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News from the Roanoke Valley for December 23, 2011.
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ROAnOkE vAwww.luckydogpub.comLocated beside the BAC (Botetourt Athletic Club)on route 604, Cloverdale Road, halfway between route 460 and i-81.
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The Roanoke Star-SentinelNewsRoanoke.comDecember 23 - 29, 2011 Merry ChristMas!
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With the help of a five thousand dollar grant from Freedom First Credit Union, the Roanoke Community Garden As-sociation plans to open its third plot to the public next spring. The 30 x 170 patch of land on 4th Avenue SE is being leased by local landlord Frank Roupas for one dollar per year. The RCGA had previously opened plots on 14th Street SE and in the northwest Roanoke City neighborhood of Hurt Park.
Local residents apply for space in the community garden plots, which are designed for those who do not have an opportunity to garden where they live – they may reside in an apartment, have rocky soil unsuitable for planning, etc. Community Garden Association Di-rector Mark Powell, who got started when he and wife Syl-vja were just thinking about doing their own gardening, said the new plot in Southeast will also be available to residents of the adjacent Roanoke Rescue Mission who are in re-covery programs.
Some apply for and use gardens “for the pleasure of joining others,” said Powell, but most have no access to till-able soil. A number are refugees and immigrants from other countries where growing your own food for sustenance
is a way of life. More than 1000 pounds of fruits and vegetables grown at the larger 14th Street community garden
were given to several local food pantries last year.
“It’s a great community-building park,” said Powell,
who has been involved with the Occupy Roanoke movement and dabbled in campaign management (Martin Jeffrey) in the past.
Some federal funding via HUD, grants and private donations have helped fund the RCGA, which must run water supplies to the garden plots, > CONTINUED
P2: Garden
A Very Merry Library
Lenny Marcus (right, on piano) and his band have plenty to be merry about and it’s not just the usual standing room only crowd that attended his annual holiday concert at Roanoke’s Main Library on
Tuesday night. A Roanoke Physician by trade, Marcus has kept his considerable jazz skills alive by con-tinuing to play regionally and releasing 18 CD’s to date. His latest release “The Jazz of Beethoven” is receiv-ing strong reviews nationally and even stirring up a buzz in the New York City jazz scene. The accolades are well earned as Marcus has received recognition in two international song writing competitions and had his music featured on NPR’s “All that Jazz” and CNN’s “Heros” series. If you watch the Weather Channel you’ve also likely heard some of his work as you’ve taken in the forecast. If you’re looking for that perfect last minute gift or just some great tunes for the New Year you can pick up a copy of his new CD locally at Barnes and Noble or online at Amazon, CD Baby or iTunes.
State-Of-The-Art Technology And Quality Care Make Birthing Easier
Having a baby has gotten just a little easier for women in the Roanoke region thanks to a $2.5 million renovation to the Maternity Care Center at LewisGale. The 521-bed hospital in Salem, now boasts a state-of-the-art maternity care unit on the hospital’s second floor. The unit includes nine Labor-Delivery-Recovery-Postpartum suites that are 50 percent larger than they previously were, as well as eight postpar-tum suites and a physician sleeping suite.
“We’ve put mom, baby and the whole family into the design of this unit. We’re not just focused on the patient. We’re focused on the whole family,” said Karen Henson, director of the Maternity Care Center. “This is family-centered care.”
The rooms, which overlook Electric and Keagy roads in Salem, look more like a master bedroom than a hospital room. From the cherry colored hardwood floors and 37” flat screen televisions to the high-tech fe-tal monitoring systems, many postpartum
[Beautification]
Rasoul Sought Advice in Decision to Run for Mayor
“No one sought me out to run,” said Sam Rasoul. Those he spoke to “outline the pros and cons” of his decision to run for Mayor, he said. Some were worried about it upsetting the Democratic council’s status quo. “I really had to think long and hard about that … This is not an anti-David Bowers campaign.”
Mayor David Bowers’ reaction to Rasoul’s announcement last week was one of accep-tance. He said, “I get challenges every day and this is just another interesting challenge I’ve got to deal with.” It is up to the public on who they want as Mayor and “I’ve always found Roanok-ers to take that very genuinely.”
Some have questioned Rasoul’s recent move from Botetourt County to Roanoke City. Ra-soul confirmed his move from a Botetourt County rental to a Glade Creek apartment in the city’s Wildwood community. He lives there with his wife Layaly and two young daughters, Jennah and Amirah.
He has lived in the Roanoke Valley since age three when he attended Greenvale School, a non-profit childcare center in Northwest Roa-noke. After graduating from Roanoke College
[Local Politics]
> CONTINUEDP2: Rasoul
Electronics are once again dominat-ing holiday shopping lists this season. In fact, analysts with the Consumer Elec-tronics Association predict shoppers will spend six percent more on electron-ics this year compared to last – or about $250 per consumer. And for every new laptop, tablet, phone, TV, gaming system and scores of other gadgets, an outdated device likely will be replaced. For those old electronics, the question is, “Now what?”
First off, do not throw replaced elec-tronics in the trash. Electronic devices are comprised of a range of toxic com-ponents that can be harmful to human
health and the environment if discarded in the same waste stream as the rest of your household garbage. Trashed elec-tronics, or “e-waste,” contain heavy met-als such as lead, mercury and cadmium, which can leach out of landfills and into groundwater or nearby waterways. The good news is that there are several alternatives for dis-posing of your e-waste, in-cluding reuse and recycling.
One ideal method that is in keeping with the holiday spirit is to find a local community electronics recycling fund-raiser to properly dispose of your out-dated electronics while helping to raise
funds for a local organization. With the current economic climate most non-profits, schools and other organizations are experiencing harder times. Not only will recycling benefit an organization in need, but the environment as well by diverting the e-waste from the land-
fill. Contact your favorite nonprofit or other charitable organization to find an event near you.
Another option is to look into elec-tronics take-back programs. Many elec-tronics retailers, like Best Buy or Staples, will accept your e-waste for free or a small handling fee, regardless of brand
or condition. Several manufacturers, too, will take back retired products, although these take-back programs vary in terms of fees and conditions. A quick internet search of your local electronics retailer or manufacturers’ recycling policy will provide instructions for their take-back process.
Many cities’ waste management di-visions also have electronics recycling programs, though opportunities differ in size and scope. Some municipalities have designated e-waste collection sites,
Buying New Electronics This Season? Don’t Trash the Old Ones!
A newly renovated labor and delivery room at LewisGale Maternity Center.
> CONTINUEDP2: Electronics
Community Garden Program Expands
[Recycling]
> CONTINUED P2: Birthing
[Holiday Cheer]
PastChristmasP4– Mary Jo Shannon takes us back to a less distracted time when simple things meant so much more.
PatsSmoking Hot
P7– The Patrick Henry boys basketball team continues to dominate as it heads into the k-Guard Holiday Classic undefeated.
TrendUpward
P8– The Roanoke valley housing market is heading in the right direction for sellers with sales / prices going up and inventory going down.
PullenHonoring
P9– Legendary Jazz musi-cian Don Pullen is finally honored in his hometown as The Jeff Center and the Harrison Museum team up for an exhibit and concert.
Mary Jo Shannon
(L-R) Joy Sylvester Johnson, Rod Nunez Thomas Chapman, Mark Pow-ell and Frank Roupas.
Page 2 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 12/23/11 -12/29/11 newsRoanoke.com
More rain is possible with another storm system Thursday into Friday morning. Temperatures remain above average with highs near 60 for the end of the week.For the weekend, many of us look to stay dry on Saturday and Christmas Day. Southside though may see a few showers on Sunday. Temperatures will top out in the low 50s.
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> Rasoul From page 1
with a Business Administration degree in 2002, he completed his Masters degree at Hawaii Pacific University with a focus on International Business.
Rasoul, now 30, said that while many of his friends left Roanoke after completing school, he chose to stay and contribute to an area that has blessed him with so much. In 2008 at age 27, he ran as a Democrat against Bob Goodlatte (R-6) and though he lost, he garnered 53% of the vote in Roanoke City.
Since then, Rasoul has sold his video store and other smaller business ventures but he still owns the Lamplighter Mall. His wife had helped run those businesses but now their two young daughters keep her busy, he said.
In 2009, he became the Chief Financial Officer at Kissito Healthcare headquartered at Valleypointe. They provide post-acute care for the elderly funded by private and government grants. They also partner with the Ministries of Health in Ethiopia and Uganda.
“During these economic times Roanoke cannot afford to be complacent,” he said.
With his financial skills he said he would make sure that “every dollar is spent as wisely as possible.” He believes Roanoke taxpayers expect it.
With budget constraints coming from Richmond and Washington D.C. “we’re go-ing to need some strong leadership to make sure we watch every single dollar.”
Bringing jobs to Roanoke means going
to Richmond and the Virginia Department of Economic Development Partnership and advocating for why jobs should come to the Valley. “The Governor only cares about bringing jobs to Virginia to make them-selves look good … But who’s making the case for Roanoke?” asked Rasoul.
“The Mayor through that leadership really sets that tone … there is a lot more the city could be doing to make Roanoke a formidable regional player to attract more jobs.”
Rasoul said that Roanoke City’s legisla-tors if asked, “probably expect more of [Ro-anoke’s] legislative agenda.”
At a breakfast with Delegate Onzlee Ware, Rasoul sought Ware’s advice on running. He also later met with Mignon Chubb-Hale, a big long-term care and geriatric advocate he said. Some influential Democrats believe in “not ruffling any feathers” but Rasoul said
Ware was encouraging.Rasoul says that education should be
another focal point for attracting business. “Our students are competing globally and our country has fallen way behind. Educa-tion is the only equalizer – so it is important that we maximize every tax dollar spent on education, to build the capacity [and] to en-sure that every single child comes to school ready to learn, and receives a high quality education.”
