Brandi Self gets principal’s job

Drop the “interim” from the job title for Brandi Self.

Superintendent Jim McIntyre has appointed her as princi-pal at Moore-land Heights Elementary School where she has served as interim

principal since the retirement of Dr. Roy Miller.

Self joined Knox County Schools in 1998 as a fourth grade teacher at Mooreland Heights. She holds a bachelor’s degree in child development from Maryville College and a master’s in educational admin-istration from Lincoln Memo-rial University.

(865) 922-4136

NEWS (865) 661-8777

news@ShopperNewsNow.comSandra Clark | Betsy Pickle

ADVERTISING SALES(865) 342-6084

ads@ShopperNewsNow.com

Patty Fecco | Tony Cranmore

Beverly Holland | Amy Lutheran

CIRCULATION(865) 342-6200

shoppercirc@ShopperNewsNow.com

Vestival (festival) is Sweet 16

Vestival is turning Sweet 16 this year, and it will be the hot-test destination in SoKno this Saturday, May 7.

However, on Friday, May 6, an even older event will be celebrated at the Vestival kick-off reception at Candoro Arts & Heritage Center: the 225th anniversary of Knoxville.

“We’ll have a toast to the 225th anniversary of Knoxville and a toast to the 16th annual Vestival, says Sharon Davis, Candoro board president and chair of Vestival. Davis has ordered a birthday cake from Village Bakery for the recep-tion, and the bakery is donat-ing 1,000 cupcakes to be given away at the Candoro booth on Saturday.

➤ Read Betsy Pickle on page 3

To page 3

VOL. 2 NO. 1 July 29, 2013www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNowVOL. 4 NO. 18 May 4, 2016www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow

SOUTH KNOX

BUZZ

Thomas kickoff Knox County Commissioner

Bob Thomas will kick off his campaign for county mayor at the same place Tim Burchett announced his candidacy seven or so years ago.

All are invited to a free baloney lunch with R.C. Colas and Moon Pies from 11:30 to 1 p.m. Wednes-day, May 11, at Powell Auction and Realty, 6729 Pleasant Ridge Road behind the Clinton Highway Walmart.

Commissioner Ed Brantley will serve as master of ceremo-nies for his friend and col-league Thomas. Entertainment will be provided by the Chill-billies, and Sammy “Barney” Sawyer will make the rounds.

By Betsy PickleThird time’s the charm.Ryan Roma of Dirty Bird Events

held his fi rst XTERRA event at Ijams Nature Center in 2014. The trail run and triathlon went well, with a few bugs that were worked out during the 2015 edition.

2015 was also supposed to be the launch for an entire weekend festival of outdoor activities at Ijams, but “that didn’t pan out,” says Roma.

This year, it’s gonna be real.“It’s bigger than everybody

thought it might be,” he says.River Sports Outfi tters and

Mountain Hardwear are the pre-senting sponsors for the fi rst Terra Hoolie Festival at Ijams. It will be Saturday-Sunday, June 4-5, at Knoxville’s most alluring park.

In addition to the XTERRA

Knoxville Trail Run and Triath-lon, there will be rock-climbing in-struction, guided hikes, scavenger hunts, open-water swims, paddle-board races, mountain bike rides, a kids’ bike ride, kayak races, SUP (stand-up paddleboard) races, SUP yoga, a bonfi re, a live band Saturday night, outdoor vendor booths, food, beverages and en-tertainment. Proceeds will benefi t Ijams Nature Center.

“Just about everything you could possibly want outdoors will be at the festival,” Roma says.

The trail run will be on Satur-day and the triathlon on Sunday.

“Everything else is kind of fall-ing in around us and going on con-currently.”

Saturday will include a 4.2 mile run and a half-marathon, 13.2 miles, on the same course as last

year. Sunday’s triathlon will in-clude a three-quarter-mile swim in Mead’s Quarry, a 16.6-mile moun-tain-bike ride and a 4.2-mile run.

The mountain-bike course will cover the South Loop “plus some other fun features,” Roma says.

He’s expecting about 125 for the triathlon and 175 for the trail runs. Usually, two-thirds of the triathletes are male and one-third female. The trail runs typically draw half and half. Some of the triathlon entrants are families, with each member doing one of the three sections.

XTERRA Knoxville is a “step-ping stone for larger races,” he says. It’s part of a national circuit and helps athletes score points to qualify for the nationals.

He’s heard from participants that the course and the location

are among the better ones on the circuit and the race is one of the tougher ones. Participants come from the local area and all over the Southeast.

Holding the event at Ijams is a plus because of the Urban Wilder-ness’ South Loop.

“The trails are just beautiful,” says Roma. “It’s amazing to be so close to downtown but feel so far.

“AMBC (Appalachian Mountain Bike Club) did a great job building trails. They’re not just straight; they’re winding and twisting. They’re everything you could want as a mountain biker, even a run-ner.”

For more on Terra Hoolie events: info@riversportsoutfitters.com, www.riversportsoutfitters.com or 865-523-0066. For XTERRA Knoxville: dirtybirdevents.com.

Mead’s Quarry at Ijams Nature Center is the

location for the swimming segment of the

XTERRA Knoxville triathlon. Photo submitted

Race expands into Terra Hoolie Festival

By Betsy PickleIf a volunteer plants a tree in

the woods, will anyone hear?They will if it’s Comcast Cares

Day and the woods are at the Bak-er Creek Preserve in the Urban Wilderness, and it’s not one tree but 1,000.

Last Saturday was the 15th annual Comcast Cares Day, and

the latest addition to the UW got some cleaning, clearing, planting, trail-building and maintenance – as well as decking on the Red Bud Bridge – from Comcast em-ployees, their families, the Appa-lachian Mountain Bike Club and even a Girl Scout troop.

Around 275 volunteers spread out to work on 10 different proj-

ects beginning at 8 a.m. With tools provided by Ijams Nature Center and Keep Knoxville Beautiful and gloves supplied by HGTV (which also donated prizes for the work-ers), they poured all their energy into bringing Baker Creek Pre-serve closer to its offi cial opening to the public.

Russell Byrd, local senior di-

Comcast employees, others volunteer at Baker Creek Preserverector of external affairs for Com-cast, helped plant trees on an old logging road. He also got a tour of Baker Creek Preserve (formerly known as the Wood Property) from Matthew Kellogg, president of AMBC.

Sidewalk study shows needs in school zonesBy Sandra Clark

Mayor Madeline Rogero called for $2.7 million for sidewalks and crosswalks across the city, when she presented her budget last week, including $750,000 for sidewalks within school Parental Responsibility Zones and another $750,000 for new sidewalk con-struction.

Knox County Mayor Tim Bur-chett will present his budget Mon-day, May 9. We’ll see then what he proposes.

Regardless, sidewalks present a dilemma – residents at planning meetings consistently request them; some like those in West Hills even rally at 7 a.m. to dem-onstrate the need for sidewalks.

Yet sidewalks are a low budget priority for decision-makers, al-

most at the bottom of the wants and needs list.

A January 2014 study prepared for the Knox County Department of Engineering and Public Works by Transportation Consultants Inc. identifi ed locations within the county having the greatest poten-tial and actual usage of walk-to-school trips.

The study showed 22,322 of Knox County’s 59,276 students live within the Parental Responsi-bility Zones where bus transporta-tion is not provided.

Using a complex formula, plan-ners determined the top schools for walkers if sidewalks were in-stalled.

These are, in order: Cedar Bluff Elementary, Londsdale Elemen-tary, Blue Grass Elementary, Belle

Morris Elementary, Norwood Elementary, Powell Elementary, Powell High School and Brickey-McCloud Elementary.

“Using this knowledge about where the greatest pedestrian demand and/or potential exists should provide a focused starting point for pedestrian project plan-ning,” the report concluded.

Seems sensible, yet Knox Coun-ty has built sidewalks over the past 3-4 years at Halls Elementary and from Karns Elementary to Karns Middle – both areas where political pressure was intense and neither was on the priority list.

