From weed trimmers to back hoes, if it belongs to Jonesborough and has a motor that’s out of operation, the guys at the town garage, Fleet Manager Gary Lykins and technicians Jerry Davis and Tommy Norton, are there to take the call. And last month, they secured their department’s station among only three other public and private automotive repair shops in Northeast Tennessee to attain the industry’s most recognized certification organization’s highest distinction.

The Fleet Maintenance Department had been working for ASE “Blue Seal of Excellence” for more than a decade. ASE shop certification requires individual ASE certification for a minimum of 75 percent of its technicians to prove their proficiency in a total of eight automotive systems through a battery of tests and years of experience. “For us, it’s 100 percent,” said Lykins who received his first ASE certification in the mid-1990s and has since become ASE certified as parts consultant, service consultant and master automobile technician. Norton followed with his ASE master automobile technician certification in 2006 and Davis, who marked his 17th anniversary of employment at the town garage on Thursday, completed his ASE heavy truck certification early this year.

Notice of the men’s Blue Seal achievement arrived with little fanfare and was accepted with modesty. “It came in the mail,” Lykins said, and was celebrated the following morning with a round of sausage biscuits eaten on the go. It’s mowing season after all, and the town’s lawn equipment is in need of their attention along with a sundry of other motorized equipment. From garbage trucks to police cars, Lykins said, “Generally, we have about 20 vehicles broken down at any given time.”

Every day brings something new to the shop and its technicians are accustomed to being called away to assist with all manner of mechanical malfunctions. Ill-fitting storm grates. Jammed Dumpster doors. Out-of-order Park and Rec equipment. “It’s a little bit over everything,” Davis said. “The only thing that’s certain is you never know what you’re going to be doing day to day.”

Most of the time, he’s looking at a piece of paper scattered with holes that he didn’t put there. The confused and frustrated faces of those who have sent bullets through the target gaze at Henley as he inspects their progress.

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Subscribers to either the print or online version of Johnson City Press have full access to our electronic edition. The complete text of this article starts on the front page of the April 9, 2012, edition.

And technically, she is one.

The 4-year-old is enrolled in the weekly preschool ballet class at Princeton Arts Center, 2516 E. Oakland Ave. The 10 girls who attend class on Thursday afternoons are practicing turns, the popular arabesques and walking on their tiptoes.

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Subscribers to either the print or online version of Johnson City Press have full access to our electronic edition. The complete text of this article appears on page 6B of the Wednesday, April 4, 2012, edition.

As a mixed media artist and owner of The Mosaic Maché Studio in Johnson City, West said her paintings implement both art techniques.

“I call it ‘mosaic maché’ because it’s really a cross between mosaic art and paper maché,” she said.

Taking torn paper and making it into what she describes as a pulp, she adheres the mold to a wooden panel to sculpt and set the shape of her subject.

The next step is using acrylic paints to add color to her creation.

“The cool thing about acrylic paints now is that there are so many different materials and elements out now,” she said. “So, this makes mixed media a really cool medium to go into.”

Because she uses wood to mount her designs, West said it also allows her to integrate another technique into her pieces, as seen in her favorite painting she’s made, Isaac’s Seed.

“One of the reasons why I like Isaac’s Seed so much, is it’s the only piece that I’ve done where I’ve actually carved into the wood,” she said. “So, I’ve done probably three different techniques in one piece.”

West, originally from the Midwest region, said she has always had a love for art.

As a lot of her pieces involve outdoor scenes and landscapes, she said she does believe now that some of her inspiration comes from her childhood years spent in Wisconsin and Missouri.

“I was inspired by a lot of the farming community – the fields ... and trees. I’ve always been around trees,” she said.

Attending Howard University in Washington, D.C., West said she signed up for the engineering program as a practical measure to ensure she could support herself and make a living. After her sophomore year, though, she switched to graphic design, deciding to take a more creative route.

It was as a design student that West began to experiment with shapes, colors and an idea that would become a basic foundation in her work today. In her classes, she said they used color swatches from Color-aid to make all of their designs.

“This was back before computer graphics got really big, so we had to manually do our designs,” she said.

Never throwing the swatches away, West said she stumbled across them one day and began experimenting.

Taking a year of graduate school at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. N.C., West said a class called experimental studio allowed her to dabble once again in the old project.

“I really believe that I was always kind of doing it all along, in some form or another. But, I do specifically remember doing a project,” she said.

After moving to Johnson City with her husband Walter and their two sons, Nathan and Ben, five years ago, West said she was primarily a home school mom, doing little arts projects on the side.

When her friend, Candice Powell, owner of Yarntiques, was looking for someone to give her daughter and her friends art lessons, West was approached for the job. Starting out with just four students, she said her classes kept growing until she felt it was necessary to open her own studio for more workspace.

It was with that first class of four students that her art classes were selected to be named the Color Chameleon Club. The name was created and voted on after the students did a number of chameleon-related art projects.

West said she had never pursued the idea of teaching before, but fell in love with it right away.

“To me it’s exciting to see a kid figure out how to do something with what I give them,” she said. “They are so used to being told what to do and how to do it, that it’s hard for them to think independently of that. So, I love the position of being able to show them that there are so many more ways that you can do something with art.”

Now admitting up to eight students in her classes for the fall and spring semesters, West said she sees a variety of student ages spanning from seven years old to college kids.

She said with all materials included, the classes cost $250 for an 18-week semester. Classes are held Tuesday through Friday from 4 to 5 p.m., and private classes are also available.

The next big thing involving her studio is Mixed Media Mania 2012, a three-week summer fine arts camp she started last year for kids ages 7 and up.

While unable to pinpoint the exact moment she took up art, West said she couldn’t imagine her life without it.

“I would do this regardless of where I was,” she said. “I feel like I would die, spiritually die, if I could not do something creative.”

The Mosaic Maché Studio is located in Burlington Place at 2203 McKinley Road, Suite 117.

Today, she is as spry and ambitious as when she took her first full-time job under former Parks and Recreation Department Director Howard Johnson.

(This story begins on the front page of the Monday, March 19 edition.)

– Speedway Children’s Charities benefit “Dinner with the King” featuring the seven-time NASCAR champion and 2009 inductee into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame will get under way at 7 p.m. at the track. The dinner will include a five-course meal and Petty’s favorite recollections of a storied, 30-year racing career. Tickets are $125 and like the King, going fast.

Proceeds will go to the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities to help support the hundreds of nonprofit children’s programs in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. To reserve a seat visit bristol.speedwaycharities.org, call Betsy Holleman at 989-6975 or email betsy@bristolmotorspeedway.com.

– The Richard Petty Driving Experience Ride-Along for Speedway Children’s Charities will arrive at the track on Friday. Beginning at 9 p.m., fans will have a chance to climb aboard a Richard Petty Driving Experience machine for three laps around what continues to be one of NASCAR’s most popular tracks. The cost for the ride is $159 and pre-registration is required. Participants must be 14 years old or older, at least 4 feet tall and a minimum 80 pounds. For reservations call 1-800-237-3889 or visit www.drivepetty.com.

– Four-time NASCAR champion and five-time BMS winner Jeff Gordon is driving to end hunger among the elderly again this season and has once again teamed up with AARP to offer a Drive to End Hunger race ticket package that includes a race-day question-and-answer session with the driver of the celebrated No. 24.

The Food City 500 Race to End Hunger ticket package is $92 and includes a souvenir hat and, most importantly, a $24 donation to the AARP Foundation to help provide food to the nearly nine million older Americans who live with the risk of going hungry every day. The Jeff Gordon AARP Ticket packages are limited and fans are encouraged to secure their tickets promptly by calling the BMS ticket office at 423-BRISTOL or 1-866-415-4158. Fans who have already purchased tickets to the Food City 500 may upgrade to the special Gordon package for an additional $15. Tickets to Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 Nationwide Series race can be added to the package for a total cost of $127.

Tri-Cities-area Food City stores are joining Gordon and AARP in their Race to End Hunger and will continue their drive for donations to the Second Harvest Food Banks of Northeast Tenessee and Feeding America of Southwest Virginia through Sunday. Packages of pre-selected non-perishable food items and $1, $3 and $5 food donation vouchers for the food banks are available for purchase at 18 area Food City stores. Collection bins for food donations are located near the entrance of each participating store.

Donations will help feed people in need across the region at a time when demand for food banks’ assistance is at an all-time high. More information about the Race to End Hunger is available at www.netfoodbank.org and www.faswva.org.

– At 10:45 a.m. Sunday, five-time Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson will make a pre-race pit stop in the BMS Kids Zone for a special question-and-answer session to benefit Speedway Children’s Charities.

