Holiday deadlinesShopper News will be on an

abbreviated schedule for this week and next.

Ad and copy deadlines are noon Thursdays, Dec. 24 and Dec. 31. Papers will be deliv-ered as usual on Wednesdays, Dec. 30 and Jan. 6.

Also, we are changing our offi ce setup in both Halls and Farragut. Details to follow.

Meanwhile, if you need us, just call Sandra Clark at 865-661-8777 and we’ll make what-ever you need/want happen.

We appreciate everyone who reads the Shopper. Your time is limited, and we strive to give you a product that’s worth reading.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Shopper News!

Kwanzaa launches at Global Cafe

Divine Urban eXpressions Arts N Dance @TLI invites all to attend a community coming together celebration on the fi rst day of Kwanzaa, 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 26, at the Global Outlook Cafe, 716 20th Street and Cumberland Ave. (attached to Stefano’s Pizza). Tony Brown says there’s free parking behind the building. Bring your favorite African dish or soul food and a home-made gift to exchange.

Donations are appreciated in support of the family Of Lecresha Carter, age 19, who passed away Dec. 12 after a long illness.

To RSVP, request transpor-tation, or donate, call 865-306-7070 or Miss Audrey at 865-237-7355.

7049 Maynardville Pike 37918

(865) 922-4136

NEWS

news@ShopperNewsNow.com

Sandra Clark | Bill Dockery

ADVERTISING SALESads@ShopperNewsNow.com

Patty Fecco | Tony Cranmore

Beverly Holland | Amy Lutheran

To page 3

VOL. 3 NO. 51 December 23, 2015www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow

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Meagan Langford, Adam Humphreys, Andy Lane, Jenny Burgett, Jackson

Hullander, Jordan Simmons, Laura Stair and Debbie Stair, dressed as

residents of the Island of Misfi t Toys, were recognized for their costumes at

the Tour de Lights.

at Tour de LightsFestive fun

By Wendy SmithThere were the usual suspects

at the 9th annual Tour de Lights − Santas, elves and bikes festooned with lights and bows. But there was also a signifi cant Star Wars presence − storm troopers and Darth Vaders − as well as a rare

herd of Christmas zebras.The annual bike ride, sponsored

by the city and the Knoxville Re-gional Bicycle Program, took par-ticipants through downtown, the 4th & Gill neighborhood and Old North Knoxville. The weather was cold, but participation seemed in

line with last year’s event, which drew 1,000.

Because the route was hilly, riders stayed warm, said Angela Wampler of Lenoir City. She par-ticipates in the ride every year with a group of friends, but several “wimped out” this year due to low

temps. She was glad she showed up to win runner-up in the “best helmet” category of the costume competition.

Kelley Segars, principal planner with the Knoxville Regional Trans-

To page 3

Zaevion Dobson left this selfi e

on teacher Russell Mayes’ iPad.

Zaevion Dobson’s death

By Betty BeanClarence Mitchell was “Coach

Scooter,” to Zack and Zaevion Dob-son and their brother Markastin Taylor, and to a lot of other Lons-dale kids whom he coached in city recreation league basketball. Zae-vion wasn’t really old enough to be a Laker, and his chunky physique wasn’t ideally suited to basketball, but Mitchell took Zaevion on as a favor to his hard-working mother, Zenobia “Tinkerbell” Dobson. There was a caveat, though.

“I told her I was going to be hard

must make a diff erence on him, and I told him the same thing – ‘Now don’t you go crying on me.’ He told me he’d work hard, and he did. He worked as hard, if not harder, than the bigger boys, and he stuck with me the whole year and never complained. He became one of my key players off the bench. Tinkerbell trusted me to get the best out of her kids be-cause I didn’t baby them.”

Mitchell was at work last Thurs-day when the dispatcher said there’d been another shooting, but gun violence has become so com-mon that he didn’t get really pay at-tention until he heard it happened in Lonsdale. He messaged a friend, and an hour later, he got the news.

“She said, “One of Tinkerbell’s sons got shot in a drive-by’. My heart just dropped… This is a good mom,

and I was thinking this will kill her because she’s so close to her kids. At that point, I didn’t even know Za-evion had saved a young lady.”

Zaevion, who grew up to line-backer size, got hold of Fulton High School radio broadcasting teacher Russell Mayes’ iPad and left something tangible to remem-ber him by – a smiling selfi e.

Mayes got a chuckle out of it, but now he considers the 15-year-old sophomore’s gentle prank a trea-sured keepsake, a memento mori of the smart, funny kid who’s been proclaimed a national hero after he was killed protecting his friends.

“Our hearts are broken, but they’re fi lled with pride at what he did,” said Mayes, who is also an assistant football coach and over-seer of the school’s student-run ra-

dio station.“There was something that was

special about Zae. The class was kind of small, and he got along well with everybody, even when he was picking on people. It was always done playfully, in friendship and love, and those kind of things stick with people. What people will al-ways remember is that personality. You just knew he was something special, and when he found the key to unlock all that potential, he was going to do something great.”

Millions of people, including the President of the United States, believe Zaevion did something great when he died trying to pro-tect his friends from gunmen who opened fi re on them.

Rogero wants to protect Cal Johnson BuildingMayor Madeline Rogero has

fi led an application for H-1 his-toric overlay protection on the Cal Johnson Building at 301 State St., to ensure the preservation of the three-story 1898 structure.

The brick warehouse was built by its namesake, Cal Johnson, one of Knoxville’s most prominent African-American business and civic leaders throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ac-cording to a city press release.

The application has been fi led with the Metropolitan Planning Commission, and it would take a vote by City Council to enact the H-1 overlay. But even during the appli-cation period, the building is pro-tected against immediate demoli-tion or other adverse action. Mayor

Rogero said city staff want to work with the property owner to protect the building against deterioration and restore it to productive use.

“We have many incentives and tools that have been successfully used by property owners and de-velopers to renovate historic struc-tures throughout downtown and across the city,” Rogero said. “Our intention is not in any way to re-strict the future use of the build-ing, only to ensure that this valu-able piece of Knoxville history is preserved.”

Born to a Knoxville slave fam-ily in 1844, after the Civil War Cal Johnson worked his way up from a cook and bartender to owner of some of the most popular saloons in the city. He also owned the only

horse racing track in Knoxville, un-til the General Assembly outlawed the sport in 1907. Today, Speedway Circle, the site of the track, main-tains its original shape in what is now the Burlington neighborhood near Chilhowee Park.

From 1883 to 1885, Johnson served on the Knoxville Board of Aldermen. In 1906, he donated a house at the corner of Vine and Patton streets to be used as Knox-ville’s fi rst black YMCA building.

In 1898, Johnson constructed what is now known as the Cal Johnson Building on State Street in downtown Knoxville. Built in the Vernacular Commercial style, it was used for some time as a clothing factory. The Cal John-son Building is a rare example of

a large commercial structure builtby a former slave, and is the onlyoriginal building associated withJohnson that is still standing inKnoxville. It has been identifi edrepeatedly by the preservationgroup Knox Heritage as an en-dangered structure on its annualFragile Fifteen list.

Knoxville has recognized John-son’s legacy in several other ways.In 1922, the city established the CalJohnson Park in his honor, at whatis now 507 Hall of Fame Drive, andin 1957 the Cal Johnson RecreationCenter was erected in the park.

Although minimal changeshave been made to it, the CalJohnson Building is threatened bylong-term, ongoing deteriorationand lack of maintenance.

Christine Jessel won the Tour de

Lights costume contest for adults.

That’s her husband, Michael Grid-

er, at right. How did he get his

wife to dress as a tree? “I think the

art of persuasion came into play

when I convinced her to marry

me,” he says. Photo by S. Clark

2 • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • Shopper news

health & lifestyles

Marilla Cable had suffered long enough. After years of on-again, off-again bouts of sciatica, spinal injections and physical therapy, she was ready to take the prover-bial bull by the horns.

“I had done everything, but none of it was working,” said Cable. “So fi nally, I just stood on my doc-tor’s toes and said, ‘We’re doing an X-ray today because I refuse to live like this another day.’

“I had to get this fi xed – I had a life to live,” said Cable, whose job as dispatcher at a Louisville-based charter company is to make sure the buses and limos run on time. “I have Girl Scouts I work with every week, I have three grandchildren. I don’t have time to be down.”

Without hesitation, her primary care doctor ordered the X-ray and didn’t like what he saw. After order-ing an MRI, he wanted to refer her to a new neurosurgeon in town. Ca-ble, however, knew who she wanted – Dr. Joel E. Norman, a neurosur-geon at the Fort Sanders Center for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and the long-time partner of the re-cently retired Dr. William Reid.

