The new site (www.RoanokeOutside.com) — the first of its kind dedicated to the Roanoke, Virginia region — was developed with hundreds of suggestions from area residents who shared their favorite hiking and biking trails, fishing holes, camping spots, kid activities, gear shops, as well as features they wanted to see on the site. Others employed GPS-equipped phones to map out trails and wrote descriptions of outdoor activities.

RoanokeOutside.com covers the greater Roanoke, Virginia area that stretches from Douthat State Park to Smith Mountain Lake between the James River and New River. The site includes an event calendar, suggested itineraries, list of guides, gear rentals, maps, photos, videos, message boards, blogs, gear reviews, cabin rentals, classifieds, and other features to help make getting outside easy, educational and sustainable.

“With the help of outdoor enthusiasts from throughout our region, we have dedicated more than a year to develop the leading source of information about all things outside to properly leverage the Roanoke, Virginia region’s greatest asset – the outdoors,” said Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “Making the outdoors an important part of our region’s narrative and economy starts with a dynamic Web site that catalogues our natural resources and makes it easier for people all over the world to learn about and enjoy what we have to offer.”

Much like RoanokeOutside.com was developed with the help of the region’s residents, the site will continue to be a conduit of connectivity using interactive blogs, discussion groups and social media outreach using Twitter and Facebook.

“The Roanoke, Virginia region is one of the best spots anywhere for outdoor recreation, and RoanokeOutside.com tells that story in a way we’ve never been able to do before,” said Pete Eshelman, director of outdoor branding for the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “It provides an interactive platform to continue to share tips and connect with people passionate about the outdoors or those simply wanting to take the first steps toward getting outside for fun and exercise.”

Businesses, colleges urged to link to RoanokeOutside.com

To help spread the word about the site and increase global exposure, the Roanoke Regional Partnership is asking businesses, colleges and other organizations in the region to add a link to www.RoanokeOutside.com from their home pages.

“Our new site is an ideal way to show young professionals that the Roanoke, Virginia region is an ideal place to start and build their careers,” Eshelman says. “Having a comprehensive site like ours makes it easy for young professionals to research the region as a place they want to live.”

RoanokeOutside.com also is a great way for employers to showcase the region’s assets to employees, potential recruits and other web visitors. “A link to RoanokeOutside.com shows that a company, college or other organization cares about the outdoors and its impact on economic development in the region,” Eshelman says.

ABOUT THE ROANOKE REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP

The Roanoke Regional Partnership was founded in 1983 as a regional economic development organization for the greater Roanoke area that includes Alleghany, Botetourt, Franklin, and Roanoke counties plus the cities of Roanoke and Salem and the town of Vinton.  Its program of work includes image building, asset development, and business recruitment.  The Partnership has been involved in business locations and expansions that have created more than 13,600 jobs and $1.3 billion in investment in real estate and equipment.  To learn more, please visit www.Roanoke.org.

Here is how you can help the Appalachian Trail:

1. You must be a registered Facebook user
2. Voting begins January 15
3. Become a Fan of Chase Community Giving
4. Find the Appalachian Trail Conservancy listing
5. Vote – you get 5 votes, use them all
6. Tell your friends to vote
   

A Trail to Every Classroom (TTEC) is a three-season, multi-disciplinary professional development series for educators aimed at providing the inspiration, knowledge and skills to transform classroom teaching into effective and exciting place-based education.

Rediscover the outdoors and your sense of exploration while learning effective, meaningful ways to lead your students to their own discoveries of nature, physical challenges, and the distinctiveness of their own communities.

The significance of the Appalachian Trail is not its length, but its story of civic engagement in preserving a recreational, natural, cultural, spiritual, and now, educational, resource for challenges and dreams.

Through this cumulative series of three workshops, you will create your own experiential learning curriculum based on state educational standards that integrates hands-on study of Appalachian Trail resources in your community and the opportunity for teacher and student networks from Georgia to Maine.

Research shows that place-based education and service-learning increases:

• Student Achievement
• Community Engagement
• Environmentally responsible behavior

Roanoke residents once again can recycle their colored glass.

It’s been more than five years since the city stopped accepting the glass in recycling pickups, but a contract with Recycling & Disposal Solutions of Portsmouth now allows residents to throw their brown beer bottles and other such glass recyclables somewhere other than the trash.

Photos by MATT GENTRY

The new contract doesn’t officially start until March, but Skip Decker, manager of the city’s solid waste department, said residents can go ahead and begin recycling the glass now.

The Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority, which has been taking Roanoke’s recycling load since April, accepts colored glass, but the city hadn’t wanted residents to get used to it while bids still were out on the new contract, Decker said. The city was concerned that the vendor chosen for the new contract might not take colored glass — and that would require the city to kill the program again after just restarting it. Now that the Portsmouth vendor has agreed to take the glass, the city will haul it to Montgomery County until the new contract starts.

The city had accepted colored glass under its old contract with Cycle Systems, but in 2003 the company told the city it was having trouble finding sources for it. Cycle Systems gave the city a year to notify residents that it would no longer be accepted.

The new rates with Portsmouth’s RDS aren’t substantially different from those with Montgomery Regional. Paper pickup is less expensive, the bottles and cans rate is a little more expensive and either is cheaper than the rate for dropping off trash.

However, the city will save about $2,500 per month in transportation costs. RDS will build a recycling facility somewhere in the Roanoke Valley, saving the city’s trucks from having to drive down U.S. 460 to Montgomery County on a regular basis.

“We see Roanoke as a growth area for our industry,” said Debra Devine, business development manager for RDS. “The Roanoke Valley comes with a great reputation for recycling efforts. We’ve had our eyes on it for some time and we’re happy to be in the valley.”

The RDS contract with Roanoke begins March 1, but Devine said the company is working to start even sooner if possible.

Visit Roanoke.com for more info.

Through a mix of anecdotes and lessons learned, he brings real experience to the page. A Men’s Journal editor recently wrote “Buchanan isn’t the smug expert who makes you feel like an idot, but a friend who’s been there.”

Buchanan is an experienced writer, avid outdoorsman and the father of two girls. He touts the book as a set of training wheels for first-time parents or parents inexperienced in the outdoors. Another area covers tips for the outdoor veteran parents out there.

The book will be available in February for $20. You can pre-order the book here: http://outdoorkidsbook.com

—Ryan Dionne

We what to know what you think!

Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics ?

With the Progression board you can mimic pivot turns that in the past could only be achieved on-snow. “The Progression truly takes the process of learning to ride any type of board, especially snowboarding, into a new realm,” said the company founder.

Vew-Do has been making balance boards since 1990. The Progression is touted to help with balance and muscle development. It costs $185. www.vewdo.com

—Stephen Krcmar lives in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., and wishes he had had a Progression when he started snowboarding in 1988.

Oh, and there’s a contest for kids, too. Just answer the question “What is the most challenging thing you have ever done?” in the form at the bottom of the page. Contributors with the most unique answers will be entered into a contest to win gear from the Gear Junkie site! http://gearjunkie.com/patagonian-race-education