Just a thought, but why not drop by to chat with Burchett at one of his nine meetings over two days following his budget presen-tation. And we dare you to walk:

Monday, May 9: ■ Budget presentation, 9 a.m.,

City County Building ■ South Knoxville Senior Cen-

ter, 11:30 a.m., 6729 Martel Lane ■ Strang Senior Center, 1:30

p.m., 109 Lovell Road ■ Halls Senior Center, 2:45

p.m., 4405 Crippen Road ■ Carter Senior Center, 4 p.m.,

9040 Asheville Highway ■ Burlington Branch Library,

5:30 p.m., 4614 Asheville HighwayTuesday, May 10:

■ Karns Senior Center, 1 p.m.,8042 Oak Ridge Highway

■ Cedar Bluff Library, 2 p.m.,9045 Cross Park Drive

■ Bearden Library, 3 p.m., 100Golfclub Road

■ Fountain City Library, 4p.m., 5300 Stanton Road

2 • MAY 4, 2016 • Shopper news

health & lifestyles

Delivering immediate and excellent careWhen a stroke happens, timely treat-

ment is critical. The Comprehensive Stroke Center at Fort Sanders Regional is well above the national average in deliver-ing prompt treatment of life-saving medi-cation.

Clot-busting drugs are given to stroke patients through a vein to improve blood fl ow and minimize potential disabilities. The amount of time it takes for a patient to be brought into a hospital until the mo-ment medications are intravenously ad-ministered is referred to as “door to needle time.”

While the average door to needle time is a little more than an hour, the door to needle time at Fort Sanders Regional is 30 minutes. That’s half an hour faster than the national average.

It’s just one of the many advantages a

patient has when treated at a com-prehensive stroke center. The stroke center exists to provide the high-est level of stroke care for compli-cated stroke cases.

“It really exists to provide that next level up from what you can get at your local commu-nity hospital,” Moore says. “Strokes can be treated successfully at those hospitals, but fi nding out why the stroke occurred to prevent it from happen-ing again can be tricky”

Moore says digging into a patient’s background is a key step in determin-ing the cause, and sometimes it’s not as obvious as the main risk factors.

“Stroke centers tend to be better and faster at treating stroke just because we see it all the time,” Moore says. “We have doctors who can go up into the brain and pull a clot out, and that’s a really specialized niche. Most hospitals

don’t have access to someone who can do that.”

The Comprehensive Stroke Center at Fort Sanders Regional sees patients from through-

out East Tennessee, and even from Ken-tucky. To learn more, visit fsregional.com/stroke, or call (865) 541-1111.

bers of Johnson University’s fi rst responderteam were also helping. “I would’ve normallyresponded to myself,” he said with a laugh.“But since I couldn’t, others in our group re-sponded and helped the ambulance crew.”

It was almost midnight when Morin was wheeled into the emergency department atFort Sanders and taken directly to imag-ing where a CT scan confi rmed Dr. Bishop’ssuspicion of a stroke, likely caused by hy-pertension.

He was given medication to lower hisblood pressure, and after receiving Perry’sleft-handed authorization, the tPA was ad-ministered around 1:30 a.m. Within 20minutes, Angie could see her husband’s eyes brighten. Within 30 to 45 minutes, Perrywas himself again. Two days later, he was discharged after passing all the physical,neurological and speech assessments. Twoweeks later, he was back at Johnson Univer-sity working full-time.

Perry now realizes taking his blood pres-sure medicine alone isn’t enough – he must also check his blood pressure regularly. “Ididn’t pay any attention to it all summer,”he said. “I take my blood pressure more of-ten now and more routinely than I used to. I check it several times a week to see if it’strending up or down or stable. I’m walkingalmost every day now. I feel pretty good.”

That makes Lydia feel better, too. “I amglad that Dad is not sick and that he takesmedicine. He’s getting stronger every day –and every night too,” she said with a laugh.

Since that night, Morin has brushed up on signs of a stroke and urges others to dothe same. Likewise, he hopes others will fol-low that other sign’s advice and choose FortSanders Stroke Care Center should they need it.

“The neurohospitalist, Dr. Arthur Moore,was really nice. I liked him,” said Perry. “Iwish I could keep him, but I don’t want to go through that again to see him. And allthe nurses were great. I had the same four nurses for two days. The nurse at discharge said we were very blessed. We agree and we praise God and thank Him.”

Perry Morin is grateful for the treatment he received at the Compre-hensive Stroke Center at Fort Sanders Regional. It’s that treatment that allows him to continue enjoying afternoons with his wife, An-gie, and daughter, Lydia.

If it had been anyone else, Perry Morin would’ve been among the fi rst to help. Only this time, he was the one who needed help.

A 52-year-old emergency medical tech-nician who lives on the Johnson University campus where he is safety manager, Morin suddenly found himself on the receiving end of emergency care late one night last August when an ischemic stroke left him in a heap on his bathroom fl oor.

His entire right side was powerless to move and his speech slurred as his wife, An-gie, asked where he wanted the ambulance to take him.

“That billboard popped into my head,” said Perry, referring to the large billboard he had seen on Chapman Highway count-less times last summer. “I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was a Covenant Health and Fort Sanders billboard that said something like, ‘The Region’s No. 1 Stroke Care Facility.’ I don’t know why, but it just popped into my head. So that’s why I chose Fort Sanders.”

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center was the fi rst in the area to earn an Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center Certifi cation by The Joint Commission, a nonprofi t or-ganization that accredits and certifi es more than 20,500 health care programs in the United States. This “gold-seal” advanced certifi cation means that Fort Sanders is rec-ognized as having the most advanced and effective stroke treatments available.

Today, he’ll tell you that choosing Fort Sanders was one the best decisions of his life. A quick and accurate diagnosis and treatment with the clot-busting drug tPA (tissue Plasminogen Activator) resulted in Perry’s discharge two days later without any impairments.

“They were terrifi c. They were more than professional,” Perry said of the nursing staff and emergency department physician, Dr. David Bishop. “They recognized what was going on. They assessed me quickly and took care of it. They put me in a CT and fi gured out that I’d had an ischemic stroke which is treatable with tPA.”

It all began around 11:15 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2015, when Perry was brushing his teeth before bed. “Suddenly, I realized I couldn’t hold my toothbrush very well – it seemed heavy to me,” Perry recounted. “I thought, ‘what is this?! This is really strange.’ I think I may have recognized it was a stroke. That’s when I fell down and slammed into the bathroom door.”

The racket sent the rest of the Morin family scrambling – Angie from the living room, 17-year-old Benjamin from his man cave and 13-year-old Lydia from her bed-room. “I heard a big thud so I walked in and saw Mom had already dialed 911,” said Ben-jamin. “My sister was upset so I went and tried to calm her down.”

“So I’m just lying on the fl oor thinking ‘This is weird’ because I was recognizing what was going on,” said Morin. “I was cog-nizant, I was alert, and I was awake. It didn’t hurt -- nothing hurt. I was just lying there and I couldn’t move my right side at all.”

“He was very lucid with me,” said Angie. “I don’t think he said ‘stroke.’ I don’t think I said stroke. I don’t think either of us wanted to say that word. We just waited and prayed because we don’t live very close to the hos-pital way out here. The ambulance service got here very quickly.”

The Seymour Volunteer Fire Depart-ment arrived fi rst, followed closely by Rural Metro, one of Perry’s former employers and staffed by a former co-worker. While talking with his former colleague, he overheard an-other paramedic say that his blood pressure was more than 200 over 100. “I had been

taking blood pressure medicine for several years,” he said. “I thought it was under con-trol. Obviously, it wasn’t. At least that day it wasn’t.”

As the EMTs placed him on a stretcher and maneuvered him out of the house into the waiting ambulance, Morin saw other mem-

The Stroke Center at Fort Sanders Regional

Dr. Arthur Moore is the medical di-rector of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Fort Sanders Regional.

Sign of a strokeBillboard leads Johnson University EMT to choose Fort Sanders

00

94

-00

93

stroke:LIKE IT NEVER EVEN HAPPENED.No comprehensive stroke and rehabilitation center in our region

does more to reverse stroke’s devastating eff ects than Fort

Sanders Regional Medical

Center. That’s why hospitals

across East Tennessee refer their

most complex stroke patients to

us. And only Fort Sanders Regional is home to the Patricia Neal

Rehabilitation Center, East Tennessee’s elite rehabilitation hospital

for stroke, spinal cord and brain injury patients.

Certifi ed as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission and accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities

Leading the region’s only stroke hospital network

www.covenanthealth.com/strokenetwork

Fort Sanders performs clinical trials and procedures

for stroke not available anywhere else in our region.

SOUTH KNOX Shopper news • MAY 4, 2016 • 3 community

Betsy Pickle

Vestival is turning Sweet 16 this year, and it will be the hottest destination in SoKno this Saturday, May 7.

However, on Friday, May 6, an even older event will be celebrated at the Vestival kickoff reception at Can-doro Arts & Heritage Cen-ter: the 225th anniversary of Knoxville.

