The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Earned Media Coverage

May 29, 2014

5 Unforgettable Memorial Day Weekend Getaways

By Suzanne Rowan Kelleher

5.28.14

With the unofficial start of summer less than a month away, it’s time to get serious about planning where you’ll spend the long Memorial Day weekend. Want to begin the season with a bang and not a whimper?

Here are five fabulous places to kick off your summer in style.

Where: Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Why: Because the Revolutionary City inspires patriotism like few other places in our nation, and the conveniently located Williamsburg Lodge is invitingly decked out in colonial Virginia-style fabrics and furnishings. The two-night Spring Getaway package is available over Memorial Day weekend and includes accommodations, daily breakfast, admission to Colonial Williamsburg, and a $100 activities card.

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2014/05/21/5-unforgettable-memorial-day-weekend-gataways/

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Apparel Galvin Green: Introduces the Millard Polo, which is part of the brand's

Ventil8 series. » Read

Courses Golden Horseshoe Golf Club / Williamsburg, VA: To host the Golden

Horseshoe Invitational, July 12-13, and the Jones Cup Father/Son Tournament, July 19-20. Both tournaments are open to the public. » Read

Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club / Maricopa, AZ: Announces plans for a renovation project, which will include a complete bunker renovation, additional tee boxes and expanded landing areas. Plans also include a hybrid conversion of the practice facility to serve as a six-hole short course in the afternoon and a traditional driving range during peak times of the day. » Read

Wolfdancer Golf Club at Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa / Bastrop, TX: Announces its Wolfdancer Summer Golf Card, which is aimed toward local and regional golfers. » Read

Salish Cliffs Golf Club / Little Creek Casino Resort / Shelton, WA: To host the 13th Squaxin Island Museum Tournament on Monday, June 9. Proceeds benefit the Squaxin Island Museum, Library & Research Center. » Read

Distribution Nexbelt: Selects MKRAK Management as its Canadian distributor. » Read

Equipment KBS Golf Shafts: Tour shaft played by the Crowne Plaza Invitational

winner. » Read

Nippon Shaft: N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour shaft was played by the Airbus LPGA Classic winner. » Read

People

5 Unforgettable Memorial Day Weekend Getaways

By Suzanne Rowan Kelleher

5.28.14

With the unofficial start of summer less than a month away, it’s time to get serious about planning where you’ll spend the long Memorial Day weekend. Want to begin the season with a bang and not a whimper? Here are five fabulous places to kick off your summer in style: Colonial Williamsburg Where: Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia Why: Because the Revolutionary City inspires patriotism like few other places in our nation, and the conveniently located Williamsburg Lodge is invitingly decked out in colonial Virginia-style fabrics and furnishings. The two-night Spring Getaway package is available over Memorial Day weekend and includes accommodations, daily breakfast, admission to Colonial Williamsburg, and a $100 activities card.

http://www.minitime.com/trip-tips/5-Unforgettable-Memorial-Day-Weekend-Getaways-article

Remember those who served on Memorial Day

By Ann M. Efimetz

5.24.14

Each year on the last Monday of May, the nation pauses to remember those who have given their lives for America's freedom.

Locally there are several observances planned.

The annual Combined Veterans Organizations Committee of Williamsburg, will present a Memorial Day Ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday, May 26 at Williamsburg Memorial Park, off Olde Towne Road. It will be held rain or shine and people are encouraged to bring a lawn chair.

The Master of Ceremonies for the event is Jerry Fields, Brigadier General, US Army (Retired). The event will feature the Presentation of Colors by Veterans Color Guard, Fire & Police Departments from James City County and Williamsburg, and Boy Scouts of America Troops 103 & 155, Pledge of Allegiance, singing of the National Anthem and "America the Beautiful."

The guest speaker is J.W. "Jack" Nicholson Brigadier General, US Army (Retired), a West PointClass of 1956 graduate with 30 years of Army Service, holding commands at various levels, including Director of National Cemetery Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs; CEO and Secretary of American Battle Monuments Commission in the United States Federal Executive Branch.

Commanders of Local Veterans Organizations will Placing of Fire & Police Memorial Wreath. A rifle salute will be performed by VFW Post 4639 Honor Guard. "Taps" will be played by Airman 1st Class Nick DEL Villano, US Air Force. The program will finish with "God Bless the USA," sung by Ray Gresham, 1st Sergeant, US Air Force (Retired).

The Fifes and Drums of Yorktown will give a performance at 11:45 a.m. at York Hall, prior to theYork County Memorial Day ceremony scheduled for noon-1 p.m. Monday. The event will include the posting of colors, historical re-enactors, a guest speaker, the placing of flowers, and the presentation of awards to student winners of the "York County Remembers" Poster Essay Contest. Hosted by the York County Historical Committee.

http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-memorial-day-5-24-20140524,0,4636714.story

Grace Episcopal Church in Yorktown will hold a Memorial Day Ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday at the church on Church Street. The event will feature brief remarks, prayers, and playing of "Taps." Flags of more than 70 known veteran's graves will be replaced.