Admission to the Jimmie Johnson Q&A Experiences for kids and adults is $15 and includes a hat. The admission also includes a Lowe’s “Build And Grow” Race Car Kit for race fans age 15 and younger. Tickets are limited and may be reserved by calling the BMS ticket office or online at www.bristoltix.com.

– Speedway Children’s Charities’ “Ride of Lifetime” online auction will continue through today at www.bristol.speedwaycharities.org.

The auction provides a chance to take a ceremonial pre-race ride around the track with some of the sport’s most competitive drivers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2011 Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart and runner-up Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Gregg Biffle and others. Top bidders will also receive pit passes for a visit to the infield during final preparations for Sunday’s race.

While all bidders must be age 18 or older, winning bidders will be allowed to give their pre-race ride to any family member or friend age 12 or older.

– Qualifying rounds in the fourth annual Ford Charity Cornhole Classic at BMS will be played Friday, beginning at 2 p.m. and Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. at the track.

The top four teams from each qualifying round will face off in a Grand Champion Tournament on Sunday, starting at 10 a.m.

Prizes will include $1,000 cash, suite seats for the entire 2013 season at BMS and a free camping space for both 2013 NASCAR race weekends at BMS. The tournament entry fee is $40 per team and includes a Ford Charity Cornhole Classic T-shirt for each team member.

Teams may pre-register online at www.bristolmotorspeedway.com or www.bristol.speedwaycharities.org. Registrations on the day of the events will be allowed if space is available. All tournament proceeds will go to Speedway Children’s Charities.

And yet, she’s only met one of those victims in her 24 years in emergency response. It’s not an unusual thing in her field.

Haggerty is a 911 dispatcher, a life saver as much as a fireman who pulls someone from a burning building, a paramedic who gets someone’s heart beating again or a police officer who rescues a lost child.

Haggerty’s job is on the front end of all those emergencies.

“When they tell me what’s going on, I try to paint that picture in my mind,” Haggerty said. That way, she can get a feel for what the caller is experiencing.

“We’re always on the wondering end of what happened. When you actually get to meet somebody” – a victim in the emergency – Haggerty said the experience becomes even more rewarding.

Dispatchers work 12-hour shifts, rotating day and night shifts. It’s a long time to answer the phone and the call volume has increased dramatically during Haggerty’s career. But advancements in technology put every phone call, every officer or firefighter at a dispatcher’s fingertips – literally.

Everything is computerized in the 911 center now. A dispatcher’s station consists of four computer monitors, a keyboard and a headset for communication.

“Back in the day we had a radio and telephone,” she said. When officers were dispatched to a call, dispatchers used a punch card in a time clock to record when the dispatch went out.

That card was put in a file under the officer’s name. Haggerty said such a system would be nearly impossible these days due to the number of calls officers go on or generate on their own.

And those officers depend heavily on their dispatchers.

“It’s not just about dealing with people who call in here,” Haggerty said. “It’s about the officer, firefighter or emergency responder. They’re our family and you’re their life connection,” she said.

“They depend on you to get them information they need to stay safe.”

Haggerty said callers often ask why she is asking them so many questions.

“We need that information to know what to do and let our field personnel know what they’re going into,” she said.

One of Haggerty’s most frustrating situations happened last year when severe storms brought tornadoes to the area.

“It’s one of the only times I felt helpless,” she said. Rescuers were slowed because of so many trees across the roads, she said.

“The only thing people had to hold onto was the person on the phone,” she said. “There are times you’re the last person someone talks to before something happens to them.”

Even through frustrating situations like that, Haggerty said she loves her job.

“It’s a very rewarding job, it’s a very stressful job and it’s a very devastating job because of the tragedy,” she said.

“I like knowing I might be the person who makes a difference in someone’s life.”

And King spoke with calm yet complete confidence, knowing she had a played a role in looking after the cats’ well-being.

King is the founder of Appalachian Feral Cat Allies, a local group that aims to reduce regional feline euthanasia figures and ensure feral cats receive the care necessary for them to live long, healthy lives in their territories.

King was born and raised in Alabama, though she moved away while in her 20s. Although she contemplated joining the Peace Corps, King opted to move to New Orleans, where she worked in the city’s school system as an occupational therapist. In 1980, King again packed her bags and ventured north, moving to Maryland, close to the Washington, D.C., area, where she continued her career as an occupational therapist.

When it was time for another move, King and her husband, Ken Kisiel, filled out a questionnaire to find the ideal location. The first recommended destination from the questionnaire was Johnson City. King and Kisiel made the move to the town of Unicoi in 2003 and have resided in the area since.

After the move to the area, King quickly set up an art shop on Union Street in Erwin, where she painted murals and taught art classes. After this venture, she began teaching art classes at the Clinchfield Senior Adult Center. She also served on the board of the Unicoi County Humane Society and hospice. But it was her work with the Unicoi County Animal Shelter that led King to her current undertaking.

King worked with the photography team at the shelter. The team is responsible for taking pictures of adoptable pets, with these pictures later posted to the Petfinder website. King said it was there that she came to the realization that a high number of cats, particularly feral and unsocialized cats that were deemed unadoptable, were being euthanized.

“It gets sickening after a while, the number of cats that are put down,” King said.

King felt compelled to take action to prevent the euthanasia of as many cats as possible. She began researching the work of Alley Cat Allies, a national organization that advocates the trapping of feral cats followed by spaying or neutering of the animals then returning them to the location where they were trapped.

King founded Unicoi Alley Cat Allies to carry out this mission locally. She, along with several other group members, held their first meeting in January 2011 to discuss the issue and what could be done. And it wouldn’t be long before they’d get their first crack at helping out.

King said she learned of a feral cat colony at a home along Nolichucky Avenue. The homeowner there had been feeding the cats, and when King, who was still working with the animal shelter at the time, called the homeowner, she said the homeowner began crying, expecting that the shelter was coming to take the cats away.

“I said ‘no, no, I want to help you,’ ” King said.

Following this and some other successful roundups in the Unicoi County area, King learned of an elderly couple who had a feral cat colony on their property in Carter County. King admitted there was some initial hesitation on her part to take on an assignment outside Unicoi County.

“But then I started to think ‘cats don’t know about boundary lines,’ ” King said.

That’s when the Unicoi Alley Cat Allies name was scrapped and King’s organization became known as the Appalachian Feral Cat Allies. While the group’s name may have changed, King said its mission had not – to cut down on the number of cats put down. King said the group now makes the efforts to assist anyone in the region who needs it.

Like Alley Cat Allies, the Appalachian Feral Cat Allies follows the “trap, neuter, return” mantra. Whenever contacted for assistance, King said she asks property owners several questions, such as the cats’ feeding schedule, if they know where the cats came from, and if the homeowner is willing to manage the cat colony.

“Our mission is to humanely trap, neuter, and return them and manage the colony,” King said.

The group sets out baited traps to snare members of the colony. When the cats are caught, they are taken to the Mitchell Spay/Neuter Clinic where the cats are “fixed.” After this, members of the Appalachian Feral Cat Allies return to the clinic, pick up the felines, and return and release them to where they were trapped. The ears of feral cats going through this process are “tipped” to signify the animals have been spayed or neutered.

Returning cats to the locations where they are snared is important, King said. She also said the common thought that feral cats are homeless is inaccurate, as cats tend to bond with their environment. She said return is also important due to what is known as the “vacuum effect.” When cats are moved away from an area that they have made home, other cats will move into this area to take advantage of the now-available resources and will mate to form a new colony.

“If I just take them and drop them off at some place, they’re in a state of shock and panic,” King said. “It’s just cruel.”

It is also because of this that King said the “capture and kill” method is ineffective and is less cost-effective than the “trap, neuter, return” method. She also said people feeding cats is not the problem, as they may leave a territory to search for food, but will return for shelter.

Male feral cats are capable of traveling up to five miles from their territory when picking up the scent of female cats “in season” and can impregnate several cats in a day including companion, or domesticated, pets, King said. The typical feral cat colony is around 12-15 cats.

Since Appalachian Feral Cat Allies formed in January 2011, the group has worked with more than 30 cat colonies and has helped more than 450 cats. King estimates there are around 10,000 feral cats in Unicoi County alone. The group receives some financial assistance from the Holly Help Spay and Neuter Fund and the Humane Society. The group is registered as a nonprofit organization, is incorporated in Tennessee, and is working to acquire tax-exempt status. But when it comes to helping out feline friends, King said cost is not an issue.

“When I hear about a colony, I don’t look at the bank account,” King said.

The group’s work is as much as about helping people as it is the cats. King said it is “humbling” to have people express their gratitude for the group’s work to help with cat colonies on their property.

“You realize what an emotional strain it is to them,” she said. “ ... You’re glad to be helping people.”

