Free government and tourism commercial scripts

Cider stands. Covered bridges. Back roads that wind for miles. And for about three weeks every October, the whole valley catches fire in red and gold. Come see it. Visit Oxbow Valley.

Books, sure. But also movies. Audiobooks. Museum passes. Language lessons. Even a telescope you can borrow. All with one library card. And yes, it's still free. Sign up today at Fenmore Public Library.

Forty minutes in traffic. Or forty minutes finishing that book you keep meaning to read. Bellhaven Regional Transit. New routes, more frequent service, and real-time arrivals in the app. Let someone else drive.

Roads. Schools. Clinics. Bus routes. Where they go depends on who's counted. The Merriton County Headcount takes about ten minutes, online or by phone. Make sure your neighborhood is counted. Fill it in today.

Before you leave your campsite, put your fire out. Drown it with water. Stir the ashes. Then feel for heat with the back of your hand. Cold to the touch, or it's not out. Silver Fork State Parks.

Pie contest. Pumpkin boats on the river. Live bands on the courthouse steps. And fireworks over the harbor on Saturday night. The Port Adair Harvest Fair. This weekend, downtown. Bring the whole family.

There's a single-track road north of the loch where the phone signal gives up and the mountains take over. You pass a bothy, a waterfall, a few very unimpressed sheep. And then you stop the car. Because you have to. Mist lifting off the water. An eagle turning slow circles overhead. And a silence you can almost hear. The Highland Glens. Come and get properly lost. Plan your trip with the Highland Glens Tourism Partnership.

In Tolliver County, we do things low and slow. Brisket that's been smoking since before sunrise. Porch swings that don't care what time it is. Fiddle music drifting out of the general store on a Saturday afternoon. Come for the barbecue trail. Stay for the bluegrass. Leave with a jar of Miss Ada's peach preserves and a few new friends. Visit Tolliver County. Pull up a chair. We saved you one.

My office has granite cliffs, a river, and a family of marmots who think they run the place. I'm a ranger with the Cedar Basin Parks Service. Some days I teach kids about owls. Some days I'm fixing trail signs or helping a hiker find the way home. Every day, I'm outside, taking care of a place that belongs to all of us. Cedar Basin Parks Service is hiring seasonal and full-time rangers. Apply online now.

I sell insurance. My buddy Marcus teaches eighth-grade science. Our captain runs the hardware store. But when the pager goes off at two in the morning, we're all out the door. The Pine Hollow Volunteer Fire Company is looking for new members. We'll train you. We'll have your back. Because somebody has to be the one who goes. Could it be you? Pine Hollow Volunteer Fire Company. Stop by the station Thursday night.

Think about your favourite teacher. The one who noticed you. The one who said, 'You're better at this than you think.' Now it's your turn. Teach Wexmoor is recruiting teachers for classrooms across the county, especially in math, science and special education. Career changers welcome, with paid training and a mentor for your first year. Somebody's going to remember you. Teach Wexmoor. Find out more today.

Seven forty-five. Coffee in hand. The new Crosstown Line pulls up, right on time, just like the app promised. I'm the one who got a seat. Bellhaven Regional Transit has added service every ten minutes at rush hour, with free transfers and a fare card that loads right on your phone. Less time parking. More time for a second coffee. Bellhaven Regional Transit. Ride the Crosstown Line.

There's a new bus stop at the end of my street. A new clinic across town. And a school that finally got the extra classroom it needed. A lot of that comes back to a simple count of who lives here. The Merriton County Headcount is open now. It's short, it's confidential, and it takes about ten minutes online, by phone or on paper. Merriton County Headcount. Count everyone who lives with you.

In winter, Stonecrest goes quiet. The summer crowds are gone. Snow sits heavy on the pines. The only sound is your snowshoes on the trail and, somewhere far off, a raven. Rent snowshoes at the visitor center, or bring your own. Ranger-led moonlight walks run every Saturday through March. Warm up afterward by the woodstove at the visitor center, with cocoa on the house. Stonecrest National Park. Come see it sleep.

Take the coast road. Yes, it's the long way round. That's the point. Cliffs that fall straight into the Atlantic. A harbour full of painted boats. A pub where the session starts at nine and nobody knows when it ends. You'll stop for photos. You'll stop for chowder. You'll stop to chat with a farmer who has opinions about the weather. You'll be late for everything. Visit Carrickmoy.

Red dirt. Gorges so deep the river turns green. Nights so clear you can see the Milky Way reflected in a billabong. This is big river country. Paddle through the gorge at sunrise. Learn the stories of this land from the people who've cared for it for thousands of years. Then camp beneath more stars than you knew existed. Outback Rivers. Go on. Get out here.

The sun goes down over the river. The boats light up. And somewhere on the pier, a trumpet starts to play. The Port Adair Riverfront Jazz Weekend is back. Three stages. Forty bands. Food trucks, dancing on the boardwalk, and a late-night jam session under the old railway bridge. All free, all weekend, the second weekend in June. Port Adair Riverfront Jazz. Come hear the city swing.

I've worked the polls for twelve years. I've checked in first-time voters, their parents, their grandparents. I've handed out a lot of stickers. Brennard County needs poll workers for the next election. You'll get paid training, a stipend for the day, and a front-row seat to your community at its best. Every voter deserves a smooth day. Help make it happen. Sign up with the Brennard County Elections Office.

Attention, explorers! Your summer mission starts now. Pick up a Summer Reading Passport at Fenmore Public Library. Every book you finish earns a stamp. Dinosaurs, dragons, deep-sea creatures, detectives. You choose. Stuck? Just ask a librarian for ideas. Fill your passport, and you'll earn prizes, a free ice cream, and an invitation to the big end-of-summer party. Parents, it's free, and it keeps young readers reading. Fenmore Public Library.