He plans to spend his time listening to Roanokers and learning more about their thoughts on improving the city.
Councilman Sherman Lea said in a phone call that he thinks the Mayor needs to be vigilant – “[Rasoul] has shown through the last election that he beat Bob Goodlatte in the city. I’m surprised by it but I hope that nobody would underestimate him. That’s the thing about politics – you can’t under-estimate your opponent.”
Lea again reiterated that he is not run-ning for Mayor and will seek another term for city council. The firehouse primary will be in February at William Fleming High School.
Rasoul plans to formally announce his candidacy after the first of the year.
Sam Rasoul
By valerie [email protected]
> Birthing From page 1
women and their families may find they don’t want to leave. Each of the private rooms also has a sleeper sofa for overnight guests, re-placing the older style reclining chairs that the rooms used to have. The rooms also include in-room refrigerators and walk-in showers and one of the rooms has a labor tub.
To streamline the recovery process for moms who deliver by c-section, a dedicated operating room suite for c-sections means new moms can quickly and easily move from the operating room af-ter delivery into a postpartum suite to recover. In the past, patients have been required to spend about two hours in the recovery room. During that time they could not be with their new baby or signifi-cant other.
“Patients are now brought back to the unit immediately after their c-section to facilitate that skin to skin contact and initiate breast feeding,” said Henson. “Women want to be with their babies immediately.”
About 30 percent of LewisGale deliveries are c-sections.It isn’t all in the look of the center through. The renovation also
included the installation of several security features designed to en-sure that new moms can rest a little easier.
The centralized monitoring system transmits real-time date, including fetal heartbeat and contraction patterns, to each of the three nurses’ stations on the unit and directly to the patients’ chart and permanent medical record. Doctors can also access the stats via their smart phones, allowing them to monitor their patients from anywhere.
“This has allowed us to be able to monitor from the bedside, which we’ve always been able to do, as well as outside of the room,” said Dr. Christopher Kelley, an OB/GYN with LewisGale Regional Health System. “I can be in the office doing my daily work and still have the availability to peek in and make sure everything is going well with baby and mom.”
The larger rooms also help accommodate all of the staff members who have a job to do in the room during the delivery, he explained.
A new infant security system also ensures that babies cannot be taken from the unit until they are discharged. In addition to securi-ty cameras strategically placed throughout the unit, the system also includes tamper-proof ankle monitors for the newborns. If the tag is loosened or removed, an alarm will trigger a lockdown, prevent-ing anyone from leaving the unit.
They have also instituted a visiting policy that requires visitors to be admitted to the locked maternity unit.
According to a Centers for Disease Control report released in November, birth rates for women of all races and most age groups across the county have declined over the past three years to the low-est rate since record-keeping began in the 1940s. National experts blame the dismal economic picture for the decrease.
That isn’t the case though for LewisGale where officials have seen the hospital’s birth rate nearly double during the last two years, from about 400 in 2009 to 800 so far in 2011. Officials hope the number will continue to increase now, thanks to the renovation.
“Not only are [our patients] getting the new technology, they are getting the personal care that the community loves and has come to expect of us here at LewisGale,” said Henson. “That’s why they come here.”
The maternity unit staff consists of about 50 staff members in-cluding nine physicians and two internationally certified lactation consultants as well as a full-time onsite birth registrar. The unit was last renovated in 1980.
Tours of the newly renovated unit will begin in January. For more information call: 877-242-2362.
> Garden From page 1
grade them where necessary, erect on-site tool sheds, etc. Two of three plots were leased for a dollar per year. “Having the land [virtually rent-free] is great,” noted Powell. He envi-sions about thirty plots being available in the new commu-nity garden near the Rescue Mission.
The Foundation for Roanoke Valley has also awarded the RCGA a grant. Powell spoke to more than 300 people about community gardening at the Patrick Henry Hotel recently. “It really has been quite a leap,” he said about his own journey from a pilot project a few years ago to a growing network of
community gardens. He is also working with others to open more community markets where people can buy or sell fresh local produce.
Powell, who drives a cab for a living when not promoting the association and is expect-ing his first child with Sylvja, estimates that about half of Roanoke City’s population – around 50,000 – does not have access to land where they could grow fruits and vegetables, for one reason or another. He envi-sions more community garden plots, in all quadrants of the city.
Hundreds of volunteers have helped prepare the garden plots; the Virginia Cooperative Extension office on Brambleton Avenue has provided exper-
tise to those who haven’t quite figured out the green thumb thing. “We’ve really benefited greatly [from the Extension of-fice]. They’ve been conducting workshops for us,” said Powell
Children from afterschool programs have visited and lent a hand as they also learn more about gardening and healthy foods. Roupas wasn’t a hard sell. “It wasn’t much of a stretch to ask for this 4th Avenue par-cel,” said Powell, “I think he definitely sees the benefit of serving Rescue Mission Cli-ents and building bridges [to] southeast residents.”
Powell is a southeast resident himself who has worked hard to promote the largely blue-col-lar quadrant of the city. “We’re seeing a lot of good things
emerge.” A lowered crime rate, the greenway that runs through southeast and bike paths in the process of being designated are helping reshape the area’s im-age, according to Powell.
He didn’t have much of a green thumb himself until he first tried gardening about four years ago. His mother told him he might be amazed by what happens when you plant a seed or two. “It’s personally been very satisfying,” said Powell.
(See roanokecommunitygar-den.org for more information or to make a donation)
By Gene [email protected]
while others might host periodic events to collect e-waste. Typically municipalities contract with third-party e-waste recyclers that process the col-lected material on behalf of the city. Check your city’s website to learn about opportunities to drop off your e-waste or have it collected.
Finally, consumers should look to see if e-waste recycling companies, such as those that contract with cities, have a facility nearby. These com-panies usually contract with organizations and businesses to handle large volumes of e-waste, but many welcome materials directly from indi-viduals. Depending on the company, some accept electronics at their local facility at any time, some have designated days for public drop-off and oth-ers host periodic collection events with local part-ners.
Unfortunately, however, there are some bad seeds in the e-waste recycling industry. Individu-als, municipalities and businesses should take several important steps before selecting a recycler, thereby ensuring their e-waste is properly man-aged. For example, make sure the recycler is either Responsible Recycler (R2) or e-Stewards certified, which is one indicator that the recycler is adher-ing to environmental best practices. Also, even if
you think your electronic device has been cleared of personal data, be sure the recycler offers data destruction compliant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to make cer-tain all data is wiped clean.
Lastly, ask with whom a recycler does business. Some recyclers don’t actually handle the recycling of equipment and only collect the material for recycling. Not knowing exactly where your elec-tronics are being recycled could put you—and the environment—at risk. The best recyclers are those that “own the lifecycle,” offering a complete range of remarketing and recycling services internally, thereby eliminating reliance on subcontractors, and thus improving accountability and security.
This holiday season when you are making room for your new electronic devices, remember there are plenty of homes for your old ones, but the gar-bage is not one of them.
Steve Skurnac is the president of Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS). SRS operates 50 sites all over the world, including 14 facilities across the U.S. and Canada. To find the location nearest you, visit us.simsrecycling.com.
> Electronics From page 1
newsRoanoke.com 12/23/11- 12/29/11 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |Page 3
Sneaky Exercise Gets ResultsMany people dream about becoming fit and
healthy without grueling exercise. Or you think of every excuse possible to avoid going to a gym or even exercising at home with a DVD or equip-ment. The expense! The hassle! The truth is that you will not maintain any weight loss or state of health without regular physical exercise. You must keep moving. The good news is there are many ways to achieve increased movement and exercise that can be creative, fun, and free.
1. Park as far as you can from the door or store. Park on the furthest end of the mall from your destination. Add steps to your day whenever pos-sible. Every one helps.
2. Never take an elevator when you can take the stairs. You don’t need an expensive stair climber apparatus. Climbing stairs helps with aerobic con-ditioning as well as muscle building. Don’t take them too quickly at first and don’t do more than one flight at the beginning. Increase your toler-ance gradually
3. Stop using your remote controls. Get up and change the channel or volume control yourself.
4. Stop using an intercom at work. Get up and communicate face to face. Get out of your chair at least every hour and walk around. If you can’t at least take a stretch break.
5. Walk instead of standing and stand instead of sitting to burn more calories.
6. Use every commercial break when watching television to stretch, do a few sit-ups or touch your toes. Never sit still to watch a commercial.
7. Instead of passively standing in line at the bank or grocery do isometrics. Without holding your breath just tighten your abdominal (stom-
ach) muscles for a count of five or ten then relax. Do this many times and soon you will be on your way to a tighter tummy.
8. Purchase a pedometer if you can to count your steps. Try to set a long-term goal of 10,000 steps a day. The average person’s stride length is 2.5 feet. A bit over 2000 steps would be a mile and 10000 steps is 5 miles. At first try to increase the number of steps you take by 500 a day each week. Wear the pedometer a week to see how many steps you take a day. Most sedentary people only get 1000 to 3000 a day. How many steps do you take in a day?
9. A pint weighs a pound which makes a gal-lon of milk weigh around 8.6 pounds. Do some weight lifting in the kitchen by doing a few curls in the morning while getting your breakfast. You don’t need expensive weights. Be creative.
10. If you are able leave the laundry basket on the floor and do some deep knee bends while folding the wash. Do lunges while sweeping or mopping. Hover just above your chair for a mo-ment and feel your thigh muscles engage before sitting down to a meal.