Colonial Williamsburg will hold a Memorial Day service at 10 a.m. A procession led by the Fife and Drums will proceed from the Governor's Palace to Bruton Parish Church and the French grave site. Wreaths will be laid, prayers given and volleys fired at each stop to honor soldiers of the American Revolution and Civil War.

Here are some other facts about U.S. War Casualties from CNN:

Civil War - Approximately 620,000 Americans died. The Union lost almost 365,000 troops and the Confederacy about 260,000. More than half of these deaths were caused by disease.

World War I - 116,516 Americans died, more than half from disease.

World War II - 405,399 Americans died.

Korean War - 36,574 Americans died.

Vietnam Conflict - 58,220 Americans died. More than 47,000 Americans were killed in action and nearly 11,000 died of other causes.

Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm - 148 U.S. battle deaths and 145 non-battle deaths.

Operation Iraqi Freedom - 4,422 U.S. service members died.

Operation New Dawn - 66 U.S. service members died.

Operation Enduring Freedom - 2,318 U.S. service members have died as of May 12, 2014.

http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-memorial-day-5-24-20140524,0,4636714.story

Windmill of Colonial Williamsburg Slated for New Home at Great Hopes Plantation

By WYDaily Staff

5.23.14

More than 10 years after closing to the public in 2003, the Windmill of Colonial Williamsburg is slated to return to a new home at Great Hopes Plantation.

The windmill was built – based on the 1636 Bourn Mill in England – in 1957 in celebration of Jamestown’s 350th anniversary. It ceased operation in the 1990s, closed in 2003 and was removed from the historic area four years ago.

Thanks to a contribution from David McShane of Bucks County, Pa., the windmill will be restored through an eight-month process starting this fall.

“Once completed, the windmill will stand taller, more visibly — and I daresay, more proudly — above the Colonial Parkway, at the Visitor Center entrance to Great Hopes,” said Colonial Williamsburg Foundation President and CEO Colin Campbell in a news release. “We look forward to welcoming back the local community to rediscover this gem of the Historic Area.”

The windmill, known as Robertson’s Windmill, spent 53 years behind the Peyton Randolph House. While records indicate 18th century lawyer William Robertson owned a windmill in the 1720s, it was located south of the Randolph house.

The modern-day windmill conflicted with the re-created 1770s town, but that was not its complete undoing. The 17th-century windmill design was flawed, and that coupled with wear caused the machine to erode.

Lynchburg-based B.E. Hassett Millwrights Inc. has prepared plans to improve the windmill’s stability.

“We’ll be able to make the structure more reliable and easier to maintain, while including elements elsewhere that will add to its historical authenticity,” said Matt Webster, director of the Grainger Department of Architectural Preservation.

http://wydaily.com/2014/05/23/windmill-of-colonial-williamsburg-slated-for-new-home-at-great-hopes-plantation?cat=localnews/wmbg-govt-notebook/

Once the windmill is back in operation, visitors will “once again be able to explore the inner workings of the mill, which will operate on a limited basis,” Campbell said.

As part of its operations, grain will be milled as part of the Historic Foodways Program.

“This project provided a great opportunity to make a contribution that will both enrich visitors’ visual experience and help them better appreciate colonial life,” McShane said.

http://wydaily.com/2014/05/23/windmill-of-colonial-williamsburg-slated-for-new-home-at-great-hopes-plantation?cat=localnews/wmbg-govt-notebook/

Colonial Williamsburg Offers Free Admission Memorial Day Weekend for Military Family

By WYDaily Staff

5.22.14

In honor of Memorial Day, Colonial Williamsburg is offering free admission Memorial Day weekend to those with ties to the military.

Tickets for military families will be free Friday through Monday.

Active duty military, reservists, retirees, veterans and their families can take advantage of free passes to Colonial Williamsburg with Honoring Service to America tickets. The service member does not need to be present for family — with proper identification — to take advantage of the tickets. Veterans should bring honorable discharge paperwork — DD Form 214 — as identification.

The tickets, available at the Colonial Williamsburg Regional Visitor Center, include access to Revolutionary City, the daily Revolution In The Streets program. Ticketholders also have access to the art museums, John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s home, an orientation walk, “Williamsburg, The Story of a Patriot” movie viewing and free shuttle service to and from the Visitor Center – where free parking is provided.

At 10 a.m. May 26, a free, public Memorial Day commemorative program is planned to take place in the Historic Area. Wreaths will be laid — at the Palace, Bruton Parish Church and the French grave site — to honor service members from the American Revolution, the War Between the States and other battles. The Fife and Drum corps will lead the wreath-laying procession, which begins at the Palace. Prayer recitals and volley firing will occur at each site.

