Link to the article: http://www.register-herald.com/news/annual-rocket-boys-festival-celebrates-th-year/article_a399687a-7873-5bb4-b58d-17fa054e8414.html
Annual Rocket Boys Festival celebrates 7th year
By Jordan Nelson Register-Herald Reporter
Sep 23, 2018
(Brad Davis/The Register-Herald) An All-Star group consisting of (from left) West Virginia filmmaker Daniel Boyd, “Mrs. Gilligan” Dreama Denver, Rocket Boy Roy Lee Cooke and rocket enthusiast Tom Moseley launch a rocket together as spectators look on to kick off the rocket launching portion of events at the Rocket Boys Festival Saturday afternoon at the Exhibition Coal Mine.
(Brad Davis/The Register-Herald) The first rocket of the day launches into the air as Rocket Boy Homer Hickam (left in the group at far right), rocket enthusiast Tom Moseley, middle, and Rocket Boys Festival VIP/Guest of Honor Carl Anthony Tramon (Broadway, Saved by the Bell) all push the button together during the rocket launch portion of events Saturday afternoon at the Exhibition Coal Mine. In the group at left, Dreama Denver, who played Mrs. Gilligan on the show Gilligan’s Island and is the wife of the late Bob Denver, who played Gilligan, West Virginia filmmaker Daniel Boyd and Rocket Boy Roy Lee Cooke look on.
“Three, two, one,” everyone shouted as rockets of all shapes and sizes launched into the sky for the 2018 Rocket Boys Festival.
Although it was a dreary Saturday afternoon, spirits were still high as family and friends gathered to show off the work of this year’s rocket builders.
Now in its seventh year, the Rocket Boys Festival comes to town every year to celebrate “The Rocket Boys.” In the 1950s, they surprised people in Coalwood with their skills at building rockets and brainpower.
Two original Rocket Boys attended Saturday’s festival — Homer Hickam, an Army veteran and a New York Times best-selling author, and Roy Lee Cook.
“Are you all ready?” Hickam shouted, while all the children shouted “yes!” with glee. “I’m going to attempt to set this rocket off for you all.”
As Hickam’s rocket soared, everyone cheered. He smiled.
It was the kickstart to the official rocket launch at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine.
Nearly 100 rockets were launched Saturday.
Beckley residents Frances Allen-Henderson and Wendi Shumate stood with their sons, Blake and Cole, cheering and clapping as rockets were launched.
“I think we’re just as excited as the kids are,” they both said, while taking multiple photos and videos with their phone.
Allen-Henderson said it took her and her son Blake around an hour to build their rocket, and although this wasn’t their first time attending the event, it was their first time building and launching their own rocket.
“I’m ready!” Blake shouted.
“It gives him a chance to learn something new and then come and give his hard work a go,” Allen-Henderson said, “and we just think that’s really cool.”
Shumate agreed. She said she liked having the opportunity to bring her son Cole to an event built around important moments in history.
“It’s just exciting,” she said, “and for the town to do something like this for the kids, and for the Rocket Boys to show up, that’s just something good for them.”
Caitlyn Stone, a Mullens native and recent graduate from Virginia Tech, stood in the crowd with her rocket, which stood high enough to reach her midtorso.
When asked if she was going to launch her rocket, she said, “No, not today. The clearance rate isn’t safe for a place like this; it may knock someone out.”
Stone, who completed her rocket in February, said although she couldn’t launch it at Saturday’s event, it was important for her to attend.
“I really like history, and obviously I really like rockets,” she said. “I’ve been coming here every year, and I just don’t see that changing. It brings people together to talk about the history that took place because of these guys.”
Stone did get her rocket autographed by Homer Hickam.
She pointed to his name etched in silver marker and said, “Now it’ll be there forever.”
https://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/Image-RBF.jpg859800Allen Media Strategieshttps://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/allenmediastrategies_logo_light_bg2.pngAllen Media Strategies2018-09-25 11:37:002018-09-25 11:37:00Annual Rocket Boys Festival celebrates 7th year
AMS client Ambassador Akbar S Ahmed after a talk at the Cosmos Club in Washington DC with new AMS client David Dorsen
https://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/with-David-Dorsen-.jpg240320Allen Media Strategieshttps://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/allenmediastrategies_logo_light_bg2.pngAllen Media Strategies2018-09-18 14:03:032018-09-18 14:03:03AMS clients Ambassador Akbar Ahmed and David Dorsen
The new Neil Armstrong movie is about more than the lunar flag-planting
This July 20, 1969, NASA photo taken by Neil A. Armstrong shows Buzz Aldrin posing beside the U.S. flag the astronauts planted on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. (NEIL A. ARMSTRONG/AP)
ByHomer Hickam
September 5 at 6:00 PM
Homer Hickam is the author of the memoir “Rocket Boys,” which was made into the film “October Sky.”
