STORY BY JOE MORRIS
W
hether it’s restoring the area’s natural resources, educating kids, ensuring availability of medical services or encouraging residents to lead healthy lifestyles, Martinsville’s civic and business leaders are all focused on making their town a better place to live. For example, Dr. David Jones, an orthodontist, has donated thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to the Trout in the Classroom program. An avid member of Trout Unlimited, Jones says the program was a natural for him. “I was at a meeting two years ago, and the program was being talked about,” Jones recalls. “Our state chair told me it was all about conservation, education, kids, fly fishing, rivers and trout, so I said I wanted to try it.” Through the program, participating elementary school classes each receive a 55-gallon aquarium and the necessary equipment to run it. The classroom tanks are stocked with trout eggs or newly hatched fish, which are then raised to the fingerling stage and released, in this case into the Smith River. From the outset, interest in the program was high. “We did about 16 the first year, and were up to 28 classrooms this year [2006-07],” Jones says. “We’ve got a waiting list of probably 10 more schools, and new ones are showing up all the time.” With the cost of each tank about $1,000, the program represents a substantial investment for Jones, but he credits his staff and patients for making the effort a success. “My staff has worked on this with me, and our patients have been the runners,” he says. “If we get a call that something’s gone out on a tank, I can usually find a student at that school or one nearby who’s coming into the office, and they run the part out there. It’s been a great supply system.” The strong cooperative spirit and community pride is also evident in the Healthy Community Initiative, an outreach of
MARTINSVILLE- HENRY COU NT Y
STAFF PHOTO
fly fishing. this is a p/u from pueblo.
ANTONY BOSHIER
The Smith River ecosystem benefits from the Trout in the Classroom program, in which students raise the fish in tanks before releasing them. The program is just one example of how leaders in Martinsville and Henry County work together for the sake of community improvement.
I M AG E S M A R T I N S V I L L E H E N R YC O U N T Y. C O M
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