The 2023 Northern Neck Soil & Water Conservation District (NNSWCD) and VASWCD College Scholarship Application window is now open.

After Dr. Morgan Norris saw “For Whites Only” printed on the program for the 1926 Chesapeake Fair, he confronted the fair’s chairman.

Senator Richard Stuart introduced another General Assembly resolution recognizing a Westmoreland icon.  SJ 318 is a call to celebrate the life of Francis Reed Jenkins.

When one hears the term Buffalo Soldier, our minds will, more often than not, shift back to a Black soldier in Union blue, with a soldier’s cap and a Krag carbine, charging up San Juan Hill alongside then-Lieutenant John J. “Black Jack” Pershing. What some don’t realize is that even after that, the mantle of the Buffalo Soldiers was carried on through the ages, with many Black veterans from the later wars of the 20th Century bearing the moniker proudly.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Neck is home to the newly established Scout Pack 372.

“Prior to 1866, during the first days of reconstruction, Black folks who lived on or near Knights Run, as we know it today, did not have a place to worship. Paymus Nutt, cofounder of First Baptist Church, pleaded with Negro worshippers of the White Coan Baptist Church at Coan Stage, Virginia, about the need to form their own church. As a result of Nutt’s conference, prayer meetings were held on Sunday evenings and during the week at the home of Alexander Day.

Governor Glenn Youngkin, recognizing that running a school is no easy job for those at the top of the school hierarchy, issued a proclamation earlier in the year designating the week of January 15-21 as Virginia’s School Principals Appreciation Week.

It is “FAFSA Focused February” at Westmoreland High School.  

On October 20, 1774, the First Continental Congress created the Continental Association, which called for a complete ban on all trades between America and Great Britian of all goods, wares, or merchandise.

The submission window for the Virginia Council on Women Annual STEAM-H Contest is now open.

It took eight rounds before a winner was declared for the Westmoreland County Public Schools’ spelling bee district championship. At the end of the evening, seventh grade Montross Middle School student, Bri’Elle Hall sealed her victory by spelling correctly the final word of the night, “prophetically.”

Bay Transit announced that the 2023 edition of the Bay Transit – Rappahannock Community College (RCC) Scholarship will be $2,000.   With funds generated from sponsorships of Bay Transit’s annual ‘Art in Transit’ judged competition, as well as a $1,000 match from the RCC Educational Foundation, Bay Transit was able to double the scholarship fund.

Rappahannock Community College (RCC) has joined with Virginia Tech to offer a new career and technical training program, Promoting Careers in Aquaculture, for local high school juniors and seniors. The Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula region has a high concentration of employment opportunities in the seafood and shellfish aquaculture industry and is primed for growth over the coming decades.

Angel Visit Baptist Church will host the Thirty-fourth Annual Essex County Community Celebration of the Life and Work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, January 16, 2023, at 7 p.m. at 29566 Tidewater Trail, Dunnsville, Virginia. The theme of the celebration is “Remember and Respond.”

Congratulations to Rappahannock High School English teacher, Mr. Grover Cleveland Winfield III, on being selected to present at the 2022 National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention: !Suenos! Pursuing the Light! in Anaheim, California.

On Saturday, June 18, Colonial Beach will hold its first ever Juneteenth Celebration of Freedom at the Town Hill. The event, which will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., will honor Black history and culture. Admission will be free, and all people are welcome to attend.

The Rappahannock Industrial Academy, or RI Academy as it was called, was established by African Americans to fulfill the need for high school education for African Americans at a time when no public schools in the area offered it. It existed from 1902 to 1948 and primarily served students from Middlesex, Essex, and King and Queen Counties.

Lancaster Supervisors declared October 15, 2022 Armistead Stokalas Nickens Day in Lancaster and called attention to all county citizens. On that day, Nickens will have a Virginia Historical Highway Marker unveiled honoring him as Lancaster’s first and only black legislator in the Virginia House of Delegates.

In Westmoreland County, the school board has been feeling the bite of inflation in many places, most notably in the realm of food service. At last week’s meeting, the matter cropped up during a presentation by school board superintendent Dr. Michael Perry.

Ten Westmoreland High School students were recently inducted into the Westmoreland High School National Honor Society.  Matthew Benson, Aven Clarke, Hailey Jett, John Lahey, Stephanie Ochoa, Heroina Point-Du-Jour, Whitnee Rotenizer, Jordan Saunders, Julissa Valdez, and Brooklyn Wheeler were presented to the audience.

Rappahannock Community College Haynesville Correctional Center (HCC) student Stephen Drayton had just one more class to complete when the pandemic halted in-person instruction in March 2020. On November 4, two and a half years later, Drayton walked across the prison gymnasium floor to receive his Associate of Arts & Sciences degree from RCC President Dr. Shannon Kennedy.

The third, fourth, and fifth graders at Cople Elementary were recently treated to an exciting morning visit by local author, Rodney Sidney, II.

As of Monday, Northumberland County Public Schools has a new director of finance on the job. NUCPS approved Tara Booth for the position on October 27 following the announcement on the heels of the announcement that Jason Bellows was leaving for other pursuits.

A school principal is a key figure in the education of the students, and yet, they are not often seen by the students except on special occasions or as a result of exceptionally raucous behavior. At last week’s Westmoreland County School Board meeing, Chairman Ralph Fallin gave a presentation honoring the principals of the division’s four schools.

A large brilliant harvest moon shined down on a perfect high school football game evening on Friday, October 7, 2022. It was a great ending for the first Westmoreland High School’s homecoming. With the home crowd being entertained by the WHS cheerleaders, the Eagle’s varsity football team showed their skills with a 28-12 victory over the visiting Lancaster High School team.  

Northumberland Superintendent Dr. Holly Wargo is urging families to send students to school as much as possible “on a daily, consistent basis.” It’s an issue she addressed in her recent update and at this month’s board of supervisors meeting.

On Oct. 8, the RHS Class of 1972 held their 50th Class Reunion at St. John’s Episcopal Church Fellowship Hall, Warsaw.

Lancaster Supervisors declared October 15, 2022 Armistead Stokalas Nickens Day in Lancaster and called attention to all county citizens. On that day, Nickens will have a Virginia Historical Highway Marker unveiled honoring him as Lancaster’s first and only black legislator in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Last Thursday, parents were alerted that there was a safety and security concern that caused the Northumberland middle and high schools to be locked down.

Virginia is offering school construction grants and over $1.3 million of that money has been allocated to Richmond County. RCPS is considering using those funds to add a wing at the high school.

Sometimes life throws you a curve and you want to either change course or quit.  Montross Middle School girl’s Health and PE instructor, Miquella Snider, is no quitter. In her life, she has experienced many hurdles that would have discouraged and ended the aspirations of most individuals. But she has worked through pain and difficulty to arrive at Montross Middle School where she once was a student.

Virginia’s community colleges, including Rappahannock Community College (RCC), are gearing up to train more workers to help rebuild Virginia’s crumbling infrastructure. The Virginia Infrastructure Academy (VIA) announced it “will coordinate, scale up, and replicate infrastructure-related community college programs.” The community colleges in Virginia currently produce a combined total of 4,000 graduates annually, with a goal of a total of 35,000 qualified workers over the next five years.