The first Fourth of July celebration began in Sewanee in 1986, complete with a parade, mutt show, and games for the children. The highlight of the celebration was the much anticipated fireworks show.

“When I was a child, people would gather at the fire hall about a week or so before the show,” said Keith Henley. “There were sheets of 4 foot by 8 foot plywood all around the bay area, and we would screw down the little one time mortar shots.” Mortar shots have a single tube that can be a three to six inch shell, which is jettisoned out after it is lit.

“Firefighters had to ignite road flares to light the fireworks, and everyone knew fireworks were going to start,” said Henley.

Until 2002, this was how the fireworks were prepared for each celebration.

Keith recalls Dave Green saying, “Why can’t we get it to where we can surprise all these people?”

“That is when my Uncle Clea Sherrill came up with the idea that we were going to shoot bigger fireworks.”

First, Clea, Dave, Tim “Rambo” Carpenter, Kevin Gilliam and Johnny Smith designed a trailer that would hold between 3 and 6 inch mortar shells, with different size HDPE tubing.

“Uncle Clea did all the research and found out how to electric match the fireworks,” said Keith.

“The first electronic firing system we used was built by my Uncle Clea,” said Keith. “To use a firing system by Tennessee codes for fireworks, they had to have a button to fire, a key to arm the system, individual switches to each firework, and LED lights that send low voltage to each match and back again causing the LED to glow and show the match is good. Clea built his system out of an old speaker box and used old printer ports and cables to run the wire to a trailer. Clea, Kevin, Johnny and I wired to the trailer, so the cables were plugged in, with the fireworks wired to posts.”

“Around 2010, Clea and Dave found a remote firing system from a company called Cobra. It uses a remote that talks to up to 100 boxes that test the fireworks and can have 18 different switches per box. We started with three boxes. We can fire multiple fireworks per button because of the matches being daisy chained in series up to eight matches. We are using the same boxes today.”

Keith said he started helping with the annual show in 2002. Dave had the ATF license to shoot off the Class B fireworks, which have more height after the firework is lit. Keith, Clea and Rambo got the state license.

This is the 10th anniversary of Clea passing away. Rambo passed in 2020, and Dave passed in 2022.

But the show must go on.

“During the past several years, the fireworks have been a good tradition to keep them alive, we wanted to keep them going,” said Keith. As the fireworks brighten up the night sky, “We are thinking about people who aren’t here anymore.”

After Rambo passed, Keith started doing the fireworks show for the University graduation and Homecoming weekend. After Dave passed, they no longer could use the Class B fireworks because his name was linked to the original license. Keith said they are trying to get the ATF license back.

“The fireworks we use now are Class C or consumer – fireworks that anybody can buy. With this firing system, you don’t have to have the ATF license.”

“Some people told me they like the Class C show better. You can add several fireworks or more together and it is almost equal to a Class B firework. With every button we push, there are three fireworks attached to it. We get together, the extended Sherrill family and friends, and everyone gets to pick out their three fireworks for the celebration.”

Keith started a company in memory of Clea, Rambo and Dave, called 411 Fireworks. Keith, Zach Langford, Matthew Gilliam, John Weaver, and Dylan McClure are involved now. Three years ago, they started helping the City of Decherd with their fireworks show. This year, they also did the show at the SAS Alumni Weekend.

For each firework show, Keith carries with him a little black box. Inside of it is Dave’s old tobacco pipe, a knife that Rambo made, and the white pocket protector Clea had with the screwdriver set he used for electronic work.

“The show never goes on without this little black box,” said Keith. This way, each of them is still with us just a little bit.”

Join the School of Letters on Monday, June 30, at noon, in the Torian Room of the library for a Faculty Craft Lecture on the Basics of Literary Theory with Britt Threatt.

Britt Threatt is the author of the academic paper, “‘We’re All Fugitives Now’: A Humanist Perspective on Anti-Woke Laws.” She is the Truth & Racial Healing Transformations Scholar at Sewanee and the host of the podcast College Writing, Actually, where she discusses practical writing tips and multilingualism. This event is free and open to the public.

Join the School of Letters on Wednesday, July 2, at 4:30 p.m., in Naylor Auditorium for a Faculty and Guest Reading with Nickole Brown, Meera Subramanian, and Jim Whiteside.

Nickole Brown has authored four books of poetry, including “Sister,” and “The Donkey Elegies,” published in 2020. She is the director and president of the Hellbender Gathering of Poets.

Meera Subramanian is the author of “A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis.” Her work has appeared in publications such as Nature, The New York Times, and Orion.

Jim Whiteside is the author of the poetry chapbook, “Writing Your Name on the Glass.” He was recently a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University and currently serves as a visiting Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Sewanee.

This event is open to the public and will be followed by a reception in the Gailor Atrium.

