Sir Walter Raleigh

As a requirement for receiving the Ancestor Approved Award is to publish a report on 10 persons connected with the Lost Colony, I am starting with Sir Walter Raleigh. Though he never set foot on Roanoke Island himself, the idea was his brainchild and he furnished much of the financing. The settlers were to establish the Citee of Raleigh.

Sir Walter Raleigh

Biography, Timeline & Facts about the famous explorer, explorations & voyages in the Age of Exploration

Facts, Biography, Timeline & History about the life of Sir Walter Raleigh - Explorer, Poet and Courtier

• 1554 Sir Walter Raleigh was born in Hayes Barton in Devonshire

• Part of a leading Protestant family

• Sir Walter Raleigh hated the Catholic Church

• Distant relative of Francis Drake

• On August 24 1572 Raleigh witnessed the St Bartholomew's Day massacre where French Protestants were massacred by French Catholics in Paris

• A member of the Middle Temple in 1575

• He was nearly 6 foot tall

• In 1578 Sir Walter Raleigh sails with his half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to America

• Raleigh captains 'The Falcon'

• Raleigh has an illegitimate daughter by a local woman called Alice Goold

• In 1580 Raleigh helps to put down the Irish rebellion, is knighted and becomes a favourite of Queen Elizabeth. He becomes extremely wealthy

• Sir Walter Raleigh spoke with a soft Devonshire accent

• He was noted for his courtly manners and was reputed to have placed his cloak over a puddle in order to prevent Queen Elizabeth I from muddying her shoes. This is not confirmed however a cloak was included in his coat of arms

• Sir Walter Raleigh was a true man of the renaissance and a brilliant poet

• He founded the secret society called "The School of Night" which was attended by fellow highly prominent Elizabethans - new beliefs were discussed and it is closely related to the mysterious Rosicrucian movement

• March 25, 1584 - Walter Raleigh receives the patent to explore and settle in North America

• 1584: Sir Walter Raleigh's fleet of seven vessels under Richard Grenville and Ralph Lane, with 108 men, reach Roanoke Island in June.

• 1584 June 4, Virginia colony of Roanoke Island established by Sir Walter Raleigh.

• 1585 January 6: Queen Elizabeth knights Walter Raleigh and makes him governor of the new territory discovered by Amadas and Barlowe. Raleigh names it "Virginia" in her honor.

• 1586 - The Babington Plot - Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Walter Raleigh discover plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots (called the Babington Plot)

• July 22, 1587 - Sir Walter Raleigh backs the first English Colony in North America (North Carolina) led by John White to the English Roanoke Colony

• 1587 August 18, Virginia Dare born in Roanoke colony , the first English child born in North America

• 1588 Raleigh donated "Ark Royal" to the English navy which was chosen to lead the English fleet against the Armada. Sir Walter Raleigh & Sir Richard Grenville were responsible for the joint defence of Devon and Cornwall against the expected Spanish Armada. The land-based soldiers did not have the opportunity to fight the Spanish.

• 1589: Sir Walter Raleigh & Sir Richard Grenville guard the sea approaches to Ireland

• 1592 Raleigh falls out of favour with Elizabeth when she discovers that he has married one of her maids called Bessie Throckmorton

• The Queen ordered that Sir Walter Raleigh is placed in the Tower of London but he was released when one of his ships brought back a huge treasure on the captured Spanish ship "Madre De Dios"

• 6 February 1595 - Sir Walter Raleigh leaves England to sail to the New World to search for the city of El Dorado (the city of gold)

• 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh explores the Orinoco

• 24 March 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I dies and is succeeded by King James, the son of Mary Queen of Scots

• 1603 King James, eager to make peace with the Spanish, imprisons Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower of London on charges of treason

• In 1612 King James releases Raleigh, who promises to give King James a fortune if he allows him to return to Guiana

• In 1616 Raleigh travels to Guiana but his mission fails and he attacks a Spanish settlement

• 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for attacking the Spanish.

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/sir-walter-raleigh.htm

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On the Road Again with Roberta

Anne and I went to the beach today. The kids went to swim and play ball, but Anne and I found a deserted beach and just walked around and enjoyed the serenity for a few minutes. The wind was quite strong and it’s cool, but not cold. The sand beating against your skin actually hurts after a few minutes, so our stay wasn’t terribly long. The beach is beautiful this time of year after the winter storms. The locals are windsurfing in their favorite locations and the tourists aren’t here yet. The sand here is full of shells, mostly broken, becoming more grains of sand.

