Lou directs the Music Club at Ocracoke Island School for grades 3 & 4 and the after-school Music
Program for students 5th grade and up. These students eagerly perform at the monthly “Flat Cat Café” open mic night, a Youth Center event, the music (instruments, singing and songwriting) they are learning from these valuable music programs. Students read poetry, dance, tell jokes and enjoy
each others’ company and the talents of their friends. Families come to watch and enjoy the show.

The Music Club has hot dog/bake sales and other fundraisers to help pay for instruments,
accessories and supplies. (Donations accepted!)

Marcy is active in the Christian Breast Cancer Support Group and is an advocate for the American Cancer Society (Relay For Life, Reach To Recovery, Ambassador for Dare County).

Once a year in October the children lead the Sunday worship service, Children’s Sabbath, at the OUMC. The children are responsible for every aspect of the service from prelude, offering and postlude music to sermons and prayers. They do a fantastic job and left all the grownups in tears with a full heart. They did a great job!

Along with a gang of singers of all ages we have two guitarists, one bass player, a pianist, flutist and fiddle player – all under 16!
They also have special programs for Christmas, Easter, Girl Scout Sunday, Boy Scout Sunday and Vacation Bible School.

We are preparing for publication a Choral Arrangement of “Follow Me” for SATB choir, available for sale soon. All proceeds from the sale go to Duck United Methodist Church. We already have a choir from a Presbyterian church in Williamsburg on the list to buy the first copy off the press!

Special thanks to Cezette Barnes for her help with the notation of “Follow Me.” Ms. Barnes is the music/choral director at First Flight High School and the music/choir director Duck United Methodist Church.

The first time Marcy rode the ferry to Ocracoke, she knew she was coming home.  Lou fell in love with the island and Marcy at the same time.  After having bought a small cottage in 2001, they are now restoring the old house next door that Bertha and Van Henry O'Neal built in 1945; it will be their home place.  Ocracoke is their community, and one of the greatest events to ever happen on the island is the POTLUCK.  What follows is Gary Mitchell's (of Molasses Creek fame) essay on this time-honored Ocracoke Island tradition.

“I Believe in Pot-Lucks”  by Gary Mitchell

    I believe in ‘pot-lucks’. You might call them ‘covered dish suppers’ but we do them so often we have to use the most abbreviated term possible. A friend will say “pot-luck at Julie’s Friday” and about 30 of us will show up around 6 o’clock with a dish in hand and a smile on our face. We kinda know what everybody’s gonna bring; Miss Kitty’s special lima beans, Sundae’s pineapple and cheese casserole (Sundae is a woman’s name, not the day of the week, although she did say she was conceived on a Sunday in a Dairy Queen parking lot). Linda and Julie will bake something terrific; if Donald’s in town he’ll have some kind of delicious thing he’s cooked in a dutch oven over coals out in the back yard. Merle is the “Julia Child” of the crowd. We don’t know WHAT we’re eating from her, just that it looks, smells and tastes great. Anne will have a tasty and healthy vegetable dish; David’s got a wonderful fruit pie (with a homemade crust), and the young folks not quite up to speed yet will bring drinks, chips, salsa and napkins. (Did I mention Karen’s green bean casserole, Marcy’s sausage rolls, or Phillip’s deviled eggs?). There are always some surprises too; people to meet, like the new doctor or school teacher, or somebody’s out of town relatives here for a visit.
    Usually pot lucks just kinda happen, but sometimes there are special events like the “January Birthdays pot-luck”, or the “some-sort of solstice” pot-luck. (I can’t keep those solstices straight). My own family’s most special dinner of the year is our Thanksgiving pot-luck. We’ve been doing it “before you was born” as they say around here, and it absolutely forces us to clean our house (a little) at least once a year, whether it needs it or not (I’m not sure our guests fully realize that we’ve cleaned our house) We always try to have oysters on the grill at Thanksgiving, but this year = we had a blow, and neither Stevie nor Roger Lee could get out to Hog Shoal in their boats. It was nearly a disaster, but Chuck and Liz saved the day and found a bushel over at Rose Bay.
    Anyhow, we discovered early on that folks really just like to be together, and food gives them a good excuse. The food doesn’t have to be anything special, except that it comes from the hands and heart of somebody you know and love, and somehow it just tastes twice as good ‘cause of that. ...And then, of course, there’s the conversation: “When is the Pony Island Restaurant closing for the winter?”; “Tell us about Capt. Rob or Al’s latest sailing adventure”: maybe we’ll hear a tale of Uncle Homer or Grandpa Lawton...”Its all good”. You know, you CAN develop a technique for laughing with a mouthful of mashed potatoes and gravy; it just takes practice and real commitment.
   I believe I’ll take a ‘pot-luck dinner’ over a 5 star restaurant anytime (especially if I’m paying).

FOR MORE OF OCRACOKE LIFE AND ACTIVITIES, VISIT:

 THE MOLASSES CREEK/SOUNDSIDE STUDIOS BLOG SPOT

 and Philip Howard's VILLAGE CRAFTSMAN website

and Traditional Ocracoke Quilting, article by Philip Howard

and OCRACOKE voted into Best Beaches 2006 by the Discovery Travel channel


OTHER EVENTS/ORGANIZATIONS OF NOTE:

Beaufort County Arts Council


North Carolina Arts Council


Dare County Arts Council

Outer Banks of North Carolina Visitors Bureau

Carolista Music Festival
Christian BreastCancer Support Group
The Outer Banks Forum for the Lively Arts
Traditional Ocracoke Isand Square Dances
Ocracoke Island School Arts Week
Music Across the Sound
Ocracoke Island Civic and Business Association - Village Days and Art Walk
Ocracoke Island After-School Program Cross Creek Nursing Home
Muselle Bryant’s 100th Birthday Community Celebration
Artrageous
Kitty Hawk Heritage Day
Kill Devil Hills 50th Anniversary
Town of Southern Shores 25th Anniversary
Ocrafolk Preservation Society
Fundraiser ConcertsNCAT – NC Assoc of Teachers
Ocracoke Island Arts Council
Ocracoke Island Youth Center – “Flat Cat Café”
The Music Store
Harriet Schock
Island Path


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