To speak .
INDEX Feature Opinion Events Obits Sports Arkadelphian
No. 15
Vol. 3
November 25, 2021
Local food pantry ready for Thanksgiving
Lacy Wolfe Receives Suzanne Spurrier Academic Librarian Award
Blanton Matthews Staff Reporter
For five years now, the Community Family Enrichment Center on North 23rd Street in Arkadelphia and the Clark County Ecumenical Food Pantry have worked together to get filling holiday meals to families in the Arkadelphia area who are food insecure on the week before Thanksgiving. While these two groups organize the distribution of food boxes, they are not alone. “This is truly a community-wide effort,” said Dr. Patricia Wright of the CFEC. “We have churches, the universities, businesses pitching in to donate and pack.” Hunger in Clark County is about as bad as the state average. According to Feeding America, food insecurity affected 17.3% of the population of the state in 2018, and Clark County was marginally above that at 17.5%, and as many as one in five children are affected. Cindy Jackson of the CCEFP says that the problem is at least as bad for senior citizens in the state, a problem that is exacerbated by mobility issues, with many seniors simply not being able to
Arkansas Library Association
Boxes upon boxes filled to the brim with goods for Thanksgiving.
leave home to get the food they need. “There are 24 or 25 houses that we actually deliver boxes to,” said Jackson. While there, volunteers also work to meet other needs, such as filling out insurance paperwork or setting up email accounts, so these seniors do not get left behind in an increasingly digital age.
At the time of writing, 603 boxes were packed to be handed out via drivethru service Tuesday, Nov. 23, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Many were still working to fill more with bread, green vegetables, canned and fresh fruit, and whole chickens (recent supply chain issues stopped them from getting more traditional Thanksgiving turkey as in years past,
Photo by Blanton Matthews
but no one will go without meat.) Volunteers from churches and businesses helped prepare for a week before distribution, as did people facing incarceration, who often come from food-insecure families themselves. “When people tell me about someone they know who is hungry,” said Wright, “I say “Not here. Not in Clark County.’”
Putting on your best genes William Matthews Contributing Reporter Last week the Henderson State Pre-Med Club held a meeting about future careers. They invited a recruiter from UAMS to talk specifically about Genetic Counseling. The speaker had to cancel because of a conflict in scheduling, but UAMS still sent Recruiting Specialist Destiny Carter to talk to the students and answer their questions. For events like this, normally specialized recruiters are sent. A genetic counseling specialist was going to talk about the different career paths and opportunities for a medical student in the field of genetics. Other information sessions are held throughout the year across many campuses in Arkansas, covering different medical fields like Radiology, Audiology, Speech Pathology and Dentistry. Last Tuesday we got a little bit of everything. Carter handed out papers and booklets with general information. It listed several different job opportunities at UAMS, what people actually do, the various program requirements, how long it takes to finish them, and the approximate starting salaries. One more detail that was important from this presentation was the job shadowing. Job shadowing
is a normal way to show new employees or trainees how to do their job and what is expected of them. “Because of the pandemic,” Carter said. “UAMS has not been able to offer shadowing opportunities like we have in the past.” Another important note was that because she was a recruiting specialist and not a specific counselor,
she was not able to explain the process as in-depth as would be provided at the normal information sessions. Even though this was not the expected event, there was still a lot of useful information for medical students looking at finding their career paths. UAMS is still holding specific information sessions at Henderson this December.
Audiology and Speech Pathology is on the 1st, another Genetic Counseling is on the 6th, and Dental Hygiene is on the 10th. For more information on these events or for career information at UAMS, please contact Destiny Carter. Her email is dncarter@UAMS.edu, and her office number is 870-779-6053.
Photo by William Matthews
Recruiting Specialist Destiny Carter talks to students and answers their questions about the future.
LITTLE ROCK, AR – Lacy Wolfe, Interim Director and Information Literacy and Reference Services Librarian at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, AR, received the 2021 Suzanne Spurrier Academic Librarian Award from the Arkansas Library Association on Thursday, October 14 during a virtual awards luncheon at the Arkansas Library Association annual conference. The annual Suzanne Spurrier Academic Librarian Award recognizes a currently employed academic librarian who exemplifies a spirit of outstanding service and dedicated professionalism. Wolfe has been an American Library Association (ALA) Councilor for six years, received numerous grants, including a CarnegieWhitney Grant, and was an ALA Emerging Leader. Lacy’s tireless support of the Arkansas
Library Association and its membership along with her dedication to her leadership role at the Henderson State Library during the transition to the Arkansas State University umbrella, is evident to all who have worked with her in any capacity. The Arkansas Library Association (ArLA) is a state organization of over 800 members whose mission is to further the professional development of all library staff members; to foster communication and cooperation among librarians, trustees and friends of libraries; to increase the visibility of libraries among the general public and funding agencies; to serve as an advocate for librarians and libraries. ArLA works to provide for continuing education opportunities for its members, serves as a source of current information about trends, issues and strategies for all types of libraries and advocates for libraries at the local, state and national levels.
President Biden's vaccine mandate is dangerous Bruce Westerman AR Representative
T h i s w e e k , I cosponsored Congressman Fred Keller’s Congressional Review Act to block President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate on businesses with over 100 workers. During my annual agriculture tour of the Fourth District a few weeks ago, farmers, ranchers, and producers made clear what this mandate will mean for them and how it will cripple our economy, especially our food supply. The existing labor shortage has affected the supply chain crisis to such an extent that farmers face issues feeding their animals, and producers face new challenges getting their goods to market. During a recent committee hearing, the leader of the American Trucking Associations told Congress how detrimental the vaccine mandate will be to his industry, where there is already a lack of drivers and where increasing fuel costs are pushing drivers to the limit.
I’ve heard similar concerns about the federal vaccine mandate from many other industries. Businesses in the Fourth District never asked for a vaccine mandate. They do not want one, and they do not need one. Businesses are already dealing with crushing labor shortages and supply chain issues. If you think inflation is out of control now, see what happens when our agriculture and transportation sectors lose essential workers to this mandate. If this mandate goes into effect, trucking companies expect to see a serious loss of personnel. Fewer truckers mean longer wait times and higher prices. Regardless of vaccination status, every American will feel the pain when prices skyrocket for basic goods and services. President Biden should visit districts like mine and see firsthand how his policies are destroying livelihoods. I urge the President to rescind this unnecessary mandate.
Info from Weather.com
FRI - Nov. 26 mostly sunny
SAT - Nov. 27 partly cloudy
SUN - Nov. 28 mostly sunny
MON - Nov. 29 sunny
TUE - Nov. 30 partly cloudy
WED - Dec. 1 partly cloudy
THU - Dec. 2 partly cloudy
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Precipitation: 3% Wind: SSW 5 mph Humidity: 55%
Precipitation: 4% Wind: WSW 7 mph Humidity: 59%
Precipitation: 13% Wind: NNW 6 mph Humidity 62%
Precipitation: 15% Wind: WSW 6 mph Humidity: 65%
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