It’s beautiful just the same.Mostly though, as I wander here, I think of the colonists. I’m here tracking their footsteps, although the sand has obliterated them…..they still remain, hints, wisps, maybe just the after image that they were here…… but they were….and we will find them. My time here this week has been inspirational and given me some new ideas. You’ll be hearing about them soon so stay tuned.

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On the Road Again With Roberta

Ever have one of those days where nothing goes right? Well, today was mine. I made little progress today in my treck for home. The person I was supposed to meet in the afternoon was elusive, I got lost multiple times between a poor map and an overzealous GPS system that insisted that I go back to the interstate no matter how far out of the way it was. Nothing is more irritating than a nagging machine. And to top it off, I had no cell signal for several hours. But instead of detailing what went wrong, I’ll share with you the silver lining to the cloud. I wound up tonight in South Boston, Virginia. Don’t even ask how. Now the good news is that my family is from Halifax County, Virginia, where South Boston is located. Not my current family, my ancestral family. It’s somehow ironic that I had to make a concerted effort to get here many times for research, and now that my research is done, this is the second time I’ve “landed” here during another journey. Of course, I had to go and visit one of three family cemeteries here. The one I visited is public and relatively easily accessible. The other two are remote and on private land, so not easy to get to and certainly not without prior notice to the property owner. I visited my my great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Estes, who was born in 1761 and served in the Revolutionary War in place of his father Moses Estes. Thankfully he lived until 1859 and filed for both a pension and bounty land, giving us a plethora of information to work with. Unfortunately, the graves were moved by the family early in the 1900s when the city “bought” the land. They supposedly moved old George and perhaps his father Moses too, but the story was that all they found was a casket hinge and a collar bone. Whatever parts they found of him are now buried in the family plot in the public cemetery, and the rest of him, well, he’s under the city landfill now…..so he’s a lot more than 6 feet under.

One of the best things about South Boston is visiting Ernie’s Restaurant. No matter how unhappy I was with my lack of progress, it was somewhat soothed by the knowledge that I could visit one of my favorite haunts. Ernie’s has been a fixture in South Boston since 1958 when the original owner opened the first Ernie’s, which burned to the ground in 1991. Today, the “new” Ernie’s is a favorite of the locals and visitors alike. Ernie’s overlooks a creek and includes a mill wheel, I believe from the original building. Ernie retired in 1981 and sold the restaurant to his son and daughter-in-law who still own the establishment. Ernie’s claim to fame, aside from all-around good food at reasonable prices and southern hospitality is their buffet. On Friday and Saturday night, they have a seafood bar with lots of variety and that is in addition to their regular buffet offerings of fried chicken, Bar-B-Q made on the premises and other southern favorites. The seafood includes two kinds of steamed shrimp, fried oysters, oyster stew, baked cod, fried fish, deviled crabs (to die for) and lots of other goodies plus of course the veggies and salads and a dessert bar too. One of my favorites is the deviled crabs and on the veggie bar, their stewed tomatoes. Now I can hear you laughing….stewed tomatoes, or maybe I should call it stewed tomato pudding….but don’t laugh until you have tried it. It’s no laughing matter, but it will definitely tickle your fancy! For dessert, you just have to try the home made banana pudding, and maybe the chocolate divinity too. And after all of that, you’ll have to sit a spell on their inviting front porch because you’ll be too full to walk to your car.
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On the Road Again with Roberta

The hills are alive, but it’s not with the sound of music. It’s with the power of wind and water and the hills are really sand dunes on the Outer Banks. You see, these sand banks move from place to place, and it’s always a battle between the land and the sea, or maybe more to the point, between bulldozers and the sand.

The sand banks shield Highway 12 which runs the length of Hatteras Island from the sea, but when a Noreaster or a hurricane or in some cases, a severe “tropical storm” which is a nice name for a severe storm which is not quite a hurricane strikes, the storm quickly blows the sand away and then the road and any buildings in the way are at the mercy of the sea. In 2003, hurricane Isabella opened a brand new inlet on Hatteras Island and in November 2009, it breached the island again at Mirlo Beach in Rodanthe.

Today, the road is routinely maintained by heavy equipment to keep the sand dunes off of the road and to put the sand back on the dunes from where it blows, daily, across the roads into drifts resembling snow drifts.

