Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV
May 12, 2012
Rocket Boys to land in Raleigh
By JOHN BLANKENSHIP
for the Daily Telegraph

BECKLEY — The annual Rocket Boys/October Sky Festival traditionally held on the first weekend in October each year in Coalwood is moving to Beckley this fall, after reluctantly being canceled earlier this year in McDowell County.

“There simply wasn’t enough energy in Coalwood for the festival to continue and we’re pleased that folks in Raleigh County have stepped up to the plate,” acclaimed author Homer Hickam said Friday via teleconference to Glade Springs from Huntsville, Ala.

“We think we’ve found a permanent home in Beckley. We have a wonderful coal mine heritage in southern West Virginia when you get right down to it, and we’re happy to be rocking out in Raleigh County.”

Friends and fans in the Coalwood area seemed just as happy.

“We are thrilled that this great event that brings so much excitement and so many people to southern West Virginia will continue with new blood,” explained Carol Dehaven of Coalwood, one of many residents who had spearheaded the festival in the Rocket Boys hometown.

After the cancellation of the Rocket Boys/October Sky festival was announced in February, Hickam was approached by a group of Raleigh Countians who were interested in moving the event to Beckley. Following weeks of talks, it was agreed that the festival will be held here Oct. 5-7 with several related events taking place on the grounds of the Exhibition Coal Mine at the New River Park.

The festival will benefit in other ways by moving to Raleigh County, according to Hickam.

“Part of the original mine sites used for launching model rockets in Coalwood have grown up with foliage during the past few years, and there’s less open terrain,” Hickam explained. “There’s more open areas in Beckley for the launches, which has become something of a ‘Holy Grail’ for young rocket enthusiasts,” Hickam said.

The author noted that the Rocket Boys’ legend lives on with educators using the book and showing the Hollywood classic in classrooms all over the world. “Rocket Boys — The Musical” also will return to the Cliffside Amphitheatre at Grandview for two weeks in August.

Scott Hill, one of the organizers in bringing the festival to Beckley, said that the Rocket Boys is such an important legacy that we cannot afford to let the story go untold.

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Rocket Boys including Hickam, Roy Lee Cooke, O’Dell Carroll and Billy Rose are scheduled to appear at this year’s festival, along with still-to-be announced special guests. In previous years, NASA shuttle astronauts Bill Readdy and Thomas Jones and several stars from the film “October Sky” have been among the celebrities who attend to mingle with the fans of the “Coalwood” series of books by Hickam.

Opening ceremonies for Saturday’s events will be held at 10 a.m., Oct. 6 at the Rahall Company Store, 513 Ewart Ave., at the Beckley Exhibition Mine. The city’s annual Chili Night event Saturday evening in uptown Beckley will include a “Rocket Fuel” Chili and other festival tie-ins.

Oct. 5 events will focus on area high school and middle schools, including possible visits by the Rocket Boys and Sunday’s Oct. 7 events will include the opportunity for attendees to take a luxury motor coach day trip to visit Coalwood.

This year’s festival also will include tours of the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine and will feature Hickam and other Rocket Boys signing copies of his best-selling books throughout the day at the Exhibition Mine’s company store. Several other notable authors with ties to the area will be on site signing their books as well.

There will be a launch pad at the park for model rockets from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday, which is sure to attract enthusiasts of all ages from across the country.

In past years, thousands of fans from all over the world have converged on southern West Virginia for the festival, including busloads of students and fans eager to meet their heroes featured in Hickam’s “Coalwood” series of books “Rocket Boys,” “The Coalwood Way,” “Sky of Stone,” and “We Are Not Afraid.”

Hickam also is the author of several best sellers including the “Josh Thurlow” three-book series of World War II adventures, a space thriller “Back to the Moon,” “Red Helmet,” a fiction novel set in the modern-day West Virginia coalfields, “My Dream of Stars” and his latest “Crater,” a young adult novel set on the moon in the not-to-distant future.

Hickam’s books will be available for purchase at the festival, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit United Way of Southern West Virginia and specific local charities and the Cape Coalwood Restoration Association, which uses its proceeds to help fund the tiny town’s youth activities and upkeep.

The October Sky Rocket Boys Festival will featu