Go Foxburg!kids activities | Go Foxburg!

Fall is a great time to visit Foxburg!

Go Foxburg Admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:00:49 +0000

While the quiet town nestled along the Allegheny River is picturesque in any season, autumn may very well be the best time to visit Foxburg. In addition to photographing the scenic views of brightly-colored leaves reflected in the river while perusing the offerings of the local businesses, Sunday October 11th is this year’s date for the annual Foxburg Art, Craft & Food Festival.

The festival’s fun will start with some events on the night of Saturday October 10th, while on Sunday, beginning at 11 AM and lasting until 6 PM, the Festival provides a day filled with fun, food, and entertainment. Main Street Foxburg will be closed to vehicle traffic; visitors should park “up on the hill” at the AC Valley Medical Center or at the AC Valley Elementary School, and shuttles will transport visitors to and from the festivities. Locals and visitors from afar will enjoy listening to the live entertainment, eating any of the wide variety of tasty treats, viewing or purchasing craft items, participating in the Chinese Auction and engaging in all the other goings-on.

For more information, visit the Festival’s website.

ARCA’s 1st Scottish Festival

Go Foxburg Admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:00:18 +0000

For just one day, on the 15th of August, 2009 Foxburg added a new dimension to it’s many facets – a celebration of Scotland. The sound of bagpipes filled the air as the strolling bagpipers marched about throughout the day. Men outfitted in their finest kilts roamed the grounds while sheepdogs rounded-up all of the roaming sheep. There was Scottish music, food and crafts at every turn, and even Scottish clans – the theme of the day was that of a land so rich in cultural heritage that it was teeming at the Riverstone Farm. Rightly so it was, due to the fact that the original benefactor of Foxburg, Joseph Mickle Fox, was responsible for bringing the game of golf to Foxburg after enjoying it in St. Andrews, Scotland. So many years after he enjoyed the Scottish countryside, the Scottish countryside came to Foxburg. It was a day like no other Foxburg had ever seen.

To do full justice to this story, let’s step back to the evening before the festival, when the celebrations actually began. Friday night, the festival commenced with ‘Ceilidh’, a Gaelic term meaning “a social gathering with traditional music, dancing, and storytelling” at 7pm. Johnathan Shegog played the bagpipes to welcome visitors to downtown Foxburg for the event held in the grassy nook between Foxburg Free Library and Foxburg Wine Cellars. Throughout Ceilidh, Carl Peterson and Robert Murdoch sang folk songs joined by Melinda Crawford on the fiddle and her husband Dan Crawford accompanying on piano. It was a joyous open air concert interlaced with the sounds of the bagpipes up and down the valley.

Saturday’s events started with the opening ceremony by MacDonald Pipe Band from Pittsburgh and was followed by various events including athletic performances wherein athletes displayed their strength and skills with the Caber Toss and Stone Put, sheepdog herding demonstrations by Tom Conn & Pam Gardner, and a variety of live music by the MacDonald Pipe Band and other performers. There were many craft vendors selling their wares ranging from pottery to kilts to hand pulled wool. Foods of the Highland included traditional Scottish delights such as meat pies, sausages, homemade cookies or folks could even have a slice of pizza by Foxburg Pizza. Other businesses in Foxburg also joined in the festivities with wine from Foxburg Wine Cellars, and Chocolates by Divani Chocolate Boutique to give the visitors a taste of the town. Inside the Events Center, kids enjoyed stories and songs by John Mickle and also had an opportunity to learn some Gaelic from Harry Webb. Popcorn, chocolate and ice cream were some of the tasty treats readily available for snacking… a kid’s dream come true! Visitors awaited horse carriage rides given by the Hovis family of Emlenton and Segway Tours promoted a new kind of “leisure sport” with a team of Segways, giving demonstrations and trials. Other attractions included various Scottish clan organizations who lined their tent along the roadway near the Galloway and Highland cattle. There, they shared their history and offered genealogy study and memberships.
The festival was interluded with announcements from the management, one of which was for the band to play the surprise ‘Happy Birthday’ tune for Dr Arthur Steffee, the owner of Riverstone Farm, who hosted the festival on his premises. Incidentally, during the closing ceremony, Dr. Steffee announced that he discovered at the festival that he is about a quarter Scottish.

A special “Moran taing!” goes out to all of the volunteers for ARCA in making this wonderful event such a success, after all it was a great day for Scotland and Foxburg!

[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157621942617291"]
[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157621942706621"]

Summer Reading at Foxburg Free Library

Go Foxburg Admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:00:20 +0000

Opportunities for kids to have fun continue this summer at the Foxburg Free Library. In addition to having thousands of children’s and young adult books and dozens of movies on VCR or DVD available for free borrowing, kids are invited to attend two programs designed to promote reading and eliminate summertime boredom through fun and educational activities.
All children are invited to attend either or both programs; preregistration is not required, nor does one have to be a member of the Foxburg Free Library. Visitors to the area are invited to attend. The programs are conducted on Tuesday evenings and Friday mornings.
Through July, the Summer Reading program will take place at the library each Friday morning from 10am until 11:45. Each week a book or two will be read aloud — often with each listener participating through actions or with puppets. There is also a craft activity conducted each week. Projects so far this summer have included stringing necklaces, making paper bag puppets, and decorating patriotic magnets and pictures. Participants are kept busy playing various games; songs are identified and sung, and memory activities performed. A snack is also served.
Regular attendees of the Summer Reading Program are challenging each other to read a certain number of books; progress is visually tallied on the side of library bookcases with each reader’s personal cardboard cone topped by paper ice cream scoops labeled with each book read. (It’s a good thing the scoops are made of paper; based on the enormous quantity of scoops some achieving readers have acquired, it would be quite a melted mess on the floor had scoops of real ice cream been used!)
Each reader is encouraged to meet reading goals on a near-daily basis: to read aloud for at least ten minutes, to read silently for at least ten minutes, and to listen to someone read to him/her for at least ten minutes. As a reward, each week, several names are drawn, and those children get to choose a prize from the Treasure Chest of goodies.
The last meeting of the Friday Summer Reading Program will be July 31st.

Summer Reading Program

If Friday mornings don’t fit into your busy summer schedule, on each Tuesday evening from 5 to 5:45 a similar Kids’ Hour program takes place at the library. Again, anyone is welcome to join us; we’ll listen to a book, participate in the craft and activities, and enjoy a snack.
The Tuesday Kids’ Hour program will continue through the summer and will continue in the fall.
The Foxburg Free Library is a strong promoter of literacy and encourages all children to discover the fun, entertainment, and educational values of reading. Designed to achieve these goals, and based on the smiles and laughter seen and heard during each meeting, it appears that the Foxburg Free Library’s programs are doing just that!