ASL 5K Memorial

The Appalachian School of Law held its 5K Memorial on Saturday, March 17th, 2012.  This Memorial race marked the 10 year anniversary of the horrible tragedy that shook the school and the surrounding community.  Grundy Virginia was a small, quite, peaceful town but the events on January 16, 2002 changed the town forever.  The town was incredibly proud when the Appalachian School of Law began accepting students in 1997.  No one knew that a student from Nigeria would one day come to the school and take the lives of three people.  Dean Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales were all three killed and three other students were wounded.

The following days, months, and years ahead have been a healing time.  The school planted trees in memory of the victims on the front lawn of the school and have each year held a 5K Memorial Race.  The GFWC Grundy Woman's Club wanted to participate this year and decided to set up water stations to hand out water to the runners.

Five water stations were set up along the course.  When the tired and thirsty runners came by, a bottle of water that had a label attached reading GFWC Grundy Woman's Club, was handed to them.

In an effort to make sure runners could find the water stations, we made a few signs, fluorescent of course.

Just in case they were color blind we all dressed in our green St. Patrick shirts to catch their eyes.

Bertha and I were lucky enough to have an Irish Leprechaun named Matt from Montana helping us.  I think his skirt looked great.

The Woman's Club is an important part of the community, and though the events of the January can never be changed, we hope that in a small way we can help make sure they are never forgotten.

Legacy

Legacy is defined as anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.  What kind of "legacy" are you leaving behind?

The new officers for the GFWC Grundy Woman's Club are soon going to be taking office; and with the change of administrations, comes the change of the official handbook.  With the date approaching swiftly, I have been working on typing all the pages into the computer to compile the upcoming handbook.  Most organizations or clubs give out handbooks, but how many of us take the time to read through ALL the pages?  Ours contains the Club Collect, list of past Presidents, a list of the Charter Members, and the By-Laws and Constitution along with a few other tidbits of information.  In my typing of the Constitution I  started to feel blessed to be part of this organization.  Read the following:

The object of the club shall be to promote good citizenship, public welfare and to unite all loyal and progressive citizens in an intelligent effort to develop an increase in civic interest, and to instill a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation; and to inaugurate, encourage and promote philanthropic, benevolent, altruistic, literary and education movements for the benefit of the community, state and the nation.

 

What better legacy could you possibly hand down to the next generation than to strive to fulfill this objective.  Shirley Belcher presented a "Legacy" program at our last meeting and she showed the connections from several of the founding Charter Members to some of our current members.  One branch from Nannie Dotson had at least seven members who were interconnected.  At this very time there are several mother/daughter members and one family who have three generations all currently active in our club. 

The General Federation of Women's Clubs, GFWC Virginia, GFWC Southwestern District, and GFWC Grundy Woman's Club is where your legacy can begin.