For those who routinely follow this blog, you may recall that I was on Hatteras Island during Hurricane Ida last November, and was likely the last person off of the island , at night, driving in the hurricane. I was truly terrified and will never do that again, either leaving earlier or staying put, but not driving at night to evacuate with no other traffic doing the same. The next day, I heard that the road washed out, was closed for weeks and several houses condemned and torn down.

One of the homes was Serendipity, a house that was featured in the movie Nights of Rodanthe for its precarious perch on the edge of the surf of the outer banks and its turreted Victorian appearance. Below is a picture of Serendipity as it stood before.

Below, a photo of both Serendipity and the road after Hurricane Ida last November. Notice the sand dunes along the road are entirely gone, poof, in one night of blowing.

After the hurricane, the owners were advised that the home was permanently condemned. It has previously been occasionally condemned, but brought up to snuff again after a storm, and then pronounced inhabitable again. Since its debut in the movie, it has generally been a high end rental, that is, when it wasn’t condemned.

However, with so much of beach gone it had to be moved or torn down. New owners purchased the home and moved it across the road.

The new owners have renovated the home, added decks and of course put it on a new foundation.

Here’s a slide show featuring Serendipity and the coastal destruction. It’s amazing to see this house sitting in the ocean.

Here is a blog about the home as well.

So, for today, Serendipity is once again safe for the sea, and is renovated and repaired, just in time for the 2010 hurricane season to begin.

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On the Road Again With Roberta

No trip to the Outer Banks would be complete without a visit to the Outer Banks History Center in Manteo at Festival Park, a local satellite office of the North Carolina State Archives. They collect lots of information about the Outer Banks and make the originals available to the local population here. The history here is indeed rich, and they should be commended for keeping the information locally and available to the people who live here and in close proximity. Today’s trip was to use the Beatrice McArthur collection. Mrs. McArthur, 1923-2002, was born in Buxton, NC to Joseph and Arville Credle Barnett. She was a school teacher on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and married Arthur Lee McArthur of Cordele, Georgia. They lived variously in Durham, Charlotte, Cramerton and Greensboro, NC but retired to Buxton where she continued to research and compile a history of the Hatteras Island families. Research was one of her greatest passions and she was instrumental in gathering the recorded history and genealogy of the Cape Hatteras region. She also co-founded the Hatteras Island Genealogical and Historical Society. The collection extends in some cases to Okracoke Island and occasionally to the mainland and Roanoke Island. The materials include family group sheets, correspondence, copies of birth records, death records, family Bible records, marriage licenses, obituaries, census records and more. It is truly a wealth of information. Aside from lots of history pertaining to the region and many newspaper clippings, there is family specific information on the following Island families: Austin, Balance, Barnett, Burrus, Casey, Dailey, Farrow, Flowers, Fulcher, Garrish, Gaskill, Gaskins, Grey, Hooper, Howard, Jackson, Jarvis, Jennett, Jennings, Meekins, Midgett, Miller, Neal, Norton, O’Neal, Oden, Payne, Peele, Pugh, Quidley, Relfe, Rollinson, Scarborough, Simpson, Stowe Styron, Taylor, Tolson, Toler, Whedbee, Williams, Willis, White.


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Searching for the Lost Colony DNA Blog Receives the Ancestor Approved Award!

The Searching for the Lost Colony DNA Blog has been selected to receive the Ancestor Approved Award! We are honored and excited.

This award is given to blogs that exhibit value by publishing well documented articles about ancestors. While the Lost Colony ancestors may not be our ancestors, we really don't know whether they are or not. In any case they are someone's ancestor's, provided they did survive after being left behind on Roanoke and with a few exceptions seemingly forgotten by civilization.

Paul Green's famous play, the Lost Colony, first presented in 1937, was responsible for the public's rediscovery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Since that time the fascination has grown. Many have written about this group and some have made great Archeological discoveries, but the Lost Colony of Roanoke DNA Project is the first effort to search for DNA evidence of these brave settlers having survived and passed on their genes to present day populations in North Carolina and other areas.

Part of our participation as a blog receiving this award is for us to publish ten things we discovered about our ancestors. In this case the ten will be represented by Lost Colony major players. One of whom, Walter Raleigh, never even set foot on Roanoke.

The first person of the ten will be Walter Raleigh because the settlement was his brainchild.

To be continued.........

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On the Road Again with Roberta

It’s official dig in the dirt day.

