the roanoke star-sentinel

POSTMASTER: Dated material, please deliver by publication date

PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPERMIT 342

ROAnOkE vAwww.luckydogpub.comLocated beside the BAC (Botetourt Athletic Club)on route 604, Cloverdale Road, halfway between route 460 and i-81.

8 Beers

PLUSon Tap

NewsRoanoke.comJanuary 20 - 26, 2012 Community | news | Per spect ive

The Roanoke Star-Sentinel

4341 Starkey Road • Roanoke, VA540-774-0171

$100Off

Diagnostic TestingCall Huntington today. We’re nearby and affordable.

If your child is struggling in school, success starts here.•Certified Teachers•Customized, Individual Program of Instruction•Private Tutoring for SAT/PSAT/ACT Prep•Low Student to Teacher Ratios, Individual Instruction

[Downtown Roanoke]

The first conceptual designs were presented for public input in October 2011. The 1500 accumulated comments from those sessions, combined with online comments, were used to craft a final concept design that was available for public viewing at the main library last Thursday.

The wish list of amenities from stakeholders doubled the cost to over $8 million. That design was on display on a “far” wall for future consideration. The affordable Phase I was the real item on display and it met the budgeted $4 million mark.

Rena Cromer with Roanoke Neighborhood Advocates said that she was very upset about the late notice for the open house. A notice went out the day before and she said no RNA members were informed. “They already made their decision and don’t want our input,” she said.

The four main entrances presented would serve the four most populated buildings – the Patrick Henry apartments, Meridium Inc., Jefferson College and the entrance from the Market Square. Ron McCorkle, President of the RNA, said the design and en-trances are for downtown residents and that other people are “left out” pointing to where the main entrances are positioned.

Tuesday at Roanoke City Council’s 2:00 p.m. meeting David Hill of Hill Studios gave the Elmwood Park presentation. Hill Studios is receiving $300,000 for the project design. Last minute comments were added including McCorkle’s concerns regard-ing neighborhood entrances.

Rupert Cutler said to Council, “The park needs to serve those of us who live downtown, with our kids, our dogs, and our need to get out of our apartments and condos and grab some fresh air and exercise.”

The design turns Bullitt Avenue into an “Arts Walk”. Parking on Bullitt would be eliminated but vehicles for the Social Secu-rity building employees would be permitted to enter by possibly using a carded gate. The Arts Walk would be 20 feet wide and could accommodate cars and pedestrians. Bestpitch thought they “were missing an opportunity not to have regular traffic through Bullitt Avenue” - making the park more visible. City Manager Chris Morrill added that it could be made into a one-way through street.

The “Tailgate Walk” would be along Jefferson Street. The par-allel parking would be changed to diagonal parking, adding 8 spaces. Motorists would be expected to “back into” the spaces and vendors could use them for “tailgating” during festivals; Jef-ferson would look more like a boulevard.

Councilman Bill Bestpitch was concerned about people park-ing while driving south on Jefferson. He feared “they would pull straight in.” It would create a hazard with some backed in and others pulled straight in, thought Bestpitch.

The “Saucer Magnolia Allee” would replace the walkway from Market Square; gone would be the lily ponds. There would

Elmwood Plans Revealed

Illustration by Andy Kalback

An artist’s rendering shows Roanoke’s renovated downtown park from a vantage above Carilion Community Hospital looking across Elm Avenue. Roanoke’s Main Library is the brick building in the upper left of the depiction.

Elmwood Park Redesign Moves Ahead With A Few Tweaks

VCE and Roanoke City Offer Leadership Program

Since the fall of 2003 the city, through Neighborhood Servic-es, has offered its residents bian-nual Leadership College classes. Leadership College is a free nine-week course for citizens to learn how their city works - who does what and whom to call when something needs fix-ing. It takes a lot of time and peo-ple to keep a city vibrant, clean and safe.

It teaches citizens “how to ac-cess city services and become a resource for others within their community circles,” said Bob Clement, the Neighborhood Services Coordinator.

Now the city, in partnership with the Virginia Cooperative Extension, is taking it one step further with the Innovative Leadership Program. The $65 program is offered at no charge to Leadership College gradu-ates.

It all started at the 2010 Statewide Neighborhood Con-ference held in Roanoke. Dr. Martha Walker, Community Viability Specialist with VCE, held a workshop that inspired Steven Niamke of the Melrose-Rugby neighborhood, to lobby for the program in Roanoke.

Clement was already look-ing for a way to take Leadership College to the next level.

Last Thursday was a “train the trainer” class for seven in-dividuals. “The individuals se-

Chilly Day With Warm Hearts Marks MLK Celebration

The chilly air and gray skies did not diminish the proud smiling faces of the young and the not so young as they cel-ebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as part of the Southern Christian Leadership Confer-ence’s Annual Youth Day cel-ebration Monday afternoon.

A crowd of over 200 gathered at the MLK memorial wait-ing for the signal to start the march to First Baptist Church. The Patrick Henry and William Fleming High School bands led the way. Youth held color-ful handmade signs declaring their understanding of the cel-ebration, “Keep the King dream alive” read one, another sign proclaimed, “I pray for love, world peace and justice.”

Office holders and office hopefuls walked arm and arm. Mayor David Bowers was the

first to lead the marchers in song – “We shall overcome,” he bellowed.

Dr. Perneller Chubb-Wilson, SCLC President Emeritus, re-

membered when she stood beside Dr. King. Others re-member being refused service at lunch counters. In Roanoke

Photo by Valerie Garner

The Annual Youth Day was enjoyed by bundled up youngsters displaying signs of love and peace.

Tech Unveils Powerful New Supercomputer for the Masses

Virginia Tech crashed the supercomputing arena in 2003 with System X, a machine that placed the university among the world’s top computational research facilities. Now comes HokieSpeed, a new supercom-puter that is up to 22 times faster and yet a quarter of the size of X, boasting a single-precision peak of 455 teraflops, or 455 trillion operations per second, and a double-precision peak of 240 teraflops, or 240 trillion operations per second.

That’s enough compu-tational capability to place HokieSpeed at No. 96 on the most recent Top500 List, the industry-standard ranking of the world’s 500 fastest super-computers. More intriguing is HokieSpeed’s energy efficiency, which ranks it at No. 11 in the

world on the November 2011 Green500 List, a compilation of supercomputers that excel at using less energy to do more. On the Green500 List, Hok-ieSpeed is the highest-ranked commodity supercomputer in the United States.

Located at Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center, HokieSpeed - contains 209 nodes, or separate computers, connected to one another in and across large metal racks, each roughly 6.5 feet tall, to cre-ate a single supercomputer that occupies half a row of racks in a vast university computer ma-chine room. X took three times the rack space.

Each HokieSpeed node con-tains two 2.40-gigahertz Intel Xeon E5645 6-core central processing units, commonly

Dr. Martha Walker

> CONTINUED, P2: Supercomputer

> CONTINUEDP2: Leadership

> CONTINUEDP3: King

> CONTINUED, P2: Elwood

ObstaclesOvercoming

P4– keith McCurdy says life should be less about the struggles and more about what we bring to the table to deal with them.

PrevailPatriots

P7– The Patrick Henry boys basketball team uses defense to earn a hard fought win over tenacious William Flem-ing.

DefensePlaying

P7– Former nFL player, UvA standout and Patrick Henry star Shannon Taylor shares his story with the Roanoke valley Sports Club.

LegacyBrick

P9– The historical soci-ety of Western virginia has released a new book detailing the unique history of brick architecture in the Roanoke valley

Keith McCurdy

| The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 1/20/12 -1/26/12 newsRoanoke.com

Sun and clouds are expected Friday with a warmer 50 for a high. Showers are possible on Saturday drying out on Sunday. Temperatures for the weekend will be in the low to mid 50s. Rain chances return again for Monday and Tuesday with highs in the upper 50s

At Your Service!Your Hometown Business Directory

Tree Removal • Deadwooding • Gutter CleaningSpring Aeration • Overseeding

Free Estimates • Fully InsuredMulch Delivered and Spread • Spring Cleanups

Angel Tarabay

540-293-6303Angel’s Tree Service

540-904-7104SERVING THE ROANOKE VALLEY

1618 Roanoke BlvdSuite A

Salem, Virginia 24153540-389-5252

Dust Bunnies, Inc.Professional House Cleaning

www.dustbunniescorp.com • gift certificates available

!

!

JSSRemodelingGeneral Home Repairs

Complete Bathroom Remodeling • Tile WorkInterior/exterior Carpentry • Plumbing

Window/door installation • Hardwood Flooring

For a Free Estimate Call or email James725-7343 [email protected]

Licensed/insured with 24 years experiencereferences available

Use it to call Mr. Handyman.

“The tool I recommend most?

The telephone.”“The tool I recommend most?

The telephone.”

www.mrhandyman.com

RICHARD KARN TV star and “home improvement guru.”

000-000-0000Fully Insured-General Liability and Workers’ Compensation.

Each franchise independently owned and operated.

540-977-4444

If You Aren’t at Your Last Job, Why Is Your 401(k)?

Leaving a 401(k) with a previous employer could mean leaving it alone with no one to watch over it.

At Edward Jones, we can explain options for your 401(k) and help you select the one that’s best for you. If you’d like to roll it over to an Edward Jones Individual Retire

-ment Account (IRA), we can help you do it without paying taxes or penalties. And you can feel confident that someone is looking out for you and your 401(k).To find out why it makes sense to talk with

Edward Jones about your 401(k) options,

call or visit your local financial advisor today.

.

Carl M Grove, AAMS®Financial Advisor

2115 Crystal Spring AvenueRoanoke, VA 24014540-344-9211

www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC

Danny Williams • 989-1825 • Cell - 765-7144

GOOD NEWS!THE “SLOWEST CARPET CLEANER

IN ROANOKE”IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR YOUR

OFFICE CARPET AND FURNITURE

FULLY INSUREDFREE ESTIMATE

Williams Carpet CleaningWilliams Carpet Cleaning

be water and electricity for tents and fog and light machines.

Jim Lee spoke for Liz Belcher of the Roanoke Valley Greenway Commission, saying that they hadn’t “properly considered” how people would mix with Greenway bikers. “There needs to be improved signage and ac-cess,” he said.

The “Performance Venue” would be the realigned stage and would involve extensive grading. It would provide ter-raced bowl-like grassy seating for 1800 facing the stage. Seating expansion in other areas could increase attendance to 4300. In front of the stage would be an interactive water fountain where visitors could get their feet or anything else wet.

According to Steve Buschor, director of Parks and Recre-ation, only the black walnut trees would be removed. He said that 70 more trees would be added. The rocks would remain for children to play on; there would be a concession area for 120 vendors and green space that would serve as areas for separate smaller events. Vegetation along Williamson Road would be re-moved for a clear and open view into the park.

