Inside A3 Driver, two students honored for helping in medical emergency
Powhatan, Virginia
B1 A STORIED CAREER Coach Washburn looks back on 20 years of Powhatan Basketball
Vol. XXXII No.. 36
February 27, 2019
MLK Jr. celebration highlights local youth By Laura McFarland News Editor
P
OWHATAN – Encouraging youth to be proud of who they are and what they bring to the community took center stage at the eighth annual MLK Jr. Youth Day Community Celebration. Hundreds of people shared a meal together and then celebrated Powhatan’s youth with a program filled with performances, recognitions and special words on Sunday, Feb. 24 at Powhatan High School.
The annual breakfast celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had to be postponed from its regular time on Jan. 21 because of weather. But organizers were determined to uphold the tradition, even if they had to change things up a bit by hosting an afternoon event, said April Gray, one of the coordinators. “It was like starting all over again, but because of the support we got from the community, everything worked out very well,” Gray said. “Things are not so hard when you have people chipping in.” The keynote speaker
for the event was PHS sophomore Iyana Palmore, who gave a frank and hard-hitting speech about how the color of her skin shapes the views and opinions around her. She talked about the struggle of “being too black or not black enough in different situations” and the feelings associated with the different labels for her race, including one that has been applied to her. “Here in Powhatan, my friends consider me to be an ‘Oreo,’ and I know it is not meant to hurt my feelings, but it does. I go PHOTOS BY LAURA MCFARLAND through the same preju- Highlighting local youth was the focus of the MLK Jr. Youth Day see MLK, pg. 6
Community Celebration, including keynote speaker Iyana Palmore, inset.
Embracing a Night to Shine By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – Richmond recently rolled out the red carpet for several local Powhatan County residents who spent the night being treated like royalty. In fact, for one night, they all were kings and queens. Several local residents attended the fifth annual Night to Shine RVA, a prom for teens and adults with special needs to give them a night where they are the stars of the show. For this one night, it truly was their night to shine, said Eli Tiller, 19, who spent the evening at the Altria Theater sweeping Disney princesses off their feet on the dance
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Maya Morgan sings karaoke with Moana at the Night to Shine prom for people with special needs.
floor. He had a huge grin on his face as women dressed as
characters such as Elsa, Anna, Belle, Ariel, and Moana encircled him on the dance floor. “I think it is really cool that despite my disabilities that they still allow me to go out on the dance floor and dance. It made me feel very happy,” said Eli, who uses an electric wheelchair to move around. Eli has physical and intellectual disabilities from an accident he had when he was 3 years old. He fell from a window in his family’s house in Powhatan and suffered a traumatic brain injury, his dad, John Tiller, said. But for this one night, for the last four years Eli has attended, obstacles are swept
Coalition of Powhatan Churches helping Howell family fix home By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – They woke up to water. When Mary Ann Howell and her husband, Marvin, woke up at their Powhatan home one morning in mid-January, they were horrified to find standing water in their bedroom. They had been having issues with their septic tank the last few days and had thankfully had it pumped out the day before. But still, the clog that had been causing issues wasn’t fixed and the result was a backup of the septic water CONTRIBUTED PHOTO over a good portion of their home only a few hours before a repair- Marvin and Mary Ann man was scheduled to come ser- Howell were devastated when they woke up and vice it.
see SHINE pg. 5
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
see HOWELL pg. 3
found their home damaged from a sewer water backup.
PHOTOS BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Kathy and Richard Verlander read their book to BSH students on Feb. 21.
B S H S T U D E N T S S H A R E L I T E R A RY E X PE R I E N C E By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Catholic School kicked off a schoolwide literacy event last week with the help of the parents of a wellknown alumnus. Authors Richard and Kathy Verlander were the special guests of the preschool through fifth grade classes on Feb. 21 when they came to read from their book, “The Shelter Gang and Their Secret Adventure.” The Verlanders, who live in Goochland County, are the parents of Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander, who attended the school for sixth through eighth grades in the 1990s, when it was Huguenot Academy. They showed a video greeting from the Major League player that he recorded during spring training in Florida last week. The school chose the Verlanders’ book as the focus of “U-Knighted We Read,” which involved all of the chil-
dren in the lower schools reading the same book this week and last week as part of a shared experience. Teachers read the chapter book to the students over several days, said Trish Humphrey, director of the lower school. The school picked “The Shelter Gang and Their Secret Adventure” partly because of the Verlanders’ past connection with the school but also because of their book’s positive messages, Humphrey said. The story is about dogs and cats who sneak away from the animal shelter that rescued them to play baseball as they wait to be adopted by their forever families. “It teaches virtues of perseverance, hope, and love,” she said. The book was inspired by the couple’s volunteer work at the Goochland County Animal Shelter, where they visit every week to walk and socialize dogs. They are also part of Goochland Pet Lovers, which is raising funds for a new animal shelter in the county. After reading the first chapter of
their book to the BSH students, they talked about the animals that inspired the characters in the book. “One thing that is really important in the book is that all of the dogs and cats are from our real lives,” Kathy said. The couple showed photos of the real animals that inspired the characters from the book, including some of their own pets, past and present, and animals they met through their volunteer work at the shelter. Other themes they focused on during their time with the children included the importance of volunteering and of accepting people’s differences. Using the fictional dogs and cats who make up the baseball team, they talked about the different talents each teammate brings to the game. “We really hope that they understand that each one of them is different and we all have our passions. We want them to learn not only to celebrate our differences but to also work to discover what see VERLANDER, pg. 6