One of the bands biggest hits was released in the summer of 1979, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

The song became a Platinum single, topped both the country and pop charts and won a Grammy Award. It also earned three Country Music Association trophies and was the main song in the movie soundtrack of Urban Cowboy.

The band has had a number of Platinum albums including Full Moon (1980), Simple Man (1989) and A Decade of Hits (1983).

Born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1936 Charlie Daniels was raised on music that included gospel, bluegrass, rhythm & blues and country.

Upon graduation from high school he formed a rock ‘n’ roll band and took off on the road. The rest as they say is history.

Over the years he has had recording sessions with the likes of Bob Dylan, Flatt & Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Ringo Starr and Johnny Cash. His songs have been documented by the ABC Newsmagazine 20/20.

The stop at in Manchester on Friday, July 11 will be the bands third concert in July. They start out in Blue Ash, Ohio on July 4th before going to Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee, Maryland and ending up back in Ohio on July 25th.

Country and Western Night (Thursday, July 10) will feature one of the hottest young singers around in Rodney Atkins.

Atkins signed with Curb Records in 2002 and released a pair of Top 440 singles later that year.
In 2003 the single, Honesty (Write Me a List) climbed into the Top 5. His big break through came in 2006 when his single, “If You’re Going Through Hell” (Before the Devil Knows) gradually climbed to No. 1 on Billboards country airplay chart.

His newest number one song is “Cleaning This Gun,” which held down the number one spot for two weeks.

Atkins was named the Top New Male Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music in 2006.

The Friends of the West Delaware Athletic/Activities Center held a “Kick-off” get together last Friday night at the Pavilion on the Delaware County Fairgrounds.

More than 200 people gathered for a night that was split into three separate parts.

The evening’s activities started with a social hour and a chance to look at the items offered on a silent auction.

At 6:30 a meal was served consisting of ribeye steak, baked fish, mashed potatoes, green beans, dinner roll and a cheesecake desert. Local caterer, Annette Harbaugh was in charge of the food.

Following the meal the crowd was treated to short speeches from a pair of area athletes before giving way to the legendary Dan Gable.

Eric Saunders, a former Oelwein prep, and four-sport letterman, and quarterback for the national runner-up UNI Panthers took the stage first.

Sanders related to the crowd how that he took a chance at UNI as a walk-on in their football program. Also touching on how hard work played such a big part in allowing him to reach the goals that he has.

This past season while leading the Panthers to the Gateway championship and the runner-up spot nationally he completed an incredible 75.2 percent of his passes for 2,842 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Those types of numbers landed him a first team All-Gateway conference selection and also the Gateway Offensive Player of the Year.

He also finished second in the Walter Payton Award balloting, the FCS’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

Following Sanders to the podium was former West Delaware stand out athlete, Bob Swift.

Bob was the only junior in a senior dominated offensive line for the Panthers during this past season.

As Bob addressed the crowd he related what he had learned from his various coaches in high school and how they had helped him to become the player and person that he is today.

He recalled the leadership that he received from coaches Sam Anderson and Mike Morrison while playing football and from Coach Jeff Voss while wrestling.

He also called teammate Eric Sanders one of the most influential people he has been around. Swift said that Sanders is a quiet person who leads by example with an incredible work ethic. It is that kind of work ethic that Bob has adopted and with a little luck will allow him to play football beyond the collegiate level.

The third and final speaker to take the stage was the leg-endary Dan Gable.

Mr. Gable is the first name that comes to mind when wrestling at any level is being talked about.

During his high school and college careers he compiled an unbelievable overall record of 182-1. He related how that one loss has haunted him for some 38 years.

He took the crowd back through some of his more memorable matches, relating very interesting mental as-pects of those matches, not the actual physical takedowns, etc.

Mr. Gable also shared some philosophy regarding his outlooks on both life and wrestling.

He also shared a number of past memories of the Man-chester area and how this part of the state holds a special place in his heart.

Two of the top wrestling awards given out by the Uni-versity of Iowa wrestling team are named after a pair of prominent long time family residents of Manchester, Ruth Beckman and John and Dorothy Sill.

Following Mr. Gable’s speech there was a half hour break to allow the speakers to be on their way and as well for the guests to take their final looks at auction items.

Mike Loecke took the stage with microphone in hand to conduct the auction. He not only did his usual great job of getting the most out of the particular item being auctioned but kept bidders on their toes and the edge of their seats with his own form of stand-up comedy.

When all was said and done the evening was marked as a huge success by those involved.

“We had a very good turn out for this “Kick-Off” night and hopefully this will set the tone for the rest of our fundraising activities as we move forward,” commented committee member, Don Finn.

“I thought that Mitch Pey-ton and the entire group that helped put this event on did just a fantastic job from the beginning to the end,” concluded Finn.

The Friends of the West Delaware Activities/Athletic Center are just beginning their quest towards raising $750,000 to put towards the construction of a new com-petition gymnasium on the West Delaware High School Campus.