For more information, visit Appalachian Feral Cat Allies’ Facebook page.

After about six years of dancing in the Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center, it’s safe to say Wiley has met that goal.

“I was trying to come up with a way to build community – something that I could create as a gift to the community. With all of the other art forms that are here, there was clearly a void in area of community dance,” he said.

Community dances like contra dances all but vanished from most communities several decades ago. Joining up with friends and family on a Saturday night at the neighborhood dance was something that was highly popular in the 1940s and ’50s.

“You’d have to go back to grandma to hear about going to community dances. Outside of work and the church, the community dance was the focal point for community socialization,” he said.

Historically, contra dance has its origins in English country dances popular several centuries ago. Contra dance then morphed out of those dances when the early settlers first came to the country.

Typically, the dancers separate into small groups as a leader, or caller, takes the dancers through each step. Once the steps have been learned, the music begins and the contra dance is under way. Each dance lasts about 15 minutes.

Wiley first tried contra dance in 2005 at MerleFest in Wilkesboro, N.C. While volunteering at the music festival, he wandered to one of the tents where a dance floor was set up. “I was never much of a dancer. I was never taught social dance growing up … but the contra dance looked like a very unique way of bringing people together socially,” he said.

When he finished with the festival, Wiley kept thinking of how to bring such a fun, relaxed and social get-together to Jonesborough.

Wiley then began dancing regularly in Asheville, N.C., where he says he really learned the ins and outs of contra dancing.

It wasn’t long until the Historic Jonesborough Dance Society was formed and the first contra was held in 2006.

“I started booking callers and bands, our website was designed, we chartered our corporation and we just set sail for building community using traditional music and dance as the vehicle,” Wiley said.

The wonderful thing about contra dance is the sense of community that’s formed throughout the evening, Wiley said. Whether you’re a skilled dancer or a novice, the dance is geared to people of all experience levels and ages.

“The fact of the matter is the focus here is really on community. This is a dance for all ages,” he said. “A successful dance community will embrace the newcomers and welcome and help them along.”

Other than bringing more people together, the society was also responsible for a bit of a makeover to the Visitors Center.

For the first two years, the dancers danced on the concrete floor of the Visitors Center. Mullican Flooring donated hardwood flooring and a contractor out of Asheville volunteered his time to come in and install it.

The society spent some time raising money to cover the rest of the cost for the installation and about 30 people gathered in 2008 to lay the floor.

Since the dances started, they’ve quickly become one of the many things Jonesborough is known for, bringing in about 100 to 150 people for any given dance.

Wiley will be the first person to tell you that he had no idea it would end up becoming such a hit with people – both locally and regionally. “Once the floor was finished and dedicated in 2008, our life as a community folk dance changed dramatically. People heard about it, tried it and they enjoyed it. This really has become one of the flagship dance facilities in the region,” he said.

And there’s still room to grow.

About a year ago, Wiley started to incorporate family dance events into the Dance Society’s calendar. Those have become a hit with contra dance regulars.

“If you can walk and count to eight, you can do this,” he said. “If you’re looking for an entry-level dance, contra dance is the way to do it. You do not have to have a partner. Any person can walk in that door and dance with a number of people throughout the night,” he said.

The society hosts two dances a month and about 30 events a year. The next dance is scheduled for Saturday at 7:30 in the Visitors Center, 117 Boone St., Jonesborough.

For more information, visit HistoricJonesboroughDance-Society.org.

She immediately began to explain how the device worked; how it bypasses damaged hearing parts and directly stimulates the hearing nerve. It recreates sounds rather than amplifying them as a hearing aid does.

Now in her 70s, Skalko got the implant surgically installed in 2001. She knew she had hearing loss before that, but it took years to figure out.

“I probably had some kind of hearing loss since I was a child, only I didn’t know it,” Skalko said. “Apparently, I was reading lips, but I didn’t know it. I just thought I was stupid.”

Of course, she was not stupid, it just never occurred to anyone that she had a problem.

“I could hear in quiet environments and one-on-one, but I was reading lips,” she said. “I can read music. I can play anything, but I can’t hear what I’m playing.”

The sounds she does hear are mechanical, but as a musician, she can keep up with the beat and faithfully recreate musical pieces.

Nowadays, Skalko said, people are more attuned to those with hearing loss. She said 10 percent of Americans have some sort of hearing loss. Newborns are all tested for hearing loss.

Skalko retired to Jonesborough, though she has lived all over the country, including New Orleans, and Augusta, Ga. She was born in New York City and lived in Brooklyn as a child.

Her passion now is advocating for people with hearing loss and helping ensure the success of the new East Tennessee State University Cochlear Implant Center.

When she moved back to Johnson City after retirement in 2006, she realized there was only one audiologist in the area who did mapping for cochlear implants. If she wanted to have follow-up treatments for her device, she would have to return to Augusta, where it was installed, or go to Nashville. Other people who may have cochlear implants in Northeast Tennessee would be in the same position.

“I decided one of the things I would like to do in retirement is establish a cochlear implant facility in the Tri-Cities area,” she said.

So, she began providing seed money for the ETSU clinic. The clinic recently opened, and Skalko was pleased it has seen a few patients and has booked several more for the near future.

The clinic can not surgically install cochlear implants but it can evaluate patients for the devices and also provide follow-up treatment.

Skalko hopes that one day surgeons in this area can install the implants.

Before she retired, Skalko was an educator.

She put herself through college by teaching. Skalko got her bachelor’s degree at St. Johns University in New York. She worked on a master’s degree in biology in Gainesville but did not finish that one.

When she moved to Johnson City, she went to East Tennessee State University and got a master’s degree in education.

She also started a scholarship for students in the College of Education.

It took a while to finish the master’s in education, what with being a working adult and all, but she did get it. Better and better jobs followed and eventually she came to work at an engineering and construction company as the senior corporate trainer for construction.

She helped instruct 6,000 people on continuing education. Five to six percent of those people were illiterate, she said. Regardless, they had to pass a written test to keep their jobs.

After she discovered some workers could not read, Skalko was tasked with helping them pass the tests. She helped 300 workers retain their jobs by reading the tests allowed.

Eventually, she established an on-site literacy program that helped save many people’s jobs and provided them a new skill.

She wondered if that would have been implemented had she not been there.

“I know with my disability I am more attuned to other people’s differences, and I can’t say sympathetic, just more understanding,” Skalko said.

The annual benefit luncheon at Holiday Inn drew a crowd of more than 300 fans to hear the NFL’s most versatile player speak about his career, his passion for football and the passion that can propel an athlete, a team, a business or a community to succeed when things go horribly wrong.

Mecklenburg called the Salvation Army’s mission to meet human need “simple, clear and extraordinary” and the packed-in crowd who turned out for Friday’s luncheon is evidence of the community’s passion to help the army in that purpose.

In a review of his career, he said it was his passion to play and his courage to stand up and try something new that helped him overcome the loss of his first college scholarship, to go on to play in the NFL and to earn the nickname “Mr. Versatility” by playing all seven front defensive positions because “it was what my coaches asked me to do.”

When the Broncos told him he would be switched from pass rusher to linebacker, he said he worried because he had seen players switch positions only to be fired. “I had never played linebacker. Our starter was injured. So I started and I got a big hit. I didn’t even know what I was doing and I could not have done that without the courage to step up and try a new thing,” he said.

When things “go terribly wrong as things sometimes do, it’s embarrassing. It’s difficult. But unless you have the courage to try you will never be able to keep up in this world.

“I’m 51 years old. I’ve had nine knee surgeries and I can’t play football. But I have other passions. As a husband, a father, a speaker, a writer and a Christian, I want to be the best I can be at each of those and I am getting better and better. But it wasn’t always that way.

“There is a great need out there and if you can step up it will make a great difference to you, to your community and to all of East Tennessee. It requires honesty and forgiveness. It’s what’s in your heart, that passion in your life. It’s what you think that matters,” he said.

Food City, one of several corporate sponsors of Friday’s benefit, presented the Salvation Army with a check for $12,000 raised by nine area stores through their annual paper football sale to help the army with direct services to the needy that last year cost more than $1 million in the local community.

The luncheon also included an introduction of Commissioner James Osborne, a retired national commander of the Salvation Army, who recently began an interim command of the Johnson City Salvation Army. Osborne told the crowd he and his wife Ruth, a retired national leader of Salvation Army Women’s Ministries, intend to make a difference during their months in Johnson City and promised to be a careful steward of resources that will be needed to meet future needs for food, shelter and rent and utility assistance to community members in crisis.

The Osbornes, who will stay in Johnson City until new corps commanders are appointed here in June, will fill a temporary vacancy created by the early departure of Majors Gary and Patty Elliott who left Johnson City in January for an extended medical leave.

