Contact: Jenni Brockman
Telephone: 804-443-3357
Fax: 804-443-6781
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SMS Brings Hundreds of Summer Visitors to Area
Tappahannock, VA (July 31, 2001) - Classes may be over for the year, but the St. Margaret's School campus is as busy as ever this summer - and that means thousands in revenues for area businesses. Nearly 350 people are attending camps and conferences at the Tappahannock school, and the total visitor count is probably at least twice that.
The "boys of summer" - the Paul VI high school football team from Fairfax, Virginia - are among the more than 350 people coming to St. Margaret's School for camps and conferences between now and mid-August. Visitors and their families are anticipated to make a positive impact on local businesses.
"For example, it's likely that parents and other family members will take children to and from the overnight camps," said SMS Business Manager Nancy Smith. "They'll be going to restaurants and stores, and some will stay overnight at local motels."
Outside groups have booked St. Margaret's facilities almost every week this summer. They include the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which is conducting three teacher training courses; the American Soccer Academy; two overnight camps operated by the Sidwell Friends School of Washington, DC; the Rappahannock Fiction Writers Workshop, which offers a residential writing program for adults; and the Paul VI High School football team from Fairfax, Virginia; which is returning to SMS for the third year to hold its pre-season training camp.
To encourage its guests to patronize Tappahannock merchants, St. Margaret's gives overnight visitors a card that provides information about shops and services near campus. In addition, copies of the Tappahannock/Essex Chamber of Commerce Directory are available in the dormitories.
Local individuals and organizations have been renting the school this summer, too. The riverfront Community/Technology Center will be the venue for the First Baptist Church's black-tie dinner gala, and is the site for two wedding receptions. A couple of family reunions also have been held at the school. During the past year, groups as diverse as Southside Bank, the American Lung Association, area Girl Scouts and Northern Neck Drivers' Services, Inc., have taken advantage of SMS's attractive meeting, athletic and dining facilities to hold a wide variety of successful events.
For more information about SMS facility rental, contact Smith at 443-3357.
