POSTMASTER: Dated material, please deliver by publication date Roanoke was recently named as an All-America City for the sixth time by the National Civic League. Mayor David Bowers and City Manager Chris Mor- rill flew to Denver to accept the award. Sheila Umberger, Director of Libraries for the city, accompanied them. Roanoke’s library system – and specifically its Star City Reads program – is why the National Civic League awarded its All-America City honor. Star City Reads, a program that is just now getting off the ground, is designed to help ensure that city school children are reading at grade level by the end of the third grade. “Roanoke will focus on children’s needs as they relate to school readiness, at- tendance and summer learn- ing,” the declaration on a flyer for the program. “We’re actually in the process of implementing our plan,” said Umberger of what is known as the Community Solutions Action Plan. Umberger is looking for individuals, businesses and organizations that might be interested in helping with the Star City Reads campaign. A number of partners are already on board, including TAP, Blue Ridge Literacy, United Way of Roanoke Val- ley, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Smart Be- ginnings (a program aimed at kindergartners) and Roanoke City Public Schools. “e school system was involved with us from the first day,” said Umberger. Having Roanoke City schoolchildren read at the third grade level by the time Chances are, if you’ve ever attended an event on the campus of Virginia Tech – Anthony S. Watson had something to do with it. Wat- son, Virginia Tech’s associ- ate director of facilities op- erations, building trades and grounds, is involved in just about everything that hap- pens on campus. Most recently, Watson and his team have been prepar- ing for the return of students and faculty to campus as well as the clean-up of more than 3,000 cubic tons of debris leſt by the fast-moving, aggres- sive thunderstorm system that barreled through Blacks- burg on Friday, June 29 with hurricane-force winds. “If it happens on campus, I’m involved in some capac- ity,” said Watson who is one of only 722 staff members who have worked at Virginia Tech for more than 20 years. e university currently em- ploys a total of about 3,000 staff members. Watson spends the major- ity of his time managing the day-to-day facilities needs of a university that is larger than some small cities. His team maintains most of the campus grounds and en- sures that the administrative and academic buildings are running properly. ey also respond to aſter-hours calls for roof and plumbing leaks, electrical issues, and broken windows and doors. Some days, you’ll find him helping prepare for football games in Lane Stadium or planning for this spring’s commencement. On other days he assists with smaller events across campus, includ- ing the annual Relay4Life ac- tivities. “We don’t slow down, ever,” said Watson. “We run wide open year round.” As is the case with many Virginia Tech employees, Watson’s work day oſten ex- tends into the evening hours and he’s oſten seen on campus on weekends as well, but you won’t find Watson complain- ing. e opportunity to work on so many different projects and events is part of what Watson enjoys most about his job. In addition to the recent PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT 342 ROAnOkE vA eRoanokeStar.com community | news | perspective September 7, 2012 Heating & Air SEE OUR AD IN THE STAR! F a s t R e s p o n s e : 354-1279 Virginia Tech’s Associate Dirctor of Facilities Anthony S. Watson Blue Moon On e Rise I t’s very rare to see a blue-colored moon, although unusual sky conditions – certain-sized particles of dust or smoke – can create them. What people commonly call “Blue Moons” aren’t really blue at all - but rather are defined as the second full moon of a calendar month (or the third full moon of four in a season.) e time between one full moon and the next is close to the length of a calendar month, so the only time one month can have two full moons is when the first full moon happens in the first few days of the month. In August we enjoyed a full moon on the 1st and then again last Friday on the 31st. Roa- noke Star contributing photographer Terry Aldhizer captured this remarkable photograph of the August 31st Blue Moon just beginning to rise above downtown Roanoke. Blue Moons hap- pen every 2-3 years. Photo by Terry Aldhizer November Municipal Elections Looking Unlikely It seemed at first “a no- brainer” to move Roanoke City’s local elections from May to November, said Dr. Harry Wilson Director of Institute for Policy and Opinion Re- search and professor at Roa- noke College. But on Tuesday he waivered on that opinion aſter studying the pros and cons of local elections. Dr. Wilson admitted to pri- marily having state and fed- eral election expertise and aſter more scrutiny of local elec- tion con- notations he was conflicted. “I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this ques- tion,” he told City Council. November election would- increase turnout. “Turnout would be significantly higher in November than it is in May … [but] is this a less informed electorate,” questioned Dr. Wilson, “almost certainly yes.” Council will have to decide if that is a bad thing, he said. Undervotes – those not vot- ing all the way down the ballot are common in all elections. “at’s pretty standard and unavoidable. I’m not sure that is a bad thing,” said Wilson. e ideal world he said would [City Govt.] Star City Reads Program Drives Roanoke’s All-America Award > CONTINUED P2: Municipal Elections The Man That Makes VA Tech Go > CONTINUED P2: Library > CONTINUED P2: Tech Man Dimension New P3– The Spectrum Sports Academy near the Roanoke Regional Airport is sport- ing a whole new look with more to come. Heroes Missing P4– Hayden Hollingsworth looks around the American landscape and can’t help but ask,“Where have All The Heroes Gone?” Faith Strong P6– The Interfaith Hospi- tality Network celebrates it’s 15th anniversary thanks to the efforts of multiple churches and synagogues. Roundup! The P7– Check out Wild Bill Turner’s Ouija inspired high school football pre- dictions and the latest in late night gadgetry!
Transcript
POSTMASTER: Dated material, please deliver by publication date
Roanoke was recently named as an All-America City for the sixth time by the National Civic League. Mayor David Bowers and City Manager Chris Mor-rill flew to Denver to accept the award. Sheila Umberger, Director of Libraries for the city, accompanied them. Roanoke’s library system – and specifically its Star City Reads program – is why the National Civic League awarded its All-America City honor.
Star City Reads, a program that is just now getting off the ground, is designed to help ensure that city school children are reading at grade level by the end of the third grade. “Roanoke will focus on children’s needs as they relate to school readiness, at-tendance and summer learn-ing,” the declaration on a flyer for the program. “We’re actually in the process of implementing our plan,” said Umberger of what is known as the Community Solutions Action Plan.
Umberger is looking for
individuals, businesses and organizations that might be interested in helping with the Star City Reads campaign. A number of partners are already on board, including TAP, Blue Ridge Literacy, United Way of Roanoke Val-ley, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Smart Be-ginnings (a program aimed at kindergartners) and Roanoke City Public Schools. “The school system was involved with us from the first day,” said Umberger.
Having Roanoke City schoolchildren read at the third grade level by the time
Chances are, if you’ve ever attended an event on the campus of Virginia Tech – Anthony S. Watson had something to do with it. Wat-son, Virginia Tech’s associ-ate director of facilities op-erations, building trades and grounds, is involved in just about everything that hap-pens on campus.
Most recently, Watson and his team have been prepar-ing for the return of students and faculty to campus as well as the clean-up of more than 3,000 cubic tons of debris left by the fast-moving, aggres-sive thunderstorm system that barreled through Blacks-burg on Friday, June 29 with hurricane-force winds.
“If it happens on campus, I’m involved in some capac-ity,” said Watson who is one of only 722 staff members who have worked at Virginia Tech for more than 20 years. The university currently em-ploys a total of about 3,000 staff members.
Watson spends the major-ity of his time managing the day-to-day facilities needs of a university that is larger than some small cities. His team maintains most of the campus grounds and en-
sures that the administrative and academic buildings are running properly. They also respond to after-hours calls for roof and plumbing leaks, electrical issues, and broken windows and doors.
Some days, you’ll find him helping prepare for football games in Lane Stadium or planning for this spring’s commencement. On other days he assists with smaller events across campus, includ-ing the annual Relay4Life ac-tivities.
“We don’t slow down, ever,”
said Watson. “We run wide open year round.”
As is the case with many Virginia Tech employees, Watson’s work day often ex-tends into the evening hours and he’s often seen on campus on weekends as well, but you won’t find Watson complain-ing. The opportunity to work on so many different projects and events is part of what Watson enjoys most about his job.
