With a week off from a concert in Fountain Park, I get a break and can take a little vacation to North Carolina.\u00a0 I am driving two \u201cMiss Daisies\u201d — my mother and my mother-in-law — along with my wife, to visit the Billy Graham Library and the Biltmore Estate.<\/p>\n
We just returned from the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte.\u00a0What an inspiration!\u00a0It truly puts the life and accomplishments of this great man into perspective, but in a very humble way.\u00a0I would highly recommend this as a stop if you are going through the Carolinas.\u00a0Tomorrow is the Biltmore Estate and I plan to be completely amazed!<\/p>\n
As I travel from state to state, I still think of Van Wert and how special it is.\u00a0I don\u2019t just say that because I live and work there, but more so because of what others are continually saying about our community.\u00a0I have already shared with you what one of our performers from New York said.\u00a0Now, I will share with you what our friend Gary Jenkins from Nashville just wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201dSorry we rushed out of there. Guys were ready to get home. I got to thank the wonderful crew but I didn’t feel like I got to shake your hand and say thanks!\u00a0 We had a ball as we did before!\u2028\u2028Thank you for your hospitality, use of the church, help with the CDs, dinner, and the amazing ice cream.\u00a0More than anything, thanks for inviting us! You truly live in a beautiful town full of wonderful people. It’s like a postcard for heartland USA!\u00a0I wish I had more time to wander around Van Wert!\u201d<\/p>\n
I guess when you live in an area so long; it is easy to take things for granted. Things like free concerts in the park, a beautiful performing arts center, a nice, safe downtown, an art center, a civic theater, a historical museum, and beautiful churches.\u00a0Shall I go on?<\/p>\n
Oh sure, we have our problems like most communities, but when visitors come to our area, they compare at face value with what they see in other visits throughout the country.\u00a0You can see what they say.<\/p>\n
We would love to see our community grow and offer even more opportunities for more people.\u00a0 I guess if we all start seeing our community as others see us; it would be a good start.<\/p>\n
Next week, we finish the 10th season of concerts in the Fountain Park Summer Music Series when we welcome Gary Puckett & the Union Gap.\u00a0Puckett is known for several huge hit songs I am sure you will remember.\u00a0Come and enjoy our big finale celebration.\u00a0Bring the kids and grandkids because after the concert, we will be previewing the upcoming NPAC season, followed by the showing of The Wizard of Oz<\/em> on a huge outdoor screen and exciting sound system.<\/p>\n One last thought \u2026 as I was going through the Billy Graham Library, I saw pictures and mention of two artists who will be playing in Van Wert this season at the NPAC: Steven Curtis Chapman and Ricky Skaggs.\u00a0Ricky will be bringing his family for a Christmas concert and Steven Curtis Chapman is coming earlier in the fall.\u00a0Both have appeared and performed at Billy Graham events.\u00a0Check with the box office to see about getting tickets for these concerts, if you haven\u2019t already.<\/p>\n Lord willing, I will see you next week in Fountain Park for our big finale!\u00a0 Tell all your friends and invite everyone you know.\u00a0 It will be a fun end to our summer!<\/p>\n FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With a week off from a concert in Fountain Park, I get a break and can take a little vacation to North Carolina.\u00a0 I am driving two \u201cMiss Daisies\u201d — my mother and my mother-in-law — along with my wife, to visit the Billy Graham Library and the Biltmore Estate. We just returned from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 13:19:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}