Thursday, May 21, 2009

5/21/09 Charlotte and Megan Look for a Cure, and We Are Too Complacent


The rain held off, and the First Street Party of the season was lovely this past weekend. As always, the music was sweet and the conversations interesting. The kids had a blast on the moon bounce, and we went home tired.

Before you have your cookout this Memorial Day, come walk in the 8th Annual Memorial Day March which leaves the Ashland Library at 1pm for a silent march down Hanover Street to Woodlawn Cemetery. This event, hosted by the Ashland American Legion, is to remember and honor those service men and women from Hanover who gave their lives defending our freedom. “We do not gather to glorify war.” Make sure your kids know why they got the day off from school.

Little Charlotte Reynolds and her parents, Rachel and Roger, will travel to Houston, TX on the 23rd to visit the M.D. Anderson Clinic where top notch oncology specialists are going to give Charlotte a personalized treatment plan for this next stage of attack on her “ill-behaved” brain tumor. We hope the trip is a smooth one, and we are hanging on the promise of a cure. C’mon, modern medicine, do your stuff.

Megan Mudd is the chairman of this year's 2nd Annual Visionwalk at Short Pump Town Center on Saturday June 6. Registration starts at 9 am, and the walk begins at 10. It's a 3.1 mile walk to raise money for retinal degenerative research. Since 1971, Foundation Fighting Blindness has raised over $270 million to support critical research that may one day lead to the cure of diseases such as RP, macular degeneration, Usher Syndrome and other retinal degenerative diseases. Megan’s involvement is personal since she has been diagnosed with Usher’s Syndrome. I applaud her leadership in this important fundraiser- she is another example of an Ashlander trying to make a difference. Thank you Megan.

Lunch on the Lawn began this week on the front lawn of the Hanover Arts and Activities Center. Come out every Wednesday and have lunch with your town! Through the months of May and June, before it gets too hot, bring your lunch and picnic from noon to 1:30.

On May 1st, Randolph-Macon College Professor of Mathematics Bruce Torrence, Ph.D., was named the first recipient of the Dorothy and Muscoe Garnett Professorship in Mathematics. The amount of talent in this town never ceases to amaze me, and indeed there is an over-whelming allotment of this talent on Howard Street. Congratulations Bruce!

I hope you all have a lovely long weekend. I hope you stop and stand still in your yard and look around you. Look at the blue sky, the fields, the trees. Look at your town, your woods, your street. Look at how much you have and this wonderful place that we live. We are so comfortable here. For all the drama that comes through our lives, our children are safe and we fall asleep unafraid. Lives go by fast. This will be gone before you know it. Do not waste a day. Please.

Call or email me with your Ashland news: 804-310-5320, ashlandnews@gmail.com. Have a wonderful week.

It's a shame we didn't get any snow this winter...

Especially since we're building this new town ski lodge.  I mean, I guess it could potentially bring in tourism dollars, if we ...