Giving kids a sound foundation

Laurel — To Henderson County Parks and Recreation Day Camp for teaching

youngsters the importance of recycling and protecting the earth over the

past week. Adrienne Outcault, the county's recycling coordinator, visited

the camp Tuesday afternoon to show kids what kinds of items can be recycled

and to discuss why it is important — how plastic bottles can be recycled

into carpet and fabrics and aluminum cans can be recycled as foil or more

cans. "We learned that you can recycle a bunch of things and it helps the

environment," said 10-year-old Cassie Born. Kudos to the camp for helping

the next generation learn the importance of stewardship.

Dart — To five young men accused of stealing two decorative goats from

Hendersonville's Main Street in two separate thefts. "Mountain Goat" which

was donated by Private Mountain Communities and "Connie-Mara" donated by

the Friends of the Carl Sandburg Home were taken from the sidewalks where

they replaced the bears that had been downtown attractions the past five

years. The goats are bought, decorated and donated by local businesses and

groups to be later auctioned for charity. Hendersonville police recovered

Mountain Goat from a car during a traffic stop the week of July 4, charging

two teens. On July 17, city detectives recovered Connie-Mara from a home in

Arden, charging two Hendersonville men and an Arden man in the theft. The

goat was badly damaged and missing its hind legs. Four of the five suspects

have been charged with felonies. Hopefully that will make other would-be

thieves think twice before taking any more goats.

Laurel — To Covenant Presbyterian Church's choir for being featured in a

BBC-Scotland documentary on Scottish music. The documentarians taped 35

members of the choir led by music director Kristen Walter last Saturday.

They came to Hendersonville to research how traditional secular tunes with

Scottish roots were changed by early settlers to American hymns. The series

will also probe how American evangelists in the last century influenced

Scottish worship. The film crew plans to work nine months to a year on the

project, which is taking them from great cathedrals to small country

churches. Covenant and its choir make us proud of our area's Southern

Appalachian Scotch-Irish heritage.

Laurel — To the All Taxa Biodiversity Project, a 10-year effort to catalog

all plant and animal species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. More

than 1,000 scientists have worked on the project. They have recorded more

than 16,000 species, including 6,000 not previously documented in the park

and almost 900 new to science. The study aims to create a baseline of data

that can be used to make management decisions and help the public

understand the importance of preserving species. The late forester and

conservationist Aldo Leopold famously stated "to keep every cog and wheel

is the first rule of intelligent tinkering." The All Taxa project is an

important step toward discovering the incredible diversity of life in the

Southern Appalachians.