Matthew Soiland of Purcellville, who will attend Virginia Tech College of Engineering and was awarded $1,500 for his exceptional essay, noted that, “Being the honored recipient of the 2020 Jane Pratt & Jed Shilling Blue Ridge Mountains Educational Scholarship will be instrumental in helping me to take advantage of the exciting internship and experiential learning […]
Dear Friends of Friends, Recently we lost someone who has been at the core of Friends’work over the past 5+ years. Jed Shilling, recently retired Friends Board member, died of complications of ALS in California where he had moved in December to be close to his daughters and their families. As the spouse of Jane Pratt, […]
Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains presented special awards totaling $500 at the 38th Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Regional Science & Engineering Fair (RSEF), held this year at Riverside High School in Leesburg. A record-breaking 324 students participated in this event, an increase of over 40 from previous years. The winners of the Friends […]
White Paper Q&A TDRs
In 2015, Friends received a gift and a challenge. The gift was the generous offer, from a longstanding member of Friends, of seed money in the amount of $5,000 to start an endowment for the sake of ensuring that we could fund, over the indefinite future, the Jane Pratt Blue Ridge Mountains Education Award, a […]
Dear Friends and Neighbors, As we indicated in our post of May 19, 2016, AT&T is proposing to construct a 160,000 square foot facility (the equivalent of nearly 3 football fields) on their property at the top of Short Hill Mountain. The proposed structure would be 35 feet high, requiring eight 4MW backup diesel generators […]
With little public notice or input, the Loudoun County Planning Commission has voted to approve AT&T’s request for a commission permit to build a 160,000 square foot (3.5 acre), 35 foot tall facility on the ridge of Short Hill Mountain in western Loudoun. The Commission’s recommendation for approval will be presented to the Loudoun County […]
The 2015 Friend of the Mountain Award was presented to the Potomac Appalachain Trail Club “in recognition of their longstanding work through volunteer efforts, education, and advocacy to protect the Appalachian Trail and adjacent lands along the Mid-Atlantic section of the Blue Ridge Mountains, ever mindful of the need to conserve the natural landscape with respect for historical and […]