“We’ll have a toast to the 225th anniversary of Knox-ville and a toast to the 16th annual Vestival, says Sha-ron Davis, Candoro board

COMMUNITY NOTES ■ Bonny Kate Chapter DAR

will meet for its spring lun-cheon 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 11, the Orangery, 5412 Kingston Pike. A Memorial Service and Installation of Offi cers will be held.

■ Colonial Village Neighborhood Association. Info: Terry Caruthers, 579-5702, t_caruthers@hotmail.com.

■ Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association meets 6 p.m. each fi rst Tuesday, Gondolier Italian Restaurant, Chapman Highway, 7644 Mountain Grove Drive. The public is invited. Info: Liston Matthews, 316-6486.

■ Knoxville Tri-County Lions Club meets 7 p.m. each second and fourth Monday, Connie’s Kitchen, 10231 Chapman Highway, Seymour. Info: facebook.com/

TriCountyLions/info.

■ Lake Forest Neighborhood Association. Info: Molly Gilbert, 209-1820 or mollygilbert@yahoo.com.

■ Lindbergh Forest Neighbor-hood Association meets 6:30 p.m. each third Wednesday, Graystone Presbyterian Church, 139 Woodlawn Pike. Info: Kelley DeLuca, 660-4728, kelleydeluca@gmail.com.

■ Old Sevier Community Group meets 7 p.m. each third Thursday, South Knoxville Elementary School library, 801 Sevier Ave. Info: Gary E. Deitsch, 573-7355 or garyedeitsch@bellsouth.net.

■ South Haven Neighborhood Association meets 10 a.m. each third Saturday, Hillcrest UMC, 1615 Price Ave. Info: Pat Harmon, 591-3958.

■ South Knox Republican Club meets 7 p.m. each third Thursday, South

Knox Optimist Club, 6135 Moore Road. Kevin Teeters, kevinteeters018@gmail.com.

■ South of the River Demo-crats (9th District) meet 6:30 p.m. each third Monday, South Knoxville Community Center, 522 Maryville Pike. Info: Debbie Helsley, 789-8875, or Brandon Hamilton, 809-3685.

■ South Woodlawn Neigh-borhood Association. Info: Shelley Conklin, 686-6789.

■ South-Doyle Neighborhood Association meets 7 p.m. each fi rst Tuesday, Stock Creek Baptist Church fellowship hall, 8106 Martin Mill Pike. Info: Mark Mugford, 609-9226 or marksidea@aol.com.

■ Vestal Community Orga-nization meets 6 p.m. each second Monday, South Knox-ville Community Center, 522 Maryville Pike. Info: Katherine Johnson, 566-1198.

Matthew Kellogg of AMBC and Russell Byrd of Comcast take a short break as others continue to work at Baker Creek Preserve on Comcast Cares Day. Photos by Betsy Pickle

HGTV donated prizes for the volunteers.

Historic photos of Knoxville were recreated by Candoro board member and photojournalist Saul Young for the “Then and Now” exhibit.

Brad Selph checks to make sure photos in the “Then and Now” exhibit are lined up properly, as Sha-ron Davis watches. Photo by Betsy Pickle

Vestival promises 2 times the fun

Baker Creek Preserve From page 1

“This is an amazing park,” said Byrd. “I went all the way up to the top with Matt Kellogg … and looked at the trails, and it’s just amazing what they have out here.

“Our employees wanted to do something that was green, and I worked with City Coun-cil member Nick Pavlis, and we came up with this project, and I’m very glad that we did. It’s beautiful.”

Byrd estimated that there were about 65 Comcast em-ployees, plus representa-tives of their partners, on the site. Comcast provided lunch for all the volunteers.

Lisa Frisbie, HGTV’s director of operations for content distribution, also helped plant trees, under the direction of Kasey Krouse, the city of Knoxville’s urban forester. Frisbie said HGTV has helped out on Comcast Cares Day for nine years. This year, employees were volunteering at a variety of projects in fi ve cities, includ-

president and chair of Ves-tival. Davis has ordered a birthday cake from Village Bakery for the reception, and the bakery is donating 1,000 cupcakes to be given away at the Candoro booth

on Saturday.The 6-9 p.m. reception

is open to the public. At-tendees will get a fi rst look at the new photography exhibit, “Then and Now.” Thompson Photo furnished Candoro with photographs of popular spots and views of Knoxville, and Candoro board member Saul Young, a photojournalist, has rec-reated the photos from the same perspective.

The photos have been placed adjacent to each oth-

er in the front room at Can-doro. Some of the photos are a striking contrast, while other pairs are remarkably similar.

There also will be some photos from the personal collection of Joe Parrott Sr. as well as a print of the circa 1890 Lloyd Branson paint-ing, “The Marble Haulers.”

On Saturday, Vestival will open with the tradition-al Mother’s Day brunch – free for mothers – at 11 a.m.

At noon, the festival will

get going in earnest with about 16 performing acts, food and craft vendors, and kids activities. Admission is free, but a suggested dona-tion of $5 per individual or $10 per family is encouraged.

A free shuttle will run be-tween nearby parking lots and Candoro, 4450 Candora Ave. Stops are at the South Knoxville Community Cen-ter, Mary Vestal Park, ET-TAC, Bargain Hunters Mall (behind the old Emery 5&10), Vestal United Meth-odist Church and Immanuel Baptist Church.

The cuisine at food booths will include Egyp-

tian, Bolivian, Mexican (barbecue), Thai and veg-etarian. There also will be grilled hot dogs, snow cones and chicken wraps.

Free guided tours of the Candoro building will be available noon-6 p.m., and the gift shop will be open. There’ll be a traditional cake-walk every hour, noon-6 p.m.

Vestival is more than just a SoKno event.

“It’s a great place to con-nect with friends and neigh-bors from throughout the city and to share ideas and events,” says Davis.

Tickets for Pink Marble Trail Tours by bus will be for sale. The tours begin Sunday, May 15. Also, appli-cations for docent positions will be available.

ing Boston, Detroit, Houston and Philadelphia.

Frisbie also was able to tour the trails.

“Who knew this was back here?” she said. “I had no idea; I live in West Knox-ville.”

Byrd said Comcast em-ployees regularly volunteer with many organizations in

their home communities. On Saturday, they were also helping with beautifi ca-tion projects at Gibbs High and Sunnyview Elementary schools.

“This is a day that we can do something different and make a difference for people that we didn’t know before we took on the projects,” he

said. “I think that’s what’s the most rewarding about it.”

For AMBC members, get-ting a huge group to work on the Baker Creek trails was a shot in the arm. A bonus was that the Comcast Foun-dation makes a donation to every CCD site, based on the number of registered volun-teers.

“We’re really excited to have partnered with Com-cast on this because not only are we going to get a lot

of work done, but there’s a grant portion of this as well that we’re going to reinvest here at Baker Creek Pre-serve,” said Kellogg.

As lunchtime ap-proached, Byrd was prepar-ing to go back to work.

“I’m probably going to get out here with one of these pickaxes and move a little bit of debris. Or maybe I should just go over there and cook the bratwurst. I’m more skilled at that.”

4 • MAY 4, 2016 • SOUTH KNOX Shopper news

Sandra Clark

Your new best friend is waiting at Young-Williams Animal Center.Visit our two Knoxville locations to find a dog, cat or other furry friend in need of a loving home. Adoption fee includes spay/neuter surgery, vet exam and much more.

Adopt a pet today!

Already have a furry family member?

Open every day from noon-6 p.m.

3201 Division Street Just off Sutherland Avenue

6400 Kingston Pike On Bearden Hill

Spay or neuter your pet today!Young-Williams offers low-cost spay/neuter

surgeries at $70 for dogs and $45 for cats. Additional discounts are available to those who qualify.

Help us end animal homelessness in Knoxville.

Call (865) 215-6599 to request an appointment! www.young-williams.org

Making them cry, leaving them laughingWhat do we do and why

do we do it?Betty Bean spoke last

week to Dr. Mark Harmon’s UT journalism class. She brought the fi nal copy of the old Knoxville Journal. There’s a staff picture on the front page. Bean stands alone, far in the back, not quite part of the gang but still there as the proud old daily coughed and folded.

“Tell those kids to study for a job with a future,” I ad-vised; but I know she didn’t.

Bean is a true believer.Also last week, a reader

from Halls wrote in part ...“Please forward – as I

type this through the tears still on my cheeks – my thanks and appreciation to Betty Bean for her article, ‘A Killing at Danny Mayfi eld Park.’

