3 minute read
Great Meadow’s New Head Has a Rural Mission
Great Meadow’s New Head Has a Rural Mission
By Ronen Feldman
When the late Northern Virginia publisher Nick Arundel founded Great Meadow back in 1984, he hoped to create a community rooted in open spaces, and preserve the natural beauty of the rapidly urbanizing Washington area.
Based in The Plains, this lush, 300-plus acre equestrian paradise serves the area’s thriving horse community all year round, including hosting the upcoming International Gold Cup races on Saturday, October 28 and the Virginia Gold Cup in on the first Saturday in May as well as countless other events.
“The space Great Meadow occupies would otherwise be sold in favor of residential living projects,” said Tess Newcome, the new executive director of the facility. “Real estate developments aren’t just plucking out local communities, but are dividing farmlands, slowly forcing them out.”
The phenomenon hits close to home for Tess, a rural West Virginia native. To her, the great outdoors isn’t just meant for leisure, but is as essential as breathing air.
“Growing up in the country all you saw were fields, hills and farms,” she said. “We would walk around for hours with the wind on our faces, hear nothing but the calm, soothing sounds of nature and stare at the gorgeous landscape, that was our therapy. It was a 35-minute drive to the closest town, and we weren’t going to make that trip every time we ran out of sugar. We knew all our neighbors, and were brought up to give.”
Community and nature mean the world to Tess. She’s known her school teacher husband Chip since the seventh grade and they left West Virginia as young adult for her to pursue a career in accounting.
Being far from their family, the Newcomes had to adjust to urban life in places like Chevy Chase and Bethesda, discovering new cultures and a different way of life. When it was finally time for a change of pace, and armed with an urban perspective, a move to Winchester and her new position at Great Meadow became a happy medium.
At Great Meadow, Tess said she has a sense of purpose as she dedicates herself to community and preservation.
A gala celebrating Great Meadow’s 40th anniversary next year will also raise funds for the foundation, and will have a special guest, founder Nick Arundel’s wife, Peggy, who lives nearby.
“Young people today have a different understanding of what preservation is,” Tess said. “I have two teenagers, I want to teach them that an individual can make a difference, and that small actions now have a large impact in the long run.”
Tess sees the Great Meadow Foundation as all that stands between urbanization and natural green spaces in the area. She believes further involving the community, working with schools, recruiting volunteers to promote Great Meadow and inspiring other local and diverse communities to take action is the only antidote.
At the same time, she’s under no illusion about the possible threats and is committed to safeguard the space at all costs. An endowment to ensure Great Meadow’s mission is secure is the first of many steps she hopes to implement in order to keep the open space and the foundation alive and thriving.
