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Good Neighbor
Good NeighborGreat Meadow celebrated its 25th anniversary over the weekend, offering, as it has for all those years, some of the best the Piedmont has to offer: fantastic Virginia wines, high fashion, and fast, nimble, athletic horses.
And with this event, as is so often the case with Great Meadow, the non-profit foundation that runs it gave more than it got, figuratively speaking.
We were particularly pleased to see that announcements of the celebration (which coincided with the kickoff of the new twilight polo season) maintained a long-standing emphasis on family; kids under 10 got free admission last Saturday. Kids under the age of 25 got in for half price.
From supporting cross-country athletics, to sponsoring the recent annual rocketry challenge, to providing a pitch for soccer and a battleground for rugby, Great Meadow has been a friend to youth.
Young and old, Great Meadow has been a friend to all of Fauquier for a quarter of a century. A good friend.
About two years ago, the Times-Democrat attempted to write a story that put a dollar figure on the economic engine that is the Virginia Gold Cup races.
We did not succeed. Tourism agencies simply don't keep those kinds of statistics, and any figure that we might have suggested would have been just a guess.
But our conversations with innkeepers and restaurateurs, with filling station owners and caterers were filled with anecdotal evidence that suggested that the sum from the first Saturday in May, could we accurately add it all up, would be large. Very large.
Great Meadow's fall steeplechase, the International Gold Cup, also fills coffers around the county, as does the annual 4th of July extravaganza.
One of the largest, most spectacular firework displays in the nation, the Independence Day celebration at Great Meadow is essentially put on at cost; it is, foundation officials tell us, a break-even proposition every year, and that's just fine with them. If the foundation can break even on an event that is such a bang for the buck in the community, everyone is a winner.
Gold Cup, polo, July 4 — those are just the highlights. Great Meadow is put to uses of every description — for unique entertainment, for education, for fun and exercise and good health, for almost anything that requires the great outdoors and many things that do not.
The smaller, week-in and week-out events contribute mightily to keeping local businesses humming along on a less spectacular but equally important keel.
On Saturday last, the polo was hot, the wine was chilled, the welcome of this friendly park had its usual warmth.
The highlight of the anniversary celebration was recognition of the extraordinary gift — and the herculean effort behind it — that Peggy and Arthur W. "Nick" Arundel have bequeathed to Fauquier County.
(Few don't already know it, but a disclaimer is required here: Nick Arundel is publisher of the Times-Democrat. This editorial, we believe, is a reflection of community sentiment, not an attempt to butter up the boss.)
On one hand, the Arundels gave us a world-class equestrian and field events facility that is second to none. On the other, they gave us relief from a 500-home development that had been slated for the property before Nick Arundel ponied up $2 million to buy it out of foreclosure on the courthouse steps.
"Why Great Meadow," Arundel asked in a 2003 stab at explaining his vision.
"I cannot imagine a reason for being in these Virginia foothills without pastures, woodlands and streams. Something will have gone out of us as a people if, in our times, we let the remaining open countryside near our nation's capital be destroyed."
The future, he concluded, "may lie beyond our vision, but does not lie entirely beyond our control."
Indeed it doesn't. Not with the jewel that is Great Meadow offering a constant reminder of what is possible when it comes to preserving and celebrating Fauquier County heritage and tradition.
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