In addition to the recent
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Virginia Tech’s Associate Dirctor of Facilities Anthony S. Watson
Blue Moon On The Rise
It’s very rare to see a blue-colored moon, although unusual sky conditions – certain-sized particles of dust or smoke
– can create them. What people commonly call “Blue Moons” aren’t really blue at all - but rather are defined as the second full moon of a calendar month (or the third full moon of four in a season.) The time between one full moon and the next is close to the length of a calendar month, so the only time one month
can have two full moons is when the first full moon happens in the first few days of the month. In August we enjoyed a full moon on the 1st and then again last Friday on the 31st. Roa-noke Star contributing photographer Terry Aldhizer captured this remarkable photograph of the August 31st Blue Moon just beginning to rise above downtown Roanoke. Blue Moons hap-pen every 2-3 years.
Photo by Terry Aldhizer
November Municipal Elections Looking Unlikely
It seemed at first “a no-brainer” to move Roanoke City’s local elections from May to November, said Dr. Harry Wilson Director of Institute for Policy and Opinion Re-search and professor at Roa-noke College. But on Tuesday he waivered on that opinion after studying the pros and cons of local elections.
Dr. Wilson admitted to pri-marily having state and fed-eral election expertise and after more scrutiny of local elec-tion con-notations he was conflicted. “I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this ques-tion,” he told City Council.
November election would-increase turnout. “Turnout would be significantly higher in November than it is in May … [but] is this a less informed electorate,” questioned Dr. Wilson, “almost certainly yes.”
Council will have to decide if that is a bad thing, he said. Undervotes – those not vot-ing all the way down the ballot are common in all elections. “That’s pretty standard and unavoidable. I’m not sure that is a bad thing,” said Wilson. The ideal world he said would
[City Govt.]
Star City Reads Program Drives Roanoke’s
All-America Award
> CONTINUEDP2: Municipal Elections
The Man That Makes VA Tech Go
> CONTINUEDP2: Library
> CONTINUEDP2: Tech Man
DimensionNew
P3– The Spectrum Sports Academy near the Roanoke Regional Airport is sport-ing a whole new look with more to come.
HeroesMissingP4– Hayden Hollingsworth looks around the American landscape and can’t help but ask, “Where have All The Heroes Gone?”
FaithStrong
P6– The Interfaith Hospi-tality Network celebrates it’s 15th anniversary thanks to the efforts of multiple churches and synagogues.
Roundup!The
P7– Check out Wild Bill Turner’s Ouija inspired high school football pre-dictions and the latest in late night gadgetry!
Friday will be hazy, hot, and still pretty humid with temperatures in the lower 90s. Another frontal boundary will approach the area on Saturday, bringing another round of passing showers, maybe even an isolated storm. We will turn cooler this weekend, with temperatures reaching the low-to-mid 80s on Saturday, and falling even more into the mid-to-upper 70s on Sunday. On Sunday, we should see increasing sunshine with most of the rain ending early in the day.
> Municipal Elections From page 1
Page 2 | TheRoanokeStar.com 9/7/12- 9/13/12
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> Tech Man From page 1 Derecho, Watson also recalls the 1993 Storm of the Century, also known as the Great Blizzard of 1993. Who could forget the large cyclonic storm with hurricane-force wind gusts and record low barometric pressures that, for two weeks, dumped snow across campus? Watson and his crews recall manning plows and shovels around the clock for several days before the university could reopen.
And he says he’ll never forget the day that he and a colleague were sent to remove a large concrete replica of the Virginia state seal from the brick exterior of the Donaldson Brown Graduate Life Center. Earlier in the day a student voiced frus-tration about the seal’s depiction of a pilgrim with his foot on the throat of an Indian. By the end of the day, the seal had been removed and the wall repaired, according to Watson.
Watson’s commitment to Virginia Tech is a family affair. His wife, Geneva, works as a budget and IT manager for the De-partment of Human Development in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. The two were high school sweet-hearts who married two weeks before Watson began working at Virginia Tech.
Since then, for 23 years, he has dedicated his professional ca-
reer to serving the students, faculty, and staff at Virginia Tech. Watson began his career at Virginia Tech straight out of high school in 1989 as a carpenters apprentice and has never looked back.
Since then, Watson has risen through the ranks of the facili-ties department, holding positions as a carpenter, superinten-dent of the Carpenter Shop, and superintendent of Building Trades. In his position now as the associate director of facilities operations, he oversees a department of about 120 employees.
Impressive? Yes. But, for Watson, his decision has nothing to do with his title or the number of people he supervises. It has everything to do with the people he works with and his desire to make a difference for students and employees at Virginia Tech.
“We have a really good group of folks working here in facili-ties; people who really take pride in what they do. There is no way I could do my job without them,” said Watson.
they are in the third grade “is a very pivotal moment,” according to Umberger, who has also been busy overseeing renovations at many of the city’s public libraries. Studies show that 80% of children who fail their third grade reading test wind up on wel-fare, according to Umberger, who adds that future planning for prisons is made in part by how many children fail that test. “It’s a benchmark,” said Umberger.
Roanoke is the only community in the country to win the All-America City designation six times. The Star City Reads pro-gram, which helped clinch this latest award, includes a number of ideas. Having students ready to go to kindergarten, reduc-ing absenteeism and taking advantage of summer learning pro-grams are points in the program.
Then there is the October 16 visit by Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop – Mallory’s mother Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop the pup-pet were staples on television decades ago. Lewis will be here in October with a “Sesame Street quality” program, said Umberger. Mallory Lewis will take part in a preschool program at the li-brary before heading to Lincoln Terrace Elementary School. A family program that night will include a petting zoo – featuring lambs, of course.
A portion of the main library branch downtown may soon be dedicated to preschool children and their parents and perhaps a reading corner. The Star City Reads program will fit nicely as Roanoke rolls out a library master plan over the next few years, according to Umberger. “It’s important to create the space where parents [and] children want to come to a program.”
Children who don’t read or polish their learning skills over the long summer often come back to school three months be-hind, according to Umberger. As for all of the players involved in the Star City Reads program, its important she adds that “we need to work together.” In fact the National Civic League rec-ognized that cooperation between agencies as one reason for awarding its designation.
“The problem is a community problem, and we’re all coming
at it from different directions,” said Umberger, who is working on a plan so that the different players can share data and ideas on what’s working as far as best practices.
In three years the city can apply for an implementation award from the National Civic League – after proving that the Star City Reads program has been effective. Grant money could be avail-able down the road once the program is fully in place.
Programs to support the plan will be held at Roanoke City Library locations and other venues. Information will be avail-able on the city’s website and a Facebook page. Children who are exposed to the right type of learning environment are test-ing “much higher” when they go to kindergarten, making things easier down the road. “I see a strong strategic tie to this All-America City Award,” said Umberger.
See more about Star City Reads at /www.libraryjunction.com/reads/
> Library From page 1
Roanoke Libraries Director Sheila Umberger is excited about Star City Reads and what the program is doing for children.
produce turnout of 100 percent informed voters.Competition from other races in odd or even years
“is a given” he said. It could be a problem when vy-ing for airtime and media attention and “perhaps” they may become more partisan. That would depend on if local candidates “choose to make those elections more national in nature.” It is up to council to decide on whether this is a reason not to move the elections.
Dr. Wilson thought campaign costs would be higher for local candidates in competition for media attention. In this presidential election “forget it,” he said. “You probably wouldn’t even be able to buy time on televi-sion between now and the election … Roanoke is an incredibly high advertising market for the presidential election right now.” That may not always be the case but it is unpredictable.
The city would save about $30,000 if it combines its elections with state elections.
Dr. Wilson prefers surveys to gauge voter’s thoughts. Surveys are expensive so town hall meetings are the next best measurement – but again it may not be rep-resentative of all the citizens. The city just completed a citizen satisfaction survey last year and it will be several more years before there is another, said City Manager Chris Morrill.
Councilman Sherman Lea, who initiated the conversation on moving elections last spring, asked Dr. Wilson how he would characterize an “uninformed” voter. Dr. Wilson recounted a story about a voter’s response to why he voted for a candidate. He replied that it was because the candidate had the same last name as the voter. “I define that person as an uninformed vot-er,” said Wilson. Another example he gave was when selecting five candidates from 15 candidates on the ballot – it is almost assured that the first five will win.
Those that vote in May are more interested in council elec-tions. Moving elections to November “could disenfranchise interest groups [like] teachers or firefighters or police or even city employees.” It would dilute their voting impact. Voting in some areas is higher in all elections due to “socioeconomic sta-tus primarily,” said Wilson. Lea wanted to look at the last six years of May election turnout before a decision was made.
