McMinn Life Winter/Holiday 2022

From thePublisher

Recently, I saw an excerpt from a devotional by Bob Goff called, “Live in Grace, Walk in Love: A 365-Day Journey,” and one particular section stood out to me: “Jesus was criticized because of who He brought close, not those He sent away. He was scandalous because of who He let in, not those He cast out. Keep it simple. Instead of telling people what Jesus meant, love everyone the way He did.

“You might be misunderstood when you love like Jesus, but you’re in good company. Jesus was misunderstood. The people in power killed Him. What makes you think you won’t take a hit? He was ridiculed because He chose to live like every person, no matter who they were or what they had done, belonged in His family. I really want to do the same.”

It’s critically important for us Christians to love others the way Jesus did, to care about people even when they don’t deserve it, because Jesus loves us even though we don’t deserve it. One line from Bob Goff’s book made me pause, however: “Instead of telling people what Jesus meant, love everyone the way He did.” He loved sinners without ever condoning their sins—tax collectors and prostitutes as well as self-righteous pharisees.

As we celebrate Jesus’s Birthday and as family and friends come together, we want to pause to reflect on a place that God has used to transform countless lives—Miracle Lake. This issue, we tell the story of former addicts who have had their lives transformed by the mercy and love of God!

This issue also features an interview with Coach Tony Vitello, with advice on team leadership that you can apply to your own businesses, families, or teams. Also, sample some delicious holiday recipes courtesy of Ingles Table, and find all kinds of upcoming local events that you can enjoy with your family. Additionally, enjoy the inspirational story of Chris Stephens, pastor of Faith Promise Church.

Thank you to everyone who makes our magazines possible - especially our advertisors. I hope you enjoy a few of the Holiday Events we have listed - there are more online.

Lisa Atkins Bingham

PUBLISHER

The Bingham Group

President Lisa Atkins Bingham

Graphic Designers

Cris Littleton DoctorSid Jason Bowers Lisa Bingham

Contributing Writers Matt Hollingsworth Gayle Fisher Betsy Maxwell West Cara Ford

Contributing Photographers

DoctorSid

Jerry Denham Betsy Maxwell West Calvin Mattheis Caleb Jones

Advertising Sales Mignonne Alman Tel: 865.523.5999 mignonne@binghamgroup.com

Subscription or Editorial Inquiries Tel: 865.523.5999 www.monroelife.com

The Bingham Group, Inc. 11921 Kingston Pike, Suite 201 Knoxville, Tennessee 37934 www.binghamgroup.com www.farragutlife.com www.mcminnlife.com www.monroelife.com

Photo by Jerry Denham

LisaAtkinsBingham

Bromeliads

One of the symbols that most people throughout the world equate with hospitality is the pineapple. The Carib Indians of the West Indies hung a pineapple (Ananas comosus) outside to tell any guest that they were welcome. Merchant trading ships in the 1700’s returned with cargo from the Caribbean islands with sugar, tobacco, rum, molasses and the pineapple. In America and England sea captains would spear a pineapple on his garden gate to signify to friends and neighbors that he had returned from his ocean voyage and was ready to entertain.

The pineapple is the world’s best-known bromeliad. There are also bromeliads house plants. These houseplants are inexpensive, easy to grow, require little care and reward the grower with brilliant, long lasting blooms and ornamental foliage. They come in a wide range of sizes from miniatures to giants.

All bromeliads are composed of a spiral arrangement of leaves called a “rosette”. The plant grows in a flattened configuration with its leaves lined up in a single plane. The flowers stalk is produced from the center of the rosette. The stalk may be long with the flowers held far away from the plant or short with the flowers nestled in the middle

of the rosette. Bromeliads only flower a single time. Once the plant stops produc ing leaves and produces its flower then it vegetatively produces new plantlets called ‘offsets or pups’. These plants will feed on the mother plant until they are large enough to set roots of their own. Pups are produced near the base of the plant inside the sheath of a leaf. The green leafy top of a pineapple is in fact a pup that may be removed and planted to start a new plant.

Several hundred species of bromeliads are being sold as houseplants but the most desirable are Aechmea, Cryptanthus, Guzmania, Neoregelia, Tillandsia and Vriesea. Be sure you look for one of these names on the plant label.

Your success with growing bromeliads indoors will be determined by the growing medium, water, and light. You will need to give your bromeliads a mist once a day and then dunk them in a pail of water about once a week. Since epiphytic bromeliads have poor root systems they take nutrients in through their leaves.

The South is also renowned for its hospitality. We talk slower and take our time visiting with friends and relatives. We will even look up from our phone if someone asks a question.

In our cities you will find gates, doors and cast cement pineapples adoring homes. You can show you’re in hospitality mode this Christmas by using a pineapple as a centerpiece on your holiday table, as a decoration on your front door or you can buy bromeliads plants to brighten up these cold winter days with a splash of color. Just be generous with the water and you’ll have a gift for yourself.

MASTER GARDENER

THE SYMBOL OF HOSPITALITY

If you have followed this column over the past couple of years, you will recall the deep impact my grandfather had on my life, upbringing, and influences. From heaven, he is still influencing me, and many others whom he never met. The music that he listened to still hits my heart, as it tells the stories of yesteryear, and yet somehow is still applicable to modern life. I was chastised by friends on a few occasions this past year when I played 1960’s country music. They would switch genres, and there I was, changing it right back – all in good fun. Fast forward to September, and the Athens Area Council for the Arts hosted a sold-out show of incredibly talented locals in the old country radio style: Solid Gold Country. The songs covered skipped through the generations from the earliest days of country music, decade by decade, up to current hits. Every song was beautifully and heartfully done.

As we heard highlighted hits from each decade, some songs were fun and some tugged at the ol’ heart strings, bringing tears to my eyes as they conjured sweet memories of my grandfather as he was always my favorite cowboy. What I enjoyed most about that evening was watching my friends who chastised my taste in old country earlier in the year, now singing

along to songs that they didn’t know they knew. The melodies, the storytelling, and the feelings that are Americana. I visited the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol recently, which was featuring a Johnny Cash exhibit, and found myself oddly feeling at home and homesick at the same time. Great art speaks to your heart. I have been a lifelong fan of country music, as I often hear the stories of my life in the lyrics.

and Waylon’s Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, “them that do [know him] sometimes won’t know how to take him, he ain’t wrong he’s just different, but his pride won’t let him do things to make you think he’s right,” speaks to the misunderstandings that we often have of each other – when we can’t “see” each other.

You can find me wearing cowboy boots, and yes, my worn-in white cowboy hat on occasion, which can be surprising to some that may not be aware of my background – as I found out at the Solid Gold Country show when several friends couldn’t immediately recognize me. From the shape and wear on the hat, even if it first seems out of place, it doesn’t take a sharp eye to notice it suits me, and we have a history together. A particular line in Willie

Living in the Friendly City and having effortless access to such incredible cultural, historical, and artistic avenues is truly a blessing that everyone can enjoy. Living in the Friendly City also means that as neighbors, friends, and as a community, it is incumbent upon us to uphold the character and values of this special place. As we draw near the holiday season, let us pledge and pray that we can more clearly see each other – that we can work together, worship together, play together, and grow together in the spirit of love and friendship. Our children are counting on us to raise them right. Together, we will move the Friendly City forward.

