”

Goff said Benkelman’s defense had also reached a plea agreement with Page County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ken Alger related to sex abuse charges there. “I think that Benkelman chose wisely in pleading guilty [in Rappahannock] to the child pornography charges instead of challenging the child abuse charges. It would have been highly devastating to the victims and their families if they had to testify.”

The first charge of first-offense possession of child pornography carries a minimum of a one-year suspended jail sentence; the remaining 10 charges, involving reproduction of child pornography, carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in a state prison, six of those with a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison.

The first child pornography charges (of the 11 to which he pleaded guilty Monday) emerged after a July 1 search of Benkelman’s home last summer by Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Office and Northern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigators. The search allegedly turned up pornographic images of children on disks at Benkelman’s basement desk. Goff described the recovered images presented to him by investigators as “sickening.”

The investigation that followed the search led to 62 new felony child pornography and molestation charges against Benkelman, after two juveniles came forward.

“He’ll be in his late 70s when, and if, he gets out,” Goff said, noting Benkelman’s plea agreement in Page County on charges of forcible sodomy and other sexual assault charges – several of which can lead to a life sentence. In that case, Benkelman allegedly took one of the victims to a Page County RV park, where the boy was molested.

Also in circuit court

A bench trial for 20-year-old Julious Ceasar Lucas of Woodville, on 10 charges relating to two crime events last summer, was continued until 9 a.m. June 8. By that date, his attorney said she is confident a plea agreement will have been reached. Lucas is last of the four teenage codefendants in the Grand View Road arson case to await trial. The other three have pleaded guilty in the last two months to five felonies (including arson and conspiracy to commit arson) and two misdemeanor charges, and await sentencing. On Aug. 20, the boys – all former Rappahannock County High School students – allegedly broke into, partied in and burned down the weekend cabin of William Rowland, causing an estimated $275,000 in damage. Lucas also faces three charges related to the theft and illegal use of a credit card in July.

Thirty-year-old Jimmy Allen Kennedy Jr. of Amissville pleaded guilty to felonious possession of a schedule I/II drug and misdemeanor possession of an unauthorized distribution container, and was sentenced to five years in prison (with four years six months suspended) for the first offense and 12 months in jail (suspended) for the second. The drug charges originally emerged when a bag of Adderall was found in Kennedy’s wrecked vehicle when it was towed last July 24. The deferred charges were reopened against Kennedy when he failed to attend his pretrial probation meetings in Fauquier County.

In district court

Twenty-one-year-old Tyler Brown of Chester Gap was found guilty of possession of marijuana and sentenced to 30 days in jail, a $500 fine and a six month loss of license. Brown stood trial in Rappahannock County District Court Tuesday (May 1) in faded pinstriped prison pants, leg shackles and a white T-shirt with black Fauquier County Detention Center lettering.

Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Deputy Ronnie Dodson testified that on the night of March 16 he received an anonymous call to the Chester Gap Baptist Church parking lot, where two people were reported drinking and throwing trash. Dodson arrived to find no one, then received another anonymous call informing him that the individuals had moved to the back of a grey house near Sky Verge Lane in Chester Gap. After parking his cruiser on Sky Verge, Dodson got out and said he smelled burnt marijuana, an odor that he was able to detect based on his drug training, Dodson told the court.

As Dodson followed the sound of voices, near the back basement entrance of the house, he said he saw Brown and James Robert Williams of Chester Gap (who pleaded guilty to underage possession of alcohol earlier in court) sitting next to a 24-pack of Budweiser, and noticed a baggie of what he described as “green leaf material” on a stoop between the two.

Dodson said he watched Williams brush the bag aside and put his foot over it. When Dodson picked up the bag, he said that Brown admitted that it was his and that he’d bought it earlier in Fauquier County, but denied having smoked any marijuana that day.

Dodson presented two evidence bags, one containing the bag of leafy green material, the other containing a makeshift marijuana pipe made out of an aluminum soda can.

In closing, Goff presented Brown’s arrest history, which included marijuana possession arrests that occurred in Rappahannock in October 2010 and in Fauquier in May 2011 (Brown is still on probation for the Fauquier charge, which is why he was being held in Fauquier awaiting this trial). Based on the evidence presented, and Brown’s alleged confession, District Court Judge J. Gregory Ashwell found Brown guilty of possession of marijuana.

May 1862

Faced by overwhelming numbers, giant siege guns and a threat of more Federal reinforcements to the north on the Rappahannock River, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston abandoned Yorktown on Saturday, May 3. The Confederates pulled back through Virginia’s colonial capital at Williamsburg and marched west towards Richmond. They had defied Gen. McClellan’s Federal army for more than a month. Numbering now some 55,000 troops, Gen. Johnston’s army appeared to be a serious threat in the mind of the Union commander, who had more than 110,000 troops. Gen. McClellan still believed that Washington deprived him of manpower and that the Confederates seriously outnumbered the Federals.

McClellan’s army entered Yorktown on May 4, and some of the advance elements clashed with the Confederate rearguard. In Tennessee, as Gen. Halleck’s Federal army was closing in on the Confederates under Gen. Beauregard at Corinth, Miss., there was considerable fighting in southern Tennessee. Out in the far west, Southerners at Tucson, in the Confederate Territory of Arizona, abandoned the settlement in the face of the approaching “California column” of Union Col. James Carleton, advancing to intercept the Confederate Army of New Mexico.

In a severe thunderstorm with sheets of driving rain and incessant lightning and thunder, a battle broke out May 5 just east of the old capital at Williamsburg, when elements of the Union army under Joseph Hooker and Philip Kearny clashed with the rearguard divisions of Gen. James Longstreet and Gen. Daniel H. Hill. Unsuccessful at first, Federals commanded by Gen. Winfield S. Hancock outflanked the Confederates in hastily constructed earthen fortifications (some of which are still seen today) but failed to stop the Southern retreat towards Richmond. Casualties were heavy: more than 2,200 Union troops were killed, wounded, captured or missing and more than 1,700 Confederate killed, wounded and missing. That evening, President Lincoln, Secretary of War Stanton and Secretary of the Treasury Chase left Washington by ship for Fort Monroe for a firsthand look at Gen. McClellan’s advance on Richmond.

In the Shenandoah Valley May 6, Confederates in Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Army arrived in Staunton after their stay at Conrad’s Store (now Elkton). At Harrisonburg, Jackson’s men had confused Union commander Gen. Nathaniel Banks at Harrisonburg, and he withdrew his forces north to New Market and later Strasburg. From Staunton, Gen. Jackson planned to go west, towards McDowell, hoping to attack and defeat Federal forces there under Gen. Robert Shenck. This was Jackson at his best: rapid movements on foot.

