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A great community newspaper serving the northern and eastern communities of Knox County
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(865) 922-4136
NEWS (865) 661-8777
[email protected] Clark | Ruth White
ADVERTISING SALES(865) 342-6084
Patty Fecco | Tony Cranmore
Beverly Holland | Amy Lutheran
CIRCULATION(865) 342-6200
‘Thanks’ from A-EAustin-East rolled out the
red carpet to thank sponsors and supporters of the school.
The school hosted “A Night of Celebration and Thanks,” a live thank you card featur-ing the West African dancers and drummers, the Dance Company, singing by club sponsors and food served by Joslyn Johnson’s culinary arts students.
➤ Read Ruth White on page 3
VOL. 4 NO. 14 April 6, 2016www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow
NORTH / EAST
BUZZ
To page 3
By Cindy TaylorThe Holston Hills community is
celebrating 60 years as a Dogwood Trail. It is the featured trail of the Dogwood Arts Festival for 2016.
Residents have been grooming their homes, yards and gardens for months in preparation. A drive through the rolling hills affords beautiful sites that have existed for years as well as new and unex-pected treasures.
One such treasure stands at the home owned by John and Wanda Sobieski. When a 275-year-old oak tree in their front yard died they reclaimed it by creating a work of art. Chainsaw artist and woodcarver Dave LaVoie carved a six-foot Lorax and other creatures into the 30-foot-tall salvaged tree trunk.
Lisa Anderson has lived in the community for more than 15 years.
“This is a lovely place to live and you get a lot of support from your neighbors,” she said. “Residents are often out working in their yards.”
Special social events will be held during the Dogwood Arts Festival. On Thursday, April 14, the Holston Hills Community Club will host a cocktail party on the patio at the country club to kick off the season. An exhibit featuring local artists will be held in the ballroom. Items to be dis-played include sculptures and photography.
Tickets are available for $15 and include one drink. Hors d’ oeuvres will be served and a cash bar will be available. Info: [email protected]
A ribbon cutting will be held April 15 at the community park followed by the Dogwood Lun-cheon at Holston Hills Country Club. State Sen. Becky Massey, a former resident of Holston Hills, will be guest speaker.
The Holston Hills Community Club was formed in 1937. Active at the time were Edna Fain, Ann
Holston Hills celebrates 60
Though it isn’t fl oral in nature a
new and interesting addition to the
Holston Hills Dogwood Trail is this
tree carving on Wyndcroft Drive.
Garden visits the gardensBy Shannon Carey
Students in Garden Montessori School’s lower elementary class took a fi eld trip to the ECO Garden at Knoxville Botanical Gardens for the Every Child Outdoors program. Students went on a nature scavenger hunt through the gardens, exploring the bamboo grove and dogwood trail.
Volunteers led the children in gardening crafts and planting, fertilizing and watering pansies, carrots and lettuce. The students were encouraged to return to the garden to see their crops’ prog-ress and even to harvest some to take home. Additional crops will be donated to Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries and a local food pantry.
Info: knoxgarden.org
Hicky and Margaret Blair. Karen Bacon is a current member of the Holston Hills Community Club and an avid history buff about her neighborhood.
“Dr. Edward Grubb was well known for his garden,” said Bacon. “It was shaped like a horse shoe and contained roses and large red tulips from Holland. Cars would line up bumper to bumper to pass by his garden.”
Grubb, a long-time resident of Holston Hills, lived in one of the original homes across from the country club and owned Chapman Highway Drug Store.
Blooms are already peeking out in many yards but the offi cial date for the trail opening will be April 15. For info on the Holston Hills, other Dogwood Trails and Dog-wood Arts Festival activities visit dogwoodarts.com
Adeline Sellers and Zoe Hull weed a garden bed at the ECO Garden.
S.O.R. LosersIt was good enough for
Charles Dickens and Alexandre Dumas, so we think Shopper News parents, grandparents and certainly children will like it, too. Today the Shopper News introduces a 14-week se-rial story, “S.O.R. Losers.”
The serial story – made fa-mous by “The Pickwick Papers” and “The Three Musketeers” – is a complete book that is pub-lished one segment at a time. “S.O.R. Losers,” the story of a misfi t sports team, is written by Newberry Award Winner Avi and illustrated by Timothy Bush. The fi rst chapter begins today and will be followed by 13 more chapters, bringing the story to its conclusion on July 6. Each segment can be read in fi ve to six minutes.
Sit with your child as he or she reads about the antics of Ed and Saltz. Or read the story to them, so you all can enjoy it!
– S.G. Howell
Illustration by Timothy Bush
SOUP at Dara’sKnoxville SOUP will add
nature to the recipe for its quarterly micro-grant event. Doors open at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 7, at Dara’s Garden, 2637 Maryville Pike. Presentations of four community-minded projects start at 6:30. Attend-ees can discuss the projects over a dinner catered by Roth-child and then vote on their favorite. The winner will be announced around 8:15. A sug-gested donation of $5 covers dinner and a raffl e ticket.
By Betty Bean Two years out from the 2018
county elections, there’s half a gaggle of candidates thinking about running for mayor.
Don’t look for County Com-missioner Bob Thomas to run for re-election to his at-large commis-sion seat in 2018, even though he’ll be fi nishing his fi rst term. He’ll be too busy running for mayor.
Thomas is making plans to suc-ceed Tim Burchett, who is term-limited. He’s tearing a page from Burchett’s campaign book and will be the guest-of-honor at an old-timey baloney-cutting May 11. That’ll be on a Wednesday, start-ing at 11:30 at Powell Auction & Realty – the venue where Burchett kicked off his campaign for county mayor.
“We’re expecting 1,500,” Thom-as said. “The Chillbillies are play-ing and we’ll have R.C. Colas and Moon Pies. It’ll be a big party.”
Thomas has had a long career in radio broadcasting, once owned a hockey team and has written
Haynes Burkhardt Anders
Next leader?
Prospects ponder race for county mayorHas he run for offi ce before?“Lord, no. I’m still debating
how sound I am for even thinking about this.
“I’ve been involved in Knox County politics for a little while, but I’ve been anonymous for a lot of years, intentionally. I’ve worked on a lot of campaigns, helped as many people as I could. Mayor Burchett is term-limited, so this is a good time for me to give it my best shot. In eight more years, I’ll be too old.”
Another county commissioner, Brad Anders, is also mulling a run for mayor. Anders, a former com-mission chair, is a lieutenant and a crisis negotiator in the Knoxville Police Department whose name used to come up as a candidate for sheriff, as well.
“That one (sheriff) is not as prominent in the conversation as it once was,” Anders said. “At this point, I haven’t ruled either one of them out, and I don’t know exactly
TV shows. He stays in close touch with his son, Jake, a TV actor who lives in Los Angeles. He says he’s anxious to take on the challenge of promoting Knox County as a tour-ism destination and has big plans to move forward without a tax in-crease.
Knox County Republican Party chair Buddy Burkhardt is also run-ning wide open. He’s got a Face-book page, “Buddy for Knox Coun-ty Mayor,” that doesn’t have much information yet, but does display
some spiffy-looking red “Vote for Burkhardt” T-shirts and shots of Burkhardt with GOP notables like Jeb Bush and Ben Carson.
On Dec. 12, he asked, “Ready for your Buddy for Mayor Apparel and Yard Signs? Coming SOON!!!”
Burkhardt is an electronics and information technology specialist in the Knox County Sheriff’s Of-fi ce – “Today, I’m wiring up water controls in the jail. Tomorrow it’ll be computers. I’m an electronics person.”
Thomas
2 • APRIL 6, 2016 • Shopper news
health & lifestyles
Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center is a regional referral hospital where other facilities
REGIONAL EXCELLENCE.
4400949494949444449449499009-007-0070707--777
Leg WorkBypass gives Louisville woman legs to stand on
There was no pain, nor was there any pulse in her feet.
Except for feeling as if each of her legs weighed 200 pounds, Cathy Robinson felt just fi ne. But the lack of pulses in her an-kles told her doctor something was wrong.
“I have gone to the same primary doc-tor for almost 20 years, and she knows my whole family history,” said Robinson, whose mother died at 62 of heart disease. “She said, ‘Cathy, I’m not getting a good pulse in your ankles. We need to get this checked out.’”
Testing revealed that Robinson had se-vere aortoiliac occlusive disease, or more simply, plaque blockage of her lower aorta and proximal leg arteries. With peripheral artery disease (or PAD), the plaque builds up in the arteries, causing them to harden and narrow and restricting the fl ow of oxy-gen-rich blood from the heart to the legs. If that blockage is severe enough it can lead to limb threat if not treated.
“I could’ve lost my legs!” said the 63-year-old Louisville woman. “I don’t have very long legs and I wanted to keep ’em so I had the surgery.”