“They said, ‘You’ll never get in there,’ but they called and I got in at his Maryville offi ce the next day – the very next day!” said Cable.

“We try to make sure that pa-tients are seen in our offi ce usu-ally within a week of calling,” said Dr. Norman. “We use nurse prac-titioners (NPs) to perform initial patient evaluations on people who have not already undergone the imaging procedures necessary for us, as physicians, to make an accu-rate diagnosis and treatment plan.

My partner (Dr. Barrett Brown) and I are each in the offi ce at some point four days a week and our NPs see patients every day. We do not require a referral to be seen.”

“We often open up additional pa-tient appointment slots in order to take care of our patients in a timely manner. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend a month in agony waiting for a doctor’s appointment, and I try to keep our patients from going through that as well.”

“In this case, we were even able to place Ms. Cable on the surgery schedule within two weeks of her initial evaluation,” Dr. Norman add-ed. “We are committed to providing prompt care for our patients in all aspects of their neurosurgical care.”

If Cable thought that getting an appointment was fast, she was even more startled when Dr. Nor-man scheduled her surgery on June 30, just 11 days later.

According to Dr. Norman, Cable’s clinical history and neurological exam strongly suggested a radicular component to her pain, meaning it was likely originating from a spinal nerve compression. Follow-up X-rays of her lower back confi rmed that there was signifi cant instability at the L4-5 disc space, and the L4 bone was clearly seen to slide forward on L5 when she bent over.

A review of her MRI confi rmed the diagnosis of a spondylolisthe-sis, or slippage, of the L4 vertebrae over the L5. “This signifi cant insta-bility led to the formation of a sy-novial cyst, or ‘outpouching’ of the material providing the cushioning of the joints in the spine,” said Dr. Norman. “This cyst was compress-

ing the nerve roots leaving her spine and running into her leg.”

While Cable ex-pressed some reser-vations about sur-gery, Dr. Norman said she had “reached a point where her pain was no longer tolerable.”

While the tra-ditional, open ap-proach would re-quire a large midline incision in the back, stripping muscle tis-sue away from the bone and placement of large retractors, Dr. Norman offered a minimally invasive surgery known as TLIF (transforami-nal lumbar interbody fusion). The mini-mally invasive ap-proach from Cable’s left side used small incisions around the center of the spine and state-of-the-art intraoperative image guidance to allow for less tis-sue damage and retraction.

During the 3-to-3.5 hour surgery at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, Dr. Norman placed pedicle screws into the L4 and L5 verte-bral bodies on both sides. He then removed the diseased facet joint from the left, and removed the sy-novial cyst. This allowed him to directly visualize the nerves as they leave the spine and ensure that

there was no longer any compression of those nerves. He also passed a probe along the course of the nerve to confi rm no compression was evident, even outside his fi eld of view. The disc between L4 and L5 was then com-pletely removed on both sides. Dr. Nor-man then placed a “cage” or spacer into the disc space to help hold that space open, and put material in the cage to help the patient to grow new bone across this disc space and form a solid fusion.

“Her surgery went very well,” said Dr. Norman. “I was able

to completely decompress the neu-ral compression. In her case, I was even able to bring the vertebral bod-ies back into normal alignment.”

Cable was in the hospital only overnight, but it was long enough that she was impressed by the hospi-tal staff. “When I was in holding and beginning to get woozy I asked them, ‘Could you please pray with me?’ And they did,” she said. “They were just

incredible. They took care of my ev-ery need before I needed it. I was verywell pleased with everyone there. Iwas very impressed. Everyone wasvery nice, very accommodating.They knew I was a little apprehen-sive – they had me in there and put alittle heater blanket on me, and they’dcome by and talk to me and they werejust really, really good.”

By the time of her one-monthfollow-up visit with Dr. Norman,Cable was already feeling better.At her two-month follow-up, sherealized that she had been hurtingeven worse than she fi rst thought.

“When I went back for my three-month visit, Dr. Norman asked whatall I had been doing. “I said, ‘Oh, a lit-tle mountain hiking, a little kayaking,a little paddling my boat and playingleap frog with my granddaughter.’ Hesaid, ‘You were playing leap frog?! Idon’t even play leap frog!’

“I said, ‘All I know is I can walk,I can sit, I can cross my legs and itdoesn’t hurt.’

“I recommended Fort Sandersand Dr. Norman to a friend of minea couple months ago,” Cable added.“I told her that she has to go see Dr.Norman, and she said, ‘I’ll never getin there.’ I said, ‘As soon as I hangup the phone, please call becauseI’ve been praying about this andit will happen.’ She picked up thephone and she got in to see him thevery next day, and she had surgerytwo weeks later. It was amazing.”

For more information aboutthe Center for Minimally In-vasive Spine Surgery at FortSanders Regional, call 865-541-2835 or visit fsregional.com/minimallyinvasive.

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Centerwishes you and your familya wonderful holiday season

and a happ y new year.

fsregional.com • (865) 673-FORT

Marilla Cable is back to hiking, kayaking

and loving an active life after fi nding re-

lief at the Center for Minimally Invasive

Spine Surgery at Fort Sanders Regional

Medical Center.

Time’s awastin’Relief comes quickly for active Maryville outdoorswoman

Meet Dr. Joel Norman – local neurosurgeon and Seymour nativeDr. Joel Norman is a local na-

tive who returned to East Tennes-see after medical school and now cares for patients in the place he calls “home.” He recently talked about his journey from local boy to well-educated n e u r o s u r g e o n , and the minimal-

ly invasive spine surgery that is changing the lives of his patients.

Tell us your story – where did you go to school, and how did you decide to become a neurosurgeon?

I was born in Knoxville, and raised in Seymour. After I gradu-ated from Seymour High School, I went to college at MTSU in Mur-freesboro, then moved to Johnson City to attend ETSU Quillen Col-lege of Medicine. I completed neu-rosurgery residency in Lexington, Ky., at the University of Kentucky.

I’ve always had a keen interest in the sciences. I found neurosci-ence intriguing and challenging. Once I found my way into the op-

erating room, I knew I had found my calling. Combining my love of neuroscience with my love of the operating room, neurosurgery was a natural extension.

What do you like about this area? In other words, why are you still here, instead of in a larger city?

East Tennessee is my home. I love the scenery here, the people here, and the opportunity to give back to the community that raised me.

I appreciate the hometown feel here and the value that word-of-mouth retains in this community. The greatest compliment I receive is when someone tells me they heard about me from one of my patients.

What are some common problems your patients have, and how do you help them?

We treat an expansive variety of patients from brain tumors to herniated discs. Many of my spine patients have seen several different medical providers and some have undergone several different treat-ments for their back and leg pain before they arrive in my offi ce.

Most have complaints of back pain coupled with sciatica or nerve pain, typically running down the back of their legs. These patients benefi t from the minimally inva-sive approaches to lumbar discec-tomies and spinal fusions.

Which patients might be candidates for the surgery?

The ideal candidate for mini-mally invasive spinal fusion is someone suffering from back and leg pain due to a spondylolisthesis, or slippage, of the lumbar verte-brae. This is a condition sometimes missed on an initial workup as it often requires specialized x-rays with the patients bending forward or backward to clearly visualize.

Often, patients are pain-free while lying on their back, such as during their MRI scans, but upon standing their pain returns.

Can you explain how it works? What are the benefi ts of minimally invasive spine surgery?

Minimally invasive spine sur-gery uses specialized technology within the operating room to al-low for smaller incisions and more precise placement of instrumenta-

tion. We are able to actually obtain a CT scan of the patient while they are asleep on the operating room table and customize our surgical approach to the individual patient, in real-time.

This allows for much smaller incisions and less damage to the tissues surrounding the spine. Ul-timately, this approach gets people back on their feet sooner than is generally necessary for a more traditional, open approach to the spine.

What makes the Center for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery at Fort Sanders Re-gional Medical Center the best choice for this surgery?

Fort Sanders Regional has dem-onstrated a true commitment to excellence in spine surgery, and especially minimally invasive neu-rosurgery. The hospital has been instrumental in purchasing state-of-the-art intraoperative image guidance that allows minimally in-vasive surgery to be possible.

We have a dedicated team of nurses and technicians in the operating room who are experi-enced and specially trained to as-

sist in these minimally invasiveprocedures. Post-operatively, ournurses are also hand-picked andspecially trained in the manage-ment of our patients who have un-dergone minimally invasive spinalprocedures, and we have a dedi-cated fl oor of the hospital reservedfor neuroscience, and especiallyspine patients.

What’s it like to also prac-tice medicine in the placewhere you grew up?

Many of my friends and familystill live nearby and it’s been greatto reconnect with people I hadn’thad the opportunity to see in theyears I was away for training. It’salso been an honor and a humblingexperience to take care of peoplewho watched me grow up in a smalltown. I’ve taken care of my schoolteachers, old friends and familymembers of friends who knew mein high school.

