CC web site, NK student’s essay honored at program

Charles City County’s web site has earned a Use of Technology Award for its contributions to the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown.

The award was presented last Thursday during the Jamestown Virginia 2007 Community Program time capsule ceremony at Jamestown. Charles City is one of 10 award winners that were chosen for recognition out of 181 local community programs.

The web site www.charlescity.org features the theme “Discover Four Centuries, Three Cultures, Two Rivers, in One County.”

Highlights of the web site are a “Natives in the Landscape” exhibit that tells the story of the Chickahominy, Paspahegh, and Weyanock tribes along with five interactive maps and close to 260 images; “Registrations of Free Negroes and Mulattoes” which contains a data base of court order abstracts from 1826-64; “Slave Ancestor File” which is a data base of close to 800 Charles City slaves who have been identified by surname and linked to a plantation or owner; and “Roots Run Deep” which features 10 young people from the community whose ancestry is used to help tell the county’s history.

The web site was underwritten by contributions from the Charles City Ruritan Club.

During last week’s time capsule ceremony, an essay written by New Kent student Alex Spagnuolo was chosen as being representative of essays submitted by children around the state on the subject of the Jamestown anniversary. Statewide programs manager Amy Ritchie read excerpts from Alex’s work to the crowd.

In his essay “My Jamestown Celebration,” Alex wrote, “Celebrating Jamestown’s 400th anniversary can be a very fun, interesting experience learning from the past. The first way I would celebrate Jamestown would be to decorate the town. Pocahontas and John Smith will be showing us how they lived off the land. When you leave our celebration, you will have a better understanding of our past and take some interest in making memories for our future.”