“Not being a Knoxville native, I found it to be not only an outstanding piece of history but an opportu-nity for my own heart’s re-fl ection on faith, gratitude, compassion and caring.”

I forwarded the email to Bean with a note: “You’ve made another one cry.”

Bean later said she had expected readers to cry: “I was crying when I wrote it.”

So for every person who calls to complain about our delivery system, another calls to request delivery or extra copies. Very few write to thank us, and that’s OK.

We’re already out chasing the next story.

What we doThe Shopper News team

publishes eight unique newspapers weekly. Rough-ly half of the content is consistent, while the rest is unique to each zone.

I’m the overall editor and “last eyes” on each page be-fore it’s printed.

Also, I coordinate gov-ernment and business cov-erage, manage the colum-nists and go boldly where most reporters fear to tread: MPC sector meetings.

North: Shannon Carey coordinates local content for Halls/Fountain City (our oldest paper), Powell, Union County and North/East (our newest zone).

Ruth White, a Shopper veteran, covers our North kids beat, takes most cover photos and generally gets around the area, assisted by Cindy Taylor.

West: Sherri Gardner Howell coordinates local content for Bearden, Far-ragut, Karns/Hardin Valley and South Knox.

Sara Barrett covers the West kids beat, takes pho-tos and fi lls in when Sherri travels. Betsy Pickle covers South, while Wendy Smith covers Bearden. Newer writers are Carolyn Evans, Farragut, and Nancy Ander-son, Karns/Hardin Valley.

Graphics: Carol Spring-er, Kathryn Woycik and Jodi Littleton put the pages together. In addition, Jodi manages our website.

Ad sales: Coordinated by the News Sentinel team headed by Steve Bowman, the Shopper sales manager is Amy Lutheran, assisted by Patty Fecco, Tony Cran-more and Beverly Holland.

Circulation: Shop-pers are distributed inside the News Sentinel for Knox County subscribers each Wednesday (actually buried

deep in the food section).Additionally, the Shopper

wraps the TMC –Total Mar-ket Coverage – delivery of various pre-prints and gro-cery circulars in Knox and Union counties.

What’s next? As the former Scripps pa-

pers are assimilated into the USA Today network, we will change.

S h o p p e r pages will be produced by pag inat ion s o f t w a r e . The classi-fi ed pages already are.

The web site hope-fully will be more robust with easy-t o - s e a r c h digital ar-chives.

We will always be cha l lenged to do more with less.

L u c k i l y, the Shopper does that well – hav-ing started with a pencil and a drop box.

So what? You keep

reading and we’ll keep writing. That’s our bargain.

Shopper News is leading eff orts to develop Powell Station Park. At top, seniors enjoy a school-sponsored cookout at the park.Home Depot guys donate picnic tables.

Halls High prin-cipal Mark Duff captures the pride of all par-ents at gradua-tion as he hugs his daughter, Morgan.

Betty Bean features Brian Mc-Daniel, who crafted the Knoxville

montage above; and yes, that’s the MPC northwest county sector

plan meeting at right.Kindness awards at Dogwood Elementary School

A sample of this week’s work: North, South, East, West

Shopper news • MAY 4, 2016 • 5 government

Marvin West

No doubt you have been worrying for weeks about the upcoming Battle at Bris-tol. What if the Hokies upset the Volunteers and derail the exciting run toward the national championship be-fore it really begins?

Oh, you say the big game hasn’t even entered your mind? You have been won-dering if somebody can catch the ball if Joshua Dobbs throws down the fi eld? And you are some-what interested in how bad is Jalen Reeves-Maybin’s bum shoulder and wheth-er Tennessee can win the fourth quarter against Flor-ida and Alabama?

OK, be that way.Virginia Tech people are

probably losing sleep over the big BB (that’s short for Bristol Battle).

“We are aware of the big game on our schedule,” said Chester R. Henderlight, my favorite Hokie. “We’ve never played Notre Dame before. Does it snow before Thanks-giving in South Bend?”

Well, imagine that.With the countdown to

the really big September kickoff in days-hours-min-utes-and-seconds mode, in

Worrying about Battle at Bristol

fl ashing lights no less, are we to believe the Pilot Fly-ing J Battle at Bristol is an incidental novelty, a gim-mick game, largest crowd in the history of football, great video hub named Colossus, a massive show that few will see up close and in person – without a telescope?

This can’t be.Bristol Motor Speedway

is expecting 150,000 paying customers. Think about that – parking, gate receipts, concessions, souvenirs, ex-tra for seat backs.

Curiosity about football in the middle of a race track guarantees ESPN/ABC a worldwide TV audience. Performance Racing Net-work will scatter the radio broadcast to all four turns and far beyond. Multitudes will undoubtedly be up on the edge of their beds or recliners, depending on the hour of the day or night (to

be determined).There will be a variety of

promotional links – NAS-CAR drivers talking about end sweeps, lavish charity dinner, Phillip Fulmer and ex-Vols in a golf tourna-ment, large displays in 650 fuel stops, a really big deal.

Big Jim Haslam, chief Pi-lot, will no doubt discuss his connections if asked, tackle times as a Volunteer and how his fi rst gas station just happened to be in Gate City, Va., not far from Bristol.

I’m telling you, this is a major event. Combatants are expecting to race home with more than $4 million per school (to apply toward campus safety and women’s sports).

Tennessee fans have ev-ery reason to be excited about the upcoming sea-son. It projects as the best in a decade, top 10 rank-ing, SEC East plaque all but inscribed. Butch Jones has brilliant playmakers, experience at most every position and fi nally decent depth. He has supposedly strengthened his staff. No excuses, this is it.

Optimism abounds at Virginia Tech for other rea-

sons. The Hokies traded in old-time coach Frank Beamer for bright, younger Justin Fuente, the man who made Memphis the talk of his town.

For years, Tech people had wanted an innovative offense. Fuente brings it. Enthusiastic followers say the Hokies will no longer be boring, predictable and re-luctant to adjust.

I had no idea Virginia Tech was that bad. I had not followed closely. I was aware that the Hokies won the Independence Bowl in overtime.

It seems to me the Battle at Bristol demands sharp er focus. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime presentation. To the best of my knowledge, in the history of college foot-ball, there has never been a big game in the middle of a steep-banked, concrete race track. Could be nothing like this will ever happen again.

Do what? You say East Tennessee State and West-ern Carolina are going to play on the same fi eld a week later?

Oh my.Marvin West invites reader reaction. His

address is westwest6@netzero.com

VictorAshe

Betty Bean

The school year is limp-ing toward the fi nish line with much unresolved.

Has Mayor Rogero forgotten the Metropolitan Planning Commission? Or does she care?

It is now 10 months since three city vacancies occurred on MPC (starting July 1, 2015). Those are the city seats held by former Knoxville Vice Mayor Jack Sharp, Michael Kane and MPC vice chair Bart Carey.

These three continue as holdovers with no knowl-edge of Rogero’s plans. She can reappoint, replace or do nothing as she is doing now, which continues them month to month. While fi lling MPC seats may not be Rogero’s most important duty, it directly impacts neighborhoods. Why has she not acted?

It is expected she will replace as all three have served two or more terms. Rogero is committed to term limits, but by allow-ing them to continue for 10 months she is effec-tively giving them a par-tial third term. If a replace-ment is ever named on the Rogero watch then he/she will have a shorter term than the normal four years. All three are men and Rogero is expected to add at least one or two women as replacements. But when, if ever, will these replace-ments occur? Rogero owes the public a reason for her almost year-long delay.

What is also surprising is that one of the public reasons for hiring Indya Kincannon was to assist the mayor in making appoint-ments. Obviously with MPC, Rogero has been slow to act on whatever Kincan-non suggested.

■ Wayne Christensen has retired as head of Knox

Youth Sports after 20 busy and produc-tive years. He and his wife, Sara, moved to Knoxville for Chris-tensen to

work for Whittle Communi-cations in 1983. They came from Minneapolis.

By 1996 when he started with KYS, Whittle had folded in Knoxville and he had worked on a Baseball Parent newsletter. But the KYS executive commit-tee that year, consisting in part of Charlie Anderson, Caesar Stair III and Jimmy Haslam, hired Christensen as executive director.

During those two de-cades, he grew the program including adding 3- and 4-year-olds, middle school

Bearden controversy highlights KCS malaiseRogero lags

on MPC choices

Christensen

student who is a former team member has been harassed by a teacher as a result.