I have a relatively unique ex-perience in that I graduated highschool with many of the samepeople I started kindergarten with.I’m honored that those people whowatched me grow up trust me nowwith their health.

Dr. Joel Norman

NORTH/EAST Shopper news • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • 3 community

Tour de Lights From page 1

portation Planning Orga-nization, organizes the free event. The TPO’s Bicycle Pro-gram guides the implemen-tation of the 2009 Regional Bicycle Plan for Anderson, Blount, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon Sevier and a portion of Cocke counties.

She’s encouraged by the growing number of cyclists in the city. Lately, she’s no-ticed more people biking in street clothes. They look hip, like people you see bik-

ing in magazines, she says.“When I see that hap-

pening, I know we’ve made it. You want regular people biking.”

Former school board member Indya Kincan-non biked most of the race but dropped out when she passed her home in 4th & Gill. “I didn’t see any rea-son to bike downtown only to bike back home,” she ex-plained. Kincannon often commutes via bicycle.

He and Zack had just got-ten home from a Fulton bas-ketball game and walked over to a neighbor’s front porch to join some other friends. Ev-erybody was festive because Christmas break was to start the next day.

The excitement turned to horror when men with guns – authorities say there were fi ve of them – probably gang members bent on revenging a shooting that none of the Fulton students had any-thing to do with, walked up and started shooting. The kids scattered. Zaevion and three girls attempted to run inside, but the front door was locked, so Zaevion told them to get down, and he threw himself on top of them.

The next day, one of the girls, Faith Gordon, wrote on her Twitter account:

“He died laying on top of me. I love him that’s my brother man. Rest easy Zae. I’LL NEVER FORGET YOU.”

Zack also reached out to

social media for comfort:“I swear man I’m losing

it. I’m lost without you bruh. I’m telling you I’m gonna make it for you.”

Jonathan Egert, who teaches social studies at Fulton, is mourning the future Zaevion will never have, both on and off the football fi eld.

“He was a really intelli-gent kid. If you engaged him in the material, he would ask about a million ques-tions – it was like being in a lightning round of a TV quiz show. Usually you can over-come freshmen in those bat-tles of wit, but Zaevion went toe-to-toe. Such a display of intelligence! He was one of those kids that you wished would believe in himself as much as we believed in him”

Zenobia Dobson’s name comes in every conversation about her boys.

“His mom is one of my all-time favorite parents,” Egert said.

Russell Mayes agrees.

Zaevion Dobson From page 1

Zack Dobson, mom Zenobia Dobson, Zaevion and Markastin.

“She is one of our most in-volved parents. We don’t get much turnout at open hous-es, but she’s always there, and there’s not much that goes on with her boys that she doesn’t know about.”

Fulton’s head football coach Rob Black and team chaplain Steve Diggs ar-rived at the Dobson house as soon as they heard what had happened. Black de-scribed Zaevion as a talent-ed, promising young athlete with a quick wit and an en-gaging personality.

“He was just one of those guys that everybody fl ocks to. A friend to everybody, and just so well liked. He had a very, very bright fu-ture. The only silver lining is that he’s going to be re-membered as a hero and his story is going to be one that lives on.”

Clarence Mitchell be-lieves that Zaevion has an-other chapter to write.

“He’s not the baddest or the biggest, but he’s the man with the biggest heart. He’s my hero, and I see the big-ger picture, the gift he gave.

“Sometimes we need something to put the fi re to us, and he’s going to make something happen in this community. We’re going to love on our kids and fi ght this gang activity. Just like he saved those young girls, Zaevion’s going to save those other kids and save our community.

“Something big is going to happen because of Zae-

By Cindy TaylorNorth Knox residents

Tom and Carolyn Jensen have set many personal re-cords. They have been mar-ried for 55 years, traveled to more than 50 countries and been honored by Wallace Memorial Church for teach-ing Sunday School together for more than 40 years.

A 12-foot Christmas tree is the highlight of their liv-ing room and a smaller tree resides next to the window in their bedroom. Even with two trees Carolyn has run out of room to display her assort-ment of more than 200 or-naments collected from the couple’s extensive travels.

With both Christmas trees fi lled, the Jensens’ home is still full of orna-ments lingering in remote places. Some ornaments are placed on desks and tables or add a splash of color in an unexpected area of the home. Some even play mu-sic. The dining room chan-delier is draped with break-able ornaments that hold special meaning.

“I got my fi rst interna-tional ornaments then from England, Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Holland, Portugal, Switzer-land, Spain and Italy,” said

Christmas from around the world

vion and his mother. Some-thing good’s coming out of the projects, and these kids are going to know it. We needed this hero.”

Funeral services for Za-evion Dobson will be noon Saturday, Dec. 26, at Over-coming Believers Church, 211 Harriet Tubman Street.

To donate to the Zaevion Dobson Scholarship Fund: gofundme.com/9yfmfu5b

To help fund Zaevion Dobson’s funeral arrange-ments: gofundme.com/longlivezae

Carolyn. “The ornaments from Portugal were very in-expensive and I wish I had bought more. That was the trip that got me started.”

The couple began their world travels in 1966 with a tour of Europe. Tom trav-eled with a group to China

when it fi rst opened up to the west. One of Carolyn’s favorite ornaments from Venice is made of hand-done Venetian glass. The ornaments from farthest away are from Australia and Africa. Tom was a pilot so there are several airplanes

adorning the trees.The couple have learned

a lot about Christmas tradi-tions of other countries as they traveled.

“I didn’t exactly do re-search,” said Carolyn. “I just talked to the people we met there.”

There are ornaments from the U.S. as well. Some are more precious than oth-ers; such as an ornament made by Carolyn’s mother and one that belonged to her grandfather.

The Jensens do all the decorating themselves. Sur-prisingly, their dog Reagan doesn’t bother any of the decorations, except for oc-casionally pulling a plush toy from under the tree.

“Our grandson does put

the tree together,” said Caro-lyn. “I have to use a step lad-der to decorate to the top.”

The couple love to take their children and grandchil-dren when they travel now. They still fi nd new and exotic destinations where Carolyn continues to make purchas-es. Her eyes twinkle and she laughs when asked about adding to the collection.

“I guess if I continue col-lecting ornaments I’ll just have to put up more trees.”

The late morning sun refl ects off the sparkling 12-foot tree in

the Jensen home. Photos by Cindy Taylor

A hand-carved camel from

Egypt dons a Christmas bow

for the season.

A hand-painted Venetian glass

ornament hangs on the bed-

room tree.

One of the Jensens’ oldest or-

naments came from Carolyn’s

grandfather.

One of Carolyn’s most cher-

ished ornaments was hand-

made by her mother.

4 • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • Shopper news

VictorAshe

Two weeks ago the Uni-versity of Tennessee made the front page of the Dec. 6 Sunday issue of the New York Times, dateline Knox-ville, with a story about UT student Michael Miceli and his 35-mile commute to UTK for classes.

Miceli, 23, is a linguis-tics major. He is upset because UT has imposed a $300 per semester din-ing fee on him and 12,000 other undergraduates in-cluding commuters who do

UT’s forced food plan makes New York Times

not purchase other meal plans. He has no need for the meals. He does not use them. However, his photo is on page 18 of that issue of the New York Times.

One has to wonder about

■ State Rep. Jason Zachary has endorsed Su-san Horn in the March 1 Republican primary for the school board seat now held by Karen Carson who is re-tiring. Horn was active in Zachary’s unsuccessful race for Congress in 2014 and his winning race for state rep-resentative in August 2015. Horn has been PTA presi-dent of both Farragut prima-ry and intermediate schools.

■ Mayor Rogero overthe past three months has been meeting quietly with members of the Knox County legislative delegation to push her agenda in Nashville. She has advocated passage of Insure Tennessee and an in-crease in the gas tax among other issues. Joining her in the meetings have been Bill Lyons, her deputy, and Jesse Mayshark, her communica-tions director.

The city’s paid lobbyist, Tony Thompson, was not part of the meetings. She has also voiced regret that laws allowing annexation have been weakened.

By meeting separately with the legislators, she avoids any legal require-ment to open the meeting to the public or media and they were not on her pub-lic schedule. However, she will be meeting with the 10-member delegation at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday Jan. 6, for breakfast in the City County Building Room 691. It is unclear whether the media and public will be in-cluded in that meeting but it is hard to imagine anyone would be turned away if they came. It is unclear whether city council members are included or not. If they are then the open meetings law would apply.

