No raffle of small craft this year, but the 3 days spent in "selling" an appreciation for the Dragon Run and it’s importance to the Bay seemed to go over quite well with the hundreds of folks who visited our big booth down by the river. We had company even before we could put things in place,  unusual for a Thursday. That is a special day reserved for talking with Middlesex and neighboring county’s school children. Aylett and Gloucester County’s Ware Academy were also well represented..

Hugh Markham and I began the day and were soon inundated with the arrival of a number of buses. This year the schools decided to all come in the morning, much to our surprise. Somehow we managed to let each child select a U.S. Fish and Wildlife folder crammed full of select subjects pertaining to natural history and stream life. You name it, we had it, everything from snakes to cypress tree information! Hunting and fishing-minded kids even got wild game/fish "how-to" recipes.

A full year was spent in accumulating enough books and magazines to fill the hundreds of folders for distribution during our three day stand. 

John Munger, Adrienne Frank, Gary Driscole, and John Ericson helped with the effort.

It is amazing how many out-of-towners have never heard of the Dragon stream, and more amazing  that it is unknown to some local folks. Our FODR folders were well received, but we had no current newsletters to hand out this year. One gentleman from Blacksburg commented on the over-sized giant cypress pictured on our poster, asking if it was a record tree for Virginia. I promised him we would find out what the state/national records are by asking Virginia Tech.

Friday and Saturday were ‘long" days, but there was never a lull in visitation. Teachers were eager for materials as were their students. Parents and grandparents also asked for references for children. ‘Twas a busy and cheerful project to say the least. This was our third year for this emphasis, but perhaps was our last.        Lorna Wass

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