Genuinely, C. Seth Sumner

www.athenstn.gov

How To Decorate a Christmas tree

Getting a dazzling holiday tree doesn’t have to be hard work. All it takes is an understanding of how the elements work together and a few easy-to-follow tips from tree decorating pros. I am obviously not a pro but there is lots of information on the internet and Better Homes and Gardens which gives tips on decorating your tree. Remember that it is more important for the

family to decorate together than to strive for perfect placement. I have friends who take pride in having a “Charlie Brown” tree each year.

It doesn’t matter if you have an artificial or a live tree. The first step is positioning the lights. Tree lights typically

BY GAYLE FISHER

come in green or white wire strands. Choose the strand color that matches your tree so the wire will be hidden. Illuminating your Christmas tree from the inside out will give it the most dynamic look so tuck those lights deep into the tree. Start at the base of the trunk and work your way up.

Wrapping lights around every major branch, moving from the trunk to the tip and back. It is okay to mix and match lights. For example, a background of white or clear lights can be highlighted with strands of colored lights that wrap the outer areas of the tree.

There are four different kinds of lights. Traditional incandescent (which come in a

variety of sizes and colors) are the most popular type of tree lights. Next are LED lights. These lights are newer and don’t produce heat. They’re typically more expensive, but are flameproof, fireproof and completely safe to decorate your Christmas tree. Another choice is Globe lights. They are round and come in many sizes. They look like balls of color on the tree, and while

they have a softer glow than mini lights, the light they produce covers a larger area on the tree. Finally, Bubble Lights, these retro lights stand straight up on the limbs of your Christmas tree. When the liquid tube on top of the light warms up, bubbles float up and down inside the tube, resembling lava lamps, so cool.

There are no firm rules for decorating a Christmas tree when it comes to draping garland. Plan to use about two strands of garland for every vertical foot of tree. Thin, beaded garlands looks best hung from branch to branch; thicker paper, ribbon, or foil garlands look best wrapped loosely around the entire tree. Decorating a Christmas tree with ribbon is a popular alternative to a garland. Loosely wrap wide, patterned ribbon around the entire tree in horizontal bands. I love using ribbon vertically on the tree, creating cascading streams of ribbon from the top of the tree to the base, tucking the ends under your tree topper. Fold the ribbon back toward the trunk of your tree to create a billowy effect.

The final step in decorating your tree is to hang your Christmas ornaments. To showcase your favorite ornaments, place them in prime positions on the tree first. Next, hang your larger ornaments, spacing them evenly around the tree. Ornament balls in one color but several sizes and textures will create continuity from top to bottom. Hang the larger ones on the bottom, the smaller at the top. Fill in around those ornaments with medium and small size ornaments. Be sure to hang some ornaments closer to the trunk to create depth and interest. They reflect the light to make your tree sparkle from the inside. Make the tree yours by adding specialty items, such as hand made ornaments, clip-on ornaments, or icicles.

Finish the look with a simple tree topper and a festive tree skirt. Enjoy this holiday season and your beautiful Christmas tree.

Dale Kennedy, D.D.S. Jamie Muscari, D.D.S.

Dr. Hugh McCampbell

RECIPES

Merry Christmas

THESE

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY INGLES, STARTED IN 1963 BY ROBERT P. INGLE AND COMMITTED TO THE COMMUNITIES THEY SERVE.

FRENCH ONION SOUP GRATINEE

Sweet Memories Serves: 4 Shopping List

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

3 onions, sliced

7 cups chicken broth

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper 16 baguette slices

16 oz. Gruyere, grated

Instructions

HOMEMADE HOT CHOCOLATE WITH WHIPPED CREAM

Angela Ramsey

Shopping List

2 cups sweetened vanilla almond milk (or dairy-free milk of your choice)

2 Tbsp. organic cocoa powder (or raw cacao powder)

Dash of cinnamon 1 can full-fat coconut milk

1 tsp. vanilla flavoring

* If using a dairy-free milk without vanilla, add 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla or peppermint extract.

* If using unsweetened dairy-free milk, you may want to add 1 Tbsp. raw honey or maple syrup.

Add cocoa powder and cinnamon then whisk to combine for about 2 minutes.

Simmer another 5 minutes or so, then serve immediately (with garnish if desired).

Garnish with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, grated chocolate, crumbled cookies, mint leaves, or anything you like!

To make the whipped cream, place a can of full-fat coconut milk in the refrigerator (upside down) and store overnight. This method will separate the liquids from the solids. Place a medium bowl in the freezer and chill overnight as well.

Instructions

Warm milk until hot, but not boiling. Simmer about 5 minutes.

The next day, open the can from the bottom and scoop out all the solid parts into the chilled bowl. Add vanilla. Using an electric or hand-held mixer, whip the solids on medium-high until combined and smooth. Use immediately.

www.ingles-markets.com/recipes/homeade-hot-choc

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and saute the onions over medium high heat for about eight minutes or until they are lightly browned.

Add broth, salt and pepper and boil gently for about 5-10 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 400°F. Place the baguette slices on a baking sheet and toast in the oven.

Place one or two slices of baguette in the bottom of each of four ovenproof crocks.

Next add approximately 1/4 cup of grated cheese to each crock.

Ladle the onion and stock mixture into the crocks.

Repeat with another layer of baguette, cheese, and onion, then top with the remaining grated cheese.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese is beautifully browned.

www.ingles-markets.com/recipes/ french-onion-soup-gratinee

CARAMEL APPLE NACHOS

Kelli Smith and Erin Barnett

Serves: 4-6

Instructions

Clean apples and dry with paper towel. Slice apples into 8 pieces. Add skewers to each for easy serving. Arrange apple slices on large serving platter. Place caramels in a microwavable safe bowl with water. Microwave in 25 second intervals until melted, then drizzle over apples. Top apples with chocolate chips and crushed candy bar pieces, serve immediately.

You can also set up a fun toppings bar with cookie crumbs, chopped nuts, or your favorite candies.

https://www.ingles-markets.com/recipes/caramel-apple-nachos

CARAMEL BROWNIES

Chef Whitney Roberson

Shopping List

BROWNIES

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup baking cocoa

1 cup canola oil

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

CARAMEL

1 cans (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

1 package (14 oz.) caramels

1/2 cup milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, cocoa, oil, eggs and 1 1/4 cup milk. Combine the flour, salt and baking powder; gradually add to egg mixture until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon two thirds of the batter into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, in large saucepan, heat caramels, sweetened condensed milk and 1/2 cup milk over low heat until caramels are melted. Pour over baked brownie layer.

Drop remaining batter by spoonfuls over caramel layer; carefully swirl with knife.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbles (do not over bake). Cool on wire rack.

https://www.ingles-markets.com/recipes/caramel-brownies

HOLIDAY CANDY CRUNCH

Lindsay Moore

Shopping List

1 bag (12 oz.) Nestle’s White Chocolate Morsels

1 cup Chex

1 handful Planters Roasted Peanuts

1 handful of m&m’s (holiday-inspired colors optional)

Instructions

Prep: Line baking sheet with wax or parch ment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together Chex, peanuts, and m&m’s.