The new commanders bring with them 65 years of experience in Salvation Army leadership which began in 1947 when they were commissioned together at the Salvation Army Officers Training School in Atlanta. Their decades of service has ranged from field commands at small community corps to top administrative roles in divisional and territorial posts from Oregon to Miami.

They officially retired in 1993, James as national Salvation Army commander and Ruth as national president of the army’s Women’s Ministries. Their command here is the sixth interim position they have accepted since their retirement and comes on the heels of their leadership of Chattanooga Corps where they were serving during last spring’s deadly tornados.

While here, Commissioner James Osborne said their work will focus on two important areas, continued work to firm up the Johnson City Corps footing and increasing community outreach services and programs, particularly youth and senior activities.

On the financial front, James Osborne said the Johnson City Corps is now in a position that is allowing it meet its current expenses while it works to reduced significant debt that accumulated over time through the delivery of more services than the corps could afford to provide. He said both an “almost overwhelming” demand for basic housing, shelter and food services that came with the decline of the economy and the desire to help everyone who comes to Salvation Army in need contributed to the debt.

James Osborne said he was very proud of the Elliotts work to improve the corps’ finances during their time in Johnson City and very impressed by the quality of services provided at the corps’s Center of Hope shelter and kitchen. “It’s a quality facility and the work is firsts class,” he said.

Ruth Osborne was the first Salvation Army officer to chair of the executive committee of Veterans Administration Voluntary Services and for many years before and after the couple’s retirement was a popular guest lecturer for groups both in and outside the Salvation Army organization.

She said she has a special love for work with young people and was especially pleased to find “a wonderful youth program here” as well as an active Women’s Auxiliary with which she is anxious to begin work.

Both Osbornes are third generation Salvation Army officers and their daughter and grandson have continued their family’s tradition of Salvation leadership as fourth and fifth generation officers respectively.

Once the South American tune begins, the group joins hands and weaves around the dance floor while performing stomps and skips in unison. Dr. Bernard Kaiman claps his hands to the beat and smiles at his group of international folk dancers who gather at Legion Recreation Center each Thursday night.

Even though Bernard will be 93 years old next month, those leather dancing shoes still get some action. He joined in on a Turkish dance, called “Konvali,” and was swinging his hips and stepping back and forth right on time.

As each tune ends, Bernard wastes no time before calling out the next one.

“Now, let’s do the Salty Dog Rag,” he said.

Then he begins scrolling through the listing of hundreds of live recordings that have been copied from records onto cassettes, CDs and now MP3s.

Bernard has been leading the Legion Recreation Center folk dancing group for at least 10 years and taught students at East Tennessee State University for several decades where he co-authored a textbook, “Folk Dancing for Students and Teachers.”

Bernard is considered the local expert on the subject.

“The thing about international folk dancing is every place you go they do things a little bit differently, but here there’s only one right way,” Cindi Huss said with a laugh.

Her family of four comes to Legion to dance each week and she describes Bernard as a stickler for details. If he thinks the group is getting off pace with the music, he’ll tap his cane against a chair to help them regain the rhythm.

“This community (of folk dancers) would not have survived so long I think particularly because the size fluctuates dramatically,” Huss said. “It started because Bernard started teaching classes at ETSU and he’s the only person I know who’s ever managed to incorporate students into an ongoing dance group.”

Many of the regulars at Legion remember taking lessons from Bernard at the University School during their high school days. One dancer said she remembered when Bernard could “dance you under the table” and was able to Polka with four women at one time.

Bernard said he began dancing not long after he returned to the states at the end of World War II and met his future wife Audrey in their hometown of Milwaukee, Wis.

“I met her (Audrey) and we started dating and wondered what we were going to do for fun,” Bernard said with a grin. “We got into square dancing. And we were doing pretty well.”

The road that would eventually lead Bernard to a doctorate in psychology and a position as chief psychologist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Mountain Home, also helped him discover a lifelong love of international folk dancing while interning in North Carolina.

“We were going once a week to a small town 30 miles away to dance,” Bernard said. “It was square dancing mostly, but there was one man who was very very persistent. And every week he wanted to teach an international dance, not square dancing. We would drive home and I would say to her, ‘Doggone him, I wish he would keep his folk dancing to himself. I want to square dance!’ ”

Eventually, Bernard said he was “infected” by his friend’s persistence and began to enjoy the art of international folk dancing. Through the travels to workshops and dance festivals, Bernard also got involved with Scottish dancing, which eventually earned him the scroll of honor from the Royal Dance Society that was presented to him by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999.

As his 93rd birthday nears, Bernard has a chain of accomplishments longer than the line of dancers bowing and bending each week at Legion Recreation Center. Not being able to participate in each dance is hard on him, but he knows that the time he and Audrey has invested in dance is what continues to keep them going.

“I think that dancing is so physically beneficial that there’s no question that it has a side effect of betterment of the mind as well as the body,” Bernard said.

Because of it, one of the pastors she works with at Munsey Memorial Methodist Church delights in calling her “honey bun.”

Another finds a way to steer the conversation around to the wedding when he and Sarvadi meet with someone who isn’t familiar with her backstory. That’s so he can deliver his punchline: “She used to be more honey, now she’s more crust.”

“They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t love me,” Sarvadi says, adding, “I am crusty all right, I’m covered with crustaceans.”

The story starts in 1961 in the East Tennessee State University (College, back then) student center. Young, blonde, athletic student Priscilla Estes was practicing her dance routine for the upcoming Miss Johnson City pageant. Watching from the balcony were the president of a local business and a tall, dark and handsome stranger from Texas.

It wasn’t quite “Kid, we’re gonna make you a star.” It was more like, “How’d you like to dress up in a wedding gown and have your picture taken?”

“They approached me and said they’d like to sponsor me in the Miss Johnson City pageant, whatever that meant,” Savardi said. “I said it was fine with me. What did I know?”

Then came the proposal: Will you, Priscilla Estes, become Miss Honey-Krust and be the face of the local bakery during its acquisition by the Dallas-based Campbell Taggart Associated Bakeries, to pose, parade and cut wedding cake for a few weeks and then go back to your normal life?

And so it was that Miss Estes of Washington College became Miss Honey-Krust, who became Mrs. Rainbo, and Honey-Krust Bread, a local staple since 1930, was replaced on grocery store shelves by Rainbo Bread.

“I wasn’t paid anything,” Sarvadi said. “I just got a bit of notoriety, and an opportunity to be chauffeured around by a good-looking guy in a silk suit ­– or, at least a shiny suit.” She also got a set of luggage, which her “groom” delivered to her home in Washington College.

“Tom Sasser (Mr. Rainbo) used to come by to pick me up for appearances and all the women working in the registrar’s office would gather around to get a look at him,” said Sarvadi, who was a bobby-sox-wearing student worker at the office staffed by older women.

“He was a perfect gentleman, taking my arm when I stepped off a curb.” Sure, Sasser may have been a gentleman, but a Google search indicates “Mr. Rainbo” may have been somewhat of a man on the make, having tied the knot with more than one small-town beauty under similar circumstances.

The whirlwind Rainbo-Honey-Krust courtship culminated in a wedding at the then-elegant John Sevier Hotel with three bridesmaids in attendance and the whole town invited. On Saturday, the couple was paraded through a bustling downtown Johnson City escorted by Honey-Krust employees. Numerous other glamorous public appearances followed.

The whole affair lasted about six weeks. So maybe you should think Kardashian.

If any of the attention went to Sarvadi’s head, it has long since passed into the realm of sweet memory from an innocent time. She’s very much of the moment, satisfied with where life has taken her, with her daughter, Brittany, a registered dietitian who lives in Jonesborough, and with her work at Munsey as director of the Christian Life Center.

Except for a 12-year period that began with her actual marriage in 1973, Sarvadi has lived in the Johnson City area. She lived in the same home in Washington County until she completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at ETSU. She was on the faculty of ETSU for 24 years, teaching contemporary and ballroom dance and other courses in the physical education department.

Sarvadi joined the Munsey staff part time in 1989 and soon began leading the singles ministry, planning dinners and field trips for the church’s unattached adults, a role she fulfilled for 22 years.

In 2000 Sarvadi joined the Munsey staff full time. As director of the CLC, Sarvadi is responsible for the hundreds of events and programs that take place in the downtown facility, which houses meeting rooms, a banquet hall, an indoor track and exercise areas.

Sarvadi is particularly excited about Upward Basketball, a Christian-centered program for young children. Now in its fourth season, Munsey’s Upward Basketball program has 216 kids ages 4 years to sixth grade and 44 coaches on 22 teams. As the Munsey staffer assigned to the program, Sarvadi works from around 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays during the season, which runs from January through mid-March. The rest of the year she keeps the same morning schedule, but goes home at a more reasonable 5 p.m.