Exercise and physical activity doesn’t require an expensive gym or equipment. Be creative and you can be on your way to a fitter, healthier you for 2012. Happy New You!
Dr. Kenneth Luckay DO is the Medical Direc-tor at the Center for Medical Weight Loss located at 4515 Brambleton Ave in Roanoke. He can be reached at 398-1547 or Email: [email protected].
We’d like to extend a HomeTown welcome to Melissa Mason.
Melissa joins HomeTown Bank’s Mortgage team as Senior Vice President and Mortgage Manager. With a twenty-year career in banking and the past ten years concentrated in mortgage, Melissa brings a wealth of expertise to HomeTown Bank. Melissa’s knowledge of the ever-changing iindustry and her personal service has helped hundreds of homeowners realize their dreams.
Contact Melissa to discover why it’s good to be home.
540.278.1731 | [email protected]
Member FDIC
City Announces Holiday Trash Collection Schedule City of Roanoke offices will be closed on Mon-
day, Dec. 26, for the Christmas holiday. As a result, collection of trash, mixed paper recycling, brush, and Christmas trees will be delayed by one day for the remainder of the week.
Residential/Commercial:• Monday's routes for trash, recycling, brush,
and Christmas trees will be collected on Tuesday, Dec. 27.
• Tuesday's routes will be collected on Wednes-day, Dec. 28.
• Wednesday's routes will be collected on
Thursday, Dec. 29.• Thursday's routes will be collected on Friday,
Dec. 30.Central Business District:The Central Business District will be collected
on a normal schedule.Residents are advised that in addition to the
week of Dec. 26, there will be an opportunity to recycle Christmas trees with brush collections the week of Jan. 9.
For more information, call 853-2000, and select option 1.
Shriners Support Apple Ridge Farm Kids
More than 50 Apple Ridge Farm children, parents and guests were treated to a special holiday celebration on Saturday, December 17 by the Aladdin Temple Shriners. Apple Ridge Farm President, Peter Lewis, said, “The party was a great suc-cess, and we were so pleased
with the Shriners tremendous support and grateful to all that made it possible.”
Guests enjoyed punch, pizza and desert and fun educational games and holiday activities, including spelling and word searches.
“Soulful Santa” also made a
special appearance and every-one received a free 5x7 photo with Santa. Christmas gifts and bikes were generously pro-vided by The Daughters of Isis. “We are indeed blessed to have friends and supporters like the Shriners to help us ‘help kids grow’,” Lewis added.
Volunteer Tree Stewards Needed to Help Care for City's Urban ForestFor the fourth consecutive year, Roanoke Parks
and Recreation is offering a Tree Steward course to educate and train the public on tree care. The 10-week course begins on Jan. 23 and meets on Monday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. at the City of Roanoke Municipal Building at 215 W. Church Ave. Two additional Saturday field sessions will be required to complete the program.
Upon completion of the program, participants will be expected to volunteer a minimum of 30 hours in the first year, and 20 hours in subsequent years. Volunteer Tree Stewards will help plant, monitor, and prune the thousands of trees that grow in Roanoke's parks and along its streets. They also help the public understand tree care and the
benefits of trees. Roanoke Urban Forestry Plan-ner Helen Smythers says the city's Tree Stewards represent a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, with one thing in common: "They all share a love of trees," she says.
Pre-registration is required by Jan. 17, 2012. There is no charge for the course due to a grant from the Virginia Department of Forestry and the USDA Urban and Community Forest Program.
For more information including registration, contact Helen Smythers at 853-5225 or [email protected]. Additional informa-tion can be found by visiting www.roanokeva.gov/treestewards.
December Notes BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Many of us keep journals, but while doing so few of us pay much attention to selecting the most pre-
cise words, to determining their most effective order, to working with effective pauses and breath-like pacing, to presenting an engaging impression of a single, unique day. This poem by Nebraskan Nancy McCleery is a good example of one poet’s carefully recorded observations.
The backyard is one white sheet Where we read in the bird tracks
The songs we hear. Delicate Sparrow, heavier cardinal, Filigree threads of chickadee. And wing patterns where one flew Low, then up and away, gone To the woods but calling out
Clearly its bright epigrams. More snow promised for tonight. The postal van is stalled In the road again, the mail Will be late and any good news Will reach us by hand.
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Don’t Forget to ReadA happy New Year’s
event will soon be upon us: The open-
ing of the new Roanoke County Library. One can scarcely imag-ine the complexities of moving tens of thousands of books, to say nothing of all the electronics involved. There is one key thing that will be left behind: the won-derful soft smell of old books sitting silently on the shelves.
Smell is one of the most evocative of memories and the li-brary smell certainly is one of them. A pot-bellied stove in the middle of a small room marked my first visits to a library and in my mind’s eye that leapt into the present every time I went into the now-closed Electric Road headquarters. The first trip into the new facil-ity and a deep breath might of-fer a whiff of the past, but not likely.
When the plans were con-ceived for the new structure, e-books were the stuff of the future. Not so this holiday sea-son. Kindles, Nooks, iPads, and assorted other e-readers will find their way under millions of Christmas trees. It takes a little getting used to the feel of reading from one, but they are
truly miraculous devices. The dedicated e-reader will be a relic within a few years as much more versatile devices will con-tain that technology, too.
It will be interesting to see how libraries handle this revolu-tion. Will the hardback printed
book become the Vic-trola (a word that isn’t even in the computer dictionary) of our day?
Instead of a glitzy building, will all read-ing material be stored in the Cloud, whatever that is? The idea of be-ing able to download
the latest New York Times best seller in five seconds is al-
ready a reality but at a price. The economics of who sets the price is an ongoing struggle between publishers, electronic distributors, agents, and who knows who else.
I had assumed that libraries, which obviously have to buy the rights to the e-book, would have an unlimited supply of every book they download, but not so. If that were true, then it would be the death knell to the publishing industry; they are already in a near-terminal state. One copy at a time, just like a hardcover book, is what the library has told me. And just like a “real” book, there is
a two-week limit on the check-out date. How can they enforce that, I wondered? Very simply, it turns out. The library com-puter reaches into my e-book and—poof—it’s gone. They do give you a two day heads up it’s going to happen. We are a long way from being able to down-load for free an entire library for personal use, but it’s getting there.
Amazing as it may sound, the Cloud is able to follow your progress in reading a book. If you download to your desktop and an e-reader, they “talk” to each other. That’s very conve-nient if you are reading at more than one site. On booting up the home computer to read, there appears a note saying that you had last read to page 256 at that location, but elsewhere you are now on page 310. Synch to the farthest page read, the machine asks? Out there in cyberspace something knows, not only what I am reading, but where I got it, how long I can keep it, what I paid for it and, if so, how much. Convenience at a cost; what else do they know? A trip down that road can lead to unbridled paranoia, but let’s not go there.
Layered onto this matrix is the disturbing fact that read-ing is definitely on the decline. In 2007 Alan Fram reported in The Washington Post that slightly more than 25% of adults read not a single book that year. I’m surprised the figure wasn’t higher. A Gallup poll in 2005 showed that the average annual number of books read per capi-ta fell from 10 to 5 between 1999 and the survey year. The Na-tional Endowment for the Arts reported that in 2002 43% of the adult population in this country read no book in that year.
I feel myself slipping into the curmudgeon mode which is not my intention, but I will leave readers with two thoughts. First, a middle school teacher told me that as long as you read books you will never be alone. And second, our wonderful new library is worth our support and we can be proud of Roanoke County for getting this done. I will miss the aroma but trust books will not go the way of the pot-bellied stove.
Contact Hayden [email protected]
Hayden Hollingsworth
Memories Of Christmas PastChristmases seventy
years ago in rural Augusta County – at
least in our family – were much simpler than Christmases today. As soon as Thanksgiving was past, we children pored over the Sears & Roebuck catalog, study-ing the toys and trying to decide which we really wanted most. With crayons of different col-ors assigned to us, we marked several, hoping that Santa would choose one of them to bring on Christmas Eve. Each afternoon we huddled around the radio to hear Santa read letters children mailed to him, care of WSVA, Harrison-burg, Virginia.
On the Saturday before Christmas, we rode to Staun-ton in the back of the pick-up truck, with Daddy at the wheel and Mama beside him, to go Christmas shopping. While Daddy shot the breeze with friends in Worthington’s Hardware, Mama headed for Leggett and Montgomery Ward to buy gifts for her husband and children, her brother and her sisters. My younger brothers, Frank and Clinton, were trusted to my care.
We paused often to gaze into store windows adorned with Christmas trees and fake snow and magnificent gifts for the special season. A book store featured a Nativity scene with the Holy Family and a man-ger filled with straw. At last we made our way to the "ten-cent" stores – Woolworth’s and Mc-Croy’s – where we would do our shopping. (Yesterday’s ten-cent stores or dime stores or "5 and 10s," as they were often called, are today’s Dollar stores.) Here we would find gifts for the chil-dren whose names we drew at school, and for our teachers, our parents and each other. A dime
or two could buy a handker-chief or a comic book, a couple of pencils or an eraser. And lots of tempting candies and bubble gum. When our money was spent, we spent time – looking at the merchandise we couldn’t buy and listening to the town clock sound the hour.
At twelve o’clock we walked a few doors down Beverly Street to Wilson’s Drug store, where
we would meet Mama and sit on bent wood chairs at round, glass topped tables and enjoy a grilled cheese sand-wich and a Coke before Daddy took us home with our treasures.
Plain tissue pa-per, usually white, served as gift wrap. We didn’t use boxes, and
guessing the contents by feeling the package added to the fun. We didn’t have Scotch tape but used Christmas stickers—paper shapes with Santas, stockings, wreaths or other Christmas symbols, backed with a coating of dried glue. They had to be licked and applied to hold the paper together, and the taste was not pleasant. The only rib-bon we used was the narrow, crinkle type paper ribbon.