Fighting on the Peninsula below Richmond continued May 7 between leading elements of Gen. McClellan’s army and the rearguard of Gen. Johnston’s troops. At Fort Monroe, President Lincoln visited the USS Monitor and conferred with naval and army officers; he was taking an active role in attempting to push the Federal drive on to Richmond. In the Shenandoah Valley, Gen. Jackson’s 10,000 men reached McDowell on Thursday, May 8, and were attacked by some 6,000 men under Gen. Schenk. The Federals were repulsed and forced to withdraw into the mountains towards Franklin in western Virginia. Federal casualties at McDowell numbered a little more than 250; Jackson’s troops suffered almost 500 casualties. McDowell was the first major victory in Jackson’s famed Valley Campaign.

In the face of Federal occupation on the Peninsula and the threat of Union invasion, Confederates on May 9 evacuated Norfolk and its valuable naval and army supply depot. The loss of this major base was a severe blow to Confederate control of southside Virginia and northern North Carolina. Left without a port from which to operate, the Confederates had to destroy the ironclad CSS  Virginia. The same day, at Hilton Head, S.C., Maj. Gen. David Hunter ordered the emancipation of slaves in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina and authorized the “arming of all able-bodied Negroes in those states.” This order, without approval of the Congress or President Lincoln, caused a lively debate in the North until the president declared it null and void.

Alex Sharp VIII | Rappahannock News

Rep. Robert Hurt (R-5th) holds forth in the Rappahannock News’ pine-paneling-enclosed nerve center.

For once, a U.S. Congressman was spending some time in the right Washington.

Based in Southside Virginia, Rep. Robert Hurt (R-5th) has been driving for the past month the long, diagonal highways of the new 5th congressional district – which now stretches through central Virginia from North Carolina to Fauquier County, and includes all of Rappahannock County.

He was delivered to the Rappahannock News office on Main Street a week or so ago by a local Republican kingpin, a friend of a mutual friend in Southside Virginia, for an informal chat with the paper’s staff. Though hard data was not immediately available, it is believed to be something Rappahannock’s current congressman, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, hadn’t done since winning the soon-to-be-someone-else’s 7th district in 2001.

Just as he likes to characterize the citizens of his largely small-town district, Hurt is down-to-earth and plain-spoken. He’s a former prosecutor and state legislator who won his first term in Congress in a hard-fought battle in 2010 against Albemarle County Democrat Tom Perriello. In November, he will face one of two well-funded Democratic challengers with military backgrounds, after a state Democratic convention chooses May 19 between Peyton R. Williams Jr., a retired Special Forces lieutenant colonel from Charlottesville, and retired Brig. Gen John W. Douglass of Hume.

Hurt stops himself, as he begins to answer a question about why he decided in 2009 to seek a posting to Big Washington, whether it’s okay to call it “Little” Washington. The staff is noncommittal.

He smiles, and mentions that his favorite thing in the world is to fish in the Rapidan River, near where his mother had a place, watching the dive-bombing eagles for hints on where the fish are. And that he grew up in a similar “courthouse town,” Chatham, where he and his wife now live with their three young sons, across the street from the house where his parents still live.

“When I look at Washington – the Big Washington [he laughs] – I think about [my boys’] future, especially as it relates to $15 trillion in debt, and a deficit where we’re borrowing 40 cents on every dollar that we spend. As I travel around the 5th district, I find that so many mainstream businesses and farms, and farmers, are having a harder and harder time – because, I think, of government mandates and unnecessary meddling in people’s business. And so those are things that concern me. And then of course, one of the things we hear about all the time now are the gas prices. And so energy’s also another important topic.

“So, with all that said, people ask me whether or not I enjoy being in Washington. I say that’s not really the first word that comes to mind, but . . . it is so important. This is an important time in our nation’s history.”

Hurt says, since Virginia’s 2012 congressional redistricting added Madison, Rappahannock and most of Fauquier County to his district, that in his case, the redistricting was not so much part of a plan to challenge-proof incumbent Republicans but more of a sensible move.

“The sad truth is that these rural districts get larger and larger because we’re losing population – and so every year that we send folks to Richmond or to Washington, we’re sending fewer and fewer people from rural Virginia or rural America, and I think that that’s regrettable but . . . we had to pick up population somewhere,” he says.

“People say, ‘Well, what does Pittsylvania County have in common with Rappahannock County or Madison County or Fauquier County?’ And I would suggest to you that there’s actually more that we have in common than we don’t; it’s largely rural people who care very much about their liberty, they care very much about their land, and their way of life and their quality of life, living simply, not having the government breathing down your neck all the time – and those are all things that I think really bind us together more than keep us apart. And so, it’s a big district, it’s a long district, but I do think that there’s more that we have in common certainly than we don’t.”

Hurt’s current focus – making energy exploration easier, both across the country (as that  much-debated pipeline would do) and around Virginia, including offshore. This, of course, pits him against the Obama administration, on this and other issues. In a recent speech on the budget, however, he credited the President with “doing his job” – unlike some of his own peers in Washington.

“The law requires us to have a budget,” he says, explaining the statement. “And it requires the House to present a budget by a deadline; it requires the Senate to propose its budget by the deadline. The President did his job; he presented a budget. The House did its job; we presented our budget – that’s considered our opinion. The Senate – for the third year in a row – refuses to do what the law requires, and that is present its budget. And it’s that level of arrogance, I think, in Washington, that people are so tired of – that somehow the law doesn’t apply to folks there like it does the rest of us.

“And of course . . . we balance our budget in Richmond, we balance our budget in Rappahannock County. But there’s an abiding duty to just do your job, and I think in Washington when you look at what’s happened over the decades – and this is not a partisan statement, it is a bipartisan statement – Republicans and Democrats alike are responsible for the mess we have in Washington, because they’ve refused to just do their job, do it responsibly and not make promises you can’t keep!”

When he ran against Perriello in 2010, Hurt says, “we had a congressman who came in with the president in ’08, and he had just walked lock-step with Nancy Pelosi on everything and didn’t show any independence.”

But does Hurt walk lock-step with Eric Cantor and the Republican leadership?

“No. I’ve voted against him. I voted against him, the leadership, on a number of occasions And you know, my deal is that you gotta represent your people; nobody in Washington can vote for you,” he says. His eyebrows go up. “I mean in Big Washington.”

Alex Sharp and Walter Nicklin also contributed to this report.

Alex Sharp VIII | Rappahannock News

Trainer Manuel “Cowboy” Chapman leans against a barn stall in Castleton, looking over at Nessie’s Wager, a one-year-old filly and – with his training – future racehorse.

Manuel Chapman, aka Cowboy, is three-quarters Cherokee Indian – and some may tell you he’s one-quarter horse.

“These horses, man,” Chapman says, as a two-year-old thoroughbred racehorse named My Sweet Jack nuzzles him from a barn stall. “Once it’s in your blood, it stays there.”