Bestpitch wanted to know about the “tough turf” for ven-dor parking; he feared it would not be sustainable. Buschor said that if the tough turf failed they would look at using pavers.

Phil Shermer, city engineer,

said they would concentrate construction first on the Arts Walk (Bullitt Avenue) and the Saucer Magnolia Allee in hopes of getting that done this year. To avoid disrupting warm weather events, the performance area grading would take place during the off-season - late this fall and early winter.

The $4 million cost breaks down with the stage, grading, and water fountain area costing more than half the total budget-ed – $2.2 million. The Arts Walk is about half a million and the Saucer Magnolia Allee another half million. The balance covers the Tailgate Walk, garden and green space plantings.

Buford Overstreet strolled by the conceptual designs at the open house. He has consistently claimed that he could do the whole thing much cheaper. “I can do everything they are do-ing here and make it more ac-cessible, adaptable and safer for $500,000.”

He attended Tuesday’s council meeting and said Bullitt should be an open street and that he could complete the project in 6 months. He asked Council to postpone their decision. “I don’t like waste when it comes to money.”

Once Council gives their ap-proval it will take 3 to 4 months to complete the architectural plans for the bid process. Sherm-er was anxious to get started say-ing, “It is a good bid time.”

City Council gave instruc-tions to return to council in a few weeks for final approval. This will give additional time for more citizen input, explained Mayor Bowers. Councilman Sherman Lea also recognized that not all the citizens of Roa-noke visit the park and may not have input.

The project uses local busi-nesses - Hill Studios, Spec-trum Design, Mattern and Craig Engineering, Stage Sound and 1717 Design.

Illustration by Andy Kalback

An artists’ rendering of the new proposed “Arts Walk. “

> Elmwood From page 1

By valerie [email protected]

> Leadership From page 1

lected represent a diverse group throughout the community,” said Dr. Walker. They will each lead the discussion of one of six modules over six-weeks starting February 9th.

A letter was sent out to all 469 Leadership College gradu-ates on January 3rd and the 25 seats in the class filled up in a week. There are nine more on a waiting list as of Thursday. “I will have enough people wait-listed from this program to fill the next one; this shows how people in Roanoke want to be engaged,” said Clement.

The program “teaches the language and process of lead-ership,” explained Dr. Walker. It teaches participants how to network with each other and discover new facts about their community. They then can identify ways to improve or fill the gaps.

“It prepares every com-munity to be well positioned for economic development; it strengthens that community foundation,” said Dr. Walker.

From Clement’s perspective, the Innovative Leadership Pro-gram coupled with the city’s Leadership College classes, “prepares an individual to be-come literally a leader in any endeavor they decide to go into – a neighborhood group, a non-profit organization, a business or even as an elected official.”

“It’s more about the nuts and bolts of how a leader leads,” said Braxton Naff, a member of Roa-noke Neighborhood Advocates.

Dr. Walker said, “There is no one option – there has to be multiple ways to develop indi-viduals.”

The program includes a proj-ect participants will complete. It will start with a community as-sessment review that will iden-tify a gap in the community. They will then research ways to fill the gap by analyzing the accumulated data. Dr. Walker gave examples of past projects - one filled the need for a read-ing program for disadvantaged children; another was a search for retail outlets where none ex-

isted before.Guests from the city will be

invited to hear their presenta-tions. “All stakeholders are not going to be for you,” Dr. Walker will tell them, “they’ll learn how to work with those who oppose them.” One stakeholder may be entirely open to new ideas while another may be resistant to change. The latter may require the team to be more assertive. The participants will know how to approach the stakeholder dif-

ferently on a second try.Naff added that after comple-

tion of the program the teams could then identify on their own who in the community can implement it. The pro-gram’s methods will give them the knowledge, confidence and patience they will need as they present their ideas to diverse stakeholders.



Attendees at this year’s Leadership Conference discuss ideas.

> Supercomputer From page 1

called CPUs, and two NVIDIA M2050/C2050 448-core graph-ics processor units, or GPUs, which reside on a Supermicro 2026GT0TRF motherboard. That gives HokieSpeed more than 2,500 central process-ing unit cores and more than 185,000 graphics processor unit cores to compute with.

HokieSpeed is a versatile het-erogeneous supercomputing in-strument, where each compute node consists of energy-efficient central-processing units and high-end graphics-processing units, said Wu Feng, associ-ate professor with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s computer science and electri-cal and computer engineering departments.

This instrument will allow faculty, students and staff across multiple disciplines to tackle problems previously viewed as intractable or that required he-roic efforts and significant do-main-specic expertise to solve.

Still in the final stages of ac-ceptance testing, Feng envisions HokieSpeed as Virginia Tech’s next war horse in research. As researchers from around the world have used X to crack riddles of the blood system and further DNA research, Feng said HokieSpeed will be a next-generation research tool for en-gineers, scientists, and others.

HokieSpeed was built for $1.4 million, a small fraction -- one-tenth of a percent of the cost -- of the Top500’s current No. 1 supercomputer, the K Com-puter from Japan. The major-

ity of funding for HokieSpeed came from a $2 million Na-tional Science Foundation Ma-jor Research Instrumentation grant. With federal and state budget crunches here to stay, Feng said HokieSpeed carries another plus: It can attract more international research projects to Virginia Tech, adding more to the College of Engineering’s income.

Among the vendors work-ing with Feng on HokieSpeed are Seneca Data Inc. and Su-per Micro Computer Inc., who were the driving force behind the project, as well as NVIDIA Corp., for their technical sup-port. Feng has worked with NVIDIA before, with the Silicon Valley-based technology firm naming Virginia Tech as a re-search center and the NVIDIA Foundation’s first worldwide re-search award for computing the cure for cancer being awarded to Feng.

In addition to HokieSpeed’s compute nodes, a visualization wall - eight 46-inch, 3-D Sam-sung high-definition flat-screen televisions - will provide a 14-foot wide by 4-foot tall display for end-users to be immersed in their data. Still under construc-tion, the visualization wall will be hooked-up to special visu-alization nodes built into Hok-ieSpeed and allow researchers to perform in-situ visualization.

This way, researchers can see in real-time if their computa-tional experiment is turning out as expected, or if corrections or on-the-fly adjustments must

be made, said Feng. Previously, weeks could pass by before all the data from a computational experiment was generated and then rendered as a video for viewing and analysis.

For now, high-tech universi-ties, government research labs, and major corporations use supercomputers on a regular basis, major organizations from the MIT to the Pentagon to Hollywood movie companies. As supercomputers such as HokieSpeed grow in brain size and diversity, and yet shrink in space, they will become more readily available to the public at large, said Feng. That is his ulti-mate goal.

“Look at what Apple has done with the smartphone and iPad. They have taken general-purpose computing and com-moditized it and made it easy to

use for the masses,” said Feng. The next frontier is to take high-performance computing, in particular supercomputers such as HokieSpeed, and personalize it for the masses.

Such access to supercomput-ers could help small businesses that do not have multi-billion-dollar budgets for cyberinfra-structure, to better design their products or the process in which their products are produced on the assembly line in the factory. Scientists at smaller universities could use supercomputers for their own research efforts.

Wu Feng, associate professor of computer science and electri-cal and computer engineering, at one of the dozens of nodes of "HokieSpeed,”,Virginia Tech's latest and fastest entry into the supercomputing arena.

By Steven [email protected]

of Roanoke

2110 Bennington St (Next to Food Lion)

Sat - Fri 10am-7pm, Sun 12pm-4pm

YES WE FLASH!

MOBILE PHONES & ACCESSORIESPAYMENT CENTERBUY, TRADE OR SELL YOUR PHONE

Extended Holiday Hours540-427-1213 | www.gomobileofva.com

Only one o�er per purchase, o�ers can not be combined. While supplies last.

Samsung Gem*Phone o�er is after mail in rebate with 2 year contract.

for only a PENNY!

all T Mobile New Phone$10 OFF Purchase and Activation!

FREE ACCESSORYwith New Activation

*Restrictions Apply

newsRoanoke.com 1/20/12- 1/26/12 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |

When times are tough you may need someone to walk beside you to offer

encouragement and hope. That is why our hospice offers a FREE support network

and bereavement program from a perspective that strengthens your faith and

helps you get back on your feet and living again. Please contact Kathy Barton

at 540-989-6265 for more information.

Long term employees with experience in palliative pain & symptom management,emotional support and grief counseling

ROANOKE GRIEF SUPPORT SERVICES

FOR ADULTSMondays & Tuesdays, 12-1:30 p.m.

CHILDREN GRADES K-12One Monday night monthly

& pizza provided.

24/7 Referrals... Same Day Admissions

GSH0111-10.85x5.29 RSS AdultKid Ad.indd 1 3/1/11 1:20 PM

THE CHOICE IS CLEAR.It isn’t the end of the world, but it can be the start of a new one.

For over 40 years we’ve been Virginia’s leading provider of prosthetic and orthotic technology. When you consider that we have the knowledge, experience, and 16 locations to help you live your life to the fullest, the choice becomes clear.

Believe in Your Possibilities540.366.8287 | 888.366.8287 | www.virginiaprosthetics.com

Roanoke | Fishersville | Charlottesville | MartinsvilleChristiansburg | Lynchburg | Harrisonburg

South Boston | Tazewell | Low Moor | Danville | Richlands | StuartRocky Mount | Eden, NC | Reidsville, NC

LESS STRESS FOR YOU AND YOUR PET

VETERINARY SERVICES - Annual Examinations • Vaccinations • Dentistry • Diagnostic Exams • Lab Procedures • In-home Euthanasia • Flea, Tick, and Parasite Treatments • Surgery Services

• 26’state-of-the-artveterinarycliniconwheels.Nomorepilingthedogsinthecarorfightingtogetthecatinthecarrier,wecometoyou!• Ourservicesareidealformulti-pethouseholds,retirees,busyparents&professionals,clientswithlimitedtransportationorlimitedmobility,andownersofpetswhoareanxiousorscaredofcarrides&traditionalveterinaryhospitals.

www.roanokemobilevet.com540-798-5778

Data TransfersTrainingDisaster RecoveryWireless Setup and Security

www.bridgebyte.com Bridgebyte Computers LLC

Republican Women Head to RichmondThursday was the annual

Virginia Federation of Republi-can Women’s Legislative Day in Richmond. A delegation from the Roanoke Valley Republican Women traveled to the state capital to meet with legislators, old and new, as well as the Gov-ernor, Lt. Governor and Attor-ney General.