In a medium bowl, melt white chocolate. Use the double boiler method as seen in our video on the webpage given below, or microwave the chocolate for 1 minute, stir, and heat again for an additional 1 minute.

Working swiftly with a rubber spatula, add chocolate to dry mixture. Fold ingredients to combine. Be gentle and patient—you don’t want to crush all the Chex or melt all the m&m’s.

Spread mixture out on baking sheet to dry, using your fingers to separate big clumps. Allow to dry for about an hour (put in fridge/ freezer to speed it up if you have to).

Break the crunch into bite-sized pieces and serve from your favorite bowl. If there is any left, store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

https://www.ingles-markets.com/reci pes/holiday-candy-crunch

ONLINE RECIPE SEARCH

MARTHA WASHINGTONS

Yields 8 dozen chocolates

Shopping List

12-oz. jar maraschino cherries, drained and diced

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted 2 cups powdered sugar 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract 14-oz. package sweetened, flaked coconut

3 cups pecans, finely chopped 5 bars of Lindt Dark Chocolate (70% Cocoa EXCELLENCE Bar)

2 Tbsp. vegetable shortening

Instructions

Dice cherries and pat between paper towels to drain excess juice.

Melt butter on low in medium pot. Add vanilla, powdered sugar, and condensed

milk—stir until smooth. Stir in cherries, coconut, and pecans.

Form mixture into 2-inch balls. Chill in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

Heat the chocolate and shortening in a small saucepan over low heat until chocolate begins to soften and lose its shape, then remove the pan from the heat and stir until melted and smooth.

Working with one candy ball at a time, dip each piece in warmed chocolate. Lift it out with a fork and let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Place the coated ball on waxed paper or parchment paper to set.

Chill in refrigerator until the chocolate is set. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

https://www.ingles-markets.com/recipes/martha-washingtons

Introducing the new McMinn Life website!

Our new website is the best place to keep up with articles and stories between issues so you never miss a beat of what’s going on in our community. No matter if you’re using a phone, tablet, or desktop, our new website is fully optimized to make reading our content as easy as possible.

We also publish full versions of our print magazines online the same day they’re being delivered to homes!

See all the delicious recipes from current and past issues complete with step by step instructions and an integrated shopping list!

Need to Scale a Recipe?

No problem! Our online recipe system allows you to choose how many servings you want and it automatically adjusts the needed ingredients and shopping list!

www.mcminnlife.com

Sarah Elizabeth

God Provides

The thirty-foot L & M Dam is a part of Etowah’s history. Some might even say that the dam is the town’s history. Etowah was founded in the early 1900s as part of a new train route, and the steam engines of those thunderous trains were powered by water from the 11-acre lake created by the L & M Dam.

But by the 1960s, the age of steam-powered trains was long past, so the company sold the lake and the surrounding property which became divided among ten owners. But in 1980, a preacher named Jack Bryan would reunite this land, so important to Etowah’s history, and transform it into a center for men to turn their lives around, a place called Miracle Lake. For 40 years, Jack Bryan and Miracle Lake have served East Tennessee, and it is our honor to tell their story

J A C K B R Y A N A N D M I R A C L E L A K E

Jack Bryan became a Christian shortly before turning 19. At the time, he was studying building construction at Southern Tech in Georgia, and one night he was dressing for bed when he heard God say to him, “Jack, go back home and preach.” That home was Etowah, Tennessee, 120 miles away.

Immediately, Jack got dressed, putting on a rain coat and an old hat. He said goodbye to his roommate and stepped outside into the rain, shivering in the October chill.

Jack stepped onto a curb, and right away, a car—that Jack had not called for—stopped and someone stepped out and said, “Jack, what are you doing out here?”

Without asking for permission, Jack slipped into the passenger seat and told the man what God had said.

“I’ll take you to the trolly,” the man responded. “You can get that to the bus station, and from there, you can go to Chattanooga.” Jack did exactly that, arriving in Chattanooga with a single quarter in his pocket, then began walk ing home. He hitchhiked to Athens where he caught a bus, paying his last quarter for a ride to Etowah.

It was morning by then, and Jack strolled into his parents’ home at 7 AM—without a cent left in his pockets—just as his mother was cooking breakfast. He had expected her to be surprised when she saw him, but she just acted normal and finished cooking.

Finally, Jack asked, “Mom, you didn’t seem to be bent out of shape about me coming home.”

She responded, “Son, I knew God was working on you.”

Jack did end up becoming a preacher, just as God had commanded him, pastoring multiple churches. At one point, he considered becoming a missionary, but God had a different plan for his life—ministering in jails and prisons.

Jack remembers the exact day this ministry began: The first Sunday of October, 1973. At first, he ministered at McMinn County jail. Later, some of the inmates he’d preached to ended up in prisons around the state, and they asked Jack to come visit them. Soon, he had a circuit where he was ministering to all the prisons in the state once per month.

The experience had a profound impact on him. “These men leave the prison, they come back home, [spend time] with the same people, same type of living, then they’re back in jail,” Jack said. So many of them were released just to break the law again and end up right back where they started. Jack wanted to break them out of this cycle, and God had given him a vision for how to do that.

Jack knew that the old L & M Dam Property would be a perfect location for the Christian recovery center he wanted to build. It would be a place to help those struggling with drug addiction, especially former inmates, to repent and turn to God.

However, to open this center, Jack would have to convince all ten property owners to sell. One day, Jack met with two of the property owners beside the dam’s spillway. Beside them, excess water flowed down the channel from the serene lake beyond. Jack had been explaining about the Christian training center he wanted to build and the vision the Lord had given him.

“Let’s have a prayer together,” Jack said.

“Now Jack,” one owner responded, “I never have prayed outside my home, just with my family. But I will.”

The three men prayed and one of the property owners said, “Lord, I pray that you’ll do miracles in the lives of the men that come here.”

M I R A C L E.

And just like that, the center had a name—

M I R A C L E L A K E.

Jack eventually convinced all the L & M property owners to sell, and some of them actually gave him the land for free. However, before he could finalize everything, he had to get financing, and this would turn out to be an even more difficult task.

“I was turned down by every financial institution in McMinn County,” Jack wrote. “I’ll never forget what one Bank Vice President said to me, ‘Jack, that’s just not a bankable proposition.’”

The longer it took Jack to get financing, the more restless the property owners became. All the while, interest rates were climbing. Two years passed since he first began the project, and it seemed to have reached a standstill.

“The longer we delayed, the more impossible the whole deal seemed to get,” said Jack. “Then it occurred to me what was happening. This is the kind of situation that God likes to operate in. He loves to take large handicaps. He was wanting to allow the situation to get to the point that there could be no question but that He alone could have brought us through.”

Indeed, in July of 1979, he received smaller loans from four men, and Jack was able to buy much of the property, but it would take an other fifteen months of financial roadblocks to scrounge together enough to pay the last few. By the end, he was over $40,000 in debt with a grand total of $600 in his bank account. It was then that the Maclellan Foundation in Chattanooga stepped in. Mr. Maclellan called the Bank that had already started foreclosure proceedings and said, “Hold up, we’re going to help those people.” The total grant from the McClellan Foundation was $75,200.