It was actually My Sweet Jack who led Cowboy to Rappahannock County. Maggi Morris, a horse and pony trainer who moved to Castleton in 1982, was referred to a horse breaker last year said to have a way with young horses. Without meeting him first, she hauled Jack to Chapman in Middleburg last October.

Cowboy took to Jack, she said – and, over the month-long course of breaking the horse, he and Maggi also hit it off. The three have made her Green Ginger Farm their home. Every morning and evening, 52-year-old Chapman feeds Jack – and the farm’s 12 other horses.

In life, when you get thrown off the pony, you’ve got to get back on – and, when he was 8 years old, Chapman recalls that it took six or eight times of climbing back on the finicky barn pony at Orchard Hill Stables in Unison, Va., before Starling stopped bucking him off.

It was the start of a life of . . . getting back up.

Sometimes you’ve just got to “Cowboy Up,” Chapman says, pointing to the big decal on his Dodge 3500 work truck, which advertises his Cowboy Up horse training business.

Given 30 days with an animal, he’s been known to work miracles.

“He’s got a connection with them, whether they’re kinda roguish, whether they’re sweet – one way or another, there’s some kind of connection,” Morris says, noting that growing up she’d heard stories about Chapman’s gift with horses back at Orchard Hill (when she was training ponies just down the road in Purcellville). “He doesn’t just jump in that stall and jump on any old thing. He waits for that connection – and sometimes it takes a few days of him lookin’ that horse in the eye. And it’s just . . . the horse is seeing him, and he is seeing the horse. I know that’s a little cryptic and some people won’t get that. But when he sees the horse, by lookin’ in his eye, he knows he’s okay to start doing stuff, to get on ’im.”

Breaking a horse, Chapman says, it’s all about going slow – making the horse comfortable, letting him get familiar with you. When a horse comes to him, Cowboy takes a week doing nothing but feeding and visiting. “Don’t force anything. Let the horse learn, and let him make the decision to do good. It’s about getting the horse to like you, to the point that the horse wants to make you proud.”

When the horse is ready to ride, Chapman says, he’ll tell you.

Chapman also enjoys a challenge.

“Bad horses that people don’t get along with, I like them – because I know I can turn ’em around, if the people want ’em to be turned around and give me the time to do it,”  Chapman said, adding that it usually takes about a month to break a green horse, sometimes longer. “And that’s what I’ve experienced most of my life with the racehorse business; I’ve always got the runaways, or the tough ones, or the broncky ones that nobody else wants to fool with – and that’s what made me good.”

In watching Cowboy break three of his young horses this year, breeder Keith Early, owner of Rockwood Farm in Hamilton, said he found that patience was Manuel’s best quality.

“Something that I’ve learned in this business, is you just can’t push a horse; they sort of have their own timing,” Early said, noting that he met Cowboy through Morris, after longtime trainer Mark Deane of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association retired from the horse-breaking trade. “Some of them just don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve. And so when they’re young, you’ve really gotta make ’em want to do it.”

Cowboy recalls riding 300 different horses during weekend sales at the Marshall Livestock Exchange. He travelled the rodeo circuit for four years, rode broncs and bulls. He galloped Seattle Slew before he was a teenager. And at 13, Chapman left home and moved into the Kratz Motel near Charles Town Races in West Virginia to work with racehorses, and has been doing it all on his own ever since. He spent 16 years in Charles Town, and for more than 20 years bought and sold horses for the late Hal Burnop of Maryland. He’s galloped racehorses for the likes of Danny Dillow, Jim Starkey and Ed Householder.

“Once I got these horses in my blood, that’s all I wanted to do.”

The name Cowboy emerged about five years ago, Chapman says, after he was paid $80 to get on a horse that its owner said couldn’t be ridden.

“When I got on him, and the horse went to buckin’ – well instead of fightin’ the horse and jerkin’ him around, I just dropped his head and took ahold and said, ‘Let’s ride,’” Chapman says. “And he gave me the name Cowboy, and everybody’s been callin’ me Cowboy since.”

Early said that breaking horses is a dangerous business, a job that sometimes isn’t completed without serious penalties to the body. Chapman will tell you that he’s been lucky: Aside from a few broken ribs, some falls and kicks, he’s never been seriously injured by a horse.

“These guys are brave, very brave,” Early said. “And when you meet a unique personality like Cowboy, you want to give ’em the business.”

Chapman trains thoroughbreds and takes on other horses, regular riding horses and quarterhorses. Cowboy breaks and gallops horses for a lot of high-powered people, he says, naming BB&T president John Hannah; Jimmy Keaton, who owns 27 racehorses in Catlett; and breeder Early. (In fact, two of the three racehorses Morris and Chapman own were Early’s: My Sweet Jack and Dylan My Villain. The latter just raced six-and-a-half furlongs at Charles Town Races April 27.)

Chapman’s mother picked his name from the Bible, and Cowboy describes his connection with animals as his gift from God. Chapman was raised by his aunt, uncle and grandparents, who were full-blooded Cherokee Indian. He says he grew up “the old way,” and recalls fetching water from a well, digging up greens from fields for food, and living by candlelight when there wasn’t enough money to pay for electricity. And though his grandmother Nellie has passed away, he says that her simple, down-to-earth sayings prove evermore true with each passing year.

“Man, I’ll be 53 years old, come June,” Chapman says. “And I tell you what, I’m standin’ here talking to you, and with Maggi, and I feel like I’m 30. And I’ll ride these dudes like I’m 20.”

“Sound of the String” grew out of a short story written by Brad Isham after his first visit to South Africa to experience wild game hunting, though not with a gun.

Inspired by what he learned about an unusual custom practiced by elephants and water buffalo, he wove his story about the askari, or guardian, assigned to accompany an elderly animal until its passing.

The Amissville-based author will talk about his bow hunting experiences and how they led to “Sound of the String,” his first novel, on Friday, May 11 as part of the Rappahannock Association for the Arts and the Community’s (RAAC) “Second Friday at the Library” free lecture series. The talk starts at 8 p.m.

Isham portrays the majesty and great plan of nature through the thoughts of the ousted lead bull water buffalo, Dagga Boy, and the young “Ascari” bull. The novel is a good read from start to finish, with more than a few surprises along the way.

The reader is transported, literally, with protagonist Gordon Bradford, from his home in Virginia where he custom-crafts longbows by hand, to the African bush where he hopes to bag a kudu, an antelope-like creature with long spiraling horns. The novel is autobiographical in terms of Gordon’s beliefs, philosophy, experiences and passion about traditional bow hunting.

“I’ve been to Africa twice with my wife, Amber, and we both have mixed feelings about it,” says Isham. “It’s a beautiful place with its natural resources and the land and the animals, but it’s also tragic. There is so much desperate poverty.”