Join the School of Letters on Wednesday, July 9, at 4:30 p.m., in Naylor Auditorium for a Faculty, Guest, and Alumni Reading with Dan Hornsby, Richard Tillinghast, and Cheryl Whitehead, L’11.

Dan Hornsby is the author of two novels: “Via Negativa” (2021) and “Sucker” (2024), which received praise from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Slate.

Richard Tillinghast has authored 12 books of poetry, including most recently, “Wayfaring Stranger.” He is the winner of the Ann Stanford Prize for Poetry and the James Dickey Poetry Prize, among several other awards for his poetry and travel writing. He founded the Bear River Writers’ Conference and served as its Director for five years.

Cheryl Whitehead, L’11, is the author of “Distant Relations,” a poetry collection that explores “family ties, identity, and the search for belonging across generations and geographies.”

This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Library. It is open to the public, and will be followed by a reception in the Gailor Atrium.

Join the School of Letters on Thursday, July 10, at 7 p.m., in Angel Park for a reading featuring student work! These students are on the cusp of earning the MFA, and are bringing their best pieces to share with peers, faculty, and the community. For more information, visit <letters.sewanee.edu>.

The Sewanee Fourth of July Committee is honored to dedicate this year’s celebration and parade in memory of Doug Cameron.

Always the first one to raise his hand, Doug dedicated his life in the service of others: as coach, mentor, teacher, author, musician, board member, and elected official. For more than 50 years, he volunteered with the Sewanee Volunteer Fire Department, serving as Chief 2. He was an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician and a 32-year veteran of Sewanee EMS. He served on numerous boards including the Community Action Committee, Blue Monarch, Mountain Goat Trail Alliance, Sewanee Civic Association, St. Andrew’s-Sewanee Board of Trustees, and as a founding board member of Housing Sewanee and the South Cumberland Regional Land Trust.

Beyond Sewanee, he served on the boards for The Cloud Forest School Foundation, the Land Trust for Tennessee, the Tennessee Environmental Council, Leadership Franklin County, the American Canoe Association and the Merrie-Woode Foundation. For his efforts in outdoor adventure and conservation, he was inducted into the Southeastern Whitewater Hall of Fame.

“He graced this world with a heart full of love and a commitment to serving wherever a need emerged.”

Summer nights just got even better in Sewanee this year with the launch of an exciting change to our regular series: Musical Nights in the Park weekly, all during the month of July. This family-friendly event is set to take place every week beginning with the Thursday, July 3 Street Dance and then the following Fridays July 11, July 18 and July 25, offering a fun-filled evening for residents and visitors alike.

Starting at 7 p.m., Musical Nights in the Park will feature live music from local artists, a variety of delicious food and drinks from local restaurants serving up mouth-watering snacks and meals. Please bring your fur babies.

“We’re excited to change things up a little this year to our regular Friday Nights in the Park and bring the community together for a whole month of concerts and of fun and laughter,” said event organizer SBA President Kim Butters and event planner, John Goodson. “We hope to see people of all ages coming out to enjoy the live music, tasty treats, and exciting activities we have planned.”

Musical Nights in the Park will be at the beautiful downtown Sewanee Angel Park, located in Sewanee. Admission is free, and attendees are encouraged to bring along picnic blankets and chairs to relax and enjoy the outdoor atmosphere. University Avenue will be closed to traffic to ensure everyone’s safety.

The events will kick off Thursday, July 3, with Utopia, Friday, July 11, with the band Round Trip, Friday, July 18, with Stagger Moon and wrap up on Friday, July 25, with Shine/Roll’n 7’s.

Please note the Street Dance will begin at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, July 3, in Angel Park, with food vendors and all-around family fun.

For more information on Musical Nights in the Park visit the website <sewaneevillage.com> or follow us on social media #sewaneevillage #sewaneeangelpark. For information on the Sewanee Fourth Celebration go to <http://www.sewanee4thofjuly.or...;, #sewanee4th, or see page 10 in this issue.

We have two full weeks of programming ahead in what is the Assembly’s busiest time of year—July 4! For the week of June 29-July 5, we look forward to welcoming Betsy Wills for a lecture Wednesday evening (July 2) on “Finding Your Hidden Genius: The Power and Permanence of Our Natural Abilities,” with a book signing to follow. Wills is the cofounder of YouScience, a national online psychometric-assessment service in Nashville. She regularly guest lectures at Vanderbilt University and the Stern School of Business at New York University. Her book, Your Hidden Genius, was released earlier this year.

Supercomputer expert Justin Whitt works for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he leads teams in deploying large and complex scientific instruments. In his lecture Thursday morning (July 3), Whitt will address “Blazing a Path to the Frontier: the story of the first exascale computer.” In his current role, Whitt works on the LEGEND-1000 project, which plans to build and operate a large (four stories tall) detector system 1.5 miles underground to search for an unobserved phenomenon called neutrino-less double beta decay. He led the project to deliver the world’s first exascale supercomputer, capable of more than a quintillion calculations each second.