Robinson underwent an operation called an aortobifemoral bypass. The sur-gery was performed by vascular surgeon Dr. Richard Young at Fort Sanders Region-al Medical Center this past January. Since surgery Robinson is once again enjoying shopping and playing with her grandson.
“Yesterday was my fi rst trip to the gro-cery story on Senior Day,” she said, seven weeks out from the surgery. “I used to have to stop in an aisle and rest a minute. I didn’t get short of breath but I had to let my legs settle down before I could do the rest of my grocery shopping. But yesterday, I was just going through the store and I thought, ‘Oh, I’m not hurting.’ This is great!’”
Prior to the surgery, however, Robin-son said, “It’s strange – it’s not pain. They don’t hurt. They don’t ache. They just feel like each of my legs weighed 200 pounds if I walked any distance.”
That was particularly true of Robinsons’ driveway, which is pitched at a 45-degree incline. “I was fi ne going down to the mail-box for the newspaper. Coming up? I had to
stop halfway up. I didn’t really think much about it. I just thought, ‘Well, you’re an old woman and you’re out of shape.’ But then you realize it wasn’t the kind of feel-ing where you’ve exer-cised and your muscles get all sore.’ For me, it was just a heaviness.”
That “heaviness” or claudication, is one of the symptoms of PAD. Other symptoms might include weak or unde-tectable pulse in the leg, muscle atrophy, discolored or smooth shiny skin that is cool to the touch, non-healing ulcers or sores in the legs or feet, and cold or numb toes. As much as 40 percent of patients have no leg pain.
“PAD is very com-mon,” said Dr. Young, noting it is believed that anywhere from 8 to 12 million people in the United States cur-rently have it. “The majority of cases can be treated with angio-plasty and stents, but Mrs. Robinson had an extensive amount of advanced disease that was better treated with a bypass. Her aorta and common iliac arteries were nearly occluded, reducing blood fl ow to her lower extremities.”
“Dr. Young told me that it wasn’t an ‘emer-gency situation by any stretch,’” said Robin-son. “But when I got to the point where I couldn’t play baseball with my grandson, I couldn’t run with him, and that’s just
Smoking ‘worst culprit’ in vascular diseaseShe had tried to quit countless times
without success, but when doctors told Cathy Robinson her smoking could cause her to lose her legs she listened and, with the help of step-down nicotine patches, gave up smoking.
“I know that smoking is not good for you, I’ve known it all my life,” said Rob-inson, who had smoked for 40-plus years. “My Dad smoked but I never ever asso-ciated smoking with vascular problems – just cancer because that’s all you hear. But it was either that or, if I continued to smoke, the healing would be slower, the grafts or the bypass may not heal cor-rectly or last like it should, or I could’ve lost my legs.”
That was Nov. 7 – almost three months before she underwent an aortobifemoral by-pass at Fort Sanders Re-gional Medical Center with vascular surgeon Dr. Richard Young per-forming the surgery.
“Dr. Young told me this was not going to get better,” said Rob-inson. “He said, ‘Yes, I’m proud of you for quitting smoking, but quitting is not going
to improve it.’ Plus, it’s hereditary too. But hopefully, it won’t get worse.”
The fi rst step in preventing Peripheral Ar-tery Disease is recognizing the risk factors, and changing those within your control.
“Smoking is by far the worst culprit,” said Dr. Young, noting that tobacco usage dramatically increases your PAD risk and makes symptoms of PAD worse.
“Your risk can be lowered by doing sev-eral things: don’t smoke, optimize your glu-cose control if you’re diabetic, control and manage your blood pressure and cholester-ol. You can’t pick your parents, so you can’t do anything about family history.”
“I take a cholesterol pill too. It wouldn’t matter if I went days without eating, I would still have high cholesterol because my mother and brother had that too,” said
Robinson who is also on hypertensionmedicine.
At 5-foot-1 and 110 pounds, Robinson’sweight is not a risk factor for her. But ifyou are overweight, lose the extra poundsthrough a healthy diet and exercise pro-gram.
“By controlling your risk factors andwalking, PAD can often be managed non-operatively,” said Dr. Young. “When man-agement fails, interventions can be consid-ered. Intervention is mandatory if a limb isthreatened.”
For more information
about vascular surgery
at Fort Sanders Regional,
please call 673-FORT.
In January, Cathy Robinson underwent an aortobifemoral bypass. The
procedure performed by Dr. Richard Young at Fort Sanders Regional has
given Robinson the ability to enjoy life and play with her grandson.
heartbreaking … I said, ‘Let’s just get itdone. If I’m going to have to have it, I don’twant to wait until I’m 73 instead of 63.’”
Aortobifemoral bypass has been aroundfor at least four decades and is the pre-ferred therapy for severe blockages of theaorta. With this bypass, a polyester tube(graft) is used to go around the blocked ar-teries connecting the aorta to the femoralarteries.
The aorta is the body’s major artery outof the heart. Near the belly button level,the aorta branches to form the two iliacarteries. At groin level, the iliac arteriesbecome the femoral arteries.
Despite the extensiveness of the sur-gery, it took only about 90 minutes beforeRobinson was wheeled back into intensivecare. She was back home fi ve days later.
“I don’t think I had an idea in mindabout what it would be like. I knew it wasserious surgery, but I didn’t realize trulyhow serious it was and what all he wouldhave to do. But you get through it, youget over it. There was a time, I will admit,when I was all drugged up that I would cryand tell me husband I really wish I hadn’thad this done, but I don’t feel that way now.
“The Fort Sanders hospital was very good to me, they were all really good,” sheadded. “Dr. Young was a blessing becausehe was so good and explains things in away that a non-medical person can un-derstand. He’s very positive with you eventhough it’s bad news.
“You don’t want to go in and hear thatyou’re going to have to have a bypass!Who wants to hear that? But he’s still verypositive when he’s talking about it, eventhough he tells you everything that couldgo wrong. He’s still very positive about it,and I really did like that. I can’t say enoughgood things about him. I would recom-mend him to anybody. Anybody.”
Dr. Richard Young
NORTH/EAST Shopper news • APRIL 6, 2016 • 3 community
Prospects for mayor From page 1
By Ruth WhiteAustin-East rolled out
the red carpet for some spe-cial community members last week to say thank you to sponsors and supporters of the school.
The school hosted “A Night of Celebration and Thanks,” a live thank you card featuring the West African dancers and drum-mers, the Dance Company, singing by club sponsor Ru-kiya Foster and Drishaud Hall and delicious food served up by Joslyn John-son’s culinary arts students.
What was the school cel-ebrating? This summer, six students will travel to Paris and Madrid – a fi rst ever in the history of the school. Principal Nathan Langlois called the trip a “big mo-ment in A-E history” and was excited for the students. “Going abroad helps stu-dents discover themselves. They will be challenged and this trip will stoke internal fi res within them. A special thanks to the sponsors who are helping open doors for them.”
The students will travel from May 28 through June 6. Anyone interested in as-sisting with additional ex-penses for the trip should contact Rukiya Foster at the school, 594-3792.
A night of thanks, celebration
Danielle Pierce dances with the West African dance group dur-
ing the celebration.
Max Davenport and
Danielle Pierce serve as
ambassadors for Austin-
East as this year’s Mr. and
Miss AE. Photos by R. White
Stephanie Snyder performs with
the Dance Company at Austin-East.
COMMUNITY NOTES
■ Alice Bell Spring Hill Neigh-borhood Association. Info:
Ronnie Collins, 637-9630.
■ Beaumont Community Organization. Info: Natasha
Murphy, 936-0139.
■ Belle Morris Community Action Group meets 7 p.m.
each second Monday, City
View Baptist Church, 2311
Fine Ave. Info: bellemorris.
com or Rick Wilen, 524-5008.
■ Chilhowee Park Neighbor-hood Association meets
6:30 p.m. each last Tuesday,
Administration Building,
Knoxville Zoo. Info: Paul Ruff ,
696-6584.
■ Edgewood Park Neighborhood Association
meets 7 p.m. each third
Tuesday, Larry Cox Senior
Center, 3109 Ocoee Trail. Info:
edgewoodpark.us.
■ Excelsior Lodge No. 342
meets 7:30 p.m. each Thurs-
day, 10103 Thorn Grove Pike.
Info: Bill Emmert, 933-6032 or
■ Family Community Educa-tion – Carter Club meets 10
a.m. each second Tuesday,
Carter Senior Center, 9036
Asheville Highway. Info: Anne
Winstead, 933-5821.
■ First District Democrats
meet each fi rst Monday,
Burlington Branch Library,
4614 Asheville Highway. Info:
Harold Middlebrook, harold-
Mary Wilson, marytheprez@
yahoo.com.