Lt. Governor Bill Bolling sponsored the continental breakfast for the 300 plus wom-en in attendance. The chair-woman for the annual event was Jean Ann Bolling, wife of the Lt. Governor. The morn-ing program featured Gover-nor Bob McDonnell, who wel-comed women from all over the state of Virginia. The morning’s keynote speaker was the First Lady of Virginia, Maureen Mc-Donnell.

Mrs. McDonnell talked about the three months of filming that took place at the state capital for the new Steven Spielberg movie about Abraham Lincoln. She said they brought in literally tons of dirt to cover the streets. Filming ran from 5:30 a.m. to past 10 p.m. every day, with horses and covered wagons all over the grounds and movie extras milling around in period clothing.

She also spoke about the Gov-ernor’s mansion, which opened in 1813 and has housed 52 first families. This fall starts the bi-centennial celebration, “Two centuries with Virginia’s First Families.” Mrs. McDonnell said that when their family first moved into the mansion she decided to snoop around when she was alone one day, opening all the drawers and cabinets, looking for a piece of history left behind.

Mrs. McDonnell has several special projects this year in hon-or of the bicentennial. She has commissioned five artists to cre-ate portraits of all of Virginia’s First Ladies, with the finished works to be hung in the man-sion. She is also resurrecting

the grapevines from England, that were originally planted in 1813. Her new plants should yield enough grapes to make an estimated 1,800 bottles of wine with the proceeds going to sup-port military families. She is also a supporter of SOS (Serving Our Service Members), whose volunteers help out military families left behind with yard work, planting flowers, babysit-ting and home upkeep.

At noon the banquet room quickly filled with a majority of the state’s legislators walking over from the capital to join the women for a luncheon. The purpose of this event was to let

the legislators know of the con-cerns of women throughout the state.

Ladies from the Roanoke Valley voiced their specific ideas about transportation, education, jobs and views on how this part of the state can prosper. Join-ing the local women were Sen. Ralph Smith, Del. Greg Habeeb, Del. Chris Head, Del. Charles Poindexter, Sen. Steve Newman, Sen. Bill Stanley and Del. Joseph Yost. At age 25, Yost has the dis-tinction of being the youngest State Delegate in history.

By Carla M. [email protected]

there were no demonstrations as in other cities. Roanoke saw that integration was inevitable and a biracial commission was formed that resulted in negotia-tions.

“Battles were fought in other places,” said the Rev. E. T. Bur-ton at an event last year. He had called on today’s youth to un-derstand how far they had come – “from the back of the bus to the steering wheel,” he said.

Once everyone settled in the church, Master of Ceremonies Mac McCadden introduced Ol-lie “Tiger” Howie, who without falter, read Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Dr. Nathaniel Bishop, Presi-dent of Jefferson College and cousin of Dr. Wilson, gave that same message to youth gathered in the church. “We need our young people from this com-munity to consider a health care profession … and encourage science.”

The secret to his achieve-ments was in his upbringing, he said. He learned honesty, in-tegrity and developed a strong

work ethic at an early age. The whole community expected the same from every youth. Joking, he wondered how his parents found out what he did wrong even before he got home - “did they have text messaging back then?” he asked.

Bishop announced that thanks to an etching of Dr. King by the late George Solonevich, the first scholarship would be awarded to a city high school student this year.

The late artist George Solon-evich’s wife Inga gave Jefferson College a collection of prints of Martin Luther King Jr. titled “Freedom’s Price.” Proceeds from the sale of the prints go into a memorial scholarship fund. The endowment will award scholarships to minority graduates of Roanoke City pub-lic high schools who are accept-ed for admission into a Jefferson College EHS-Paramedic or the Fire and EMS Technology de-gree programs.

Solonevich had fled Stalinist Russia after being jailed several times. From Russia he went to

Germany, spending half a year in a concentration camp, before escaping to Finland. He spent much of his life looking for a place to call home before com-ing to America and settling in Roanoke.

George Solonevich watched Dr. King being arrested and placed in handcuffs. “He (So-lonevich) wrung his hands and was just so troubled by seeing that on television,” said Bishop. It brought back memories of his time in the concentration camp and the oppression he himself had suffered.

Bishop said Solonevich thought of how they had made their way “to the land of the free” only to see a great man like Dr. King treated so disrespect-fully.

It inspired him to create the 1963 print of Dr. King known as “Freedom’s Price.”

> King From page 1



Mac McCadden shares a laugh with the crowd as the celebration gets under way at First Baptist.

Free Electronics Recycling Collection Available January 21st5R Processors, Ltd. of Lady-

smith, WI is partnering with Valley View Mall and Roanoke College to provide the Roanoke area the opportunity to dispose of household electronics at no cost. 5R Processors will be set up in the Valley View Mall parking lot between Belk and Sears and at Roanoke College in the Olin Hall parking lot on Saturday, January 21st from 10:00am to 2:00pm where they will be ac-cepting any old or obsolete elec-tronics equipment. Both events are open to the public and only residential equipment will be accepted. 5R Processors is R2 and ISO 14001 certified.

5R Processors will be accept-ing most consumer electronics and home office equipment in-cluding: computers, monitors, laptops, printers, televisions,

stereo equipment, cell phones, microwaves, and more. Large household appliances and freon containing appliances are not being accepted. Department of Defense approved hard drive cleansing services will be avail-able for just $10. For more information and a complete list of acceptable items visit

the Recycling Events page at www.5Rprocessors.com or call (715) 322-4480.

Businesses in need of asset recovery, end-of-life processing or disposal of electronics equip-ment should call (715) 532-2050 for a complete list of business related services.

Roanoke Valley Republican Women with Sen. Ralph Smith and Del. Chris Head in Richmond.

PersPective | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 1/20/12 -1/26/12 newsRoanoke.com

Non-surgical weight loss One-on-one with a physician

877.398.1547 cmwl.com

Start by losing 10 pounds in 2 weeks.**

*Based on a stratified sample of 349 patients over a six-year period. Patients must have remained on the program for a minimum of 28 days and be monitored with at least two physician visits within first 31 days to be included in the study. A variety of nutritional meal replacements were used. 99% of the patients that followed the CMWL program, including a low calorie diet and individual counseling with CMWL physicians, from one month up to a year, weighed less at their last weigh-in than their starting weight. **Based on a stratified random sample of 223 women and 99 men on a medically prescribed diet.

Grand OpeninG - BramBletOn COmmOnS initial COnSultatiOn Only $19!

Kenneth Luckay, DO - 4515 Brambleton Ave. S.W., Suite B, Roanoke VA

Being overweight increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and many types of cancer, it also can take years off your life. Our programs offer strategies unavailable to commercial weight loss programs.

Physician customized plan99% keep the weight off after a year*

lOSe WeiGht aS if yOurlife depended On it.

Patience . . . and ProgressAn Old Perspective for New YearAs Longfellow translat-

ed from the German poem, “Though the

mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small.” History would seem to endorse that.

Looking at our country, when great change needed to happen, it rarely came about with rapid-ity. The founding fathers went to extreme lengths to avoid ad-dressing slavery. To have done so would have prevented the formation of the United States. They knew it had to be done “. . . that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Even with those stirring words that ev-ery school child learns, it was three-quarters of a century before the issue of slavery in America was seriously ad-dressed. Even after the bloodi-est war in our history, much was left to be improved. It was an-other century before real prog-ress was made.

Not until the 1960s did the government redress the wrongs of segregation, almost two hun-dred years after Thomas Jeffer-son. That may be an eye blink in the scale of history but for those who suffered under Jim Crow, it was many lifetimes.

This week there has been much written about Martin Luther King, Jr. Despite his hu-

man failings (who doesn’t have those?) I suspect his place in his-tory will, as centuries pass, stand alongside the Founding Fathers. While much has been achieved in our lifetime, there should be no cause for complacency. It has been too slow in coming and all should be concerned that prog-ress continues to be made.

In watching documentaries about the turbulent times of the civil rights struggle several things strike me. We were all aware monumental changes were taking place. It amazes me that they were initiated by

Lyndon Johnson, a southerner. Had John Kennedy lived, would it have come about as quickly? Who knows, but Johnson was cor-rect when he said he had lost the South to the Republican Party for the next century.

He did what was right, not the politi-cally expedient thing

that marks much of governing today.

A second thing comes to mind: While we were aware that segregation was rightfully coming to an end and we ap-proved of the change, most were strangely silent about it. The freedom riders, those who anonymously marched in Selma, the thousands who courageously spoke out were in the minority. I, for one, was too wrapped up in my own life to be an active participant; I regret that now.

Third, looking back at the ri-

ots, the killings, the burning cit-ies, the venomous speech from elected leaders in the South, I am appalled that the public sense of outrage, mine included, was muted. In retrospect, the horror of it all assumes a pro-portion that seems much worse now. Had I been a young Afri-can-American in those years, I wonder what my reaction would have been? Would I have been a follower of the Black Panthers or would I have passively stood by, as I did as a white, and let Stokely Carmichael and Rap Brown fight the battles?

It was in this context that Martin Luther King, Jr. made his greatest contribution. Rath-er than allow the militant forces to gain control of the nation, his message of non-violence, patience, and peacefulness changed the tide.

Much remains to be done. There are other areas of equal injustice and African-Ameri-cans still are on the road to full enfranchisement. Discarding that hyphenated citizenship would be a start. It will, unfor-tunately, take decades to ad-dress and remediate some of these problems. The important message is that progress must not be impeded by an excess of patience. While the latter is important, as Dr. King demon-strated, it cannot be an excuse to avoid the former.

If it is true about the mills of God, then each of us must make sure the grinding continues.

Contact Hayden [email protected]

Hayden Hollingsworth

Recently, while lis-tening to a teenager complain about how

unfair life was and how her entire day had been ruined by losing her cellphone, I re-membered a story about life perspective.

I was told this story several years ago by a now deceased friend I will call Joe. In 1920 at ten years of age, Joe spent a lot of time with his grandparents in the country. One morning he and his grandfather were up before the sun to eat breakfast and start plowing. They took time to hitch up the team and prepare the plowshare for use. Soon after they be-gan, something broke loose on the plowshare.

Now they took even more time to unhitch the team and get them back in the pasture, get the horse hooked up to the buggy and load the plow-share for the hour trip to town. Once in town they went to the blacksmith (modern day welder) for the needed repairs. As Joe described it, he didn’t remember what broke or what

they had to do to fix it, he just remembered all of the banging and sparks flying. When all of the repairs were finished and with the plowshare loaded up, they headed for home, now much past midday.

Once home, horse fed and in the field, team hitched back up to the plowshare, they be-gan the work of tilling part of

the 80 acres. Well af-ter dark, with much left to till, they went in for the evening. While sitting around the dinner table, grandma asked “So boys, how was your day?” Joe remembers his granddad looking at him and grinning when he responded, “It was a pretty good

day wasn’t it boy?”Today we have a flat tire or

our computer locks up and the whole day is a disaster. Wow, has our perspective changed!