In analyzing surveys that quiz the voter on their knowl-edge Wilson said, “Frankly I’m disappointed in us as a soci-ety that more of us don’t have the basics of what I think we should know.” There are a variety of reasons why people don’t vote, said Wilson – either they feel disenfranchised or they are happy.
Once a locality moves to November elections it is harder to move them back, said Wilson. It then appears that voters are being disenfranchised.
Councilman Dave Trinkle and Vice-Mayor Court Rosen came down on the side of keeping elections in May. Rosen said, “I’m 100 percent supportive of keeping them in May. I would rather have 100 percent of people who come and vote for me or whomever because they care about the issues and not because they happen to be affiliated with one party or the other … but
I have no interest personally in being elected in November be-cause I happen to be of a political party.” It could create a real problem with fiscal year budget planning too said Rosen.
Dr. Wilson didn’t see that as a problem, “I don’t see a slate of Republicans being swept into office if the elections were moved to November.” He felt safe in predicting Roanoke City would go Democratic in November. Local issues won’t become na-tionalized said Wilson.
The question “is a tough one,” said Wilson. “It’s not the no-brainer that I thought it was.” He suggested looking at ways to increase voter turnout in May as an option.
Ray Ferris after a previous meeting in an e-mail pointed to other municipalities that felt they had made a mistake in mov-ing their elections to November but he wanted to listen to what the people had to say. Bill Bestpitch sighted a VML conference workshop that influenced his thinking that November elec-tions may not be a good idea.
Anita Price said in an e-mail she was in “favor of whatever it takes to get the vote out – and that also includes informing and educating citizens of the power of their vote and that their participation matters.”
Lea, in an e-mail, was adamant that moving elections to No-vember is the answer to increasing voter participation. “It just troubles me when we have discussions on who is informed and how some on the national level feel if you are not informed you should not vote. I find it difficult to understand how a city that is Democratic can oppose a strong voter turnout! Is that what our party is about? I am a Democrat!”
Mayor David Bowers has held his thoughts close to his vest and as of press time had not responded for comment.
City Council will discuss the issue again in October when there is more data on the level of voter participation by pre-cinct.
Voters cast their ballots on an election day in 2008.
There’s a new look at the Spectrum Sports Academy on Tom Andrews Road near the Roanoke Regional Airport.
A recent interior remod-eling project has just been completed, with the grand re-opening set for this month. And a significant 22,000 sqa-ure foot addition is already in the blueprints, with a target opening of January, 2013.
The resulting training fa-cility will be one of the most progressive state-of-the-art venues west of Richmond.
The goal of Spectrum is to create champions for life in their committment to excel-lence. Spectrum offers numer-ous programs for all athletes to acquire sports knowledge in an environment appropri-ate to their individual levels of skill and experience.
Their programs are designed for the inexperienced youth all the way to the elite high school and college athlete.
“Our model provides opportunities for athletes at every level from discovery and the first exposure to a sport, through develop-ment of an athlete’s chosen sport skills, to refinement in helping an athlete reach the next level, ” academy director Cherie Hicks notes. “The academy’s approach is more than just sports. We develop life skills and athletic skills, offering a curriculum for athletes, coaches and their parents. We definitely have an unique model.”
The existing facility includes three full all-wood courts for bas-ketball and volleyball, along with a baseball/softball hitting facility second to none. The future expansion will include a turf field and two additional courts to accomodate additional training in sports such as football, lacrosse and soccer.
The academy’s ‘Champion’s Approach’ will be integrated into all programs, giving athletes an understanding of what it takes to be successful in sports and in life. The team of academy directors is committed to leveraging their vast experience to the success of Spectrum’s model.
Billy Hicks, who has coached basketball at varoius levels for 25
years, and who has been the head coach at Cave Spring High School since 1996, win-ning three state champion-ships, heads up the basketball academy.
Tamalyn Tanis, director of volleyball, is considered one of the most prominent coaches in her sport, winning five state championships in ten years at Cave Spring, a Virginia High School League record.
Mark Croye leads the base-ball/softball academy with 27 years in working with youth and AAU players in both hit-ting technique and technical aspects of pitching.
Tom Gibbs, instructor of tennis, has been a tennis pro-fessional for 45 years, serving as Hidden Valley Country
Club’s pro for 40 years.Langston Ware, a former wide receiver for Liberty University, is
a lead trainer for Spectrum’s condiioning programs and is certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
“We have something for everyone from coaches clinics and par-enting workshops to nutrition coaching,” Billy Hicks points out. “Our goal is to set a new bar for youth athletics through our unique teaching and training model.”
“We have programs that get kids started from kindergarden up,” Tanis adds. “In volleyball, I am excited to give boys and girls of all ages a chance to learn the sport. Spectrum is a year-round facility.”
“The Roanoke Valley has produced some exceptional athletes over the years, Cherie Hicks adds. “We believe our model will de-velop a generation of future leaders in their commitment to excel-lence.”
For more information about Spectrum programs, call 540-561-0921 or visit the facility at 3710 Tom Andrews Rd.
9/7/12- 9/13/12 |TheRoanokeStar.com | Page 3
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Democrats Counter Republican’s Medicare Plan on the Way to CharlotteDPVA Chair Brian Moran, former Virginia state House minor-
ity leader Ward Armstrong, Senator John Edwards and Council-woman Anita Price made the case last Thursday for the Afford-able Healthcare Act (ACA) at a press conference at Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea.
In Charlotte on September 4 – 6, the Democrats get their turn to make the case to the American people on why they should re-elect President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden.
At the Republican National Convention in Tampa last week and on the campaign trail, the bulk of the Romney/Ryan message was that the ACA cuts over $700 billion dollars over 10 years from Medicare. The repeal of Obamacare will be their first priority.
Republicans say they are going to save Medicare for seniors. The Democrats say the ACA doesn’t take one benefit away from seniors and will extend Medicare for 12 years. The savings are in administrative costs, computerization of health records, from in-surance companies and healthcare providers through healthcare outcomes rather than fees for service. Hospital care providers agreed to less reimbursement for more paying patients. The sav-ings are passed on to preventive and well care, say Democrats.
The Republicans say nothing will change for seniors 55 and over. The under 55 will receive vouchers to buy their own health-care when they retire that will save $700 billion over 10 years. This will create competition in the market place and drive down costs without reducing benefits or increasing out-of-pocket costs to se-niors.
Which message gets through is the battle setting up to win the senior vote. Democrats traditionally have won senior support on Medicare but Republicans see an opening with the changes in the ACA.
Moran said they wanted to “recognize the many substantive differences in our candidates – they are many and dramatic.” He called the Romney/Ryan/Allen ticket “radical … especially on healthcare and women’s rights.”
Moran said the Republican ticket would “eliminate the security from social security.” He said their plan is to privatize social secu-rity making benefits vulnerable to the whims of the stock market.
Price said, “Vouchers leave a very bad taste in my mouth.” Se-
niors will see more and more money out of their pockets and more tax breaks to millionaires and billion-aires, she said.
Armstrong said, the Medicare plan of the Romeny/Ryan ticket “is ludicrous – its crazy to do that on something that we depend upon.” He took a swipe at Republican can-didate for senate George Allen, say-ing he voted to privatize social se-curity and supports what the ticket now wants to do with Medicare. “It’s wrong headed and ultimately I think it is designed for failure.” He pledged to help his 96 year-old mother and all seniors to continue Medicare.
Edwards said he was “perplexed why the Republicans would make Medicare an issue – it’s not a win-ning issue for them.” He said that the Republicans were “totally misleading by what is on TV with re-gard to $716 billion in savings under the ACA.” The savings are in efficiency, waste, fraud and abuse said Edwards. He emphasized that the $716 billion stays in the Medicare program “and expands benefits and improves benefits and extends the life of Medicare.”
The Republican plan takes that money out of Medicare com-pletely in order to reduce the tax rate for the rich, said Edwards. The difference would be made up with vouchers that would force seniors to buy health insurance from the private sector. “Seniors would have to pay the difference and the rising cost for health insurance,” he said. Seniors get the bill for the Republicans $716 billion savings.
