Gray Clouds did not deter a strong crowd from attending the 22^nd Annual Scuppernong River Festival.

A Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast began the Day.

Participants rode through downtown Columbia for a10 A.M. parade sponsored by Vantage South Bank.

The rest of the day included many offerings.

Groups such as the Tyrrell County Genealogical and Historical Society sold books commemorating stories of Tyrrell County.

Pocosin Arts held an Open House for the community to come and learn about some of their recent projects.

Downtown merchants and Fine Food Vendors worked throughout the day.

Professional Sand Sculpture Artist Alan Matsumoto entertained passers by with artistic creations.

“He has been sculpting over twenty years all over the world.  He has been to Australia, China, South Africa, Canada, and all over the United States.  We have been to Venice twice,” said his wife Robin.

Robin mentioned a project that her husband worked on in China with about twenty international and Chinese sculpters that took up five city blocks.

“They trucked sand in for days. It took them weeks to do it. They also used colored sand which is unusual,” Robin said.

Alan was a former structural engineer in Vancouver, Canada for many years.
The 2013 Scuppernong River Festival was his first visit to Columbia.

“We were doing the Lakefest in Clarksville. Megan Jones recommended Alan to Ann Ward with the River Festival, and they called us,” said Robin.

The privateer Sinbad sailed the wooden sailing ship Meka II from its homeport of Beaufort, N.C, to Columbia for the 22nd Annual Scuppernong River Festival on October 12th. Sinbad is well known for his pirating activities from the Chesapeake Bay south to the Bahamas where he usually comes ashore with cannons firing. This was the second appearance of Sinbad and the Meka II at the festival in Columbia.
Caught up at an early age in the daring do of the pirates and privateers, Long John Silver, Doug Fairbanks, Jr., and Errol Flynn to name a few, Captain Sinbad has been pursuing high seas adventure his whole life.

He built the Meka II in his backyard in Detroit, Michigan, starting when he was 19. He launched her in 1967 and spent his summers cruising the Great Lakes. In 1970, he was turned loose on the high seas escaping the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway and has lived one seagoing adventure after another, even managing to raise four children along the way.

“To keep his magnificent obsession going, he has been a draftsman, boat builder, restaurant owner, charter boat captain, commercial boat operator, sailing school operator, reenactor, and pirate merchant. Recently he has used his sword less and his pen more to pursue a life long passion of writing and publishing his first book,” reads a portion of a paper biography about Sinbad passed out to anyone interested.

Captain Sinbad, real merchant adventurer, has lived aboard his boat continuously over three decades making Beaufort, N.C. his homeport.

 

If you are passing through, look for the Meka II anchored in Town Creek. He does, occasionally take the adventurous aboard ship for a “Two Hour beyond the Mast” tour.

The Meka II is used for festivals and reenactments. It is 57 feet overall.  It is modeled after a brigantine sailing vessel.

Sinbad said he enjoys coming to Tyrrell County

“Columbia is very friendly,” he said.

James Howard, coordinator of the All Wheels Show held at Columbia High School oversaw a variety of classic cars from all makes and models.

Howard said that the weather had some effect on the show.

“Right now we just have forty cars. There are real troopers that come out and support you. Usually we have about one hundred cars here of all makes and models and everything,” he said.

Howard said that people come from locations such as Raleigh and Elizabeth City to show their cars in the show.

Howard said that First Flight Cruisers which helps him support and judge the competition each year, is a premier auto club on the Outer Banks.

Cars are judged on a one hundred point scale. Sections of the car like the interior, under the hood, paint, tires, rims, and the exterior of the car are all judged.  Each area is worth twenty points.

Awards are given out for the best car, truck, motorcycle and One Best of Show.

Howard said that he has done the show for seven years.

“Out of all the ones I have done, the most have had one hundred cars,” he said.

Howard remembered a show where someone brought out a Duesenberg car.

“It was a model between the 1920s and 30s. Jay Leno has a lot of them,” Howard explained.

Jerry Banks was showing his 1954 Ford Custom for onlookers.

“This is the body style that saved the Ford Motor Company. General Motors and Chevrolet were outselling Fords two to one.  This kind of car was made without a backseat. Sales people used them frequently,” said Banks.

Banks has a 49 Custom Car as well.

Banks said he drives the 54 Custom to shows.

“I have never trailered it or anything,” he said

A lot of show cars are just put into trailers before they are taken out and shown.

“This one will run to California if you let it. I have taken it to Greenville,Williamston ,and the Outer Banks,” said Banks.

The Festival was an also opportunity for area organizations to raise community awareness

Vickey Manning, Social Work Supervisor with Martin-Tyrrell-Washington District Health Department, discussed the recent activities of the Safe Kid River Bend Coalition.