What Joe experienced was not novel, it was common. It used to be that our daily experiences, struggles, and difficult times did not deter-mine our view of life. The fact that at times we will struggle, things will break or wear out,

not everyone is always happy with us and that some days are just difficult was accepted as a course of life. Not only were these experiences not worth getting that worked up about, our emotions really didn’t fig-ure into the mix. We did not automatically connect a tough time with emotional turmoil. We fully accepted that life it-self is flawed.

How would life be if we took this perspective? What if we realized that our expe-rience of life, as it is, should not determine our emotional state or overall perspective on life? Don’t you think we take too much too seriously? I sure do….

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if we had the perspective that life was less about what strug-gles occurred and more about what we bring to the table to deal with them? With the first view, we are prisoners to life circumstances; with the lat-ter we are free. A great but terrible example of this is the Holocaust. Survival stories are filled with prisoners on the verge of death living free and not allowing their cir-cumstances to dictate their life perspective.

As Joe put it; “Yes, it had been a great day!” All in all, their contribution was good. The challenge is to have more “real” problems and fewer imaginary ones, to not take ourselves or our circumstances so seriously and to accept that how we play the hand we are dealt is much more important than the cards themselves.

When we demonstrate this life-perspective to our chil-dren, we are preparing them to not be thrown off by life, but to engage it in the right way. We teach them that struggle is okay and even to be expected and that they can deal with it. This allows them to not be bound by their circumstances and to know that there is al-ways a path through difficult times.

Ask yourself which perspec-tive you have most often? Are you instilling confidence and hope in the way you respond to adversity?

Keith McCurdy

Contact Keith [email protected]

The Preacher’s Corner - Seeking The Greater Things

Local Crossword for 1/13/2012

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29

30 31 32 33 34

35 36 37 38

39 40 41

42 43 44 45 46

47 48 49 50 51 52

53 54 55

56 57 58

www.CrosswordWeaver.com

ACROSS

1 Grating sound 5 Metric weight unit 8 South southwest

11 Winged 12 Aura 13 American Cancer Society

(abbr.) 14 The yoga instructor on

Grandin Road in Roanoke. 15 Discharge 16 Young lady 17 Beat it! 19 Machines that rotates on

the ceiling 20 Solace 23 To make a bid. 25 Grows bigger 27 Be in a __ 30 Day of the wk. 31 Divided nation 33 Gnawer 35 Douse 37 Ask; make a search of. 39 Food and Agriculture

Organization (abbr.) 41 A belt worn around the

waist. 42 Letup 45 Vice __ 47 Parody 48 Manner 49 What a leaf comes from 53 Shy or to caress. 54 Thin 55 Wading bird 56 Compass point 57 Downwind 58 Nearly horizontal entrance

DOWN

1 Underdone 2 Wing 3 Unhappy 4 Musical "fast" 5 Mother 6 Hike a mountain 7 Obtained 8 Soap Opera 9 Read

10 Channel 10 around here. 12 To this document 18 Buskin 19 Those who make the food

laws (abbr.) 20 Supersonic transport 21 Musical composition 22 Brand of sandwich cookie

24 Iranian's neighbors 26 __ Lanka 28 Power system 29 Duke 32 Memory trace 34 Ball holder 36 Behind 38 Venus 40 Plant seed 42 Hurry 43 Economics abrv. 44 Eye infection 46 Canal 48 Sign language 50 Kimono sash 51 Does 52 Eastern Standard Time

Star-Sentinel Crossword

By Don WaterfieldFind the answers online: NewsRoanoke.com

Have a clue and answer you’d like to see?email: [email protected]

AFN41703

Underwritten by United of Omaha Life Insurance Company, Mutual of Omaha Plaza, Omaha, NE 68175-0001

Don Lilly Agency | 540-989-1931

How Does Guaranteed Income Sound?Ask me how annuities can help.

I work full-time.I want to advance my career.I am a face of National College.

National–College.edu

Roanoke Valley Campus1813 E Main St Salem, VA 24153888.202.2643

It’s possible for you too.Call, click, or come in... We’ll show you how.

Business | Computer Technology | Healthcare

National College’s

flexible class schedules

made it possible for me.

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is

no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you come to know me?” and Jesus simply replies, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” And Nathanael replies, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Nathanael is amazed that Christ has seen him in what he thought was his totally secret place of private prayer and reflection. Christ goes on to tell him, "My dear Nathanael, you will see far greater things than this. The miracle of how God already knows us in this world is just the beginning - the rabbit hole runs much, much deeper than that . . . beyond your wildest imaginings really."

We are so amazed and impressed by man-made things - and I suppose the technologies we have cobbled together for ourselves from the materi-als we have been given are fascinating enough in their own right. But the reality, of course, is that we haven't even scratched the surface with our knowl-edge of the universe.

Just this past week scientists using new measur-ing techniques have confirmed what many long suspected but couldn't be sure of: In our own gal-axy there is an average of two planets per every star. There are somewhere around 300 billion stars in the Milky Way. If you do the math on that you get around 600 billion planets out there - an estimated 10 billion of which fall in what we call the "habit-able zone." Think about that - 10 Billion!

This is our galaxy alone folks - and we have vi-sual evidence that there are billions of them stretch-ing out in every direction towards the edge of the universe . . . that is, if there is an edge of the uni-

verse. And we're ready to stand in our arrogance and question the existence of God? Or His Perfect Will?

"You will see greater things than these,” says Je-sus referring to God's Spirit being poured out upon him from the very heavens of which we still know almost nothing.

Greater things indeed.Accordingly our mission in life might be boiled

down to the following: Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly and seek God's will and nothing else . . . No-thing, no idea - no thought - no action - no deed- no belief - no right - no purpose - no direc-tion - nothing - outside of His most perfect will. It is arrogance, ignorance or both that searches or settles for anything else.

Yet that's what we all do isn't it? Even when we set out with the best of intentions on a new road seek-ing to trust Him with the details and expectations of our lives, we get out in all that worldly traffic and VROOM! Off we go taking some new shiny exit ramp of our own choosing, that leads in a direction that God has never intended.

But here's the good news - just like your trusty GPS, God "recalculates" our journeys and sets us back on a new route meant to lead us to our one and only true destination - a right relationship with Him. But we've got to trust the road he brings us down - with all the bumps and curves and potholes that come along the way.

Safe travels out there. Stuart Revercomb is the Minister at Peace Presby-

terian Church in Roanoke. Visit them on the web at peace-church.net

PersPectivenewsRoanoke.com 1/20/12 -1/26/12 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |

5646 Cloverdale Road, Roanoke, VA 24019(Just up from Wal-Mart next to Murray's Apple Cider!)

Sunday School - 10:00 / Worship - 11:00

"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analy-sis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."

Any Questions? Call Stuart Revercomb: 330-7335

Morning Worship Every Sundayat 11:00 AM

Sunday School Classes for All AgesBegin at 10:00 AM

-Frederick Buechner

OFFICE SPACEAVAILABLE

Call Ssunny Shah540.537.0618

Franklin Square O�ce Park1917 Franklin Road

Newly Renovated andBest Location Next to Green Way

O�ce Suites from250 Sq Feet to 3000 Sq Feet

Restaurant/Lounge Space Over3000 Sq Feet Plus Large Kitchenat Ramada Conference Center

“”

I am the slowest carpet cleaner in Roanoke.

Williams Carpet Cleaning“I will give your carpet the time and attention it deserves to produce the best results possible.”

• 2 rooms and a hall for $75 • 5 rooms and a hall for $155• Furniture cleaning also available!

Danny Williams • 989-1825 • Cell - 765-7144

Set Your Own Hours

Send Resume to:[email protected]

orP.O. Box 8338

Roanoke Va 24014

ProfessionalAdvertisingSalespeopleNeededWork from Home

NoÊoneÊelseÊcanÊdoÊitÊforÊourÊqualityÊandÊprice!

116ÊS.ÊPoplarÊStreet,Ê Vinton • 904-2070 • www.vintoncomputer.com We can make your computer new again! Stop by atWoodland Square (behind Vinton Baptist).

Computer Repair • Free Diagnosis • New & Used Computers & Laptops

No matter what the problemÊis ,Êwe will take care of it! Bring in this ad! Expires 3/31/12.

$50 Does it!(takes careÊofÊeverything,ÊpartsÊnotÊincluded)

Steven W. D urrance Flo ors

10%OFFall labor and materials

Please present coupon after estimate.

776-9591 | carpetroanoke.com

The Power Of The Written WordJanuary editions of

women’s magazines feature diets, new ways

to save money, and sugges-tions for eliminat-ing clutter – GET ORGANIZED! As the world’s great-est pack rat, I feel guilty and decide to get rid of some of the “stuff ” that has accumulated through the years. I chose to com-mence with the stack of envelope boxes in a cor-ner of my office, filled with personal correspondence – some of which dates back about thirty years.

I can’t discard all those let-ters without reading them, and soon I find myself ab-sorbed in this initial stage of the project. As I read, the words portray the unique personality of each writer. I hear Aunt Bess’ voice de-scribing a family get-togeth-er. In my mind’s eye I see her wide grin and sparkling eyes as she relates the antics of her grandchildren.

The same is true when I read a thank-you note from Aunt Mary who invited us to visit her beach home in At-lantic City for vacations. The children were in elementary school and old enough to en-joy the jitney rides and visits to Lambert’s for the world’s best ice cream. Despite her difficulty walking with knees that groaned as they sup-ported her hefty frame, she went along and enjoyed the outings as much as the chil-dren. Her words of thanks as she detailed each Christmas gift they made for her reveal her love. I feel as if I have had a visit with her.

I find occasional notes from Harry when he was sent out of town by N&W, or when I took the children to visit my parents during the sum-mer. These are the closest to “love letters” I have, since we were both in Roanoke during our dating years.

Letters from my mother are kept in a file folder and I would never consider dispos-ing of them. When I re-read them, her words bring me comfort and I almost feel her touch on my shoulder. Her loneliness comes through as she says how she wishes I could stay longer when I vis-it, and I experience feelings of regret that circumstances caused me to spend so little time with her during her lat-er years.

Relatives are not the only ones whose words are stored in these boxes. I read notes from friends at church, es-pecially shut-ins expressing thanks for visits or small gifts of jelly or bread. Letters from co-workers, no longer living, awaken memories of events

from the past.Progress in this project is

slow – actually non-existent. Soon I realize that the time

spent reading was wasted. On the other hand, I feel rejuvenated, hav-ing stepped back in time for visits with loved ones from the past, dead for over twenty-five years, yet resurrected

via their written words. I put the letters back into

the box and return it to the stack.

