Photo by D. Ray Smith
The second annual Oak Ridge Dragon Boat Festival on Friday and Saturday included dragon boat races, music, vendors, food trucks, a youth area for kids, Drummers’ Parade, and Lanterns on the Lake ceremony. Here are pictures by D. Ray Smith and Rob Welton.
The Dragon Boat Festival raises money for local charities. As many as 32 dragon boat teams had registered this year. Each team has 20 paddlers and a drummer to ensure that the paddlers are propelling the boat in synchrony.
This year, the festival started on Friday evening with the Dragon Boat Beer Garden Bash at Melton Lake Park followed by a full day of boat racing on Saturday.
The festival is organized and sponsored by the three Rotary clubs of Oak Ridge.
Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson and Fire Chief Darryl Kerley estimated that the new event on Friday had about 1,500 participants, and there were approximately 4,000 who attended throughout the day on Saturday.
The winners this year were:
See the results of this year’s races here: 2015 Oak Ridge Dragon Boat Race Results. [Read more…]
President Barack Obama announces a proposal to offer two years of free community college to responsible students during a half-hour speech at Pellissippi State Community College in Hardin Valley on Friday. (Photo by Rob Welton)
Note: This story was last updated at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 15.
HARDIN VALLEY—It was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for some, a chance to shake hands with the president of the United States of America or wave at his heavily guarded motorcade as it passed by on a local roadway.
For others, it was a chance to hear about a presidential proposal modeled after a Tennessee program that would make the first two years of community college free to students who maintain at least a 2.5 grade point average. That proposal, officially announced at Pellissippi State Community College in Hardin Valley on Friday, expands on the 20th century idea that all children in the United States are entitled to a public education. In the 21st century economy, the White House said, 12 years of school is no longer enough.
For a much-smaller group, Friday’s visit by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and his wife Jill Biden offered an opportunity to hear an in-person announcement of a new advanced manufacturing hub, the country’s fifth, that will be led by the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and have Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a founding partner. That announcement at Techmer PM in Clinton was highlighted by a 3-D printed carbon fiber replica of a Shelby Cobra that the president joked about receiving for his birthday. [Read more…]
About 1,600 runners and walkers participated in the Neon Vibe 5K in Oak Ridge on Sept. 21.
There were also about 800 volunteers and spectators, for a total of roughly 2,400 people, according to the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau, which helped organize the event, the first-ever in Tennessee.
“It was hugely successful,” ORCVB President Katy Brown said.