■ Historic Fourth & Gill Neigh-borhood Organization
meets 6:30 p.m. each second
Monday, Central UMC, 201
Third Ave. Info: Liz Upchurch,
898-1809, lizupchurch1@
gmail.com.
■ Inskip Community As-sociation meets 6 p.m.
each fourth Tuesday, Inskip
Baptist Church, 4810 Rowan
Road. Info: Betty Jo Mahan,
679-2748 or bettymahan@
knology.net.
■ Oakwood Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association
meets 6:30 p.m. each fi rst
Monday, Community Club
House, 916 Shamrock Ave.
Info: Bill Hutton, 773-5228 or
■ Old North Knoxville meets
6:30 p.m. each second
Monday, St. James Episcopal
Church Parish Hall, 1101 N.
Broadway.
■ Parkridge Community Organization meets 6:30
p.m. each fi rst Monday except
holidays, Cansler YMCA,
616 Jessamine St. Info: Jerry
History award nominations soughtThe East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS) invites
nominations from across East Tennessee for Awards of Ex-cellence in the fi eld of history. The annual awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made signifi cant contributions to the preservation, promotion, programming and interpretation of the region’s history. The postmark deadline for award applications is April 8.
Info/nomination form: 215-8824; eastTNhistory.org; East Tennessee Historical Society, PO Box 1629, Knoxville, TN 37901.
what the drop-dead deci-sion date is.”
Anders has served as a commissioner since 2008 and has been with KPD for 24 years, and said he has profes-sional and family decisions to make before he can think about running for mayor.
“A lot of things would have to click in the right way for that to happen,” Anders said.
Former state Rep. Ryan Haynes is also believed to be a potential candidate. Haynes, who resigned from the General Assembly to become state Republican Party chair, pooh-poohs that notion. When pressed he offered this statement:
“I’ll say this. I’m fl attered my name has been men-tioned, but I have a job to
do, and it’s way premature to start a new campaign season when the current one isn’t even over. The last thing we need is individual interests dividing up our communities.”
And, fi nally, there’s Crim-inal Court Clerk Mike Ham-mond, who could not be reached for comment.
Court clerks are not subject to term limits, and Hammond, a former coun-ty commissioner who was elected clerk in 2014, is con-sidered an unlikely mayoral contender.
All the candidates listed are Republicans. Demo-cratic Party chair Cameron Brooks says so far no Demo-crats have expressed inter-est in the offi ce.
Caldwell, 329-9943.
■ Second District Democrats
meet 6 p.m. each second
Thursday, New Hope Mis-
sionary Baptist Church, 2504
Cecil Ave. Info: Rick Staples,
385-3589 or funnyman1@
comic.com.
■ Thorn Grove Rebekah Lodge
No. 13 meets 7:30 p.m. each
second and fourth Monday,
10103 Thorn Grove Pike. Info:
Mary Jo Poole, 599-7698 or
■ Town Hall East. Info: Eston Wil-
liams, 406-5412 or eston_wil-
[email protected]; facebook.
com/townhalleast/info.
4 • APRIL 6, 2016 • Shopper news
Wendy Smith
Track and fi eld Volun-teers from the golden era of Chuck Rohe and Stan Huntsman will honor 50 years of Ed Murphey Award winners Friday at a country club reception and dinner.
On Saturday, the Uni-versity of Tennessee track program will recognize a lifetime of contributions by Terry Hull Crawford, for-mer champion runner and women’s coach at UT, Texas and Cal Poly-San Luis Obis-po. She evolved into coach-ing coaches for USA Track and Field.
Terry, many track alum-ni and guests will be treat-ed to a reunion dinner in a showplace segment of Neyland Stadium. Coach Beth Alford-Sullivan will discuss current Volunteers. A few good men lifted Ten-
Honors weekend for Tennessee trackMarvin
West
nessee to third place at the recent NCAA indoor cham-pionships. Women ran sev-enth.
Alas, there will be no serious running, jumping or throwing at Tom Black Track this weekend. It is bogged down in a rehabili-tation project that was sup-posed to have been fi nished months ago. Critics say big buildings have been built faster. Optimists say, if all eventually goes well, there will be a home track meet or three next spring.
The Murphey Award does not struggle with such chaos. It is presented each year for the outstanding performance by a Volunteer. It originated in 1965 as a gift from the legendary Ed Mur-phey.
What a story he was.In the mid-1950s, Mur-
phey played trumpet in the Pride of the Southland band. He was manager for the basketball team, re-sponsible for clean practice uniforms and dry towels.
He asked coach John Sines, also the track coach, if it would be OK to go out for track.
Sines’ response was his-toric: “OK Murph, just don’t get in anybody’s way.”
He didn’t. He ran the fastest mile ever on the cin-der track around Shields-
Watkins Field. He set a Southeastern Conference record in cross-country. He won the SEC mile three consecutive years. He won all-America recognition.
“Ed Murphey was a champion when champions were few at Tennessee,” said the late Tom Siler.
You may have heard of some who received Mur-phey Awards: Richmond Flowers, Willie Gault, Law-rence Johnson, Justin Gat-lin, Aries Merritt and Justin Hunter.
Terry Hull Crawford has a national prize named for her – the Terry Crawford Women’s Program of the Year Award.
Terry goes back to the late 1960s, the beginning of women’s sports at UT. Charlie Durham bought a
newspaper ad announcing that the Knoxville Track Club was forming a wom-en’s team. About 50 girls and women, ages 10 to 20, responded. Terry, 17, out of Greeneville High School, was in the group.
She became a three-time Volunteer all-American, winning the national 220 and 440 in 1969 and the 880 in 1970. She competed in the World University Games and Pan-American Games and twice got close to Olympic teams.
Terry came back as coach of women’s track. Her 1981 team won the national championship, fi rst in any women’s sport at Tennes-see. Among her other dis-tinctions was the recruit-ment of sprinter and jumper Holly Warlick from Bearden High. Holly also wanted to try basketball. The rest is history.
There came a time when Texas offered Terry a better coaching opportunity (more money). Tennessee athletic director Bob Woodruff lis-tened as Terry explained. He could have countered. He didn’t.
Terry went to Austin. Her Longhorns won fi ve NCAA championships and 18 Southwest Conference ti-tles. Her 1986 team was the only triple winner in history – indoors, outdoors and in cross-country.
Terry reappeared at the World and Pan-Am games as coach of U.S. teams. She was America’s coach at the 1988 Olympics. She won enough meets and produced enough all-Americans to coach 17 years at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.
The track world and I see her as a national treasure.Marvin West invites reader reaction. His
address is [email protected]
The parents who attended Karen Carson’s meeting at Farragut High School were calm, but when they spoke, the tension of dealing with four separate school threats was evident.
They voiced concerns about who was in charge during a crisis − the school or the sheriff’s offi ce? They questioned whether kids should be locked down in classrooms if there was potentially a bomb in the building. One was upset about not being able to help a child who got sick while on lockdown in the football stadium.
Mostly, they were frus-trated over a lack of trust-worthy communication. What kind of threats were being made, and how were students being kept safe?
Farragut junior Viktoria Ohstrom
speaks as principal Stephanie
Thompson, left, looks on.
Trust hard to come by during school threats
While the safety of stu-dents is the highest priority, there’s a delicate balance be-tween enough and too much information, explained Dis-trict 5 school board member Carson. Too little info frus-trates parents; too much in-spires copycats.
It’s a legitimate con-cern. Threats at Farragut Intermediate, Hardin Val-ley Academy and Hardin Valley Elementary schools followed the Farragut High threats.
Knox County Schools
Chief of Security Gus Paid-ousis explained why com-municating during a crisis is a challenge. The only thing worse than no infor-mation is bad information, and when things are con-stantly changing, it’s dif-fi cult to provide accurate information, he said. Too much information could also allow someone who intends harm to anticipate strategy and do more dam-age.
Carson asked parents not to call the school during a crisis, but to trust that staff are doing everything they can to protect kids. Superin-tendent Jim McIntyre said schools need to communi-cate with parents, but after that, parents need to trust that the best decisions are being made.
sage on the wall. But, as Carson said, every threat has to be treated as if it’s real, which calls for lock-downs, bomb squads and bomb-sniffi ng dogs. Those things can make any parent less than rational, less able to trust.
Parents are not the only ones affected. Farragut High School junior Vikto-ria Ohstrom spoke up at the meeting to say that she
didn’t know what was hap-pening during last week’s threat, and it seemed like teachers didn’t know, either.
“That’s what scares peo-ple. Not the threats.”
Communication is im-portant, but the only thing that parents and students really want to hear is that the crisis is over and all is well. Until that’s the mes-sage, it will be hard to trust. We’ve seen too much.
That’s a tall order for par-ents. Those of us with teen-age children remember the shock of Col-umbine. We were horrifi ed by the mur-ders at Virginia Tech, and we grieved with the parents of the innocents killed at Sandy Hook Elemen-tary.
