If you’re like me you are tired of hearing words like: pandemic, Covid-19, shutdown, cancelled, quarantine, lockdown, work-from-home, remote learning, mask or no mask, vaccine or no vaccine. Our nation’s governing individuals and communities’ reaction to this unknown virus has consumed our news airwaves, social media and personal choices.  Those who have been touched by the illness and death this virus has unleashed have certainly felt the impact more deeply than most of us who have only been inconvenienced by shutdowns and cancellations.

2020 has definitely been the year that wasn’t. Plans that individuals had made, that companies and organization had scheduled felt the iron fist of cancellation. Family vacations, birthday celebrations, holidays were curbed to nil or 6 and fewer attendees. Restaurants could not open their doors to inside diners. Concerts were silenced. Shop doors were closed, some permanently. Folks have had to adjust to conducting business and keeping in touch with loved ones via on-line meetings and live stream broadcast. On top of all this, we have witnessed violence in our streets and a never-ending convoluted federal election.

Much of Vision 2020’s plans for this year were cancelled or adapted to fit the restrictions placed on us by the efforts to contain the spread of the virus. This has altered not only our outreach to our community but our fund-raising efforts for the restoration of the old bank building in town.  We have hated staying in, we would much rather be with you.  But we believe, as Flatt and Scruggs used to sing: “the sun is going shine on our back door someday.”

To that end, we are making plans for 2021 in hopes that our community will be open again to welcome visitors and homefolks to:

Hunt Easter eggs at the RBS Community Annual Easter Egg Hunt in March — Enjoy the music and stories of local songsters and storytellers at the Red Pump Café

Honor our roots with the annual RBS Folk Medicine Festival in June — Host more classes and special events at the Step Back in Time Shop

Enjoy homemade ice cream and purchase items at the Annual Ice Cream Social and Auction in July — Run with Cathie and Troy Johnson in their annual 5K Walk/Run in November

If you are the kind who likes to make charitable donations in December each year, we hope you will consider helping Vision 2020 in one or more of these ways:

While doing your online holiday shopping, support the Heritage Museum. Click this link (https://smile.amazon), select Vision 2020 Inc as your charity and AmazonSmile will make a donation based on the total amount of your purchase. Amazon makes the donation but you help them with the amount to give.

Online donations to help repair and restore the windows and doors can be made through  https://www.gofundme.com/rbsdoors-and-windows . You can make a one-time donation or even a monthly donation through this site.  It is our goal to replace the broken glass with the same period wavy glass or a modern replica if we can’t find old glass.  This is an expensive project, the glass is not cheap and some of the frames and frame work will have to be totally rebuilt, but it will be worth it.

Purchase copies of “Simple Pleasures” and the “Simple Pleasures Cookbook” A history of the hey-day of Red Boiling Springs, when she was a lively resort town, is a pleasant read and more than worth the $8 price tag. The cookbook includes good, old-fashioned recipes from local folks, a steal at $20. Purchase both for $25. Buy one for yourself and more as gifts. Every dollar from the sale of these books go into our museum fund. They are available for purchase at: Grandpa’s House and the Step Back in Time Gift Shop.