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By Allyson Sawtelle

Farmington CC

Wow, it’s been a busy year at Farmington.

The Farmington Community Center has hosted three major fundraising events since May and wants to thank our community for supporting our mission of “Preserving the Past to Promote the Future.”

It is expensive to keep four historic buildings, all more than 60 years old, in working condition and available for the community. Add to that the upkeep of more than 67 acres of property, you can see that we need significant funds to maintain the properties.

Grant funding has changed over the past several years and is no longer available for operating expenses. This reduced funding by about $18,600 per year since 2016, which has impacted our ability to keep facilities in working order.

The fundraisers are necessary to bridge the gap between operating costs and rental income. The repurposed Farmington High School is busy each month with New Beginnings Church, Young Life Ministries, Farmington Friends Special Needs, Monday Night Bluegrass Jam and Thursday Night Country Jam. FCC is home to the Davie County Coon Hunters Club, Farmington Ruritan Club, Girl and Boy Scout Troops, and Homeschool 4-H.

The center hosts line dancing classes, yoga classes, and cycling events. The Farmington ball field and tennis courts stay busy and have served thousands over the years. The facilities are available to rent. We are appreciative of the support we receive from community partners, such as Davie Chamber of Commerce, Davie Recreation & Parks, Davie Community Foundation, and United Way of Davie. We also have had many ongoing business sponsors through the years and we appreciate their support.

To find out more about how to support FCC through financial or volunteer support, email farmingtoncc@gmail.com or call (336) 998-2912.

Steel Bike Rendezvous

This weekend of all things cycling held its’ inaugural event May 17-18. The “SBR” exceeded first-year expectations by drawing enthusiasts from as far away as California and Maine. The SBR fit into our FCC mission of preserving the past, with participants bringing classic steel bikes from the 1960s and 1970s to show, be judged, and ride in the event. Some participants wore vintage clothing as they rode classic bikes on one of our three fully-supported routes around Davie. We had an 8-mile “Tweed Ride” that encouraged cyclists to wear their vintage British style clothing, ride to Misty Creek Vineyards for a picnic including a glass of wine, and ride back to the community center to enjoy the rest of the weekend’s festivities.

A second option was the Gravel & Grape Ride, a 19-mile trek through areas surrounding Farmington, including some dirt roads and a stop at Misty Creek Vineyards for a complimentary glass of wine.

The third route owas a metric century, 63-mile route that circled Davie and was appropriately called “Tour of Davie”. This route hit many of the little communities that make Davie County a great place to live, work and play, and was on beautiful low-traveled roads. Most of the cyclists chose this route for their trek on Saturday morning.

All the routes started with breakfast and ended at FCC with a spaghetti lunch, a great bargain for the cyclists who contributed a $35 entry fee for their choice of rides that morning. After returning to Farmington and having lunch, there were four industry speakers that afternoon and the participants could attend their presentations, informative and interactive. After the presentations, the bikes that were in the “show” part of the weekend were judged in categories by the speakers.

Then, that evening, there was a BBQ held at Misty Creek Vineyards, where everyone ate well, enjoyed the Misty Creek wine, and the awards were presented for the weekend.

Finally, on Sunday, a Bike Show and Vintage Swap Meet was held. The “show” bikes continued to be displayed in the Event Center, with the event open to the public at no cost. Everyone who participated had a great time and is looking forward to next year’s event, which is scheduled for May 1-3. Thank you to Anna Beauchamp for capturing the event so beautifully. Special thanks to Dale Brown, owner of Cycles de Oro bike shop in Greensboro, who held this event (called Cirque du Cyclisme) for the 20 years prior to us taking it on and was invaluable to our success at this event. Please visit steelbikerendezvous.com to see more information on this event and next year’s event.

Tour of Farmington

The 10th annual Tour of Farmington was a fully supported cycling event with routes of 13, 23, 43, and 63 miles to choose from, through beautiful rural roads in Davie, Yadkin, and Iredell counties. This was a fantastic event with 179 cyclists riding, which was the third best attended TOF ever and we are so grateful for the support of our local cycling community and business sponsors for making this such a successful event.

The tour was started 10 years ago as the inspiration of Garry Steele, a Farmington resident who has been involved with the Farmington Community Center for more than 18 years. Garry had a vision to promote cycling in the area and raise funds for the newly created Farmington Nature Park on the site.

The Farmington Nature Park is a work-in-progress on a 60-acre tract of land given to the Farmington Community Association by Louis C. and Martha Smith in 2007. The park includes a hiking and mountain biking trail, with fishing along Cedar Creek, which borders the property. Future plans include a disc golf course, expanded hiking/cycling trails, a pump track, new picnic shelters, and more.

Visit FarmingtonNaturePark.org to find more informationk.

To make this milestone event more exciting, we added a costume contest and a scavenger hunt. Gift cards were awarded to the winners of these categories as well as to the oldest participant, Richard Smith of Farmington, and youngest participant, Caroline Pinyan, 11, who rode a tandem bike (bicycle built for two) with her dad on the 23-mile route.

A fun and safe event was had by all with a full breakfast, cast-iron chili lunch, and great rest stops and SAG support along the way. The cyclists were pleased with all aspects of the event, and have made comments on Facebook and other social networking sites such as “Had such a wonderful time riding #TourOfFarmington today! We were blessed with perfect weather, amazing support staff and an injury free ride. Thanks to all who worked so hard to make sure we were so well cared for.”

One aspect of TOF that we especially like is the family friendliness of the event. In addition to the Daddy/Daughter team that rode, there was another Dad with two teenage sons from Bermuda Run who rode as well as many husband/wife teams. Next year’s event will be scheduled soon so visit touroffarmington.com to stay informed. Bike shop partners, Clemmons Bicycle and Skinny Wheels from Salisbury, provided mechanical and SAG support. And thank you to all sponsors, participants, and volunteers who made TOF 2019 such a great success.

BBQ Event

On Oct. 11-12, Farmington Community Center held its’ first BBQ fundraiser and we completely sold out. Chicken and ribs were slow-cooked on six outdoor pit cookers at Farmington United Methodist Church. Orders were presold over the four weeks preceding the event and walk up sales were also available. More than 800 half chickens and 300 full racks of baby-back ribs were sold over the two-day event. Customers were complimentary of the plates, especially the huge portion sizes of the meats. We delivered locally and as far away as Yadkin and Forsyth counties for presold business orders of 10 plates or more. An extra bonus for businesses was a buy 10 plates, get 1 free offer.

Because of efforts of Farmington Community Association board members with selling many plates in advance, visiting businesses and gathering orders, and helping out at the event with cooking, assembling plates, and deliveries, this was a successful fundraiser for Farmington Community Center. Our executive director, Melanie Cook, spent countless hours planning, promoting and keeping records for the event. We extend a special thank you to Farmington United Methodist Church for letting us use their facilities for the event and to Pastor Arnold Gosnell for helping us assemble plates on Friday. We also thank Farmington Ruritan member Joe Butzbach, who helped with plate assemblies on both Friday and Saturday, and to Sonna Schambach, Carroll Brock and Linda Walker who helped assemble plates on Friday. Also, we appreciate Sandy Collins with Farmington Dragway who partnered with us by letting us sell plates at their facility on Saturday.

Lastly, we thank pit masters Chad Thurlo, Rich Waxman and Patrick Sawtelle for their tireless hours of planning, preparation and cooking. Look for future events at farmingtoncc.org or in the Davie County Enterprise.