Hunting, in Africa, as in many parts of the U.S., provides vital income to the local economy, but it also raises questions, both moral and ecological. The book touches on several issues: hunters who behave badly and/or irresponsibly; the very real problem of illegal game poachers and the dangers they pose; and the dynamics of the staff employed by legitimate hunting camps.

Amber Isham

Brad Isham with several of his handcrafted longbows in front of the Amissville log cabin he shares with his wife Amber.

The novel embodies the same stark contrasts and harsh realities as its setting. South Africa’s bush lands are very different, almost mystical with their exotic game and timeless traditions. Some of the best passages, notably Isham’s descriptions of the land and its occupants, resound with almost poetic elegance.  

The characters, Isham said, are composites based on people he met at home and in Africa. However, the animals portrayed in the book are the real deal – originals engraved in the author’s memories, along with the hunting experiences that pretty much parallel Isham’s own. Not many people go to Africa to hunt with bow and arrow, which defines the interaction between the American bow hunter, the professional hunter and staff at the bush camp, and the relationship between Bradford/Isham and the animals themselves.

“About 10 years ago I got started with traditional bow hunting and that’s when I started making my own,” recalls Isham. “I love woodworking and it really appealed to me to hunt with something I had made myself. My first bow was not so great, and I went through lots of trial and error – I think I made four before I had a bow I could feel comfortable hunting with.”

Isham turned to bow hunting because he felt unfulfilled by other forms of the chase. He learned that, for him, the kill is secondary to the experience; that a long bow requires great patience and critical accuracy; that he must have an animal well within range before he lets his arrow fly. All this is different from gun and crossbow hunting, and yet both require a hunter to track any animal that’s been wounded or whose will to live or flight instinct allows it to travel a great distance until felled by the mortal wound.

Isham’s approach is almost meditative, spiritual in an earthy way as well as quite expressive of the protagonist’s faith in his Christian God. Yet, his prayers are more than mere appeals to a higher power for a trophy. He pays tribute to the spirit of the animal taken and the bounty of all its parts, which are used for food and to make various products.

The novel also deals with the issue of apartheid, which ended about 20 years ago, though racial tension persists. The relationships between blacks and whites in the bush are essential to their survival, and the importance of responsible hunting. The plot also includes a sneaky love story: rather than include a spoiler here, you’ll have to read it.

Bradford might be considered a bit of a Renaissance man with his sensitive nature and ability to step outside the comfort of the man-cave and own his feelings. That, and how he shares his innermost thoughts, will appeal to female readers. Most of all, he is a hunter and takes the chase seriously.

“I would hunt anywhere in the world,” admits Isham. “There’s no place I wouldn’t like to go, as long as it’s a fair chase and open to hunting.

Isham’s personal quest for the Holy Grail of a kudu is a recurring theme throughout “Sound of the String.” But this novel is about more than his failure with the kudu. He learned a great deal in the bush – about life, people, and about himself. He cites bow hunting’s intimacies as being vital to him for the chase: being close enough to the animals to smell them, see their eyes, feel their calm or fear. He is pulled by the dynamic meditation: seeing the shot before you’ve taken it, and then you take it.

Most of all, for Isham, it is the sound of the string as the arrow departs. He shares that very quiet sound with the animal whose flight may well allow him to escape or in the case of a Cape buffalo, see and charge in a role reversal that makes the hunter the hunted.

Detail from Helga Hohn-Heiberg's "Compensation and the Nature of Opposite" oil on canvas.

“Graphic Dimension,” the show by Front Royal artist Helga Hohn-Heiberg, is definitely worth a visit to the Confluent Gallery at River District Arts before the show is taken down after May 13.

According to Hohn-Heiberg, who came to the U.S. from Germany in 1987 under the sponsorship of the Sudeten German Society (which awarded her its First International Prize in 1983), the title of the show refers to “the structure of all spaces and its position in time, as well as the spatial constitution of objects within” as well as the use of color to enhance the sense of space and dimension. It’s a different approach to art that some have called an “open-eye meditation, and inspiring expression for the viewer.” Having studied not just painting and sculpture but philosophy, psychology, pedagogy and blacksmithing, Hohn-Heiberg has a unique approach worth experiencing, including in her “Compensation and the Nature of Opposite” oil on canvas, a detail of which is pictured here.

For more information, call River District Arts (3 River Lane, Sperryville) at 540-987-8770.

Play it again, Audrey

This Sunday (May 6) at 3 p.m., when Canadian pianist Audrey Andrist performs at the Theatre at Washington, Robert Schumann’s “Carnaval” will make up the second half of the program – a request, Theatre owner Wendy Weinberg says, made after Andrist performed the same piece at the  Theatre several years ago. It resulted in “such rousing and sustained applause from the audience that, following the concert, I asked Andrist if she would play it again at the Theatre one day.”

This Sunday’s recital also includes Schubert’s Impromptu in B-flat Major, op. 142 No. 3, and Beethoven’s Sonata in E-flat Major, op. 31 No. 3 (“The Hunt”), and Andrist’s playing, described by The Washington Post as “riveting and radiant,” will surely inspire additional outbursts of appreciation. Tickets for the concert are $25 ($10 for students 17 and younger) Call 540-675-1253 or email TheatreVA@aol.com to reserve.

Win dinner at The Inn — for Mom

The Inn at Little Washington is running a essay contest that your Mom would be happy to hear you’ve entered – if you email the Inn your 500-words-or-fewer take on the reasons why your mother deserves The Inn at Little Washington’s luxurious pampering and fabulous food this Mother’s Day, May 13, you could win a free Mother’s Day dinner for her.

Send all submissions to mom@theinnatlittlewashington.com (include your full name, telephone number and email address) by Sunday (May 6). The Inn says all submitted entries will be judged by an independent panel of real mothers.

The Inn opens at 1 on Mother’s Day and plans a special six-course sprng tasting menu created by chef Patrick O’Connell for $128 (excluding tax, gratuity and beverages), with seatings available at 1, 4 and 7 p.m. For reservations, or more about the contest, call 540-675-3800 or visit theinnatlittlewashington.com.

Winning film team to shoot in Rappahannock

Alex Sharp VIII | Rappahannock News

Greg Hess, left, and Francisco Campos-Lopez try out some local transportation for their 48-Hour Film project in Rappahannock this weekend.

The 48 Hour Film Project is an annual short film competition among filmmakers from all over the world. Not knowing what their assignment will be until tomorrow evening, producer Greg Hess (shown here on the left) and his crew of 19 will have just this weekend (May 5 and 6) to create the entire film . . . from writing the script, shooting it, editing it and delivering it by 7 p.m. Sunday.

Reston-based, Virginia Tech graduate Hess teamed up once again with director Francisco Campos-Lopez (shown here on the right) for this year’s competition. Their 48-hour film last year won best picture and best cinematography for the D.C. area – so the duo’s giving it another shot, to see if they can advance even further in the competition. In 2011, nearly 60,000 48-Hour filmmakers made 4,000 films in 96 cities on six continents.