The com-plaints came in the wake of the abrupt and un-explained forced resignation of coach Leon-ard Sams, two weeks after he led his team to Bearden’s fi rst-ever state tour-nament run.

Filed by Randy Susong and Adam McKenry, the fi rst complaint says the boosters would never have agreed to take on the task of building a new batting facility if Bartlett had informed them it was not legal for them to do so. They say the problem was aggravated when the popular Sams, for whom the facility was named, was booted from his job, crippling their fundraising ability and leaving the two of them on the hook for a $700 monthly payment. The school board signed off on the plan.

A state audit, released in early April, found several irregularities in the bid and building process, and said the booster club should not have been allowed to take on the construction project:

“The defi ciencies noted above may have been avoid-ed if the Board of Educa-

tion had not allowed other entities to construct facili-ties on school property, but accepted donations from these entities to go toward board-constructed facilities through the board’s normal purchasing and construc-tion process.”

Sams was hired as an as-sistant coach in 2007 and became head coach in 2011. He has been appointed to coach USA Softball’s 18-un-der team in Spain this sum-mer, and several student-athletes transferred into Bearden to play for him.

The Bearden and KCS administrations at fi rst at-tempted to pass his depar-ture off as a mutual deci-sion, but it quickly became evident that Sams did not leave willingly. And when it became clear that the deci-sion was fi nal, only two of 15 returning players stayed with the team.

At the end of last week, Bearden’s record (exclud-ing practice games) was 1-15. Meanwhile, many former players with hopes of playing in college have joined the Tennessee White Lightning, a travel team that plays against high-level competition in North Geor-gia and is coached by Sams. Their record stands at 15-7-1.

In addition to Bartlett, the fi rst ethics complaint names Superintendent James McIntyre, Bearden athletic director and assis-tant principal Nathan Lynn and KCS director of facili-ties management Doug Dill-ingham.

Speaking through KCS’s offi ce of public affairs, Bartlett said he sent the email to his staff “to ad-dress concerns brought to him and the administration by parents and players.”

The practice facility for the

Bearden High School softball teambaseball and lacrosse. KYS reached 2,000 youth a year in the program. KYS also in-cludes baseball, softball, fl ag football and basketball. The KYS budget has been from $500,000 to $750,000 a year. KYS helped rebuild the soccer fi elds at Lakeshore Park and Ruggles Field was added. He says it was “the best job of my life.”

Christensen says “retire-ment” is not part of his future. He is simply moving from one phase of his life to the next. He wants to be involved in something that impacts Knoxville.

KYS has been a major player in youth activities in Knoxville and Christensen was a pivotal part of mak-ing that happen.

■ Mike Chase, founder and owner of Calhoun’s, Copper Cellar and Chesa-peake’s, says that the city revamping of Cumberland Avenue, which will last another year and a half, is costing his Copper Cellar restaurant on Cumberland over $1 million in sales. This does not include the lost city, county and state sales tax that could have been generated by customers.

■ Rickey Hall, UT vice chancellor for diversity, is searching for a new job anywhere. He has been a fi nalist at three places. Clearly his UT days are numbered. With Chancellor Cheek expected to retire this year as he reaches 70, Susan Martin is retiring as provost Aug. 1, and Margie Nichols is leaving the chancellor’s offi ce. In a month it will be a new operation by the start of 2017. Can Athletic Director Dave Hart, who instigated the Lady Vols name change, be far behind? Phil Fulmer is speculated as a new UT athletic director.

■ State personnel held an explanatory meeting on the new $160 million state museum in Nashville here in Knoxville at Pellissippi State on April 12. It was poorly attended with only 18 citizens showing up who were not state employees or consultants. Notice of the meeting was spotty. People were surprised to learn that the new museum has 11,000 less square footage in exhib-it space than the current one being replaced. Advocates of the new museum say it will be much better confi gured.

The last-minute ditching of the year-end tests, ironi-cally known as TNReady (and before that, TCAP), has angered and confused parents from Memphis to Mountain City, and here at home, the impending su-perintendent swap of James McIntyre for interim Buzz Thomas will happen against a backdrop of long-running turmoil at schools like Bearden High as contro-versy over the once-stellar girls softball program en-ters year two.

A formal ethics hearing is scheduled for June 6 to deal with a complaint fi led by two former Bearden soft-ball booster club parents who have gotten stuck with the cost of a new indoor bat-ting facility, and the Shop-per News has learned that a second complaint, trig-gered by an email principal John Bartlett sent to faculty members accusing former softball team members of ridiculing and booing the coach and team at scrim-mage games, is being pre-pared by another parent. This complaint will allege that Bartlett’s accusation is false and that at least one

Story So Far: The special soccer team of non-athletic boys, practice for their next game by fi nding a way not to practice. But the second game looms.

Our second game was at Shoreham. If South Orange River had a reputation for being great in sports, so did Shoreham. In fact, the schools were rivals. I always won-dered who makes up rivalries. Principals probably cook it up. Maybe they hated each other. Or maybe the school board—any-

thing to avoid talking about budgets—got it going. I didn’t even know anyone from Shoreham. Didn’t even care.

We did get in another practice after the practice when we did not practice. Wasn’t bad. That is, I think we kicked the ball around a bit. The next day we went to a big museum and saw a neat fi lm.

In fact, on the bus to Shoreham, Saltz, Radosh and I got into this long discussion about some of the dinosaurs we saw in the

museum. A guide told us no one knows exactly why they died off. We were trying to fi gure out why. Saltz had the best idea. “Probably got into sports,” he suggested.

“Right,” I said, “The Mastodon Mothers versus the Tyran-nosaurus Tiddly-winkers.”

In other words, by the time we got out of the bus at Shoreham, we were in a good mood. Being in the bus alone helped. That happened be-cause after the fi rst game, they gave us -- and us alone — a small bus to use when we needed one. For the whole season. I think they thought that the way we played might be catching.

As for my being captain, that hadn’t amounted to much, except a little kidding. But as we got near the fi eld, Saltz slipped up to me and said, “Remember, the captain always goes down with his ship.”

Actually, it was another beautiful day, one of those early fall days that make you remember summer and wish it were back. Mr. Lester was all smiles. The team was loose. Positively jangling. As we closed in on the fi eld, we could see the Shoreham players working out.

We got ourselves ready. Mr. Lester beck-oned me over. “When the referee calls, you’re supposed to go out and meet the op-posing captain.”

“What for?”He looked blankly at me, blushing slight-

ly. “I can’t say I read that,” he admitted.After a bit, the referee did call. I went out

to the middle. The Shoreham captain was a big guy for a seventh grader, at least twice as wide as me. He held out his hand and we shook. He nearly busted my fi ngers. It’s a wonder he didn’t stomp my foot.

“How’s it going?” he said, dancing up and down as if his shorts were itchy.

“Okay,” I said, putting my hand in my armpit to get back some feeling. “You got a nice fi eld.”

“Little chewed up from our last game.”“Oh? Who with?”“Buckingham.”“Really,” I said, pretending that was the

least interesting thing in the world. “How’d you guys do?”

“We beat them six–zip.”“No kidding,” I said, sorry I asked. In

fact, I decided that my fi rst offi cial duty as team captain was not to tell my teammates that we were about to play the team that had beaten, by 6–0, the team that beat us 32–0.

Meanwhile, the ref was telling us he wanted a good, hard game, but no rough stuff. I felt like saying, “Don’t worry, we do best at bad, soft and easy.” But I didn’t.

“Good luck,” the Shoreham captain said to me.

“Thanks,” I replied, “we’ll need it.”He looked at me a little funny. Probably

thought I was kidding. I wasn’t.I can’t tell you about the whole game.

Just the highlights. Or rather, the lowlights. It wasn’t all that different from the Buck-ingham game.

I do remember being impressed because they didn’t score right away. Not in the fi rst ten seconds, anyway. In fact, I think we had the ball on their side of the fi eld briefl y. What is worth telling about is our fi rst goal.

It came about this way.

They were on the attack. Actu-ally, they were al-ways on the attack.

Just as we were always on the defense. But in this case, they had brought the ball nice-ly down the left line, passed it to the middle guys, pretty much in front of me — that is, in front of the goal.

Meanwhile, my trusty buddy Saltz, as well as Root and Hays, were right in there, fl ailing away, hacking with their feet, rear ends, heads, whatever they found useful and close to the ball. It didn’t work. The ball kept getting closer. To me. I crouched, ready to miss.

The ball squirted loose. Hays was right there and gave it a kick with the swift in-stinct of a true player. Right into our goal.