Local inci-dents like shootings at Cen-tral High School and Inskip Elementary School have also impacted us.
We know, rationally, that these are rare events. But all of us have imagined hearing the news that there’s been an incident at our child’s school.
It’s easy to imagine a student plotting to cancel classes for a day or two by writing a threatening mes-
Join the conversation at www.ShopperNewsNow.comww
Joww
Shopper news • APRIL 6, 2016 • 5 government
VictorAshe
Betty Bean
Two years ago, life looked grim for Mike Blankenship.
Three weeks ago, my wife Joan and I, along with my sister-in-law Kathy Ashe from Atlanta, joined a Yale Alumni Tour of Cuba for 10 days. It was fascinating. As Joan says, it was a trip not a vacation.
Also on the trip was an-other Knoxvillian, Dr. Anne McIntyre, who is a retired UT professor of psychology and lives in Sequoyah Hills.
We fl ew into Santiago from Miami on the east-ern end of the island not far from Guantanamo Bay where the United States has a military facility. For the next six days we journeyed across the island and ulti-mately arrived in Havana two days after President Obama’s visit.
While the people were friendly and genuinely seem to want an improved rela-tionship with the U.S., the economy and lifestyle were clearly third world. Cuba is longer than Tennessee (about 700 miles) and the eastern end has been ne-glected by various regimes. Deferred maintenance is the order of the day as many historic buildings were col-lapsing or close to it. Carts were pulled by oxen or hors-es including carts used as taxis to transport people.
Dr. Anne McIntyre, former Mayor Victor Ashe and
Joan Ashe at the Ernest Hemingway house in Havana
on a recent trip to Cuba with Yale Alumni Travel. Both
Victor Ashe and McIntyre are Yale graduates and live
in Knoxville.
Ashes, McIntyre (not that one) tour Cuba
The cars are in large part holdovers from the 1950s which have been con-tinually restored due to the embargo and lack of new vehicles being imported. On the other hand, the bus we rode in was brand new as were most buses for tour-ists. Internet service was spotty at best and expensive for Cubans ($2 an hour).
Hotels outside Havana were clean but basic in their service. Parts of Havana it-self were modern and cur-rent and other parts were collapsing. The drive we took from Ernest Heming-way’s home outside Havana to the central part of the city passed several highly im-poverished areas.
Havana itself has an in-credible old city which ex-ceeds San Juan in Puerto Rico in size but has been neglected since the Castro revolution.
While President Obama made overturns to the Cu-ban people, he had not been gone more than one day be-
fore his remarks were blast-ed by Fidel Castro who stills lives and appears from time to time in well-planned ven-ues. But it was Fidel’s broth-er, Raul, the current presi-dent, who hosted Obama.
It was also clear that change is coming to Cuba, but at a very measured pace. In terms of infrastructure and advancing into this century for their economic well-being the country is 30 years behind. In terms of democratic processes, it’s not there in any meaningful way.
■ Blount Mansion
is hosting a dinner talk on Molsey Blount, wife of Gov. William Blount, by Dr. Nancy McEntee at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, at Holly’s Gourmet Market. Tickets, $60 each, can be reserved at 865-525-2375. Proceeds go to Blount Man-sion.
Not a lot is known about her, but like many wives, she was very infl uential af-ter she moved here in 1792. This year, which is the 225th birthday year of the Knoxville, is also the 90th anniversary of the Blount Mansion Association which
Career Magnet Academy FFA members at their fi rst
state convention this spring: (front) Paul Stiles, Lauren
Williams, Brittany Read, Darby Swanson; (back) Josh
Rutherford, Tylor Gann and Tobias DuBose.
Revered Ag teacher blooms in new garden
of the school day at North Knox, so Cox, Dunn and their classmates could fi n-ish their agriculture studies and continue to participate in FFA.
It involved a lot of driv-ing, but Blankenship says the commute was a snap compared to his fi rst 12 years of teaching when he made a 50-mile round trip to and from his home in Gibbs to Doyle High School (he has been a teacher with Knox County Schools for 37 years).
This year, he’s at CMA full-time, and has found a
niche in the school’s Sus-tainable Pathway, where 13 students – most from north and east Knox County – en-rolled in the program. One has moved, so he’s down to 12, still twice the number he was teaching at the Halls campus. He is proud that 11 of them will be headed “upstairs” next year to take college-level classes (CMA is housed on the ground fl oor of the Strawberry Plains Pike branch of Pellis-sippi State), and he’s proud of the brand-new FFA Chap-ter TNO337 he’s established there.
His teaching day starts with an agricultural science class, and he’s added an agricultural business and fi nance class in the second term and hopes to expand into business fi nance.
“Our pathway is a little different from any other program in the county. This is all so new, like building a plane – you look out and we’re working on this wing. We’re always in transition. No two days are alike.”
Blankenship is also teaching college and career readiness to ninth-graders, beginning the process of preparing them for the fu-ture. He is proud that his students will be able to en-roll in dual-credit (college level) courses that will put them far along the path to college degrees.
But one thing he misses is having a greenhouse like the one he built on the Halls campus, where he main-tained an annual Christmas tradition of raising and sell-ing poinsettias.
“Oh, I miss it. But we’re working on that. It’s still in the talking stage, but we’ve ID’d potential locations.”
Overall, Blankenship is grateful for the new chal-lenge and optimistic about the future.
“I am not an ax grinder,” he said. “Whatever is put in front of me, I’ll do my best to reach young people. I’m still standing.”
Blankenship
saved this historic house from being turned into a parking lot in 1926.
Dr. McEntee has writ-ten a book titled “Molsey Blount: Colonial First Lady of Tennessee.”
■ Grou ndbre a k i ng for the new $160 million State Museum in Nashville is today with Gov. Haslam and author Jon Meacham leading the ceremony.
The new facility is need-ed, but its design has been roundly criticized by sev-eral architects. The fi rm employed is from Minne-sota with little knowledge of Tennessee as several
Tennessee fi rms, including Knoxville’s McCarty Hol-saple, were rejected.
The Nashville Scene has described it as “a dumb box of a porch with no time or place and mute to the ex-pressive powers of architec-ture.” The Museum Com-mission on which I serve had no role in the design of the building. The fi nal say was made at a higher level.
I hope the governor takes another look at this design after the ground is broken so that like our State Capitol it is seen as an iconic build-ing 50 to 100 years from now.
Mayor Tim Burchett with Jackie Booker Griffi n at Jackie’s
Dream.
Burchett boosts Jackie’s Dream Café The place was packed,
but no one was complaining when Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and his peo-ple came to lunch at Jackie’s Dream.
Jackie’s Dream Café opened March 6, 2015, at 2223 McCalla Avenue. It was a life dream for owner Jackie Booker Griffi n.
“I come from a family that cooks,” she writes on her website. “It’s what my mother, grandmother and uncles taught me.
“We made our own jelly, chow-chow, pickles. My grandfather had chickens
so we had fresh eggs. We hardly ever went to the store. We made everything from scratch, and I con-tinue to do it that way. Ev-erything is peeled, cut and chopped here. We eliminate cans whenever we can. I had fresh green beans and corn all summer long.”
Since taking offi ce, Bur-chett has used the occa-sional Dutch-treat lunch with the mayor to showcase locally owned restaurants. This one is known for its soul food and hot chicken. Hours and menu are online at jackiesdream.com
The District 6 Democratic Party is always angling to get pictures into the Shopper. There are the frequent trash pick-ups, the various parades, the frequent guest speakers. But the March meeting takes the prize.
Seems county commission candidate Donna L ucas was guest speaker. Janice Spoone said some members arrived early to fi nd a fi re truck at the Karns Middle School, smoke everywhere and their library meeting place closed.
Mike Knapp rushed to “We’re Cooking” to arrange a meeting space while Spoone and the school librarian found paper, markers and tape to post notices of the meeting change. The smoke was from a new heating/air system and all is well.
“You would have loved the excitement,” wrote Spoone. “Other than the fact that I probably smelled like smoke, we had a good group for the Lucas cam-paign meeting.”
We’re cooking!
At a time when he was facing serious family ill-nesses, he was notifi ed that his agricultural program at North Knox Career Tech-nical Education Center in Halls was being disbanded because of declining enroll-ment. His students were distraught.
“2014 was a very tumul-tuous time. My son passed
away, then my dad p a s s e d away three m o n t h s later. Two deaths in the family – plus the spi-raling down p r o c e s s
at work. Anytime you’re RIFed, it’s tough.”
