 Photo courtesy of: Melinda Colleen Rawles Walking Through A Minefield performed for a crowd of a few dozen people last Saturday at York River State Park's amphitheater. Although Harvest Day was canceled due to lack of staffing, the band decided to go on anyway, performing for the small number of fans they bought with them in addition to other park patrons who happened to catch their performance. The band was reported to have "had a great time", and the band as well as the park have called the performance "a huge success", with Friends of York River State Park President Cynthia Kozak stating that the Friends group will begin planning for a possible music festival event for 2012, an event that has been talked about for several years. Friends member Joey Trask, who happens to be the band manager for Walking Through A Minefield stated that "The idea has been floating around for some time, but I think the problem was that the park simply didn't know how to pull it off. When our band performed, I think it proved that it could be done, and I hope that a music festival does become a reality at York River State Park, and I look forward to it becoming a major success."
Over the past year, I've been experimenting with different designs for the website. Some worked well, and others didn't, and I seemed to be changing the website design at an alarming rate. For some, it seems that every time they visit the site again, the design has changed. Well, I am here to say today, that I am finally satisfied with the current design. This is the design that I have always dreamed of. This design truly shows what York River State Park is all about. By having actual park photos as our background, we are able to give our website the atmosphere it deserves. It's almost as if the website can finally breathe some fresh air. This will most likely be the permanent design, perhaps maybe a few picture changes to reflect the seasons, but other than that, everything should remain relatively the same. I hope you are satisfied with our new permanent design too, and we always appreciate feedback on our website.
Mention during broadcast segment creates free publicity
During the live broadcast, The Friends of York River State Park got free publicity on a locally-produced program called The Hampton Roads Show when Friends' member Joey Trask submitted a comment during a segment called "The Buzz". The Buzz is a segment where The Hampton Roads show will put out a hot topic and viewers can respond to it via their chat room or their Facebook page. The hot topic for the day was "Holiday Parties", and Trask decided to comment on how great the Friends of York River State Park's holiday party was, which was held recently on the evening of December 1st. Local anchor Keri Furrey read the comment on the air, and thus the Friends of York River State Park got its free publicity. Watch the video below to see the mention, which occurs around the 13 minute mark of the broadcast: On a side note, The Friends of York River State Park has been looking to be on the show next year, as their studio audience regularly features numerous non-profit organizations.
 It was one year ago on December 2nd, when work begun on what would become friendsofyorkriverstatepark.org. Much has changed since we first started. At first we had a sub domain, and the site lacked sophistication, then the Friends of York River State Park allocated $330 to upgrade to a Weebly Pro Account, and have our own domain. On February 21st, 2010, friendsofyorkriverstatepark.org was officially registered, and is good until 2020. Our website has gone through several design changes, and to celebrate our 1 year anniversary, we have debuted a new easier-on-the-eyes design as suggested by a website visitor. We hope you enjoy our new design as well as 9 more happy years serving Friends of York River State Park through the internet. We promise to continue updating our site with the latest information on park events, and next year, we will start branching out to local TV stations! We are currently looking to get ourselves featured on The Hampton Roads Show. Anyway, by next year, you can simply go to to your local news station's website andlook under their community calendar for our upcoming park events. Whether you get the Richmond stations or the Hampton Roads stations, we have got you covered to better serve you and our surrounding communities!
Long overdue pictures from Harvest Day 2010! Taken by Webmaster Joey Trask.
Introducing an "Events" page, consolidating all of our park events for the year into a convenient subpage format! I have also switched the title of the blog from "Our Blog" to just "Blog" to make room for the Events page, so the old URL (http://www.friendsofyorkriverstatepark.org/our-blog.html) no longer works. The new URL is: (http://www.friendsofyorkriverstatepark.org/blog.html).
Oh! And don't forget to check out our brand new website for Taskinas Plantation! Learn about the continuing archaeological efforts being made right here at York River State Park, including a fortification that dates back to Bacon's Rebellion!
Photos from Estuaries Day on September 25th, 2010.
Photo credits: John Gresham
Hard to believe that at the last meeting I provided a tour of the website for those who had never seen it before. What's even harder to believe is that the redesign process was done in a single evening! Well, I am proud to debut the new design of the Friends of York River State Park website! Much of the site is the same, some of the graphics had to be tweaked and the news was made a more prominent feature of the homepage. The end result became a fabulous turnout! Managing a website can be fun to create, but to give it an artistic value was definitely a bonus.
First Edition Features Results From This Year's Fishing Tournament
 This month, the Friends of York River State Park launched a newsletter titled 'The Heron'. The newsletter was mailed to all registered members of the Friends of York River State Park as Volume 1, Issue 1, in what will be the first of many newsletters to come. Many of you have been anxiously browsing our site looking for the results of the Salt Water Fishing Tournament we had last May. Well, your patience has been rewarded as the first edition has a full account of the Salt Water Fishing Tournament. The newsletter, created by Friends' Secretary Sharon Stanley, has been made available on our website where you can view/print/download it for free. Be sure to check it out by simply going to the "Newsletter" page on our website.
 Joey Trask, the webmaster for the Friends of York River State Park was officially commemorated today for his achievement of the Eagle Scout Rank: The Boy Scouts of America's highest honor, in which only 2 % of scouts ever make. Joey joins as the 35th Eagle Scout of Troop 313 based in Newport News, VA and has received congratulatory letters from political figures ranging from the Mayor of Newport News to the President of the United States. The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of scouting, making Joey one of the first 100 Eagle Scouts of the first 100 years of scouting. He is currently serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster for the troop.
Joey first joined the Friends of York River State Park in 2009 when he was executing a Eagle service project for the park by building benches. He became the Friends of York River State Park webmaster last December.
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