Point for them.The best part was when the ball went

in and the Shoreham team all lifted their arms. That’s a soccer tradition, airing your armpits after all that footwork. Anyway, I saw Hays lift his arms too, with this great idiot’s grin of success on his face.

Eliscue tipped him off, delicately. “Wrong side, Bozo,” he said.

Hays’s grin dropped like lead weights. He stood there, truly shaken.

At another furious part of the game, I re-member looking across the fi eld and notic-ing that their goaltender was lying fl at on his back, hands beneath his head, taking a sunbath. That really made me mad. I was still glaring at him as their twenty-second goal went whizzing past my eyes.

Final score: 47–0.Guess who won?I wondered, did that make them better

than Buckingham, or us worse?“Well,” said Dorman, as we dragged into

our bus for the ride home, “they said we couldn’t get worse, but we showed them. Lot of points.”

“Yeah, but I scored one of them,” Hays reminded us.

We applauded with slow, regular beats, “Yeah! Hurray!”

Mr. Lester, sitting up front with the driv-er, was doing his best to pretend he didn’t know us by reading one of his books, How to Be a Successful, Winning Coach.

He never did tell me what a captain was supposed to do.

(To be continued.)

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 FIVE: Second Game: New Heights, New Lows“a breakfast serials story”S.O.R. Losers Written by Avi and Illustrated by Timothy Bush

6 • MAY 4, 2016 • SOUTH KNOX Shopper news kids

Sara Barrett

Gentle giant Glenn Jacobs patiently waits his turn to fl avor his snow cone as a student takes her time making a selection.

Students Beyonce Bautista, Kerry Mickler, and J’Kayla Chandler tell Glenn Jacobs why they think kindness is important.

Kindness celebrated at Dogwood ElementaryStudents at Dogwood El-

ementary School were in for an afternoon full of treats recently when Glenn Jacobs, otherwise known as World Wrestling Entertainment star Kane, delivered pizza, snow cones and a whole lot of smiles to celebrate the Kindness Revolution.

Students gathered in the cafeteria and were personally served Little Caesar’s pizza

ebrated with Jacobs were seen at some point in the school year performing an act of kindness during the school day. A faculty mem-ber nominated each, and assistant principal Chris-topher Deal picked the top three students each week from the nominees.

Jacobs created a person-alized video thanking each of the students, and they

received a Kindness Revo-lution bracelet as a reward. The fi nale to the program was a party with Jacobs.

Jacobs was involved with the national Kindness Revo-lution program when Deal heard about the project and thought it was a perfect fi t for the students at Dogwood.

Plans are to continue the Kindness Revolution in the coming school year.

by the big guy himself. Jacobs made the rounds throughout the room to make sure every-one was having a good time.

The students who cel-

Friends Serenity Cates and Nevaeh Day said they were chosen for the Kindness Revolution because they helped their friends. “It’s just something cool to do,” says Nevaeh of why you should be helpful. Photos by S. Barrett

SOUTH KNOX Shopper news • MAY 4, 2016 • 7 faith

SENIOR NOTES ■ South Knox Senior

Center6729 Martel Lane573-5843knoxcounty.org/seniorsMonday-Friday7:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

Off erings include: dulcimer and guitar lessons; arts and crafts classes; dance classes; exercise programs; Tai Chi; card games; Joymakers practice; free swim 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Senior Meals program noon each Wednesday and Friday. Beading and jewelry sale, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, May 4-5.

Register for: Mayor’s budget presentation, 11:30 a.m. Monday, May 9. Veter-ans Services, 9 a.m. Thursday, May 19. Harrah’s trip, 8:30 a.m. Monday, May 23; regis-ter and pay by May 16.

■ South Knox Community Center522 Old Maryville Pike573-3575Monday-FridayHours vary

Off erings include a vari-ety of senior programs.

■ 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. This and That Market Group sale, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, May 4.

Register for: Veterans Services visit, 10 a.m. Mon-day, May 9: RSVP: 215-5645. Lunch & Learn: “Stroke Awareness” with Dr. Mary Dillon, noon Monday, May 9; RSVP by Thursday, May 5.

■ CAC Offi ce on Aging2247 Western Ave.524-2786knoxooa@knoxseniors.org

Just to be clear, the psalmist and Wordsworth were talking about two different worlds.

The psalmist was talking about the earth, the whole of the known creation. Wordsworth was referring to civilization: the affairs of men, the powers that rule, the day to day business of life.

Lewis and I had a chance recently to get away from business to enjoy the beauty of the earth. After tax season was offi cially over (well, except for the exten-sions – all those folks who somehow needed more time to render unto Caesar), we went to our favorite camp-ground in the mountains.

We left the world of business behind in order to soak up the beauty and quiet and peace of God’s world. We had time to listen to the laughing creek, to watch the mallards sail across the lake, to marvel at the moon rising over the mountains.

It soothes and heals the soul, I assure you.But, as always, we return to the routine. The trick,

however, is this: we – all of us – need to learn to pay attention to this dear little planet, to love it, treasure it, protect it, enjoy it, honor it, preserve it for genera-tions yet unborn.

In so doing, we honor and revere the Creator who thought it all up, and gave it to us to be our home.

Let us do the job God gave us.

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabit-ants of the world stand in awe of him.

(Psalm 33:8 NRSV)The world is too much with us; late and soon,Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;Little we see in Nature that is ours.We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon.

(“The World Is Too Much with Us,” William Wordsworth)

cross currentsLynn Pittslpitts48@yahoo.com

The world with us

InterFaith legal advice clinic May 7InterFaith Legal Advice Clinic will be

held 9:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at First Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tren-tham Hall, 510 W. Main St. Parking will be available in the Trentham Hall Parking lot between Hill, Walnut and Locust streets.

The free legal advice clinic is offered in conjunction with Legal Aid of East Tennes-see’s monthly Saturday Bar advice clinic and is hosted by the church to give people

a less intimidating environment to talk to a lawyer. Participants in the Faith & Jus-tice Alliance can invite congregants from their churches, synagogues and mosques to bring their legal questions as well.

Info: Terry Woods, 384-2175 or twoods@LAET.org; Bill Coley, 292-2307 or bcoley@hdclaw.com; Ian Hennessey, 637-0203 or ihennessey@londonamburn.com.

FAITH NOTES ■ “Moms Across the Genera-

tions” event for all grieving mothers will be held 3 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at Christus Victor Lutheran Church, 4110 Central Avenue Pike. The event is hosted by Listening Hearts. Info: 679-1351 or listeningheartsmoms@gmail.com.

By Kelly NorrellJohnson University has

announced a new venture called ExtendEd, to be of-fered in Knoxville and at sites in three other states, to grant accredited degrees in church leadership programs with study based in adult evening classes.

In Knoxville, ExtendEd will offer classes begin-ning in August at the Regas Building, 318 Gay Street. Partnering locally is the Knoxville Interdenomina-tional Bible Institute (KIBI), a predominantly African-American pastoral and church leadership training school founded in 2001 by Joe Maddox, pastor of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

ExtendEd students can complete a bachelor’s de-gree in either ministry lead-ership or pastoral care and counseling. The degrees will better equip vocational church pastors and staff and anyone in faith leader-ship, said Daniel Overdorf, dean of the School of Con-gregational Ministries at Johnson University.

Two recent events cel-ebrated the launching – an offi cial announcement and reception April 21 at the Re-gas Building for community leaders, partners, and JU and KIBI students and fac-ulty, and an informational meeting a few days later for prospective students. Johnson University has an-nounced establishment of a Joe B. Maddox Scholarship Fund for ExtendEd students.

“The launch of Johnson University ExtendEd allows the University to extend its reach, making educational opportunities available to more people through in-

Dr. Gary Weedman, president of Johnson Bible College, and Emma Callahan, registrar and administrative assistant at Knoxville Interdenomination-al Bible Institute, shake hands with guests at a recent launch of ExtendEd.

‘ExtendEd’ off ers new degree optionin Regas Building classrooms

novative partnerships and technology,” said Dr. Gary Weedman, president of Johnson University. The other ExtendEd programs are in Indianapolis, Phoenix and Louisville.

Maddox said the part-nership between Johnson University and KIBI brings unusual strengths together.

“I started Knoxville In-terdenominational Bible In-stitute because I wanted to equip leaders in the church – especially the African-American church – with biblical knowledge and the skills to pastor others. The accreditation, reputation and degree-granting ability of Johnson University will strengthen our program,” said Maddox.

