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Vol. 37, No. 38 | Richmond Suburban News | December 29, 2021
STOPS AT EVERY HOME IN TOWN
Hanover 300th celebration tops 2021 stories By Laura Mcfarland Managing Editor
Top 10 stories of 2021
1
Hanover County celebrates 300th birthday
2
More than 51,000 COVID-19 vaccines administered
3
Almost 97% of students return to face-to-face instruction
4
Connect Hanover broadband project announced
5 6
Brown Grove community battles building of Wegmans
7
School board in controversy over transgender policy
8
Hanover high schools hold in-person graduations
9
New Hanover Museum of History and Culture opens
Patriots volleyball team wins sixth straight state title
still impacting 10 COVID-19 public events
A
fter a year dominated by news about how COVID-19 was impacting every aspect of life in 2020 in Hanover County, seeing the community come back together and hit some pitfalls along the way was a huge part of the Top 10 stories of 2021. Topping that list with the No. 1 story on this year’s list was the reclamation of events that should have happened a year earlier – the county’s 300th anniversary celebrations. Established in November 1720, Hanover County had planned a number of events to recognize the tricentennial throughout 2020 with a grand culmination in the fall, but all of the festivities had to be canceled when the pandemic prevented large gatherings of people. Rather than chalking up the commemorations to another memory lost to the pandemic, county leaders and organizations came back strong this year with their dedication to marking this important milestone in Hanover history. County administrator John A. Budesky said in January that he considered 2021 “as the jumping off point for a celebration of Hanover County as it is today and looking forward into the future as well as remembering our past.” The county launched the #HereinHanoverVA campaign in January to honor the 300th birthday
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File photo/Sara Hunt
Some Hanover County employees are shown at the Historic Hanover Courthouse, displaying their excitement about the #HereinHanoverVA campaign to extend the 300th birthday celebration into 2021. They are, from left, Sandra Moore, Conner Moncure, Gretchen Biernot and Harold Stills.
and engage the community and hosted Virginia Tourism’s life-sized LOVE artwork on the lawn of the Hanover Branch Library in February. But they were just getting started. Throughout 2021, Hanover County and its partners scheduled a wide variety of events as part of the birthday celebration. Some of the events held this year included Hanover
Night at The Diamond held Aug. 7, at which Budesky and several supervisors threw out opening pitches; Hanover Weekend at Kings Dominion over two weekends in August; the ribbon cutting of the Hanover Museum of History and Culture, which has its own place on the Top 10 list; a regularly scheduled Classic Car Cruise-In held Sept. 11 and incorporated into see TOP 10, pg. 7
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