Hugh Maclellan, Sr. advised Jack to get a good Board of Directors and submit himself to them. He did just that. Their present Board of Directors consists of: Robert Bookout, President, Jeff Anderson, First Vice President, Mike Dunn, Second Vice President, Jack Bryan, Secretary and Gary Hyde, Treasur er, Randy Coleman, Clint Davis, Brandon Goodman, David Johnson, John Miles, Steve Moore, Joe Pesterfield, Randy Rayburn, Wade Shultz, Richard Smith, and Dennis Tweed. On December 7, 1980, Miracle Lake accepted the first student into the program. And more than 40 years later, it’s still working to save the lost.

There was so much that Jack needed to start his ministry, and so many people stepped up to provide.

He is grateful to all of them, but most of all, he is grateful to God.

And we in East Tennessee are grateful for Jack Bryan who, by God’s Grace, kept going even when others would have given up. The number of lives he has impacted is staggering. Since that first student in December of 1980, they’ve had 2,400 men come to Miracle Lake. They also continue to do prison ministry, with ministers speaking at men’s and women’s prisons, and Jack said that right now, this program is “prospering more than it ever has.”

Over the years, Jack has served as executive directort of Miracle Lake, and Byron Goodman, a former student became general manager: Byron Goodman, a man whose life was turned around many years ago. Jack retired on his 90th birthday—November 17—and Byron was elected as the new executive director. Jack spoke highly of his former student, saying, “The guy boarders on a genius. He has the ability to work with people, work with men, work with a student.” Jack can retire confident that his legacy is in good hands.

Jack is planning to move to a house his father built in 1960, vacating the Miracle Lake site for other staff. He plans to stay on the board and continue doing some teaching.

We need places like Miracle Lake now more than ever. Over the course of his ministry, Jack has seen the number of prisons in Tennessee increase exponentially, and Miracle Lake’s waiting list is very long. They are planning an upcoming expansion that will give them room for 10 additional students. When asked how much money they needed to raise for the expansion, Jack said, “Whatever the need is, God will provide.”

HEALED!

At the beginning of 2017, Etowah-native Perry James owned a wealth management company in Knoxville responsible for nearly $100 million. He had a mansion, a yacht, an orchard, a wife and family—and he also had crushing burnout from his 70–80-hour work weeks and had relationship problems for which he alone was to blame. He had recently been awarded $3 million for losing his home in the Coal Ash spill nine years earlier. He had back surgery and began taking medication for pain, and this was where his life began to fracture.

“I wanted, I guess, to feel better about life…” he said. “I started dabbling a little bit here and there with different kinds of drugs like Xanax.” He had thought he’d be able to control it, but there was no controlling this. It happened faster than he could have imagined. Heroin, fentanyl, but most of all cocaine—$1,500 to $2,000 worth of cocaine every single day, taking hits every seven or eight minutes.

On the morning of his accident, Perry woke after doing drugs and partying all night and decided to drive to the bank to get money for more drugs. As he drove, he started

feeling something, a sense of déjà vu, and he began to lose consciousness. He had experienced enough seizures to recognize what was happening to him, and he realized with horror that with his all-consuming addiction, he had neglected his seizure medicine. A mother and father stood with their children on the side of the road, and Perry’s vision grew dark.

The next thing Perry remembers is the children’s furious father dragging him from his still-moving truck. He had struck the two kids with his vehicle. Perry broke free and ran after his truck which was still drifting without a driver. He stopped it then called the police on himself.

The children were all right, thank God; they returned to school the very next day. And Perry would face the consequences of his actions.

By the end of 2017, Perry James had lost his business, lost his money, and was facing two years in jail—but worst of all he had lost his wife and family through divorce.

“I have nobody to blame but myself,” he said. In the end, he would serve seven and a half months in jail, followed by two years of probation which he was able to make it through without drugs.

“I felt like my life was over,” he said. “Everything I had in life was gone—my wife, my relationships, my wealth, my business. Everything was gone. I lived in my car.” He had lost all hope in life, and with nothing to cling to, he began taking drugs again. He would often go without food in order to pay for his habit.

Eventually, in his desperation, he reached out to Jack Bryan, founder of Miracle Lake, who Perry had known his entire life. “I had reached the absolute bottom,” Perry explained. “It was either that or I was going to die.”

He went to Miracle Lake in June of 2022 where Jack taught him through Christ’s teachings how to live life. Perry stated that he’d been a Christian since a young age, but he’d never learned discipleship—following God—until he came to Miracle Lake.

“[Jack] discipled me,” Perry said. “Now, I still have nothing, but I will say with what I have now—except for the relationships with the family—but everything else, I wouldn’t trade it for what I have now. Never. Because I have peace, I have joy, I have a reason to live. I’m here for a mission. I’m on the mission field every day.” He’s been through AA and NA before, and he says that they don’t compare to what he’s found at Miracle Lake.

Miracle Lake has successfully rehabilitated thousands of men through a biblical approach to recovery. By establishing a relationship with Jesus Christ, men fill the void in their hearts that drugs and alcohol once filled. Check out the testimonial videos online to hear how families were restored through the work at Miracle Lake. www.miraclelake.org/testimonials

BACK

I’d feel better and make it to class the next day, and [it would] take care of my headache.” Soon, he was using them every day.

When he was a junior, he transferred to UT. Soon, however, his father began noticing changes in his appearance and behavior. Instead of being fun and energetic, Byron had grown irritable and moody, often telling lies to try to hide his addiction; he wasn’t the same person.

They decided Byron should temporarily withdraw from college to get recovery treatment. He attended a center in Nashville for two weeks and got detoxed, but he did it all “without God,” never seeking a personal relationship with Christ. He’d been raised in church, but it was all just religious routine with no relationship. He also didn’t change his lifestyle, continuing to hang out with the same people as before, trying to stay sober in a bad environment.

Asmall chapel and a cluster of wooden cabins surround a still lake. It would almost look like a summer camp except the residents aren’t children but adults.

Miracle Lake is a Christian Training center in Etowah, TN, and since 1980, they’ve had over 2,400 students in their recovery program for drug and alcohol addiction.

Their general manager is a man named Byron Goodman, a former student who attended Miracle Lake years ago. Here he experienced God’s mercy and saw his power to change lives. We traveled to the facility to learn his story.

Byron is a friendly man with a Southern accent. He sat across from us at a wooden desk and told us about his life: “[I was] born and raised in Roane County, went to Oliver Springs High School, graduated in 95.”

After this, he began college, which was the start of a dark part of his life. Byron sometimes drank in high school, but in college he began experimenting more with drugs: pills, cocaine, and eventually what would become his drug of choice—oxycodone.

He explained, “I’d go to school, go out and have some beers, get intoxicated, then I found out I could take a hydrocodone—

In his senior year, he relapsed. Byron returned to the recovery center to detox, but not long after, he relapsed again and had to return to the program. By now, his dad had paid tens of thousands for the treatments, all out of pocket, so after this second relapse, he told Byron, “If you do this again, I’m done. I can’t financially afford all these rehabs.”

Despite this warning, he relapsed again. Then, he got evicted from his condo and was out on the streets. He called his dad who said, “Son, I told you I love you, but I can’t help you again.”

