Poplar Forest gets $10K tourism grant
Thomas Jeffersonâs Poplar Forest has received $10,000 from the Virginia Tourism Corporationâs Recovery Marketing Leverage Program.
According to a news release from Poplar Forest, the program is âdesigned to help local and regional tourism entities attract more visitors by leveraging limited local marketing dollars through a local match of the state grant funds.â
âPoplar Forest will use the VTC Recovery Marketing Leverage grant funds to reach out to visitors throughout the Central Virginia region (Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Roanoke and Richmond) and inspire them to plan an excursion to Thomas Jeffersonâs private retreat and other historic tours and locations in Bedford and Lynchburg, promoting architectural history tours at Poplar Forest and the downtown architectural walking tour, and the ongoing landscape restoration at Poplar Forest with the garden and retreat at the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum. These ex
Indeed, Stuart-Smith’s stirring summaries of the garden’s history, value in therapeutic settings, and place in literature and culture feel like the best kind of circumstantial evidence for the primacy of the act. But when she digs into the emerging neuroscience, the evidence is breathtaking. Take, for example, what actually lives in the soil. Bacterial actinomycetes, when activated by water, emit an aroma called geosmin that has a pleasing and soothing effect on most people, Stuart-Smith points out. Heart rate and blood pressure drop within minutes of exposure to natural surroundings like parks and gardens. Cortisol the fight-or-flight hormone that assaults our well-being when we endure sustained stress drops within 20 to 30 minutes. The scents of blooms from lavender, rosemary, and citrus summon mood-elevating chemicals. The scent of roses actually allows our body to hang onto endorphin highs longer, extending that blissful inhalation.