Food was, then as now, a cen-tral part of the holiday celebra-tion. We children cracked the black walnuts gathered in the fall and Mama used them in her pound cake. A coconut cake was also essential to her way of thinking, and she bought a fresh coconut for that purpose. I remember how she held it be-tween her knees and punctured the “eyes” with a hammer and nail so the water could drain into a cup. (This she would use in the batter for the white cake layers.) She used the hammer to crack the hard shell, and pried the pearly white chunks of meat
from the shell with a table knife. These pieces were covered with a tough brown skin that had to be peeled away before the coco-nut could be grated. When I was ten I was old enough to grate the coconut. Believe me, it’s difficult to grate coconut without grating your fingers!
When we visited our aunt on the day after Christmas, we took her a slice of the coconut cake. Of course, we had a piece of her cake and although noth-ing was said, I’m sure the two sisters compared them, and each thought her own was bet-ter. Later, Mama would confide to me, “Geanie’s cake may look prettier, but I think mine tasted better.”
Daddy usually cut a cedar tree from our rocky pasture for our Christmas tree. We decorated it with sycamore balls covered with the tinfoil from discarded cigarette packages, strings of popcorn, and our one store-bought decoration – a string of colored lights. I suppose it looked like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but we thought it was beautiful with its tinfoil star on top and the multicolored lights aglow.
On Christmas Eve we sat around our tree while Mama read the Christmas story from her big Bible. We sang Christ-mas carols – actually, we had sung carols throughout the days of preparation for Christmas, at home, at school and at church – but tonight in the glow of the tree and the white candles on the table, following the story according to Luke, the words seemed to have more meaning. We felt love in the room and we sensed the love of God coming to earth to live among men.
And that is the same today and forever.
Contact Mary Jo [email protected]
Mary Jo Shannon
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REVERSE MORTGAGES
The build-up to Christmas that is the Christmas season - or
if you are focused on what mat-ters most, Advent - can be very full as we all know. So Christ-mas Day and especially the day after Christmas can have such a nice, welcomed, relaxed pace.
Which is how it should be - es-pecially if we have missed the chance to reflect on the great gift of “God with us” because of the hustle and bustle of it all.
I try to do this and I also just try to use the days to rest. So no cooking or baking left for me - I play with the kids, read a good book and just soak it all in.
Preparing this delicious soup by Alton Brown ahead of time helps to allow me to do all these things on the day after Christ-mas. It’s name is fitting, for it is a true Christmas gift that gives me the day off from my Elfish duties that have filled all the previous days. Merry Christ-mas to all you. My hope is that you find your quiet peaceful
time this season too.
1 pound kielbasa, sliced 1/4-inch thick on bias Vegetable oil, as needed 8 cloves garlic, minced 1 pound red kidney beans, soaked at least 4 hours and up to overnight 2 quarts chicken broth 1 pound red bliss potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 6 ounces fresh kale, approxi-mately 4 handfuls 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Place the kielbasa into a 7-quart Dutch oven and set over medium-low heat. Cook until the kielbasa has browned well and rendered its fat, ap-proximately 15 minutes. If you do not have at least 2 teaspoons of fat, add enough vegetable oil to make 2 teaspoons. Remove the kielbasa from the pan and set aside.
Add the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constant-ly to prevent the garlic from burning. Add the beans and the chicken broth and cook, covered, for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, add the potatoes, cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Wash, rinse and trim the kale and tear into bite size pieces. Add the kale to the pot, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes or just until it is ten-der, but not mushy.
Add the red wine vinegar and black pepper and stir to combine. Evenly distribute the kielbasa between 8 soup bowls. Laddle the soup into bowls and serve.
Local Crossword for 12/23/2011
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14
15 16 17
18 19 20
21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31 32 33
34 35 36
37 38 39
40 41 42 43 44 45 46
47 48 49
50 51 52
53 54 55
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
ACROSS
1 Umpire 4 Obstacle 8 Rushed
12 Boxer Muhammad 13 Video 14 Ma 15 Queasy 16 A wager (2 wds.) 17 70's drug 18 Adonis 20 Extreme 21 Former USSR's
secret police 22 Sign language 23 Dog food brand 26 Spots 27 Goblet 30 The first village in
the Roanoke area established in 1834.
34 Ogle 35 Butane 36 Attention-Deficit
Hyperactive Disorder (abbr.)
37 Sextet 38 Tons 40 This Roanoker
developed a move called the Gorilla Press Slam and is in the WWF Hall of Fame.
43 Area business bath remodeler who provides the right fit, best value, and has an A+ rating with the BBB.
47 Churn 48 Flexible metal thread 49 Picnic pest 50 Muffle 51 Yes 52 Eye infection 53 Tuber
54 Lock openers 55 Garden tool
DOWN
1 Bug killer 2 Women's magazine 3 Cinema 4 Canned chili brand 5 Rich man 6 Copied 7 Acquire 8 Little 9 Treaty
10 Native ruler in Africa 11 Father 19 Top quality office
solutions on peters creek rd. in roanoke
20 Soviet Union 22 Hubbub 23 Stage of life 24 Repose 25 Pastry 26 Abdominal muscles
(abbr.) 27 Cow's chow 28 Expression
29 Doctoral degree 31 Aegis 32 Jazz instrument 33 What horses eat 37 Which local city was
first explored 64 years after Jamestown?
38 The Virginia cave that has the 'Fried Eggs' formation and a great organ too.
39 Complies 40 Torso extensions 41 Brag 42 Diet 43 Small fry 44 Reckless 45 To 46 Eye infection 48 Pan
Star-Sentinel Crossword
By Don WaterfieldFind the answers online: NewsRoanoke.com
Have a clue and answer you’d like to see?email: [email protected]
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The Preacher’s Corner - Christmas MusingsBy Joe Lehman
The feast of Christmas is both magical and mystical. And there’s much that helps make it so. The most obvious are three:
In Christmastide, there’s the exchange of gifts. Who doesn’t like giving and receiving gifts? And God’s gifts at Christmas are some humanity has wanted and needed for centuries: the gifts of a savior to deliver us and of reconciliation with God and of our being able to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.
Secondly, Christmas is the fulfillment of a promise that God had spoke long ago to us. God is faithful. Thankfully for us!
And, thirdly, there’s a child in our Christmas celebrating. (Events with babies in them are usu-ally happier, livelier and more memorable unless the baby is fussy or screaming or has a dirty dia-per!)
Yes, our feasting these days is magical and mys-tical. However, we must not forget that Jesus - God’s gift and promise - became flesh in a time and place that looked and felt more like a normal day for most of us than the romantic, warm and magical moment we see in our mangers or ex-perience in our candlelight Christmas services. Pondering this can reveal some other less obvious reasons why this time is so special to so many.
1. Mary and Joseph and their people lived fear-ing that their lives might be disrupted and changed at any moment. Into their oppression, Jesus the savior was born and died. Into disorder, God ap-peared- “pitched a tent” - and stayed. Into chaos and darkness, God said again LET THERE BE LIGHT. This light shines today… in Afghanistan, in our Holy lands and sacred spaces, and in this gray time for some around us… bringing hope to estranged families and warring nations and to
those us who are wrestling with ourselves. Where there is oppression, there God is - tending to the brokenhearted! Now, that’s a Christmas gift.
2. We can’t forget that the holy family finding shelter temporarily in a stable were travelers who were not welcomed and were not seen as having any personal or particular need. Our glamorized and ordered manger scenes don’t show inhospi-tality. They don’t exude awful odors. They don’t reveal the pain or panic of parents being home-less. Nor, from them, do we hear the anguished cries of things not being perfect! But, if God can be at home in a place like that, then God can be at home in our confusion and noise and even in the mess we may call “our lives”. That’s another wonderful gift of Christmas!
3. It was through believers that Christ was born to the world. They heard God’s promises, hoped and looked to God with trust. They prayed, sang, and worshipped. Today, through faithful people the savior and his gifts still come to an unbeliev-ing world . That makes us a gift of Christmas!
4. The Christ-born-in-time is the Eternal Word of God bringing life and peace and freedom. Be-cause of him, every good word we speak is a sa-cred word, too. What a gift that is for others! And every ugly word spoken about and against another is a sacrilege - a violation of one of God’s holy ones!
Yes, into a time and into lives like ours, God came and made a home so that we might be at home with God. Now, that’s profoundly magical and mystical. A blessed new year to all!
Joe Lehman is the Pastor at Our Lady Of Naza-reth Catholic Church. Visit them on the web at www.oln-parish.org
We have just cele-brated Thanks-giving and are
now upon the very Eve of Christmas. How about cel-ebrating a little marriage in the process? Other than our individual relationship with God, it is our highest call-ing to be “one flesh” with our spouse . . . So how do we do that? There are thousands of books on marriage, annual retreats, workshops and sem-inars that all claim to show us the way to happier and healthi-er marriages. I often wonder which ones are right.
Working with so many families and couples over the years, I have learned there are no magical answers. Three characteristics, how-ever, have consistently stood out to me that are present in couples that are better con-nected. Yes, there are always fluctuations and I believe that marriages go through seasons, but when these char-acteristics are sought, things seem to work a little better. When these things are lack-ing, it is a tougher road.
First of all, time together is a priority. Whether it is a date night, watching a favor-ite weekly show or trips away together, there is a clear ef-fort on both sides to pursue meaningful time together. One of the biggest obstacles to this is family. It is all too common for us to put our children or their activities ahead of time spent with our
spouse. When the parents have a solid investment of time in the marital relation-ship, the children benefit more than if their interests are center stage. Mutual ini-tiation and pursuit works to counteract the busyness of life that we often get caught up in to the detriment of the relationship.