While her backing for Obamacare expansion is well known and backed by 3 of the 10 Knox lawmak-ers (and opposed by the other 7 members), her ad-vocacy of the gas tax hike is less known to the public. No news release has been issued on it. In the recent special election for state representative, the winning candidate, Zachary, op-posed both. His opponent, Karen Carson, also opposed the gas tax but backed In-sure Tennessee.

Rogero is viewed cau-tiously by the overwhelm-ingly GOP delegation be-cause she actively worked to defeat several of them, especially Richard Briggs and Eddie Smith. Rogero was a key Gloria Johnson backer (against Smith) and a Cheri Siler supporter in 2014 (against Briggs). She also backed Anthony Han-cock against then state Rep. Steve Hall.

Rogero, who is generally a strong backer of diversity, has not yet publicly backed UT’s Diversity Offi ce. Will she urge the Knox lawmakers to support it at the January breakfast? No word at this time.

Merry Christmas to all. Happy Hanukkah. Season’s Greetings.

Marvin West

As Farmer Charlie might say to Butch Jones in the next Farm Bureau commercial, let’s sing along in the same key this time, hi-ho, the mer-ry-oh, a bowling we will go.

In Tennessee’s century and a fi fth of football, the Volunteers have played in 50 bowl games. Some were delightful. Many were meaningless. Four were monumental.

The 1938 team went 10-0. It scored 293 points and gave up 16. It won the South-eastern Conference cham-pionship. The 17-0 victory over previously undefeated Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl validated those ac-complishments. The romp helped the rest of the world

Four bowl games were big

accept the fact that Tennes-see was pretty good.

As the late Hall of Fame tailback George Cafego said more than once, that game in Miami was one of the roughest (and maybe dirti-est) in bowl history. Some holiday outings are just va-cations and vigorous ver-sions of tag. This one was bone-bending fi erce. There were 242 yards in penal-

ties (16 for 130 against Ten-nessee) levied for clipping, slugging, kicking, profane taunting and irreverent quarreling with offi cials.

Cafego never said much about his spectacular knock-out block of Sooner star end Waddy Young on the fi rst play but he was very proud of how the Vols dominated – 268 in total offense to 94 for the Sooners.

Cafego’s favorite example from the combat zone: Rob-ert R. Neyland sent in sec-ond-team center Joe Little to talk to the team in the huddle and “settle everybody down.”

The message was “The Captain says cool it, guys, keep your poise.”

Two seconds after his

fi rst snap, Little got into a scuffl e with two Sooners. One went down hard from a right hook. Offi cials im-mediately concluded Joe had been dispatched as the designated troublemaker. He was ejected.

Neyland’s reaction was classic: “What the hell is go-ing on out there?”

The 1951 Cotton Bowl was signifi cant because it set the stage for a national championship.

A pre-game moment was unforgettable. I heard this one from Hall of Fame tail-back Hank Lauricella: “We were in the locker room and the General was talking to us but we had a hard time hearing him because their

the fairness of charging stu-dents and adding to their college costs for services they do not seek or use. Miceli’s debt is already ex-ceeding $22,000 according to the article. UT will point out that he can get a refund on the $300 for the amount not used for food at the end of the semester. However, even that forces Miceli, in effect, to make UT a forced loan of $300 for the dura-tion of the semester which he may not wish to do or

have the funds to lend with-out borrowing himself.

It all comes about due to the food contract with Ara-mark which offers commis-sions and signing bonuses to UT to pay for campus im-provements and academic programs.

According to the Times, the Aramark contract, which runs to 2027, gives UT 14 percent of all food rev-enues plus $15.2 million in renovations to dining facili-ties. There are costs to this

which Miceli and other stu-dents get to pay off against their wishes. The state Leg-islature may decide to enact a ban on mandatory fees for unwanted meals. It is not a lot different from workers at a plant who do not belong to a union being required to pay the equivalent of union fees. That triggered Tennes-see’s right to work law many years ago.

Why should a student pay for food he does not eat or need?

band was just outside the door playing ‘The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You.’

“The General paused, lis-tened for a minute and said: ‘When this game is over, they’ll be playing ‘The Ten-nessee Waltz.’”

He got that right – only it was the Pride of the South-land doing the playing. The Vols went to Dallas as No. 4 in the country. They de-feated No. 3 Texas, 20-14. Lauricella had a legendary 75-yard run. Andy Kozar scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Tennessee fans have lift-ed the 1986 Sugar Bowl well above reality because it was such a joy to behold. Second-ranked Miami, brashness personifi ed, thought it was really No. 1 but fretted that a rout of the mismatched Vols might not provide enough

boost to take the title from Oklahoma.

There was a rout, alright, as in 35-7 Tennessee. Da-ryl Dickey was better than Heisman hopeful Vinny Tes-taverde. The Ken Donahue-designed defense picked off three passes and sacked Hurricane quarterbacks sev-en times for minus 84. What a night in New Orleans!

The 1999 Fiesta Bowl qualifi es because we now know national champion-ships are few and far be-tween. Tee Martin threw well. Peerless Price caught four for 199 yards. Dwayne Goodrich picked off a Flor-ida State pass and hauled it back 54 for a score. The Vols won, 23-16.

Ah yes, those were the days.Marvin West invites reader reaction. His address is westwest6@netzero.com

Shopper news • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • 5 government

Join the conversation at

www.ShopperNewsNow.com

Sandra Clark

Two years ago I quit covering the Knox County school board, turning it over to Betty Bean. I decid-ed, instead, to go hang out with some kids.

It has to be tough to be a Democrat in Knox County.

The governor is a Repub-lican. Both U.S. senators are Republicans. No Democrat has represented Knoxville in Congress since 1855. A Republican super-majority controls the state Legisla-ture. No Democrat current-ly serves in a countywide elective offi ce.

Democrats rarely win. Even worse, they rarely even run. Lately, Republi-cans have won on Election Day by simply showing up on the ballot.

That may be changing.Many Democrats were

giddy last week when the candidate withdrawal dead-line passed and their party had fi elded candidates for six of the seven county com-mission seats on the ballot next year.

They surprised nearly ev-eryone.

In the fi rst district, two Democratic candidates, Ev-

Wendy Smith

When I was a kid, my parents played a game with me called Dots and Boxes. It starts with a grid of dots, and the object is to draw lines between the dots while avoiding giving your opponent the opportunity to complete a box. When you complete a box, you put your initial in it, and the one with the most initials at the end wins. This is how parents kept children quiet before cell phones.

The game is easy at the beginning. You have to draw a lot of lines before it becomes a challenge.

That’s sort of where we are with city greenways. We’ve already drawn the easy lines, like the Will Skelton Greenway along the Tennessee River and the scenic Third Creek Green-way. The next lines require more thought. That’s why Mayor Madeline Rogero asked for an additional $45,000 for a study exam-ining the feasibility of 13 proposed urban greenways at the Dec. 8 City Council meeting.

Council unanimously approved the amended agreement after District 4 representative Nick Della Volpe asked if it was time to stop studying and start building. It was a valid question, but it reveals a lack of understanding of the complexity of building urban greenways.

David Craig of Ross/Fowler is working on the feasibility study, and every one of the 13 proposed greenway corridors is chal-lenging, he says. Acquir-ing property is the biggest obstacle; steep topography and buildings that are too close together are other physical challenges.

Many current greenways run along creeks or through pastoral settings, but urban corridors don’t offer as many natural perks. Now, the goal is to fi nd small sce-nic opportunities between point A and point B, he says.

He’s in the process of making revisions to the study based on feedback from the Greenways Com-mission. It’s a process that takes time.

“Anything in the public realm takes longer than

Urban greenways: slow, expensive,

worth it

what you expect,” he says.More hard work will

come after the feasibility study is completed. That’s when planning for the next fi ve to 10 years begins, says Parks and Greenways coor-dinator Lori Goerlich.

Deciding how to prog-ress will be one of her challenges in the coming year. Factors to be weighed include connectivity (con-necting current greenways to destinations or other greenways), equity (making sure everyone in town has access to quality green-ways) and available grants and partnerships.

One section that’s ex-pected to be completed in 2016 will take advantage of TDOT funding. The .6-mile section of First Creek Greenway, from Wood-land Avenue to Edgewood Avenue, has an estimated price tag of $1.225 million. A TDOT grant will cover $768,000, says Knoxville chief civil engineer Tom Clabo.

The project began before Goerlich took up her post 3.5 years ago. It shows how slow, and pricey, greenway projects have become.

The urban greenways are a huge investment, but Go-erlich thinks the city, Ross/Fowler and the Greenways Commission will produce a high-quality product.

“It’s unique for a city of this size to take on such an ambitious project. It’s 25 miles, and literally, block by block, everything is being explored.”

It’s also an evolving process. During the next 10 years, things will change and there could be new opportunities for greenway alignments, she says.