“People ask me how I can work such long hours,” she said. “I tell them, it’s just for the (basketball) season and, besides, when you love what you do, it’s not really work.”

With about $90,000 in monthly sponsorships and one-time donations raised since September, Rise Up has moved past last summer’s loss of grant funding that threatened to close the doors on the after school in December.

Michael Marion, Rise Up’s founder and director, said Monday the program has received enough local support to keep its after school running through the end of the school year and about half of what will be needed to maintain the program next school year.

“Beyond that I do not know,” Marion said. “We have some time, some breathing room. Compared to September, we’re doing quite a lot better.”

The program serves about 70 kindergarten through 7th grade students who attend after school at Rise Up daily and about 60 middle and high school students who take part in its group mentoring programs twice a week.

In addition to the local contributions, a state grant awarded to Rise Up in October to revise its abstinence education program for up to 75 high school students will provide the program with $90,000 annually for three years. Marion said the grant will fund 2 1/2 existing staff positions and help Rise Up continue in its mission to provide consistent adult mentors to at risk students through their graduation from high school.

Over the next three to four months, Marion said Rise Up will be concentrating on recruiting as many additional monthly sponsors as possible. “We really need more people who are willing to make that monthly commitment. The more help we get, the more kids we can help,” he said.

According to Marion, operating Rise Up’s after school program requires about $150,000 annually. The program currently has $75,000 for the 2012-13 school year, or about half the total needed. Funding both its after school and long-term mentoring programs costs about $18,000 monthly, compared to $10,000 in monthly sponsorships currently committed to the program.

The funding crunch at Rise Up began in 2010 with the loss of two major federal grants that provided about 70 percent of the program’s total funding. The 2010 grant losses resulted in a layoff of about 40 percent of the program’s staff and the termination of a regional high school abstinence program that served about 6,000 students in 40 area high schools. The funding shortage intensified in July when two state grants for the Rise Up after-school program came in at about 50 percent of what was anticipated.

With the grant losses, Rise Up reformulated its revenue strategy in an attempt to increase its base of community generated support and lessen its dependency on government grants that previously provided about 90 percent of its revenue.

“We were fortunate to receive that $90,000 in reoccurring and one-time gifts,” Marion said of the funds raised since September. The transition from a primarily grant funded program to a primarily locally funded program has really caused us to redefine what we’re about. We’ve been at this about two years. We don’t have large donors, just a lot of small donors and faith in God and what we do. And somehow he provides for us.”

Marion said the greatest challenge is not funding but “not forgetting our involvement in changing generations and not forgetting that each child who walks through our doors is an opportunity. To provide our mentoring program, funds are always going to be a challenge.”

To celebrate January’s national Mentoring Month, Rise Up hosted its annual Mentor and Volunteer Appreciation Dinner Monday night at Grace Fellowship Church. The Oscar-themed celebration included best performance and hall of fame awards and children from the Rise Up program serving as paparazzi at a red carpet entrance for the program’s mentors and volunteers.

“It’s people through their long-term relationships with kids that change kids’ lives over the long haul. Tonight we will give them a dinner and express appreciation,” Marion said.

For those who wish to help, Rise Up is again asking community members “to prayerfully consider” a one-time contribution or a monthly sponsorship. Contributions may be made by mail to P.O. Box 4426, Johnson City, TN 37601. For more information about Rise Up or to schedule a meeting or group presentation about the program, call Marion at 610-1242 or email michael@riseupforkids.com.

At the Christian Care Center in Johnson City where she’s lived for the past three years, the spry centenarian often visits room to room, checking on the welfare her neighbors.

She’d do more if she could, but for her own safety, she’s no longer allowed to render aid. So she alerts the staff whenever she finds one in need.

She takes life as it comes, prays a lot and trusts the Lord to take her when he’s ready. The most important thing, she said, is to be ready. In the meantime, she is using the health, agility, sound mind and caring nature she’s blessed with to do what good she can.

“I like work and I like helping,” she said. Both practices have taken her far.

Born in 1909, Opal grew up in a small community near Fall Branch that was fondly known as Possum Trot, the seventh of 10 children born to Dutton and Alice Hood.

Her dad built houses and he and Opal’s brothers farmed and raised tobacco on 100 acres she still refers to as “grandmother’s farm.” Hutton built the Possum Trot School and he built the Baptist church at Possum Trot they attended. When the church burned, services were moved to a school. They renamed the building Mill Creek Baptist Church and social life in the little community revolved around its services. It was there Opal met Dave Leedy, an older boy from a neighboring farm who would be her husband.

As a child, Opal and her family traveled by hack, by buggy and by wagon. She remembers trips to the store on foot and on horseback, often with a basket of eggs or a live chicken tucked under her arm to trade for goods not raised on their farm.

The first car to come that Opal recalls in Possum Trot was driven by the mailman. Dave’s first car was a T-Model Ford, and the day he tried to teach her to drive was the last day she ever drove an automobile. The road was narrow and the rock she ran over was big. Dave’s car was damaged and Opal never drove again because, she said, “I knew Dave didn’t want me driving his car.”

In ninth grade, Opal left school to stay with an aunt who needed someone to help her during her husband’s illness. “I stayed long enough to get homesick,” she said. But she enjoyed her time with her aunt, and it proved to be the first of many pleasurable trips she would make to be with someone who needed her.

She married Dave in 1925, just two days short of her 16th birthday. Dave went to work for the state highway department and for the next several years he and Opal moved from community to community, following his job from one road building project through the mountains to the next.

They lived all over Washington, Unicoi and Carter counties, in Flag Pond and Hampton and, for a time during the Depression, at the Fishery community by the CCC camp in Erwin. Dave dumped the first load of gravel at Sams Gap. He worked in the construction of Watauga Lake. He helped build the highways from Erwin to Asheville, N.C., Fall Branch to Kingsport, Hampton to Mountain City, and Jonesborough to Greeneville.

Opal kept house, tended their large gardens, canned everything, and began raising their children.

She remembers a large spring at the corner of their yard at Fishery where they carried their water. “On wash days, we filled our tubs at night, got up, built a fire and washed all morning. But I was younger then,” she said.

In the mid-1930s, Opal and Dave settled permanently in Unicoi. Their house sat on a hill overlooking Clarence’s Drive-In. They had three children of their own and a nephew who lived with them for most of his childhood. Opal also kept many of the neighbors’ children while they worked and used the drive-in to everyone’s advantage.

“I kept ’em by the yard full,” she said. “I kept good kids too; (because) those kids would do anything to get to go Clarence’s.”

The Depression lingered and the family raised two large gardens. In a good season, Opal would put away as many as 200 quarts of beans. And of all the technologies she’s seen come to pass, she appreciates the pressure canner as one of the most helpful. “It took hard work to get us through,” she said.

While she was still a young woman, tuberculosis touched many lives in the Appalachians, including Opal’s. A good friend of hers became ill and because they were often together, a doctor believed Opal had also been infected and sent her to a TB hospital in Knoxville. Doctors at the hospital found otherwise and promptly sent her home. But the doctor here insisted and sent her right back.

Opal, who had no say in the matter, went along as instructed. TB was deadly and highly infectious, and public health rules were rigidly enforced. Feeling fine, Opal spent her time at the hospital helping care for others until she was finally pronounced healthy.

In 1937, she and Dave joined Unicoi Free Will Baptist where today she’s distinguished as the oldest living member. She was active in the church and took on any job that was needed. She cleaned, taught Sunday School, helped with meals and special functions and served on church boards and committees, including a stint as church treasurer.

For many years she worked with the United Fund in distributing commodities in Unicoi. “Those commodities were food and we made sure it went to people who needed it,” she said.

When her children moved away and began raising their own families, Opal would leave Dave at home at the drop of a hat and travel across the country to be with them for the arrival of her grandchildren, or to help during any illness.

She traveled back and forth to Norfolk, Va., by train. She flew to Oregon and to California. She dipped her feet in both the Atlantic and Pacific. And in California she made day trips along the coast in a convertible with her daughter Robbie and her family.

At home in Unicoi, with no children left for her to look after, Opal and a friend took a job picking strawberries at Scott’s farm. They walked to work in the morning, picked berries until dinner, then picked all afternoon and walked home. They were paid by the quart and Opal still winces when she recalls the soreness that came with picking strawberries.

“I never thought I’d live any place else,” she said. But when the last of her children moved from Unicoi to Johnson City, she said “I would have been alone and so I moved to Johnson City too.”

Her family and friends from church often visit her at the care center and she goes to her daughter’s home for holidays and special occasions. Her great-grandchildren are now in college, and she keeps tabs on all their milestones. Her 94-year-old brother also lives nearby, still drives and still makes road trips out of state with his wife, most recently to Rochester, N.Y., to visit friends at Christmas.