The second characteris-tic I observe is that they seek to affirm each other daily. It is easy being as im-perfect as we are to focus on the nega-tive, and we all have negative. The prob-lem is that whatever we focus on grabs hold of our atten-tion. It expands in
our reality and before long it is all we see, missing or taking for granted positives about each other. When we seek to affirm, we are saying that above all else, we will see the positive and the good. We will encourage each oth-er and “assume the best” by not reading negatively into comments or actions without seeking understanding. We need to share what we appre-ciate daily like a vitamin for the health of the marriage.
The third characteristic is an ongoing demonstration of affection. I remember having a kid tell me once, “I know they love me, they are supposed to. But you know what, if they showed me ev-ery once in a while it would be easier to believe.” Spouses are not much different. We may “know” our spouse loves
us, but hearing and seeing it on a regular basis makes a significant difference. How often do we tell our spouse that we love them? When is the last time we sent love notes or cards just for the heck of it? Regular demon-stration of affection says that no matter what is going on in the relationship, the other person is always valued and cared about. Think of affec-tion as something that needs to be consistently renewed to have the most impact in the relationship.
It is important to remem-ber that in a relationship, whether it is with a spouse, child, friend, etc . . . there is never neutrality. If we are not pursuing, we are reject-ing. If we are not affirming, we are tearing down. If we are not being affectionate, we are neglecting. It is often the subtle slide into this “neu-trality” that can be toxic.
To me it is amazing when I see these healthy things hap-pening in a marriage. Com-munication is better, conflict is less frequent, and obstacles are not as big. So, instead of waiting for the New Year to make a resolution, try one now. Take a look at these three characteristics and see how you are doing. Make a commitment to strengthen them in your relationship and enjoy the outcome. It would make a great early Christmas present to your spouse.
Celebrating Marriage
Keith McCurdy
Contact Keith [email protected]
Another Christmas Tree WarYou can always tell what you
think of the giverby how well you take care of
his gifts. -- Rev. Joel Hunt-er
Where do things come from in the United States,
these days? China? Jesus? The free market?
In the surface ruckus of sales, economic numbers and politics, there’s little time for wondering about the under-ground source of anything - eggnog and greenery, creek water and birds, foxes and hen-houses and hogwash.
In my native Appalachians, though, walking the faded De-cember hills, it’s quiet enough to inquire down into the source of trees and wildlife, pasture and aquifers that sus-tain us.
Old carols and preachings in this hilly part of the Bible Belt convey that our lives are rooted in providence - from rainfall to the air we breathe - the very source of our supply.
Each summer, however, pol-iticians visit these mountains to stand high on a platform at a fiddler’s convention and tell us the source of peoples supply is now supply-side economics.
Money produces life, they figure - the largest collections of it trickling down a supply to the poor, like manna from heaven.
This supply, were told, comes partly from big coal, the out-fits exploding our mountain-tops to fetch out buried seams. They like to go at it lickety-split, with relatively few actual miners and no thought for the vanishing forest and wildlife, the creeks buried under rubble or the ruin of ancient moun-tain ecosystems.
Lawmakers have worked hard this year to help them, striving to hamstring surface-mining laws and EPA regula-tions that protect life.
Big money running rough-shod over Appalachian life is an old story. Today, however, its cause has been strangely hitched to a pro-life platform.
How can pro-life be posi-tioned against planetary life?
Because life has been re-duced to nine months, said Sister Clare, a Catholic nun who moved to these moun-tains to help children.
Even those prenatal months can be mentally severed from a livable world, Clare said, be-cause political micro-targeting distracts people from seeing life’s bigger picture.
My friend Mrs. Osborne of
Grayson County heard FOX News warn Christians, this year, of attacks on Christmas trees. She wasn’t sure if they meant a tax or attacks, but was concerned.
After all, the Osbornes live flanked by neighboring slopes of Fraser firs, pines and spruc-es - Christmas trees harvested each year and trucked away to cities.
But FOX, it turned out, was not worried about the actual living source of these trees. They were fighting a war over the already-dead ones - the kind propped up in a studio for display, urging that every-one call them Christmas trees instead of holiday trees.
This was hogwash, a Baptist minister told me - a way to rile up Christian voters for next year’s election. If you could get people squabbling over little dead trees, he said, they would not worry about the living.
Still, we do worry. These days, our mountain woods are under so many attacks, it’s hard to keep even little fir trees alive and pretty enough for somebody’s church or mall or campaign office.
Here is the real war - not just on the Christmas tree but the whole Eastern hardwood forest, up and down the Appa-lachians. It’s a war of new in-sect invasions - beetles, borers, gypsy moths and aphids..
These are accompanied by strangely persistent droughts and constant drifts of soot
from coal-burning power plants, acidifying our moun-tain soil and weakening the trees hardiness.
Tree farms are now so dis-ease-prone, they require fre-quent doses of strong pesti-cides. Deer, rabbits and birds regularly die among the rows, sometimes even a hapless hunting dog. Mrs. Osborne worries that the chemicals will leach into her family’s well.
These ground-level troubles never show up on FOX news, in campaign debates or among the Christmas tree lights. They are troubles rooted in a climate off-balance, in unchecked power plant emissions and ecosystems gone haywire: ac-tual life issues many lawmak-ers want to keep under the surface, while voters fuss over superficialities.
The Baptist preacher calls this “hogwallering.” Like the Christmas tree, he said, it has nothing to do with Jesus.
He does think faith and politics can be rooted in life, like trees. But cut off from any connection to the humble soil, they’re dead. You can prop them up and add lights and they might look alive, but life has a deeper source than what appears on the surface.
Liza Field teaches English and philosophy in the Virginia Gov-ernors School and Wytheville Community College.
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United Methodist Community Outreach Program Celebrates Christmas
Children, family, and friends from the United Methodist Community Outreach Program gath-ered last Thursday for a Christmas celebration. The “C.O.P.” serves approximately 120 children and 40 youth residing in the inner-city neighborhoods of Roanoke. It provides tutoring and homework help, age-level Bible study, enrichment activities, and summer camp opportunities. It also offers hot meals, school supplies, used clothing and other practical assistance. The children meet at four United Methodist Church locations – Trinity, West End, St. Paul, and Fairview. All of the children and youth received Christmas gifts donated by local church members.
The final night of the Dickens of a Christmas celebration included arts and crafts vendors occupying the previously-empty middle stalls at the City Market building, and trucked-in snow from North Caro-lina on short Market Street. The snow allowed for some sledding and even a little snowfall at one point. Dickens of a Christmas is a program organized by Downtown Roanoke Inc.
Dickens Concludes With Snow!
The Three Wise Men make their way to Bethlehem as part of the annual live Nativity reenact-ment at the Penn Forest Church of God in southwest Roanoke County. The nativity features live animals - like the camel seen in this photo.
Penn Forest Live Nativity
By Gene [email protected]
By Gene [email protected]
Virginia Unveils New Curriculum to Help Teens Avoid Deadly Crashes
The most dangerous part of any teenager’s day is the time they spend behind the wheel. Parents rely on driver’s educa-tion teachers to teach teens to drive. Now, those instructors have another valuable tool to help teens navigate Virginia’s roadways safely.
DRIVE SMART Virginia has created the Sharing the Road with Trucks curriculum with a grant from the Federal Mo-tor Carrier Safety Administra-tion. Sharing the Road will help teach high school students in tenth grade how to drive safely around large trucks. The Shar-ing the Road curriculum is the
first in the nation to be man-dated in public schools. “Teen drivers have limited experience driving. This curriculum will give them information to make safe and smart decisions, driv-ing around large trucks,” said Ja-net Brooking, Executive Direc-tor of DRIVE SMART Virginia. “We’re delighted to bring this program to Virginia, and that our safety partners recognize the need to make this a prior-ity.”
In the U.S. between 2005 and 2009 nearly 4,000 16-to-24 year-olds were killed in crashes involving large trucks (DOT). In Virginia the number of traffic
crashes decreased from 2009 to 2010. However crashes involving commercial vehicles increased 26% during the same period. A recent Virginia Tech Transpor-tation study found that 78% of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles were caused by passenger vehicle drivers. Those crashes were largely due to a lack of awareness and understand-ing about the special consider-ations involved with sharing the road with trucks. Roughly one-third of fatal crashes involving a car and a large truck occurred in one of the blind spots sur-rounding the truck, according to the American Trucking As-sociations.
“We’re delighted to have this tool,” said Vanessa Wigand who oversees driver’s education training for the Virginia Depart-ment of Education. “The Shar-ing the Road with Trucks cur-riculum will help young drivers better understand the dangers associated with driving around and passing trucks.”
The Sharing the Road cur-riculum includes information about:
• No zone – front, rear, left and right, areas around the truck where crashes are most likely to occur
• Passing - drivers should sig-nal and move steadily around the truck
• Merging – truck blind spots make it difficult to see passen-ger cars
• Stopping distance – for trucks, 40% greater than car
“This will be a valuable re-source for driver’s education in-struction in Virginia," said Dale Bennett, President and CEO of the Virginia Trucking As-sociation. “Virginia's trucking industry works hard to reduce the number of crashes involving commercial vehicles, especially those involving teen and young-er drivers, and this curriculum is designed to help us do that.”
DRIVE SMART Virginia is a traffic safety non-profit organi-zation created in 1995 with the goal of making Virginia’s road-ways the safest in the nation. Additional partners include Virginia Department of Educa-tion, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Virginia Trucking Association and the Virginia State Police.