In our fifth week of the season (July 6-12), frequent Monteagle lecturer Oscar Fitzgerald returns to share a talk titled, “Who Won the Vietnam War? Surprise!” For 13 years, Fitzgerald established and directed the Navy’s Vietnam history program, working on classified and unclassified histories of the southeast Asian war. He also managed the Navy’s extensive Vietnam archives and headed the oral history project that drew from more than 40 interviews with senior U.S. and Vietnamese naval officers.

Another well-known Mountain figure, John McCardell Jr., returns to lecture Thursday evening (July 10) about “‘Wicked?’ The Road to Emerald City and the Presidential Election of 1896.” A historian by training, McCardell is perhaps best known for his time serving as Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of the South, a role he held from 2010-2020. As a doctoral student at Harvard University, McCardell wrote a dissertation on “The Idea of a Southern Nation,” which won the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians in 1979.

Additional events in the next two weeks include the following:

Tuesday, July 1, 11:45 a.m., Warren Chapel — James Manning lectures on “The Oaklands Mansion: Adaptive Re-use and One Museum’s Community Partnerships.”

Tuesday, July 1, 2:30 p.m., meet at the Auditorium — All-Assembly Outreach Project to build beds for Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

Wednesday, July 2, 10:45 a.m., Warren Chapel — Sandra Randleman lectures on “Caregiving for Elders: What you need to know and should anticipate about caring for your spouse or parent.”

Saturday, July 5, 7:30 p.m., Harton Hall—Outreach Fundraiser: An auction and dance to fund MSSA’s Outreach work.

Monday, July 7, 6:00 p.m., Mall Gazebo—The Final Crossings Gospel Band brings music to the MSSA Mall.

Tuesday, July 8, 10:45 a.m., Warren Chapel—Liz Norell lectures on the Enneagram. An afternoon workshop (2:30-4:00 p.m.) invites attendees to learn more about the Enneagram and engage in reflection/exploration.

Tuesday, July 8, 7:45 p.m., Auditorium—The Sewanee Summer Music Festival performs.

Wednesday, July 9, 3:00 p.m., Harton Hall—Anne Byrn offers a baking demonstration from her book, Baking in the American South.

Thursday, July 10, 10:45 a.m., Warren Chapel—Anne Monfore lectures on “Old Hollywood Movie Stars: Their lives tragedies, and how mental health impacted the lives of Vivian Leigh, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn, and Gene Tierney.

Friday, July 11, 10:45 a.m., Warren Chapel—Members of the Monteagle Assembly Endowment Fund board discusses what the fund has accomplished in the last year, how it operates, and more.

Friday, July 11, 2:30-4:30 p.m., Shady Dell—Make-and-Take Workshop to create a felted wool trivet, led by Virginia Curry. (Advance registration and fee required.)

Saturday, July 12, 5:30 p.m., Mall — The Art Four Sale musical group will play jazz music from the Mall Gazebo. Bring a lawn/camp chair or blanket to enjoy.

The Mission of the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly is to be a welcoming community of Christian faith where people gather to engage in spiritual growth and renewal, lifelong inquiry and learning, recreational, and cultural enrichment, while being good stewards of our natural resources and our Assembly heritage.

Since 1978 the Sewanee Senior Center has provided support, a flourishing food program and Senior exercise program to the Sewanee community. All of this is currently in jeopardy due to the pressing need for major structural repairs to the building.

The center hopes to continue providing meals to 50 seniors a day, chair exercise classes, and provide community and fellowship to all. The meal program includes in-house lunches, take-outs, and deliveries to shut-ins 5 days a week year-round.

In order to continue with its operations in a safe and timely manner, the building needs immediate structural repairs. This will allow the center to meet the following goals:

To continue to serve nutritious “home cooked” meals.

To Provide a safe, caring environment for fellowship.

To Continue to hold special Meals for Thanksgiving, Christmas and the general meeting and luncheon in June.

To Continue the Chair Exercise Program

To Continue Arts and Crafts, quilt making and sewing projects.

To Continue to offer meeting space to the local community.

As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, fees for membership are not required. Operating funds are generated through an annual Christmas Bazaar, a Community Chest grant and funding from Franklin County. The much-needed improvements will depend upon donations from individuals such as yourself.

Please consider making a monetary gift to the Sewanee Senior Center Building Fund.

Checks can be mailed to Sewanee Senior Center Building Fund, 5 Ballpark Rd, Sewanee, TN 37375.

Venmo: @SewaneeSenior Citizens.

All Donations are tax deductible.