But his students, particu-larly rising seniors Ryan Cox and James Dunn, decided to fi ght for their Future Farm-ers of America club and their teacher. When CTE su-pervisor Don Lawson found a spot for Blankenship at the Career Magnet Academy in East Knox County, their ef-forts spurred him to allow Blankenship to spend part
6 • APRIL 6, 2016 • NORTH/EAST Shopper news
THROUGH SUNDAY, APRIL 17“Annie, Jr.,” Knoxville Children’s Theatre, 109
E. Churchwell Ave. Performances: 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 1 and 5 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Info: 208-3677; knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com; [email protected].
MONDAYS THROUGH APRIL 25QED Experimental Comedy Lab, 7:30-9:30
p.m., The Pilot Light, 106 E. Jackson Ave. Free comedy show blending stand-up, improv, sketch and other performance styles. Donations accepted.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6International Folk Dance Class, 7:30-10
p.m., Claxton Community Center, 1150 Edgemoor Road, Clinton. Info: Paul Taylor, 898-5724; oakridgefolkdancers.org; on Facebook.
THURSDAY, APRIL 7Bee Friends beekeeping group meeting, 6:30
p.m., auditorium, Tazewell Campus of Walters State. Club members will be discussing their experiences of this spring season and exchanging ideas and answering questions. Open to everyone interested in beekeeping.
Big Ridge 4th District Neighborhood Watch meeting, 7 p.m., Big Ridge Elementary School library. Info: 992-5212.
Celebrate National Poetry Month with Rose Klix, noon, Halls Senior Center, 4405 Crippen Road. Participants receive complimentary poetry book from Klix. Info: 922-0416.
Pop-Up Chess, 6-8 p.m., Burlington Branch Library, 4614 Asheville Highway. Open to all ages and skill levels. Info: 525-5431.
FRIDAY, APRIL 8Reception for new Knoxville Watercolor
Society exhibit, 6:30-8 p.m., Fountain City Art
Center, 213 Hotel Ave. Exhibit on display through May 4. Info: 357-2787.
Scruffy City Orchestra inaugural concert, 7:30 p.m., First Baptist Church of Knoxville, 510 W Main St. Program: “Old Friends, New Faces.” Admission: $5 at the door. Debit and credit cards accepted. Info: facebook.com/scruffycityorchestra.
FRIDAY-SATURDAY, APRIL 8-9Children’s consignment sale, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Friday and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Bookwalter UMC, 4218 Central Avenue Pike. Saturday is half-off day. Presale, 6-8 p.m. Thursday, April 7. Consigning info: 689-3349.
SATURDAY, APRIL 9Benefi t singing and bake sale, 5 p.m., Rutherford
Memorial UMC, 8715 Corryton Road. Featuring: Dorothy Mitchell, Crimson Ridge, Nicole Doyal, Roger and Amanda Theilen, the Rutherford Memorial Praise Team and House Upon the Rock. All proceeds go to Marisha Dotson, who is fi ghting a rare form of Stage 3 cancer. Info: Anita Duval, 394-1175.
Churchwide yard sale, 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Powell Presbyterian Church, 2910 W. Emory Road. Housewares, furniture, toys, clothes, books, movies and more. All proceeds go to ministry. Info: 938-8311 or powellpcusa.org.
Community Fun Fest and Ministry Awareness Event, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Luttrell Park. Luttrell. Activities include: vendors, silent auction, play area, bounce house, singing food, fun crafts and more.
“Cooking Wild” class, 10 a.m.-noon, Clinton Physical Therapy Center, 1921 N. Charles G. Seivers Blvd., Clinton. Instructors: Camille Watson, holistic health coach, and herbalist Danna Sharp of Wisteria Herbs. Cost: $39. Preregistration deadline: Wednesday, April 6. Info/registration: 457-1649.
Evening of Storytelling, 7-9 p.m., Mac Smith Resource Center, 1936 Liberty Hill Road, Washburn. Info: 497-2753 or [email protected].
Kitten and cat adoption fair, noon-6 p.m., West Town PetSmart adoption center, 214 Morrell Road. Sponsored by Feral Feline Friends of East Tennessee. Info: www.feralfelinefriends.org.
Love is the Answer: Youth Open Mic, 1-4 p.m., Burlington Branch Library, 4614 Asheville Highway. Info: [email protected] or 306-7070.
Northside Kiwanis Pancake Jamboree and Bake Sale, 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Saint John’s Lutheran Church, Broadway at Emory Place. All proceeds support the club’s community service activities. Tickets available at the door: $12 for a family of four; $5 for individuals. Info: Bill Larson, 693-8845.
Rain barrel workshop, 10 a.m.-noon, Church of the Good Shepherd, 5773 Jacksboro Pike. Sponsored by the Water Quality Forum. Cost: $40 per barrel. Preregistration required. Info/registration: Kellie, [email protected] or 974-2151.
MONDAY, APRIL 11Coffee, Donuts and a Movie: “The Man from
U.N.C.L.E.,” 10:30 a.m., Burlington Branch Library, 4614 Asheville Highway. Info: 525-5431.
Family Movie Night: “The Good Dinosaur,” 5:30 p.m., Burlington Branch Library, 4614 Asheville Highway. Info: 525-5431.
TUESDAY, APRIL 12Knoxville Civil War Roundtable meeting,
8 p.m., Bearden Banquet Hall, 5806 Kingston Pike. Speaker: Scott Mingus. Topic: The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign. Dinner, 7 p.m. Cost: $5 lecture only; $17, dinner and lecture. RSVP by noon Monday, April 11 to 671-9001.
Paulette 6th District Neighborhood Watch meeting, 7 p.m., Paulette Elementary School cafeteria. Info: 992-5212.
“Salvage Jewelry” class, 6-9 p.m., Appalachian Arts Craft Center, 2716 Andersonville Highway, Norris. Instructor: Sarah Brobst. Info/registration: 494-9854; appalachianarts.net.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13Computer Workshop: Word Basics, 2-4:15 p.m.,
Burlington Branch Library, 4614 Asheville Highway. Requires “Introducing the Computer” or equivalent skills. Info/registration: 525-5431.
“DIY: Learn how to make eco-friendly home cleaners,” 2-3:30 p.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Free and open to the public. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.
International Folk Dance Class, 7:30-10 p.m., Claxton Community Center, 1150 Edgemoor Road, Clinton. Info: Paul Taylor, 898-5724; oakridgefolkdancers.org; on Facebook.
THURSDAY, APRIL 14Austin-East Magnet High School Artists’
Reception, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Burlington Branch Library, 4614 Asheville Highway. Light hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be provided. Info: 525-5431.
“Beginning Writing” workshop, 6-8 p.m., Appalachian Arts Craft Center, 2716 Andersonville Highway, Norris. Instructor: Kathleen Fearing. Registration deadline: April 7. Info/registration: 494-9854; appalachianarts.net.
“Getting Your House in Order” seminar, 10-11 a.m.., North Knoxville Medical Center, 7565 Dannaher Drive, Sister Elizabeth Room. Free; registration required. Info/registration: 1-855-TENNOVA (836-6682) or Tennova.com.
“Ginseng: Gold in the Smoky Mountains,” 3:15-4:30 p.m., Humana Guidance Center, 4438 Western Ave. Presented by Master Gardener Janie Bitner. Free and open to the public. Info: 329-8892.
Send items to [email protected]
ShoppernewseVents
SENIOR NOTES ■ Carter Senior Center
9040 Asheville Highway932-2939Monday-Friday8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Off erings include: card
games; exercise programs;
arts and crafts; movie
matinee each Friday; Senior
Meals program noon each
Wednesday.
Register for: Mighty
Musical Monday, 11 a.m.
Monday, April 11; lunch
available, $5. Free beginner
computer class, 2 p.m.
Tuesday, April 12.
■ Corryton Senior Center9331 Davis Drive688-5882knoxcounty.org/seniorsMonday-FridayHours vary
Off erings include: ex-
ercise classes; cross-stitch,
card games; dominoes,
crochet, quilting, billiards;
Senior Meals program, 11
a.m. each Friday.
Register for: Free
CPR and AED course, 1-3
p.m. Friday, April 8. Super
Seniors meeting, 10:30 a.m.
Tuesday, April 12. Veterans
Services, 10 a.m. Tuesday,
April 12; info/registration:
215-5645.
■ Larry Cox Senior Center3109 Ocoee Trail546-1700Monday-FridayOff erings include: ex-
ercise programs; bingo;
arts and crafts classes.
■ John T. O’Connor Senior Center611 Winona St.523-1135knoxseniors.org/oconnor.htmlMonday-Friday8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Off erings include: Card
games, billiards, senior
fi tness, computer classes,
bingo, blood pressure
checks 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Monday-Friday. Free tax
preparation available 9
a.m. Wednesdays through
April 13.
Spring has burst onto the scene with a dazzling array of color. For the past two weeks breath-taking blooms in purple, pink and white have covered the trees, have brought smiles to even the dourest of curmudgeons.