More than a few Americans are fed up with Hollywood and want no part of what the industry produces. For a while now, once-unifying entertainment awards shows have become minefields of woke declarations and Trump-bashing, which are perceived by many Americans who voted for the president as insults directed not just at him but also at them.
This has now thrown “First Man,” a major new movie about one of America’s greatest heroes, into the path of some hard cultural headwinds. Back in 1969, in the real world, Neil Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin spent some 10 minutes raising the American flag on the lunar surface. But in the film version, the flag scene is nowhere to be found. When the question of why came up last month at the Venice Film Festival, Ryan Gosling, the actor who plays Armstrong in “First Man,” stumbled with his answer, explaining that the landing was a “human achievement” and that Armstrong didn’t view himself as an “American hero.”
The result was outrage, especially from many of the folks who’ve felt insulted by Hollywood’s recent history. Although I count myself among those who think Hollywood should stay out of politics, I think the folks railing against “First Man” are wrong.
The history here is instructive. Although the lunar flag-planting may seem like a given in hindsight, for months before the flight of Apollo 11 there was a debate within the federal government and in the press as to the wisdom of doing it. The argument for the flag was that the voyage was an entirely American effort that was paid for by American taxpayers, who deserved to see their flag planted in the lunar regolith. The argument against was that it could cast the landing in the eyes of the world as a nationalistic exercise, diminishing what was otherwise indisputably a triumph of American values and ideals, not to mention a demonstration of our technical superiority over our great adversary, the Soviet Union.
Ultimately, just a few months before the flight, Congress ordered NASA to put up the flag. The result, a rushed bit of engineering, was a set of spindly tubes holding a government-issued flag valued at around $5 and, since there was no room in the moon lander, flown clamped to a leg of the vehicle. Armstrong and Aldrin put up the flag and saluted it, then got on to other business.
As it turned out, people across the world didn’t much care. What they saw and celebrated were two fellow human beings walking on the surface of the moon. I watched Apollo 11 on a battered television set at Fort Lewis, Wash., along with other Army officers, most of us just recently returned from Vietnam. The picture was so fuzzy I don’t even recall the flag, only the ghostly images of Neil and Buzz moving about. We fresh Vietnam vets were just relieved that our boys on the moon were alive and well.
“First Man” the movie is based on an excellent book that has the same title, but also the subtitle “The Life of Neil A. Armstrong.” It is not the story of the moon-landing but of the world-famous astronaut himself. Author James R. Hansen worked hard to reveal a man who comes across in the book as a kind of techno-Atticus Finch — someone who never says outright what he believes but demonstrates it through his actions.
I suspect this vision of Armstrong affected the filmmakers. No one ever saw Armstrong do a fist-pump; he just didn’t do that kind of thing. Raising the flag on the moon might be perceived as that kind of gesture and therefore jar the flow of a film trying to uncover the inner workings of a man who spent a lifetime keeping his emotions in check. Although I personally would have included the flag-raising — it was a moment of rare lightheartedness between Neil and Buzz — I understand from experience the decisions that writers and directors sometimes make to fit their vision of their characters, even ones based on real people.
Because I’m interested in space history, and because I think “First Man” will be a unique and dramatic view of an important American who most of us never got to know very well, I will see this movie. If it’s anything like the book, I fully expect it to move me to even greater appreciation for my country, a nation that saw fit to attach to one of the moon lander legs not just its national flag but also this honest and humble declaration: “We Came In Peace for All Mankind.”
https://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/WaPo.jpg630630Allen Media Strategieshttps://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/allenmediastrategies_logo_light_bg2.pngAllen Media Strategies2018-09-06 13:18:242018-09-06 13:20:26AMS client Homer Hickam’s OpEd in Washington Post – Sept 5
AMS clients and Reality TV personalities Jack Owens (author, former FBI agent, CBS TV’s Big Brother) and Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. (recording artist and performer, new movie “Choices”, season six winner of NBC’s America’s Got Talent) after Landau’s show on Friday in Alabama.
https://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/with-Jack-Owens-1.jpg26803023Allen Media Strategieshttps://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/allenmediastrategies_logo_light_bg2.pngAllen Media Strategies2018-08-20 12:06:412018-08-20 12:06:41AMS clients Jack Owens and Landau
https://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/gI_95437_14.PakSenateDec2014-e1520540801130.png134200Allen Media Strategieshttps://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/allenmediastrategies_logo_light_bg2.pngAllen Media Strategies2018-07-26 14:25:382018-07-26 14:25:38Ambassador Akbar Ahmed on CGTN America’s The Heat – Pakistan’s 2018 Parliamentary elections
We are honored and happy to be featured on the List of TOP 18 PR Agencies in Washington DC released by Expertise, the online directory that makes it easy to find the best local experts, every time! The goal at Expertise is to connect people with the best local experts.