Of all the generations she’s lived through, Opal says the present one would be her favorite if not for her failing eyesight that has left her unable to enjoy another of her lifelong passions, daily reading and study of the Holy Bible. “That really hurts. I always loved to read. I can’t now but I did, every day. I’d hurry to get my work done so I would have time to read.”

She attends Sunday and Wednesday church services at the care center. She likes the center and the people there. “It’s a good place,” she said. “They call it Christian and they believe it.”

When asked how she’s managed to live so long and so well, Opal smiled, thrust her fist with determination and earnestly confided, “Keep digging. I just keep digging.”

“Just trust the Lord a day at a time, and do the best you can.”

Commissioners James and Ruth Osborne, retired commanders of the national Salvation Army organization, will take over as the corps’ interim commanders Feb. 6 and stay until new commanders are assigned in June.

“My doctors discovered some things and they absolutely insist I take a few months off to find out what’s up. We’re going to north Georgia for six months’ sick leave. Then we’ll re-evaluate things,” Gary Elliot said.

After nearly 2½ years in Johnson City during which they returned the local corps to financial stability, made several major improvements to its property and led three of the largest Christmas campaigns in the corps’ history, the majors’ departure is bittersweet.

“We certainly do have mixed feelings,” Elliott said. “This was not how we intended our career to end, if it is to end. We came here expecting to finish here after a couple more years.

“The medical report came as a surprise, although it did clarify some things I was experiencing. Being out of such a demanding environment does improve your health. So I’m going to try not to think about it for a few months.”

As for the health of the corps they came here to revive, the Elliotts credit the local Salvation Army staff and the community for what has been accomplished.

In contrast to when they arrived in early October 2009, the corps is paying its creditors on time and is operating in the black. Its thrift stores have been reconfigured and are earning revenue. There’s a new roof on the Charles O. Gordon Center of Hope that houses the Salvation Army shelter and kitchen and on the army’s administration building across the street from the shelter.

A new central heat and air system has been installed in the administration building and in downstairs space in the building previously used for storage there’s a large new social service office and pantry. A covered entrance to the new office has been opened on Ashe Street. Next door, the city has demolished an abandoned and deteriorated building and built a small gravel parking lot with access to the Salvation Army offices.

Inside the Center of Hope, more shelter beds have been added in the space vacated by the old social services office and pantry. A new Veterans Affairs per diem grant for a housing and transitional support for veterans is helping cover the cost of the shelter’s operation.

In the delivery of services, including emergency and transitional shelter for men, women and children, food, clothing and assistance with utilities and rent, Elliott said, “Services have increased because demand has increased and because the community has helped us meet that. There’s no question that things are still tough in the economy and people are having it tough. That puts more demand on us and the community has been very generous with us.

“People give us credit for a lot of things but the work of the army, that’s providing food, shelter, clothing and the other assistance we provide with rent and utilities to people who need it and asking the community to help, is actually done by the staff.

“The staff here does that very well. They do it exceptionally well and they are here doing it every day, networking with other agencies to meet the demand because no one agency alone can meet all the demand there is alone. The community sees that and rewards the agencies with their support and volunteering,” Elliott said.

“We’ve had a lot of good reception from the community and we do want to thank the community for their generous support they have given the army in many ways. We have a healthy army here because of the community’s support.”

From his observation, Elliott said, “The people in need in this community really have a community that steps up to help them. The climate here is prime for positive change.”

As they hand over the corps’ command, Elliott said, “Everything’s not perfect but we’ve made progress and the best we can ask is that we pass it on a little better than we found it.”

While officially retired, James Osborne will bring more than 65 years of experience in Salvation Army leadership to Johnson City, including service as the U.S.A. national commander from 1989 to 1993 and commander of the U.S.A. Southern Territory from 1986 to 1989. Ruth Osborne is former president of the Salvation Army’s National Women’s Organizations and is the only Salvation Army officer to have served as chairwoman of the Executive Committee of the Veterans Administration Voluntary Services.

Patty Elliott described the Osbornes as “a lot of fun, very experienced and recognized nationally for excellent leadership. It’s good to have them coming in for the transition,” she said.

The Elliotts are looking forward to turning their focus to their new home in Adairsville, Ga. “This is the first home we’ve owned in 30 years,” Gary Elliott said. “It has a big yard to mow and there’s a big fishing hole across the street.”

The Elliotts also have a daughter who lives in nearby Atlanta and they are looking forward to spending more time with their family.

“We’ve been married 43 years and we have had a great 28 years with the army,” Gary Elliott said. “We arrive at this point very happy with what the Lord called us to do and with the opportunity for service the Salvation Army provided us.”

Last year, the Mobile Food Pantry distributed 397,000 pounds of food at 22 sites in Washington, Carter, Unicoi, Johnson, Sullivan, Greene, Hawkins and Hancock counties that are without access to food pantries or charitable feeding programs. Second Harvest Executive Director Rhonda Chafin said the food bank will use the donation to expand the program to 45 distribution sites by the end of 2013 and to increase the amount of food distributed to each household served by the pantry.

Walmart Market Manager John Tunnel said the company was proud to work with Second Harvest to make life better in communities surrounding its stores.

Through its Walmart State Giving Program, the Walmart Foundation provides support to organizations with programs that align with its mission of improving life at the community level and its focus on hunger relief for the record one in six Americans who do not have enough to eat.

According to the food bank, the most recent U.S. Census data shows there are more than 98,000 people in the region below the federal poverty level. Chafin said an extensive gap analysis of the region identifies communities in each of the counties that have a significant number of people below the poverty level who do not have access to retail grocery stores, food pantries, soup kitchens or other resources.

In addition to Walmart’s gift for the mobile pantry, Chafin announced Tuesday that the New Victory Baptist Help Center in Washington County’s Conklin community is one of 12 community-based service agencies nationwide selected to receive a $10,000 donation from Walmart’s recent Twelve Days of Giving Facebook campaign.

The Help Center was chosen from 5,400 nonprofit organizations that entered Walmart’s online competition by posting photos and descriptions of their impact on their communities. New Victory’s director, Jennifer France, said the center will use the $10,000 to purchase food as well back-to-school supplies and clothing for children in need.

The Help Center is one of an estimated 200 pantries and feeding programs in the region served by the food bank and is providing food to 80 to 90 families, or about 300 individuals, each month.

In addition to Walmart’s corporate support for the food bank, Chafin said Walmart stores in Northeast Tennessee donated a total of 1,058,895 pounds of food to Second Harvest last year, making it the food banks’ largest retail donor in the region and earning it the food bank’s Food Donor of the Year Award for 2011.

Chafin said the 2011 award is the third consecutive Local Food Donor of the Year Award the food bank has presented to Walmart and illustrates its long-running support.

On a national level, Chafin said Walmart has been a committed partner to the Feeding America Network of Second Harvest food banks since 2005 and, over a five-year period, has committed $2 billion to support Second Harvest and other charitable organizations through its Fighting Hunger Campaign.

Locally, she said, Walmart’s support is critical to the food bank’s efforts to provide food to an increasing number of people who are in need of food assistance at a time when food donations to the regional food bank are trending downward.

In November, local agencies assisted by the food bank provided food to a record 48,259 people in need, up from 45,862 individuals in November 2010. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the food bank distributed more than eight million pounds of food in the region.

At the same time, Chafin said, food donations to the food bank have been trending downward for the past six months. “We’re trending down and if we continue on that trend, its going to be very critical for us,” she said.

“Imagine just saying, ‘get out your pencil,’ ” she said while hosting the Johnson City Press in her empty classroom. “Think about it. They’re children, and they need to play. There is a science to it, and we don’t have time to waste.”

White is a native of New Market. She attended Jefferson High School and earned a bachelor’s degree at East Tennessee State University in fashion design and merchandising.

She was a member of the former Brotherly Love Christian Ministry for 30 years. The church and its gospel choir gave her a creative outlet for singing – something she and her sister were raised on at home.

White said her mother would use the combination of notes played on an organ followed by melodies to wake the youngsters or as a way to communicate ideas. She didn’t realize it then, but those methods stuck with her and became teaching tools of her own.

“When I was little, my mom worked with the junior choir,” she said. “The next thing I know, my sister and I would be singing together. We had a passion for gospel music. My mother would make up songs to help us learn.”

That passion is strongly evident today in her classroom.

White demonstrated one of her “action songs” by standing on a large rug and singing and dancing in a way that conveyed in a lively and melodious manner what a dry textbook delivers in a very static way when the subject is the shape of a cube.

