Bikes Assembled for Christmas Morning

Boxes were ripped open, packaging moved aside and wrenches did their work at the Martinsville City Fire Department as firefighters assembled bikes to be given away for Christmas. This was no small task, but firefighters found much joy in helping children, and they were not alone. Several organizations helped to raise funds to purchase bikes for the Salvation Army’s Bikes for Tykes drive.

Even in tough economic times when consumers cut back on spending, individuals, organizations, and businesses demonstrated their generosity through both big and small donations that provided assistance to the growing number of children in need. Rallying together, they supplied over 650 bikes to children in Martinsville and Henry County.

Activate joined in the efforts to make the children’s Christmas memorable and safe. Each child received a coupon for a free helmet along with bike and helmet safety tips and rules of the road.

DRBA Volunteers Honored

After a year full of projects including the Richard P. Gravely, Jr. Nature Preserve, expansion of the Fieldale Trail, stewardship activities, educational programs, and numerous festivals, The Dan River Basin Association's (DRBA) crew of volunteers have been very busy!

DRBA is very appreciative of the in-kind donations of labor and expertise provided by these volunteers. The labor, materials, and skills provided served as matching funds for grants and benefited the community as a whole through the development of new recreational opportunities in Martinsville and Henry County.

DRBA staff decided to give back and say thank you to these hard workers by hosting a volunteer appreciation dinner. Approximately 50 volunteers attended a reception at the Reynolds Homestead in Critz. They enjoyed a BBQ dinner while watching a photo slideshow of the year in review. After dinner everyone enjoyed yummy deserts donated by Subway, Arts Etc. and Cafe', and Binding Time Cafe'.

Several lucky individuals won door prizes too! Many thanks to the following sponsors who contributed items for the event:

Bass, Bucks, & More
Crouch's Nursery

Freedom Prints

JR's Outdoor Gear of Danville

Lester Building Supply

R.E.I of Greensboro

Simply the Best

Smith River Junction Outfitters

Yamato Restaurant

Jim & Linda Drage with Paul May

T Butler & Barbara Thompson

Jennifer Frith, C.D. Prillaman, and Dr. David Jones

Team DRBA has many exciting projects planned for 2009 and will need volunteers to help with trail building/maintenance, trip guides, festival booths, and educational programs. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact: Brian Williams 276-634-2592 or Jennifer Doss 276-634-2545.

Article by: Jennifer Doss

Photos by: Brian Williams

A Brand New Year For TIC

As students are home enjoying their holiday breaks, amazing things are happening in schools throughout the City of Martinsville, and the counites of Henry, Franklin, Patrick, and Pittsylvania. Trout eggs are hatching! Each of these tiny opaque eggs (shown above) contains a brown trout. The tiny trout eggs were delivered to the classrooms between Dec 5 – 8 and placed in breeder nets hanging from the side of the tank.

The fertilized eggs were picked up from the State Hatchery at Wytheville in a state of development where the eyes were just beginning to show as dark spots inside the egg. According to Butch Bates, assistant manager at the hatchery, the eggs were expected to hatch in 12 to 14 days. In some tanks, a few little guys were in a hurry to get here and popped out early. Some are still hatching as of this writing. The tiny alevin are totally dependent on their yolk sacs for nourishment the first few weeks of life as they are developing mouth parts.

Sometime in late January they will be ready to be released from the baskets into the tank and then ready for students to give them their first meal. Students will spend spring semster learning about the trout as part of the Trout-in-the-Classroom (TIC) program. TIC is sponsored locally by Dr. David Jones, a Martinsville Orthodotist. Brian Williams of the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA), with support from the Harvest Foundation, is the coordinator for the 26 tanks in a 4 county region this year. Last season over 2,000 area youth were served by the program. This year that number is expected to increase. Over the next few months, the students will learn many lessons from these small creatures. After being raised to fingerling size, the students will release them into the Smith River at the end of the school year. Check back soon to see more progress!

Photo by: Brian Williams
Article by: Jennifer Doss & Brian Williams

Trash to Treasure

Danville, Virginia Girl Scouts create “bottle blooms” from discarded plastic bottles. The blooms are on display at the Danville Science Museum through February 2009.

The Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) has a new program combining trash, art and an environmental message. “iIMPACT: Speaking Out For Rivers Through Art & Action” is a basin-wide project to raise awareness of the impact of consumer waste on watersheds and wildlife. Since plastic is among the most detrimental of all consumer waste, iIMPACT puts a special emphasis on it. Participants pick up discarded materials—okay, trash—from sidewalks, parking lots, river banks, and then turn the material into “objet d’art”.

The participants-turned-artists fashion sculptures and paintings that range from the silly to surprisingly delightful. But what is really important is this: as a part of the creative process, they learn about the prolific and stubborn nature of plastic. These simple polymers simply refuse to biodegrade. That means that nearly all the plastic ever made still exists in some form, with dire consequences for both water and wildlife. (For an eye-popping interactive article about plastic and the environment, check out http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/03/#5/1). iIMPACT also explores the small, but growing, market for alternatives to oil-based plastic.

The art is then displayed in local venues along with educational panels that the artists help write. A youth 4H group in Stuart, Virginia serves in an advisory role to iIMPACT by testing out each art project idea (such as the “bottle blooms”). If the 4H students give it a pass, then that particular art form can be replicated with other groups the basin. Funding from the Virginia Environmental Endowment allows DRBA to offer iIMPACT for free. DRBA hopes to build quite a collection of trash art, enough to ultimately become part of a larger exhibition in 2009. Anyone who would like to help with the project is encouraged to call or email Jenny Edwards, DRBA staff at (276) 340-2462 or jedwards@danriver.org

Article and Photo by: Jenny Edwards