Yes, making mud pies is all in vogue again, and that’s what Anne and I did today. We are working with the students on an old homestead site, and Anne and I sifted as they excavated the old well with a barrel in the bottom, among other items.

In addition to the well, we’ve found barbed wire, broken pottery and plates, an old wagon wheel rim, plus lots of pieces of brick, mortar, iron pieces and such items that you would expect to find on an old homestead.

It’s fun to participate and a learning experience for them as well. We’ve enjoyed our week with them and tomorrow will be DNA education day. We’ve discussed history and research, standards and how to draw logical and not faulty conclusions. It has been particularly interesting as many of these students have a wealth of experience themselves in various fields, so there has been a great deal of give and take. Our participants, some of whom are volunteers and not students, range in age from 13 to 71, so as you might imagine, there is a great deal of diversity and experience to be drawn upon.At the end of the day, I looked at the reflection in the water once again gathered in the well so long underground and abandoned, and I wondered what the reflection is telling us about those who lived there so long ago….if we could only understand…...

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On the Road Again with Roberta

The Red Man’s Revenge

Have any idea what the red man’s revenge is? It’s tobacco. Yep, that addictive substance that so many people are trying to stop smoking. They tell us it’s more addictive than cocaine, but it didn’t always seem that way.Did you know that tobacco was introduced to England up on the return of Sir Walter Raleigh’s 1584 military expedition to Virginia, now Roanoke and Hatteras Islands in North Carolina? Well, it’s true. The English were hunting for a location that might provide a base for both privateering, which was pirating sanctioned by the Queen, and also valuable minerals, in particular, gold and silver. The Engish were convinced that there was a short route to Mexico and her accompanying riches, and a passage to Asia, but that was a secondary interest. Mostly the English were interested not in expanding their empire in terms of land, but were interested in expanding their wealth. Other commodities were scarce too, wood, in particular was becoming difficult to find in England, and sassafras was thought to cure ailments, in particular, syphilis. Mainland coastal North Carolina is covered with sassafras trees.So tobacco was only an interesting aside. They noticed the Native people smoking tobacco in small pipes, and the English tried it and took two Natives, Manteo and Wanchese, tobacco and of course, pipes, back to England when they returned. Tobacco became immediately all the rage, and everyone at court began to smoke tobacco. It was believed to cure “humors” and was good for your health. Mostly, it was terribly unfashionable NOT to smoke tobacco. The English immediately began to manufacture tobacco pipes similar to the Native pipes brought from Virginia, and in short order, those pipes took on an English design, distinguishable from the Native pipes.Ironically, it was tobacco that eventually saved Jamestown. The colonists there had been unsuccessful in terms of finding or producing anything that covered their expenses, let alone made a profit. Tobacco, which does not grow in England, became the first American export, to feed the now ingrained English habit, and firmly established the importance of the American colony. So in an odd twist of fate, tobacco sealed the fate of the Indians as well, because Jamestown was the foothold of the permanent European presence in America which would eventually cause the decimation of the Native population. Tobacco is still with us, today is often considered an unsavory habit leading to health issues and early death. It indeed was the Red Man’s Revenge, but before it acted as such, tobacco’s addictive powers were the inadvertent genesis of the undoing to the Indians in America.The students have been working with an Indian midden, and one of the items discovered was an Algonquian pipe bowl, shown below, a reminder of a time before the arrival of Europeans in America.

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On the Road Again with Roberta

A Special Thank You to George

Most volunteers really want a thank you and nothing more. Our “Cousin George” is a really special man, and there are a number of us who wanted to say a special thank you to George for his mostly anonymous and behind the scenes contributions to this group over the past 4 years since our group was formed. It’s hard to believe that this is our 4th summer, but it is and we’ve made a lot of progress.

I began a quilt for George last fall after seeing his home. He designed and built his beautiful home in the woods a few years ago, and he sleeps in an antique sleigh bed that didn’t have a quilt. Being a quilter, I saw the opportunity to give George something special as a thank you, so I proceeded to build a special quilt just for George, named, appropriately “George’s Quilt”. Now these quilts have a mind of their own. I selected gold treated Japanese fabrics for their deep lustrous beauty, but the quilt decided that some of the fabrics didn’t play nice with the others, so I wound up purchasing about enough fabric for 2 quilts before George’s Quilt was happy. But it is very happy now, and beautiful as well. By the time I finished the quilt, I was struck by its beauty, and of course want one for myself, but there will never be another “George’s Quilt”, as there is no more of this fabric, but a new quilt might take shape using this pattern after I go home. You never know.