“One of the things you can do before the competition begins is secure your locations,” Hess said by email Tuesday. “So when trying to determine a spot that would be very versatile, since we don’t know what genre we will get, Rappahannock was a clear winner – not only because of its sheer natural beauty, but also because every single person I’ve met there is so incredibly nice and accommodating.

“I was really surprised at how welcoming everybody has been to us city slickers,” Hess continued. “And we are all super excited for the chance to film in such a beautiful place, and in local establishments such as the Rappahannock News, Copper Fox Distillery and Copper Fox Antiques. We have all the ingredients to make something really special here, and for that we owe so many thanks to the folks of Rappahannock County.”

– Alex Sharp VIII

Discover the Junior Master Gardener Club

All fourth- through seventh-graders are invited to participate in an After School Farm to Table/4-H Workshop at 4 p.m. next Tuesday (May 8) at the Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School in Flint Hill.

If you enjoy nature, learning about gardens, plants and bugs, come and get inspired to become a certified Junior Master Gardener (JMG).  Rappahannock County Public Schools’ Farm-to-Table coordinator Jenn Rattigan, Mountain Laurel’s farm manager and educator Mark Cuppett and members of the Rappahannock County Master Gardeners encourage you to join us for an after-school workshop that will be a preview for the JMG club to be offered next school year.  

Activities will include projects leading to becoming a certified Junior Master Gardener, planning a vegetable garden to benefit the Rappahannock County Food Pantry, visiting the sheep, pigs and chickens who live at Mountain Laurel Montessori, eating fresh-grown vegetables and snacks, and of course, having fun!

The workshop leaders are also looking for enthusiastic eighth- and ninth-grade Junior Leaders to work with them.

There is limited bus transportation from the RCES to the Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School.  To sign up, call the Extension office at 540-675-3619. For more information, call Rattigan at 443-827-2997 or Mark Cuppett at 540-675-1011.

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School is at 23 Sunny Slope Lane in Flint Hill.

Alex Sharp VIII | Rappahannock News

Joe Reinboldt addresses the supervisors at Monday night’s public hearing on the county budget.

A last-second joint work session with members of the Rappahannock County School Board and Board of Supervisors was planned at the end of Monday night’s (April 30) public hearing on the county’s proposed $22.1 million fiscal-year 2013 budget – after Piedmont supervisor Ron Frazier insisted that both boards address school budget-related concerns raised by members of the public.

So, tonight at 7 p.m. at the courthouse, board members will roll up their sleeves and review the $12.4 million school budget line by line; it is scheduled for action by the supervisors at their next regular meeting Monday (May 7) at 2 p.m.

Tonight’s work session is open to the public, but there will be no public comment period.

“When we look at non-mandated costs, I think we should do everything that we can do to – as citizens, as taxpayers, as parents, as members of this body – to look at shaving those costs. And I don’t think we have done that yet,” Frazier said at the end of the two-and-a-half-hour public hearing. He reminded the board that because Rappahannock County’s composite index is .8, the county is obligated to pay 80 percent of government-mandated costs (the state pays the other 20 percent) – and 100 percent of non-mandated costs.

Last year, when the school presented a level-funded budget for the fourth straight year, only two members of the public spoke at the budget hearing, which lasted less than 35 minutes. This year – with the school division requesting an additional $559,854 from the county budget, including a 3-percent across-the-board salary raise for school employees – nearly 50 county residents, teachers, taxpayers, parents and grandparents attended Monday’s hearing, 25 of whom stood before the supervisors in the high school auditorium to speak.

Since about 65 percent of the $22.1 million proposed county budget goes into funding school costs, increased school funding means for the first time in five years the real estate tax will increase (by 5 cents per $100 of assessed value, to 63 cents, which is an 8.6-percent increase). The state-controlled mandated cost increase of $392,939 for contributions to the Virginia Retirement System for teachers, for example, is a cost the county can’t control and is obligated to finance.

However, proposed increases mentioned at the hearing, including a planned 3-percent raise for teachers ($153,070), the lease-purchase of four new buses ($71,492 annually for four years) and the purchase of rollerblades with helmets and pads ($5,804) – are costs that the county has the power to approve or reject. While there are other proposed cost increases, those three were most referenced by Monday night’s speakers.

“In this economy, when people like myself are out here struggling, I don’t think we should be expected to pay for another bus, when the older one works just fine – and I don’t know what this is about roller skates,” said Joe Reinboldt, a Jackson district resident. In raising his five children, of whom four are home-schooled, Reinboldt said he taught them early on the meaning of the word “no.” “I think this is a teaching moment for you guys, for the board. Teach everybody what ‘no’ means. Be the adults and tell the school, ‘No, the money’s not there.’ That’s the same thing I tell my children.”

Others asked the supervisors to “be the adults you want our schoolchildren to grow up to be” by saying “Yes.”

Margaret Lee, who has taught at the Rappahannock County Elementary School for more than 20 years and will retire at the end of the next school year, expressed frustration at having to publicly justify, each year, why she and her colleagues deserve to keep their benefits and receive a long-awaited raise.

“Teachers have worked hard for the last four years with no raise,” Lee said, adding that though the teachers have received great evaluations from administrators, that doesn’t earn them a raise as it would in most jobs. “Kids spend about half of their waking hours Monday through Friday in our care. We are entrusted with educating the county’s most precious asset: our future. And yet we must come here and annually plead for much-deserved compensation. Something is terribly wrong with that.”

Former Virginia teacher and Hampton district resident Demaris Miller does not support the school budget increase.

“This would be a very bad time to make an increase in taxes – especially since many of you supervisors know that there are increases in the future that aren’t in the school budget this year, that aren’t in the county budget this year,” Miller said, noting the future expenses of the regional jail. “So we’re going to be doing the same thing next year, and then it may be absolutely necessary to have an increase. But right now, if you show the kind of guts and judgement that I know you’re capable of, you will say ‘no’ to any increases this year.”  

Nancy Rivenburg, who’s family has been in the county for more 65 years, described herself as a concerned grandparent of a student in the high school.

“I encouraged my daughter and her family to move to Rappahannock County to raise my grandchildren – and I have to say today, that is a decision I deeply regret,” Rivenburg said, noting that the security of her son was jeopardized by a man entering the high school without proper procedure. “As taxpayers, my daughter, her husband and myself are here to protest any raises or benefit increases for the administrators of Rappahannock County High School. We feel that the current administration is not dealing fairly and truthfully with some students and parents of Rappahannock, and we as some of those taxpayers want to be heard. This administration works for us and every other taxpayer in this county, and we feel pay raises cannot be justified with poor performance.”

After multiple parents and residents addressed disgust with security at the school, ineffective administration and an unhealthy learning environment for students at the public schools, John Diley rose to address the board.