In the long run, this refusal would turn out to be a good thing. “He was an enabler,” Byron said. Without meaning to, his dad had been enabling his addiction.

How Miracle Lake Turned Byron Goodman’s Life Around

PAYING IT

Byron’s car was soon repossessed, and he found himself walking down the side of the interstate to a homeless shelter. He tried to get a job, but it never worked out because of his addiction.

“I just lived underneath a bridge for about six months,” he recalled. “I ended up getting to stay at a few bad places from time to time… It was like a horror movie. I never thought it would happen to me.”

In 2006, Byron’s brother found out about Miracle Lake and called their dad, saying, “It’s a Christian-program, [and] Byron needs a miracle to get this straightened out.”

Byron came to Miracle Lake on September 7, 2006. He was frail, sick, and underweight from malnutrition. A week or two after his arrival, during one of his classes, Jack, the founder of Miracle Lake, was talking about salvation and how people need to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ to be saved.

Byron raised his hand, tears in his eyes, and said, “Jack, you’re talking about repentance, and repentance is a willingness to change. Well, I want to change. I’m sick and tired of this lifestyle. How do I get saved?” Jack invited him to the front of the class, and they knelt and prayed together.

“I invited Jesus into my life,” Byron told me. “I accepted him as my Lord and Savior. And my heart started changing. My attitude started changing. I just felt peace. I felt the burdens lifted. I was like, ‘Well, I may not have a place to live when I graduate this program, but I have a home when I die.’” Through the Bible, he began to understand who God is and realized that he’d been missing a relationship with him, and that was why he was dysfunctional, why his life wasn’t what it should be, Byron explained. “You have no strength without God,” he said.

Byron graduated a few months later but asked Jack if he could stay longer because he needed structure and routine. He ended up staying for six months as a student graduate. Then, on April 1, 2007, Jack asked if Byron could be the house manager. He said he’d love to help—anything he could do to serve and be useful.

“I lived here 18 months,” Byron said, “lost track of time, fell in love with God.”

During this time, Byron also repaired his relationship with his family. During high school, he had dated a girl named Brandi, and after high school, she’d become pregnant with their daughter, McKenzie. He had left them when he went to college.

Byron told us, “When I was here [at Miracle Lake] and finally got my life straightened out, I started seeing McKenzie again, and she wanted to have weekends with me. So, I couldn’t have weekends with my daughter while living at Miracle Lake, so I decided to work on trying to find [somewhere else to live].”

Byron’s grandparents had left him an inheritance with a trustee, and he had access as long as he was sober. He used this to buy a house in Madisonville and moved there in 2008, although he continued working at Miracle Lake.

“So, McKenzie started coming back into my life,” Byron said. “Well, her mother and I were broken up for 12 years. Never in a million years did I think we’d get back together.”

One time, when Brandi was picking up their daughter, she met Jack, director of Miracle Lake, who started talking to her and Byron about how their relationship had ended. Shortly after, Byron had a crazy idea—he asked Brandi out to dinner. Predictably, she

refused, saying he’d broken her heart and she’d never let him back in her life again.

A month passed, and one day Brandi called him and said, “I’m stupid probably for doing this, but let’s go have dinner.”

Sitting with us, years afterward, Byron smiled and said, “Jack did our wedding 12 years ago. Yesterday was our anniversary.”

Today, Byron is the owner of a transition facility called Graduate Hall where recovering addicts go after graduating from Miracle Lake, and he helps dozens of men who are in the same place where he once was. But the miracle was not yet complete.

On November 17, Jack retired after 42 years at Miracle Lake, and guess who he chose as his successor.

In 2006, when Byron’s brother recommended he go to the recovery center because he needed a miracle, I doubt anyone imagined that one day he would be running that same center.

“I’m just paying it back for what happened to me here,” Byron said.

182 County Rd. 498, Etowah, TN 37331 423.263.2583 • miraclelake.org

AT THE ARTS CENTER IN ATHENS

Christmas

ith Christmas fast approaching, the Arts Center is holding fun seasonal events from a holiday arts and crafts sale, to a performance by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, to a production of the Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street.

One of our writers had the chance to ask the directors of Miracle on 34th Street a few questions. When asked why they chose this particular play, one said, “I love a good Christmas show, but Miracle is so endearing to me because of its undercurrent of society’s treatment of the disenfranchised, mentally ill, and the underserved. On the surface it seems like just another feel-good holiday show, but if you really pay attention, it’s meaning is so much deeper than that.”

They also described the challenges: “This cast is comprised of 48% new performers

and is multigenerational so we’ve got performers of all ages and it’s a bit beautifully chaotic. We are so fortunate that we have such a pool of talent in both children and adults and are over-the-moon that our cast includes six parents who were cast with their children. That authenticity cannot be manufactured and will translate so beautifully from the stage to the audience.”

After the show, visitors will get a chance to take pictures of their little ones meeting “the most genuine Santa that you’ll ever see.”

“It is a joy to present a show that is unabashedly hopeful and calls us to lean into the hope of the season,” the directors said. “You will leave this show feeling like there’s a world worth believing in and that’s our goal.”

The Arts Center is currently undergoing renovations and construction which the staff hope will be finished by fall of 2023 according to Executive Director Lauren Brown. Over the course of their fundraiser, they received almost $1.3 million for the renovations out of their $1.6 million goal. This includes $100,000 that the Athens City Council recently voted to donate. They are still accepting donations but have stopped actively fundraising to leave room for other worthy capital campaigns in the community.

Lauren Brown said, “As our programming is up and more running, it’s becoming more and more apparent the need for the extra space” that the renovations will bring. “We have so much going on here at the Arts Center.”

The Arts Center Is Raising $1.6 Million for Large-Scale Renovations. The planned interior and exterior of the building after renovations are complete. Renderings created by Main Street Studio Architects.

November 25th through November 26th

Our annual indoor exhibition and sale of fine arts and crafts is held the weekend of Thanksgiving each year.

The ticketed Preview Party opens the show the evening before admission-free shopping begins. During the Preview Party, guests enjoy live music, refreshments, and door prizes while browsing the show for early shopping.

While the emphasis is on finding handmade holiday gifts and shopping local, a nice vari ety of art and crafts is available for sale during this show with items for all tastes and budgets.

December 2nd through December 10th

By chance, Kris Kringle, an old man in a retirement home, gets a job working as Santa for Macy’s. Kris unleashes waves of good will with Macy’s customers and the commercial world of New York City by referring parents to other stores to find exactly the toy their child has asked for. Seen as deluded and dangerous by Macy’s vocational counselor, who plots to have Kris shanghaied to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, Kris ends up in a court competency hearing. Especially at stake is one little girl’s belief in Santa. In a dramatic decision, the court confirms Kris as the true Santa, allowing Susan and countless other children to experience the joy of childhood fantasy.

Ring in the holiday season with this favorite family pleaser!

Tony Vitello

his summer, Coach Tony Vitello led the UT Vols baseball team in a record-smashing season that ended 57-9. For most of the season, the Vols were ranked number one in the country, and they had 10 players selected in the major league draft, a new program record.

