From the Ruritan Club of Clarke County 

Take a step back in time when Clarke County was a rural farming community. For one week in August, the horticulture building at the Clarke County Fairgrounds would be filled with entries in various categories including fruits, vegetables, eggs, field crops, and flowers. They will be judged and the winners will receive ribbons and small cash awards.

Today, that same building has been remodeled to serve, not only as the horticulture building for the fair, but as a Ruritan Event Center. When it’s not fair week, the venue is available for the public to rent for weddings, rehearsal dinners, engagements, anniversaries, birthdays, family reunions, baby and bridal showers, work retreats, business parties, graduations, funeral receptions, fundraisers, and corn hole tournaments.

We will be hosting an open house on Sunday, June 9 from 1–3pm for the community to come see why we are so proud of our newly remodeled building. It boasts 3,000 square feet of climate-controlled space, including new bathrooms. The charcoal-colored metal wainscoting walls and 20 foot high ceiling meet rough wood panels below, providing a rustic, but formal atmosphere.

Come visit with local vendors who can offer you event planning, catering, photography, and more. Enjoy live music by Emily Fisher and treat yourself to an ice cream, a grilled cheese, or a lumpia from our three food trucks that will be on-site.

For more information about the Ruritan, visit www.clarkecountyfair.org

As a retired nurse, a newspaper article entitled, “Once a Nurse Always a Nurse”, caught my attention. This is how I came to become involved with the Northern Shenandoah Valley Nurse Honor Guard, a local chapter of the national organization. Approximately 17 nurses comprise the Front Royal-based group that meets every other month.

Their mission is honoring nurses with a special ceremony at a funeral, wake or graveside. Northern Shenandoah Nurse Honor Guard will travel to attend services in a 60 
mile radius. 

Any nurse’s family can request a Nurse Honor Guard service. The group discusses with family details of the nurse’s career, which are incorporated into the ceremony. Special poems and nurse related passages are read. Unique to the nursing profession is the Nightingale Lamp, which is used in a special final tribute. 

Northern Shenandoah Valley Nurse Honor Guard members attend the ceremony in white uniform, cap, and cape — the traditional nurse attire. Services are free of charge but donations are accepted which are applied to service materials.

Northern Shenandoah Valley Nurse Honor Guard welcomes new members to join our Facebook group. For information and to contact for joining, please 
contact: NSVNHG@gmail.com.

— by Cynthia Moore

By Rebecca Maynard

On September 8, 1964, Mary Patricia Reynolds walked through the doors of Clarke County High School and quietly made history as its first Black student. Nearly 60 years later, on April 19, community members gathered at Johnson-Williams Middle School (which then was Clarke County High School) to dedicate the Mary Patricia Reynolds Foyer and unveil a new mural by Mikisa Shaajhante.

According to Encyclopedia Virginia, desegregation began in Virginia on February 2, 1959, after a nearly three-year battle in the federal courts. During these legal battles, the courts overturned many of Virginia’s anti-desegregation laws and eventually ordered the admittance of small numbers of Black students into formerly all-white schools in several locations. Following this initial school desegregation, public officials in Virginia tried to derail integration. Black students who sought to transfer into white schools were forced to go through a complex selection process. The majority of applicants 
were rejected. 

At the same time, state investigative committees attempted to reduce the influence of the NAACP in Virginia, and sought to make it more difficult for the organization to file additional school desegregation lawsuits in the state. As a result of these and other policies, school desegregation in Virginia proceeded slowly. As late as 1965, fewer than 12,000 of the approximately 235,000 Black students in Virginia went to 
desegregated schools.

“The Clarke County Board of Education in 1965 is to be commended for not choosing the course of action taken by Prince Edward County, who closed their public school system for five years to avoid desegregation,” said Dr. David James, a former history teacher for Clarke County Public Schools and one of the first three Black teachers who integrated the Clarke County High School faculty in 1966. 

“Today is a day of history. Mary Patricia Reynolds’ decision to attend Clarke County High School was perhaps the most challenging decision she would ever make in her young life as a teenager,” James said. “However, she was bold, brave, and courageous. She was a loving daughter, sister, a good student, an athlete, and a warm and engaging young lady. Mary Patricia Reynolds was successful and became a symbol for other students to follow. She should from this day forward be remembered with pride and admiration for the courage that she and her loving, supportive family needed when embarking on a path of uncertainty and potential danger in desegregating a high school in Virginia as a freedom of 
choice student.”

Johnson-Williams student Lia Staples spoke about Reynolds’ experiences. “When she came to Clarke County High, most people found her to be a very pleasant person,” Staples said. “Unfortunately, there were some students who didn’t feel the same as others and were rude and offensive to her. She had amazing self control and never gave in to taunting and bullying. She belonged to Future Home Builders of America and was on the basketball team. When Pat switched high schools, she faced hardships. She could have graduated valedictorian, but her grades did not transfer from Johnson-Williams. She joined the Marine Corps and passed away at the young age of 46. It should be known that her actions were just as important as those of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.”

“I’m quite honored to be here,” said Dorothy Davis. “Eleven and a half years ago, Patricia’s mother, Mrs. Patricia Reynolds Maxwell, thought it was time for the school system, for the county, to give some notice to Patricia for all she’d done in her life, especially as the first Black graduate of Clarke County High School. She planted that seed, and her children nurtured it and it’s grown into what we have today. This would not have occurred without their tenacity. Mrs. Maxwell is not here in the flesh, but she’s looking down on us and she’s smiling at her children who pushed this forward, and she’s thankful for all of you who found this important enough 
to participate.”