Contact information for the Senior Center (931) 598-0771. Messages will be directed to the Executive Board.

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the June 17 meeting the Sewanee Utility District Board of Commissioners voted to retain the firm RateStudies to conduct a cash flow analysis for the utility. “They’re based in Tennessee. It’s a reputable firm. They did Monteagle’s rate study,” said SUD manager Ben Beavers in his recommendation. RateStudies $15,000 bid was $40,000 less than the other two bids SUD received. In other business the board revisited the wetlands discussion from the May meeting.

Commenting on the other two bidders, Beavers said, “You’re paying a premium for the company name. [RateStudies] is more than enough for what I think we need.” According to the contract, the study will analyze “growth, revenue, income and expenses from the past five years” taking into account “the amount of cash needed for operation, maintenance, debt service, funding of capital improvements, and a reasonable amount for cash reserves.” In support of Beavers recommendation, Board President Charlie Smith commented, RateStudies principal Buddy Petty conducted some of the Tennessee Association of Utility Districts commissioner training sessions.

The RateStudies analysis will compare SUD’s rates to other local water utilities. “That’s the first thing people comment on,” Beavers observed, citing the complaint, “’Your rates are too high.’” The RateStudies analysis will also determine if revenue is sufficient to meet the requirement set by the state comptroller that a utility’s finances show a positive change in net position.

“SUD’s last rate study was updated ten years ago,” Beavers said, citing the benchmark of conducting a rate study every five years or more frequently if a utility anticipated significant changes such as a new water plant or lake. Likewise, utilities are advised to re-examine their capital improvement plan every five years.

“I’d like to have the rate study done before we start the budget,” Beavers said, but he stressed he would also like the study to include data from the Asset Management Plan currently being compiled with American Rescue Plan Act funds. When complete, the Asset Management Plan will provide a comprehensive inventory of assets, showing their value, longevity, and depreciation. In order to have Asset Management Plan data will likely require postponing the rate study until the end of the year.

Taking up the wetlands project, Beavers provided background. A joint research project undertaken by the University of the South and the University of Georgia, the constructed wetlands was designed to study reduction of nitrification and uptake of heavy metals by the plants, Beavers explained. Water flows from a SUD lagoon for treating wastewater into the constructed wetlands and back into the lagoon. “[The researchers] got a grant from Coca Cola who wanted to know what size wetlands could effectively treat water. [Coca Cola] is in the water selling business all over the world.”

Since the May discussion, the researchers have cleaned up and mowed the wetlands. Project head Deb McGrath requested permission to extend the project to allow researchers to conduct sampling beginning in the summer of 2026, marking 10 years of operation.

“I’m curious to know what they want to do and hope to see,” said Smith. He requested a written summary “to define what it is she wants to do in the next two years. Then we’ll consider it.”

Beavers will contact McGrath. He will also request information on whether a labeled chemical to kill the invasive duckweed would interfere with the experiment and request a new legal agreement drafted by the University attorney to govern extending the project. He proposed basing the legal agreement on the original contract. “It was pretty comprehensive,” Beavers said in support of the original document.

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“We have it. What do we do now?” asked historian and participatory design manager Daniel Horowitz Garcia for the Highlander Research and Education Center, addressing the Grundy County Historical Society at the June 14 annual meeting. In December, the Center reacquired nine acres of the original 200-acre Highlander Folk School property seized by the state in 1961. In the aftermath, the folk school went from Monteagle to Knoxville and from there to New Market, Tenn., changing its name, but never its mission. “Our workshops and programs bring people together across issues, across identity, across geography to share skills, knowledge and strategies to build more just, sustainable, and equitable systems,” said Highlander community organizer Jack Wallace, a Grundy County native. “Highlander Folk School was the only place in the southern United States that had integrated meetings,” said Garcia. “Those meetings were dramatically important to the history of this country. My job is to ask ‘What’s important about the land,’ both the local and national impact. Part of the reason India is free is because Gandhi studied Martin Luther King.”

“Founded in 1932, Highlander advanced the labor movement of the 1940s and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s,” said Wallace summarizing Highlander’s history. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. studied at Highlander. A photo of King at a workshop led to Highlander being targeted as a communist training school. In 1961 the state revoked the school’s charter, confiscated the property, and sold the land and buildings at auction. The Tennessee Preservation Trust acquired a portion of the original property in 2014. In 2023, required to divest itself of its 501(c)(3) holdings, the Trust sought a buyer for the site, explained Historical Society Director Oliver Jervis. When the Trust announced a potential sale to Caverns owner Todd Mayo, the state questioned the valuation of the property. The Trust invited the Center to bid, as well, but ultimately rejected the Center’s higher bid and sold the property to Mayo. Negotiations between Mayo and the Center followed. On Dec. 20, 2024, the Center purchased the nine-acre site, several homes, and library where Highlander Folk School workshops were held.