Richard Brown, longtime pastor of Payne Avenue Mis-sionary Baptist Church, is one local resident consider-ing enrolling in ExtendEd. “Advancing my degree in theological studies is a goal of mine,” said Brown, who also holds a bachelor’s degree

in political science and busi-ness administration from the University of Tennessee.

“This fi ts easily into my already busy and hectic schedule. Where it is lo-cated logistically works out well too, so I don’t have to drive all the way out to the main Johnson campus.”

Overdorf expects10-15 students in the fi rst class which will meet for classes on Tuesday evenings at the Regas Building. They will have additional online coursework during the week with hands-on experience in churches. He said anyone interested in more informa-tion on ExtendEd should contact him at doverdorf@JohnsonU.edu

Johnson University is 123 years old and has campuses in Knoxville and Kissimmee, Fla., with a total enrollment of 1,318. It is accredited by both Southern Associa-tion of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the Association of Biblical Higher Education.

The former Braden’s showroom on Western Avenue was a huge, state-of-the-art facility whenbuilt in 1972-73.

Gary Braden with his dad, McKinley Braden, founder of Braden’s Furniture

The current Braden’s Lifestyle Furniture in Turkey Creek was built in 2003.

Braden’s marks 60 years in businessBy Carrie Grey

The Braden’s furniture companies have been a part of Knoxville’s history for 60 years. The fam-ily celebrated the company’s founding on May 1.

The original Braden’s started downtown on Jackson Avenue in a two-story, deep, narrow building in the Old City area. In the early 1960s, Braden’s Wholesale Furniture Company Inc. was relocated to Dale Avenue in a 50,000 square feet showroom warehouse. Today’s Rohm and Hass chemical factory occupies this spot.

Braden’s initially operated as a wholesale furniture distributor, selling to retail furniture dealers in fi ve surrounding states. The local showroom always featured high quality lines, catering to Knoxville’s interior designers and lo-cal customers in addition to serving as a show-room for out-of-state clients, sent in by their dealer network.

Braden’s big move came in 1972-73 when McKinley Braden, the founder of the family busi-ness, purchased and consolidated several small parcels off of Western Avenue and built his fl agship store – a 100,000 square feet facility. His son, Gary Braden, joined the family business in 1977.

Braden’s continued to operate as a wholesale distributor, expanding into seven states over the next 20 years. In the mid-1980s, Gary opened an import and manufacturing business called AFI (Association of Furniture Importers), traveling to Asia to pursue furniture imports for the Knoxville area under the AFI brand for the Braden’s whole-sale division. In fact, the Bradens set up a light manufacturing business behind their Western Avenue location, producing dining room tables, chairs and china cabinets from imported parts.

Later the family opened Braden’s Bedding Manufacturing Company. It was through this company that they manufactured mattresses and box springs and sold to their dealers for 10 years (1982-1992). That business was located on Papermill Road under the brand America’s Best.

In the meantime, the Braden’s showroom be-came Knoxville’s fi nest furniture company as the fi rst gallery-concepts store in the United States. Iconic brands like Stickley, Henredon, Century, Drexel-Heritage, Hickory Chair, Theodore Alex-ander and others, as well as patio and rug gal-leries, were showcased, each with a 5,000-7,000 square feet gallery.

In 1982, the Braden family purchased the Fowler Bros. Company of Knoxville and began revitalizing that great company brand, cul-minating with the construction of a 100,000 square feet building on North Peters Road in 1989. In 1993, Fowlers was sold to Rhodes Com-pany of Atlanta, which eventually sold again to Don Fowler from Georgia.

In 2003, Braden’s purchased its current fa-cility in Turkey Creek – an up and coming area in Knoxville/Farragut. In November 2004, Braden’s Lifestyles was born, and was originally set up as a contemporary style shop, fl ourishing from 2004-2009 under the management of third

generation Nick Braden.Not everything was always rosy, however. In

2007 Braden’s opened a 50,000 square feet storein Sevierville and bought a new warehouse inMaryville. This was the setting for the perfectstorm, according to Gary Braden. Three majorevents happened at once.

In 2007, Interstate 40 was closed for twoyears at the downtown Knoxville location. Garysays, “I love the orange and white, but I hate or-ange and white barrels!!”

The road work, compounded by the country’srecession, destroyed the business.

Meanwhile, Winfi eld Dunn Parkway was un-der construction for four years, creating a mas-sive traffi c jam to the Braden’s Sevierville loca-tion. Plus the cabin market, a large part of theSevierville business, fell victim to the “housingbubble” meltdown. Both stores were closed andsold in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

After closing the downtown store in 2009,the Braden family combined the formats of thedowntown and Turkey Creek shops, and the restis history. Braden’s has again been blessed withincredible growth, more than doubling in salesin six years, still featuring high-quality galleries,such as Stickley and Stressless, as well as a largepatio department and rug gallery. Nick and GaryBraden have a love for the business and the com-munity and plan to keep things in the family foranother 60 years.

Braden’s Lifestyles Furniture has always of-fered fi ne home furnishings and outdoor décor.As a full-scale design shop, they now offer vari-ous design services and everything needed tocomplete a space from fl oor to ceiling. Bra den’srecently launched a home-staging service, prov-en to help individuals and families sell their realestate properties faster. Inquiries related to fur-niture, outdoor décor, interior design or home-staging should be sent to info@bradens.comCarrie Grey is director of social marketing for Braden’s Lifestyles Furniture.

8 • MAY 4, 2016 • Shopper news

SOUTH KNOX Shopper news • MAY 4, 2016 • 9 business

THROUGH FRIDAY, SEPT. 16

Online registration open for the Marine Mud Run, to be held Saturday, Sept. 17. Individual waves, 8 a.m.; team waves, 11:30 a.m. Course: 3 miles of off-road running, which entails some obstacles, hills and mud pits. Registration deadline: Friday, Sept. 16, or until total registrants reaches 3150. Info/registration: knoxmud.org.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4

Books Sandwiched In: “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, noon, East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. Discussion led by the Rev. Christopher R. Battles Sr., Tabernacle Baptist Church, and Chris Woodhull, former Knoxville City Council member. Sponsored by Friends of the Library. Info: 215-8801.

“How to Use Facebook for Seniors,” 1-3 p.m., Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive. Presented by Social Media 4 Seniors. Cost: $30. Registration and payment deadline: Wednesday, May 4. Info/registration: townoffarragut.org/register, in person at the Town Hall, 218-3375.

Star Wars Day at the Library, 4-5 p.m., Cedar Bluff Branch Library, 9045 Cross Park Drive. Info: 470-7033.

THURSDAY, MAY 5

AARP Driver Safety class, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Buckingham Retirement Center, 7303 Manderly Way. Registration: Paul Johnson, 675-0694. Info: Carolyn Rambo, 382-5822.

Appalachian family square dance, 8 p.m., Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave. Sponsored by Knoxville Square Dance. Music by The Hellgramites. Callers: Leo Collins, Stan Sharp and Ruth Simmons. No experience necessary. Admission: $7, $5 students and JCA members. Info: jubileearts.org.

Exhibition preview reception, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World’s Fair Park. Exhibitions “Full Stop” by Tom Burckhardt and “Contemporary Focus 2016” by John Douglas Powers will be on display May 6 through Aug. 7. Info: Angela Thomas, 934-2034 or knoxart.org.

“Symphony on the Square,” 7:30 p.m., Market Square. Presented by Home Federal Bank; featuring the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Free admission. Bring blankets or chairs. Rain location: Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay St. Info: knoxvillesymphony.com.

THURSDAY-SUNDAY, MAY 5-8

Knoxville Stomp festival. Venues include: Market Square, the Bijou Theatre, the East Tennessee History Center, Boyd’s Jig and Reel and more. Featuring: live performances, panel discussions, fi lm screenings, a 78 rpm record collector show and more. Info/schedule: knoxstomp.com.

FRIDAY, MAY 6

Cinco de Mayo Carnival, 4:30-7 p.m., West View Elementary School, 1714 Mingle Ave. Includes: games, prizes, face painting, food, dunking booth, Safety City, Wendy from Wendy’s Restaurant, Bo from Bojangles and more. Tickets: 4 for $1. All proceeds go to the school for school supplies and fi eld trips for the students.

John McCutcheon performing, 8 p.m., Laurel

Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave. Tickets: $20, some discounts available. Info/tickets: www.jubileearts.org.