She’s looking forward to delving into the project in the coming months.

“We’re excited to be part of Knoxville’s growth. Greenways have gotten a lot of attention lately, and that shows that the community cares.”

Neat: Taleah Beal

Kind: J’Kaija Hughes and sister

Enterprising: Maurice Jacobs

Jamarian Chambers and Taleah Beal

Christmas cookies

Luckily, Susan Espiritu had just been appointed principal at Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy with the intention of start-ing a community school. I had known Susan since she and Charlie lived in Halls and Susan taught, I believe, second grade at Gibbs El-ementary. She was an out-standing principal at Pond Gap Elementary, leading Knox County’s fi rst (and model) community school.

“Sure,” she said, when I emailed her to volunteer.

Crazy me. I thought a community school meant people from the commu-nity volunteered to do af-ter-school programs. What I discovered is that I’m ap-parently the only one over at SMG running rogue. The others are organized by a leader who takes roll and makes it seem ever so much like school.

Flash-forward a year and a half. We wrapped up our semester last week with a party. We bought some blank gingerbread people and some fancy cookies at Rita’s Bakery and a bunch of plain cookies from Food City. My friend Kathy Fitz stirred some green food col-oring into white cake icing

(who knew?) and gathered several dozen jelly beans, M&Ms and sprinkles.

My plan was to read Christmas stories (it is the Authors Club, after all) while the kids quietly deco-rated cookies. Perhaps we would play soft music in the background.

It was not to be. I’m shouting “The Christmas Cat” over howls of delight as kids poke their fi ngers in ic-ing, try to balance sprinkles on a plastic knife and just can’t return to their seats because they might miss a chocolate drop.

I gave up, laying the book on a chair.

J’Kaija Hughes had painted a tree with lush branches and fruit. Under-

neath it said, “Thanks for helping us grow.” Teacher Krista Rines framed it and the kids gave it to me. Wow!

J’Kaija (it’s taken me four months to say her name right) brought her younger sister to the party. She dem-onstrates sensitivity and kindness that’s rare.

Taleah Beal is a teacher’s kid – probably bearing sim-ilar burdens to a preacher’s kid. Taleah is quiet, careful and conscientious.

Maurice Jacobs is all over the room. To heck with art-istry. His game is to cram as many sprinkles onto his cookies as possible. He even had one multi-layered one. But when you think Mau-rice has left the room on a sugar high, he comes over

and says, “That was a pretty good story.”

“What story?”“The Christmas Cat.”“But I didn’t fi nish it.”“I did. He gets adopted.” Maurice had found time

to pick up the book, fi nish the story and then report to the group. He also found time to bring along his younger brother, Micah.

The personal growth in this once-a-week group is going both ways. And I hon-estly don’t understand why that school is not packed with community volunteers every day from 3:30-5:30.

Know this. I’ve not missed those school board meetings at all.

Merry Christmas!Sandra Clark is publisher of Shopper News

Scott Frith

Local Democrats face challenges in ’16

elyn Gill and Rick Staples, are running to replace the Democratic incumbent, Sam McKenzie. In the sec-ond district, Laura Kildare and Cheri Siler are running in the Democratic primary to replace that Democratic incumbent, Amy Broyles. Recruiting candidates to run in either of these con-tests shouldn’t be much of a surprise. In both races, Democrats are running to replace Democrats.

More unusual are the Democratic candidates run-ning in the other commis-sion districts. In the fourth, fi fth, sixth and ninth dis-tricts, the Democrats have candidates on the ballot. At

a minimum, this ensures that the Republican candi-dates will have an opponent. Some Democrats may even be dreaming of taking over county commission.

That’s not going to hap-pen.

It’s a testament to how bad things have been for Democrats lately when there’s excitement merely by having a candidate on the ballot. Democrats are like UT football fans a few years ago. The results on the fi eld were so terrible that fans could only sit around and dream of po-tential recruits.

Democrats may be fi nd-ing candidates, but they’re a long way from relevance in county government.

Don’t believe me?Democrats failed to fi nd

any candidates for the only two countywide offi ces on the ballot next spring, Prop-erty Assessor and County Law Director. There are

plenty of qualifi ed lawyers, who are also proud Demo-crats, who could have run for law director. They didn’t. It’s too tough to win as a Democrat.

Also, it’s entirely possible that Democrats could put forth all these candidates for County Commission and yet still end up with fewer Democratic commissioners after the election.

How so?The only commission dis-

tricts currently represented by Democrats are the fi rst and second districts (two out of 11). Both seats are on the ballot next year. Due to redistricting and changed boundary lines, the sec-ond district now has more Republican voters than the previous version which elected Democrat Amy Bro-yles. Put simply, the second district is now winnable for Republicans. Although highly unlikely, it’s not im-possible to think that next

year Democrats could be swept off county commis-sion entirely.

Returning to relevance in county government will

be an uphill climb for lo-cal Democrats. They’re not there, yet.Scott Frith is a local attorney. You can contact him at scott@pleadthefrith.com

6 • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • NORTH/EAST Shopper news kids

THROUGH THURSDAY, DEC. 24Christmas in Old Appalachia, Museum of Ap-

palachia, 2819 Andersonville Highway, Clinton. Info: 494-7680 or museumofappalachia.org.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 23International Folk Dance Class, 7:30-10

p.m., Claxton Community Center, 1150 Edgemoor Road, Clinton. Info: Paul Taylor, 898-5724; oakridgefolkdancers.org; on Facebook.

Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker, 7 p.m., Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay St. Info/tickets: Ticketmaster outlets, the Tennessee Theatre box offi ce, and 800-745-3000.

SATURDAY, DEC. 26Kitten and cat adoption fair, noon-6 p.m., West

Town PetSmart adoption center, 214 Morrell Road. Sponsored by Feral Feline Friends of East Tennessee. Info: www.feralfelinefriends.org.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30International Folk Dance Class, 7:30-10

p.m., Claxton Community Center, 1150 Edgemoor Road, Clinton. Info: Paul Taylor, 898-5724; oakridgefolkdancers.org; on Facebook.

THURSDAY, DEC. 31New Year’s Eve Gala, 10 p.m., World For Christ

Church Inc., 4611Central Avenue Pike.

SATURDAY, JAN. 2Kitten and cat adoption fair, noon-6 p.m., West

Town PetSmart adoption center, 214 Morrell Road. Sponsored by Feral Feline Friends of East Tennessee. Info: www.feralfelinefriends.org.

SUNDAY, JAN. 3Advance screening of the fi rst hour of “Downton

Abbey” fi nal season, 2 p.m., Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay St. Free. Info: 684-1200.

MONDAY. JAN. 4Mighty Musical Monday with Kukuly and the

Gypsy Fuego, noon, Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay St. Free. Info: 684-1200.

MONDAY-TUESDAY, JAN. 4-5New Play Festival auditions for Tennessee Stage

Company, 7-10 p.m. Monday and 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay St. No appointment neces-sary. Info: 546-4280.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 6International Folk Dance Class, 7:30-10 p.m.,

Claxton Community Center, 1150 Edgemoor Road, Clin-ton. Info: Paul Taylor, 898-5724; oakridgefolkdancers.org; on Facebook.

Jazz Lunch at the Square Room, noon-1 p.m., 4 Market Square. Featuring “Kayley Farmer sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook.” Admission: $15; includes lunch buffet. Info/tickets: knoxjazz.org.

FRIDAY, JAN. 8Opening reception for “Gallery of Arts Trib-

ute”: a juried exhibition developed to recognize local artists and honor the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 6-8 p.m., Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay St. Info: 523-7543 or knoxalliance.com.

SATURDAY, JAN. 9Kitten and cat adoption fair, noon-6 p.m., West

Town PetSmart adoption center, 214 Morrell Road. Sponsored by Feral Feline Friends of East Tennessee. Info: www.feralfelinefriends.org.

Saturday Stories and Songs: Faye Wooden, 11 a.m., Powell Branch Library, 330 W. Emory Road. Info: 947-6210.

Saturday Stories and Songs: Georgi Schmitt, 11 a.m., Fountain City Branch Library, 5300 Stanton Road. Info: 689-2681.

The Tennessee Stiffl egs Old-Time String Band, 8 p.m., Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave. Tickets: $14, some discounts available. Info/tickets: www.jubileearts.org.

SUNDAY, JAN. 10Pen to Podium: SAFTA Reading Series, 3-4

p.m., Lawson McGhee Library, 500 W. Church Ave. Featuring: George David Clark and Jeni Wallace. Info: 215-8750.