But we aren’t here to talk about the team’s records, nor to speculate about next season. Instead, we’re here to talk about how Coach Vitello took the Vols from the worst team in the conference to the best in the nation. What leadership strategies are responsible for his success? And what lessons can we learn from him that we can apply to our own businesses, families, teams, and anything else that requires leadership?

I interviewed Coach Vitello to ask him these questions. I sat in a conference room overlooking Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Across from me, dressed in orange, sat the coach of possibly the greatest baseball team in the country.

You set a lot of records, but I want to focus on how you did it. Are there principles and strategies our readers could apply to other areas of life?

Coach Vitello answered this first question in four parts.

PATIENCE

“One thing that sticks out to me as a personal fault… is… rushing around,” he said. “I put the ‘haste makes waste’ cliché into practice way too often as an individual, but when it

comes to trying to look out for the program, I think patience has really paid off.”

This started when he was first hired and had to decide “who else was going to fill all the roles that we needed to hire here. They basically cut everybody loose so we had seven different people to hire.” They took this on one-by-one, checking every avenue to be sure before committing.

“[Whatever] you’re doing, you always want to select the greatest option you have available, and I think we were able to do that in all the areas that are now filled. And we’ve stuck together as a staff.” He explained how important these people are to the team.

COACH

Photo: Calvin Mattheis , Writer: Matthew Hollingsworth

57-9

TENNESSEE FINISHED THE 2022 SEASON WITH A 57-9 RECORD.

THE VOLS WON THE SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE EAST DIVISION, THE LEAGUE’S REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP AND TOURNAMENT TITLE.

“Those are the guys who are with our players more than I am day-to-day, and I think we inherited a couple very talented people in our trainer and our academic coordinator, but then all those other hires were ones where I think patience really paid off… If we would have rushed, we never would have had a chance at hiring a couple individuals that became available later down the road… Being patient and doing as much research as possible gave us peace of mind.”

PEOPLE

“Now that we’ve all been in place for five years, there’s some continuity, there’s a family environment here. There’s a lot of trust, not just amongst the staff but between the staff and the players because when you’re recruiting these individuals—the prospects when they’re in high school— you’ve got a lot of time to get to know them. And by the time they show up on campus, they realize that there’s good people that are going to be interacting with them every day. The families have peace of mind… We technically have to be the parents—at least pseudo-parents—when the kids are in this bubble that we call our campus.”

“My main answer… is I think people make this place. There’s other teams in this conference that could argue they have better

weather, or better facilities, or better tradition, better talent in their state. But the one thing

I think we boast here is we feel we’ve got the best people surrounding our kids, and again it was patience that helped hire a great staff. And… the number one reason I think there’s been success is the people that are in place every day building relationships with our guys as people, not just players.”

STANDARDS

Coach Vitello also talked about the importance of setting standards. He discussed when the players first arrive and begin working out in the weight room. “The standards are set right away. It’s a rude awakening for those high school kids. That’s the beginning of them needing to raise their standards.”

He continued, “What you allow to happen is what’s going to happen. That would hold true at a business.” Don’t allow your employees to treat customers rudely or they’ll learn that they can get away with that. “Raising the standard and holding them to it has been a big part of what we’ve done here.”

DEALING WITH SUCCESS

“Now that we’ve had some success, you can’t sit back and say ‘Let’s high five each other. We had a few records set last year.’ If you do that in this league… you’re going to get literally knocked out, and you might be looking for a new job if it happens two years in a row.”

Five years ago, when you became coach, the baseball program was one of the worst in the conference. Five years later, you’ve set all these records. How did you accomplish this?

“There was a lot of hard work. People say there’s no substitute for it for a reason. There’s a lot of people on staff that sacrificed being able to go on vacation or go home a little earlier at night… in order to try to get

things in the direction we wanted to… I don’t think you can point to any one thing. I think a lot of hard work has gotten our guys looking good in the uniforms.”

Coach Vitello also emphasized the need to focus on the long haul—months and years—over short-term success. The staff had to ask themselves, “What’s… going to be sustainable over time and going to be able to withstand the difficult challenges in our league, more specifically the heavy competition. Because you are not going to be bulletproof in this league. I guess Coach Saban is trying to prove that theory wrong, but for the most part.”

You had a lot of talent this past year, and you were able to take this talent and develop team chemistry. It’s one thing to have talented players, but it’s another to mold them into a great team. How do you do that? What’s your secret to developing team chemistry?

“One ingredient… that’s unique to us is I was not a very good player. So, I can’t speak to the hitters the way Coach Elander can… As a staff, we complement one another, and where I fall short in a lot of areas, the one that I can speak to the greatest is being a good teammate because I sat on the bench for years with my dad, who was a coach, and watched how [the other players] responded to the coaches, responded to each other— just how they interacted daily.”

I had to smile at Vitello’s answer. This team had somehow developed the reputation that they were the “villains” of college baseball, yet their coach was humble enough to admit to an interviewer that he hadn’t been a very good player. His humility and his readiness to give credit to the rest of the staff and team stood out to me during the interview.

Vitello knew he wasn’t a talented enough to compete at a high level, so if he wanted to keep playing, he needed something to offer the team. And what he had to offer was what he’d learned from years of sitting on the sidelines, watching players interact— the attributes of a good teammate.

“I… got my PhD in being a good teammate,” Coach Vitello said. This has helped him greatly in his career as a coach, although he emphasized that “it takes two to tango” and it’s up to the players to take these lessons and “run with [them].”

So, what are the attributes of a good teammate?

“A big one is recognizing that it can’t be centered around what you would like to do every day. So, for instance, in the locker room, if you like listening to one artist every day… the odds of everyone else in the locker room wanting to hear that every day are not good. Now, those guys need to give you the space to, you know, today I got to listen to the Bluetooth or this is the song I want to listen to, but everyone will go crazy if it’s the same, the same, the same.”

“Also, realizing that your actions affect others. So, if you throw your helmet, it might give you the satisfaction of ‘I’m angry, and I want to get it out of my system,’ but it literally may bounce off the wall and hit somebody… I think realizing that your actions may give you satisfaction or they may not—but you need to take into account how is it going to contribute to the overall environment of the team it the dugout?”

Next, Coach Vitello said, “When you’re playing baseball, it is a team sport, but you have the baseball in your hand as a pitcher or you’re the only guy up representing the team as a hitter, so when you’re the pitcher

on the mound or the hitter in the plate, you are the representative of the entire team, so what you do… needs to be in the framework of the team. If you’re our rep at the plate and you’re pouting because the umpire didn’t give you the call you wanted, you’ve basically put our whole dugout in the position where our whole team is a bunch of pouters… That guy in the box or that guy on the mound is our leader and our representative and ultimately is sending a message to the fans, to our team, to the other team, to the whole league [that] this is who we are.”

How do you motivate players?

Coach Vitello laughed and said, “Sometimes I think I guilt them into it… I’m not as big of a yeller or screamer as maybe I would appear to be to other people or if you’re just looking at Twitter… For me, I like to use statistics [to motivate people].” He often shows players evidence and stats to support his strategies are instead of just saying “because I told you so.” He will “ask them to do something but then provide proof that there’s a good reason to do it.”