Manning was involved with the formation of the group.

“We are waiting for the paperwork so we can be a certified coalition. We have representatives from across the counties. There is someone from the Department of Social Services here, the Robersonville Police Department, and the Fire EMS. We try to get a good mix of all,” said Manning.

Friends of MTW Public Health, Inc. will serve as the Lead Agency for the Safe Kids Riverbend Coalition as of earlier this year.   Elected to the Coalition Board include the following: Chairman, Stacy Pippin of the Williamston Fire / EMS; Vice Chair, Steve O’Neal, Plymouth Police Chief; Secretary, Laura Stone of Williamston Fire / EMS; and Treasurer, Janet Ambrose who is Treasurer for Friends of MTW Public Health.

The group has been meeting since March of 2013.

“Our kickoff meeting we had about fifty people from across the counties. We divided into four committees to address the safety needs in the area. We have adopted bylaws, and each of the committees has action plans for goals for how many people we want to target and reach,” said Manning.

Manning mentioned that the group was trying to go to various community events like the Scuppernong River Festival to publicize safety needs for kids from ages birth to age 19.

Safe Kids North Carolina is a part of Safe Kids Worldwide, a global nonprofit organization founded in 1987 with a mission to prevent unintentional childhood injury, a leading cause of death and disability for children ages 1-14.  Programs combine education, awareness, environmental changes and safety device distribution to get communities more involved in child safety and keep families and children safer.  These programs address major risk areas for children: traffic crashes, drowning, burns, falls, and poisoning.

Steve Bryan, a member of the Scuppernong River Festival Planning Committee, explained that planning for the festival takes months of preparation.

“We will have what we call a wrap-up meeting to bring everything to the table in the next two or three weeks. We will put those into the minutes so that we build upon them next year. We will focus are things that we did well or need to improve upon. Then we wont meet again until sometime in March,” said Bryan.

Rhett White was the Chair of the Scuppernong River Festival Planning Committee.

White also served as the Grand Marshall of the 10 AM parade.

“The committee decided that it was time for him to recognized as the person. We pick a person each year. These are also people that have been citizens of the year too, “ said Bryan.

Bryan mentioned that one year Walter B. Jones Jr. was the Grand Marshall of the Parade one year.

Jones greeted constituents on the sidewalk in front of Village Realty at the end of the Parade in front of the Village Realty Office in downtown Columbia.

The River Festival Planning Committee was responsible for getting various entertainment to come to the Festival.

The Craig Woolard Band was found through an agency.

“That is who Ann Ward came up. We were pleased with that choice because a lot of people here know that band. They were familiar with them through Washington and all that being close by,” said Bryan.

An estimated 12-14 people help with the planning for the River Festival.

The General Committee is divided up into a list of committees.

Sub-committees over various aspects of the festival include Amusements,Publicity, Fundraising, Parades, Infrastructure, Water activities, and Concessions.

Musical Acts at the Festival included:
High Schools Bands from Bear Grass Charter School, Columbia High School, and Plymouth High School
Alligator River String Band
Nuwabians Muurs
Carly Williams
UNITY
Daniel Pledger
Blackwater
Eternal Collision
Jonny Waters and Company
Dick Feyer
The Craig Woolard Band.

The list of participants in the parade included:

1.NC Highway Patrol
2. American Legion Color Guard
3. Veterans Float
4.Vantage South Bank
5. Grand Marshall
6.Distinguished Citizen
7. Town of Columbia Mayor and Board of Aldermen
8.Tyrrell County Public Library
9. Nichols Scholarship- Mecca Bowser
10.CHS Homecoming Court Freshman
11.CHS Homecoming Sophomores
12. CHS Homecoming Court Juniors
13.CHS Homecoming Court
14. CHS Band
15.CHS Football
21. CHS Cheerleaders
22. Phelps Chevrolet
23.CHS FFA
24. Tyrrell County Public Library
25. Dean Roughton
26.CMS Football and Cheerleaders
27.  Boy Scouts
28. Tyrrell Rec Soccer
29. Plymouth High School Marching Band
30.NC Aquarium “Big Crab”
31. Brandon Sykes
32. Columbia Missionary Baptist Church
33. NERSBA
3.4. Celebrate Latinos
35.Tyrrell County 4-H
36. Bear Grass Charter School”
37. Marine Patrol
38. Bear Grass
39. Columbia Crossing
40.Nc Forestry
41. Motorcycles
42. Mid-County Volunteer Fire Department
43. Creswelll Volunteer Fire Department
44. Tyrrell Ambulance
45. Tyrrell Volunteer Fire Department
46. Whitecap Linen
47. Car Show Cars-James Howard
48.Horses
49. Pooper Scooper