Happy Holidays to all our members! Hope this year has been great for all of you. We have been extremely busy this year with the continued progress on the Heritage Center and this summer's reenactment along with our busy season of visitors from all around the country!

This year saw many exciting things happen with the Heritage Center-we have completed the Crawford Building and actually moved staff back in this past month. We will be working on this conservation of the graffiti this winter with the help of the conservator fiom the National Park Service and are eager to see what happens as we continued to uncover the writings and learn more about the process of preserving them for the future. The Bank and Courthouse Buildings of the Center are complete and exhibits are being finalized for installation. Exhibit designer Dave Vago and the research team have worked tirelessly on the material and the image collection to put together a first-class exhibit on the history of the Staunton- Parkersburg Turnpike and it relationship to the town of Beverly and the role it played in the Civil War. The first wave of furnishing for the center has arrived courtesy of the Allen family and we are excited and appreciative for their generous support of this project. Former Board member Mike Smith donated a large Civil War era medical collection to the Foundation as well and we are eager to get its interpretation complete for inclusion in the exhibit.

The Reenactment this past summer was smaller than in previous years but was well attended and enjoyed by the participants. The benefit auction was a huge success (thanks Hunter and Rick for helping to secure the items for that!) and we thank all those who attended and bid to help raise funds for the Foundation. The Battlefield, Camp Garnett and Field of Fire received a lot of traffic this season-from visiting tourists to local scout and youth group tours as well as the rentals of the pavilion for family reunions and activities including a camp out by the local YMCA. Upkeep continues to be an issue but we seem to have made an impact with our annual spring Park Day clean-up and the increased use of the site to help deter vandals. Our site supervisor Don Moore and our grounds keepers Tygart Valley Lawn care make an tremendous impact on the upkeep of the site and I am thankful for their hard work and dedication to the grounds.

We have recently teamed up with local partners Historic Beverly Preservation and AFHA (Appalachian Forest Heritage Area) to receive a team of AmeriCorps members here in our region. Two of them are devoted to Beverly for preservation trades work(bricks and mortar projects) and heritage education. Having them on board for the next year will help us reevaluate and reschedule our outreach and upkeep here at the Foundation and we are pleased to have them join us for the coming year!

So that's 2007 in a nutshell. We've been busy, we continue to grow, and we are excited for 2008! Thanks for supporting us all these years and watch for new and exciting things this coming year!

Chel Depp, Executive Director, RMBF