I presented George’s quilt to him just before dinner a night or two ago, and he has it all packaged up ready to go home and live its quilt life on his beautiful sleigh bed. I hope that George slips under his quilt every night and thinks fondly of our Lost Colony adventures and knows how loved he is by all of the people whose lives he has touched, not to mention the Lost Colonists themselves who are trying to be found!But I’m not the only one who had a special thank you for George. Andy Powell, Mayor of Bideford, England where the colonists’ ships sailed from, had a special Harry Juniper pitcher created especially for George. This jug is truly a work of art and Harry Juniper, now age 87, is a world-renowned artist, the last of the Bideford potters. Googling Harry’s name will show you a wide variety of his works. Andy commissioned a pitcher for George months ago and Harry finished it and signed it especially for Andy’s visit to the US. On one side is a tribute to George “the most honorable man I know” which Andy means with all of his heart. On another side is the Bideford municipal seal and the Grenville coat of arms. Bideford’s ship, the Kathleen, is shown on the fourth side. On the top of the jug around the neck is the old bridge at Bideford that is still in use. Not only is this an incredible piece of handmade artwork, but an exceptional gift.

Thank you George!

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Hatteras Histories and Mysteries Museum Opening.

A new museum in Buxton just opened this past weekend with a reception and an archaeology road show featuring both Dr Mark Horton, head of the Archaeology and Anthropology Department at the University of Bristol, and Andy Powell, Mayor of Bideford.

Residents were encouraged to bring in their items of interest found here on Hatteras Island for identification.The museum focuses on Hatteras Island and the Croatoan Indians, but it has lots more to offer as well. Hatteras island has a rich history in terms of shipping, shipwrecks, pirates, civil war sites, lighthouses, WWI and WWII subs, and much more.

Be sure to stop by and visit this new attraction and purchase an educational item for your favorite child or a t-shirt to support the museum and future local archaeological projects. Scot Dawson opened the museum. His book about the Croatoan Indians and the Lost Colony is available here as well. The museum is located at 47761 Highway 12, in Buxton, between Conners supermarket and the Post Office, the yellow building on the ocean side of Route 12. Admission is $3 for adults and children are free. Be sure to stop by and say hello!!!

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On the Road Again with Roberta

Well, it’s official. Manteo, NC and Bideford, England are “twinned” permanently,officially sister cities. It happened at 2Pm on Sunday, April 11th, and just like a wedding was followed by a reception in the Manteo town boat house. Bideford’s Mayor Andy Powell and Manteo’s Mayor Jamie Daniels signed duplicate charters, complete with the Bideford wax seal, pledging to share not only cultural exchanges but to pursue economic opportunies surrounding history, research and tourism as well.

After the official twinning ceremony, we were fortunate enough to be able to have a photo opportunity with our Lost Colony Research group members who were present which included Anne Poole, George Ray, Scott Dawson, Louisa Pittman and Mark Horton, along with our own Andy Powell of course.It was fun to attend this bit of history as it was made, nearly 423 years to the day after the original colonists left Bideford to eventually land on Roanoke Island and become the infamous “Lost Colonists”.

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On the Road Again with Roberta--Mayor of Bideford, Lord of the Manor, Kisses a Turtle on his Birthday

You know, the British think that we Americans have no sense of humor. Knowing that, we can use that piece of information to our benefit. Now it just so happens that April in eastern North Carolina is when turtles cross the road. Why, you ask?? Why of course to lay eggs on the other side. Humans have had the bad judgment to build roads in the path of the turtles egg-laying journey. George, Anne and I with another volunteer were making lunch, when one of us spotted Mrs. Turtle crossing the road. Now this is just a private dirt road, so Mrs. Turtle was in no jeopardy, but we went over to take a look at this rather large turtle.

George decided, as the chef, to bring the turtle back and have a little fun with the students, telling them that they were going to get turtle stew for dinner. Now George would never hurt the turtle, but the students didn’t know that. George carried the turtle back to camp, and put the turtle in a tub while we went back and told Andy Powell, Bideford’s Mayor, and crew that George had captured a turtle for dinner.

Now we didn’t realize that they don’t have turtles in England. Given this little tidbit, it’s no wonder that Andy had a difficult time believing that we actually HAD a turtle.

