In 1963, the United State Army Corps of Engineers published plans to build 16 large dams along the Potomac River and its tributaries, including one at Brocks Gap on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, about 15 miles north of Harrisonburg. The Army Corps’ goals were noble enough: to spare Washington D.C. from the […]
It’s been nearly five years since Ben Wyse ’99 launched Wyse Cycles, based on a simple, and unprecedented, premise: opening a bike shop with no shop. Instead, Wyse makes house calls and site visits on his own bike, towing a trailer full of tools and spare parts behind him. As far as he knows, Wyse Cycles […]
In 2010 , a new class made its first appearance in EMU’s course catalog: bicycle maintenance, taught by Ben Wyse ’99. That was the same year that the university cooperated with the City of Harrisonburg to paint bike lanes along Park Road through campus, while Bible and religion professor Peter Dula ’92 helped a group of […]
When she woke up on May 1, 2008, Denise Martin ’08 was one of the many cyclists who “just kind of rode” without giving much thought to the complicated politics of bicycle advocacy. Things changed later that day when, as she just kind of rode through Harrisonburg, Martin’s wheel was yanked sideways by a skewed […]
The twisting corridors and ad-hoc floor plan suggest a history of repeated additions and expansions to the Gemeinschaft Home, which once again is bursting at the seams. In late 2013, a closet-building campaign was launched to ensure the growing number of residents of the home – which helps former inmates find work and provides various therapeutic […]
Let’s begin in 1992 , when the Free Food For All Soup Kitchen opened to the world, every Monday at noon, at The Little Grill restaurant in downtown Harrisonburg. Ron Copeland, the restaurant’s owner, drew inspiration for the soup kitchen from a number of different sources, including his Christian upbringing and political views shaped by his […]
In the late 1960s, not long after John R. Mumaw had completed nearly two decades as EMU’s fourth president (1948-1965), he began to devote more attention to his concern for people with intellectual disabilities. This had been close to his heart since his great-nephew, Chester, was born with Down syndrome. Then moderator of the Virginia Mennonite Conference, […]
The way things used to work here went something like this: A child might mention something suggesting sexual abuse to a parent or a teacher. The child might be asked to talk about it with their guidance counselor, and then a social worker. A police officer would come ask questions about what happened. An investigator – […]
When Devon C. Anders ’88 was finishing his bachelor’s degree at EMU and heading into a career as a certified public accountant with a well-established firm, he probably would have looked bemused, or at least quizzical, if anyone had suggested that one day he would be named Business Person of the Year by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber […]