Gas lamps flicker along the cobblestones. A church bell counts to midnight. And somewhere above the old apothecary, a window creaks open by itself. Or maybe it's just the wind. Join a lantern-lit ghost walk through the Hartsgrove Old Town historic district, every Friday and Saturday this October. Then warm up in a tavern that's been pouring since seventeen ninety. Visit Hartsgrove. History never really leaves.

Boots on. Map in pocket. A flask of tea and a bit of weather rolling in over the tops. Up here in the fells, the views stretch for miles, the lakes are cold and clear, and every village has a pub with a fire going. Walk it, cycle it, or just sit by the water and do absolutely nothing. Plan your visit with the Fells and Lakes Visitor Partnership. The hills are waiting.

Before sunrise, the valley is silver. Mist hangs above the river. An elk lifts its head, listens, and goes back to grazing. This is Stonecrest National Park. A million acres of granite, forest and wild water, protected so that it will look tomorrow the way it looks today. Walk the canyon trail where the rock glows red at dusk. Watch the stars come out over the high meadow, more of them than you've ever seen. Sit beside a waterfall that was already old when the first maps were drawn. The rangers who care for this place will tell you something simple. It isn't theirs. It isn't the government's. It belongs to you. To your children. And to theirs. So come. Walk softly. Leave it as you found it. And take home something that doesn't fit in a backpack. Stonecrest National Park. The last wild mile is waiting. Plan your visit today.

In spring, Oxbow Valley wakes up slowly. Creeks run high with snowmelt. The orchards bloom white and pink, and the farm stands open for the first strawberries of the year. In summer, the days are long and easy. Tubing on the river. Band concerts on the green. Ice cream that melts faster than you can eat it. Then autumn arrives, and the maples turn every hillside red and gold. Covered bridges. Apple cider. A drive along the ridge road that you'll talk about for years. And in winter, the valley goes quiet under a blanket of snow. Sleigh rides. Cross-country trails. A crackling fire at an inn that's been welcoming travellers for two hundred years. Four seasons. One valley. And a reason to come back for every one of them. Visit Oxbow Valley. Start planning your first season today.

I joined the Pine Hollow Volunteer Fire Company at fifty-one. The youngest guy in my training class was nineteen. He called me ma'am. I told him to stop. He didn't. Training was hard. Carrying gear up ladders. Learning the pumps. Knots I'd never heard of. I went home sore every single week. But nobody let me quit. Not the captain, not the crew, and definitely not that nineteen-year-old. The first time I carried a hose into a real call, a barn fire on the county road, I wasn't scared. I was ready. Because they'd made me ready. We saved the barn. And the horses. And I went home and cried in the shower, the good kind. We need more volunteers. All ages, all backgrounds. We train you, we equip you, and we become your family. Pine Hollow Volunteer Fire Company. Open house, Thursday nights at the station. Come find out what you're made of.

In seventh grade, I was the kid in the back row. The one with his hood up. I didn't talk. I didn't turn in homework. Most teachers stopped asking. Ms. Delgado didn't stop. She kept a granola bar in her desk for me, because she'd figured out I skipped breakfast. She asked what I was drawing in the margins. She told me I was good at it. When I failed her class, she stayed after school, three days a week, until I didn't. She stayed. I'm an architect now. I still draw in the margins. Teach Wexmoor is looking for people like Ms. Delgado. Teachers for math, science, special education, and every classroom in between. Career changers welcome. Paid training. A mentor for your first year. And a chance to be somebody's reason. Teach Wexmoor. Somebody's going to remember you. Apply today.

Think about everyone who lives in your home right now. Your kids. Your grandmother who moved in last spring. The roommate who's always in the shower. The new baby who arrived last month and hasn't slept since. Every one of them counts. The Merriton County Headcount is how our county knows who lives here. Those numbers help decide where new schools are built, where bus routes run, how many beds the hospital needs, and which roads get fixed first. If someone's left out, their share of those decisions gets left out too. It takes about ten minutes. You can respond online, by phone, or on the paper form that came in the mail. Your answers are confidential and used only for counting. So gather around the kitchen table tonight and count everyone. Even the baby. Especially the baby. Merriton County Headcount. Everyone counts. Respond today.

Every November, when the evenings draw in and the harbour goes dark early, something happens in Port Adair. It starts with a single lantern. A child holds it up at the top of the old harbour steps. Then another is lit. Then a hundred. Then thousands. The Port Adair Lantern Festival fills the streets with paper light. Schools, choirs and neighbours make their own lanterns in workshops all week. Whales, lighthouses, fishing boats, dragons. Every one handmade. On the night, the whole town walks together, down the hill, along the seafront, and out to the end of the harbour wall. A brass band plays. Hot chestnuts are sold on every corner. And when the procession reaches the water, the lanterns are held up high, all at once, for a moment of pure quiet. Then the fireworks begin. Free lantern workshops are open now. Come and make one. Port Adair Lantern Festival. Light the way home.

When I retired, my daughter said, 'Mom, you need a hobby.' So I went to the library. For a book. One book. I came home with a library card, a museum pass, a telescope and a sign-up sheet for Spanish conversation on Tuesdays. Did you know Fenmore Public Library lends telescopes? I didn't. I also didn't know they have free audiobooks, movies, online classes, a seed library for gardeners, a quiet room with a view of the river, and a fellow named Dennis who can help you with absolutely any computer problem. I felt like I'd been given the keys to the town. Now I'm there three days a week. Spanish on Tuesdays. Book club on Thursdays. And on Saturdays, I help kids pick out books about space. My daughter says I'm busier now than when I worked. Get your free card at Fenmore Public Library. Your next hobby is waiting.