Andy pronounced that he was “bloody well NOT eating a turtle” and Anne informed him that it’s a southern birthday tradition to have turtle stew and that George had gone to a lot of trouble to find and catch this turtle and Andy would offend George by not partaking of his special birthday turtle stew. Andy was like “yea right, there’s no turtle” so we said “come on”. Still Andy was hesitant and accused us of “spinning him up” and wanting him to go with us to see the nonexistent turtle.

So off we go to visit the turtle, with Andy opining all along that we have no turtle.

Andy, meet Mrs.Turtle. Andy was quite surprised, but he restated that he was under no circumstances eating turtle anything At that point, Anne explained to Andy that the only way to redeem the turtle’s life was for him, as the birthday celebrant, to kiss the turtle. Anne of course had to demonstrate this, not once, not twice, but three times….and agree to hold the turtle for Andy. But indeed, kiss the turtle he did, sparing her life, a truly chivalrous gentleman. At least Mrs.Turtle is convinced!

So this is how the Mayor of Bideford, England, Lord of the Manor, indeed, came to kiss a turtle in North Carolina on his birthday!

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Lt. Comm. Joseph Earle Bolt photograph

Written on the back of this picture is: "The stage and amphitheater at Fort Raleigh, Roanoke Island, N.C. where the pageant - drama - "The Lost Colony" written by Paul Green was presented during the 350th anniversary of the 1st English settlement during the period July 4 to Sept. 6, 1937. Snapped on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 1937."

Thanks to Katherine Hope Borges for sharing this picture, Lt. Comm. Bolt is her grandfather.

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A KINGDOM STRANGE: The Brief and Tragic History of The Lost Colony of Roanoke: Book review

James Horn's book; "A Land as God Made It" about Jamestown was very good and I hope this one is also.

A KINGDOM STRANGE: The Brief and Tragic History of The Lost Colony of Roanoke
By James Horn
Basic Books
304 pages
$25.

Book Review by Michael L. Ramsey
MICHAEL L. RAMSEY is president of the Roanoke Public Library Foundation.

One day in the summer of my fifth year, my parents put on their town clothes (and I mine), and we left our cottage on Nags Head to cross the sound to Roanoke Island to see a play called “The Lost Colony.” That was the genesis of my interest in American history.
Now James Horn has published a description of the colony settled on Roanoke Island in 1587 — the colony whose inhabitants were never again seen by their English kin.

“A Kingdom Strange” offers many facets to the early history of British America. It offers a compelling account of the background for the founding of Jamestown in 1607 (so deftly described by Horn in “A Land As God Made It”).

It provides a plausible explanation of the fate of the Roanoke Island colonists based on recently discovered archival material. You may come away asking if there might be some gray-eyed Croatoan in your family tree.

Most important, perhaps, is that the book is likely to be as inspirational to today’s readers as “The Lost Colony” play was to me — a sort of hatchery for history fans.

Cont. here:

http://blogs.roanoke.com/rtblogs/backcover/2010/04/04/a-kingdom-strange-the-brief-and-tragic-history-of-the-lost-colony-of-roanoke-book-review/

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On the Road Again with Roberta

We’re here on the Outer Banks in North Carolina working with a group of students from England. This is NOT spring break for them. They are serious students and they are camping in order to be able to study here. We are working with them in their various fields of interest as they pertain to the history of the colonists. Some are interested in history, some in archaeology and anthropology, and two in videography. They are just the nicest bunch of young adults you’d ever want to meet. One is 18, but he is from the States and his mother is a professor of anthropology. The rest are 21 or older, most in a graduate program. Some are quite a bit older, probably mid life adults returning to school. We also have a smattering of non-student volunteers as well, some from England and some from the States. The videographers are lovely young ladies, shown here, Elly on the left and Lee Ann on the right. We’re fortunate that we have a wonderful volunteer who is cooking for all of us. His name is George and he created a contraption called the “gypsy wagon”. It’s a miraculous invention that includes a stove, oven, warming table, large grill and yes, even a kitchen sink, all welded on a trailer that you can pull to wherever you need it. Let me tell you, cooking for 20 people or so three times a day is no small order…..and George is wonderful, along with our own Anne and other volunteers who help out as needed. George and Anne are cooking breakfast in the photo. Let me tell you, everything tastes better outside, and on the Outer Banks, everything outside has a little sand in it for flavoring :-)
Tomorrow we’ll tell you about a special thank you for George!!

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