It’s amazing, this power of the written word. By reading words written by our favorite authors, we begin to know them more intimately than many of our acquaintances, although we’ve never had the opportunity to meet them face-to-face. We recognize the unique voice, consistent in each new book they pub-lish.

I’ve also had occasion to re-read letters from my chil-dren when they were in col-lege or lived elsewhere after marriage. For each child’s 50th birthday I compiled in-formation from his/her birth until the present, and wrote a narrative to connect pictures and copies of early school work. ( I confessed I am a pack rat. This information is filed under each child’s name. Maybe someday I’ll part with the crayon pictures and early compositions with unique spelling, but not yet.)

I presented their books of memories as a 50th birthday gift. This was only possible because my children were consistent letter writers -- and I saved every one. In the

past, biographers and histo-rians have found old letters to be invaluable in revealing the personality of the writers. Today, people rarely write long letters. Most communi-cation is by cell phone, tex-ting or e-mail, and the mes-sages are not usually saved. What a shame! Maybe I’ll

focus on organizing another area of my cluttered life but for now my correspondence files are off limits. That’s the power of the written word!

Contact Mary Jo [email protected]

Mary Jo Shannon

Community | news | Perspective540-400-0990

Publisher | Stuart Revercomb | [email protected] News Editor | Gene Marrano | [email protected]

Production Editor | Leigh Sackett | [email protected] Technical Webmaster | Don Waterfield | [email protected]

Advertising Director | Vickie Henderson | [email protected]

Mixed Tales From Hither and YonWalking out from

our ER, a small, old lady lends an

arm to her husband, a little aged man. I pause and watch them.

Perhaps all of our lives are a story quilt; we move from one frame to the next; and then we are done. Perhaps the art of getting old involves the ability to sew things up; to mend our circumstances so that although not like new - not quite what we’d hoped for - they’re mend-ed; pretty good. Pretty good for what we’ve got.

...A friend of ours lost her

mother recently. Our friend had bought her son a balloon; they were walking along. The son lost grip on his balloon; mother and son watched it soar out of sight. He turned to his mom and asked, “How long before

it gets to grand mommy?” A child’s gift; a child’s question.

They came home and the lit-tle one noticed for the first time his grandmother’s car parked in the road where it had been for several weeks. “I thought you told me grand mommy was in heaven; what’s her car doing here?

...One of my reception-

ists told me this story. An elderly couple sat near her desk waiting to sign into the ER. The wife’s face reflected a cloy-ing sorrow; the type never far from the heart; a `thing is com-ing, and I don’t want it to be, but it’s coming anyway’ kind of sorrow.

Her husband’s face was ques-tioning, confused. As my re-

ceptionist listened, the husband asked the wife, “Tell me when we met. I can‘t remember.” Dark, lonely bells began to toll.

Who reasons closely on such matters? Well, I do for one.

`Make a fool of your-self: try to answer the unanswerable,’ my mind says. Why should such things happen, I am drawn to wonder, at the same time over-taken with the futility of trying.

Durant cautions, “This feeble brain [of

ours] that aches at a little calcu-lus; see how it falters before the infinite.”

Then there’s me with this rest-less inquiry of mine - this petty conceit - needing to under-stand. Seeking final truths, we know little and believe much;

we make the trip bare-foot; and most of the time, half-lost. Yet, there are those who need to try to put it all together.

...“I believe in angels. It almost

destroyed me when my dog died. I buried him just outside my kitchen window; just to keep him near me. I set up a small cross. That night, I went through the house to lock up. I walked into the dark kitchen to take a last look. A circle of soft moonlight cradled the grave of my old friend. And then, a but-terfly lit on the little cross and just sat there.”

My friend paused in her story and asked me, “Lucky, when is the last time you saw a butterfly at midnight?”

..."In every seed [and every

person] lies the promise of a

flower."This gives rise to the thought:

Be careful whom you ignore or slight. It might be an angel come to help you...... or an angel in the making.

There is a story told of an an-cient monastery reduced from glory by time and dissent to a total population of five friars.

The head of this monastery went into the woods to seek the advice of a wise old hermit as to how best to re-invigorate his be-loved order.

The old hermit told him that he [the hermit] had had a vision about the five friars. In that vi-sion he `saw' that one of the five remaining friars was the Mes-siah come back to earth.

The friar related the hermit's vision upon returning to the monastery whereupon a won-drous thing began to occur: the

friars started treating each other as very special people, any one of whom might be Jesus as yet unrevealed.

The dilapidated monastery took on such a congenial and loving atmosphere that visitors began to come - and many of them stayed on - and the order flourished once again.

The story might be fiction; its moral most surely is not.

Look for Lucky’s books locally and on-line: The Oath of Hippo-crates; The Cotillian; A Journey Long Delayed.

Lucky Garvin

Contact Lucky Garvin [email protected]

Holistic Wellness &Motivational Fitness

Looking for Solutions to help with your

NEW YOU NEW YEAR Now is the time to schedule a One on One Free 45 minute Consultation with a Certi�ed Holistic Coach and or Wellness Trainer.Special Solution Pricing for 2012 50% o� $600.00 -$300.00 savings..Call HWMFITNESS and speak with your Coach at 540-312-4861

Resolutions.

Laura Gentile - Holistic Coach - 540.312.4861www.holisticwellnessandmotivational�tness.com


Don’t worry... we won’t tell your kids how much you love living here!SM

4920 Woodmar Dr. SW Roanoke, VA 24018

540-989-9501www.parkoakgrove.com

SM

Independent & Assisted Living

My kids think I’m Having a

Sponge Bath!


Sponge Bath!


Sponge Bath!

Independent & Assisted LivingIndependent & Assisted Living

SMSM

Salem Man To Run 100 Mile Ultra-Marathon for Asian Animals

Joseph Teh of Salem will par-ticipate in the 100 mile ultra-marathon, “Long Haul” January 21-January 22, 2012 in Wesley Chapel, FL to raise funding and awareness for an international non-profit animal welfare orga-nization, Animals Asia (www.animalsasia.org).

In parts of Asia endangered moon bears are cruelly farmed for their bile. The sweet and sentient animals are kept in tiny “crush cages” without enough space to turn around, and are kept alive with catheters (or sometimes just an open hole) painfully implanted in their ab-domens. The bears are subject-ed to this excruciating existence for as long as 30 years.

Through its End Bear Farm-ing program, Animals Asia works with government and farmers to end this practice, and bring rescued bears to Moon Bear rescue centers in China and Vietnam where they can spend the rest of their lives in safety.

Born in Penang, Malaysia,

Joseph Teh chose Animals Asia as the organization he wants to support with his ultra-mara-thon run, “…because [Animals Asia] is working against some of the most cruel practices that I’ve ever seen in my life…. It is also creating an awareness of compassion towards all animals among the Asian public.”

He says that knowing his ef-fort is going to help the animals helps him to complete the chal-lenging task, “The pain I endure

is nothing compared to what the bears go through. Seeing free and happy rescued bears is priceless compared to any race prizes.”

Joseph Teh grew up in Ma-laysia before coming to the US in 1997 to study computer en-gineering. He currently resides in Salem with his wife and 4 rescued cats. .

Blue Ridge Marathon Ramps Up Activities for 2012

New Sponsors, Art Contest, Down By Downtown Music Festival, Pasta Dinner and more.

Organizers of the National College Blue Ridge Marathon and Half Marathon have an-nounced that Foot Levelers, a Roanoke-based manufacturer of custom orthotics would be join-ing the race as a primary spon-sor in 2012 along with Ferrum College and Scott Insurance.

“We are pleased to have Foot Levelers come on board as an Overlook sponsor for the event. Not only are they a Roanoke-based company, but also clearly there is a strong connection be-tween marathon running and the benefits of orthotics. This is a natural partnership,” said Pete Eshelman, chairman of the Marathon.

“Foot Levelers is proud to be part of an event that engages the community in so many ways,” said Foot Levelers Vice President for Marketing Chuck Carver. “It’s also a wonderful way to show the rest of the world the Valley’s wonderful natural beauty and vibrant downtown,” he added. “We are anxious to show the running community the value of our products, which can improve running efficency.”

Foot Levelers will sponsor a pasta dinner for participants and their families to be held the evening before the run, and will also be the title sponsor for the race expo to be held at the Taubman Museum of Art. Dr. Tim Maggs, a chiropractor who specializes in running and has helped in the training of several NCAA Division I and profes-sional runners, will be one of the speakers at the pasta dinner.

Ferrum College will be join-

ing the event as this year’s marathon mile marker spon-sor. “Ferrum College has long felt that we needed a stronger presence in the Roanoke Val-ley,” said Vice President for In-stitutional Advancement Kim Blair. “This is an opportunity for Ferrum to show its support of the Valley and to play a role in a wonderful outdoor event that draws people from all over the country.”

Scott Insurance also joined as a sponsor. The Lynchburg-based insurance company will sponsor a water stop and several mile markers on the half mara-thon course.

Organizers also announced that they are partnering with the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge for an art contest. The winning entry will be used for the marathon and half mara-thon t-shirts, posters, and other print and promotional materi-als. Entries, due by January 30, should reflect the beauty and/or difficulty of the race’s desig-nation as America’s Toughest Road Marathon. Additional

details are available at www.blu-eridgemarathon.com.

Although it was partially rained out last year, the Mara-thon is looking forward to a continued partnership with the Down By Downtown music fes-tival. The festival includes four days, over 50 bands, including live music Friday night and Saturday night in the race fin-ish area. For more information please see the Down By Down-town Facebook page.

Returning this year will be the 26.2 jpeg photo contest, the YMCA Kids Marathon, walk-ing options for the half mara-thon and team options for the full event and the Roanoke Criterium Bike Race. Volunteer support will be coordinated and provided in part by the Rotary Clubs of the Roanoke Valley.

Though the course will not be altered significantly from the 2011 version, which featured 7,200 feet of elevation change, the starting line will be moved to Jefferson Avenue, to accom-modate the large number of runners.

A Life of Service and Love for Animals Remembered

Ann Marie Sweeney of Roanoke lost her battle with cancer on Tuesday, January 14th. Ann Marie was known to many as the Foster Coor-dinator for the RVSPCA, a position she held for nearly 5 years. She began her tenure at the RVSPCA as a volunteer and then as a member of the kennel staff.

Ann Marie will be remem-bered as the heart and soul behind the foster program. She knew that the only chance many infant or orphaned ani-mals had would be if they could be cared for tempo-rarily by others in the com-munity. Foster care was also the answer for adult animals needing time to recuperate from injuries or illnesses, or those needing extra social-

ization and TLC before they could be ready to be members of a family. Because of her determination, development of the program became a pri-ority for the RVSPCA. More than 5,000 animals received their second chance in foster care because of Ann Marie's dedication to the animals and the families opening their

homes to help. She celebrat-ed the successes and grieved for the little ones who didn't make it, but found comfort in the knowledge that they were loved and in a home, even for a short time.

