AROUND THE AREA

Children learn life lessons through art

Dadeville Performing Arts Center hosted children’s art day camps over the summer, using a central theme around Marcus Pfister’s modern classic, The Rainbow Fish. Volunteers at the center carried the book’s focus on acceptance of others through activities that taught drama, dance, music, painting and pottery.

In the book, a fish with colorful, shimmering scales learns to share part of herself with others to make friends. The children worked together under the leadership of Bobby Hill to bring the story to life through a live performance, learning songs and dances as part of their presentation. They also painted T-shirts to create their costumes.

Held in conjunction with Everything’s Art!, the children created clay dishes in the shape of fish and painted pictures. Raining Dogs Gallery helped with the pottery glazing. And Raven Tolbert at Mahogany Masterpiece studio taught choregraphy.

Lunches for the campers were provided by local restaurants and by the East Alabama Food Bank.

Three camp sessions were held with children of similar ages grouped together, so volunteers could tailor the lessons to appropriate skill levels. ~ Cliff Williams

Rainbow Fish

Dadeville children painted their presentation costumes based on the classic children's tale by Marcus Pfister.

Area vineyard makes national 'Choice' list

Whippoorwill Vineyard in Notasulga is a family owned and operated farm winery where everything is done by hand. The business got its start in 2005, when Tim Watkins and Chad Ledbetter planted some muscadines on Bobby Watkins’ land.

Whippoorwill Vineyard has now been named number seven in a top ten list published by Choice Wineries.

Choice Wineries ranks vineyards and wineries based on the quality of wine served, the atmosphere and the service. They manually collect data and analyze each winery before ranking. Choice Wineries ranks wineries across the United States and has ranked over 6,700 wineries nationwide.

According to the rankings released on Alabama wineries, Whippoorwill Vineyards was ranked highly because everything is done by hand at this family owned and operated winery from harvesting to boxing up each bottle. Choice Wineries also noted the area’s breathtaking scenery as another reason to visit the hidden gem.

The wines at Whippoorwill Vineyard are made from 100 percent muscadines and scuppernongs, a larger, white variety of muscadine. ~ Staff report

Hidden Little Gem

Whippoorwill Vineyards' ranking is credited to its family structure and breathtaking scenery.