Looking to the future, Garcia stressed, “The concept of participatory design is central to Highlander. Everybody has something to teach, everybody has something to learn. Together we can figure out the solutions to the problems. If we can figure out a good question, we can figure out a good answer.” Wallace anticipates the Center hosting a local, large scale community wide event before the end of the year to invite input. Likewise, Garcia said, plans call for a gathering in December to jump start the conversation on the national level.

The team of Garcia, Wallace, Highlander Center Special Projects Organizer Evelyn Lynn, and an additional staff member coming on board in September, will draft a proposal for the “Highlander Project” over the course of the next year and a half, with the goal of defining exactly what the Center will do with the property.

Garcia conceives of the site as a “Memory Farm.” “What is good about [the memory] and what do we want to change?” Garcia asked. “Who should come together on that land right now and what should they be talking about? What kind of questions do you want to ask people? What kind of things do you want to say to people? And how do we go about doing that?”

In response to a question about the property serving as a retreat, Garcia said, “I love the idea of people being able to stay on the land again. The [original] concept of Highlander was that it would be residential and that by living there and living on that land with other people and figuring out how you were going to treat each other, how you were going to sleep, how you were going to wake up, how were you going to do this work, and in figuring out how all this is going to happen you would build a community that would address all the problems.”

Asked if the Center would attempt to acquire more of the original 200 acres, Garcia replied, “The 200 acres shouldn’t have been taken from them. Was it legal? The supreme court said it was legal. But was it right? I don’t think it was right. Should we work to get all 200 acres? I don’t know anybody who is opposed to that.”

The Woman’s Association of the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly, (MSSA) will host its 61st annual Cottage Tour & Bazaar on Friday, July 18, 2025. The much-anticipated event will include tours of five representative cottages; a self-guided tour of historic buildings; the always-popular bazaar with fine art and jewelry, plus home décor, plants, clothing, and much more; The Butterfly Boutique (resale); box lunches from Emily Frith and Corner Market Catering; and the always popular Bake Sale. Parking is free.

The annual event is designed to share with the public the Assembly’s unique history and mission, to showcase its representative turn-of-the-century cottages and structures, and to highlight the Chautauqua Movement and the Assembly’s association with the Chautauqua Network. The cottages to be featured this year are: Chautauqua House, Robin’s Nest, At Long Last, By the Way, and Peace on Earth.

The Bazaar, open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., welcomes more than 40 selected local and regional artisans and at least 15 new vendors who will bring arts and crafts and splurge-worthy fine art and jewelry as well as paper, ceramics, clothes, plants, leather and more. The nearby Butterfly Boutique sale of donated items from members and friends is a bargain-lover’s dream in the Writers’ Grove located near the Woman’s Association Winfield House.

The Corner Market is back at the Cottage Tour. Box lunches ($26.31, including taxes and fees), available for pre-order only, will feature a grilled chicken breast over mediterranean orzo, creamy cucumber salad and a chess tart that can be enjoyed in one of the Assembly’s green spaces. Attendees may also dine in and enjoy the buffet and salad bar ($20) or a la carte burgers and hot dogs. Dining Hall hours on tour day are 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Guests will also enjoy the annual bake sale where the Assembly’s best cooks bring their sweet and savory specialties, and the Snack Shop will be open for popcorn, chilled candy bars, bottled water and souvenir T-shirts.

Attendees should plan a stop at cottage #9A, Little Lexington, the new location of The Gallery (take the first circular driveway as you enter the front gate), a mainstay of the Assembly history and a must-stop shopping destination during any visit. In addition to art and gifts, the Gallery is one of a select few to carry award-winning McCarty’s Pottery. Created by Assembly members, the late Lee and Pup McCarty, Mississippi-based McCarty’s has earned international recognition and is now owned by a new generation of Assembly members, Jamie and Stephen Smith.

New this year: Voices of the Assembly! This video, which will run in the Chapel continuously throughout the event, features interviews with members from previous generations who share stories about the Assembly’s history and evolution. It’s a moving tribute and a must-see.

Schedule of events

• Bazaar: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Butterfly Boutique and bake sale: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• McCarty’s at Cottage 9A: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Cottage tours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Prepaid Box lunch pickup 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• Harton Dining Hall: Corner Market Catering Buffet available 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Tickets ($26.31 including processing fee) and box lunches ($26.31 including processing fee) can be ordered here <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-i6wA4kcFtRPFrcyxUndnZxAiw4Jk_fjSurE66Y2S-uBQIg/viewform; and paid via GooglePay, Cashapp, or credit card.

