Hundreds of visitors come to Coalwood’s October Sky Festival

COALWOOD — A clear blue October sky was the limit Saturday as a sun-splashed crowd full of dreamers of all ages saw the stars and enjoyed the warmth of a McDowell County fall afternoon.

“I don’t know how we came here,” Garrett Ripa, 18, of Cleveland, Ohio said. Ripa is a student in the Galileo and Hypatia class of Virginia Tech’s Center for the Enhancement of engineering Diversity. Ripa traveled from Blacksburg, Va., to Coalwood with a group of about 30 students in the class.

“It was still dark when we left Blacksburg at about 5 a.m., and I slept all the way here,” Ripa said. “We’re doing some community service while we’re here.”

Ryan Hubbard, from Collinsville, Va., a graduate student at Tech who teaches students in the program said that when he mentioned the idea of traveling to Coalwood, “Almost all of the students leaped out of their seats to say yes,” he said. “As part of our community service work, we brought gliders, slime and rockets to reach out to the younger generation to get them interested in the field of engineering.” Hubbard is in Tech’s aerospace engineering masters program and hopes to pursue a career in that field.

When the dignitaries arrived for the welcoming ceremony, Natalie Canerday, the actress who portrayed Elsie Hickam in the movie, “October Sky” was obviously moved by the reception she received from several hundred people attending the event.

“This (movie) is such an important part of my life,” she said. “It changed my life forever and it’s all because of all of y’all.” Elsie Hickam is the mother of Homer Hickam, author of “Rocket Boys,” the book that the movie, “October Sky” was based on.

This marks the 11th annual October Sky Festival in Coalwood. The event is hosted by the Cape Coalwood Restoration Association, and the concept was ignited by the widespread positive reaction to Hickam’s book. Hickam grew up in Coalwood and was the leader of a rocket club at Big Creek High School.

Hickam told the crowd that he recently returned from a two-week tour of Vietnam where the Vietnamese version of “Rocket Boys” was recently released and “took off like a rocket,” he said. Hickam said that he served a tour in the U.S. military in Vietnam in 1967-’68.

He said the book “entered the national consciousness with a message of hope and understanding that the world has needed,” he said. “I’m honored to be the vessel that this message came through.” He said that it is the people of Coalwood that make the community special. “They trust in God, but rely upon themselves,” he said. “I am proud to be from Coalwood.”

Bert Allen served as master of ceremonies to keep the program flowing. Hickam, Dreama Denver, the wife of the late Bob Denver and Red Carroll arrived together on a Coalwood Volunteer Fire Department truck. Carroll delivered a moving opening prayer, comparing the event to a homecoming. Other rocket boys including Roy Lee Cook, Billy Rose and Jimmy “O’Dell” Carroll participated as well as fellow Big Creek schoolmates, Emily Sue Buckberry, Dr. Bobby Likens and Jackie Likens who lead a rival rocket club at Big Creek who weren’t mentioned in the book, Hickam said.

Jackie Likens apologized for adding a somber note to the day’s activities, but he announced that “we lost a close friend,” last weekend. Big Creek graduate, Grant Smith and his wife, Cindy, died in a automobile wreck on Sept. 26, as they were traveling from their home on North Carolina to visit with his mother, Cathleen Smith in Falls Mills, Va. Grant Smith was the son of the late Early Smith, who served as Homer Hickam Sr., fireboss at the Olga Coal Co., mine in Coalwood, and was also the scout master of the Coalwood Boy Scout Troop.

Hickam presented this year’s “Reach for the Stars Award” to Isaac Sulsona, of Union County High School in Florida. Reach For the Stars is a program associated with the Christa McAuliffe-Challenger Center Program.

Allen introduced several other program participants including Homer’s wife, Linda Hickam, Bill Bolt who helped the rocket boys build their rockets, Peggy Blevins and Helen Carson of the Cape Coalwood Restoration Association and Fred Schwendel from Miami, Fla., who worked on the sets of the movie.

“It was the best work experience of my life because of the people I worked with,” Schwendel said. Schwendel is now head carpenter of the Knight Concert Hall of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

Casey and Hilary Gauntt of San Diego, Calif., attended the event. “My grandfather’s company had the contract to install a new air shaft at the Olga Mine and I spent the summer of 1968 digging a hole,” Casey Gauntt said. “I stayed in a corner room in the old club house.”

Sid and Gail Spragins from Summerville, Tenn., took a 15-day motorcycle ride that terminated in Coalwood. “I picked up a copy of ‘Sky of Stone’ about six weeks ago, and I had to come here,” Gail Spragins said, referring to another one of Hickam’s books about growing up in Coalwood. “Sid wanted to go to Helen, Ga., so we went there first and then came here. Just last night, we met Bobby Likens in the motel, now here we are.

With Allen urging her on, Canerday issued her famous line from the movie: “Just don’t blow yourself up,” and the day-full of activities was underway.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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