Find DRIVE SMART Virginia on Facebook at http://www.fa-cebook.com/DRIVESMARTVA or Twitter at http://twitter.com/DRIVESMARTVA
County Public Schools To Hold Kindergarten Registration
Roanoke County Schools will hold registration for up-coming kindergarten children, and children presently enrolled in private kindergarten who will attend first grade in public schools during the 2012-2013 school year.
All children who will be five years old on or before Septem-ber 30, 2012, are eligible for kindergarten. Parents should register their children at the el-ementary school in their home area on Thursday, January 19 and Friday, January 20 from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Parents should bring the fol-
lowing information when regis-tering their children:
- child’s birth certificate. - child’s social security card. - child’s immunization re-
cord.- proof of residency (a mort-
gage, a pending contract, a copy of a lease, or a property tax state-ment will be accepted as proof of residency)
Note: A driver’s license or vehicle registration will not be accepted as proof of residency.
Schools must have the child’s physical and immunization re-cord on file prior to the first day of school or students will not be
allowed to attend school. Pupils who are presently attending kin-dergarten in Roanoke County Public Schools are not required to register. Children currently enrolled in a Roanoke County Public Schools preschool pro-gram who are eligible for kin-dergarten must go through the registration process. If the date of the current physical and im-munization record on file ex-ceeds 12 months prior the first day of school, an updated physi-cal and immunization record is required before the first day of school.
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Please send in your pictures and relevant subject / game info and we’ll feature the next week! [email protected] - Deadline is 5PM Tuesday.
Wild Bill’s Weekly Sports Roundup
NFL Rushing Star Addresses Roanoke Valley Sports Club
A four time thousand yard rusher – in consecutive seasons – Chris Warren ran and caught passes that totaled around 10,000 yards in the NFL, mainly for the Seattle Sea-hawks. Believe it or not, he went from tiny Division III Ferrum College to pro ball, af-ter beginning his college career at Virginia. Warren, now back at Ferrum to complete his degree and to help coach running backs for the Panthers, addressed the November meet-ing of the Roanoke Valley Sports Club.
A number of Roanoke-area alumni were on hand to pepper Warren with questions on life in the National Football League – like who hit him the hardest as he came across the line with the ball? (Count former Packers and Ea-gles defensive end Reggie White among that bunch.) Warren played 11 seasons all told in the NFL, the first eight with Seattle, the last three with Dallas and Philadelphia.
Ferrum head coach Dave Harper, who just completed his first season on the job, spoke first about the soon-to-be completed Hank Norton Center, which will house football training facilities and space for other outdoor sports at the school. Harper sees the Norton Center (named for legendary Panthers coach Hank Norton, whom Harper played for) as being a big asset when trying to recruit foot-ball players to the small private school (less than 2000 students), which is twice as expen-sive to attend as many state colleges or uni-versities.
“The two things you have to sell [to re-cruits] are the facilities and the weight room,” said Harper, who played with Warren at Fer-rum in the late ‘80’s, returned as an assistant coach in 1991 and has never left. “Be your-self,” Norton often tells him during their weekly phone conversations, “and that’s what I try to do.” (Jim Hickam, the longtime Northside coach until being let go several years ago, also joined the Ferrum staff af-ter that and just recently re-tired.)
As for Warren, “he’s ef-fortless…he was an unbe-lievable teammate,” Harper recalled for the Sports Club audience. “His [NFL] stats speak for him.” Harper and Warren are the only two ath-letes to have their numbers retired by Ferrum College. He holds the school records for total rushing yards and most points scored, in a season and career-wise. The three-time NFL Pro Bowler also scored 57 touchdowns as a pro.
Warren played with quar-terbacks like Warren Moon and Troy Aikman during his NFL career, which lasted about twice as long as it usu-
ally does for the average running back. “I’ve been lucky,” said Warren, who was drafted in the fourth round of the NFL draft by Seattle. That was even after he didn’t make it back to campus to work out for the Seahawks after his car broke down – instead the Seattle con-tingent came to the rest stop where he was waiting for help and worked him out right there.
Warren is enrolling in classes at Ferrum and wants to set an example for other student athletes by finishing his degree. He’s got about two full semesters to go. “Ferrum College means the world to me,” said Warren, who feels coaching is the “perfect” way for him to give back to the community at this point in time. Roanoke Valley Sports Club meetings will resume in January. Call President Dave Ross at 774-1080, or Tom Marchi at 588-2969 for more information.
By Gene [email protected]
Chris Warren
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Patriots Down Mountaineers In Battle Of Unbeatens
In the early going it was Al-leghany’s size that was a factor. In the end it was Patrick Hen-ry’s press and speed. The press and speed won out.
Reverting to a full-court swarming press that led to numerous breakaway baskets, Patrick Henry blew out Al-leghany 66-37 Monday night on the Woody Deans Court at
PH. Both teams had entered the contest with a perfect 5-0 record.
In the early going Allegha-ny’s size seemed to throw off the Patriot attack down low. The Mountaineers led 13-10 after one quarter. At that point, few in the crowd would have expected the Mountaineers to only score 13 points in the
next two quarters combined.PH went to the full court
press to open the second quar-ter and Alleghany turned into an ocean of turnovers. The first Mountaineer points came with only 1:51 left in the half and, by that time, PH had rolled to a 26-13 lead. Alleghany kept it reasonably close by scoring the last 8 points of the half to trail 26-21.
Patrick Henry head coach Jack Esworthy went to substi-tutions and two quick timeouts to start the third quarter after Alleghany closed to 26-24.
“I was looking for five guys who would go get it,” Esworthy said in the Patriot locker room afterward. “Five who wanted to play defense and take it to the hole.” Esworthy got the re-sults he wanted.
Allegheny only scored two points the rest of the quarter as the PH press scored divi-dends. The Patriots opened a 46-26 cushion after three, and kept the hammer down with a 20-11 advantage in the final frame for the 29-point win.
“We allowed them to dic-tate the play in the first half,” Esworthy added. “We dic-tated the play in the second, and they had trouble with our pressure.”
Marcus Banks led the Patri-ots in scoring, with 21 points. Christian Kirchman added 8, with B.J. Hamlett, Darius Cunningham and Jamel Tuck-er picking up 7 points each.
PH #34 Austin Dunnithon towers over an Alleghany defender as they battle for a rebound Monday night.
Patriot #10 Darius Cunning-ham sidesteps a Mountaineer defender as he drives the baseline for a PH score.
By Bill Turner [email protected]
Lady Knights Fall To Auburn 43-29 In Non-District Girls Basketball
Auburn jumped out to a 22-15 halftime lead, and the Eagles held on to defeat Cave Spring 43-29 in girls basket-ball Tuesday night at Cave Spring.
The Lady Knights got to within striking distance early in the fourth quarter, but Au-burn pulled away down the stretch for the win.
Taylor Asimakopoulos led the Cave Spring scoring with 6 points.
Lady Knights ballhandler #12 Zanebia Brown-Saunders works the perimeter looking for a passing lane.By Bill Turner
Happy holidays to everyone as this will be the final edition before Old Saint Nick departs the North Pole to hopefully pay a visit to all my faithful read-ers.
I truly appreciate all the great comments passed along in the past year, and even (mostly) enjoy the barbs when you don’t agree with everything we mused about here in the wide, wide world of sports of Roanoke Valley sports.
We’ll open this week with a look at high school basket-ball. Teams take the Christmas break before two prominent holiday tournaments hit our area between Christmas and New Years Day.
The K-Guard Holiday Classic plays at the Salem Civic Center Wednesday through Friday, December 28th-30th. Wednes-day’s opening games include Salem-Alleghany (3:00 pm); Hidden Valley-William Flem-ing (4:30 pm); PH-GarField (6:00 pm) and Cave Spring-Broadway (7:30 pm)
The Northside Classic will be the same three days at North-side High School as eight teams get together for the varsity championship competition.
Now, let’s take a look at this week’s “Big-11” Top-5 among our local squads.
#1 - Patrick Henry: The Pa-triots firmly hold down the top spot for the second straight week. The Patriots have been too quick for every opponent in starting 6-0. PH blew out Sa-lem and Alleghany in the past week, giving both teams their first loss of the season.
#2 - Salem: The Spartans (5-1) stay at #2 despite the home court 22-point loss to Patrick Henry last Friday. As pointed out in last week’s column, the
time to play PH is not 24 hours after you played on the road against anyone. The Spartans get a second chance to redeem themselves. The K-Guard Holi-day Classic will give answers.
#3 - William Flem-ing: The Colonels (4-2) move to third after knocking off Cave Spring and staying close with Christians-burg despite missing
21 straight shots. The Colonels are young, but Mickey Hardy
may have a sleeper.#4 - Cave Spring: The
Knights took down Northside at home and James River on the road to improve to 5-2. With three football players back, Cave Spring gains some bulk to go with the scoring prowess of Amin Abuhawwas. Another team to watch in the K-Guard.
#5 - Hidden Valley: The Ti-tans (3-2) picked up a quality road win at Franklin County to avenge a home loss to the Eagles two weeks ago. A lot of questions remain with the Ti-tans and head coach Troy Wells may be as mysterious as Orson Wells before we figure out their strengths.
Next, the requisite Sugar Bowl update, where more info leaks out daily on the less-than-stellar Hokie ticket sales. The Hokie faithful are circling the wagons each day, giving reasons they aren’t heading to New Orleans.
Among these are the price of tickets, the price of gas, the price of hotels, the price of airfares, Tech miserable per-formance against Clemson (twice), bad seat location, bad BCS selection process, bad of-fensive coordinator, bad play calling and the classic yet reli-able, “I’d rather spend the mon-ey on something else.” Hey, I’m not making this up.