The difference between the Democrats’ and the Republicans’ plan is that the Democrats keep the $716 billion of savings in the plan and expand and improve Medicare, said Edwards. “The Republicans are demagoging and misleading the public when it comes to the $716 billion – Obamacare keeps it in the plan and
the Republicans take it out of the plan.”DPVA chair Moran has dropped his
day job as a spokesperson and lobbyist for Association of Private Sector Col-leges and Universities for which he has taken some “progressive” Democrat heat. He is campaigning in Virginia full time.
Armstrong said he was still con-sidering running for the Democratic nomination for Virginia attorney gen-eral. He has family issues to consider before making up his mind. He is still in Martinsville but plans to open an of-fice around Richmond soon.
Mike Signer is expected to also an-nounce for the Democratic nomina-tion for attorney general. Signer ran for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor in 2009. Senator Mark Herring has already announced
for attorney general. Aneesh Chopra has announced for Lieuten-ant Governor.
Virginia Republican candidates lining up for the 2013 conven-tion and attorney general nomination are Sen. Mark Obenshain (favored), Del. Rob Bell of Albemarle and John Frey, clerk of court in Fairfax.
Republicans for the Lieutenant Governor nomination are Del. Scott Lingamfelter of Prince William, Sen. Steve Martin of Ches-terfield, Susan Stimpson of Stafford County Board of Supervisors, former Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis and Washington, D.C. liaison for Governor Bob McDonnell.
Of course there is the convention battle between Attorney Gen-eral Ken Cuccinelli and Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling for the Republican nomination for Governor in 2013.
(L-R) Edwards, Armstrong, Price and Moran.Photo by Valerie Garner
Roanoke City has a new “Sustainability and Outreach Coordina-tor,” which is also a brand new position. The City recently hired Nell Boyle for that role. Boyle, who used to promote the green building techniques used by Breakell Construction while doing marketing work for that company, is also chair of Roanoke County’s citizen-led RC CLEAR committee.
That’s the group with ties to ICLEI, (the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) that some say is directly con-nected to the United Nations and something called Agenda 21 – a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the UN with regards to sustainable development.
The Roanoke Tea Party and others recently unsuccessfully op-posed any connection to ICLEI as the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors voted again to renew its annual membership dues in the organization. Boyle assures that RC CLEAR does not want to tell people where and how to live – it’s simply an educational tool that promotes green living practices like conducting energy audits.
The ICLEI-provided software allows for “apples to apples,” com-parison to other communities that are also working to reduce en-ergy consumption. That’s one major reason Boyle said it’s worth the $1200 a year ICLEI dues. “We are all using the same tool to measure [carbon footprints].”
In her new position as Sustainability and Outreach Coordinator, working for Ken Cronin, the Director of Sustainability and General Services in Roanoke, Nell Boyle is crafting a plan that includes out-reach and the monitoring of city buildings for energy efficiency. A recent report from Virginia Tech’s Sean McGinnis said strides made by the city to reduce its carbon footprint have slipped a bit over the past year, due perhaps to increased vehicle usage as the economy picks back up.
“We need to stay with the program,” Boyle advises. “Things will fluctuate; that will have some sort of effect on the measurements we are trying to take. At the end of the day we need to drive these numbers down and maybe work a little bit harder. And we need to get more people engaged.” If all residents for example just swapped out five incandescent light bulbs for the compact florescent models, which use much less energy, Roanoke City could meet its goal in the residential sector for energy reduction.
Just being aware of things like water conservation, changing the thermostat by one degree, turning off lights, recycling, using com-pact fluorescent light bulbs, “little things like that, the things your grandparents told you about,” said Boyle, although Grandma prob-ably didn’t know much about CFL’s.
The City of Roanoke has 51 buildings in its inventory; Boyle will attempt to collate data as part of a strategic plan to reduce energy consumption. The city recently accepted the Better Building Chal-lenge and will aim to reduce that energy usage by twenty percent, by the year 2020. “We take that very seriously,” said Boyle, who will forward data to the players that can help make the changes needed.
Many of the city’s buildings are older, with poor insulation, win-dows that need replacing and inefficient HVAC systems, so the en-ergy makeover may not be cheap. Work ongoing now at the Roa-noke Civic Center may be a “flagship project for us, because there was a lot of work that needed to be done,” said Boyle. The city will go after some of the “low hanging fruit,” like making sure maintenance is performed on a regular basis. That upkeep can translate in to a 10-15 percent energy savings bonus, according to Boyle.
Social media, business-to-business connections and outreach programs will all be employed by Boyle as she carves out a brand new position. Developing a cohesive message demonstrating envi-ronmental leadership for the city and quality of life benefits associ-ated with going greener are part of the mission statement.
Sustainability is an economic development factor as well, ac-cording to Boyle. “That’s one of the things I’m really excited about.” Roanoke has just recently started to embrace its outdoor amenities as an economic asset; Boyle sees sustainability issues tying right in, “caring for those resources so they’ll be here over time.”
Boyle said the city should release the latest data soon from the original 12 companies that were part of the Clean & Green Business Coalition – firms that pledged early on to reduce energy consump-tion. In that program’s second year they saved 1.2 million dollars in energy costs, according to Boyle, who uses them as an example when talking to other businesses in the city.
There is help for people that want to reduce their energy con-sumption; information is available on the saveaton.org website and Facebook page. RC CLEAR and the city’s Clean & Green commit-tee, another ICLEI affiliate, helped put together the Save A Ton cam-paign, designed to show valley residents how they can reduce their carbon emissions or greenhouse gases by one cubic ton a year.
The Salem-based Café 2 program also provides discounted en-ergy audits. RC CLEAR sponsored a series of free energy audits for local homeowners and businesses over the past year.
Contact Nell Boyle at [email protected] for more informa-tion about Roanoke City’s sustainability.
Sustainability CoordinatorIs New Role For City, Boyle
Answer: They are both venture capitalists.The main differences between Bain and the
Federal Government are: A. Bain employs pri-vate capital while government uses taxpayer funds, B. Bain invests for profit and government invests based on ideology, C. Bain produces a re-turn on investment while government returns for more taxpayer money and D. Bain utilizes the skills of experi-enced problem solvers while the gov-ernment uses the cosmetic talents of politicians.
Venture capitalists evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of potential investment opportunities and evaluate their resources. People are reassigned, promoted, demoted or separated; machines and equipment are re-placed, upgraded or relocated. In many cases technological changes replace workers to in-crease efficiency. Productivity is targeted and people are hired while others lose their jobs, some permanently.
Compare two companies that were affected by venture capitalists: Staples/Bain Capital and General Motors/the Obama administra-tion. In 1986, Bain Capital stepped in with capital to fund Staples and their strategy of supplying consumers and businesses large and small with low cost office supplies. Because distribution of all products and services are in constant evolution, people at office supply distributors and brokers became victims while millions of people and businesses were bene-factors of lower costs. Currently Staples em-ploys about 88,000 people at 2,000 branches worldwide.
General Motors (and Chrysler) were wal-lowing in debt and unable to meet their ob-ligations. The Obama administration devised a plan to take both GM and Chrysler through (Chapter 11) bankruptcy and reorganize the slimmed-down companies. Steve Rattner, a well-connected former New York Times re-porter and more recently the managing prin-cipal of Quadrangle Group, LLC, was selected to be ‘car czar’ in the spring of 2009. His first task was to inform GM CEO Rick Wagoner that his services wouldn’t be needed anymore.
Additionally, 1,100 GM dealers were advised that they would lose their franchises. Chrys-ler dealers also received termination notices
and 789 were closed down. Closings at both companies cost the jobs of thousands of clerical workers, sales-men, mechanics and others.
Notice the similarities in these two transactions. Both Staples and GM created or retained jobs while eliminating the jobs of people in both the subject companies and as-
sociated industries.The vast difference between the
two investments (Staples and GM) is that the principals at Bain made substantial incomes and the company (Bain) flourishes to this day. On the other hand GM still has sub-stantial financial obligations. GM bondhold-ers (taxpayers) lost most of their original in-vestment following the bankruptcy filing.
Ideological and economic purposes some-times intersect at a point far beyond the intel-lectual capacity of people whose daily toil deals with anecdotal theories and mundane invest-ment formulas. When government invests in any venture, there is a perpetual fountain of tax funds to keep pumping into hopeless un-dertakings using the fictitious sentiment that ‘success’ will follow the next several million dollars of taxpayer’s investment.
