Wytheville

Joshua Blevins will be the guest speaker at the annual Wall of Honor Memorial Day Ceremony at Withers Park. The ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 26, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Grayson Highlands Fall Festival Committee is seeking vendors for the 2013 festival. This year’s festival will be held on Saturday, Sept. 28 and Sunday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. The festival is held in the picnic area at Grayson Highlands State Park in Mouth of Wilson.

The first-ever Rural Retreat-Wythe County Fair Association Fiddler's Convention will be held on the fairgrounds on May 24 and May 25.

Bluefield College Youth Theatre will present the Disney classic “Aladdin,” Thursday through Sunday, May 23-26.

First responders often see the good, the bad and a lot of the ugly when they go to a wreck scene.

Fowlkes Machine Company Inc. attended the Vermeer Regional Sales and Service Training in French Lick, Ind., on Feb. 11 and 12.

Saying that government needs fewer lawyers and more business-savvy leaders, Rural Retreat businessman and farmer Jack Weaver recently announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the 6th District House of Delegates seat currently held by the retiring Annie B. Crockett-Stark.

Three former George Wythe High School students recently asked the Wythe County School Board to investigate the resignation of boys basketball coach Joey Russell.

Mimi Leonard, Associate Professor of Developmental Studies, was the recipient of Wytheville Community College’s Improvement of Instruction Award at the college’s annual Honors Convocation held on April 25.

Wytheville College College was established in 1963, which makes the 2013 fall semester the beginning of the college’s 50th anniversary year. The college is planning a year-long schedule of events, with particular emphasis placed on a Saturday, September 28, celebration kick-off.

Bill and Rita Dixon of Wytheville have received the 2013 Chancellor’s Award for Leadership in Philanthropy.

The search for a flock of wild turkeys led Larry Umbarger on a quest that resulted in an interview by a Kentucky television station. It all began earlier this month when the Rural Retreat resident found a deflated balloon containing a message on his property.

Smart Beginnings has a new coordinator.

Third-grade students from Wythe County Schools enjoyed May Day activities May 2-3 at the Willow Brook Jackson/Umberger Homestead Museum property on Tazewell Street, Wytheville. Students from Spiller, Speedwell, Rural Retreat, Sheffey, Max Meadows and Jackson Memorial schools learned about blacksmithing, salt-making, spinning, soap-making, sheep and corn shilling. They also played frontier games and washed laundry the old-fashioned way (with a washboard and lye soap). Students also participated in a May Day dance with old time music by Jim Lloyd, Hunter Wyatt and Leigh Beamer.

Thanks to several corporate sponsors, there will be music in Wytheville’s Withers Park beginning next month.

Two West Virginia men were charged Monday night in connection with the robbery of a waitress. Other charges are pending.

An outdoor family movie night is coming to the Elizabeth Brown Memorial Park in Wytheville next week.

Woody Wilder of Wytheville, a senior English and communication studies major at Greensboro College, received the third place award in feature writing from the N.C. College Media Association during that group's recent annual meeting. Wilder was among three Greensboro College students writing for The Collegian, the college's student newspaper, to win individual recognition.

Emory United Methodist Church will host a walkathon Sunday, May 19, with a goal of raising $20,000 for the “Imagine No Malaria” campaign, an effort of the United Methodist Church.

New volunteers at Wythe County Rescue Squad had the opportunity on Sunday to attend a helicopter training session provided by the flight crew of Wings Air Rescue for the squad members.

It turns out there is a great big fork in my family tree.

Adam McPeak & Mountain Thunder, New Spring Valley Boys and the Loose Strings Band are a few of the region’s outstanding young artists that will perform at the Crooked Road Youth Music Festival at Heartwood on Saturday, May 11.

BY MILLIE ROTHROCK

Convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a fatal interstate wreck, a Texas truck driver was given a year in jail this week.