Katy Nicholson, Herald Staff Writer

Todd Wetherington | Daily Herald Carolyn Ciccarello demonstrates 19th-century hand quilting techniques as part of Saturday's Roanoke Canal Festival. Advertisement

ROANOKE RAPIDS - A modest crowd enjoyed history, food and entertainment at the third annual Roanoke Canal Festival Saturday, and managed to stay dry despite the occasional threat of rain.

The festival provided “something to do in Roanoke Rapids,” noted Gladys Seward. “Everybody says there's nothing to do, but there is if you go out and find it.”

Seward found out about the event at last weekend's Ducky Derby, and said she enjoyed touring the museum for the first time.

Last year, the festival attracted quite a few vendors, noted Museum Manager Harold Jacobson, but this time, the museum held its own hot dog picnic lunch.

“This one's really the first one we've done where we've been drawing in more of the community,” he said.

Entertainment was provided by the Roanoke Valley Cloggers and musicians from Roanoke Rapids High School.

With all the changes going on at the museum - construction will soon begin on the lower level of the museum, and the Canal Trail, which has experienced some erosion, is being leveled out - the event celebrated both the progress that has already been made and the work that is about to be done.

Jacobson said the lower-level exhibits are expected to be completed in April, and they will be more interactive and hands-on than what is currently offered.

Anne Spevacek of Stafford, Va., attended the festival with her husband, Paul, and their 4-year-old daughter, Kasmira. The family was on vacation at Lake Gaston and also planned to visit the fair in Henderson and Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park and Eco-Center. Kasmira particularly enjoyed the bateau races, in which participants blew a miniature bateau across a small “canal.”

Charrisma Martin, a ninth-grader at Weldon STEM Academy, attended the festival with her mother, Teresa, grandmother, Brenda Benjamin, and sister, Akeylah, for a school project. The family enjoyed visiting the museum and walking on the trail for the first time.

“It's neat,” Benjamin said. “I really like it. It takes you way back.”

Charrisma said her favorite part of the event was the quiltmaking demonstration, while 5-year-old Akeylah preferred playing with Matilda, a Cape Barren goose that traveled from Scotland Neck to represent Sylvan Heights.

The quiltmaking demonstration was done by Carolyn Ciccarello, whose husband, Steve, did a stonecutting demonstration. The couple enjoy doing Victorian and World War II recreations, and explained that a man in the 1800s would have taken one or two days to cut a piece of stone that today would take five or six seconds to cut. The locks and aqueduct on the canal, for example, were created by manual labor.

“You learn an appreciation for today's modern advancements when you go back in history and see where we've come from,” Carolyn said.