Ann Marie's commitment to the welfare of animals was a personal as well as profes-sional passion. Before com-ing to Roanoke, she had been involved with the Animal Refuge League in Maine, adopting four dogs from that organization. After moving to Roanoke, she sought out the RVSPCA, first as a volunteer and then as a key member of the staff. She and her husband, Chris, fostered more than 80 animals, often caring for those suffering from illness or injury. That number does not include the pups or kittens that she took home with her for a night or a weekend until a foster could be found. She was adept at bottle feeding, pushing medicines and flu-ids, and nursed many back to health. Out of all the animals cared for in her home, eight found their permanent home with her.

It would be impossible to calculate the number of lives that have been touched by Ann Marie's work with the RVSPCA. In honor of those lives, and in her memory, a fund has been established - the Ann Marie Sweeney Me-morial Foster Fund - to help further expand the foster care program. Funds will be used for supplies, veterinary care, and other expenses associated with the program. Any dona-tions received in Ann Marie's memory will be designated for that purpose.

For more information on donating or adopting call 540-339-WAGS (9247) or visit www.rvspca.org.

Ann Marie Sweeney

Runners in last year’s marathon traverse a ridge.

A Moon Bear enjoys lunch on a bamboo swing.

ESTMINSTERPresbyterian Church in America

2216 Peter’s Creek Road

COME JOIN US

BEGINNING FEBRUARY 21AT 10:00 A.M & 7:00 P.M.CHILD CARE AVAILABLE

CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION:562-0924

B e t h M o o r eSeries on James

sPorts 12/30/11 -1/5/11 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |

Is your team not getting enough coverage? Please send in your pictures and relevant

subject / game info and we’ll feature the next week! [email protected] - Deadline is 5PM Tuesday.

WADO-KI KARATE2012 Fitness Special

BUY ONE GET ONEPurchase one month of Wado-Ki Karatefor $60.00 & get the second month FREE!

O�er expires January 31, 2012

Class Locations:Roanoke, Salem & Christiansburg

Youth Classes: 5-9 years oldAdult Classes: 10 years old & up

(Call for class times)

SENSEI TOM RAMSEY4TH DEGREE BLACK BELT

CALL 540-309-3416 WWW.TOMSKARATE.COM

Get Back In Shape AND Lose Weight

Data TransfersTrainingDisaster RecoveryWireless Setup and Security

www.bridgebyte.com Bridgebyte Computers LLC

100 DiagnosticTesting

4341 Starkey Road • 540-774-0171

$

Cave Spring Downs Blacksburg 59-53 In River Ridge ShowdownCave Spring vaulted to a

31-24 halftime lead on the shoulders of Amin Abuhaw-was' five three-pointers, and the Knights held on to defeat Blacksburg 59-53 in a key River Ridge matchup Fri-day night at the Cave Spring gym.

Blacksburg managed to close to within a single point in the fourth quarter, but Cave Spring secured the vic-tory with strong free throw shooting down the stretch.

Abuhawwas led the Cave Spring scoring with 25 points. Senior Aaron Cupp added 9 for the Knights, including 7-for-7 from the free throw line, to help anchor a bal-anced Cave Spring attack that saw nine players hit the scor-ing column.

Cave Spring #52 Jordan Bry-ant (center in white) battles for a rebound against Bruins #4 Dane Leehman and #3 Daniel Stinespring.

Knight senior Ryan Gladfelter connects on a key free throw in the decisive fourth quarter.

Taylor Brings Experience To The Table As Raider's Defensive Coordinator

Wild Bill’s Weekly Sports Roundup

Fourth Quarter Defense Leads PH to 60-54 Win Over Fleming

Scoring droughts can be problematic in the early go-ing. They can be decisive in the fourth quarter.

Such was the play Tuesday night as Patrick Henry held William Fleming scoreless in the first 5:10 of the final quar-ter to down the Colonels 60-54 in the cross-town rivalry at the packed Fleming gym.

Fleming gave the Patriots all they could handle in the first three quarters. The Colonels led 26-20 at the half, with PH never getting to a one-and-one situa-tion in the opening 16 minutes. Fleming was its own enemy,

missing numerous chances at the free throw line that held their lead to six.

Patrick Henry finally got the lead late in the third quarter be-fore Fleming would close with a run to take a two point advan-tage to the final frame.

"At GW last week we got out-worked," Patriot Head Coach Jack Esworthy said after the game. "Tonight we were out-worked in the first half. I begged our guys at the break to pick it up and at least go down fight-ing."

The Patriots responded in the fourth. Down 46-44 to open the final frame, PH picked up its defense and by the time Flem-ing got its first points with 2:50 remaining, the Patriots owned a double-digit lead. Fleming would get to within 3 points down the stretch before Patrick Henry was able to hold on and run out the clock.

"We needed a win badly," Es-worthy added. "Marcus Banks took it over in the fourth quar-

ter. We took bad shots in the first half and good shots in the second half. This is a huge rival-ry game. I'll take a 1-0 win."

"PH is a good ball club," Colonel Head Coach Mickey Hardy noted in the Fleming locker room. "It's a big rivalry and was very competitive. My guys played hard- that's what you want. This game was a 12-round fight, and we fought 11. I told our players PH would make a run at us; in the fourth quarter, they did."

Banks led the Patrick Henry scoring with 18 points, 15 com-ing in the second half. BJ Ham-lett added 16 for the Patriots, with Nick Ollie chipping in 11.

Wliiam Fleming's attack was paced by Warren Craft's 17 points, with Miles Henderson adding 16 for the Colonels.

Fleming's Miles Henderson drives on a PH defender during the fourth quarter Tuesday night.

Colonel leading scorer #30 Warren Craft sinks a free throw against PH Tuesday night.

High school basketball hits the midway point of the rigor-ous district schedules this week, and there’s been a shake-up in the Wild Bill ‘Big-11’ Top-5. District play separates the con-tenders from the pretenders, so let’s take a look at our top local performers.

#1- Patrick Henry: The Patri-ots solidified its hold on the top spot with their come-from-behind 60-54 win over William Fleming Tuesday night. PH (11-3) looks pre-pared to make a strong run in the Western Val-ley District race.

#2- William Flem-ing: The young Colo-nel team gave PH fits before falling at home. Still, Fleming (10-7) proved it can play with the best. Mickey Hardy’s squad will have a lot to say on how teams finish in the ultra-com-petitive Western Valley.

#3- Northside: The Vikings have the football Vikings getting their basketball legs in order, and that only means trouble for the Northside opponents. The Vikings (8-6) had won six in a row before Tuesday night’s loss on the road to 12-1 Blue Ridge leader, Rockbridge County.

#4- Cave Spring: The 9-8 Knights may be the early-season hard-luck story. Cave Spring is 2-3 in River Ridge play with all three losses coming in overtime. That translates into an easy 12-5 record if a shot or two had fall-en. Look for the Knights to be in the mix in the second half of the district run.

#5- Salem: The Spartans hold the final spot at 9-5, with off-court distractions potentially on the horizon. Their River Ridge showdown Tuesday night at Hidden Valley was postponed due to unspecified violations of team protocol.

The infamous mailbag has been bulging at the seams after

its break during the hol-idays, so let’s take a peek at what’s on our reader’s minds from Hokie foot-ball to the ever-popular $50 rare Buffalo gold coin to problems in se-curing the apparently

high-in-demand “re-dem” gadget.

Plus, we salute a college coach who informed the Wild Bill column he’s an avid reader in a descriptive manner.

Dear Wild Bill: Any indica-tion that your offer of a Hokie seance, to rid the much-dis-cussed Tech football curse, will be accepted? (Golden Hokie/ Botetourt)

Answer: Not a word, so far, GH. The offer stands, but I’m not begging.

Dear Toro, Toro: If you Ouija us Tech fans a bowl win, can you throw in one for our basketball team?- we’re 0-3 in the ACC.

(Mable/Rural Retreat)Answer: You bet, Mable. I’ll

give you Hokies a two-fer. Dear Numismatic Bill: The

price on those $50 Gold Buffalo coins you recently mentioned have now dropped in price to $9.95 on the late-night TV ads. Should I invest in a safe or vault? (Art/Roanoke)

Answer: You’re right, Art- they’re down to $9.95 plus S&H. I called the toll-free number and heard a recording that said the value of these coins has gone as high as $ 3900 each. Wonder why they sell ‘em so cheap? You don’t need a safe - more like a Brinks truck. I’m calling Shake-speare next. There’s something rotten in Denmark.

Dear Tidy-Bowl Bill: I can’t find the redem gadget that plucks out toilet paper rollers dropped in the commode. Any retail outlets you’re aware of? (Violet/Bedford)

Answer: I checked at the dol-lar store and they are temporar-ily out of stock. Should be in by mid-February.

Finally, a tip of the hat to VWCC Head Basketball Coach Ed Green, who stopped me to say he loved this column’s lev-ity. Frankly, I don’t know what this column has to do with the Earth’s pull, but ...... oh, wait ... that’s gravity. I think levity has something to do with dough rising, so I’m still confused.

Anyway, I recommend checking out the Blue Stars next home game Sat. Feb. 4th at the Colonial Avenue campus. Tip-off is at 3:30 against the West Virginia University Club team. There will be good basketball, and that’s a certainty.

See you next week. Send your questions to: [email protected]

By Bill Turner [email protected]


Bill Turner


Shannon Taylor obviously has a head for football, and the expe-rience at various levels to back it up.

The former University of Vir-ginia and NFL linebacker shared his background Monday night as the featured speaker at the Roa-noke Valley Sports Club meeting at the Salem Civic Center.

The monthly gathering hon-ored the state championship North Cross football team as well as the state championship Cave Spring volleyball team.

Taylor is the current defen-sive coordinator for North Cross head coach Stephen Alexander's squad that defeated Norfolk Christian Academy in Novem-ber for the VIC Division-3 state title.

Taylor began his playing days locally at Patrick Henry High School where his primary po-sition was quarterback for the Patriots in the early-90s. After a one-year stint at prep-school Fork Union Military, he signed with UVa to play under long-time Cavalier head coach George Welch.

Taylor said one his best in-fluences at Patrick Henry came from PH basketball coach Woody Deans. "He taught me how to shake a man's hand and look him in the eye."

