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Ruralite Cafe: Published 4/27/00By Lisa Majors-DuffFestival is one more example of involvement |
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The wind, which had been brutally cold Saturday morning, started gusting again as the festival was winding down. I began looking around for the jacket I'd been allowed to shed earlier in the day when blue sky finally dominated dark clouds.
I was tired, cold and sunburned; we all were. We'd been there since 6 a.m. with teeth chattering and hands huddled around cups of coffee. But our shivering soon abated as we got to work hauling tables and chairs, numbering booth spaces and posting signs. What came next was a beautiful thing. As so many have said over and over, this was the best one yet. The day was made of one amazing event followed by the next. As the festival wound down, putting away this year's Greening Up the Mountains seemed somehow easier than it had been during the two years prior. The canopies were stowed, the tables and chairs were reloaded, and the trash was removed, not effortlessly, but with a feeling that comes with knowing the job was well done. "The community pulled together for the common goal," SPIR Executive Director and Jackson County newcomer Karen Armel said about the event. Without really knowing it, what she meant was that the Sylva community has once again exhibited its commitment to a common goal, one that's been expressed recently in a variety of forms, from the rebirth of Main Street to a weeklong "hammer fest" last summer just on the other side of Scotts Creek. The achievements realized during Greening Up the Mountains - whether your list includes a group's dedication to preserving the historic Hooper House, or the increased number of people who made Main Street their Saturday destination, or the pure energy produced by a band of seven performing on a flat-bed trailer - are all the direct result of changing attitudes toward what lies ahead for Jackson County and downtown Sylva. Instead of fretting about what tomorrow may bring, more people are working on a better tomorrow; instead of immediately saying "no" when asked to join, more people are jumping in with both feet and finding out that participation is power. The results of this increased participation are self-evident - an engraved brick where a concrete sidewalk had been; a multi-leveled castle where an ordinary sandbox once stood; and a newspaper's photo contest with 64 entries, up from half that number the year before. People are getting involved and things are beginning to happen. There's no denying it and there's no getting in the way of it. As I put the last tent pole in the bag late Saturday afternoon, I couldn't help but imagine the exciting things that lay ahead for Sylva. We still have a library to rebuild, and Mill Street is just waiting for its day in the sun. I can't wait to get involved and I look forward to even more participation from newcomers and locals alike. |
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