A Caring Community: The Montgomery County Christmas Store.

The Montgomery County Christmas Store is living proof that the citizens of Montgomery County care about those that are at the bottom of the economic heap.  Almost 1600 families were served in 2010 which extrapolates to about 3600 people.  The way they are served makes this program unique.

The Christmas Store is divided into departments just like a regular department store or like Leggets that occupied that space for many years as a down town Christiansburg shopping center.

The Christmas Store has a 2011 budget of over $183,000.  The building is owned by the charity and the only paid employee is the CPA that does the books ( tis is required by law).

Families are selected on the basis of financial need.  Each family is allocated points that are spent like money as they select Christmas gifts for their family.  They shop for their families just like those families that have more money to spend.

New cloths are available for parents to select for their kids while gently used clothes are available for parents and seniors.

Many items in the store are new.   Department managers shop throughout the year for bargains at sales and closeouts.  Each family has points to use for household items.

Donations are received throughout the year at the store in Christiansburg or at the Northside Presbyterian Church in Blacksburg.  While gathering is a year-long activity distribution is accomplished in only 4 days in December.

About 3000 volunteers made the program work in 2010.  Some of their name tags were used to decorate this Christmas Tree. 

Watching the change.

Fall in the Virginia mountains can be so colorful.  The greens of late Summer often get blended with brown induced by drought or insects.  Generally,  Fall is greeted by yellows and reds that continue to intensify until the Fall winds and/or rains strip the limbs.   I love to watch the change and pay particular attention to the variation associated with the aspect of the sight (orientation of the slopes relative to the compass) and elevation.

History Lesson; Price's Fork, VA

Since I grew up in the mountains of Virginia and my family and relatives were supposedly Scotch-Irish I just assumed most people around Blacksburg had similar heritage.  I learned I was wrong when I took time to read the historical marker in Price's Fork, a small community about 5 miles from Blacksburg.  I also visited with a high school class mate of mine, Jimmie Price, who pastors a church near Price's fork.  He gave me a short history lesson about the area and community: " We are obviously a rural, farming, coal mining, and stone-cutting community which sprang from the German-American and Colonial Heritage.  Our German-Immigrant ancestors had planted a frontier settlement by the year 1745-some 29 years before Colonel Wiliam Preston built Smithfield at present-day Blacksburg.  In recorded history, that settlement is known as 'The German New River Settlement.'  Price's Forks is the visible remainder of that early colony.  Price's Forks is said to be the oldest, continuous European settlement within and west of The Alleghenies in Virginia.  Saint Michael Lutheran Church on Merrimac Road; first church planted in that same region, circa 1745."

A visit to The Cellar

The Cellar Restaurant in Blacksburg has a lot of historical significance for me even though I had never eaten there before August 2010.  According to something on the wall it was started in 1963.

But I think of its origin being a lot earlier.  The entrance I remember is still a part of the current restaurant

but is one door to the left and was the doorway to The Blue Ribbon Restaurant which everyone knew as the Greeks.  It was operated by the family of my good school friend, Chris Kappas. Chris has been the operator of the Cellar  for many rears and , at one time, had another restaurant on College Avenue.

We found our first visit delightful and the food quality great with portions too big for our appetites.  But the dessert was special.  Chris was in and he came to our table for a visit.

This blog is more about Chris than his restaurant.  Chris and his family have always made me feel I would like Greece.  Chris is so positive and cheerful.  We grew up together but or early childhoods were very different.  I grew up in Blacksburg.  My dad went over seas to fight in the war (which fortunately ended before he saw combat).  Some of the war had been in Chris' homeland.  Chris explained to me one time, "do you remember seeing the newsreels in the theater with hundreds of children in the streets? I was one of those kids!"  So he and his family found refuge in Blacksburg.  I can't remember but Chris told me he had to learn English and so many new customs while I was starting school in my own culture.  He said I was always friendly to him.  I can't remember anything except that he was a nice friend. 

Chris married Maria  a few years his junior also from Greece.  We became instantly fond of Maria at our first meeting.  She seems so warm and gracious and Chris affirms that that is her true personality at about every time we visit. 

The Cellar is now a special restaurant to me but Chris has always been a special person and friend.  Downtown Blacksburg would not be the same if the Kappas family had not found their way to it.

Communities that remember.

Drive about 3 miles out  of Blacksburg on the Glade Road and find an amazing  collection of memorials to  military veterans and coal miners from the Sunnyside and Tom's Creek communities.  Some gave their lives but all listed served honorably.

For those who served in World War I, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam...

...and a unique and an appropriate memorial to those who served at a very tense time called the Cold War.

In addition to the military monuments are memorials to those who worked and died in the coal mines.

Remembering is a part of knowing who we are.

Shining Example

Marking History

This monument stands beside the Shadow Lake Road just out of Blacksburg off the Glade Road.

  The fort was built one year after the Draper's Meadow Massacre.  

Steppin' Out number 30

The Blacksburg community began a street fair, "Steppin' Out" thirty years ago and the 2010 version turned out to be one of the biggest and best. Over 200 vendors filled Main Street from College Avenue to Lee Street, College Avenue and the areas around the Farmer's Market.  

  The  Acoustic  Stage at Lee Street and the Main Stage at the end of College Avenue marked the ends of the boundaries of the event and kept the crowds flowing back and forth like tidal waves.  A Bluegrass band from Floyd County amused the crowd with an original, "Floyd Time" depicting the slower pace of life  in the neighboring county (see earlier blog, "Meandering Near Blacksburg" February '09).


Artisans included potters, jewelry makers, painters , photographers, wielders, basket makers, weavers, sand artists, chiefs and more.  This is a big event that maintains Blacksburg's small town feel.