In Loving Memory

Edwin Penn & Walker Shank

Making the most of a tragic situation, that’s how Rooster Walk came about.

The Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival was created in memory of two of our best childhood friends who passed away while still in their 20s: Edwin “the Rooster” Penn and Walker Shank. Proceeds raised from Rooster Walk go to the Penn-Shank Memorial Scholarship at Martinsville High School.

That being said, Rooster Walk is a great big butt-kicking party (just the way they would’ve wanted it). It celebrates life and the notion that you shouldn’t waste a moment of it.

When Edwin died in a dirt-bike accident in November 2007, and Walker passed from heart trouble while asleep in his apartment in December 2008, close friends decided a music festival was a fitting way to tribute. The Penn-Shank Memorial LLC was created, with the idea that proceeds from the festival go toward a college scholarship fund at their alma mater, Martinsville High School.

We’re happy to report that the mission has been a great success. We’ve donated $15,000 to the “Penn-Shank Memorial Scholarship Fund” at MHS thus far. We’ve also awarded two scholarships. That honor went to Sara Kasey (seen in the photo to the right while being honored onstage at RW2), a 2010 graduate of MHS and a current sophomore at Randolph College. Last year, Blake Hughes (JMU) was named the Penn-Shank Memorial Scholarship winner. The third scholarship winner will be announced this May and honored at RW4.

Martinsville has been a poster child for this country’s struggle with jobs going overseas and a shrinking middle class. The city has led Virginia in unemployment for more than decade, often with a jobless figure above 15 percent.

But Martinsville is beginning to bounce back, thanks in part to strong grassroots efforts from a wide range of devoted citizens. Rooster Walk is being embraced for its tourism and quality of life values, playing a small but important role in area’s social fabric. … And the folks organizing this shindig couldn’t be prouder.