At UVa, Taylor noted Welch gave him the opportunity to choose from five positions. "In the end, I had playing time at linebacker and defensive end," Taylor said. "Those were some great days in UVA football-at one point we were ranked 6th in the nation and playing some of the best teams in the country. I played with guys like Anthony Poindexter as well as Tiki and

Ronde Barber.Taylor was drafted in the 6th

round of the NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers before set-ting out on a NFL career that spanned 2000-2003 with the Chargers, Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Taylor noted his time with Baltimore was the highlight of his NFL career. "At Baltimore, it was an amazing experience. I had fun and played with some very talented guys." Taylor said he played primarily on special teams for the Ravens.

"The NFL is a tough business," Taylor points out. " It's all about what have you done for me late-ly."

In addition to being the Raid-er defensive coordinator, Taylor currently coaches basketball in various programs to contribute to the development of young athletes and their character. "There's a ton of good athletes out there," Taylor notes. "For any school there's a constant- they want good people first."

The Roanoke Valley Sports Club meets monthly with distin-guished speakers from all areas of the sports world. For informa-tion about attending or joining, contact Tom Marchi (588-2969) or Dave Ross (774-1080).


(L-R) Shannon Taylor with North Cross head coach Stephen Alexander and Raider players Paul Ross, Chris Shelton and Thomas Weaver.

valley Business | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 1/20/12 -1/26/12 newsRoanoke.com

THOMSONL AW F I R M , P L L C

Defective Products- Automobile Accidents-Animal Attacks- Nursing Home Neglect

540-777-4900 or 877-471-33532721 Brambleton Ave. S.W.

Roanoke, VA 24015www.roanokeinjurylawyer.com

For more information, contact us:

Nursing Home Neglect?Assisted Living Negligence?

If you don’t �ght for quality carefor your loved one, who will?

• Bed sores • Falls/Fractures• Wandering • Malnutrition/Dehydration• Wrongful death • Poor care/staffingAttorney Paul �omsonprotecting the rights & dignity of our eldersthrough the Civil Justice SystemFree initial consultation,Call 540-777-4900Or visit www.roanokeinjurylawyer.com

1-800-990-4828 n bankatunion.com

BudgetLive Rep Rewards ATMsLocationsMobile Online PersonalTouch

Bill Pay BusinessTools

FREE CHECKING

Union’s Free Checking is totally free. That means there’s no fine print, no per-item or monthly maintenance fees and no minimum balance requirements, so all your money is working for you. Best of all, by having free access to so many ways to manage your money, you have the control you need to bank when, where and how you want. To get more bank for your bucks, stop by for free checking and enjoy so much more!

With Free Make-It-Mine®

Debit Cards

Member FDIC

®

MORE BANKFOR YOUR BUCKS

Roanoke Star Sent 5.37x10.indd 1 12/16/11 1:28:36 PM

National–College.edu

Roanoke Valley Campus1813 E Main St Salem, VA 24153

888.202.2643

It’s possible for you too. Call, click, or come in... We’ll show you how.

I work full-time.

I want to advance my career.

I am a face of National College.

National College’s flexible class schedules made it possible for me.

To help maintain your quality of life

COMPANIONHOME CARE

as you know it at home.

www.companionhomecareofva.com

Non-Medical Senior Home

AssistanceSCREENED • BONDED • INSURED • LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED

A Better Class of Companion for a Better Quality of Life

There Is An App. For ThatWith over 14,000 smart

phone/tablet applications and counting, it can be difficult to sort through them for the best ones to aide you in your fitness efforts. There are 1,046 just on Amazon.com alone under a Health & Fitness listing. Here are a few that I have found to be helpful. Some are free; some have a charge; and some are just for fun. I have no interest in the companies or the developers other than, like you, I want use-ful tools. Always consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise plan. I am not endorsing any particular site or program. This is for informa-tional purposes only.

My Fitness Pal- Available on the iPhone, Android and Black-berry this app is free and has several components. You can use it as a food journal or an exercise journal or both. There is an online community to share your story and learn from oth-ers. There is a purported data-base of 1million foods. You take it with you on your phone so there are no excuses for not be-ing able to make an entry.

Fitness Builder- Available for Android, web and IOS this is free for the first month then $10 thereafter depending on which program is chosen. You can make a customized workout for yourself based on your age, gen-der and fitness level. It’s like hav-ing a personal trainer with you any time day or night 7 days a week. You can choose workouts with or without equipment. It will track your progress for you. There are versions available for the general public, athletes and fitness/health professionals.

Fat Secret- An online journal and community for all things diet related. There is a calorie counting app for Android and a web-based diet and food jour-nal, weight history graph and community. It is free. You can use it anonymously or allow others to see your entries and journal for feedback and sup-port. It doesn’t endorse any par-ticular program or diet.

Candle Free- This is a virtual lit candle that will flicker when you move your device. I found it on the Amazon.com app store. Dining should be an event and

what better way to make it spe-cial then by candle light.

Studies consistently show that we forget 40% of what we eat in a day. Keeping a journal will help with the food “amnesia” and keep you on track. A food journal will also serve as a re-minder of what you consume; if your diet is balanced; and where you need to make changes. An exercise journal will serve as a tool for you to track your prog-ress and keep you motivated.

Be sure you are visiting reli-able websites for answers to your medical and health ques-tions. Don’t believe everything you see on the internet. There is a better chance of accurate in-formation from the Mayo Clinic than anonymous168 on a com-munity board. Many people will try to “sell” their particular diet or health theories so be careful and do your homework.

Dr. Kenneth Luckay DO is the Medical Director at the Center for Medical Weight Loss located at 4515 Brambleton Ave in Roa-noke. He can be reached at 398-1547 or Email: [email protected].

BUDGET WATCH US Tax Revenue $2,324,811,000,000 (Trillions) Federal Budget $3,818,819,000,000 New Debt $3,629,251,000,000 National debt $15,237,344,000,000 Recent Budget Cut $38,000,000,000 Remove eight (8) Zeros from federal data above as a household budget summary: Annual Household Income $23,248 61% of expenditures Family Expenditures $38,188 164% of income New Debt including Credit Cards $36,293 156% of income Outstanding Household Debt $152,373 655% of annual income Family Budget Cuts $380 .25% (1/4%) of debt

Budget Watch

Junior Achievement’s Bowl-A-Thon Seeks Superheroes

Ready to be a superhero? That’s what more than 7,500 students throughout southwest Virginia are hoping for when bowlers from companies in the region participate in Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia’s annual fund-raising bowl-a-thon.

This year’s 27th annual event

will be held Feb. 18, 19, 25 and 26 at AMF Hilltop Lanes lo-cated at 5918 Williamson Road in Roanoke. Registration is $10 per bowler and covers shoes and three hours of bowling. Partici-pants are also asked to raise at least $35 each to support JA and anyone raising $50 or more will receive a T-shirt.

“Our largest fund-raiser of the year is a chance for businesses, organizations and individuals to step up and be superheroes for the day, teaming up to have a great time while raising money to support programs in schools that empower young people to own their economic success and foster work readiness, entrepre-neurship and financial literacy,” says Katherin Elam, president of JA of Southwest Virginia.

To help make a super day even better, JA is in need of prizes for bowlers – a great mar-keting opportunity at one of the largest bowling fund-raisers in Southwest Virginia.

To sign up your company to bowl, to donate prizes or for more information, please contact Me-lissa at 540-989-6392 or by email [email protected].

Fixing Amazon Loophole Number One Issue For Retail Business Community

The Virginia Retail Merchants Association (VRMA), a business organization representing more than 5400 retailers and other as-sociated businesses in Virginia, called fixing the Amazon sales tax loophole the number one priority for the retail business community in Virginia.

“Retailers in Virginia need a level playing field to compete in a free market economy,” said Ken Vaughan, Chairman of the VRMA Board and District Vice President of Peebles in South Hill, Virginia. “Closing the Am-azon loophole is the single most important legislative priority for the 2012 Virginia General As-sembly. Small companies like mine are struggling to compete against online retailers like Ama-zon that don’t play by the same rules as others with a physical presence in the state.”

Under Virginia law, retail companies are required to col-lect and remit state sales and use taxes when they have a physical presence in the state. Amazon

has avoided collecting and re-mitting sales taxes in a number of states, including Virginia, by implementing a complex corpo-rate structure with subsidiary-like companies. With revenues from internet sales rising rapidly, states are quickly acting to close the Amazon loophole. Eight states have passed legislation in the past two years and gover-nors in four states have reached agreements with Amazon to have them begin remitting in the future.

Mitch Daniels of Indiana be-came the latest governor to enter into a voluntary agreement with Amazon to begin collecting the sales tax no later than January 1, 2014 in exchange for Amazon not being responsible for poten-tially uncollected past sales taxes. Governor Daniels stated that the annual loss of revenue to Indiana from Amazon alone is between $20-25 million per year. Some analysts have suggested that Am-azon’s tax structure may violate state tax collection laws. In 2010,

the Texas Comptroller assessed Amazon $269 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. The conservative Texas legislature passed legislation last year clos-ing the Amazon loophole.

“Fixing this sales tax loophole will mean more Virginia jobs over the long-term. Numerous studies have shown that bricks and mortar retail stores employ significantly more people than internet retailers on a per reve-nue basis. Local retail stores also give back to their communities by volunteering with local orga-nizations and making charitable contributions,” said Laurie Al-drich, President of the VRMA.

The Virginia Retail Merchants Association was established in 1905. VRMA is a not-for-profit trade association represent-ing retailers to educate, inform, and serve as a resource. VRMA and its retail member associa-tions represent more than 5,400 retailers and other associated businesses throughout the Com-monwealth of Virginia.

540-776-9591

REPAIRS – NEW SALES - EXPERTS

Steven W. Durrance Floors

carpetroanoke.com Licensed & Insured

arts & culturenewsRoanoke.com 1/20/12 -1/26/12 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |

Sammy G. Oakey, PreSident • www.OakeyS.cOm • 982-2100rOanOke, nOrth, VintOn, SOuth and eaSt chaPelS

Where do you turnwhen you have questions?

Of course you can pick up the phone and call us, any time of day or night, and someone will be there to answer your questions. Did you know however, that our website is full of information? At www.oakeys.com, you will find answers to commonly asked questions, service options, merchandise, pre-planning information and even grief resources. You can count on us, when you have questions.

Oakey’s has been here for over 100 years because we are dedicated to the families we serve.

Did you Know

Come & see what’s freshWe o�er the latest in cuts, coloring

straightening, nails and spa services

Visit our new location & experiencethe ultimate in pampering.