TUESDAYS, JAN. 12 - FEB.16“Refl ections, Light and Magic” class, 10 a.m.-1

p.m., Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive. Cost: KMA members $150/nonmembers $175. Materials list provided. Info/registration: knoxart.org.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13International Folk Dance Class, 7:30-10 p.m.,

Claxton Community Center, 1150 Edgemoor Road, Clin-ton. Info: Paul Taylor, 898-5724; oakridgefolkdancers.org; on Facebook.

THURSDAY, JAN. 14AAA Driver Improvement Course, 5:30-9:30

p.m., AAA Offi ce, 100 W. Fifth Ave. Four-hour course helps reduce points for traffi c offenders and teaches how to reduce risk while driving. Cost: $30 members/$35 nonmembers. Must preregister. Info/registration: Kate, 862-9254, or Stephanie, 862-9252.

SATURDAY, JAN. 16AAA Driver Improvement Course, 8 a.m.-4:30

p.m., AAA Offi ce, 100 W. Fifth Ave. Eight-hour course helps reduce points for traffi c offenders and teaches how to reduce risk while driving. Cost: $40 members/$50 nonmembers. Must preregister. Info/registration: Kate, 862-9254, or Stephanie, 862-9252.

Kitten and cat adoption fair, noon-6 p.m., West Town PetSmart adoption center, 214 Morrell Road. Info: www.feralfelinefriends.org.

Roux du Bayou Cajun Dance Music, 8 p.m., Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave. Tickets: $12, some discounts available. Info/tickets: www.jubileearts.org.

Saturday Stories and Songs: Faye Wooden, 11 a.m., Fountain City Branch Library, 5300 Stanton Road. Info: 689-2681.

Saturday Stories and Songs: Sarah Rysewyk, 11 a.m., Powell Branch Library, 330 W. Emory Road. Info: 947-6210.

TUESDAY, JAN. 19Computer Workshop: Introducing the Computer,

2 p.m., East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. Preregistration required. Info/registration: 215-8700.

Send items to news@ShopperNewsNow.com

ShoppernewseVents

Elfi s spotted atEast Knox Elementary

By Ruth WhiteThe kindergarten and fi rst

grade classes at East Knox El-ementary presented a fun hol-iday play, “Elfi s and the Sleigh Riders,” to help the crowd get ready for the holidays.

Opening for the group was the EKE chorus, who per-formed “Happy, Happy Holi-days,” “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and “Holiday, Holi-day.”

The production featured

some of the cutest costumes in town and one-liners by the fi rst grade students as they listened to some rock n’ roll in a style only the king (or a fi rst grade girl named Maya) could bring.

Santa Claus (Jayke Buck)

delivers his lines during

the performance of “Elfi s

and the Sleigh Riders”.

Elfi s (Maya Evatt) helps the crowd at East Knox Elementary get in the holiday spirit with a little

bit of rock n’ roll. Photos by R. White

RuthWhite

Makerspace awardVine Middle Magnet School librarian Jennifer Randolph ac-

cepts a check for close to $50,000 from Buzz Thomas of the

Great Schools Partnership. The grant will be used for a mobile

Makerspace that will be shared among Vine, Carter Middle,

Farragut Middle and Karns Middle schools. Photo by R. White

When math and art combine

Students at Green Mag-net Academy recently re-ceived a lesson in math they may not soon forget.

The project involved a human graph, ribbon and a drone to capture the day. Students were given coordi-nates and they had to walk

on a huge graph to fi nd their spot. Once in place, stu-dents were handed a roll of ribbon and each held a sec-tion in numerical order. If the coordinates were cor-rect, the graph would form a large Christmas tree.

Thanks to the CTE pro-grams, a drone was used to photograph the fi nished product and see the ends results. “When you bring art into the math class, it just brings the math alive,” said math supervisor Gary Petko.

An overhead view of the fi nished graph, photographed using

a drone. Photo by Rocky Riley

Shiasia Calhoun holds up ribbon from her coordinates on the graph. The ribbon was used to show the fi nished pictured from above.

Green Magnet Academy magnet facilitator Sandy Morris fl ies a

drone under the guidance of Rocky Riley. The drone was used

to photograph a graphing project by the students at GMA. Pho-tos by R. White

NORTH/EAST Shopper news • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • 7 faith

SENIOR NOTES ■ Carter Senior Center:

9040 Asheville Highway932-2939Monday-Friday8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Off erings include: card

games; exercise programs;

arts and crafts; movie

matinee each Friday; Senior

Meals program noon each

Wednesday. Christmas Eve

Movie Marathon begins 11

a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 23.

The Center will be closed

Thursday and Friday, Dec.

24-25, and Friday, Jan. 1.

Register for: Lunch

Bunch: Cracker Barrel, noon

Monday, Dec. 28. Potluck:

meatloaf and mashed pota-

toes, 11:30 a.m. Wednesday,

Dec 30

■ Corryton Senior Center:9331 Davis Drive688-5882knoxcounty.org/seniorsMonday-FridayHours vary

Off erings include: ex-

ercise classes; card games;

billiards; Senior Meals pro-

gram, 11 a.m. each Friday.

The Center will be closed

Thursday and Friday, Dec.

24-25, and Friday, Jan. 1.

■ Larry Cox Senior Center3109 Ocoee Trail546-1700Monday-FridayHours vary

Off erings include: exercise programs; bingo;

arts and crafts classes.

■ John T. O’Connor Senior Center611 Winona St.523-1135knoxseniors.org/oconnor.htmlMonday-Friday8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Off erings include: Card

games, billiards, senior

fi tness, book club, Senior

Savvy computer classes,

bingo, blood pressure

checks 10:30-11:30 a.m.

Monday-Friday. The Center

will be closed Thursday

and Friday, Dec. 24-25, and

Friday, Jan. 1.

There is a story that lives in my family lore. I had not thought of it in years and years, until this Christmas. I was stunned and saddened by how true and relevant it is in this season.

All of this happened al-most a hundred years ago. In those days, cars were scarce, telephones (at least in the country) were rare and television was not yet invented.

Neighbors visited each other by walking from one house to another, and in nice weather, their visit was most likely to occur on the front porch.

One evening, when the visit was over, the neighbors said their good-byes and went home. My grandfather and grandmother and as-sorted children stayed on the front porch a while.

A bit later, their neigh-bors returned, sheepishly. It seems they had forgotten to retrieve their sleeping baby who had been deposited on Papa’s bed for the duration

… the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Sav-ior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

(Luke 2:10-11 NRSV)

Don’t forget the baby!

of the evening visit.I have known that story

for most of my life, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to think of it in terms of today’s Christmas cel-ebrations.

Too often, I think, folks are more concerned about Christmas shopping and gift giving and parties and festive food than they are about the birth of “a Sav-ior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” They forget the Baby who was born in a stable because the inn was full. They forget because their lives are too full of other thoughts, other things.

Please, don’t forget the Baby this Christmas!

FAITH NOTES ■ First Comforter Church,

5516 Old Tazewell Pike, hosts

MAPS (Mothers At Prayer Ser-

vice) noon each Friday. Info:

Edna Hensley, 771-7788.

■ St. James Episcopal Church,

1101 N. Broadway, will host

special services: Thursday,

Dec. 24, Nativity Pageant

and Holy Eucharist, 4 p.m.

and Choral Prelude and Holy

Eucharist, 10:30 p.m.; Friday,

Dec. 25, 10 a.m., Holy Eucha-

rist. Info: 523-5687.

The combined choirs of Christ Covenant and Community Evangelistic perform “How Great Our Joy.”

By Carolyn EvansTwo local churches are

using music to more diver-sity to their congregations. The result has been amaz-ing, say the ministers of music who made it happen.

Twenty choir members from East Knoxville joined 30 choir members from Far-ragut to present a two-hour concert, “How Great Our Joy! – a Gospel Christmas.” A total of 600 people turned out for the Friday and Sat-urday performances in Far-ragut and 400-500 people saw it on Sunday evening in the East Knoxville.

The ministers of music from the predominately white Christ Covenant Pres-byterian in Farragut and the predominately black Community Evangelistic Church in East Knoxville had known each other for a long time, but paths crossed again about a year ago at a local coffee shop.

“I’ve known John Jack-son for about 20 years,” said Gabe Loving with Christ Covenant. “I’ve been want-ing to partner with his church.”

That was music to Jack-son’s ears.

“My ministry in Knox-

Harmonious voices bring ‘Joy’ to East, West Knox churches

ville since coming here as a student has always been about bringing people to-gether,” said Jackson. “Through other ministries in the city I had already been a part of reconciliation ministries that bring people of various races and socio-economic levels together. I love doing multicultural worship.”

As they rekindled their friendship, they began to plan a special event.

“In the midst of talking to him, all this craziness in Charleston happened. That seemed very close to us,” Loving said. “There’s a lot of tension in some areas of the country between blacks and whites. John and I wanted this to be more than just a concert. We wanted it to be an opportunity for our churches to get to know each other. We wanted to build friendships.”

