1) Lawnmower Race in North Wilkesboro on Saturday
The Rotary Club of North Wilkesboro will host its first lawnmower race of the season on Saturday, May 30 at Worth Evan Tomlinson Rotary Park. The Rotary Fairgrounds is located beside West Park off of D Street in North Wilkesboro. Gates open at 1 p.m. Inspection is from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Practice begins at 4:30 p.m. Racing starts at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, free for children 5 and under. Food vendors will be on site. For more information, call Mike Staley at 336-902-7052
2) Baha’i Devotional Meeting in Stony Fork on Sunday
There will be a Baha’i devotional meeting in Stony Fork at 11 a.m. on Sunday, May 31. The theme of the meeting will be “Relying on God.” The Baha’i teachings center on unity and the removal of prejudice. All are welcome. For more information or directions, call 828-268-2191.
3) Lees-McRae Cycling Finishes Sixth Overall in USA Cycling
The Lees-McRae Cycling program finished sixth overall in USA Cycling National Division I Team Rankings for the entire 2014-15 season.
“It has been a hugely rewarding and successful season. Our riders earned three more national championship jerseys, and we ended up on the team podium twice,” said Director and Head Coach of Cycling Tim Hall. “The competition level in collegiate cycling continues to rise, so it’s a big deal for a small college like us to achieve national success. We love going into races being the underdog, but coming back home to Banner Elk with medals around our neck.”
LMC ranked third nationally in cyclocross while garnering fifth in mountain bike. The Bobcats finished sixth in both BMX and road.
Coach Hall’s squad will bid farewell to their two respective captains, Matthew Zimmer (DeWitt, Iowa) led the men’s team while Katherine Shields (Salisbury, N.C.) was the women’s captain.
Zimmer won the Men A overall individual omnium after the final race at the final conference championship at Georgia Tech. The senior edged out Johnny Mitchell of Milligan College and Brendan Rhim of Furman. The yellow jersey was decided at Ga. Tech while Zimmer won the road race and placed third in the criterium.
The talented senior had several podium finishes throughout the season, including another victory in the criterium at UT-Chattanooga.
“I missed a weekend of racing and didn’t think I was in the running for the jersey. After winning the road race for double points I knew I had a chance. It came down to a cat and mouse game in the final criterium,” said Zimmer.
He also finished fifth at the road nationals in the criterium.
Shields grabbed second overall in the Women A individual omnium to winner Lauretta Hanson of Milligan while Danielle Clark of Furman swiped third.
The senior finished consistently on the podium throughout the year, but Hanson was clearly the strongest female rider in the SECCC this year.
“Matt and Katherine are excellent leaders on and off the bike, and we are proud of them for their achievements. I feel our conference is the most competitive in the country, and for them to do so well speaks to their ability. Matt took control towards the end of the season and raced aggressively each race to win, which paid off,” praised Hall. “Katherine was our most consistent rider throughout the season. As she became more aggressive she began to see even better results too. Both showcased to their teammates how to achieve success, and did so with a very professional approach.”
Phil Kmetz (Keene, N.H.) put together an incredible freshman campaign by winning national championships in the downhill and dual slalom.
Senior Emily Shields (Salisbury, N.C.) won a national title in the cyclocross while Gunnar Bergey (Ledrach, Pa.) finished fifth in the cyclocross nationals.
4) Watauga Library Genealogy Presentation on June 6
Please join the Watauga County Library’s Genealogy gathering for a visit by a representative from the Archives of the Moravian Church, who will speak and show examples relating to “Genealogy Hunting at the Moravian Archives.” June 6 at 11 a.m. Free and open to the public. All are welcome. For more information, call the reference desk at 828-264-8784 ext. 2.
5) Bob Eoff Paintings Featured in Dickson Gallery, Reception on June 6
Bob Eoff’s luminous paintings fill the Dickson Gallery at Cannon Hospital in Linville with characters and light. His exhibit will be there through the month of June, with a reception from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, June 6.
Robert Eoff is a watercolor and oil painter whose subjects are the people, places and memories of his life. Bob’s representational paintings range from rural, little white churches to the natural beauty of the North Carolina mountains to sunny Southwest Florida.
Eoff began painting watercolors in the early 1970’s, influenced by a colony of artists in his hometown of Memphis, TN. Many of these artists painted rural landscapes from the Mississippi delta. Initially self-taught, he began taking classes in 2001 from one of those artists, Fred Rawlinson, who helped him turn his “colored water” paintings into rich watercolors. He studied with Rawlinson for ten years.
Eoff spent most of his career in broadcast television in production, marketing, and as general manager of local television stations. In 2000, The New York Times Company, promoted him to a regional Vice President for the Broadcast Media Group. In 2004, he was named President over all nine of the company’s stations and a member of the company’s Executive Committee. During his broadcast career, he continued to paint and was awarded ribbons at several regional competitions, including the honor of Signature Artist of the Tennessee Watercolor Society. He is also an associate member of the Florida Watercolor Society; the Watercolor Society of North Carolina; the American Watercolor Society; and the National Watercolor Society.
After his retirement in 2007, he returned to his alma mater, the University of Memphis and served as Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations. It is there that he began painting in oil, first, studying with Memphis artist Nancy Cheairs, and later, both oil and gouache with artist Jed Jackson. He retired again in 2011 to paint full time. He has participated in a number of gallery artists’ shows including The Art Cellar Gallery; Fort Smith Art and History Museum; Perry Nicole Gallery; Rawlinson Atelier annual shows; David Perry Smith Gallery; Blowing Rock Art and History Museum; and Askew, Nixon, Ferguson Architects one-artist shows. He has taught watercolor workshops in North Carolina and will teach workshops this fall in Florida.
Eoff is a representational artist who paints people and places that he has experienced throughout his life. “When I was traveling to our different stations, I always took a sketch book along. Sitting in airports waiting for planes, I was able to do figure sketches of people as they posed unaware of my work.” Today, one of his favorite things to do is to load up his art materials and “get lost on some of the winding back roads of Florida and North Carolina. I find mountain streams with fly fishers; rusty-roofed barns and little white clap board churches; and some of the more interesting people who live there.” Eoff has lived in Florida since his second retirement and has begun painting similar scenes from the Gulf Coast. “Southwest Florida is so different from my past experience…the colors are incredible…and the landscapes and seascapes are extraordinary…it is a whole new world to explore.”
Robert Eoff is an artist who paints in both watercolor and oil. He is currently represented by The Art Cellar Gallery in Banner Elk.
For more information about the Dickson Gallery contact Amy Cooke at amycooke7@gmail.com.