Filling the Backpacks for Bedford County School children

Filling the Backpacks for Bedford County School children

Looking at backpacks full of school supplies, volunteers were happy for what they had accomplished. In less than 2 hours about 25 people filled over 200 backpacks of donated school supplies. Many of the volunteers were from the Bedford Leads Group (BBLG), a networking group from the Bedford Chamber of Commerce. BBLG donated over $700 in supplies and backpacks in addition to labor to help pack. Wendy Witt said “This is so great, I know how excited my kids are when we shop for the school supplies!”

BBLG members where seen smiling and having a great time while putting together the backpacks! Sadly, there was not enough of each of the supplies, we ran out of some items. Therefore some kids will only receive a portion of what they need for the school year.

A special thank you to Vicky Tent of Bank of Fincastle and to Liz Brown owner of Rapid Printing. The co-captained the event for us.They organized what to purchase, kept track of the money, and had it delivered to the drop off point.

 

This was so rewarding we hope to do more next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bedford Main Street Gets New Executive Director

Bedford Main Street is pleased to announce Sue Montgomery as their new Executive Director.

Mrs. Montgomery is the former economic development director for Bedford County where she had worked since 1993 before retiring. Under her guidance Bedford County prospered and added several new industrial parks. She brought new education opportunities such as Central Virginia Community College Bedford Campus and an education program for Bedford County High School students. Bedford’s Main Street is lucky to have her.

Bedford Main Street is one of the oldest Virginia Main Street Communities. Virginia Main Street is state wide organization designed to bring together local citizens and governments to revitalize Virginia’s downtown areas. The mission is to bring people and business into downtown areas.

County School Board Considers Closing Bedford Primary School

Bedford VA primary schoolBedford Primary School has been a staple of the community for many years. Its severs the county school system by taking in the youngest of our communities children. Many factors are driving this choice but the main force is money or a lack of it.

Shirking budgets from the state and federal government are a result of a down economy but also from the disdain elected officials feel towards education and social needs. A massive attempt is being made across our nation to reduce education costs and to get rid of the National Education Association.Reduced funding impacts students at all levels, not just the schools on the chopping blocks, all of our schools will be faced with large class sizes, reduced funding for sports, less or no arts, less teachers.

Lets face it, nobody wants to pay more taxes, but costs of books, fuel, supplies, the growing amount of students, and the cost of living is going up. We as a community, a state, a nation need to think about what is important to us. If we want our children to have a bright future we need to fund their education now. For our children, there is no redo or going back.

It has been said many times “pay now or pay later!” and some people feel this pertains to our current national debt. What is the cost associated with not giving our children a good education. Uneducated people make poor choices, this will lead us to higher crime rates, needing more prisons, teen pregnancy,  and higher unemployment. We can pay to educate children now or pay for jail, Medicaid, food stamps……. later.

What to do? Call you elected officials at all levels. Let them know education is important and worth funding. Ask them to return funding to prior levels and to seriously consider raising funding above the prior levels.Lets make them work for us. In order to get their attention, we need to contact them in numbers. We need to stand together to let them know WE CARE! Our next School Board Meeting is in March.

Here is a list of local and state elected officials for Bedford.

State Representative

General Assembly Building

P.O. Box 406

Richmond, Virginia 23218

Phone: (804) 698-1019

Fax: (804) 698-6719

Email: DelLPutney@house.virginia.gov

Room Number: 947

Legislative Assistant: Betty Lou Layne

Secretary During Session: Betty Peaco

 

State Representative and Senator

http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform

This is the link on the state website that will give you the opportunity to type in your address and email our Rep (Lacy Putney) and our Senator (Steve Newman)

 

Bedford County Board of Supervisors

http://www.bedford.k12.va.us/supervisors/supervisors.htm

 

Bedford County School Board

http://www.bedford.k12.va.us/school_board/school_board.htm

 

Shopping in Bedford, VA

Go to the Bedford Visitor’s Center for information on local shopping! http://www.visitbedford.com/attract_shopping.shtml

We are adding new places all the time, check back with us.

Olde Liberty Station

Main Street Eatery

Breweries near Bedford