He also plays them podcast or movie clips to make memorable points. He explained, “If I just stand up in the front of the room and speak for 30 minutes… at the end of the day, for the rest of the season, they’re might remember three sentences or maybe even only one catchphrase… But if you add in a

movie clip or you follow it up with a podcast, it’s more likely to stick with these guys.”

He also gives them books like Mind Gym by Gary Mack and Birdies, Bogeys, and Bipolar Disorder by Michael Wellington (a friend of Vitello’s).

How do you discipline players?

For smaller infractions, Coach Vitello isn’t the one to handle discipline. Instead, players are sent to “Coach Q,” Quentin Eberhardt.

“He makes it hurt for a while and then that’s it,” Vitello explained. “One thing I’ve had to stress is that once it’s over, it’s over. We don’t hold grudges around here.” They don’t give players the silent treatment for days on end or anything harsh like that.

“When things more severe happen, it’s time for it to fall on my shoulders,” he said. “[I’ll] do what I think is best for the team… [and] for the kid… I think it’s up to me and the other coaches to try to protect them from making further mistakes or not compounding the mistake they’ve made.”

So, you’re not much of a disciplinarian?

“My goal is to have a back and forth between the players where we want to treat them like professionals and they want to be treated

Photo: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

like that, but they need to act like it for us to do it.” He emphasized that they have a good group of players, and they rarely have to discipline players for anything academic, a success which he credits to their academic coordinator.

Do you deal with just making them better baseball players or is there a bigger picture, like trying to impact them individually on and off the field?

“Yeah, and I always say to our guys and our recruits’ parents, it’s self-serving… I want [the players] to do well academically. Even the guys who play the Major Leagues still are going to have to work when they’re done, for the most part… But it’s self-serving too. If a kid learns how to sleep better, with better sleep habits, learns how to eat better, learns how to manage his studies better, learns how to handle the media and fans better… they’re going to play better… If you learn to be a better person, you’re going to be a better player, employee, husband… so there’s a lot of things we throw at our guys that are non-baseball…”

Do you set team goals and individual goals?

“We ask them to… write things down… to come forward with personal goals and process goals, how they’re going to achieve them. A lot of times our goals here, internally as a staff, are more short-term, and it might be smaller things. I don’t think we ever set out to say, ‘Let’s win our first ten games’ or anything like that. I think the big picture items so far have taken care of themselves when we cut out small pieces to focus on.”

What advice would you give to young (12-year-olds) aspiring baseball players and their parents?

“Stealing the quote we sent our players today: ‘Play the long game.’ What is the intent of a kid being involved in competitive sports at a young age? An easy and direct and true answer is to try to win, to try to get better, to try to become the best player they can be. But if you really take a step back and look at it, it’s bigger items. It’s so they exercise and they’re more healthy. So they’re challenged and they learn how to deal with adversity. So they learn how to interact with kids their age. Also, how they learn how to interact with adults who are trying to help them and coach them. How to be on time for practice, just like being on time for a job or for a class. How to learn work habits that will improve whatever their skill set is, and ultimately that falls under the umbrella of repetition as the father of all learning.”

“Now it’s an environment, it’s no one’s fault… but there’s this immediate pressure to see how good you can be so you have a highlight on Twitter, or you get a scholarship, or you get asked to play on the highly thought of, select team, and all those things are understandable, but I think… you do have to take a step back a bit and realize why you’re doing this in the first place. Otherwise, I think you can be chasing a ghost if it’s all about you [wanting] to have the home run record or some things like that….

If you ask some of Coach Delmonico’s, a legendary coach here, some of his players are now 40 and 50 years old, [If you ask his players,] ‘What did you get out of that?’ Well, the team comradery and the best man at my wedding, and I learned to be competitive, to be a winner, so now I started my own business. Those are just a few examples, but I think, as you get further away from the game… you have a little better perspective of there’s a bigger picture to the whole thing… These lessons… are incredibly valuable, and will outlast a trophy.”

Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers about team building?

“There’s no one thing we have. It’s daily. It’s kind of like being on a diet or an exer cise plan. There’s a phrase that a sports psychologist has that’s, ‘Do a little a lot, as opposed to a lot a little.’ So if you do ‘a little a lot’ that means daily you’re em phasizing that this is important or that’s important or this is the habit you want and you’re reemphasizing it and kind of reworking it every day, again as opposed to us having a PowerPoint presentation for four hours about how to be a great teammate and then that’s the only time we touch on that topic for the month.”

Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) Community Investment Fund surpasses $1 million in giving

Twenty-two East Tennessee nonprofits received a total of $121,600 from the Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) Community Investment Fund, a corporate donor advised fund of East Tennessee Foundation, at a ceremony October 17. Since 2015, the fund has awarded 180 grants to more than 120 non-profit organizations and educational institutions in 20 East Tennessee counties, totaling a combined $1.04 million. The Community Investment Fund is a partnership between CNS, the managing and operating contractor of Y-12 National Security Complex, and the East Tennessee Foundation. “Y-12 National Security Complex is invested in our community, and our partnership with the East Tennessee Foundation supports nonprofits that are accomplishing vital work,” said Gene Sievers, Y-12 site manager. “This year marks a significant milestone in our corporate giving, and we are pleased to announce new grants to 22 nonprofits.”

“This year, our grant committee chose to focus on organizations that provide support and development for early childhood education, at-risk youth, and young adults; support for immigrants to East Tennessee; and support for teachers.” said Y-12 Community Investment Advisory Committee Chair Jamie Uptgraft. “It’s an honor to provide grants to these organizations who work so diligently to improve the lives of East Tennesseans.”

FUND IS EMPLOYEE DIRECTED

CNS worked with the East Tennessee Foundation to create an innovative and effective method for contributing to the community in a way that would also better engage Y-12 employees. The Y-12 Community Investment Fund was established in 2015. “We are honored to be part of the East Tennessee community,” said Jason Bohne, CNS senior director of Communications. “As we pass $1 million in giving since the Community Investment Fund began, we are proud of the many ways the fund has made a difference in the lives of our neighbors thanks to the commitment and compassion of our non-profit partners.”

Y-12 employees who serve on the Community Investment Fund committee are chosen to serve two-year terms to represent their colleagues. Twenty employees participated in 2022. Members of the committee reviewed dozens of grant proposals, conducted non-profit staff interviews, and made site visits before recommending funding. “As an employee, I appreciate that CNS allows us to help determine how they invest in the community,” said Uptgraft. “Participating in this process has been incredibly rewarding.”

Jason Bohne, CNS senior director of Communications, speaks at the CNS Community Investment Fund grant ceremony held at Y-12 October 17.

Y-12 employees designated more than $120,000 for East Tennessee organizations in 2022.