The two exchanged names and numbers of church staff and leaders, but the largest connec-tion point was one-on-one among choir members, Lov-ing said. “We gave one alto another alto’s name, and they communicated back and forth.”

The choirs met to re-hearse and fellowship with food at a breakfast and a dessert event.

The result was a two-hour production that had the congregations on their feet. Songs included black gospel Christmas pieces as well as traditional carols for all to sing. Some selections were sung as a united choir, and others were sung sepa-rately. The concert opened with a united choir singing “How Great Our Joy.” Later Loving sang a solo with his choir to “Jesus is King” and Jackson sang one with his choir to “Glory to God in the Highest.”

Teresa Pratt, longtime staff member and music as-sociate at Christ Covenant, sang in the choir for this event.

“Presbyterians are nor-mally reserved,” she said, “but in this program there was much more freedom in expression. There was more movement than nor-mal. We physically, visibly worshipped. We clapped, swayed, raised our hands, things that some of us do but most don’t.”

The congregation got in-volved, too, she said. “The

last song we did, ‘Now Be-hold the Lamb,’ is so incred-ibly worshipful. Evelyn Jack was the soloist. People were standing and clapping on other songs, but during this song, hands were raised, people were on their feet visibly worshipping. It was amazing.”

“We were able to worship together,” Loving said. “Just before we left the other night, we were saying ‘We want to get back together.’”

Jackson said his congre-gation loved it. He got a text from a church member after the concert. “It was a breath of fresh air,” the text read. “It was reminiscent of who we were when we started as a church.”

“We’re guilty of stay-ing in our little area here,” Loving said, “It’s so easy to stay within your community with people you know. But we have important things in common. We have a love of Jesus in common. Even though we’re both Presby-terians, the churches have some differences. Differ-ences in worship style. One of the things that someone said was, ‘This is a touch of heaven.’ If we love Jesus, we’ll be in heaven together.

If we don’t like being around each other now, heaven’s not going to be too good.”

Loving and Jackson are meeting for coffee soon to talk about another joint event. The choirs are look-ing forward to a potluck to-gether in January.

Jackson said their chance meeting in the coffee shop a year ago was no accident.

“God arranged for us to cross paths.”

CrossCurrents

LynnPitts

Heiskell Senior Center mem-

ber Roberta Fogle is a happy

Christmas elf right down to

her toes.

Retha Bass wins the quilt that was quilted by Mary Kate Smith Photos by Cindy Taylor

Four senior members who were instrumental in getting items sewn for Safe Harbor children are Joyce Davis, Taff y Kanipe, Mary

Daugherty and Pat Needham.

By Cindy TaylorIt doesn’t take much for

folks at the Heiskell Senior Center to have fun. During the Christmas season fun comes through the door with each member.

At the Dec. 10 meeting/Christmas party seniors donned their gay apparel, brought gifts for each other and enjoyed a Christmas lunch together. It was also a good opportunity to bless others.

Safe Harbor Child Advo-cacy Center “COPE” coor-dinator Renee Poole joined the festivities. Poole was in-vited to come pick up quilts, dolls and hats handmade by members of the center. A group has been working together at the center since January to complete the gifts for the children.

“This is the best part of my job, she said. “It is so special for us to be able to give these items to the chil-dren who come to the cen-ter. They need something to take home that is a comfort to them.”

According to Poole chil-dren seen at Safe Harbor are there to report abuse. It is a diffi cult time for them.

“We always give them a gift,” she said. “And these items are their gift. Those of you who have made these should feel really good about the help you are giv-ing to these children.”

People have been busy all year buying tickets in hopes of winning the quilt completed by center mem-ber Mary Kate Smith. The drawing was held during the meeting. Retha Bass was the lucky winner. This was Bass’ fi rst time at the center since having back surgery. Money collected from the quilt raffl e goes to-ward the new senior center.

The regular monthly meeting of Heiskell seniors is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each sec-ond Thursday at the Heiskell Community Center. Speak-er at 11 a.m., lunch at noon, Bingo at 1 p.m. No meeting if Knox County Schools are out for weather. Info: Janice White 548-0326.

Renee Poole happily accepts

items for Safe Harbor.

A merry Heiskell

8 • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • Shopper news business

New business boosts nonprofi tsBabalu Tacos & Tapas on Dec. 17 presents a check for $7,266.28 to Beardsley Farm and The Pat Summitt Foundation. The money

was raised by the new Gay Street restaurant during pre-opening parties Nov. 20-21, and the donation was split evenly between

the two nonprofi ts. Pictured are Maggie Callahan and Warren Weiss of Babalu Tacos & Tapas; Patrick Wade and Adam Waller of

The Pat Summitt Foundation; and Maya Carl, Khann Chov and Rachel Newcomb of Beardsley Farm. Photo submitted

Gerdau donates to Winter Gift ShopEmployees of steel recycler Gerdau’s Knoxville mill donated toys and coats for Lonsdale Elementary students as part of the

school’s annual Winter Gift Shop. Gerdau employees Carlus Thompson, David Moore, Donald Clark, Matthew Crumley, Katie

Wallace, Ronald Fritz, Kenneth Strickland, John Rauhuff , Buddy Wolfenbarger, Wesley Mills, Damien Rose, Rick Christopher, Brian

Bowen and Anthony Chaperon display some of the gifts they and other employees donated to the gift shop, held Dec. 14 at the

school. Photo submitted

Max Reddick, president of the North Knox Rotary Club, pres-

ents a big $17,000 check to Bob Sexton, executive director of

the Cerebral Palsy Center. Photo by Tom King

News from the Rotary Guy

By Tom KingThe back room at Harby’s

Pizza was packed on a recent Fri-day, fi lled by the 10 r e s i -dents p l u s staf f of the C e r e -

bral Palsy Highland Park Group Home and members of the North Knoxville Ro-tary Club. It was billed as a Christmas Party – but it was much more than just a party.

The Rev. Max Reddick, president of the North Knox

North Knox gifts $17K to CP home

Tom King

club and pastor at Fountain City Presbyterian Church, presented a $ 17,000 check to Bob Sexton, executive di-rector of the Cerebral Palsy Center that supports the Highland Park residents.

Club member David Dooley and two oth-ers started the North Knoxville Rotary Golf Tournament at Three

Ridges Golf Course 17 years ago to raise money

for the group home. Since then the club has donated approximately $200,000 to the home.

“I am overwhelmed each year with Rotary’s support and you all are responsible for the survival of the group

home,” Sexton said. “This $17,000 pays for an entire month for operating this home and that’s how impor-tant it is.”

Mark Rosser, president of the Cerebral Palsy Housing Corp., says the total budget for the home is $200,000 a year. “We have to raise

about $25,000 a year to help keep the doors open so you can see how important your donation really is,” he said. “If not for Rotary we

could not survive.”Mark also turned into El-

vis Presley at the party. He entertained the residents and the Rotarians with a great rendition of the Elvis holiday classic “Blue Christ-mas.”

The club also presented each resident with a gift card as their Christmas present.

■ Music to shoppers’ ears!The Salvation Army bells

were ringing Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Kroger store in Farragut as Farragut Ro-tarians manned the kettle from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. But shoppers also were treated to their favorite Christmas carols in the morning and afternoon.

Diane O’Brien, wife of Farragut Rotarian Jim O’Brien, played her accor-dion in the morning. Club president Dale Read enter-tained one and all on his accordion in the afternoon. The Kroger shoppers were very generous in fi lling the red kettle and very appre-ciative of the holiday tunes!Tom King is a retired newspaper editor, a

Rotarian for 27 years and past president

of the Rotary Club of Farragut. He can be

reached at tking535@gmail.com

BIZ NOTES ■ Meritor Inc. of Morristown

has donated $1,500 to the

L&N STEM Academy. The

company annually recognizes

its top engineer and the hon-

oree can choose a school to

receive a monetary donation.

The funds will go toward CTE

and robotics programming.

■ Two Shoney’s restaurants in

Knox County will be open on

Christmas Day. The restau-

rants at 4410 Western Avenue

and 100 Walker Springs Road

will be open from 9 a.m. to

6 p.m. with breakfast buff et

from 9-11 and a dinner buff et

with ham and turkey starting

at 11 a.m. and available until

early evening.

■ Wayne R. Kramer is the

president of

the Knoxville

Bar Associa-

tion for 2016.

Other offi cers

are Amanda

Busby,

president-

elect; Keith

Burroughs,

treasurer; and

Wynne Caff ey-

Knight, secretary. Kramer is

a partner at the law fi rm of

Kramer Rayson LLP, a fi rm

founded by his grandfather

in 1948. He graduated from

Maryville College, attended

Perkins School Theology at

Southern Methodist Univer-

sity and received his law de-

gree from Seattle University.