To make it to the list, PR firms were evaluated on more than 25 variables across five categories, the results were analyzed to release a hand-picked list of the best PR firms in Washington DC. Expertise’s proprietary research and selection process identifies the top service professionals in over 100 business categories across 1000 cities, covering 85% of the US.
Filtered and sifted from over 160 PR agencies in Washington DC and get featured as one of the TOP 18 in Washington DC is an achievement! Way to go Allen Media Strategies!
https://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/allenmediastrategies_logo_light_bg2-1.png156340Allen Media Strategieshttps://allenmediastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/allenmediastrategies_logo_light_bg2.pngAllen Media Strategies2018-07-26 13:13:022018-07-26 13:18:03Allen Media Strategies – TOP pick for PR Agencies in Washington DC
Annual Rocket Boys Festival celebrates 7th year
/in AMS Intel Page /by Allen Media StrategiesLink to the article: http://www.register-herald.com/news/annual-rocket-boys-festival-celebrates-th-year/article_a399687a-7873-5bb4-b58d-17fa054e8414.html
Annual Rocket Boys Festival celebrates 7th year
By Jordan Nelson Register-Herald Reporter
Sep 23, 2018
Although it was a dreary Saturday afternoon, spirits were still high as family and friends gathered to show off the work of this year’s rocket builders.
Now in its seventh year, the Rocket Boys Festival comes to town every year to celebrate “The Rocket Boys.” In the 1950s, they surprised people in Coalwood with their skills at building rockets and brainpower.
“Are you all ready?” Hickam shouted, while all the children shouted “yes!” with glee. “I’m going to attempt to set this rocket off for you all.”
As Hickam’s rocket soared, everyone cheered. He smiled.
It was the kickstart to the official rocket launch at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine.
Nearly 100 rockets were launched Saturday.
Beckley residents Frances Allen-Henderson and Wendi Shumate stood with their sons, Blake and Cole, cheering and clapping as rockets were launched.
“I think we’re just as excited as the kids are,” they both said, while taking multiple photos and videos with their phone.
Allen-Henderson said it took her and her son Blake around an hour to build their rocket, and although this wasn’t their first time attending the event, it was their first time building and launching their own rocket.
“I’m ready!” Blake shouted.
“It gives him a chance to learn something new and then come and give his hard work a go,” Allen-Henderson said, “and we just think that’s really cool.”
Shumate agreed. She said she liked having the opportunity to bring her son Cole to an event built around important moments in history.
Caitlyn Stone, a Mullens native and recent graduate from Virginia Tech, stood in the crowd with her rocket, which stood high enough to reach her midtorso.
When asked if she was going to launch her rocket, she said, “No, not today. The clearance rate isn’t safe for a place like this; it may knock someone out.”
Stone, who completed her rocket in February, said although she couldn’t launch it at Saturday’s event, it was important for her to attend.
“I really like history, and obviously I really like rockets,” she said. “I’ve been coming here every year, and I just don’t see that changing. It brings people together to talk about the history that took place because of these guys.”
Stone did get her rocket autographed by Homer Hickam.
She pointed to his name etched in silver marker and said, “Now it’ll be there forever.”
Email: jnelson@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @jnelsonRH
AMS clients Ambassador Akbar Ahmed and David Dorsen
/in AMS Intel Page /by Allen Media StrategiesAMS client Ambassador Akbar S Ahmed after a talk at the Cosmos Club in Washington DC with new AMS client David Dorsen
AMS client Homer Hickam’s OpEd in Washington Post – Sept 5
/in AMS Intel Page /by Allen Media StrategiesThe new Neil Armstrong movie is about more than the lunar flag-planting
September 5 at 6:00 PM
Homer Hickam is the author of the memoir “Rocket Boys,” which was made into the film “October Sky.”
More than a few Americans are fed up with Hollywood and want no part of what the industry produces. For a while now, once-unifying entertainment awards shows have become minefields of woke declarations and Trump-bashing, which are perceived by many Americans who voted for the president as insults directed not just at him but also at them.
