About us:
Virginia is the Delta chapter of the American Gourd Society, and was active for many years as the New River chapter based in Blacksburg, VA. After a period of inactivity, the chapter restarted with a core group of gourdheads in the upper Shenandoah Valley who met online at a Yahoo Group called Gourds For Art and Utility, begun by Nancy Shrum of Woodstock. The group had begun to gather at each other's homes to talk about gourds, show new techniques, and of course eat!  At that time no one wanted to get involved with the bureaucratic effort of forms, officers, and schedules that restarting a chapter would incur. Several meetings passed with the members of the group voting to not have a chapter.

Eventually the little group grew much bigger and wanted to meet on a grander scale, a festival!  At about the same time, Eddie Richard became enamoured with gourds and offered to play host to a festival at his farm and market, Richards Fruit Market. We started with one festival, then knew agreed to restart the Virginia chapter, but under guidelines we could live with: no officers, no monetary dues, a public outreach program, and only doing what the membership volunteer efforts could produce. In other words, if we couldn't walk the walk by ourselves, we wouldn't do it at all.

That's how we now have Coordinators and not officers, Membership Agreements and not by-laws, membership donations to the common goal as a book of first class stamps and not dues. Our annual festival is held at a member's facility, and our public outreach project supports state youth agricultural programs to further gourd knowledge in the coming generations. We are a loose, flexible group of gourdheads that work together to get the gourd word out but with fun and low stress. We do not have judged competitions or contests; our annual festival is set up as a marketplace that benefits all who attend.