■ Dennis R. McClane received

the highest award of the

Knoxville Bar Association, the

Governor’s Award.

Kramer

Shopper news • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • 9 weekender

Then you'll love the

Shopper's take on both

the local fi lmmaking scene

and Hollywood releases.

Love movies?

Betsy Pickle, East Tennessee's premier fi lm critic,

keeps you in the know in Weekender.

By Carol ShaneNo matter what your hol-

iday traditions are, you’ve got to admit that Friday is a great day for Christmas to fall upon! It’s the start of a long weekend; visit-ing friends and relatives from near and far will get a chance to breathe a little and have a true visit before they began the trip back home.

In our family, it was al-ways a treat when the cous-ins came to visit. I had built-in playmates close to my own age, and the same is true in any era – kids will be kids, and, to their way of thinking,

the more the merrier. After a while, though,

“the more” may need a di-version. Luckily, there’s plenty to see and do this weekend with the small fry.

The Knoxville Zoo is of-fering buy one, get one free admission tickets, spon-sored by Kroger, through Feb. 29. Winter is a great time to visit the zoo. Many of the animals prefer the cooler temperatures and are more active. Closed Christ-mas Eve and Christmas Day, the zoo will reopen from 10 a.m.-4.30 p.m. Sat-urday, Dec. 26, and remain open for those hours every

Many Knoxville Zoo animals such as this Hamadryad baboon

enjoy cooler temperatures. With the Knoxville Zoo’s BOGO

Days, this weekend is a great time to visit. Photo courtesy of the Knox-ville Zoo

for all

day. Tickets can be pur-chased at the ticket booth until 3.30. Info: 637-5331 or visit knoxville-zoo.org

For a truly spectacular light display, head west to the 2015 Holiday Festival of Lights at The Cove at Concord Park. Every eve-ning you and your fam-ily and pets on leashes can stroll on the three-quarter

mile greenway to view the lights. Food vendors will offer kettle corn, hot apple cider, hot chocolate, cotton candy, ribbon fries, funnel cakes and other treats. The display happens from 6-9 p.m. every evening except Christmas from now un-til Thursday, Dec. 31. Info: k noxc ou nt y.or g/pa rk s/events

Einar (Eddie Redmayne) helps his wife, Gerda (Alicia Vikander),

as she tries to complete a painting in “The Danish Girl,” open-

ing Friday at Downtown West.

By Betsy PickleDirector Tom Hooper

won an Oscar for “The King’s Speech,” Eddie Red-mayne won one for his por-trayal of Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Every-thing” and Alicia Vikander has been praised for many diverse performances in her short career. And all of that falls away as “The Danish Girl” plays out on screen.

A fi ctionalized biography set in the early part of the 20th century, “The Dan-ish Girl” is a glossy depic-tion of what no doubt was the much rougher path of a transgender pioneer. But gloss doesn’t diminish the authenticity of the emotion-al journey and the value of the perceptive storytelling.

Redmayne plays Einar Wegener, a rising star in the Danish art world. His series of paintings of the stark landscape of his child-hood resonates with critics and connoisseurs, yet he can’t seem to move beyond it, continuing to play with details as memories churn

within him.Einar’s wife, Gerda (Vi-

kander), is also an artist, but her talent has yet to be acknowledged on anything approaching a similar scale. She becomes more frus-trated with each setback, but she doesn’t take it out in jealousy of Einar.

Something clicks – for both of them – when Gerda cajoles Einar into standing in for a tardy ballerina while she works on a painting. Einar feels a connection to the distaff costume he dons, while Gerda unwittingly fi nds a model who will prove to be her inspiration.

From that point the story becomes one of love in the face of transformation. As Einar fi nds himself – her-self – as “Lili,” it would seem logical that Gerda would want to be rid of him, but their bond transcends the traditional marital dynam-ic. It’s more than loyalty, more than protection. They are two halves of a whole.

The passion that the ac-tors put into their work fi lls

‘Danish Girl’ fi nds itself in truth

It is the time of year to count blessings, and with all the talk lately of diversity – both in the national con-versation and the local one – I count myself very fortu-nate to know people from cultures other than my own.

As a member of the Knox-ville Symphony Orchestra, I get to see people of different races, religions and politi-cal stripes come together to make beautiful music. We have talented performers from Venezuela, Russian, China, Japan, Turkey, Korea and other nations, as well as from right here in the U S of A. Most, if not all, have become naturalized Ameri-can citizens, which says a lot about our great country and the opportunities it offers. But even so, these folks en-rich our nation and our lives with their own cultures.

They certainly enrich mine. Who knew that “my

life is a casino” means that “things are a bit crazy right now” to my Bulgarian friend?

Or that my Russian friend became a childhood fan of the Beatles by listening to reel-to-reel tapes sneaked into his Moscow home – the only way he could hear them? How else would I get to attend a festive ceremoni-al Korean birthday celebra-tion? Or learn of the hard-ships my Chinese friend endured when she arrived in this country, just to build a better life for her family here?

Knowing people from different backgrounds en-larges our world and helps us develop empathy for our neighbors. It’s up to all of us to bless each other and in turn be blessed.

Merry Christmas!Send story suggestions to news@shopper

newsnow.com.

‘Concussion’Will Smith delivers a Christmas present the NFL will want

to return with “Concussion,” a dramatic thriller about a

forensic neuropathologist who makes the link between

football injuries and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

He fi nds deep resistance when he tries to get the NFL to

own up to the truth. Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw,

Luke Wilson, Adewale Akinnyuoe-Agbaje, Stephen Moy-

er and Albert Brooks also star. The fi lm is rated PG-13 for

thematic material including some disturbing images, and

language.

the screen and makes the in-timate tale larger than life. As artists, Einar and Gerda in-terpret the world; Redmayne and Vikander do the same for the world of their characters – as well as for those who face a similar challenge –bravely and compassionately.

There are occasional splashes of ugliness, hints of the pain – both mental and physical – that LGBT persons experienced in that era and still face in our own.

Mostly, however, “The Dan-ish Girl” is about beauty,the beauty of unconditionallove and the beauty of beingtrue to yourself.

Hooper, directing from ascript Lucinda Coxon adapt-ed from David Ebershoff’snovel, never lets the lus-cious visuals get in the wayof the message. Until truthfi nds its way, everythingelse is not good enough.

Rated R for some sexual-ity and full nudity.

North Knox neighbors decorated veterans’ graves for Christmas, according to Ronnie L. Collins, president of the Alice Bell/Spring Hill Neighborhood Association.

“I would like to thank all those whose contribution made this possible,” he said. “We were able to cover all the graves at Lyons View. We

originally thought we would be short, but John Sevier had some left over and brought those to Lyons View.”

Collins said volunteers were short on decorations for the national cemetery on Broadway. “Let’s hope that next year we can honor all these men and women who have sacrifi ced for us.”

The Arts Mean Business.That is the message be-

ing delivered by the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville which has joined the Arts & Economic Pros-perity 5, a national study measuring the economic impact of nonprofi t arts and culture organizations and their audiences.

In Greater Knoxville, the research study is being con-ducted by Americans for the Arts (AFTA), the nation’s nonprofi t organization ad-vancing the arts and arts

education in partnership with the Arts & Culture Alli-ance and the Tennessee Arts Commission, the state’s arts agency. This is the fi fth na-tional study over the past 20 years to measure the impact of arts and culture spending on local jobs, income paid to local resident, and revenue generated to local and state governments. This will be the Alliance’s fi rst time to participate.

As one of nearly 300 study partners across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia,

the Alliance will collect eco-nomic impact data from local nonprofi ts that offer arts and culture programming both formal and informal.

“This study will show how nonprofi t arts and cul-ture are an important in-dustry in our community – employing people locally, purchasing goods and ser-vices from local merchants, and helping to drive tour-ism and economic develop-ment,” said Liza Zenni, ex-ecutive director of the Arts & Culture Alliance.

The Alliance will also col-lect surveys from attendees at ar ts and cultural events. Previous national studies have shown that the average

attendee spends $24.60 perperson, per event, beyondthe cost of admission. Thosestudies have also shownthat, on average, 32 percentof arts attendees travel fromoutside the county in whichthe arts event took place,and that those cultural tour-ists typically spend nearly$40 per person – generatingimportant revenue for localbusinesses and demonstrat-ing how the arts drive rev-enue for other businesses inthe community.

Surveys will be collectedthroughout 2016. The re-sults of the study will bereleased in June 2017. Info:865-523-7543 or info@knoxalliance.com

Neighborhood group decorates graves

10 • DECEMBER 23, 2015 • Shopper news