SMS students touched by Columbine victim

A 17-year-old girl, the victim of a random shooting in one of the most infamous campus massacres in history, reached out posthumously and touched the lives of dozens of the Sevierville Middle School students this week. The SMS students learned of an extraordinary young woman named Rachel Scott, who died at Columbine High School 11 years ago, at an assembly arranged by their principal.

Inspired by Holocaust victim Anne Frank, who had written in her diary, “I want to go on living after death,” Scott, in one of the six journals she kept, wrote, “I will make an impact on the world.” Through a ministry called Rachel’s Challenge started by her dad, she is perhaps making more of an impact after her all-too-soon death.

Scott was a champion of the disabled, those who were new at school and those who were picked on or put down. Dozens of SMS students signed a pledge to accept that challenge. Who knows what she would have accomplished if she had lived, but Rachel Scott did not die in vain.

Farmers Market finds a niche in Gatlinburg

There’s so much to do in the Gatlinburg area that it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. It’s close to the national park, there’s all the shops, the attractions, the restaurants and the special events. To survive and thrive in Gatlinburg — especially if you’re a new kid on the block — you’ve got to be pretty special.

So it was that residents celebrated the end of the first year of the weekly Gatlinburg Farmers Market, enjoying a party-like atmosphere and vowing to be back bigger and even better next spring. The focal point of the day was a Harvestfest, which included pumpkin painting, apple bobbing, and costume contest for four-legged friends and, of course, plenty of good food.

All sorts of items were sold during the inaugural season — handcrafts such as woven shawls and corn husk dolls, a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, items freshly baked in local ovens, even lye soap. The market board is already looking ahead to next year. Make a note to yourself and plan to check it out.

Wears Valley festival appears to be promising

Just as the curtain is dropping on one inaugural event in Gatlinburg, another is rising a few miles down the road in Wears Valley. Instead of the year-long farmer’s market on the mountain, the newly formed Wears Valley Chamber of Commerce hopes to make its Oktoberfest an annual event.

The event started Friday and runs through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily in the field on Wears Valley Road next to Tennessee State Bank. Organizers say the response has been startlingly good. More than 120 crafters and 36 vendors have signed on. Film crews are coming from two countries and there will be a national lumberjacking contest that is expected to draw about 70 participants.

If that’s not enough, there will be pony rides for children, a climbing wall, face painting, a display of more than 60 antique tractors, music and food, and even a pumpkin patch. There will be a suggested $5 fee for parking, with proceeds to benefit the Wears Valley VFD, Wearwood Elementary and area churches. What a way to get started!