“As I sat here listening tonight to all of the problems and failures and security breaches and just abysmal performance of our public school system, I kind of wondered, ‘Where did my daughter graduate from last June?’ ” Diley said. “I mean, I remember her starting in kindergarten and going all the way through the school system. She graduated, she went on to college, she’s taking math courses, biology, macro-biology. She’s flourishing. She’s doing well – and I thought she graduated from this school system. But to listen to these folks tonight, I’m really wondering where in fact she did graduate from.”

Diley referred back to 2008, when the board of supervisors was faced with producing a county budget in the context of a Wall Street collapse and an economy in a downward spiral with no end in sight.

“Amidst all that, you had to come up with a budget, and we had some very well-deserving county employees that should’ve gotten raises back then, and certainly we would’ve liked to have given them raises, but the money just wasn’t there – and they haven’t had raises since,” Diley said. “This year we’re looking at a little better picture: We’ve had 25 consecutive months of private-sector job growth, the stock market is back up over 13,000 again . . . it seems like the economy’s a lot better off now than it was back then.”

Gary Light of the Stonewall-Hawthorne district acknowledged that there are people out there hurting from the current economic state, but noted that many of those people stand to gain the most from the supervisors approving the school budget.

“We could quibble about individual items in the budget, and I think you and [Superintendent] Dr. [Alridge] Boone and everybody should be open to specific suggestions for improvement, and specific recommendations for things that might be in need of change in the budget,” Light said. “But when it comes to the sound bites and the general political remarks about the budget, I think they really don’t have a proper place here – and personally would like to say that you’ve been saying ‘no’ for four years already, I think you’ve gotten a lot of practice with that, you’ve shown you can do it, and it’s time to say ‘Yes,’ or at least ‘Yes, with some changes.’”

At the close of the public hearing, Stonewall-Hawthorne supervisor Chris Parrish and Frazier said that they did not support the purchase of four new buses outlined in the proposed school budget, especially since there wasn’t even a guarantee that the new buses would be any safer. Hampton supervisor Bryant Lee pointed out that in his nearly 30 years on the school board and board of supervisors, there’s “never been a good year for a tax increase” – but with the state-controlled mandates calling for more than $400,000 in local funding from the county, it’s something that’s got to be done whether we like it or not.

Hope Huff

It’s ‘THE WOODS,’ not the sticks!

When the curtain rises, we are greeted by the upbeat narration of a bow-tied man with a cane, and we see several fairy tales unfolding before us at once. We see bright colors and magic, but sadness, doubt and desire begin to manifest like shadows across the stage. The scenes switch flawlessly, with sets and props manipulated by dark figures in odd top hats.

Characters in exquisite costume come and go, and nary a scene goes by that doesn’t have some capricious beauty hidden within it. The vocals spring from the characters with ease, and carry well into the darkness beyond the lights. It’s loud, it’s gentle, it’s a song cycle. It’s a lyric masterpiece, it’s dark, it’s whimiscal.

It took five months for this 22-member cast, directed by RCHS’s imaginative Russell Paulette, to capture all the brilliant nuances. Paulette has inspired everyone who has worked on this production, as his direction recalls his own sense of wonder as a young drama student.

This was no ordinary high school production. There were 20 additional crew members for stage work, lighting, sound, costumes, set design, plus a 10-member pit orchestra led by Rachel Siegfried.

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine may have woven the pathos of childhood and adulthood together, but, without a vibrant delivery, the songs would fall flat, and the story would be left untold. Not so here. The cast sang and acted clearly and directly, without a hint of overreaching. They had chemistry. They were believable. It was sublime.

Going in order of appearance, Nich Hipple’s narrator was charming and just oily enough, and he carried his cane well, given that Nick actually has an anterior cruciate ligament issue. He gave his mysterious woodsman wisdom, and was just crotchety enough, probably due to the pain from that torn ACL.

Emma Fisher was a beautiful Cinderella, and wore her rags-to-riches role like a street urchin turned supermodel. Philipp Strachwitz, as Jack, sang from his heart, and charmed us as he pet his best friend, a milky white cow, played by a patient, and occasionally grunting, Matt Beck. (Udderly amazing that you were on all fours for three hours, Matt. You were barn for that role, sir.)

Jack’s Mother was played by the astounding Sara Ames. Sara was subtly comic, shared her incredible voice, and gave us not a wasted movement in her gestures. See you on Broadway, kid. Zach Huff, playing the baker, gave us another sterling performance, with a confidence that says this is just the beginning. Kelsa Settle sang and acted the part of the baker’s wife, and never missed a note in both performances. She has a graceful manner and a gorgeous voice, and worked well with Zach Huff.

KT Millam was splendid and loud at just the right times as Cinderella’s father. Emma Endre, Taylor Ordile and Kathryn Fisher were devious and devilish as Cinderella’s stepmother, Florinda, and Lucinda. Dressed in gowns to die for, they made wearing shades look wicked and laughed like they were possessed.

Tessa Crews was Little Red Riding Hood with a twist. She carried off the giddy innocence but evened the score with the Big Bad Wolf by wearing his skin as a hoodie. Miss Crews sang well and was enchanting, hitting the soft passages in her songs with an edgy sweetness. Naomi Weingarten as the Witch looked scary and made a little boy behind me ask his mom if they could leave. Stay strong, little buddy, I said. Naomi started singing and the lad and I were charmed, as she hit us with that Weingarten voodoo. Sending her voice into dark air behind us, she cast spells, threw people around, and helped us all itch our witch switch itch. Her long black robe, her red dress and the green light behind her, were better than any AC/DC concert I’ve been to.

Joanna Hughes was perfect as Cinderella’s mother. Appearing from nowhere, she sang in a silky voice and looked translucent, covered in green and wispy branches of silk. Will Thompson as the Big Bad Wolf was Rat Pack jazzy and artfully charming. As Cinderella’s prince, Will sang very well, and was paired nicely with another fine singer, Henry Mason, who played Rapunzel’s Prince. Will and Henry had great chemistry together, and moved like two old pros on a Las Vegas stage. They delivered their lines with comic looseness, and playfully confronted each other as they sang about the tragedy of each of their love lives. At one point they each wore a single white glove, so that their grand finale would exhibit a matching pair of white fists, each from the hand of a prince.

Keelee Armor was Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, and she was hilarious and magnificent. She was also the voice of the giant, and she sounded . . . big. Really big. Rapunzel was played by Dani Boutte, who can really scream, and who can also sing like a bird in a lovely soprano. Ritchie Pratt was a charming steward, calm, but with anger management issues, and Lily Endre looked like an exotic, sleepy Snow White, wheeled in at the end of act one on a hand truck. The beguiling Katelyn Fisher was actually Sleeping Beauty, and she too, was wheeled in on a hand truck, asleep, at the end of act one.

