Annual event expected to draw huge crowds to downtown
by G. Chambers Williams III
Judy Smith of Clinton takes a funnel cake from Paula Hinckley of Powell from the Rainbo Ice and Funnel cakes booth at the 2024 Clinch River Spring Antique Festival in downtown Clinton. Looking on is Greg Powell. - G. Chambers Williams III
The 20th-annual Clinch River Spring Antique Festival takes over Market Street on Friday and Saturday this weekend, and is expected to draw dozens of vendors and thousands of guests to Historic Downtown Clinton.
Hours for the event will be noon-6 p.m. on Friday (May 2) and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Market Street will be lined with street vendors and food trucks, and there will be a variety of activities, along with specials in the 15 downtown antique stores.
Sponsored by the Historic Downtown Clinton Merchants Association, there is no admission charge for the festival.
Plenty of free parking is available in the city parking lot on Commerce Street and the new city lot at Main and North Hicks streets.
Cassidy Whalen grew up with Tennessee Outreach Center for Homelessness’s help beginning at age 8, and now she’s the communications director and is ready to tell her story.
The TORCH luncheon will be on Thursday (May 1) at 11:30 a.m. at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center, 225 North Main St. in Clinton.
Whalen will talk about how her life changed from her time as an elementary school student with a family assisted by TORCH and how she feels about being a member of the TORCH staff today.
Executive Director Andy O’Quinn will also give a broader overview of the organization’s current work. Panera will provide the food
TORCH works to end homelessness in Anderson County.
One of its programs involves collaborating with schools to give students’ families temporary shelter.
Sheila Michael, founder and board president, told The Courier News the organization currently has nine one-family temporary shelters in Oak Ridge, but students at schools in Clinton and Anderson County stay in hotels.
The idea is to let families have a place to stay while they get on better tracks financially.
“We have an agency motto: No child sleeps outside,” said Michael. “I believe everyone has the right to a safe home, and it’s possible for that to happen.
“If children get out of homelessness, then they have a much greater chance of not being homeless in the future,” she said.
She said her organization is losing funding from the federal government through the state, but it welcomes donations, which can be made through givebutter.com/nAJvFs.
The AMSE Foundation’s 2025 Summer Camp: Energy Everywhere is super charged, the promoters say.
Through science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics activities, campers will explore and experience the multitude forms, types and sources of energy.
The camp will be held June 2-6 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day for rising fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders.
The American Museum of Science and Energy is at 115 East Main St. in Oak Ridge.
Campers will learn about kinetic and potential forms of energy; types of energy like mechanical, nuclear, radiant, sound, thermal, hydro, chemical and wind, and renewable versus non-renewable sources of energy.
Campers will need to bring their own lunches and beverages. A refillable water bottle is recommended.
Register for the camp online at form.jotform.com/250777586687075.
Karen Foust of Medford spins wool into thread during the sheep-shearing event in May 2024 at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris. The annual event returns this Friday and next Friday. - G. Chambers Williams III
The annual Sheep Shearing Days will be held on consecutive Fridays beginning this week (May 2) at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris.
Visitors may watch sheep getting their spring shearing, and there will be plenty of other pioneer-type activities provided to keep students and families entertained during the event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
There will be more than two-dozen sheep getting their trims, and the museum is expecting to host crowds that will include school groups from all over East Tennessee, as well as some from Kentucky and Virginia.
The Museum of Appalachia has been holding the event for more than 10 years, said Will Meyer, the facility’s marketing director and the grandson of its founder, the late John Rice Irwin.
Anderson County Master Gardeners Vice President Cindy Rose and service project volunteer Tony Coles gave presentations to the Timely Topics group’s April meeting at the Clinton Community Center. - Ben Pounds
With spring once again in swing, some people’s thoughts are turning to gardening.
But for the University of Tennessee Extension Institute of Agriculture Anderson County Master Gardeners Association volunteers, it’s a passion they love to share.
Anderson County Master Gardeners Vice President Cindy Rose and service project volunteer Tony Coles gave presentations to the Timely Topics group’s April meeting at the Clinton Community Center.
Rose, a Halls resident, discussed plants for pollinators, and Coles, an Oak Ridge resident, talked about edible weeds.
“The plants that are called weeds actually can serve multiple purposes,” Coles said. “They’re not only edible and usable by some of the other animals in the ecosystem but also for us. They’re chock full of very dense nutrients.”
Examples, he said, include violets, dandelion, chickweed, wood sorrel and plantain, although he stressed that some people have allergies to some of them.
The Clinton Rotary Club meets on Tuesdays from noon to 1 p.m. at the Clinton Community Center.
Oak Ridge Sunset Rotary Club meets at 5:30 p.m. every Monday at The Emory Valley Center at 723 Emory Valley Road in Oak Ridge.
The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club meets on Wednesdays from 7:30 a.m. until 8:15 a.m. at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge meets weekly at noon on Thursdays at the Doubletree Hotel at 215 South Illinois Ave.
Members of Norris Boy Scout Troop 73 work on cleanup of the Norris Commons Arboretum area as an Earth Day activity on Saturday, April 19. - G. Chambers Williams III
Norris Tree Commission members celebrated Earth Month by holding a Norris Commons Arboretum workday to clean up the area on Saturday, April 19.
The volunteers participating in the event, including seven members and two leaders of Norris Boy Scout Troop 73, spent the morning spreading mulch, moving fallen branches to the roadside, and completing other cleanup and maintenance tasks, said city Councilman Chuck Nicholson, who is a longtime member and chairman of the Tree Commission.
A pizza lunch was provided at the end of the cleanup.
The Tree Commission recently planted three new trees in the Commons Arboretum “that are available for adoption as an honor tree or memorial tree,” Nicholson said.
Those trees include are a mountain camellia (Stewartia ovata), American smoke tree (Cotinus obovatus) and American basswood (Tilia americana).
All three are native to East Tennessee and rarely stocked by nurseries, he said.
“The mountain camellia and smoke tree are very showy when mature, and the basswood attracts numerous pollinators,” Nicholson said.
“Please contact us directly if you are interested in adopting any of these trees.”
Appalachian Arts, at 2716 Andersonville Highway, will offer a variety of arts and crafts classes this spring and summer for all skill levels and ages.
Participants can explore stained glass, ceramics, weaving, calligraphy and more.
On Sunday, May 4, from 1 to 4 p.m., ages 12 and older can join Let’s Learn Stained Glass, a Mother’s Day-themed class where participants will create a stained glass piece using the copper foil technique. The cost is $75 plus an $18 material fee, with a registration deadline of May 2.
Upcycled Plastic Bag Baskets will be held Thursday, May 8, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. for ages 14 and older. Participants will transform plastic bags into decorative baskets. The class costs $50 for members or $65 for non-members, plus a $10 material fee. Register by May 6.
A three-part workshop, Tiny Ceramic Creatures, will take place Fridays, May 9, 16 and 30, from 2 to 4 p.m. This class, for ages 14 and older, focuses on sculpting miniature ceramic figures. The cost is $125 for members or $140 for non-members, plus a $15 material fee. The registration deadline is May 2.