The amazing thing about all this was the story on how great Tech traveled. This will be the third straight year of lackluster Hokie ticket sales. The last time people fell for a pitch similar to this, aluminum siding was the rage.
So, how do you top that? Tech finalized next year’s schedule by adding to its home lineup a game with - hold on to your hat - Austin Peay! If you’re not fa-miliar with the Governors, join the crowd. They are a Football Championship Subdivision member, finishing second to last in the powerful “Ohio Val-ley Conference” with an overall 3-8 record.
I still say Tech will stew Michigan. Oh, well....Merry Christmas.
Send your inquiries to: [email protected]
Bill Turner
By Bill Turner [email protected]
valley BusinessPage 8 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 12/23/11 -12/29/11 newsRoanoke.com
The greater Roanoke real estate market has continued to experience some stabilizing trends compared to November of last year, according to The Long & Foster Market Minute reports, in-cluding increases in sales versus year-ago levels in many areas. Inventory also decreased across the region, which includes Bedford, Botetourt, Franklin, and Roanoke counties, as well as the city of Roanoke.
The Long & Foster Market Minute reports are compiled from data from all residential real estate transactions within specific geographic regions.
The number of homes sold in November in-creased in several areas of Roanoke compared to November 2010. The number of units sold in Botetourt County increased by 43 percent from the prior year. The number of units sold in Roanoke City and Franklin County increased in November.
In November, active inventory was down throughout the area versus year-ago levels, with Botetourt County and Roanoke City tightening significantly by 29 percent and 23 percent, re-spectively. Other counties in the region saw de-creases ranging from 10 percent to 17 percent.
According to this November’s data, median sale price decreased for many areas in the great-er Roanoke region in November as compared to the same month last year. Sales prices in Bed-ford County increased 6 percent compared to one year ago.
The average number of days a house remained on the market before going under contract var-ied throughout the region, with days on market (DOM) indicating that many homes are selling in approximately four months, on average. Ac-cording to the data, DOM in November was 110 days in Roanoke County, 107 days in Roanoke City, and 102 days in Bedford County. DOM
was higher in Franklin and Bo-tetourt counties at 174 days and
146 days, respectively.“As we round out what has been a challeng-
ing year for real estate, it’s more important than ever for consumers to have as much information as possible to support their buying and selling decisions,” said Jeffrey S. Detwiler, president and chief operating officer of The Long & Fos-ter Companies. “Because every real estate mar-ket is different, national housing data may not
support local buyers and sellers as they look to make well-informed decisions pertaining to their homeownership goals. For example, we are continuing to see some very positive trends in the greater Roanoke region, including increased sales and tightening inventory throughout much of the region. For consumers, these dynamics could signal an ideal opportunity to buy or sell real estate.”
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New Regional Economic Development Program to be Launched
Virginia Tech's Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement is launching a new program, Engaging Your University in Regional Economic Development, on May 21-23 at The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
The program is designed for individuals, insti-tution-community leadership teams, and organi-zational teams responsible for engaging the assets of the university in regional economic develop-ment activities. The three-day workshop will al-low participants to develop an institutional and region-wide perspective in organizing their ef-forts with a goal of creating tangible results.
Sessions will include resource development for economic engagement, defining and imple-menting university-based economic engagement efforts, and developing action plan reports that move from theory to practice.
“Today it is more critical than ever for universi-ties to serve as innovation hubs for new business development and expansion and to contribute to regional job retention, job creation, and work-force development strategies,” said center Fellow Jeri Childers. “Universities across the nation with regional organizations are demonstrating the collective impact of regional economic develop-
ment. There are natural links between university strengths and the needs in communities and re-gions — locally and globally. By working col-laboratively, campus-community partnerships can build a regional plan that generates positive results.”
The new program offering is in partnership with Transformative Regional Engagement Net-works (commonly referred to as TRE Networks) and is part of the award-winning Engagement Academy for University Leaders executive leader-ship portfolio.
Virginia Tech's Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement develops educa-tional conferences and programs that match uni-versity expertise to outside audiences. The center was established in 1994 to foster economic and workforce development with special emphasis on executive education initiatives that connect uni-versity research to the needs of Virginia's leaders, organizations, and communities through confer-ences, workshops, and seminars.
For more information about the Engaging Your University in Regional Economic Development workshop, contact Jeri Childers at 540-767-6145
Roanoke Housing Market Sees Increased Sales, Tightening Inventory
Roanoke Regional Home Builders AssociationInstalls New President and Officers for 2012Brad Graham of Graham
Construction, Inc. was installed as the 58th president of the Roa-noke Regional Home Builders Association, Inc. (RRHBA) dur-ing the Installation of Officers held on December 8, 2011. As RRHBA’s chief elected officer for 2012, Mr. Graham will oversee the work of the fourth largest home builders professional trade association in Virginia.
Other elected 2012 RRHBA officer positions are:
Pete McKnight - Vice Presi-dent, McKnight & Company
Gary Judd - Secretary, 84 Lumber Company
Frank Caldwell IV Treasurer, L. H. Sawyer Paving Co., Inc.
Brenda Giles Vice President/Associate, SERVPRO of Roa-noke, Montgomery & Pulaski Counties
Neal Frank-Rempel Immedi-ate Past President, Zia Construc-tion & Remodeling, Inc.
The Roanoke Regional Home Builders Association (RRHBA) is a non-profit, professional trade organization with over 345 mem-ber firms dedicated to being the respected voice of the residential and commercial building indus-try. Since 1955, the RRHBA has
served the counties of Botetourt, Craig, Floyd, Franklin, Roanoke; and the cities of Roanoke & Sa-lem. RRHBA is affiliated with the Home Builders Association of Virginia (HBAV) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Francis To Chair Roanoke Regional ChamberThe Roanoke Regional
Chamber of Commerce, West-ern Virginia’s largest business organization, has elected of-ficers and directors for 2012. John Francis, Jr., executive vice president of First Citizens Bank, has been elected chair. Other officers are: Dan Mot-ley, Norfolk Southern Corp., chair-elect; Ken Lanford, Lan-ford Brothers Co., past chair, Barry Henderson, SunTrust Banks, vice-chair membership; Harvey Brookins, Wells Fargo, vice-chair economic devel-opment; Melinda Chitwood, Brown, Edwards & Company, treasurer; John Parrott, Ru-therfoord, vice-chair at large; Vickie Bibee, Scott Insurance, vice-chair of public policy; and Joyce Waugh, Roanoke Regional Chamber, president and secretary.
New members of the 2012
Board of Directors are: Garry Norris, Express Employment Professionals; Ted LeNeave, American HealthCare; Jona-than Hagmaier, Interactive Achievement; Tamea Wood-ward, EastWest DyeCom/Global Metal Finishing; Scott Hodge, AECOM; Roger Elkin, Hall Associates; Steve Strauss,
Strauss Construction; Ryan Patterson, BB&T, Backbone Club representative; Betsy Head, Home Instead Senior Care, and Leonard Wheeler, Wheeler Broadcasting.
Continuing to serve on the board are: Steve Cronemeyer, Verizon; Beth Doughty, Roa-noke Regional Partnership; Greg Feldmann, StellarOne; Bill Figaro, Grow, Inc.; Vic-tor Giovanetti, LewisGale Re-gional Health System; Nancy Oliver Gray, Hollins Universi-ty; Landon Howard, Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau; Joe Jones, Appala-chian Power; Penelope Kyle, Radford University; Todd Leeson, Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore; Sean Luther, Down-town Roanoke, Inc.; Michael Maxey, Roanoke College; Thomas L. McKeon, Roanoke Higher Education Center; Joe
Miller, E.J. Miller Construc-tion; Jeff Parkhill, Hughes Associates Architects; Sarah Powell, Advance Auto Parts; Ken Randolph, Rockydale Quarries Corp.; Robert San-del, Virginia Western Com-munity College; Kay Dunkley, Virginia Tech; Watts Steger, Bank of Botetourt; Wayne G. Strickland, Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commis-sion; and Chad E. Sweeney, Roanoke County; F.B. Web-ster Day, Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC; Dale Lee, RGC Resources, Inc.; Curtis Mills, Carilion Clinic; Todd Morgan, MB Contractors, Inc.; and Todd Putney, Medical Facili-ties of America.
The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce was established in 1889 and has over 1,200 members in 42 lo-calities.
John Francis
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(L to R, staggered): Officers Brad Graham, Gary Judd, Brenda Giles, Neal Frank-Rempel, Frank Caldwell, IV, and Pete McKnight.
arts & culturenewsRoanoke.com 12/23/11 -12/29/11 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |Page 9
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Roanoke Native & Jazz Great Don Pullen To Be Honored With Exhibit / Concert
The Jefferson Center and the Harrison Museum of African American Culture have an-nounced that they will open an arts exhibit celebrating one of the most extraordinary and innovative jazz pianists and composers of the 20th century, Roanoke’s native son Don Pul-len.
The exhibit honoring the life and work of Don Pullen of-ficially opened at the Jefferson Center on December 16th. The exhibit will remain open to the public through the Don Pul-len Tribute Concert on January 14th.
Pullen was born in Roa-noke on Christmas day 1941 to a musical family. His father played guitar and tap danced, his mother was the choir di-rector at her church and Pul-len’s inspiration on piano came from his cousin, Clyde “Fats” Wright; Pullen’s childhood home was filled with music. Although the family did not have a record player and there was no local radio station that played “black” music, the Pul-len family made their own mu-sic, constantly singing in the house.
