Wilkes Co. memories to preview next Thursday, Apr. 26

If you've never heard centenarian Mary Wright Blue tell about running and hiding from the Washington Police as a child early in the last century, you're missing a piece of Wilkes County history.

The public will be able to preview the first video collection containing the lifelong memories of long-time Wilkes County residents a week from today, and New South Productions is asking for the public's help to preserve even more Wilkes County memories before they're lost forever.

The public can preview the oral and living history interviews at the next New South Board meeting, Thursday, April 26, at 5:15 p.m. at the Mary Willis Library. The eight-minute preview of the video production, being produced by Hanna's House Productions, includes clips from the life-long Wilkes memories of Irvin Cheney, Mary Wright Blue, and others, illustrated with old Washington photos.

"At the board meeting, the public will be able to get a sense of what New South is producing," said Stephanie Macchia, President of New South Productions, "And we hope you'll make a taxdeductible donation there or you can mail your donations to New South Production Inc." The address is P.O. Box 76, Washington 30673.

"Any size donation is encouraged," she said. "We have so many of our citizens to film over the coming months and years, this project is definitely long-term." Macchia said. "We intend to take the revenue from the sales of the first installment and apply them directly to the next round of interviews and production," she said.

To execute a project that will yield a multivolume collection of DVD interviews to be continued for any length of time, New South is placing a focus on fund-raising now. "We have a couple of fund-raising projects in the works now," Macchia said. "They're being designed to be fun and innovative, and we can't wait!"

The first installment of the collection will soon be made available for sale to the general public, Macchia said, "It features a wealth of forgotten memories of our great city and county. I'm very pleased to be this far along in the project so soon. We have only just begun but with the interviews going so well and covering such a broad range of topics, we are months ahead of schedule in releasing our first collection of narratives."

With plans to develop a full-length documentary on the Piedmont region of Georgia with a focus on Wilkes County and Washington in the next year, New South is charting a course for long term growth in representing the area's heritage, she said. "We have already started applying for grant funding and are very encouraged about the projects we're undertaking."

New South Productions, started in 2003, is the second generation of a project initially created to develop resources for a large-scale outdoor drama about the region and its history. Since New South Productions' creation, the group has developed other new concepts to tell and preserve history in a way that draw regional Heritage tourism, Macchia said. "With these new projects promising to appeal to a broad range of educators, historians and travelers, New South Productions has stepped into the 21st century and with a quite a bang."

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