Consider GM’s Chevrolet ‘Volt’ electric car. In spite of the government’s subsidy of $7,500 per vehicle, the product features high cost, limited operating range and low buyer de-mand. The subsidy will soon be increased to $10,000, costing taxpayers additional billions of dollars. This is a stellar example of ignor-ing economic principles in favor of misguided philosophical convictions.
It has been said that Mr. Obama is so nar-cissistic that he really likes what he sees when he looks into a mirror. The President and his minions, most of whom have never signed the front side of a payroll check, should spend more time looking into the flaws of the ven-tures where his administration has squan-dered the money of hard working taxpayers.
Webster’s defines a hero as one of distin-guished courage or ability, admired for brave deeds and noble qualities. I would add to that modesty and lack of self-promotion.
The whole idea of hero is worth a few com-ments. When we see such a person it can inspire us to be more than we are, to strive to achieve, to give others the courage to persist when things are going badly. In short, having a hero to emulate can lift us above our-selves.
The down side of that is the con-cept of hero worship. No one, re-gardless of their achievements, is deserving of worship. Admiration, to be sure, but not the bestowing of god-like status; everyone has flaws that make us human. Every hero has them but these human qualities need not diminish their stature. Unfortu-nately some of these failings are so egregious, so glaring that they can-not be ignored and the “hero” is re-duced to an object of disdain. Stat-ues are taken down, titles stripped, and feet of clay are revealed.
How can such a fall from grace be explained? There are multiple reasons, but excessive adula-tion may be among the most important. Once a hero has accomplished seemingly impossible feats, the public pressure for even more must be-come unbearable. With scrutiny now a virtual science it is almost certain that something will be found in the character of the hero or in their performance that will bring to mind all manner of questions. Performance enhancing drugs are always the prime suspect.
No one could ever run a four-minute mile. It was beyond human capabilities, or so the sci-entists said. Then, on May 6, 1954 at the Iffley Road Track at Oxford, Roger Bannister turned in a time of 3:59.4. The wind had been so strong that Bannister considered not running since a record could not be set, but the wind became a breeze and off he went into history. No one ever had the slightest idea that he had done anything but the impossible. He went on to become a neurologist, was knighted in 1975 and became the first Chairman of The Sport Council. Un-der his leadership Dr. Bannister introduced the first testing for anabolic steroids in sport. The current world record for the mile is held by a Moroccan, Hicham El Gueerrouj, set in 1999 at
3:43.13. Unbelievable? Perhaps . . . perhaps not.One thing is certain: Whenever records are
set today, there will be questions. One need look no further than the home run derby of a few years ago. The records of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris may have been eclipsed but the stain of cheating and lying makes their succes-sors less than heroes.
One of the saddest byproducts of the public’s need for even greater heroic feats paints the honest ones with an unfair brush. Drug tech-nics have become so sophisticated that they are virtually undetectable, making even the most honest of su-perheroes suspect. Perhaps they are honest . . . who can tell?
The personality of the hero plays into the story. Roger Bannister certainly represents one of the best
in keeping his focus and not suc-cumbing to idolization. Is it too much to expect modern stars to conform to the same standard?
One of the best models for a hero died Au-gust 24: Neil Armstrong. Arguably one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century, or any other for that matter, he was at the center of the moon landing. After that he went on to achieve other things, but he never exploited his potential fame. He would not run for public of-fice. He even would not sign autographs when we found that hucksters were selling forgeries at great profit. He, like all of us, had his weak-nesses and his faults, but if you are looking for heroes, you can end your search with Neil Arm-strong. In characteristic fashion he deflected praise to Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, his fellow Apollo 11 crew and the tens of thousands who worked to make that success possible.
On August 31, 2012 we had that rare occur-rence of a “blue moon,” a full moon twice in the same month. As I watched it rise over Stewart’s Knob, I thought that a fitting tribute to a true hero for the ages. One of Armstrong’s family members has said, “The next time you look at the moon, give him a wink.” More importantly, remember men and women like him whom we should all admire. Those are the kinds of heroes we need and some of them are known only to you.
ACROSS 1 Molt 5 ___ shot (2 wds.) 8 Second month (abbr.)
11 Become smaller 12 Insult 13 Competent 14 Green Gables dweller 15 Boxer Muhammad 16 Stuff 17 Feel sadness 19 Institution (abbr.) 21 Three in Roman numerals 22 Utilization 24 Constrictor snake 27 O Lodge on Melrose in
Roanoke 28 Type of reef 30 Proper 33 Rococo 34 Reason 35 Not your typical high
school musical on FOX in Roanoke
36 Executive
37 Metal tip on the end of a lance
39 Pacific Time 42 Dunking cookies 43 Climb 45 Awful Arthur's offers this
dip with artichoke hearts as an appetizer
48 Capture 50 Location 51 A strange painter that
used alot of drawers and wooden supports in his works and has no works in roanoke I know of
52 Shoshonean 53 President (abbr.) 54 Resort hotel 55 South southeast 56 Font
DOWN 1 Hindu religious teacher 2 Capital of Vietnam 3 Having too much time on
one's hands and too little will to find something productive to do
4 Stags 5 Those who make the food
laws (abbr.) 6 Cat mystery writer Braun 7 Exploiting 8 Office in Federal building
in Roanoke where investigations take place
9 Wing 10 Unit of power. 13 Furthest back 18 I'll be back with -------
weapons. (from splash) 20 Mr. potato head! back
doors are not -------! (from wargames)
23 Legume 24 A victoria's secret offering
at Valley View 25 Grain 26 Alcoholic beverage. 27 Flightless Aussy bird 29 --- on God's side is a
majority. Wendell Phillips 30 Pocket 31 Before, poetically 32 Self 33 You might hear this
occasionally at El Torito in Roanoke
35 Boasts 38 Group 39 Return punch 40 Hypnos is the Greek
Very close to Gulf of Mexicoand golf at Naples Beack Club
3 bedroom, 2 bath - very convenient to Old NaplesFully furnished, utilities and cable included
Contact Rich McGimsey at 345-4464
220 Golf Drive
Available for monthly rental at $ 4500 per month3 months or more at $4000 per month
Get away to...
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For those of you who gagged on last week’s Lima beans, we’ve got two words for you: Ground Cherries.
No, not ground-up cherries. Ground Cherries. A plant you may not have heard of – we hadn’t – un-til we ran into them right alongside the Limas at the farmer’s market. The two plants have some things in com-mon. They both originated in South America. They are both somewhat toxic, Limas contain cyanide, while Ground Cherries are members of the nightshade family, and contain potentially deadly toxins in their leaves. And with both Limas and Ground Cherries, you have to peel open a pod to get at the tasty stuff inside.
But their pods are very different, and that’s why you may have never heard of Ground Cherries. Unlike the indestructible Lima pod, the Ground Cherry pod is a delicate papery sack which looks like a mini version of a Chi-nese Lantern. When the fruit is ripe, the sacks falls to the, um, ground. You’ve got to harvest
them off the ground on a daily basis, and they are so delicate that it’s really hard to transport them. So they’ve never been grown on a com-
mercial basis. The only place to get Ground Cherries is at the rare road-side stand that has them in season. Or you can grow them yourself.
Why bother? Well, the Ground Cherry is a cousin of the Tomatillo. When you first peel back the husk, the fruit inside does indeed look like a smallish, yellowish cherry tomato. And when you pop one in your mouth, it sort of tastes like a tomato. Until you
realize – wait, what the heck? – that it’s got a hit of pineapple! And then when you’ve barely adjusted to that, all of a sudden – what? no, it can’t be! you kidding me? – the thing smacks your taste buds with a shot of vanilla!! A To-mato Pineapple Vanilla Smoothie? Oh yeah, it tastes just like that, and in a good way.
Ground Cherries are awesome straight up, in a jam or jelly, or as a relish for pork barbe-cue. And if you’re really lucky and can get your hands of 3 cups of them, you can add in some
brown sugar and lemon juice and make an entire pie.
What One of America's FavoriteMovies Reveals about the Moral
Crisis in America TodayAndy will also answer any questions you care to bring.
Monday, September 10, 6:30 p.m.
TRUTH. FOR A CHANGE.