Flowering pears, redbuds and cherry blossoms let us know that those dogwood buds are closely behind. Soon the Dogwood Trails and Festival will begin, with multiple venues and varied events to visit.
And yet, something is missing...
I remember the Dog-wood Festivals from sim-pler times, as a festival celebrating our East Ten-nessee heritage on Market Square. The bluegrass com-petition, with fi ddlers and banjo players, along with steel guitars and wash-board players and mando-lins, jamming in the door-
NickDella Volpe
ways around the square until they got their turn on the center stage.
Can you picture your neighbor doing a bit of do-see-do-ing? Or gawking at craftsmen like Jesse Butch-er and women from Tellico Plains, weaving soaked oak slats into butt baskets and such, while Alex Stew-art and his grandson were riving cedar staves with draw knives, on raw wood snugged by that foot-driv-en work bench, into butter churns and pidgins right before your eyes?
There were gals in ging-ham dresses plucking feath-
ers from nervous geese while smiling seamstresses stitched quilts and coverlets ready for stuffi ng.
Not to mention the drift-ing smells of warm stack cakes layered with apple-sauce and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Yum!
Hey, what about that blacksmith shaping hot iron with a hammer and anvil? Or them ol’ knife swappers and whittlers in the corner?
A little nostalgia is a good thing. And, while you are at it, Knoxville, why not bring some of that genuine heri-tage back to the Dogwood Festival?
“Down through the corn leading down through the river,
Her hair shone like gold in the hot morning sun.
She took all the love that a poor boy could give her,
And left me to die like a fox on the run...”
Authors talk books
Clayton Brewer, published
poet, and Sam Venable,
local author and colum-
nist, swap books when
Venable visits residents
at Morning Pointe Senior
Living and Alzheimer’s
Memory Care of Powell.
Venable has written
several books – mostly
comedies. Brewer holds
Venable’s book titled
“Warning! This Book Con-
tains Nuttiness: A Look at
the Bizarre World in Which
We Live.” Venable holds
Brewer’s book of poems
called “Pathways Ahead.”
Pellissippi State schedules choral concert, design showcase
Pellissippi State Commu-nity College will hold its fi -nal musical performance of the year Thursday, April 28.
The Spring Choral Con-cert will feature musical per-formances by the college’s students in Concert Chorale and Variations Ensemble. The free concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the Clayton Per-forming Arts Center, 10915 Hardin Valley Road.
The concert is part of The Arts at Pellissippi State, which brings to the commu-nity cultural activities rang-ing from music and theatre to international celebra-tions, lectures and the fi ne arts.
The work of Pellissippi State students in the Com-munication Graphics Tech-nology program will be on display at the CGT Student Design Showcase April 18-May 1.
A reception will be held from 4-8 p.m. Thursday, April 21, giving community members the opportunity to meet students and discuss their design work. The free exhibit and reception will be held in the Bagwell Cen-ter for Media and Art, 10915 Hardin Valley Road. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Info: www.pstcc.edu/arts or call 865-694-6400.
NORTH/EAST Shopper news • APRIL 6, 2016 • 7 faith
Yes, Easter is past, but I am convinced that Eas-ter is like Christmas: it is never “over.”
I am still processing something I wrote last week: “Isn’t it odd that not one of that blood-thirsty crowd bothered to stand at the foot of the cross and actually witness the agony of their victim?”
The 11 disciples who remained (Judas com-mitted suicide after his betrayal of Jesus) were in hiding, fearful of the Jew-ish leaders. Simon Peter – who had declared his allegiance to Jesus, prom-ising to die with him, if need be – hid, cowering behind closed doors.
However, the women who followed Jesus were at the foot of the cross. The Gospels give differ-ing accounts of which women, exactly, but Mary, the mother of James and Joseph (who was argu-ably also the mother of Jesus), Mary Magdalene, Salome, the un-named mother of the sons of Ze-
Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Jo-seph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
(Matthew 27: 55 NRSV)
Let them see what they’ve done!
CrossCurrents
LynnPitts
bedee, and Mary, the wife of Clopas are mentioned.
It is fair to point out that women counted for nothing in that culture, so they were no threat to the Roman soldiers who were carrying out the execu-tion. Women were of no consequence in the eyes of the soldiers.
Still, I am reminded of what Jacqueline Kennedy said after the assassina-tion of her husband.
When they were fi nally aboard Air Force One, fl y-ing to Washington, some-one gently suggested to Mrs. Kennedy that she change out of the blood-spattered pink suit she was still wearing.
“No,” she said emphati-cally. “Let them see what they’ve done!”
By Carol Z. ShaneKnoxville is bursting with Rhythm
‘n’ Blooms this weekend, and music and art of all types abound.
One fairly “new kid on the block” is the Scruffy City Orchestra, Knox-ville’s fi rst and only community or-chestra. They’ll be presenting their very fi rst concert, “Old Friends, New Faces,” this Friday.
The orchestra will be led by two local conductors, Ace Edewards and Matt Wilkinson, who’ve been on board from the beginning.
Wilkinson, a cellist, veteran of the Knox County “Strings in the Schools” program and currently director of the Maryville High School Orchestra, says, “A group of community members that played in the Maryville commu-nity orchestra while I was the con-ductor contacted me about starting a Knoxville community orchestra, and after a night at Central Flats and Taps we formed the Scruffy City Orchestra
and board. The idea is creating an at-mosphere for amateur musicians to have a place to perform quality clas-sical music.”
Edewards, a singer and conductor with a distinguished international pedigree, moved here last year to be with his wife, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra violinist Ruth Bacon (the two recently celebrated their fi rst an-niversary.) He conducted the highly successful production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” last December at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, and in the past few months has taken on con-ducting projects in South Carolina, Arizona and Mexico.
“There seemed to be a need for a community orchestra in Knoxville,” says Edewards. “We put out the word to everyone we knew, and we had quite a few people show up on the fi rst night. Little by little we’ve fi lled out the ranks. Everyone is a music-loving amateur.”
The program includes the well-
known, well-loved fi rst movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, a stately selection from Sir Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” and a medley from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera.” Master of ceremonies will be Kevin Richard Doherty, operatic baritone and host and producer of “The Early Morning Concert” on WUOT, 91.9 FM.
Anyone who is interested in play-ing on future rehearsals and concerts is urged to contact the SCO. “All are welcome” says Edewards. “Having a lot of people wanting to play is a good problem to have, and we will certainly do our best to give all who are willing an opportunity to participate.”
The Scruffy City Orchestra’s spring concert, “Old Friends, New Faces,” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. this Friday, April 8, at First Baptist Church, 510 W. Main St. in Knoxville. General admis-sion is $5 at the door, and credit/debit cards are accepted. Info: on Facebook.
FAITH NOTES ■ Church of God of Knoxville, 5912 Thorn Grove
Pike, will hold a revival 7 p.m. through Saturday,
April 9, and 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sunday,
April 10. Evangelist will be Bryant Owen, pastor
of the Church of God in Asheville, N.C. Info:
522-9520.
■ First Comforter Church, 5516 Old Tazewell
Pike, hosts MAPS (Mothers At Prayer Service)
noon each Friday. Info: Edna Hensley, 771-7788.
■ Trentville and Pleasant Hill UMC will host
a Spring Tea 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 24, at
Trentville UMC, 9215 Strawberry Plains Pike.
Donations welcome. Proceeds go to Children’s
Ministries.
A new orchestra in the Scruff y City
By Nancy AndersonPastor Todd Stewart and
Mike Brogdon, Lonsdale community ministry leader, led a team of 40 members of Grace Baptist Church on April 2 for their monthly mission to make a difference in the Lonsdale community.
The Adopt-A-Block team meets the fi rst Saturday of each month, visiting 150-200 homes to give small gifts and offering prayer or minor house repairs.
“We usually have a small practical gift to offer, like 9-volt batteries for their smoke alarms or light bulbs. If they’re elderly or unable, we’ll replace it for them. If they need minor repairs and own their home, we’ll make a note of that and refer it on to The Crew, a ministry of folks at the church who will come out to do those repairs.”
Stewart said they don’t perform the repairs as acts of charity.
“We are not a system
that just gives things away. We ask them if they have a friend or family member who can help us with the work or if they can help purchase materials. We’re about empowering people for life transformation so they can accomplish the things they want and the things God wants.”
There are big things on the horizon for the Adopt-A-Block program.
A Lonsdale house was donated to the church, and the city of Knoxville has a building they’re willing to rent for $1 a year.
Stewart hopes to start a medical clinic in the front part of the building and possibly conduct English as second language and job skills training in the back.
The house will be reno-vated and offered for rent with the funds going toward the purchase and renova-tion of another house in the area.
“We’d like to help provide
At the Lonsdale worksite are Spanish translator Benatto Lazo, Cindy Zimbrich, Colbi Young, Mike
Wright, Tina Brogdon; (back) John Tapp, Todd Stewart, Mike Brogdon and Brody Young.
