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We’re alive again!

After a season of darkness and inactivity, our calendars are filling up, and designer masks are being lost never to be found again. We are returning back to our normal lives. Taking in a movie, a concert or a baseball game is a possibility again.

The Heart of Virginia Festival is coming up in September, and area fireworks returned this year to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Welcome back, Farmville. It is glorious to see life return to our town after the period of pandemic darkness that seemed cast a shade on every facet of our lives. We are back and feeling better than ever.

In this edition of Farmville The Magazine, we take a look at a unique form of therapeutic treatment for special needs children. The Heartland Horse Heroes in Sprouse’s Corner serves as a reward for special needs students who enjoy riding the horses there.

We also take a look at a Farmville summer tradition. The Waldy’s Ice Cream truck on Industrial Park Road serves up sweet treats to cool even the hottest summer days.

There has been lots of talk about litter throughout the county, but Farmville doesn’t seem to have that issue. Damon Streat is the reason Farmville stays clean. The 52-year-old former prison guard regularly patrols the town looking for litter. He is a joyous person to be around. He has a lot of pride in his job and takes the responsibility of keeping Farmville clean and pristine very seriously.

One thing the pandemic taught us to do is shop online and buy groceries. The two changes combined to create a surge in recyclables. At the end of that tsunami of Amazon boxes, milk jugs and aluminum cans is a crew of six workers for STEPS, an organization that hires disabled workers to handle recyclables, shred documents and perform other labor-intensive tasks. I got to spend some time with the STEPS recycling crew. The six men work through all sorts of weather to make old things new again. I hope you enjoy reading their story as much as I enjoyed telling it.

Included are our regular features of Cynthia Wood’s expert gardening tips, a mystery photo for our readers to locate and our local librarian Rick Ewing tells us why he loves Farmville.

As always, if you have suggestions or feedback about stories you would like to see in the coming editions of the magazine please let me know by sending an email to Roger.Watson@FarmvilleTheMag.com.