Clifford Reynolds, Patricia’s younger brother, said he wanted to honor their mother, who had the insight in 1964 to speak to his sister about attending Clarke County High School.

“She said somebody had to open the door. I’m sure she didn’t know at that time that it would eventually become a historical event,” Reynolds said. “Mary Patricia, known as Tricia by her family and friends, was a determined person who wanted to do what was right. Even though she and Mama are no longer with us to celebrate this milestone, we are sure they are smiling down from heaven and rejoicing with us.”

Beth Williams, director of the Clarke County Education Foundation, explained that Reynolds’ family has been funding a yearly $500 scholarship in her honor since 2018. The foundation will be funding the scholarship this year, and community members are encouraged to donate so that the scholarship can become permanent. Visit 
www.ccefinc.org or call 540-955-6103 for 
more information. 

“This dedication was a great honor for our school,” said Johnson-Williams Middle School assistant principal Yvonne Rivera. “The work isn’t done, and we still have things we need to do to make sure our schools are more inclusive.”

“Mary Patricia Reynolds should be admired by all students in Clarke County Public Schools, especially those of color, James said. “Students like her are our hope for the future. May this dedication become a permanent and positive symbol of change in Clarke County history.”

By Bobby Whitescarver

My wife and I are cattle farmers in Virginia’s legendary Shenandoah Valley. Early in our marriage, Jeanne gave me a nickname: “Walk Slow, Stand Around.” Yep, that’s me. Sure, it’s funny. And it’s true. But I’m not lazy; I just wonder a lot. As a farmer, I’m exposed to so many things in nature that just leave me in a state of awe.

I asked Jeanne, “What gives you a sense of wonder?”

She didn’t hesitate: “Daffodils and young calves running.”

I wonder at those, too. A bunch of newborn calves running with their tails in the air and their mothers chasing after them is a sight to behold. I stand in amazement every time our border collie does an outrun to bring a herd of cattle to the barn. 

Tree swallows arrived on our farm this year on March 14. Each year, I wonder when they will come; that’s when spring begins for me. They migrate here from Florida, Cuba, and Mexico to nest and raise their young. We put up nesting boxes for them. Their metallic blue wings and white breast are unmistakable. They fly in squadrons all summer in pursuit of flying insects. I stand around and watch.

When I see rays of sunshine beaming through holes in big white and gray puffy clouds, I have to stop and wonder. It’s just so beautiful and awe inspiring. A ray of that light starts one of the greatest natural processes on the planet: photosynthesis. It’s what gives us green pastures for our cows to graze in. It’s what makes trees’ leaves grow and then fall into streams to feed the aquatic ecosystem. We had thousands of native trees and shrubs planted along the water courses on our farm to support this miraculous process and to provide wildlife habitat.

My wife and I are regen farmers. “Regen” is short for “regenerative,” meaning we produce wholesome food while regenerating our land’s ecosystem services, such as the production of clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat and renewable energy. 

We raise beef cattle — they’re ruminants, which have multiple stomachs that make them capable of digesting the cellulose in grass. Cows, and other grazing ruminants such as sheep and goats, are mobile cellulose-digesting protein and fertilizer factories. These animals harvest their own food and fertilize the soil, which makes the grass grow more vigorously. This regenerative cycle helps the planet too: The more vigorously a plant grows, the more carbon it captures from the air, reducing greenhouse gasses.

The rays of sun beam down. The grasses and trees grow, capturing carbon from the air. The rays of sun also beam down on the solar panels we installed on one of our barns, producing renewable energy.

I stand and wonder as the direct current from the solar panels hums through the inverters, converting it to alternating current before it enters the grid. We would like to install more solar panels, but our utility company limits the production of renewable energy that can go into its grid. We also have some land well suited for solar panels, but our local government, and many others across the commonwealth, have severely restricted farmers’ rights to 
install them.

Those human actions inspire a different kind of wondering: Why would the utility companies and the government restrict our ability to produce renewable energy? And that kind of wondering should lead to action, not standing around.

Senate Bill 697, introduced this past legislative session, intended to remove local government authority for utility scale solar until the locality reached a cap of 4 percent of its land in panels. Control of solar siting rested with the State Corporation Commission. The bill was tabled until next year because it met with so much resistance from local governments, but that gives us an opportunity to work together and get the bill right. I wonder: Can we reduce the cap to 1- or 2 percent with the caveat that localities adopt stringent 
siting ordinances?

We don’t have time to stand around. The demand for electricity in Virginia has never been higher or more complicated. The Virginia Clean Economy Act sunsets fossil fuel electric generation by 2050. And Virginia is now the world’s epicenter for data centers, which suck at least 20 percent of Dominion Energy’s supply, and plans for more data centers are in the unsecured “nobody’s watching” pipeline.

As the country observes Earth Day, our Virginia legislators could — and should — remove barriers for properly sited solar installations.This article originally appeared in the Virginia Mercury, https://virginiamercury.com. Bobby Whitescarver is co-owner of Whiskey Creek Regenerative Farming, a watershed restoration consultant, an award-winning writer, and teaches natural resources management at James Madison University. He serves on the board of directors of the Berryville-based nonprofit, The Downstream Project.