For more information about the free tickets, visit Colonial Williamsburg’s website or call 855-296-6627.

http://wydaily.com/2014/05/22/colonial-williamsburg-offers-free-admission-memorial-day-weekend-for-military-families?cat=localnews/wmbg-govt-notebook/

Memorial Day Events Commemorate Civil War History in Yorktown

By Hannah S. Ostroff

5.25.14

This Memorial Day weekend, visitors to Yorktown can walk the steps of the soldiers the holiday commemorates.

The historical hub will host a number of events to honor those who lost their lives in service to the country, with a focus on the war where Memorial Day finds its roots.

The area is home to Yorktown National Cemetery, which contains more than 2,000 graves — almost all marking lives lost during the Civil War. Most were Union soldiers — there is a small Confederate Cemetery adjacent — but flags will be placed on all graves for Memorial Day.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, a wreath-laying ceremony will be held at the cemetery with the public invited to place flowers on graves.

The service will be solemn, but more than 150 years earlier and just a few miles down the road, a war raged.

It was April of 1862 — a year after Virginia seceded from the Union — when Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan arrived at Fort Monroe with plans to make his way to the capital in Richmond. But first his troops had to get past the Confederate fort in Yorktown.

Lois Winter, chairwoman of York County Historical Committee, said she was fascinated to learn McClellan’s route comes right by the places she sees every day.

“People don’t realize because you go to Yorktown and you think of revolution,” she said. “But it was a fort, and rebel forces were inside that fort.”

http://wydaily.com/2014/05/25/memorial-day-events-commemorate-civil-war-history-in-yorktown?cat=localnews/york-govt-notebook/

As Route 17 did not exist yet, McClellan and his men took Old York-Hampton Highway — the street where Winter lives now. She pictures all 120,000 men — “think of that number,” she said, “in tiny little Yorktown” — walking up the street toward the fort.

Winter knows their path from studying the records kept by county and preserved over the years. These direct sources include civil war photographs and the work of sketch artists who traveled with the troops. One such artist included a map of the route he traversed through York County.

Once McClellan and his men reached Yorktown, he planned a siege of the Confederate fort. They repurposed the same readouts – small hills dug in a line to hide behind – Revolutionary War soldiers created less than a century earlier. The camp was in present-day Marlbank.

The residents of Marlbank today may not realize they sit atop what was a Union camp, Winter said. Knowing now the history steeped in the land, she finds it hard to ignore the significant sites all around her.

The Siege of Yorktown had the potential to topple the Confederate fort, and possibly change the course of the war, but McClellan chose to wait rather than attack. Despite a huge amount of ammunition at his disposal, McClellan overestimated the strength of his opponents and his hesitation allowed Confederate troops to withdraw unscathed.

By the time he moved against the fort on May 4, they were gone.

The troops moved farther inland and the next day met at the Battle of Williamsburg, where Confederate forces continued to withdraw toward Richmond. Both sides suffered more than a thousand causalities in the fray.

While little direct fighting took place in Yorktown, the events left the area under Union control for the rest of the war. With their presence came Slabtown – a community where escaped slaves sought refuge – and a hospital. It is how the Civil War cemetery came to be nearby, now a national cemetery within Colonial National Historical Park.

Memorial Day was born from the acts of widows and mothers who cared for the graves of those lost on both sides of the Civil War. Tim Smith, a member of the York County Historical Committee and one of the re-enactors participating in the weekend’s events, said women would also lay flowers on graves of the unknown, and many visited the national cemetery in Yorktown.

http://wydaily.com/2014/05/25/memorial-day-events-commemorate-civil-war-history-in-yorktown?cat=localnews/york-govt-notebook/

“It was originally known as Decoration Day, and they would go out and decorate the gravestones on the war day,” he said.

The practice evolved into Memorial Day, which did not officially became a national holiday until 1971.

With such a strong focus on the Revolutionary War in the area, Winter does not want to see Yorktown’s poignant Civil War history be overlooked. She acknowledged the idea of northern invasion is still uncomfortable for many Virginians, but hopes after 150 years residents will see the opportunity to learn from the past.

“It’s about telling: This is really how we got to be here,” she said. “That’s what history is about – explaining ourselves. A lot of attitudes are from that experience and we’re not realizing it if we don’t have that information. … I believe that if we don’t understand where we come from, we don’t understand ourselves.”

Smith also sees the weekend as a time to move beyond the customary activities to think about the nation’s history.

“We hope people remember the reason for Memorial Day in the midst of all the other cookouts and things,” he said.

http://wydaily.com/2014/05/25/memorial-day-events-commemorate-civil-war-history-in-yorktown?cat=localnews/york-govt-notebook/