“I’ve taken that passion and use it in many ways to help them learn,” she said. “I’ll have them sing and dance. They sing and slide and move their arms and hands in the shape of a cube. We also use song and rhythm to teach dates and whether a comma is needed at a certain place in a sentence.”

White also will sing out to cue students that they need to go to a certain area of the room where a lesson is about to begin.

“They know they need to be in that spot before the song ends,” she said.

White originally wanted to go to New York and be a fashion designer. One look around her colorful classroom reveals that interest has not faded.

After graduating from ETSU, she worked at Sears analyzing and approving credit and later at Sammons Cable answering phones and taking payments.

“I realized those jobs weren’t going to do,” she said. “I went back to ETSU and got my master of arts in teaching. A friend, Pam Whetted, was a teacher at North Side. Finally, she sat me down and said, ‘you know you’re a teacher, everybody knows you’re a teacher.’ I decided, OK, I can do this.”

She began as a substitute after graduating in 1992 and got a job that fall at Cherokee to teach first- and second-graders because the overflow of younger students were being sent there. She then began teaching first grade.

“I can remember when I got the room prepared I looked around at all the chairs and thought to myself, ‘I have to make this happen.’ And 19 years later I still think that.”

After 15 years, she decided to go back to school. She earned a specialist in administration degree at the Kingsport Campus of Lincoln Memorial University. In 2002, she came back to Cherokee and taught third grade. But there were not enough students to fill the seats at the time, so she taught third grade for two years until returning to first grade.

She said new state standards have put extra pressure on teachers and students, but White appears to have what it takes to “make it happen.”

“It is a big burden, but given time we’ll adapt to the changes,” she said. “These are children, not products. We don’t want to make them products. Our students don’t deserve the best of one teacher; they deserve the best of our entire team.”

By Monday, the men at The Manna House and the volunteer builders who are helping them will have finished the dry wall on a new eat-in kitchen with seating space for up to 24 residents, a walk-in pantry, two small bedrooms, a handicap-accessible bath, a small directors’ office and a spacious covered porch that will be enclosed when donations allow.

Still needed in the new Reitzer Enclave, named in honor of the late Al Reitzer, and his wife Lynn, who is the expansion’s lead backer, are paint, flooring, cabinetry and appliances.

“We’re coming to a stopping point,” Program Director Valerie Brown said. “The dry wall will be done by Monday and we have no flooring scheduled at all.”

Lynn Reitzer, Congressman Phil Roe, city commissioners and a large crowd of Manna House supporters ceremoniously broke ground on the expansion in April. Demolition of the large back porch that was the favorite gathering place for the men’s daily group sessions commenced immediately. By the end of spring, utility lines had been moved and a full basement dug for the new addition. Construction began in earnest in June. And as soon as the weather allows, daily group meetings will resume on the new back deck.

Funded entirely through donations and in-kind gifts of materials and labor, the addition has been nearly a year in the making and Brown said “the guys” are excited to see it wrapping up.

“This is their home and they love it here,” Brown said. About 80 percent of them are veterans, most are age 65 or older and most have experienced chronic homelessness more than once.

“They work hard because just putting a roof over their heads doesn’t mean they’re not homeless. It takes a lot,” Brown said. “For a lot of the guys, this is the longest they’ve ever been in a place.”

The grant-funded transitional housing program allows the men to stay at the house for up to two years while they work to regain their self-sufficiency. At that point, Brown said, the younger men move on to other housing while the older residents have the option of staying on as resident mentors for the new arrivals and those transitioning out.

But Manna House residents most admired for their work in recent months have been the builders, including Tony Campbell, a heat and air man who has gone with a hammer in his hand since the construction began in June, and John Green, who came to the house with 16 years of carpentry experience.

Non-resident builders in on the project have included D&J Roofing, Mozen Architectural, several members of the Johnson City Home Builders Association and the local Rolling Thunder chapter, and a number of community volunteers who have come to work on the house independently.

Major financial contributions have come from the Reitzer Group International, Grace Fellowship Church, Good Samaritan Ministries and the local Rolling Thunder chapter and the fundraisers the chapter has conducted for the expansion.

At age 68, Brad, an Air Force veteran of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam, is the oldest of The Manna House resident mentors and may have the clearest insight into the support for its expansion. “There’s a lot of respect for the military in this house,” he said.

Currently, the house has space for 22 men and the expansion will bring its capacity to 24, or three more than its grant funding covers.

“Right now, there is such a need,” Brown said, “We’re just trying to help as many as we can get inside.”

For others who would like to help, more information about The Manna House expansion may be obtained by calling Bob Garrett at Fairview Housing at 612-2995 or online at www.themannahouse.org.

Or, donations earmarked for the “Manna House Expansion” may be made by mail to Fairview Housing, 119 E. King St., Johnson City, TN 37601-4721.

The event was called “Pie Wars: The Clash of the Slices,” and the title of the best pizza in town went to Scratch Brick Oven, which will be back Sunday to defend its title against nine other pizza parlors during “Pie Wars: The Rise of the Dough.”

Like all sequels, this year’s competition is expected to be bigger, better and, well, tastier.

“We’ve learned a lot since last year’s event and we’re better prepared for what’s going to happen,” said Samara Litvack, communication director for Young Professionals Tri-Cities, the group responsible for the event.

Attendees will judge anonymous samples of pizza from Bellacino’s, Fun Expedition, Gino’s, Knight’s, Main Street Pizza, One 12 Downtown, Papa John’s, Pizza Inn, Fox’s Pizza Den and Scratch Brick Oven in three scheduled rounds – one topping, up to three toppings and chef’s choice.

Organizers are hoping the differences in judging and an increase in competitors will bring in more people to the event.

All the proceeds from the event will benefit the Children’s Advocacy Center of the 1st Judicial District.

“We’re really excited to be working with them. It’s for a really good cause,” Litvack said. “When we formed our organization, we wanted to work with children, so anytime we could give back to the community, we wanted it to be where children are involved.”

Last year, the event raised a little more than $11,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of Johnson City/Washington County.

Litvack said she hopes the charity event will be even more successful this year.

“We’re looking forward to it and we’re hoping we can be able to give a sizable donation to the Children’s Advocacy Center,” she said.

Tickets to the event will give people a vote in each round, a beer tasting by Yuengling, a wine tasting and a chance to win door prizes donated by local businesses.

“Pie Wars” will also feature music by DJ CosMoore and The Jones Boys Band. Little City Roller Girls announcer Big Daddy Voodoo, the Roller Girls and members of the local women’s rugby team will also be at the event.

“We think we have created an event that is unique and there’s nothing like around in the area, so I think that’s why people get so excited about it. That’s why we had such a good turnout last year,” Litvack said.

“Pie Wars” will be held from 5 p.m.-11 p.m. at The Charles in downtown Johnson City. Pizza samples will be available beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door. Attendees must be 21 years old or older. To purchase a ticket, visit www.piewars.eventbrite.com or email info@yptri.org.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/YPTri or www.yptri.org.

It all came crashing down around him after what he thought was just a swollen gland turned out to be neck and throat cancer so aggressive it was growing and changing daily and his doctor had to act quickly to save Settle’s life. While he’s quick to give credit to a team of doctors, his wife, family and many friends, Settle said there’s really only one reason he survived – Jesus got into the boat during his storm and saw him through.

Settle’s journey and survival are documented in a 59-page book he wrote called “Through the Storm.” The short, but entertaining, read was published in August.

Settle said he felt called to write the book as a guide for others facing any kind of storm in their life, whether it’s health related or some other problem.

“There are so many people hurting” from all kinds of problems in life, Settle said. “They need to know it’s not the end of the world. I don’t ever want to hear of someone committing suicide or going into some dark deep hole.”

Settle was diagnosed with cancer in May 2009 and was being treated within a few weeks of his initial doctor’s visit.

A seven-hour surgery, 37 radiation treatments and two rounds of chemo later, Settle is now free of the stage-four, grade- three cancer. By December 2009, Settle was cancer free. Of course, it wasn’t quite as easy to get through as it is to say aloud.

Settle said the surgery was a breeze compared to what lay ahead for him. More than once during the treatment ordeal, friends – and even Settle’s wife, Regina – thought he might not make it.

But no one told Settle, and he apparently had no clue just how sick he was or how bad he looked.

After one visit from two friends who closed Settle’s pool for him that year, the men both called their wives after they left and, in tears, said they would never see their friend again. Settle is glad those friends were wrong.

And cancer wasn’t the only “storm” Settle would have to weather. In late 2010, he suffered congestive heart failure that also required surgery.

“Later my family doctor told me that I had beaten the two main causes of death in men – cancer and heart disease,” Settle said.

That is when Settle realized there was much more God had in store for him – the first being writing a book detailing his recent health problems.