Organized in 1887, the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly (MSSA) Woman’s Association has played a vital role in the development of the Assembly by providing hospitality, funds and meeting space for all aspects of the summer program. The Association’s cottage, “Winfield,” is the center for many activities during the Season, from Sunday School to parents’ meetings, workshops, children’s story hours, and card parties. It also houses the Assembly library and is staffed by a resident hostess/librarian. The MSSA Culinary Guild, a program of the Woman’s Association, celebrates and supports the local South Cumberland food and farming community and the production and enjoyment of great food. Members maintain the Assembly’s Humphreys-Martin Family Herb Garden and enjoy coming together for food, beverages, and fun several times during the program season. Woman’s Association Motto: “Each for the other, all for Monteagle.”

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“I encouraged principals to have the cost of school supplies not exceed $12,” said Director of Schools Cary Holman, prior to a vote of approval for the elementary and middle school supply lists presented for review at the June 9 Franklin County School Board meeting. The board also approved program fees for the 2025-2026 school years and after lengthy discussion agreed to voluntarily complete the director of schools’ evaluation questionnaire created by the Tennessee School Board Association (TSBA) in addition to the evaluation questionnaire in use by the district for nearly a decade.

Holman stressed purchasing school supplies was a hardship for some families, especially those with three or four children. Overhearing a conversation in a store where parents shopping for school supplies complained about the cost prompted Holman to advise school principals to only include “must” have items on the school supply list. He also asked principals not to post “wish lists” on social media like Facebook. “It’s inappropriate to constantly be asking parents for all these extra things,” Holman stressed.

School board member Linda Jones pointed out in the past churches made donations. Board member Sarah Marhevsky suggested the school purchase items like crayons in bulk and distribute them to students.

“I don’t think we need to add burdens to families,” observed board member Sara Liechty in support of Holman’s directive to school principals, but she added, “We don’t need to take away the excitement of shopping for a box of crayons that has 48 colors. It’s important for children and parents to shop for school supplies together. As a parent it gave me an opportunity to express how important school is.”

Deputy Director of Finances Jenny Phillips pointed out, “the school supply list is considered a fundraiser in the eyes of the state and needs to be approved because we’re asking other people for things.” Board member Sandy Schultz questioned the need for items on some of the lists and asked for an opportunity to review the lists prior to the request for approval next year. Holman concurred with the suggestion.

The list of program fees presented for the board’s approval was largely unchanged from the 2024-2025 school year, according to Vice Chair Lance Williams. Marhevsky asked about the $125 fee for marching band which included expenses for robots to paint the practice field striping. Williams explained, “That’s something we leased several years ago. It’s quite expensive, but it does a good job. It was taking several people hours upon hours.”

Marhevsky introduced a discussion about the board completing the TSBA director of schools’ evaluation as well as the evaluation used last year. In recommending the board “try out” the TSBA evaluation, Marhevsky said, “It has a rubric for each category to help with scoring … and it gives more insight and feedback … prompting us to have conversations we want to be having.” She proposed going forward, the board might want to customize the TSBA evaluation for the district’s use.

“Does this mean we’re changing the evaluation?” asked Jones. Jones took issue with the Student Performance category on the TSBA evaluation. “I’m not sure my conscience would allow me to evaluate, judge our director’s performance based on what’s happening in every individual school.”

Liechty said the evaluation currently used was adopted seven or eight years ago. The evaluation in use previously was more comprehensive. “I think what Sarah [Marhevsky] is saying is in this new world where operating in something more comprehensive would be better.”

“I think it’s having us choose which one we want by doing both,” Jones said.

In response to a question about whether the board should vote on whether or not to fill out both applications, Williams insisted, “It’s voluntary so we don’t need a vote.”

Taking up finances, the board approved a Cooperative Purchasing resolution. “We can pool the number of items we’re going to buy [with other districts] which pulls down the prices,” Phillips said, explaining the reason for the resolution.

Marhevsky reported on education related bills voted on by the Tennessee state legislature. Commenting on a new law requiring school districts to have a policy prohibiting use of wireless communication devices during instructional time, Marhevsky said, “We already have a similar policy, so this may not have much impact.” A bill allowing the state to take over poorly performing schools did not pass. “This one will likely come back,” Marhevsky speculated.

The Sewanee Civic Association is sponsoring a Stock the Pantry drive for the Community Action Committee during the month of June. The CAC’s clientele has doubled this past year. This Stock the Pantry drive will augment the services provided by the CAC.

Any and all donations are accepted. Suggested donations include cereal, bread, protein drinks, canned food, cleaning supplies, paper products, household supplies and personal care items. Deliver your items to the Community Action Committee or Taylor’s Mercantile by June 30. There is an Amazon Wish List for those who prefer to shop online <https://a.co/f6TXKX4;. These items will be delivered directly to the CAC, 216 University Ave., Sewanee.

During the summer months, volunteers are needed to stock the shelves at the CAC, 9–11 a.m., Monday through Friday.