This has now thrown “First Man,” a major new movie about one of America’s greatest heroes, into the path of some hard cultural headwinds. Back in 1969, in the real world, Neil Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin spent some 10 minutes raising the American flag on the lunar surface. But in the film version, the flag scene is nowhere to be found. When the question of why came up last month at the Venice Film Festival, Ryan Gosling, the actor who plays Armstrong in “First Man,” stumbled with his answer, explaining that the landing was a “human achievement” and that Armstrong didn’t view himself as an “American hero.”
The result was outrage, especially from many of the folks who’ve felt insulted by Hollywood’s recent history. Although I count myself among those who think Hollywood should stay out of politics, I think the folks railing against “First Man” are wrong.
The history here is instructive. Although the lunar flag-planting may seem like a given in hindsight, for months before the flight of Apollo 11 there was a debate within the federal government and in the press as to the wisdom of doing it. The argument for the flag was that the voyage was an entirely American effort that was paid for by American taxpayers, who deserved to see their flag planted in the lunar regolith. The argument against was that it could cast the landing in the eyes of the world as a nationalistic exercise, diminishing what was otherwise indisputably a triumph of American values and ideals, not to mention a demonstration of our technical superiority over our great adversary, the Soviet Union.
Ultimately, just a few months before the flight, Congress ordered NASA to put up the flag. The result, a rushed bit of engineering, was a set of spindly tubes holding a government-issued flag valued at around $5 and, since there was no room in the moon lander, flown clamped to a leg of the vehicle. Armstrong and Aldrin put up the flag and saluted it, then got on to other business.
As it turned out, people across the world didn’t much care. What they saw and celebrated were two fellow human beings walking on the surface of the moon. I watched Apollo 11 on a battered television set at Fort Lewis, Wash., along with other Army officers, most of us just recently returned from Vietnam. The picture was so fuzzy I don’t even recall the flag, only the ghostly images of Neil and Buzz moving about. We fresh Vietnam vets were just relieved that our boys on the moon were alive and well.
“First Man” the movie is based on an excellent book that has the same title, but also the subtitle “The Life of Neil A. Armstrong.” It is not the story of the moon-landing but of the world-famous astronaut himself. Author James R. Hansen worked hard to reveal a man who comes across in the book as a kind of techno-Atticus Finch — someone who never says outright what he believes but demonstrates it through his actions.
I suspect this vision of Armstrong affected the filmmakers. No one ever saw Armstrong do a fist-pump; he just didn’t do that kind of thing. Raising the flag on the moon might be perceived as that kind of gesture and therefore jar the flow of a film trying to uncover the inner workings of a man who spent a lifetime keeping his emotions in check. Although I personally would have included the flag-raising — it was a moment of rare lightheartedness between Neil and Buzz — I understand from experience the decisions that writers and directors sometimes make to fit their vision of their characters, even ones based on real people.
Because I’m interested in space history, and because I think “First Man” will be a unique and dramatic view of an important American who most of us never got to know very well, I will see this movie. If it’s anything like the book, I fully expect it to move me to even greater appreciation for my country, a nation that saw fit to attach to one of the moon lander legs not just its national flag but also this honest and humble declaration: “We Came In Peace for All Mankind.”
AMS clients Jack Owens and Landau
/in AMS Intel Page /by Allen Media StrategiesAMS clients and Reality TV personalities Jack Owens (author, former FBI agent, CBS TV’s Big Brother) and Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. (recording artist and performer, new movie “Choices”, season six winner of NBC’s America’s Got Talent) after Landau’s show on Friday in Alabama.
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed on CGTN America’s The Heat – Pakistan’s 2018 Parliamentary elections
/in AMS Intel Page /by Allen Media StrategiesListen to Ambassador Akbar Ahmed’s take on Pakistan’s 2018 Parliamentary Elections on CGTN America’s The Heat. Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbKXLfg2F7M#action=share
Allen Media Strategies – TOP pick for PR Agencies in Washington DC
/in AMS Intel Page /by Allen Media StrategiesWe are honored and happy to be featured on the List of TOP 18 PR Agencies in Washington DC released by Expertise, the online directory that makes it easy to find the best local experts, every time! The goal at Expertise is to connect people with the best local experts.
To make it to the list, PR firms were evaluated on more than 25 variables across five categories, the results were analyzed to release a hand-picked list of the best PR firms in Washington DC. Expertise’s proprietary research and selection process identifies the top service professionals in over 100 business categories across 1000 cities, covering 85% of the US.
Filtered and sifted from over 160 PR agencies in Washington DC and get featured as one of the TOP 18 in Washington DC is an achievement! Way to go Allen Media Strategies!
Read the complete article here https://www.expertise.com/dc/washington/public-relations-firms#provider2