“The most amazing thing to me was that He got into the boat with me during the storm,” Settle said.

“I’ve had other storms. You have financial storms. If you have kids you have kid storms, if you have in-laws, you have in-law storms.”

Settle said his book can apply to any kind of personal storm and hopes people listen to his story and find hope.

Settle said his faith also helped him maintain an upbeat attitude over the last few years.

“Through all of this, I never stopped laughing,” he said.

And if Jesus was Settle’s heavenly hero through it all, he said his wife was his hero on earth.

“She had to be my chauffeur … she had to be my coo … she had to dress me and bathe me for a while,” he said. “She was just awesome and never complained.”

Settle said he has a deeper appreciation for life after experiencing his recent health problems.

“For the longest time I guess I thought I was going to live forever. I had fairly good health. I don’t take it for granted now. Every day you wake up is a good day,” he said.

For more information about the book, visit the publishing company’s website at www.friesenpress.com. Settle, who lives in Jonesborough, is also available to speak to groups or organizations about his story.

Diane Dempsey, executive director of Keystone Dental Care, said the grant will underwrite the cost of approximately 2,000 patient visits, or nearly half of the 4,000 to 4,500 patient visits provided by the clinic annually. With the $50,000 grant, Dempsey said the clinic will be free to use other funding resources to purchase needed supplies and equipment.

Missy Acosta, vice president of marketing for Delta Dental Tennessee, said the grant is part of a total of $300,000 the company awarded to nonprofit organizations in Tennessee last month, and part of a larger Delta Dental initiative to improve access to oral health care for low-income children and adults across the state.

Tom Perry, Delta Dental Tennessee’s senior vice president and CFO, said dental health is the company’s mission and the motivation behind its presentation of 20 percent of its net revenues to dental schools and to nonprofit organizations, including a total of $1.7 million in grant awards presented by the company during 2011.

U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-1st, who recommended Keystone Dental Care for the grant, said dental care for uninsured adults is one of the nation’s most underserved needs.

Roe said he was in Washington working on the tax cut extension and had just reviewed the many cuts included in the new federal budget when he received a letter from Perry inquiring about nonprofit organizations in East Tennessee that could use the $50,000 to improve access to dental care for low-income residents of the region.

“When a I read the letter, I almost flipped,” Roe said. “With all the cuts we’re making, here was a company that wanted to give away $50,000. I knew exactly where this could go so I called Keystone and I called Tom in Nashville and I hooked them up.”

Roe thanked Keystone Dental Care’s volunteers for meeting the need for dental care here and Delta Dental for supporting Keystone and other nonprofit organizations in communities across the state.

“What you do speaks volumes,” Roe said.

For the past four decades, Garland, a Unicoi County native and retired assistant district attorney general, has opened his home and offered other assistance to those hiking the trail in Unicoi County.

Garland said this preoccupation began one March afternoon around 40 years ago while mowing his in-laws’ yard. Garland said he saw a hiker accompanied by his dog walking down the road.

“I didn’t know it was a hiker,” Garland said. “He had this massive structure on his back, bearded and wild-eyed looking. And I’m thinking ‘well, Bigfoot has finally come down out of the mountains.’ ”

Garland said he struck up a conversation with the man and found the man had been hiking the trail for around a month through “all sorts of miserable weather.” While in the Smokies, the hiker became stranded away from the trail by a creek he had fallen into. As a result, the hiker had suffered severe frostbite.

After Garland contacted his family doctor, the hiker was able to receive treatment. Because the doctor did not want the man hiking for at least another day, Garland and his wife decided to take the man to the Elms restaurant in Erwin.

While he would not hear from this hiker again, the encounter sparked Garland’s interest in the Appalachian Trail. He began hiking areas of the trail in Tennessee and North Carolina. His goal was to finish the trail with his son who, like Garland, is an insulin-dependent diabetic. However, Garland said “life got in the way.” A knee injury suffered during one hike would further deter Garland’s hiking aspirations.

Still, with his interest piqued, Garland began noticing backpackers in Unicoi County, many of whom were hitchhiking or trudging along through adverse weather.

“We just began to try to help as many as we could,” Garland said. “It reached a point where we thought it might be better if we had some sort of published information about contacting us.”

Garland then contacted the Appalachian Trail Conference, now known as the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, to have he and his wife listed in a trail guidebook as contact persons for hikers coming into the Erwin area.

“That allowed people that knew they would be coming through here at a certain time to call and kindly make advanced reservations with us, which was a little more convenient,” Garland said. “There were times, I think, my wife was ready to strangle me for bringing one, two or five or more hikers to the house.”

Over the years, Garland said he has encountered people from all over the world. He said helping hikers has also allowed him to be an ambassador of sorts for Northeast Tennessee. While he said many hikers come into the area with preconceived notions of what they may encounter, Garland said it is always interesting to see the impression they leave with.

“Most of them are just flabbergasted and enthralled by the beauty that we have here,” Garland said. “I wanted these strangers to know that we didn’t have outhouses and we did have shoes to wear and weren’t just quite as poverty-stricken and backward as we seemed to be portrayed forever so long of a time.”

At one point, Garland said he was contacted by an ABC news team doing a story on legally blind hiker Bill Irwin, who, along with his seeing-eye dog Orient, was setting out to complete the more than 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail. Garland said Irwin spent a week with his family while hiking sections of the trail in this area.

As interest in hiking and use of the Appalachian Trail has increased over the years, so have the number of hikers Garland has assisted. Aside from allowing hikers into his home, Garland said much of the assistance he offers is shuttling hikers from one point to another.

While some offer to pay for his assistance, Garland said what he does “is not a business.” Instead of accepting payment himself, Garland said he asks those offering payment to contribute the money to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy so the trail can continue to be enjoyed by others.

“It’s a feeling that’s very hard to describe. It’s one of those feelings that’s kind of like a smell that you can’t describe, you just have to smell it. Hiking on the trail is an experience in an experience. It awakens your senses. It opens your eyes. You start seeing things in a whole different perspective,” Garland said.

Garland said that on average he assists around 40 hikers each season, which runs from the end of March through the end of September. He said he has assisted as many as 26 hikers at one time, and at one point had as many as 12 hikers sleeping on his front porch. Some hikers had even put a treehouse Garland built for his son to good use while the family was residing in Erwin.

Garland also said the trail is “a community unto itself” and he appreciates the camaraderie hikers share, regardless of their backgrounds. Garland said he asks the hikers he meets who are setting out to complete the trail to contact him to let him know how their adventures went. Occasionally, he hears back from them.

“That’s always heartening to see that, hey, I gave them a little bit of help along the way and maybe sowed a little bit of interest and education in that person about this area and the people in this area,” Garland said.

Following Roadrunner’s $50,000 contribution on Wednesday, United Way President and CEO Lester Lattany reported total campaign contributions of $1,751,670.83 with three days remaining until the campaign officially closes at midnight on Saturday.

Lattany expressed appreciation to Roadrunner and to “many other” Washington County employers and individual supporters for help ensuring this year’s campaign goal was met and the services of 17 local nonprofit service agencies supported by the United Way will continue.

Roadrunner President Ryan Broyles said his family was aware the campaign was running behind and on Friday contacted the United Way to learn the drive was still $30,000 short. “We decided to make a $50,000 donation to not only help the United Way reach its goal, but put them over the top,” he said.

“The United Way helps so many people here in Washington County, as Washington County residents, we wanted to make sure they have the funds to continue the level of services people in this area depend on,” Broyles said.

On behalf of the United Way board of directors, the 2011 campaign team and the service agency and programs the United Way supports, Lattany thanked the Broyles family and Roadrunner Markets saying, “Your support allows us to provide service to more than 25,000 each month of the year. ... services for children, the elderly, families and individuals in crisis.

Campaign Chairman Becky Hilbert called the campaign’s success “evidence of what a generous and caring community we have.”

“There is no way we could have done this without the support of the United Way board, the United Way staff, the agencies who told their stories ... the volunteers and the companies and people who pledge,” Hilbert said. “I wish I could speak with every one of them, thank them and give them a hug.”

The $1,651,670 campaign total announced on Wednesday also brought an end to a three-year dip in United Way giving that began with the recession of 2008 and caused the United Way to fall from more than $2 million raised in 2007 to just over $1.709 million collected last year.

Three consecutive shortfalls in the annual fundraising drive led the United Way to use its reserve funds to maintain its 2008 level of funding for the agencies through 2009 in order to maintain their services for pepole impacted by the recession, and to impose a 15 percent across the board reduction in its agency allocations in 2010 in order to replace the mandatory reserves.

With the success of this year’s campaign, Lattany said the reserves will be restored and United Way will be able to consider future increases in funding for the agencies’ services.