This production put no one to sleep. I left both performances, wide awake to the fact that I had just seen an extraordinary presentation, that very few high schools would attempt to pull off. We truly have much to be proud of.

Ben Mason
Castleton

The last week in April Lady Panther varsity soccer faced off against two formidable foes for a double-victory celebration. At home April 24, Rappahannock County shut out Manassas Park, 6-0. On the road at William Monroe Friday (April 27), the Ladies came away with a 2-1 win.

Against the Manassas Park Cougars, the Panthers recorded their six goals in a balanced scoring attack. Rappahannock came out with a different strategy and started the match with Michelle White playing midfield instead of defensive sweeper. Her impact was immediately noticed as a well-placed free kick resulted in a dramatic score by Maria Garralda. White also got an assist when Garralda headed White’s corner kick into the goal.

The match saw Bryn Sonnett and Dani Boutte scoring. “Michelle also scored two rocket shots to the upper 90s,” said fan Brian Kelly.

Said coach Rich Hogan: “The girls came out with a different mindset – that they were going to try a different lineup that was more offensively minded and take it to the other team right away, get their heads down and not look back.”

Friday saw the teams travel to Greene County and face their new Bull Run District foe, William Monroe. The first meeting of the two happened earlier in Panther territory March 30 with Monroe securing a victory in overtime. The Lady Panthers were looking to avenge that loss.

“Once again, the match was close and physical,” said Kelly, as Monroe scored on a set play to take the lead 1-0 going into the break.

The determined Panthers regrouped at halftime and came out determined to win all 50/50 balls. Once again the lineup had White at midfield alternating with Sonnett as needed. Haley Hogan sent a shot to the top corner of the goal with the keeper for Monroe getting a hand on it sending over the back line, resulting in a corner kick that would change the game. White scored off her corner kick – something that does not happen at any level very often.

“Michelle has been working on bending her corners into the goal and she did just that,” Hogan said. “The keeper for Monroe never knew what happened until it was in the back of the net.”

Monroe was frustrated that Rappahannock controlled the ball. Par for the course, Jane Purnell had the most spectacular save of the night with a point-blank shot she grabbed to send the game into overtime.

Panthers found themselves in their third overtime game of the year with two five-minute periods and no shootout.

“Oh my gosh, the game was so much fun!” said senior Sonnett. “We were actually not playing well in the first half. In the second half, we decided to get it together, work harder, get passes, talk to each other, get our heads up. The turning point was when Maria hurt herself. We were all so heartbroken that we rallied to win for her.” Unfortunately, Garralda had to be carried off the pitch in regulation time with a serious knee injury.

The first five minutes of overtime play saw several shots but no scores. During the second five minutes, the Ladies did look determined to win for Garralda’s sake. White’s possession ability was drawing a lot of attention and defenders from Monroe. She brought the ball up the midfield and several defenders attempted to stop her any way they could. “In the last seconds,” Sonnett said, “Michelle gave me a perfect pass that I took in the midfield, and I cranked up to Lauren [Light] in a desperate attempt to get a goal by the end.” Once inside the box, Light attacked the goal and shot the ball to beat the keeper with 16 seconds left on the clock. “Light had a perfect goal,” Sonnett said. “We freaked out and ran to tackle each other. It was awesome!”

“I think it was definitely the changing point of our whole season,” said Haley Hogan. “We finally proved to ourselves and our team . . . the typical Rapp mentality of settling for a tie is false. Those last minutes were really critical and prove our whole season. I think we proved we were the better team. We wanted it more, and we got it!”

Panther girls now have five district wins and are tied with Madison for third place.

Boys: 1-1 in two hard-fought district matches

Panther varsity men’s soccer logged another week of strong performances with an early-week loss (0-3) and a late-week victory (2-1) to bring their team record to 5-5-1.

On Tuesday (April 24), Panthers traveled to take on the perennial league powerhouse and reigning state champions, Manassas Park. For nearly the entire first half, the game remained scoreless with both teams having opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net.

With just minutes remaining in the half, Cougars notched their first goal of the game from a deep run to the end line with the ball from forward, Silas Carden, who passed for a one-time finish.

In the second half, Manassas Park picked up the tempo of the game and Rappahannock responded with tough, determined defense. As the game wore on, Manassas Park did manage to garner two additional goals, but the game remained hard-fought and close.

“I was pleased with the quality demonstrated by both teams,” said coach James Lofton. “I thought my defense played well; in particular, backs Clayton Hatcher and Brian Baumgardner, showed phenomenal grit and leadership. The game would not have been so close had it not been for those two. Clayton was a constant source of positive, vocal encouragement, and Brian matched up against some of the best forwards in the state and didn’t give an inch away.”

On Friday night (April 27), Panthers hosted Bull Run District rival William Monroe. Like many of the recent district battles, the first half ended 0-0 with both teams vying for goals. However, in the second half, the game opened up. The Panthers were first to get on the scoreboard with a 45-yard blast from forward Case Kramer. Just inside William Monroe’s half, the ball dropped for Kramer. On the bounce, Kramer laced the ball which traveled on a straight line over the keeper’s head and into the back of the net.

“Case just drilled a bomb from midfield,” said Hatcher. “It’s the best goal I’ve ever been a part of. For like two seconds afterward, we just froze and stood there. Everyone was awestruck.”

“I haven’t seen any high school players take and make shots like that,” said Lofton. “It took fabulous awareness and execution from Case, and it gave us exactly the lift we were looking for.”

Bonnie Lofton

Rappahannock’s Matt Lombardi controls the ball in the Panthers’ hard-fought win against William Monroe last week.

Not minutes later, the Dragons answered Rappahannock’s goal with one of their own. The Panthers followed soon after with their second goal of the game from a well-placed ball from Amrit Tamang played behind William Monroe’s defense to Tanyon Lee, who was able to outrun his mark and calmly slot the ball past the Dragons’ keeper. Although the Dragons turned up the heat in search of an equalizer, the Panthers’ defense held strong.

Said senior Robbie Adams: “Tanyon took the ball, beat the defense and scored the second goal. After that, it was solid play. We picked up our game. We raised up a level. Our defense was really steppin’ up. We were hitting on all cylinders.”

“For my part,” Lofton said, “I see the week as a critical turning point: the boys had two performances in which the play was solid, dogged and determined for the entirety of both games. From goalie to forwards, the boys put everything they had into the games. No matter which team scores more goals, the boys can feel that any performance is a success if they all contribute as best they can. And I think they did. It is no novel feat for the whole team to play 80 minutes of solid soccer, and I think they did that twice this week. That represents progress. That’s what it’s all about.”

RCHS track brings own stars to first meet

Last Thursday (April 25), two new additions to the Bull Run District arrived in Panther territory for Rappahannock County High School’s first home track meet of the season. William Monroe and Central Woodstock met with some strong hometown competition.

“With only three varsity girls, our team did very well,” said coach James Sharpe.

