Highland County Ruritan Clubs Use Money From The Maple Festival All Year Long

Bluegrass and McDowell, VA – The Highland County Maple Festival supports the community all year long. The Festival provides an opportunity for local Ruritan Clubs to raise money for projects that go on long after the Festival is over. Doris Folkes is the President of the Blue Grass Ruritan Club. She says her group offer scholarships to graduating seniors at the highs school, and supports the county pool, rescue squad, and the medical center. They also work with area elderly and shut-ins.

The club also supports 4H camp and the Highland Future Farmers of America chapter. The Blue Grass Ruritan Club serves pancakes, buckwheat pancakes and sausage gravy every day of the festival. The Club also hosts an arts and crafts show in its building. The Blue Grass Ruritan Club is on Route 642, Blue Grass Valley Road, three miles from the intersection with Route 220. Hours are 8 to 4 every day of the Maple Festival, but usually they open before 8.

“We know we are a service to the community we have an outreach to the community and I really think the community appreciates what the Ruritans do” says Folkes.

In McDowell, members of the Stonewall Ruritan Club are hard at work too during Maple Festival. The Stonewall Ruritans serve sausage patties, pancakes and buckwheat cakes each day during the festival. You can also find arts and crafts there too. This year the club is doing a raffle for a Highland maple gift basket.

President Wes Maupin says about half of the proceeds from the Maple Fest is set aside for the following year. The rest is distributed to the community through donations to the fire and rescue squads, school scholarships and support of the schools active Future Farmers of America program. Money raised during the Maple Festival also helps the Stonewall Ruritan club with ongoing expenses for upkeep on its building. The club hopes to upgrade the heating system, replace the windows and has recently paid for repairs from water damage from a leaky roof.

The Stonewall Ruritan building is in McDowell on Route 678, Bullpasture River Road. The club serves pancakes each day during the festival beginning at 7am.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

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