Making a diff erence one block at a time
them a beautiful, safe place to live – some place they can be proud to call home where the rent is fi xed and afford-able. There seems to be a gap between programs like Habitat for Humanity and other housing programs. We’d like to fi ll that gap with safety and security,” Stew-art said.
8 • APRIL 6, 2016 • NORTH/EAST Shopper news kids
RuthWhite
Kindergarten Round-up is April 12
Kindergarten Round-up for the 2016-2017 school year will be held in all Knox County elementary schools Tuesday, April 12.
To enter kindergarten, children should be 5 years old by Aug. 15. To enroll their children in kinder-garten during round-up, parents need to bring the child’s birth certifi cate, proof of up-to-date im-munizations and health/physical examination, and proof of residency within the school zone.
■ Belle Morris – 3:30-5:30 p.m. Info: 594-1277
■ Carter – 3:30-6 p.m. Info: 933-4172
■ Christenberry – 3-6 p.m. Info: 594-8500
■ East Knox County – 4-6 p.m. Info: 933-3493
■ Green Magnet – 3:30-5:30 p.m. Info: 594-1324
■ Sarah Moore Greene Magnet – 4-6 p.m. Info: 594-1328
■ Spring Hill – 3:30-5:30 p.m. Info: 594-1365
L&N STEM AcademyL&N STEM Academy
will host a spring concert, 7 p.m. Friday, April 29, at the Knoxville Convention Center lecture hall. Performance ensembles include the choral ensemble, string orchestra, concert band, percussion ensemble and symphony or-chestra. The event is free to the public and parking will be available across the street as well as at nearby parking garages.
Culinary arts students Nautica Hodge, Kenondra Cornelius, Santasia Cason and Essence Nail
serve up Cool Whip cookies at the luncheon honoring academic achievers at Austin-East Mag-
net High School. Photo by R. White
Culinary arts students at Austin-East Magnet High School served up lunch in the Roadrunner Café to help recognize classmates for academic achievement.
Café honors academic achievers
The café is open to staff members once a week, and the students always serve up a delicious lunch. But this time the guests at the café were students who have earned top grades during the semester.
The honor students ate chicken alfredo, spaghetti, garlic bread, salad and Cool Whip cake cookies in the culinary arts class, which was set up like a fi ne restaurant.
Alexa Sponcia with Hard Knox Pizza helped make the day possible. The business is a partnering sponsor with the group. Sponcia
Students Brianna Stevenson
and Jameelalah Chandler are
just two of the many Austin-
East students honored for
academic achievement.
DeMarquise Nelson, Demetrius Johnson and Javon Turner
serve lunch to students at Austin-East’s Roadrunner Café.
brings local chefs to the culinary kitchen at A-E once
a month, where they teach and mentor the class.
■ Sunnyview Primary – 8-10 a.m. and 3-5 p.m. Info: 594-1173
Call for artists ■ Knoxville Photo
2016 Exhibition: juried exhibition of photographic works to be held June 3-24 in the main gallery of the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay St. Entries must be original works completed within the last two years. Entry deadline: Sunday, April 17. Info/application: knoxalliance.com/photo.html.
“Where’s Kelly?” Mr. Lester’s face was pale. “How can we practice without Kelly? Doesn’t anyone know where he is? It’s two-thirty.”
Mr. Lester was our history teacher. I thought he was going to cry. For myself, I felt like laughing, laughing hysterically.
There were 11 of us standing behind the South Orange River Middle School, near the playing fi eld, feeling silly in brand-new red shorts and yellow T-shirts with “S.O.R.” on our backs. If any dogcatchers had come around, they would have swooped us up for a bunch of stray mutts. On the fi eld, kids were running, tossing, kicking, all that stuff.
During two practice sessions we had
done two things. Since none of us knew soccer rules, Mr. Lester read them to us. Then we ran around in circles while he read the rules again, to himself. He didn’t know them either.
Second practice? We tried kicking the ball. Wasn’t easy.
“Gentlemen,” pleaded Mr. Lester. “We have our fi rst game tomorrow. Doesn’t any-one know something about Kelly?”
No one said a word. The truth was going to hurt, and no one wanted to hurt Mr. Les-ter. He was a nice guy.
“We have to play tomorrow,” he said, as if we didn’t know. We knew it too well.
It was my special buddy, Saltz, who let it out. “Mr. Lester, Kelly no longer goes to
our school. His father’s job was transferred somewhere. Kelly tagged along.” I don’t think we’d had our new uniforms on for more than 30 minutes, but Saltz, a natural slob, looked like he’d slept in his for 20 years.
And he, like the rest of us, was only 12.
“No longer in school?” said Mr. Lester, who had ac-tually volunteered to be our coach. “But what about our fi rst game?”
“He wanted to be with his fam-ily,” said someone. I think it was Elis-cue.
The coach sighed. He was a history teacher, and we were not what they write history about. If our school had a worse collection of ath-letes than the 11 of us, they were on display in the museum mummy section.
But there we were Hays, Porter, Dorman, Lifsom, Saltz, Radosh, Root, Barish, Elis-cue, Fenwick, and me, Sitrow. In a school that was famous, positively famous, for its teams and all-stars, we were not considered typical. Walk in the front door and the fi rst thing you’d see was a wall of trophies – all for sports. It was as if we were a sports club. Not a school.
“Doesn’t he understand you can’t play soccer without a goaltender? He should have told me.” Mr. Lester said that the way he might explain the sinking of the Titanic.
“His father probably got the job because Kelly didn’t want to play,” said Dorman.
When Mr. Lester got red in the face from frustration, he looked like an over-ripe tomato. His round face puffed and the few bits of topside hair were like old, dead leaves. It was clear he already regretted be-ing coach just as much as we regretted the thought of playing.
For example, me. I was so bad I was des-ignated as the only sub. I didn’t expect to play at all. But then, none of us expected to play. The point was, our school had a requirement that you had to play at least one team sport each year. We had slipped through the fi rst year. None of us had played. None of us wanted to. But once they caught on, they invented a team just for us.
“Let’s go back to the locker room,” sug-gested Mr. Lester.
Glad to skip practice, we followed him. Luckily, the locker room was empty. Every-one else was either playing or practicing.
I sat on a bench next to Saltz. “Let’s hear it for Kelly,” he whispered.
“Maybe they’ll call the whole thing off,” I thought out loud.
He shrugged. Saltz and I had been pals since kindergarten. So I knew what he’d rather be doing: writing poetry.
“How many do we have here?” asked Mr. Lester.
“Two,” said Root. He was our math genius.“Gentlemen,” said Mr. Lester, “this is not
a joke. Please line up.”Our cleats clicking like bad pennies on
the cement fl oor, we went up against the wall, all 11 of us. Porter was on one side of me, Saltz on the other.
“Maybe we’ll get shot,” said Porter.
“Only if we’re lucky,” said Fenwick.“Gentlemen, quiet please,” said Mr. Les-
ter. He stood there looking miserable. You could tell he didn’t like what he saw. But
then, considering what we saw in the future, starting the next day, we didn’t like it either.
“Gentlemen,” he said softly. When Mr. Lester shouted, his voice got softer. “Gentlemen, you know why you’re here.”
No one said a word. Seventh-grade boys don’t make good farewell speeches, not in front of execution squads.
“Do you?” he asked. My guess is that he was wondering himself.
“It’s good for us,” Lifsom said, as if de-scribing someone’s need for a head trans-plant.
“South Orange River Middle School has a fi ne sports tradition,” continued Mr. Lester. “‘Everybody plays, everybody wins.’ That’s our motto. And you, gentlemen, have been here a full year without being on any team.”
“That’s because we’ve got better things to do,” said Barish.
Mr. Lester’s face turned purple. But he went on, even softer. You had to strain to hear. “That’s exactly the point. You are all – each one – nice, smart boys. You, however, have avoided sports. Too much desk work.”
“Nanotechnology,” slipped in Hays. “The big future.”
Mr. Lester’s face made the ultimate transformation. He turned deathly white and spoke as though from the grave. “S.O.R. believes in the whole person. We’ve cre-ated this team for your good. From now on, you’re going to play. Sport is a major part of American life. Starting tomorrow, we’ve got a season to play. Six games. Let’s do it with honor.”
“What about ability?” asked Radosh.Mr. Lester passed over that with a sigh.
“We need a goaltender.” I saw his eyes travel up and down the line. To my horror, they landed on me.
“Ed,” he said to me, the way a kindly pi-rate might ask the next victim to walk the plank. “You’re the tallest. You’ll be goal-tender.”
“Me?” I said, pointing to my narrow, weak and unformed chest. I couldn’t be-lieve it.