The Monteagle Sunday School Assembly in Monteagle continues its 143rd summer season of enrichment through Sunday, Aug. 3, featuring numerous visiting lecturers who will present morning and evening programs that are open free of charge to the public; unless otherwise noted, morning lectures begin at 10:45 a.m., and evening lectures at 7:45 p.m., all taking place in Warren Chapel. Anyone interested in a full schedule of the Monteagle Assembly’s 2025 program is welcome to pick one up at the Assembly Office (tel. 931-924-2286), or to peruse the schedule on the Assembly’s website at <www.monteaglesundayschoolassembly.org>.

Author Hampton Sides is best known for his gripping nonfiction adventure stories. His bestselling histories include On Desperate Ground, which he visited Monteagle several summers ago to discuss. He returns Thursday evening to talk about his latest book, “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook.” Setting off on his third voyage across the globe on July 12, 1776, Captain Cook led two ships on exploratory missions that, in previous expeditions, had mapped huge swaths of the Pacific Ocean, including the east coast of Australia. He was regarded as an explorer who respected indigenous cultures and who treated his crew well. Yet his final voyage ended two and a half years after departure in a fatal conflict with native Hawaiians. Sides tells the story of that voyage in a narrative described as ferociously paced.

Returning for a night of music are artists Bradley Cole Smith and Nelson Nolan, who will perform in the Mall Gazebo Saturday evening at 8 p.m. Smith has been a fixture in the Atlanta music scene since the early 1990s. He has been featured in films and television and, as a musician, has shared the stage with artists including Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveler, Dwight Yoakum, and Edwin McCain. Nolan has been playing with Smith for more than 20 years. He regularly performs in Atlanta with Michelle Malone’s band, Canyonland, and the Sundogs Tom Petty Show.

For our annual Wayne & Virginia Jervis Bible Week, we welcome the Reverend Tom Ward, who has been an Episcopal priest for nearly 50 years in parishes in Mississippi and Tennessee. Ward served as the University Chaplain at Sewanee from 1994-2005. His lectures will have a different focus each day:

Tuesday: What is the Bible?

Wednesday: What is Prayer?

Thursday: Praying the Bible

Friday: Practicing Praying the Bible

Additional events this week include the following:

Tuesday, June 17, 2:30-5 p.m., Pulliam Center — Stacie Meeks offers a workshop on CPR and AED training, advance registration required.

Wednesday, June 18, 3 p.m., Harton Hall — Emily Frith and Ellen Fort host a cooking demonstration of homemade pasta, no-cook summer sauces, and Spanish gazpacho.

Thursday, June 19, 9–10 a.m., Winfield Porch — A Conversation with the Pastors with Rev. Mary Balfour Dunlap and Rev. Richard Ahlquist.

Thursday, June 19, 2:30-4:30 p.m., Shady Dell — Make-and-take workshop for around-the-world coasters with Virgina Curry, advance registration required and $12 materials fee.

Friday, June 20, 2:30 p.m., Meet at Warren Chapel — Richard Candler guides a bird walk and talk. Please bring binoculars.

The Mission of the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly is to be a welcoming community of Christian faith where people gather to engage in spiritual growth and renewal, lifelong inquiry and learning, recreational, and cultural enrichment, while being good stewards of our natural resources and our Assembly heritage.

The Sewanee School of Letters is proud to announce that our 2025 John Grammer Fellow will be Megan Nolan. The award, made possible by a gift from the Blake & Bailey Family Fund, brings a noted writer or scholar to Sewanee for an extended visit each summer during the School of Letters’ academic term. The John Grammer Fellow is named in honor of founding School of Letters Director John Grammer. The reading is a part of the School of Letters Summer Reading and Lecture Series.

Megan Nolan will read in the Naylor Auditorium of Gailor Hall at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 18. A reception will follow in the Atrium. All are invited.

Megan Nolan is an Irish writer based in New York. Her debut novel “Acts of Desperation” was published in 2021 and was an international bestseller, translated into fourteen languages. Her second, “Ordinary Human Failings,” published in 2023, was shortlisted for the Orwell prize for Political Fiction, the Nero Prize for Fiction, The Gordon Burn Prize, The Royal Society of Literature Encore Award, and longlisted for the Women’s Prize.

She is currently at work on her first book of nonfiction.

School of Letters Director Justin Taylor said, “There’s so much to admire about Megan Nolan’s work as both a novelist and a journalist it’s hard to decide where to start. She is, in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s words, ‘a huge literary talent.’ Her first novel, ‘Acts of Desperation’ is a dark unflinching study of obsession, abjection, and isolation. Her second novel, ‘Ordinary Human Failings,’ which I had the privilege of reviewing for the Washington Post, breathes fresh life into the crime novel while interrogating many of that genre’s biases and blind spots. As I wrote at the time, ‘Nolan’s prose is clean and exacting, with an almost clinical interest in the power of shame: class shame, sexual shame, national shame, the shame of the addict. It seems to rank high among Nolan’s writerly principles that the cure for shame is honesty, however ugly the truth is.’ These days, such a principle seems to be rarer than ever, thus I am all the more pleased to be bringing Nolan to Sewanee this summer as our 2025 Grammer Fellow.”