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Sometimes you can tell a storm is coming when the wind turns fractious. The old tim-ers watched the leaves. The sun-facing surface of a leaf is a dark, lush green, the underside a paler version of the same color. Since the tree was young, prevailing winds – those that came from the usual direction – in essence ‘combed’ the leaves into a uniformity of hue. When the leaves ‘flip-over’ showing the dull side, it means the wind has gone ‘contrary’, or not blowing in its typical direc-tion. Thus past generations spoke of ‘A weather-bearing wind,’ or ‘There’s weather in the wind.” Sometimes it forecast satisfactorily, sometimes it did not.
In Roanoke, late June of 2012, it did not, neither did the meteorolo-gists. That day, we said, “The leaves aren’t just turning over, the whole tree’s coming down!” This freak storm traversed the atmosphere at 90 miles per hours, packing surface winds of equal ferocity. We were all ambushed. It was a ‘Derecho,’ a straight line storm. Neither rare nor usual, these winds pack a leveling force.
The turbulence was quickly over but left much disruption in its wake. In our backyard, a White Pine, twelve inches through at the butt was blown over opposite the direction of our usual wind-currents. It fell far enough to demolish a chain link fence, then swayed sus-pended in a horizontal lie eight feet off the ground like some two ton insect supported by six legs. I had to get it down. There was a time-essence involved. Sabrina and I rely on the in-tegrity of our back yard enclosure to keep our dogs corralled and safe. So, how about calling a professional tree removal service? Prithee, sir, surely ye jest! Yeah, like they had plenty of free time. “How about 2017?”
I worked around that tree removing brush; debris which played no part in the suspension of this weight, and as I worked, I studied the ‘lie’ of the tree; the prevailing dynamics were astounding to me: upward thrust, downhill and uphill forces, and the side to side, or balance considerations. [And, as banal as it may sound, it was the ‘balance’ aspect which nearly got me.] It’s propping was precarious, mysterious, with so many different physics of load-bearing at play. I studied the tree for several days as I
cleared away all the ‘safe’ branches. After my study, I knew this: remove the wrong limb and I would have no chance of evading this widow-maker. It trembled above my head like a like a deadfall patiently waiting to be tripped.
While I worked, I remembered as a teen watching Dad undertake a three foot diameter Red Oak, and fell it uphill. His, as mine, was an imper-iling task; but, while my tree lacked the girth of Dad’s, mine exceeded the peril. He worked next to his; I worked under mine.
Finally came the morning to dis-mantle the beast. After some thought, I removed the upper part of the tree,
ready to jump away at the first sign of improvidence. The tree held firm. Next came the butt, fifteen hundred
pounds by my reckoning, and necessitating a straight down drop lest it crush a pump nearby. I remembered a special cut from my teen years. It fell true vertical; no harm done although the beast shuddered a bit and shook my ladder, as if at last aware of my presence. Three other sup-porting limbs were accomplished without inci-dence, but still, the tree wouldn’t budge. Con-clusion: all the aforementioned physics were now crowded into three upholding limbs; bal-ance was no longer an issue. Or, so I thought.
Due to the heat [100 degrees plus], I elected to take on what was now the most dangerous part of the task tomorrow, early morn. Just one more limb before I quit for the day, a two and a half footer, couldn’t weigh more than sixty pounds, small in comparison to the oth-ers I had already cut. The saw sliced through the limb with a lethal efficiency. Then, to my horror, I felt the tree start to go! I had reduced the pro-gravity equation of that tree to a point where sixty pounds made all the difference. I was downhill, well able to clear the path of the fall, baring an unpredictable jump. The tree rolled and fell uphill to the ground! [A mild irony there considering Dad’s experience.]
As I left the site, my heart pounding wildly, I came to a conclusion you folks have probably made early in this story: Ol’ Gahv is too long in the tooth for the Paul Bunyon bit.
Please Leave A MessageI love my answering machine. I must,
since I often change the greeting much to the occasional surprise of telemarketers. My favorite is, “WGHE -you’re on the air!” That’s usually followed by a message filled with stammering and great effort by the caller.
I’m a little behind the elec-tronics curve, although do I have a cell phone. My favorite posses-sion is the previously-mentioned answering machine from the era which brought us the end of disco. For those too young to know, the answering machine had a sub-micro cassette tape which recorded every message except the last one. That mes-sage usually ended up being cut off before important information could be communi-cated. You didn’t want to come home to “the Clearinghouse Giveaway has awarded you ten thousand dollars. Claim your prize by calling 800 527-3 >beep< “
When I got home one day last week, the message light was blinking with no appar-ent end. I didn’t mind the political cam-paign message too much, though I found it odd that suddenly my financial contribu-tion is “urgent”. It certainly wasn’t urgent when they began campaigning two years ago. What was urgent was the the next mes-sage. Wrong number or not, I am NOT go-ing hang gliding with the Gunzenmeisters in November.
Retrieving one’s messages can be joyful or, depending on your debt level, down-right sad. The machine, designed to blink once for each message, did so with the fre-quency of landing strip lights at O’Hare. Tapping the “play” button, I discovered sev-enteen messages lurking behind the “your cable bill is overdue again, Adcox” com-munique -one which I had been avoiding until payday. The first couple of messages weren’t out of the ordinary. A friend who phoned to ask if I’m meeting with the ol’ gang, and an invitation from mom to come
for dinner accounted for the next couple of notifications.
As interesting as that message was (mom is a good cook), I preferred the fourth one in queue: Franklin wanted to contact
me regarding being published “for the special rate of only five-hundred fifty dollars”, but only if I returned the call by the end of the week. Turns out that for all of that dough I’d still have to sell the major bookstores, Ebay, Amazon, etc. on the idea that my blog en-tries are more timeless than Moby Dick.Yep, ol’ Ishmael Adcox
turned the offer down. That was fortunate, since a chunk of that money was sought out by some
financial services guy who left a message offering to loan me six thousand dollars at eighteen percent interest.
While I mulled that prospect over, I took note of my insurance company’s message. In no uncertain terms they were going to bill me for liability coverage on a car I haven’t had for two years. I made a note to call them after listening to the remaining messages from such notables as the Dal-matian Relocation Fund, Saint Mary’s Uni-versity (the Registrar apparently thinks a final course grade of B should be redefined, somehow, as “unsatisfactory”), and an offer to have my chimney swept for the introduc-tory rate of seven hundred dollars.
The best message I received was from a friendly acquaintance who could barely re-strain himself from laughing (and thereby inducing my own laughter) at the greet-ing on my machine. Thanks to the modern marvels of electronic engineering, I was able to duplicate the sound of an angry hor-net trying to sting me while I took aim and shot it with a high-velocity weapon.
Sometimes there’s a good reason for not coming to the phone when it rings.
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PROSTHETICS – IT’S NOT ALL WE DO.Even though it’s our name, we’re much more than Virginia’s
oldest and largest prosthetics provider. For 40-plus years, our
board-certified orthotists have fit patients with custom-designed
and locally-fabricated orthotics that deliver comfort, mobility and
satisfaction. When you consider that we have the knowledge,
experience, and convenient locations to help you believe in your
possibilities, the choice for custom orthotic or prosthetic devices
becomes clear.
The sheriff comes to evict you tomorrow. You, your spouse and the kids have nowhere to go. As you fight off the panic, a num-ber floats up through your fears. You call 211 and suddenly you’re connected to someone who can help you.
You, your spouse and children now form part of the new face of homelessness. Your whole family – not just a single alcoholic or drug addict liv-ing on the street, not one mentally ill per-son, but your whole family – is homeless. You need more than a place to stay the night. You need meals, help finding jobs, help around the stigma of eviction so you can get into a new place to live. And the kids need to stay in school. The Roanoke Valley Interfaith Hospitality Network has a way to help out. As volunteer Drema Yates of Temple Emanuel explains, “Most of the families are optimistic, wonderful families. They just had a hard bit of luck.”
Now under the leadership of Executive Director Marie Mud-diman, the network celebrates its 15th anniversary this month. Churches and synagogues all over the Roanoke area have formed into groups of two or three to provide the facilities. Then volun-teers do the work, moving cots around and making meals – and anything else that might be needed.
A guest visit starts when an intake person verifies that a family needs help and will benefit by it. A family enters into a 60 day pro-gram in which they all continue to live together while they work on their problems. Each faith center has cots so all the members of a family can stay together in one room for a week at a time. The centers provide dinner and breakfast plus bag lunches for the day time.