Sophomore Rita Cliffton definitely did her best that day. “I won the 400 meter dash and the long jump,” she said. “The 400 meter was my best time in my entire running career at 1:10. There was someone close behind me. She was giving it her all, but she was one second behind me. She spoke to me afterwards and said that I was really pushing her. That’s a huge compliment, and it was really fun to win.”

Cliffton added a personal surprise to her day when she was victorious in the women’s long jump with a jump of 12 feet 10 inches. “I’m not usually good at the long jump. We were all kind of inexperienced together. It is really a fun event because it’s something different than running.”

Another teammate also enjoyed competition variety. Maria Garralda entered the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races. She also threw the shot put and discus in the field. Garralda took home third in the 100 and second in the 400.

Garralda’s favorite event is the 200-meter dash. “I enjoy that event the most. It’s longer than the 100 meter; plus, I’m not fast enough for the 100. In the race, there’s so much energy, you feel like ‘I can do this, too.’ When I’m there, ready to run, I’m just going to die in order win. It’s only for a few minutes, so I know I can do it. In the 200, I like the fact that I got to run with the slower heat. When you see the winners from the faster race, you think, ‘Okay, maybe I’m not that good.’”

One other Lady Panther fell into the “good” category. Kayla McGhee won fourth in the 800.

In the men’s varsity events, Josh Jones gathered some winning statistics in the 300-meter hurdles and the 400-meter dash.

Of the 400, Jones said, “I was feeling really good that day. Around the 300-yard mark, I suspected I might win. However, a William Monroe runner snuck up and beat me. He passed me so quickly because I was dead by the last 50 yards. I had nothing left.”

Jones celebrated third place in the 400 with a 55.4 time and a second place in the 300 meter hurdles. Two of his teammates won some applause, as well. Seth Wayland came in fourth in the 400 meter. Caleb Stump jumped consistently and long, placing fourth at 17’ in the long jump. He also got fourth in the 200 meter race.

Panthers traveled this week to Manassas Park. Results will appear in next week’s Rappahannock News.

“The $10 Buy Local Challenge!” That’s the recent call to action from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS): If each household in Virginia spent just $10 a week on locally grown agricultural products, consumers would invest an additional $1.65 billion back into the local economy annually.

“The challenge is not limited to edible products,” says VDACS Commissioner Matthew J. Lohr. “This week we are encouraging people to go their local nursery, greenhouse, co-op or farmers’ market and buy ‘Virginia Grown’ products that will help them beautify their yards and enhance their gardens.” For more information, visit VirginiaGrown.com.

While the state government encourages local small farmers, the federal government often seems to do the exact opposite. Specifically, the U.S. Congress directs billions of federal taxpayer dollars to subsidize unhealthy, processed foods generated by agribusinesses instead of the fruits and vegetables grown on small farms and recommended for a healthy diet.

Congress is now considering its 2012 Farm Bill, and your congressman, Rep. Eric Cantor, says he likes to hear from constituents even if they are not big Republican fundraisers. So if you care about the future of small farms in Rappahannock County, please ask him to eliminate obstacles in commodity subsidy programs that prohibit farmers from planting fruits and vegetables. This is but one of the obstacles encountered by farmers who wish to grow a variety of fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods, or those who want to farm with organic methods.

Meanwhile, VDACS, together with the FBI and Virginia Tech, is sponsoring a May 9 conference in Blacksburg on “Agroterrorism.” The free, one-day conference is designed to inform people who work in agriculture and law enforcement how state and federal agencies would respond to an incident of terrorism that affected the food supply and all other aspects of agriculture – from veterinary medicine to dairy farmers to food processors.

Let’s hope Congress’s 2012 Farm Bill doesn’t qualify as such an incident.

Walter Nicklin
Publisher

This is in response to the question “Legalize marijuana?” that was the title of your April 12 editorial. Contrary to the implication of the editorial, opposition to legalization of marijuana is bipartisan. Neither Republican nor Democratic administrations have supported its legalization due to numerous scientific-based studies having shown that marijuana is a harmful drug in many ways, including being addictive.

Marijuana has been cultivated to be much stronger than what was used in earlier decades, and it is being used by younger children. This drug is especially harmful to youth during their vital years of social and academic development. Marijuana legalization would surely increase its use by youths as well as by adults.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy recently made a new resource available on its website with updated information on marijuana. Additional information can be found on the website of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at DrugAbuse.gov. Another great resource is PreventTeenDrugUse.org, a website of the Institute for Behavior and Health Inc., whose founder/president is Robert L. DuPont, the first director of the National Institute for Drug Abuse.

My background in the drug issue has been as a volunteer in school-age drug use awareness and prevention, having become involved as a parent in the early 1980s. I am a native of Rappahannock County and a graduate of Sperryville High School, class of 1949. And I have been a subscriber of the Rappahannock News nearly all of the time since high school graduation.

Nancy Yowell Starr
Erie, Pa.

Courtesy photo

From left: Nina Peyton, John Tole, Helen and Russell Cave were among the almost 200 who lined up for a country breakfast at the Senior Center fundraiser.

A big thank-you to the wonderful Rappahannock community (and a few others, too) for your awesome support of the Rappahannock Senior Center. Our fundraiser breakfast this past Saturday was a huge success. We fed close to 200 people, bringing in $2,400, which is so great. Thanks to the Stoneridge Bluegrass Band, Perry and Linda Smiley and their crew, all the other fabulous helpers, and the great people that came out, ate and gave so generously. Just wanted you all to know that you’re the best!

Most appreciatively,

Darcy Canton
Senior Center manager

Courtesy photo

Youths and parents head out on one of two full hayrides in Flint Hill last weekend.

The day was perfect for the Rappahannock Youth Group’s inaugural event last Sunday – great weather, good turnout of youths, leaders and parents, and a fantastic afternoon of fun for all.

Thanks to John and Dee Vest for allowing us to gather on their wonderful property where we began the hayride. The group was so large we had two hay wagons full of enthusiastic young people (24) and almost the same number of adults. It was a leisurely and scenic ride from the Fodderstack to the end of Bean Hollow Road with a short walk to Richard and Linda Brady’s property.

Courtesy photo

The campsite on Richard and Linda Brady’s property.

What a fantastic place to have our first outing – a large open area surrounded by tall trees, a pond, a cabin, and a trail to the Shenandoah National Park. After a Bible lesson led by Janet Jenkins with participation from some of our youth, Richard Brady led the group in a hike up the Shenandoah National Park trail explaining the history of the area and the park.

Food was waiting when they returned – John was grilling hot dogs and a pit fire was blazing for those who wanted to cook their own hot dogs or S’Mores. So good!

The youth played various games and, at 6, prepared for the hayride back to the Vest property. It was a wonderful experience for everyone.

Jean Lillard
Flint Hill