Troy, NC—

Experience authentic local bluegrass at Montgomery Community College on Saturday, October 24 from 2:00 – 6:00 PM. MCC’s Forestry Club will sponsor an outdoor bluegrass concert  featuring Blue Horizon, Flat Tired and Timber Creek bluegrass bands. Other MCC student clubs will be on hand selling food and beverages during the festival.

Admission for the fund raising event will be $10 for adults (12 years and up), $5 for children 6 – 11 years, and free for children 5 years and under. Money raised will benefit the Forestry Club’s woodsmen’s activities throughout the year.

Students in the Forest Management Technology program compete regionally, taking their woodsmen’s team to different venues to test their athletic and academic skills.

In fact, earlier this month MCC’s woodsmen’s team competed at the Cradle of Forestry in the Pisgah National Forest in Brevard, NC. The team took second place in the academic quiz bowl competition while placing first and second in Orienteering.

The team competed in other events such as wood-chopping, pole-climbing, log-rolling and cross-cut sawing. Although the athletic events predominate in woodsmen’s meets, the educational events are the true indicator of the students’ academic mettle.

Forestry students will also demonstrate their various woodsmen’s skills at the 4^th Annual Uwharrie Mountain Festival this weekend. During the performance, they will invite festival-goers to try their hand at the cross-cut saw competition. Winners will receive forestry club t-shirts and possibly a new appreciation of the safety measures and special skills needed for the various events.

The forestry students hold various fund raisers throughout the academic year to support the club’s activities. The upcoming bluegrass festival is their first attempt at a major event, which they hope to be able to repeat annually. For more information about the festival, contact MCC Forestry Club Faculty Advisor, Mike Thompson, at 910-576-6222, extension 233.