1121 East Main Street | Salem, VA 24153540-389-5700

The Other Family Doctor

PETBATHINGany size pet

only

$19.95*Free Nail Trim

PETS WITHHEALTHY

TEETHLIVE LONGER

Call aboutDental

Specials*

ANNIVERSARYSPECIAL*

Any Vaccinefor

$19.95Free Exam &

Free Nail Trim

* Limited time o�er and with this ad only

904-22292133 Electric Rd, Roanokewww.petvetroanoke.com

HeartwormPrevention

as low as $3.99

2011 had a rather interest-ing year for the movies that came out during Christmas. While there are usually plenty of light-hearted Christmas movies every year, this year featured a variety of more ma-ture movies like "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "War Horse." Unfortunately, there weren’t many good films for kids to see with the exception of one movie: "We Bought a Zoo." Directed by Oscar-win-ner Cameron Crowe after a six-year hiatus, "We Bought a Zoo" does make for entertainment that will please kids and some parents, but ultimately fails to come up with anything new to please moviegoers looking for deeper material.

The film focuses on the true story of Benjamin Mee, a struggling father of two kids whose wife recently died. De-ciding to start a new life with his children, he ends up mov-ing them to a struggling zoo, where Benjamin works with the zookeepers to try and turn things around. If you’ve seen the trailers for "We Bought a Zoo," you’ll notice that is treads on very familiar territory when it comes to characters and plot points. From the romances to the financial situation of the

zoo that is miraculously solved, this film is extremely predict-able from beginning to end.

I don’t mean to be harsh on a movie that is targeted for kids and is meant to be a feel-good movie, but the movie has very little creativity or anything interesting to offer. This is a rather by-the-numbers film that borrows every plot point and every bittersweet/uplifting moment that is in every drama nowadays. There is nothing original here.

Another glaring issue with the movie is how strangely uneven it is at times. There are some characters that are very out-of-place in this movie, par-ticularly a goofy realtor that somehow makes Eddie Mur-phy look subtle in comparison.

The score of the movie, while admittedly the most creative aspect of this film, is rather over-the-top at times. It sounds less like music from a drama and more like something from “The Lion King.” There are also a few moments where Benja-min imagines seeing his wife that seem like they were taken out of a fantasy film, and the way the movie presents it is even more jarring than the music in the background. For a

simple film about a father rais-ing his children in a zoo, issues like these stand out in a bad way.

While the storytelling is flawed, the performances in the movie are fairly good. Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson both give good leading per-formances and share a decent amount of chemistry. Thomas Haden Church is enjoyable with the screen time he has, and obviously Benjamin’s daughter is going to get a lot of “awww’s” and laughs from people.

There is some decent execu-tion here, but overall the film is just forgettable. It borrows many elements from other dramas that were done better in those films, and you’ll likely leave the theater with a “been there, done that” feeling. The beating heart in other films like this just isn’t here, and though this film does make for harm-less entertainment for kids, there won’t be much worth remembering when the adven-ture is over.

Rating: 5/10 (Very Average)

By Seth Childers [email protected]

The Reel Deal: “We Bought a Zoo” Mostly Disappoints

Ferrum College and Virginia Western Sign Articulation Agreement

Agreement will ease transfer of Virginia Western A.A.S. Administration of Justice students to Ferrum College's Criminal Justice B.S./B.A. Degree Program.

Ferrum College President Jennifer Braaten and Virginnia Western Community College President Robert Sandel signed an Agreement of Articulation this week to facilitate the trans-fer of students from Virginia Western's Administration of Justice Associate of Applied Science degree program to Fer-rum College's Criminal Justice Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts degree program. The agreement, signed during a cer-emony at Ferrum College, guar-antees that Ferrum will accept Virginia Western students who successfully earn their AAS Ad-ministration of Justice degree and meet outlined criteria.

"As educators we all need to make student success and em-ployment readiness a high prior-ity and that can mean removing barriers to higher aspirations," says Braaten. "Two-year colleges are doing a tremendous job in encouraging so many of their students to seek higher goals. Our objective at Ferrum is to smooth the transition for these transfer students. This collabo-ration with Virginia Western will help achieve that aim."

The articulation agreement ensures that Ferrum College will transfer credit for all Virginia Western Administration of Jus-tice courses completed success-fully with a grade of C or above

at the 100-200 level, excluding SDV College Skills Courses, even when the student has not completed the Associate De-gree. Virginia Western students who successfully complete 56 hours with a grade of C or above will be admitted to Ferrum Col-lege with junior status.

"This agreement provides our students with a seamless route to continue their higher educa-tion and gain the knowledge

and skills that they will need in the workforce," said Sandel. "Virginia Western is apprecia-tive that it has such an outstand-ing partner in Ferrum College so we can continue to deliver opportunities like this to our students."

Interested Virginia Western students should contact Ferrum College's office of Admissions for more information.

Historical Society Of Western Virginia Release New Publication

Nineteenth-Century Brick Architecture in the Roanoke Valley and Beyond: Discovering the True Legacies of the Deyerle Builders by Michael J. Pulice

The Historical Soci-ety of Western Virginia has released its latest regional history offer-ing: Nineteenth-Century Brick Architecture in the Roanoke Valley and Beyond: Discovering the True Legacies of the Dey-erle Builders by Michael J. Pulice, Kegley Publica-tions of the Historical So-ciety of Western Virginia, 188 pages, $35.

The Deyerle Build-ers is the culmination of ten years of research and writing by architectural historian, Michael Pu-lice. Mr. Pulice currently works for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Western Regional Office and is a renowned brick expert. Not only does Pulice identify build-ings and houses that were built by the Deyerles, he finally lays to rest which generation should be credited with specific structures. According to Gray, In setting

the stage for his analysis of their work in bricks and mortar, the author sketches the cast of char-acters, with emphasis on the Deyerle builders, in neat mono-graphs, fleshing out each of these craftsmen and their families with obvious affection, drawing

from anecdote and many original sources.

In addition to telling the story of this remark-able family of builders and architects, Pulice also provides a lesson in ma-sonry and brick-making that is a valuable resource for researchers, educators, architects and history enthusiasts. Again from Gray, in his quest for the Deyerles True Legacies, Pulice explores the ar-cane, finer points of 19th-century antebellum con-struction in brick. A slim chapter, Brick Masonry, covers all aspects of how bricks were produced before mechanization, and relates that technol-ogy to early construction

techniques. This section is "the

mortar which holds together the bricks" that make True Legacies such a valuable resource.

The book is available for pur-chase at the History Museum of Western Virginia and the O’ Winston Link Museum. It can also be purchased online at www.vahistorymuseum.org

For a limited time Kegley Publications is offering a special discount when you purchase three of our books Nineteenth-Century Brick Architecture in the Roanoke Valley and Beyond: Discovering the True Legacies of the Deyerle Builders ($35), Edward Beyers Travels Through America ($35), and Architectur-al History of the Roanoke Valley ($20) at a 15% discount.

For more information or to purchase please call 540.342.5770 or email [email protected]

Q T CQuality Tub Care

UglyBath Tub?

Complete Bathroom Remodeling

Remove Old Tub and Install New Tubor Walk in Shower

From Chip Repairs toComplete Re�nshing

Call Now: 992-2406 or Visit Us at www.qualitytubcare.com

(Seated left to right) Virginia Western Community College President Robert Sandel; Ferrum College President Jennifer Braaten(Standing left to right) Virginia Western Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs Tresia Samani; Ferrum College Provost and Executive Vice President Leslie Lambert; Virginia Western Dean of Humanities Elizabeth Wilmer; Ferrum Col-lege Program Coordinator and Associate Professor of Criminal Justice William "Dub" Osborne, Jr.; Virginia Western Criminal Justice Program Head Jeri Barnett; and Ferrum College Regis-trar Yvonne Walker

The Deyerle Builders by Michael J. Pullice


American Life in Poetry

540.265.35554802 Valley View Blvd. NW

w w w . A b u e l o s . c o m

Daily4pm-7pmSun - Fri

Specials

TapasStarting at$1.50

Including

Our size fits all.

&B ox e r s B r i e f s

Whether your arena is a courtroom or boardroom, our attorneys have the dedication, experience and knowledge to offer comprehensive, creative legal counsel for businesses and individuals. Building upon a foundation of integrity and professional responsibility, we recognize that being client-based means being community focused. GFD&G takes pride in its reputation as a responsible corporate citizen and community contributor. As the only Meritas affiliated firm in SW Virginia, GFD&G can provide personalized service with worldwide coverage. When it comes time to suit up…

www.gfdg.com | Roanoke, Virginia | 540.224.8000

Don Lilly Agency

www.donlillyagency.com 540-989-1931

Call:

MEDIA

[email protected]

www.carlinagency.com

marketingmeets

life

ADVERTISING

PUBLIC RELATIONS

MARKETING

Roanoke Places Second on List of Cities With “Most Sensitive Men”

For all the women who decided to seek only "sensitive men" as part of their 2012 resolu-tions, Chemistry.com has revealed the Top 10 Cities to Find a Sensitive Man to help ladies ev-erywhere find a keeper this year- and Roanoke nabbed the #2 spot.

The list, which is based on Chemistry.com user data, revealed that the most sensitive men in America can be found in cities that are also popular vacation destinations with hot spots in Florida and California making the list. Top 10 cities include:

1. Pompano Beach, Florida 2. Roanoke, Virginia 3. West Hollywood, California 4. Nashville, Tennessee 5. Buffalo, New York 6. Sarasota, Florida 7. Greenville, South Carolina 8. Wilmington, North Carolina 9. Indianapolis, Indiana Midwest10. Staten Island, New York

In contrast, those who are looking for less sensitivity can go to Ann Arbor, Michigan which was ranked the least likely city to find a sensitive man.

According to Dr. Helen Fisher, Chief Scien-tific Advisor to Chemistry.com, these 10 cities are packed with "a certain kind of man, what I call Builders . . . .They deeply value loyalty, duty, respectability and proper moral conduct and go way out of their way to keep their social relationships running smoothly. So they watch, listen, and gauge what they need to do to help others and they do it naturally. It's these chival-rous qualities that make a sensitive man."

Additional data on this ranking can be found on Chemistry.com's official blog.

I walked out, and the nest was already there by the step. Woven basket of a saint sent back to life as a bird who proceeded to make a mess of things. Wind right through it, and any eggs long vanished. But in my hand it was intricate pleasure, even the thorny reeds

softened in the weave. And the fading leaf mold, hardly itself anymore, merely a trick of light, if light can be tricked. Deep in a life is another life. I walked out, the nest already by the step.

Nest

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Poet Marianne Boruch of Indiana finds a bird’s nest near her door. It is the simplest of discoveries, yet she uses it to remind us

that what at first seems ordinary, even “made a mess of,” can be miraculously transformed upon careful reflection.

the roanoke star-sentinel

Documents

roanoke vawww

project design

main entrances

design turns bullitt

roanoke neighborhood

roanoke city councils

people parking

arts walk