Pullen sang in his elemen-tary school choir at Harrison Elementary. In 5th grade, around the age of 10, he began piano lessons. Along with clas-sical training, he played blues, rhythm & blues and played for local church choirs, includ-ing his mother’s church, Sweet Union Baptist.
While he was attending Booker T. Washington Jr. H.S. Pullen co-led a band with saxo-phonist and best friend Byron Morris. Later, while attending Lucy Addison High School he also played for the high school
choir. Pullen attended Johnson C.
Smith University in North Car-olina on an academic scholar-ship, intending to become a doctor. However, soon after his arrival John Holloway, a local music teacher and bandleader, invited him to join his band; an experience that allowed him to learn many of the jazz stan-dards at the time and otherwise broaden his musical scope. It was during this experience that Pullen became aware of the music of Ellington, Miles Davis and many other jazz giants.
Pullen’s attention soon shift-ed from medicine back to his calling in music. After college he went to Chicago for two important weeks with Lenny Martin, a gifted bassist from Roanoke who had introduced him to the music of Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. While in Chicago he met Mu-hal Richard Abrams and in that short time Muhal affirmed his playing and gave him the con-fidence to continue in the mu-sical direction he had begun to develop.
From Chicago, Pullen’s travels led him to New York, where he was soon introduced to avant-garde saxophonist Guiseppi Logan with whom he would record two albums, along with drummer Milford Graves. Pul-len and Milford Graves then formed a duo, recording two self-produced/distributed al-bums on the SLP (Self-Reliance Program) label, the first album having hand-painted covers by the duo, which remain collec-tor’s items to this day. He and Milford also often created mu-sic for the plays of Amiri Bara-ka (Leroy Jones) in the exciting atmosphere of
the Black Arts Theater in Harlem.
In addition to piano, Pullen played a Hammond B-3 organ as he led the R & B house bands in singers’ clubs throughout the area. He was an arranger for King Records and worked with artists such as Arthur Prysock, Ruth Brown, Big Maybelle, Irene Reid,
Jimmy Rushing, and played with Nina Simone. Pullen played organ on three albums for alto saxophonist Charles Williams, which featured sev-eral of his compositions, in-cluding the title track on “Trees & Grass & Things.” He also ap-peared at times with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.
The Jefferson Center ex-hibit includes paintings, pho-tographs highlighting Pullen’s childhood years in Roanoke and his performances as a touring musician, a video doc-umentary featuring Pullen, as well as letters of support from Pullen’s family, friends and fans collected during a movement in New York City to memorial-ize the late jazz great.
Don Pullen
Return Your Gifts, See A DinosaurScience Museum of Western Virginia to hold extended hours
between Christmas and New Year at Tanglewood.The Science Museum of Western Virginia will
be open for special, additional hours during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. “We wanted to make the museum available for fami-lies with out of town guests or children on vaca-tion from school,” said Carissa South, Director of Development and Marketing. “We also thought that people returning gifts or looking for post-Christmas sales might want to enjoy the Museum as a break from their shopping.”
The Science Museum of Western Virginia moved in June from its long-time location inside Center in the Square to temporary space in Tan-glewood Mall, where it will continue to serve the
public until renovations to Center in the Square are complete in Spring 2013.
“We have plenty of exhibits for people to see, and we’ll have animal demos, too” said South. “We want people to take advantage of the extra hours and come see all the Science Museum has to offer.”
The museum will be open Monday, Dec. 26 – Friday, Dec. 30 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Satur-day, Dec. 31 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. The museum is normally closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The Museum will be closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day.
For more information, please visit www.smwv.org.
Reynolds Homestead Gains Help to Improve Care of Its Collections
Virginia Tech's Reynolds Homestead has been chosen to receive a site visit from experts designed to improve the care of its holdings, which include furniture, art, glassware, and the R.J. Reynolds Collection of tobacco paintings from the 1930s and 1940s.
A needs-assessment team of museum and li-brary professionals will spend a half-day touring the historic property in Critz. Following the visit, they will offer ideas to improve collections care over the next two years, with suggested resources to help accomplish the recommendations.
The Circuit Riders project is a statewide effort aimed to help Virginia's museums, libraries, and
archives. Sponsors are the Virginia Association of Museums, the Library of Virginia, and the De-partment of Historic Resources with underwriting from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.
An article in Outreach NOW magazine shows
the historic home, constructed in 1843; a period dress; and pages from the Reynolds family photo album.
Many of the oil paintings, used in marketing, were done by prominent artists and illustrators of the time, including James Ormsbee Chapin, Clar-ence Holbrook Carter, Georges Schreiber, and John Philip Falter.
Julie Walters Steele, director of the Reynolds Homestead, said, "It is imperative we ensure these facilities and collections are meticulously main-tained to continue to provide opportunities for the public to experience the rich cultural heritage of the region for many generations to come."
The Reynolds Homestead is the site of the origi-nal home of tobacco manufacturer R.J. Reynolds. The home is open for public touring. For more in-formation about the collections, contact Lisa Mar-tin, Senior Program Manager, (276) 694-7181, ext. 22.
James Chapin oil painting, part of the perma-nent R.J. Reynolds Collection at the Home-stead, was used in 1940s advertising.
The living room of the Reynolds Homestead shows how the Reynolds family decorated their formal spaces in the historic home.
By Andrea [email protected]
The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum will kick off its 2012 season with two new exhibitions: Bayous and Ghosts: Work by Margaret Evangeline and Hunt Slonem, and Treasures from the Vault will both open on Thursday, January 12.
Bayous and Ghosts features work by internation-ally recognized artists and friends Margaret Evan-geline and Hunt Slonem. With ties to the Ameri-can South, both artists are inspired by romantic aesthetics that originate particularly in Louisiana and play into the larger history of the United States. Their shared vision as artists and friends dovetail into their evocative and painterly work.
Margaret Evangeline is a New York based, Loui-siana born painter who experiments with resistant materials. Fluctuating between creating works with aluminum punctured with bullet holes and
heavily worked oil on canvas paintings, she is often inspired by beloved authors of the South coupled with an interest in beauty and wreckage.
Hunt Slonem is a New York and Louisiana based artist whose fascination with exotica and spiritual-ity pervades his work. Inspired by various legends of history and Victorian gothic, the exhibited paint-ings focus on his beloved historic plantation along the Bayou Teche. Evangeline’s and Slonem’s shared vision as artists and friends dovetail in the evoca-tive and painterly work featured in the exhibition.
Slonem and Evangeline will give a joint lecture discussing their exhibition at the museum at 6:00 pm on Thursday, February 16. A reception will follow. A collaborative reception with the Hollins Theatre department will immediately follow at the museum, and will include Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey. This event is organized in partnership with, and is the opening event for, the Marginal Arts Festival.
Treasures from the Vault, a continuing exhibi-tion series, will showcase many of the new works given by generous donors to the museum’s collec-tion in 2010 and 2011. This edition will feature works created in a variety of media and styles, from such varied artists as Jack Beal, Tanja Softic, Fiona Ross, Suzanne Fields, Margaret Evangeline, Hunt Slonem and others. Wilson Museum Director Amy Moorefield commented, “We are fortunate to have received several gifts created by important artists who have contributed greatly to the global artistic landscape.” Treasures from the Vault underscores the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s mission as a re-pository of significant works of modern and con-temporary art.
Moorefield will present a lecture entitled “Why Should University Museums Collect?” on Thurs-day, January 12, the evening that both exhibitions open, in the Niederer Auditorium of the Visual Arts Center. The lecture will begin at 6:00 pm and be followed by a reception.
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Hunt Slonem’s “Albania Plantation.”
Darragh Park’s “One Night the Empire State Building was Blue.”
Two New Winter Exhibitions Opening at Eleanor D. Wilson Museum
Page 10 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 12/23/11 -12/29/11
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Paper, Plastic … or Charity?Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op gives shoppers an option
that equals thousands for local charitiesThe Roanoke Natural
Foods Co-op has released figures from a year-old pro-gram that allows shoppers who use their own grocery bags to fund local charities while preventing thousands of disposable paper and plas-tic bags from landing in lo-cal landfills. Just a year after launching the program, the Co-op estimates the program has kept nearly 60,000 bags out of the trash, while nearly $5,0000 has been contributed to local charities.
Co-op Director Bruce Phlegar says the program is straightforward. “If shop-pers opt to use their own, re-usable shopping bag it saves the Co-op money that would have been spent on tradition-al paper or plastic grocery bags. We wanted to help the environment and local chari-ties, by channeling our sav-ings to agencies that need and deserve extra income.”
Phlegar explained that cus-tomers receive a poker chip every time they use their own bag instead of one provided by the store. Customers drop their chips into bins near the exit. Each bin is labeled with the name of a local not-for-profit organization. At the end of the month, the Co-op pays the charity a nickel for every chip.
The charities are changed every month and cover a wide range of agencies from the arts to social agencies to those who help animals. Not surprisingly, Toys for Tots has been the most popular during the holiday season.
“What’s interesting is that children really think about
which organization most de-serves that nickel. They ask their parents lots of ques-tions, forcing the parents to think about the various causes more than they might have,” said Phlegar.
Phlegar says the Co-op has been tracking the numbers for just over a year, and each month has seen an increase in re-usable bags.
Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op has served the Roa-noke Valley since 1975, pro-viding the community with nutritious food choices and earth-friendly products. Roa-noke Natural Foods supports sustainable environmental
practices, local organic farm-ers, local businesses, and its surrounding community. Products at Roanoke Natural Foods contain no artificial colorants, preservatives, or additives. In addition to pro-viding families with high-quality organic and natural products, Roanoke Natural Foods supports local efforts to preserve the integrity and health of our natural re-sources and community.
The Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op’s “Raising the Ante” station where “charity chips” are deposited.
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