Opening reception for Art Market Gallery’s May featured artists, 5:30 p.m., Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St. Artists include Tennessee Watercolor Society members from the Art Market Gallery: Lil Clinard, Genie Evan, Harriet Howell, Kate McCullough and Brenda Mills. Exhibit on display through May 28. Info: 525-5265; artmarketgallery.net; on Facebook.

Opening reception for “Body of Art” exhibition by Annamaria Gundlach, 5-9 p.m., Broadway Studios and Gallery, 1127 N. Broadway. Exhibit on display through May 31. Info: BroadwayStudiosAndGallery.com or Jessica Gregory, 556-8676.

Public reception for new exhibits at the Emporium Center, 5-9 p.m., 100 S. Gay St. New exhibits include: “International Latino Art Exhibition” in the main gallery; “Small Plates: A Response to Hunger” (on display Friday, May 6 only) in the Balcony; Photography by Rachael Quammie in the display case; and “Recessive” by Abigail Malone in the Atrium. Info: knoxalliance.com or 523-7543.

Tennessee Trio: The Tennessee Recording Sessions, 1927-1930 | Brown Bag Panel, noon- 2 p.m., East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. Info: 215-8824.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 6-7

Garage sale, New Hope Baptist Church 7115 Tipton Lane off of East Beaver Creek. Follow signs.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, MAY 6-22

“Snow White and Rose Red,” 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/tickets: knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com; info@childrenstheatreknoxville.com; 208-3677.

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The Rotary guyTom King, tking535@gmail.com

It’s a lot like that peanut butter and jelly thing, this literacy relationship about books and reading between the Bearden Rotary Club and Pond Gap Elementary School. It’s been going on for 10-plus years with no signs of slowing.

On Friday, April 15, a group of Bearden Rotarians delivered a backlog of books to the Pond Gap library. “About fi ve years ago we started asking their librar-ian for a list of books for their library,” said Rotarian Dick Hinton. “Our club buys the books and we have our weekly speakers sign the in-side cover and then donate them to their library.”

Bearden Rotarians who helped deliver the books were Hinton, Gary Ric-ciardi, John Heins and club president Tom Daughtrey.

“Pond Gap School is high poverty and it happens to be in the Bearden area. The ‘Rotary Reader’ program was one of our fi rst regu-lar activities, but over the years we’ve done a range of things,” says Hinton, who heads up the reading pro-gram. “Every Friday there will be four slots open for club Rotarians to fi ll, to spend 20 minutes or so

Partners in books and reading

By Carol Z. ShaneWhen you walk into Everything

Mushrooms on Sevier Avenue in South Knoxville, you walk into a whole new world. Jars of dried mushrooms in a dizzying variety line the walls, books about grow-ing and using them fi ll tables. Cultivation supplies and pieces of apparatus – “inoculation loop,” “surgical steel scalpel,” “culture tubes” – crowd the shelves. Out back there’s a greenhouse and a variety of logs sprouting shiitakes.

Store manager Sean McKay is eager to share the art and craft of mushroom cultivation with everyone. And Everything Mush-rooms makes it easy for the most clueless beginner to start this rewarding, and ultimately deli-cious, hobby. Gesturing toward a log leaning against the wall in the store, McKay says, “Put it in your yard and let Mother Nature

do the work for you!”A Montana transplant whose

background is in forestry, McKay moved here to take a job at Black-berry Farm. Then, “I fell in love with an East Tennessee gal,” he says, “so I guess I’m stuck!” But he says there are much worse

places to be stuck. “Geographical-ly we’re in a very good location.” With the nearby mountains and forests, “this is a rich mushroom-ing environment.”

In business for 10 years and offering dried gourmet and me-dicinal mushrooms, truffl es and truffl e oils, mushroom oils and dressings, soup mixes and sea-sonings, Everything Mushrooms is a real destination for foodies

in the know. But, says McKay, the South Knox location is actually the “front of the house for a very big operation.” Everything Mush-rooms does most of it business online.

“There are probably only a doz-en or so such stores in the whole country,” he says. It’s defi nitely a niche market, but the business’s products are much in demand by restaurants, chefs and farmers, as well as home hobbyists.

And, as with any hobby, you can take it as far and as deep as you want. A beginner’s kit costs less than $20, and those more ad-vanced can fi nd everything they need here, too. McKay demon-strates several ways of cultivating the fabulous fungi – six-pound spawn blocks of sawdust fi lled with germinating cultures; liquid cultures that can be injected into a growing medium; individually-

sized bags of inoculated wooden dowels for plugging your own logs.

Spawn? Fungi? Inocula-tion? If it all sounds a bit exotic, don’t worry. “You’re actually look-ing at a very clean product,” says McK-ay. “Everything is natural and steril-ized.” And the dedi-cated staffers are there to help. “It’s not like you’re just putting something in the ground,” says McKay. “Customer service is something we really pride our-selves on.”

So whether you’re just looking for a way to expand your gourmet tastes, or you’re in search of a new adventure that will reward you and your family for years to come, plan a visit

to Everything Mushrooms – in person, by phone or on its website.

Everything Mushrooms is located at 1004 Sevier

Avenue in Knox-ville. Info: 865-

234-0977 or everything-mushrooms.com

Sean McKay

BIZ NOTES ■ Clarence L. Vaughn III is the new executive director of the Police

Advisory and Review Committee, which reviews citizen com-plaints and internal aff airs reports involving the Knoxville Police Department. Vaughn holds an MBA from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s in business administration from Florida A&M. He has worked in banking and business consulting since 2007. Vaughn moved to Knoxville 11 years ago. His wife, Syreeta, is a native Knoxvillian. They have two daughters.

■ Andrew Clark is a new vice president at Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon Inc., appointed during the annual stockholders’ meet-ing April 23. Clark leads the water services team in the Knoxville offi ce. His projects include water and wastewater planning and treatment, pumping stations, replacements and rehabilitations. Clark earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UT.

■ Steve Cruze has been named chief operating offi cer of Premier Surgical Associates. He previously worked as practice manager for Premier’s Fort Sanders Regional offi ce. He is a retired U.S. Army master sergeant, serving for 21 years as a health care specialist. Cruze served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom with the 10th Mountain Division. He lives in Powell with his wife and two children.

■ Jerry Epps M.D. has been named senior vice president and chief medical offi cer of the UT Medical Center. Epps, who has more than three decades of experience as an anesthesiologist and in physician leadership, most recently served as chair of the Depart-ment of Anesthesiology with the medical center and UT Graduate School of Medicine. Epps replaces Dr. Jack Lacey, who retired after four decades with the medical center. A native of Benton, Ky., Epps lives in Knoxville with his wife of 40 years, Eleesa. Their adult daughter, Courtney Epps Read, also lives in Knoxville.

CruzeClarkVaughn Dr. Epps

Rotarians and school personnel are pictured with students from Ms. Harrison’s third grade classroom: (front) Alijah Davidson, Tyrese Mack, Rylee Greaney, Miracle Jackson, Jillian Mc-Guire; (middle) Nevaeh Strickland, Sirvontez Jones, Saif Abdulameer, Joshua Ogle, Adonta Jones; (back) assistant principal Arrin Alaniz, Gary Ricciardi, Dick Hinton, librarian Michelle Broyles, John Heins and Bearden club president Tom Daughtrey.

Everything Mushrooms lives up to its name

A shiitake mush-room is ready to harvest from a log of white oak. The red blob on the tip is a wax plug that had previously held the cultivating medium in place within the wood.

reading books to the students.”Hinton adds that school administra-

tors have asked then to recruit men to read since it’s rare for the students to see a man in that role.

The Rotary Club of Farragut has the same books-for-the li-brary program with Ball Camp Elementary School as does the Ro-tary Club of Knoxville with Sarah Moore Greene Elementary.

■ Elkmont work to startWe recently reported that the Rotary

Club of Knoxville will help restore the amphitheater at the Elkmont Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The club’s fi rst Work Day at Elkmont

will be on Saturday, June 4, at 9 a.m. The work will be followed by a pic-

nic lunch at Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area.

REUNION NOTES ■ The Halls High class of 1971

reunion, 6 p.m. Saturday, May 14, Li’l Jo’s in Maynard-ville. Cost: $20 at the door. BYO spirits or beer can be purchased at the restaurant.

RSVP: 963-5087, 922-8070 or wolfec4@gmail.com.

■ Annual Reynolds Family Reunion, 11 a.m. Sunday, May 15, at Big Ridge State Park, Tea Room. Bring a covered dish, fi shing poles, games to play, cameras. Lunch, 1 p.m.

10 • MAY 4, 2016 • Shopper news