Then a van takes the guests – and they are guests and treated as such – to a Salem location where the adults work on finding new homes or health referrals or jobs while the children go to school. After a successful two months, a family often gets a volun-teer mentor family to help them through the decisions they face while getting established back on their own again.
As Muddiman explains, “This is where a family is paired with a family out of the program. They see if they’re paying bills, have food for the week or if not, how to get more. We don’t give them money but we help them for a year to stay on their feet.” Mentor-ing is “optional if guests want to participate. And we always need more mentors.”
The Network keeps careful records and posts a 70% success rate, with families back in housing where they can maintain
themselves. Additionally 70% of the able-bodied adults have jobs, as well.
How the Network does this feat requires the coordination of many volunteers. For example, St. John’s Episcopal Church and Temple Emanuel work together, as do Our Lady of Nazareth
Catholic Church and Oak Grove Church of the Brethren. All told eleven faith groups supply the volunteers, with Mud-diman overseeing everything.
Some volunteers get to know their jobs very well. Gates DeHart, a member of St. John’s Episcopal, has worked as a volunteer for the entire fifteen years that the program has been operating. He now chairs the group’s board of directors. He is famous for providing candlelight, real utensils – not plastic – and flowers on the table for the family dinners he makes. “Families love it,” Muddiman says.
Yates recruits members of Temple Emanuel to spend the night with families. They help get kids ready for bed, talk with the fami-lies: in other words, act as hosts. “About 4 times a year I have spent the night with families. I am single, with no children, but some of my overnight hosts do bring their children with them so they can teach their own children about the need to help others.”
Martha Hughes works as the meal coordinator. “I make sure that guests get whatever they need. I find people to cook the meals. Whoever cooks the meals stays and eats with the guests, and waits until the night host arrives.”
To further celebrate the Network’s 15th anniversary they’re throwing a party Sunday, September 9, at 1:15, at Raleigh Court Presbyterian church, 1837 Grandin Road, Roanoke. Any volun-teers or donors are welcome to come share the joy and a lunch catered by Mac & Bob’s. Claas Ehlers from the national umbrella organization will speak. (However, you must let them know you’re coming by calling 540-444-7374 by Tuesday, September 4.)
These churches and synagogues do a lot of unheralded work because of their religious convictions. But is that the only reason? “I am extremely grateful to be able to do this,” Yates adds. “All of us are close to that situation at times. When I come home after spending the night I’m very grateful for what I have.”
S H E D F L U F E B W A N E D I S A B L E A N N E A L I F I L L M O U R N I N S T I I I U S A G E B O A
E C O N C O R A L S E E M L Y O R N A T E A R G U E G L E E C E O A G L E T P S T
O R E O S C A L E C R A B N A B A R E A D A L I U T E P R E S S P A S S E T Y P E
Oak Grove Elementary School Receives Grant For Shade Structures
One of the ways to protect yourself from the damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun is to seek shade, especial-ly during the peak sun hours of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. How-ever, for many daycare centers, schools and recreational organizations, these hours are prime times for outdoor educational programs and recess. To assist schools and organizations in creating sun-safe educational and play areas, the American Academy of Dermatology (Acad-emy) provides grants for shade structures
The Academy recently announced the recipients of the 2012 AAD Shade Structure Program grants, which in-cluded Oak Grove Elementary School as one of 18 recipi-ents across the country.
“The Academy is pleased to award grants to these orga-nizations which have outdoor areas in need of shade and that have demonstrated a commitment to sun safety,” said dermatologist Daniel M. Siegel, MD, FAAD, president of the Academy. “Combined, these 18 shade structures will be used by more than 5,400 individuals every day. The Academy is proud to work with these organizations to reinforce the im-portance of protecting the skin when outdoors.”
This is the 12th year that the Academy has offered its Shade Structure Program in which Academy members play an integral role by encouraging local organizations to apply for the grants and by writing letters of support, a requirement for consider-ation of applications. The program is open to non-profit orga-nizations or educational institutions serving children and teens under the age of 18, for permanent shade structures over out-door locations which are not protected from the sun, such as playgrounds, pools, eating areas and other locations.
Dr. Allison K. Divers, of the Art and Science of Dermatology, acted as Oak Grove’s sponsoring AAD member. “As a derma-tologist I am very passionate about sun protection and the pre-vention of skin cancer, said Divers. “It has been an honor to play a role in the process that resulted in the shade structure award to
Oak Grove Elementary. It is very exciting!”Frances Rogers, Oak Grove’s PTA President said, “We are
thrilled with the AAD grant. It allowed us to purchase not one, but two sun canopies for our main playground. Now our chil-dren can play and get much needed exercise in the shade. Oak Grove’s PTA is grateful to both Dr. Divers and School Nurse Emelie Moles for their support of our grant application.”
Since 2000, the Academy has awarded a total of 264 shade structure grants to organizations across the country. Taken to-gether, these shade structures provide shade each day for nearly 563,955 individuals.
More than 3.5 million skin cancers in more than 2 million people are diagnosed annually.
For more information, contact Frances Rogers, Oak Grove El-ementary School PTA, [email protected] or 540-776-1834
Interfaith Hospitality Network Going Strong After 15 Years
1912 2012100th Anniversary
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On Sept. 16th at 10:00 A.M. a two hour celebration of God’s blessings will include group singing, special music, video greetings and a message by
Dr. James Custer from Worthington, Ohio.Following the service a fellowship luncheon will be provided.
5512 Hollins Road
Contact Heather Woods for more information at 540-525-1953
NOW LOOKING FOR GREAT FOSTER PARENTS IN NEW RIVER AND GREATER ROANOKE VALLEYS
Help a child in need and earn extra income at the same time. National Counseling Group is looking for people who are
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�eRoanokeStar.com
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Sports 9/7/12- 9/13/12 TheRoanokeStar.com |Page 7
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Cave Spring First Half Surge Nets27-13 Win Over Martinsville
Cave Spring evened its record at 1-1 with a quick start Friday night as the Knights upended the Martinsville Bulldogs 27-13 in a non-district football win at Dwight Bogle Stadium.
The Bulldogs came to town after a week-one 49-0 thumping by state powerhouse Brookville, and looking for revenge against a Cave Spring team that had beaten them twice in 2011, by combined scores of 91-38.
Cave Spring, a state semifinalist in 2011, was looking to regroup after losing to Wil-liam Byrd 27-24 on the last play of the game in week-one.
The Knights wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in the first quarter thanks to a 27-yard Daniel Seymour field goal, and 4-yard Connor Baker to Jack Woody touchdown pass that put Cave Spring up 10-0.
Martinsville responded with a Larry Perkins 27-yard TD run to cut the Knight lead to 10-7, before Seymour would split the uprights from 25-yards out to give Cave Spring the 13-7 edge.
Woody made the decisive play of the game for Cave Spring midway through the second quarter when he fielded a Martinsville punt at the 10-yard line, cut to the right and outraced a host of Bulldog tacklers before weaving his way down-field for a 90-yard touchdown.
Jon Evans gave the Knights some insurance when he returned a Bulldog fumble 10 yards for
a touchdown, and a 27-7 Cave Spring lead.Perkins would plow in from the one-yard line
for Martinsville in the final seconds of the sec-ond quarter, but it would be the final score for either team as the Cave Spring defense rose to the occasion in the second half.
“This feels better than last week,” Cave Spring Head Coach Tim Fulton told his squad at mid-field after the game. “Every one of you guys played a role tonight,” Fulton added. “I’m really proud of how each of you fought.”
It doesn’t get any easier for the Knights. They travel to 0-2 Northside tonight, for what will undoubtably be an angry Viking team, unaccus-tomed to back-to-back losses to start the season.
Cave Spring senior running back #39 James Jackson takes a handoff from Knight QB Connor Baker to help establish the Cave Spring rushing attack.
Amherst Ground Game CrushingAs Lancers Down Fleming 39-3
Amherst County running back Marquis Brown made a statement in the Lancers’ week-one 32-6 win over Northside, picking up 170 yards and two touchdowns.
Friday night at William Fleming stadium, Brown scored four times and rushed for 145 yards as Amherst County dominated the Colonels in the 39-3 non-district win.
The Lancers flexed their muscles early, scoring the game’s first 15 points before William Fleming ran their first offensive play.