Visit<https://letters.sewanee.edu/&g...; for more information on the Summer Reading Series.

by Blythe Ford, Messenger Staff Writer

This year’s Sewanee Summer Music Festival season kicks off this Sunday, June 15, with the first of five Faculty Artist performances. The festival, a Sewanee establishment since 1957, brings student musicians from all over the world to learn from renowned faculty in classical techniques. This season is the first under the leadership of new Executive and Artistic Director Hillary Herndon, a long-time instructor of viola at both the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the SSMF. Herndon expressed excitement over all of what the festival offers, but especially five new events on this year’s program.

The 2025 program not only features opportunities to hear chamber music, opera, symphonies, and orchestral pieces performed by students and faculty of the Festival as well as local artists, but also a film screening of “A Song for Hope” followed by a Q&A session with the leadership of nonprofit Cancer Blows, and a Sewanee Symphony Concert that includes the World Premiere of a DiLorenzo Trumpet Concerto “Fujisan” written for the late trumpet player Ryan Anthony. These two events are unique to this year’s program due to the partnership with CancerBlows, an organization founded by Anthony and his friends and family after his multiple myeloma diagnosis.

CancerBlows raises money for cancer research and patient support through musical performances and screenings of “A Song for Hope,” which documents how Anthony’s life and career in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra changed after diagnosis, inspiring him to found the charity. The DiLorenzo Concerto was never performed before he passed in 2020. It will premiere on June 22, in the hands of SSMF faculty member Peter Bond; it is preceded by the “A Song for Hope” screening and Q&A session on June 19. Herndon explained, “The CancerBlows events allow us to honor our own Peter Bond, share a remarkable story, and help honor Anthony’s legacy by continuing to use music as a tool for societal change; in this instance, specifically to help raise awareness of cancer research and patient support needs.”

Following the Sewanee Symphony Concert featuring the DiLorenzo Concerto and another event, the Jacqueline Avent Concerto Showcase, guests may choose to pay to attend the program’s new VIP receptions. These receptions will offer opportunities to meet and converse with the musicians and SSMF staff. In the words of Herndon: “What makes the VIP receptions truly special is the chance to connect more personally with the artists, faculty, and fellow supporters who bring the festival to life. These aren’t just social gatherings — they’re intimate opportunities to step behind the scenes, engage in meaningful conversations, and celebrate the incredible work happening at Sewanee.” The ticket proceeds will go to support the Festival, including the potential for other new events like the Jacqueline Avent Concerto Showcase, the Chamber Music Intensive Showcase, and the inclusion of two winners of the OperaFest student competition in faculty performances.

Both the OperaFest student competition and the Jacqueline Avent Concerto Showcase will pit SSMF students against each other for a chance to perform, but the Chamber Music Intensive Showcase on July 11 will be far more collaborative. Six groups will work together throughout the summer to prepare an entire chamber work, which will be one of the final performances of the season. The Festival will close with performances by the Cumberland Orchestra and the Sewanee Symphony on July 13.

This season of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival promises to be exciting, with multiple performances a week for the next month. A full schedule of events and more information about the program can be found at <ssmf.sewanee.edu>. To learn more about CancerBlows, visit <www.cancerblows.com>.

The Fourth of July Committee proudly unveils the 2025 celebration theme: “House of the All-Stars!” Inspired by the epic grandeur of the “Game of Thrones” saga, this theme celebrates the indomitable spirit of Sewanee’s volunteers — our true all-stars — who forge the heart and soul of our vibrant community. Like noble houses uniting for a greater cause, we honor those who selflessly serve, making Sewanee a realm of joy, unity, and pride.

Embrace the theme with banners of red, white, and blue, symbolizing patriotism, valor, and the shared legacy of our nation’s independence. Let your creativity soar as you craft parade floats worthy of a royal procession, design cakes that dazzle like treasures of the realm, and don costumes — human and canine alike — that proclaim your allegiance to Sewanee’s spirit.

Join us on Thursday, July 3, and Friday, July 4, 2025, to celebrate the birth of the United States and the shining stars of our community with feasts, festivities, and fellowship. Visit

http://www.sewanee4thofjuly.org/

for event registration, upcoming grand marshal announcements, and the full schedule. Rally your house, honor our all-stars, and let’s make this Fourth of July a legendary chapter in Sewanee’s story.