“Yes, you.”“Sir,” I said in a panic, “I never played
goalie before. I never played soccer before. I never played anything before.”
“Neither have your teammates. But we are going to give it our best, aren’t we? We’ll gain pride by trying. Game tomorrow. You all have permission to be out of your after-noon classes. Be ready, here, tomorrow at one-thirty for the bus. In uniform. We don’t want to be late. It makes for a poor start.”
And that’s how I became goalie for the South Orange River Middle School Special Seventh-Grade Soccer Team. I happened to be tallest.
Talk about talent.On second thought, I’d better not. Not
when you see what happened.To be continued next week
Text copyright © 2012 Avi. Illustrations copyright © 2012 Timothy Bush. Reprinted by permission of Breakfast Serials, Inc., www.breakfastserials.com. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, displayed, used or distributed without the express written permission of the copyright holder.
CHAPTER ONE: The new team at South Orange River Middle School
“a breakfast serials story”S.O.R. Losers Written by Avi and Illustrated by Timothy Bush
Shopper news • APRIL 6, 2016 • 9 business
East Tennessee Com-munity Design Center has added fi ve new directors. Each will serve a three-year term: Lucinda M. Albiston, attorney; Bill Bruce, CRJA-IBI Group; Scott Busby, AIA, Smee + Busby Architects; Mary Kathryn Durr, Gregar-ious Media; and Georgiana Vines, political columnist.
Board offi cers elected for 2016 include: Jan Evridge, president; Rick Blackburn, fi rst vice president; Nathan Honeycutt, AIA, second
vice president; Katharine Pearson Criss, treasurer; Sheryl Ely, secretary; and Mary Wells Holbrook, past president. Jason Young,AIA, UT Knoxville College of Architecture & Design, is an ex-offi cio director.
“The Design Center has served East Tennessee for many years, through the work of strong, committed volunteers. Our new direc-tors are great examples of this ‘volunteer spirit’ at work,” said Evridge.
By April TimkoKnoxville Habitat for Hu-
manity hosted its inaugural Sporting Clay Tournament at Chilhowee Sportsman’s Club in Maryville with 29 teams fi lling two fl ights for the all-day event.
The top three teams of each fl ight were awarded prizes as well as the top shooter of each fl ight. Win-ners include East Tennessee radio personality Phil Wil-liams, who hosted the popu-lar NewsTalk 98.7 program “The Phil Show” live from the event.
Tournament sponsors in-cluded NewsTalk 98.7, Day-ton’s Pest Control, Allcor
Staffi ng and Waste Connec-tions Inc.
Proceeds raised will help low-income families in Knox County achieve strength, stability and self-reliance through homeown-ership.
In the fi rst fl ight, the winning team represented Citizens National Bank. Second place was claimed by the NewsTalk 98.7 team, led by Phil Williams.
In the afternoon fl ight, a team from Brunton Mason-ry won fi rst place, while the “Over the Hill Gang” came in second.April Timko is director of marketing and
communications for Knoxville Habitat
for Humanity Inc.
By Sandra ClarkUnion County resident
and school board member Marty Gibbs is directing a
major new c o n s t r u c -tion project at the Uni-versity of Tennessee. The Moss-man Build-ing is sched-uled to open for fall
semester 2018, and Rent-enbach Constructors Inc., where Gibbs is vice presi-dent and general manager, is the contractor.
Designed by McCarty Holsaple McCarty Archi-tects Inc., the futuristic building will house fl exible laboratory space, a vivar-ium and general purpose classrooms for UT depart-ments of microbiology, bio-chemistry, cellular and mo-lecular biology, psychology and nutrition.
Ground-breaking was Oct. 29 at the corner of Cumberland Avenue and 13th Street. The facility is named for the late Ken and Blaire Mossman, who met when they were students in 1968 and stayed connected to UT throughout their lives. The couple also en-dowed a professor in micro-biology, a position currently held by Steven Wilhelm.
Ken Mossman’s younger brother, Michael, also a UT graduate, attended the ground-breaking. He said, “At the heart of things they were good people who were interested in education, in-
Design Center gets new directors
Labs and gradu-
ate student work
area (architect’s
rendering) Photos provided by University
of Tennessee
Marty Gibbs
First fl oor of 228-person audi-
torium
Habitat buys some lumber
It’s a powerful combi-nation of forces that The-
resa Carl is a part of these days. She is the president of the Gover-nor’s Books from Birth Foundation that works h a n d - i n -
hand with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and with Imagination Li-brary’s local affiliate pro-grams in all of Tennessee’s 95 counties.
One of the other forces involved in this major lit-eracy project are Rotarians in Knoxville, around the state, and even nationally in many states. In fact, when it comes to Theresa Carl, Ro-tary is for sure part of this. She stays busy with her other job as the president of the Rotary Club of Nash-ville. On March 29 she was
Tom King
Theresa Carl
Reading and Rotary: a powerful combo
in Knoxville as the speaker for the Rotary Club of Knox-ville’s noon meeting at the Marriott Hotel.
The Foundation’s mis-sion is simple: To prepare children in Tennessee for lifelong learning through reading.
“This partnership be-tween the Foundation and Imagination Library is a dy-namic public-private part-nership unlike any other in the United States today,” she said. “This is all about al-lowing each of our children to have an educational jour-ney that is successful. They are three to four times more likely to stay in school if they can read from an early age.”
Each of the 95 affi li-ate programs enrolls chil-dren between the ages of birth to 5 years old to re-ceive books at no cost each month – or 12 books a year for fi ve years. The affi liates and the Foundation provide the money for the program. Imagination Library man-ages the selection, the pric-ing and the distribution of the books and they are dis-tributed from here in Knox-ville. The cost of each book, including delivery, is $2.15, she explained.
“Why do we do it?” Carl said. “It’s about the devel-opment of the brain. By the age of 3, 80 percent of the brain is formed and by age 5 it’s 90 percent, so we have to start reading early to our children.”
There is a “Welcome Baby Initiative” and a “Child Pov-erty Initiative” to reach those children born to par-ents who are struggling and to reach the children in fos-
ter care. There is a “Birth-ing Hospital Initiative” to gift each child born a copy of “The Little Engine That Could” prior to discharge.
“Early literacy matters for our children and now we have to start engaging our parents to start read-ing to their children,” she said. “It makes a huge, huge difference.”
Info: GovernorsFounda-tion.org or 1-877-992-6657
Newsy notes: Two clubs have a pair of very interest-ing and well-known speak-ers coming up. Knox County Schools Superintendent Dr. James McIntyre, who re-cently resigned, will speak at Bearden Rotary at noon, Friday April 29, at Buddy’s Banquet Hall….On Tuesday, May 31, the Rotary Club of Knoxville will hear from Gov. Bill Haslam at its noon meeting at the Marriott.Tom King is a retired newspaper editor, a
Rotarian for 28 years and past president
of the Rotary Club of Farragut. He can be
reached at [email protected]
Gibbs’ team heads UT construction projectand 1050-car parking ga-rage at the corner of Volun-teer and Lake Loudoun bou-levards. The garage, open for fall semester, will offer advanced parking technol-ogy that lets users of the
Architect’s
rendering of
the 6-story
Mossman
Building
now under
construction
at UT.
terested in paying things forward.”
Chancellor Jimmy Cheek said having state-of-the-art facilities is critical to re-cruiting and retaining the best faculty and students. “We’ve grown our research awards and expenditures and raised our national pro-fi le, particularly in science and engineering. We’ve
made great strides in re-cruiting more students into STEM majors,” Cheek said.
Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor for facilities ser-vices, recently updated UT supporters on the campus improvements underway:
■ The Mossman Build-ing – seven fl oors (six occu-pied levels plus a mechani-cal penthouse); 220,935
square feet; total project cost: $102 million
■ The Student Union with a portion open and completion expected in 2018
■ The fi rst two buildings in the West End residence hall development are rising on 20th Street and are set to open this fall
■ New residence hall
UT app see empty and full spaces in real time.
■ Facilities Services getsa new home on the site of an old industrial complex at 2000 Sutherland Avenue at Concord Street. Irvin said a part of the building is struc-turally reinforced with its own power, which will allow Facilities Services to stay operational during the most severe weather conditions.
Work continues at Tom Black Track; the old smoke-stack at the UT Steam Plant was removed over the De-cember break, marking a visible milestone in the campus’s switch from coal to natural gas; and the for-mer Sophronia Strong Hall continues its transforma-tion into a large and modern science class and laboratory facility. Set to open in 2017, it will house anthropology and earth and planetary sci-ences departments and will provide laboratory and in-struction space for the gen-eral biology and chemistry departments.
With all the work under-way at UT, it’s great to see a Union County guy in the middle of the mix.
Catch up with all your favorite columnists every Wednesday at www.ShopperNewsNow.com
10 • APRIL 6, 2016 • Shopper news