After taking the opening kickoff and driving for the first score on a Brown 2-yard run and 2-point conversion, Amherst ex-ecuted an onsides kick, with Brown scoring minutes later from 2-yards out.
Fleming got on the scoreboard when Joel Ugochukwa hit on a 23-yard field goal to cut the Lancer lead to 15-3 early in the second quarter.
Amherst scored the final 17 points of the half on two more Brown TD scampers from 7 and 29 yards, sandwiched around a Logan Barber 35-yard field goal to send the teams to the locker
room up 32-3.Amherst added the second half ’s only score
on a 25-yard fumble return in the third. The Colonels will look for their first touchdown of the season tonight, as Fleming travels to Magna Vista.
Fleming defensive back #3 Diamond Shorter wraps up a Lancer ball carrier as #5 Malik Bonds and #8 Markeem Watson close from the sides.
Photo by Bill Turner
Virginia Episcopal Drops North Cross 24-20 in Old Dominion Football Conference
The North Cross debut in the Old Do-minion Football Conference will be re-membered for an afternoon of sweltering 90-degree temperatures, heat cramps and miscues.
The tough conditions that resulted in a game that took over three hours to com-plete, ended when Virginia Episcopal re-covered an onsides kick to preserve its 24-20 win Saturday afternoon at Thomas Field.
North Cross, the defending VIS Divi-sion-3 state championship team, entered the game with a 21-man roster and only three seniors.
Things looked good for North Cross when Penn Draper hauled in a pass from Raider quarterback Max Revercomb, and raced down the left sideline for a 46-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
After North Cross mishandled a VES punt, the Bishops came back on a 31-yard scamper by running back Ronnie Stringfield to tie the game at six. It appeared that would be the score head-ing to the halftime break, before a pair of costly miscues became the backbreakers for the Raid-ers.
Late in the half, Wyatt Slominski got behind the North Cross secondary and took a Tom Creasy bomb 84 yards down the right sideline to give VES their first lead.
After North Cross was forced to punt on their subsequent possession, Slominski moved in as the ball was rolling dead near midfield, grabbed it and raced to the Raider three-yard line before being caught. Creasy took it in on the next play, and Virginia Episcopal suddenly had an 18-6 ad-vantage.
An ill-advised Bishop fake punt from deep in its own territory set North Cross up for a score early in the third quarter, with Evan Anderson scoring from 2-yards out to cut the VES lead to 18-12.
But, Stringfield followed with a 46-yard TD run to reestablish the 12-point Bishop cushion, 24-12.
Virginia Episcopal took an intentional safety with 40 seconds remaining, and North Cross took the ensuing free kick for a score with 7.9 seconds left when Revercomb scored from 7-yards out.
Revercomb threw for 112 yards on 9-of-23 passing. The Raider ground game was held to only 31 yards on 24 rushing attempts.
North Cross running back #3 Evan Anderson stretches for extra yardage as he carries for a Raider gain.
Photo by Bill Turner
Hidden Valley Stays Perfect With 3-0 Volleyball Win In Home Opener
Hidden Valley used late runs in each of the three games, as the Titans won their home volleyball open-er 3-0 over Liberty Christian Academy Tuesday night at the Hidden Valley gym.
The Titans improved to 3-0 on the season, sweep-ing the match 25-22; 25-19; 25-20. Caroline Boone led the front-line attack for Hidden Valley with 12 kills, while senior Lauren Thomas added 7. Hannah Podeschi set the table for the Titans with a team-lead-ing 23 assists.
Libero Skylar Kendrick held down the back line for Hidden valley with 17 digs.
A little housekeeping to open this week’s col-umn, where a pair of thank-yous are in order.
First, a big round of applause to Franklin County Speedway owner Whitey Taylor and track manager Flip Carico for inviting the Wild Bill show to ride in the ceremonial pace lap at a recent FCS race.
The red carpet treatment from the drivers was great for a guy who had never seen a stock car race. FCS gets a five-star review here, plus they won over a new fan when Mrs. Wild BIll was enlisted to drop the green flag to start the feature race. For the record, racing will return Sept. 15th to the Callaway track, followed by eight straight Saturday night races beginning Sept. 29th to crown the Buck Wild points champion.
Last Friday night, Wild Bill made his radio debut along side the voice of Roanoke Valley sports, Dave Ross, We talked high school football before the Fleming-Amherst game, with a nice promo given by Ross to The Roanoke Star.
It was great on-the-air opportunity with a Hall of Fame broadcaster. Maybe I should have asked Ross for help with my predictions, but last week’s 6-3 record is good enough to keep plug-ging along. Let’s get right to work to unscramble this week’s nine ‘Big-11′ games and hopefully give you an idea of what to expect in week-three.
Franklin County at Salem: Group AAA visits Group AA in a primetime matchup at Salem Sta-dium. Last Friday the Spartan fans had to share their crib’s parking with the Salem Red Sox clan. They’ll need the whole lot this week, where the big winner may be in the 50-50 halftime drawing. Sa-lem seems set to make a statement. Are the great Wolverine days of Andrew Lewis back in Salem? Salem- 24 Franklin County- 21.
Pulaski County at Patrick Henry: Group AA visits Group AAA in a shootout on Grandin Road. Pulaski escaped Northside last week with an overtime win, and Cougar-Country will bring a huge crowd to town. PH won last year by 24. A litle closer this time: Patrick Henry- 27 Pulaski County- 20.
William Fleming at Magna Vista: The Colo-nels are still looking for their first touchdown of 2012. Magna Vista put up 48 points last week af-ter suffering their first regular season loss in two years in week one. Fleming may be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I’m predicting the Colonels break the TD drought: Magna Vista- 42 William Fleming- 7.
Lord Botetourt at Hidden Valley: Botetourt first-year head coach Jamie Harless returns to the scene of many of his victories while an assistant at Cave Spring. The Titan defense is tough, as evi-denced by their shutout of Byrd last Friday. May be asking too much for a Cavalier scoring binge: Hidden Valley- 20 Lord Botetourt- 7.
Cave Spring at Northside: Cave Spring may have its hands full against an angry Viking team that has opened 0-2, including the overtime setback to Pulaski. Cave Spring will open it up through the air, but the Northside offense may be ready in week-three. Northside- 27 Cave Spring- 23.
William Byrd at Brookville: The Terriers, coming off a shutout at the hands of Hidden Val-ley, now walk into a beehive at Brookville. The Bees have shown no mercy so far this year in the opening two weeks: Brookville- 38 William Byrd- 7.
James Monroe, WV at Glenvar: Seems like only last year I said I knew nothing about James Monroe, except his famous doctrine. Then Glen-var won 35-13. I’ll tell you now that Monroe soundly defeated Rufus King in the great election of 1816. See readers, you always learn something in my column. Ditto for the score: Glenvar- 26 James Monroe- 18.
Blessed Sacrament at North Cross: Blessed Sacrament always has the bodies, and that may be the difference against a 21-man Raider roster. It may be expecting too much from a young North Cross team to beat a Blessed Sacrament squad that is flying high after an overtime win over At-lantic Shores last week: Blessded Sacrament- 28 North Cross- 20.
Roanoke Catholic at Brunswick Academy: Catholic knocked off Brunswick by 18 last year, but Brunswick won by 39 last week and the Celt-ics are a young team that fell 35-0 to Fredricks-burg Christian. Look for a close game: Brunswick – 24 Roanoke Catholic- 22.
Now, a quick peek at the mailbag, where an old favorite revisits to ask a question and a reader looks for a cheap route on an engagement ring.
Dear Dr. Bill: Any suggestion on how to ease the pain of my planters wart? I’ve tried sponge insoles and nothing gives me comfort. (Myrtle/Roanoke)
Good to hear from you again, Myrtle. Third year in a row you’ve sent a foot care question to the football column. I’m forwarding it to Dr. Pen-dyke to hopefully get you relief.
Dear Wild Bill: I’m getting engaged next month and need advice on a late-night product. Do you think the Novo Yoshi Blue frying pan, since it’s encrusted with a surface of diamonds, will get me by until the economy improves? (Bub-ba/Callands)
Go for it Bubba. Any woman would appreciate a diamond engagement frying pan. Sizing may be difficult, but what the heck.
Until next week, prepare for a ding over the head, and send your questions to: [email protected]
Wild Bill’s Weekly Sports Roundup
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