CNS Community Investment Grant Recipients are pictured following the grant ceremony 520 W. SUMMIT HILL DRIVE, SUITE 1101, KNOXVILLE, TN 37902 easttennesseefoundation.org

• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley, to support school readiness for pre-kindergarten youth at Lonsdale Elementary School;

• Bridge Refugee Services’ Refugee Occupancy Opportunity Funding [ROOF], that supplements costs for housing;

• CASA of the Tennessee Heartland for the Fostering Futures Initiative, which provides volunteer mentors to empower foster youth between the ages of 14-18;

• Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, Inc., Office of Immigrant Services, to provide low- and pro-bono legal assistance to immigrants;

• Communities in Schools of the Appalachian Highlands, Building Resiliency through Integrated Student Supports, to place coordinators in schools to assist at-risk students in Cocke and Hamblen counties;

• Community Tutoring, to enlarge their territory to provide academic support to more students;

• Emerald Charter Schools, to provide trauma responsiveness training for teachers;

• Freedom Village of Hope, East Tennessee Freedom Schools, to fund a six-week summer enrichment program to increase reading com petency;

• Friends of Literacy’s Literacy to Go program, that aims to reduce literacy disparities;

• Girl Talk, Inc., Life Prep Academy, to prepare 10th- through 12th-grade girls for life after high school;

• Helen Ross McNabb Foundation, for schoolbased behavioral health services at Willow Brook Elementary School;

• HOLA Lakeway’s Immigrant/Refugee Transi tion Program, to provide support to immigrants and refugee families by assisting families through various transitions;

• Knoxville Area Urban League’s Healthy Minds Healthy Hearts, to provide minority high school students with the necessary support and strategies to prioritize their mental and emotional health;

• Koinonia Foundation Tennessee for Koinonia Classroom, a virtual learning program created for classroom use by special education teachers;

• Mental Health Association of East Tennessee, to support youth by determining their exposure to adverse childhood experiences, develop positive coping strategies, and to get the help they need;

• Metro Drug Coalition, to implement mental health first-aid training for teachers, administra tors, and school resource officers;

• Oak Ridge Schools’ Preschool/Head Start for Conscious Discipline Teacher Support, to provide continued systematic group training and individual coaching to staff serving approximately 200 children;

• Our Place Art Organization, Inc., Career Readiness Program, which provides transition al-age youth and young adults (ages 14-22) tools to develop independence on their journey to adulthood;

• SafeSpace School Violence Prevention Pro gram, to provide violence prevention education to students in the Sevier County School System;

• Shangri-La Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR) Changing STRIDES Life Skills program, which provides the tools for at-risk youth (ages 12-19) to better manage their lives and foster positive relationships;

• Shora Foundation’s Academic Center, to provide mental health and educational resources and access to food; and

• Street Hope TN, to provide free exploita tion-prevention programming for children and youth throughout Tennessee.

ETF, CELEBRATING 30+ YEARS OF THOUGHTFUL GIVING FOR STRONGER COMMUNITIES AND BETTER LIVES CONFIRMED IN COMPLIANCE WITH NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR U.S. COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS.

D ID YOU KNOW?

AT ANY GIVEN TIME IN THE STATE, THERE ARE 100 MILLION PIECES OF LITTER ON TENNESSEE’S ROADWAYS. Keep McMinn Beautiful - Do your part to help pick it up!

The Boys and Girls Club Opens a New Branch in Etowah

new branch of the Boys and Girls Club opened in Etowah on September 26th. They “have 45 members registered and… are serving around 20-25 a day right now,” according to Etowah Unit Director Rebekah Pierce. This is BGC’s first branch in McMinn County.

Pierce said, “We have had a huge outpouring of love from Etowah, and we cannot say thank you enough for welcoming us and being so supportive! We are off to a great start and have big plans!”

She explained some of their activities: “We do what we call Power Hour which is homework time, and if they don’t have homework, they do some kind of educational activity. The staff plan those out each day… We usually try to do two snacks per afternoon… We do STEM once a week.” They also get a lot of time to play outside.

Rebekah Pierce also discussed Passport to Manhood and Smart Girls where students

are split between boys and girls to learn life skills and character building. She explained, “The staff might have someone come in and teach them how to change a tire, or do a cooking lesson, or talk about hygiene, or talk about manners. Yesterday, the boys did mock interviews and learned about things you should and shouldn’t do in an interview and how you should dress and things you shouldn’t say… We do a lot of fun stuff. They really don’t even realize they’re learning until it’s over with.”

Holly Stroud, BGC’s Central Units Director of Operations for McMinn and Polk Counties, said, “Our goal is to grow from Etowah to Athens, and then… the sky is the limit from there.” She thanked everybody who donated, and she gave special thanks to the McMinn Youth Center Board of Directors for working hard to raise money.

Stroud wants parents to know that BGC is “an affordable afterschool program that provides a safe environment for kids… We stay open from right after school till seven o’clock, and we do homework help, we do life skills, we do programming, we do mentorship. We’re there to be… like a secondary parent or a coach to these kids.”

“I could talk for days about the way that this organization changes lives,” Stroud said. “There’s so many days where kids are called to go home and they say they don’t want to leave because they just love it here.”

She shared the story of a boy who’d been in the club a few years ago who had endured a lot of trauma in his life. He would lash out at other kids and bully them.

“Our staff here just poured into him,” Stroud said. “We worked with the mother… on parenting, and we worked together, and we got his grades up, and now he’s one of the most liked kids in my club.”

To sign up your child, contact Rebekah Pierce at 423-790-8147 or email her at RPierce@bgcocoee.org. Etowah City School and Mountain View Elementary have membership forms in the front office. Fees are $20 per week, but scholarships are available for families that can’t pay.

Chris Stephens

Growing up, no one would have thought Chris Stephens would end up pastor of one of Tennessee’s largest churches.

In 1959, at age 14, his mother entered what would be the first of five marriages. Chris was born the next year to a wonderful mother but a physically abusive father. The pair divorced when Chris was three, and his mother eventually remarried, but his new step-father was even worse.

Chris recalled, “I tell [her], ‘you’re a great Mom. You’ve worked and sacrificed… But you batted 1.000—you married 5 losers.’” Her first husband was physically abusive, and the second was physically and sexually abusive to Chris and his brothers. When their mom found out, she immediately divorced him.

“It wasn’t her fault,” Chris said. “She just picked bad guys.”

He continued, “I got high for the first time when I was ten, and that just began a road downhill of destruction. I made no excuses for it. You can call it self-medication, you can call it whatever, I was just caught up in that world.”

By 18, Chris was shooting and dealing drugs. When he was 22, he overdosed after a threemonth binge and ended up in Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga. Ironically, it was here, in this hospital, that he’d been born, and it was here that he’d be born again.

In his book, The Climb of Your Life, Chris described the scene: “The doctors and nurses rushed in and out of the room and talked

in hushed tones. A thin curtain was drawn between two small beds, and sounds of coughing and moaning drifted in from just down the hallway. The whole place smelled of death and illness mixed with the pungent aroma of antiseptic… When my system was at last free of illegal pharmaceuticals, I was still in excruciating pain with stomach cramps that seemed to turn my whole body inside out… As I lay in that small sweatsoaked bed all day with no visitors, friends or family, I realized I was alone—truly alone. I was also angry, frustrated and without even the dimmest hope for the future.”

It was here, in his darkest moment, that God revealed himself to Chris. His book explains, “I remembered hearing about God when I was younger. My family had not been churchgoers, but I had a friend who went. When I spent the night with him, I had to go to church with his family. There I heard about God’s love, power and forgiveness. But was I beyond help? Could, would, just maybe… He might pull me out of the agony I was in? So I turned to the one Person I thought I could trust. My only hope was the only One who could reach down that low and pull me up. That day I entered into a partnership with God. I figured, what could it hurt? He couldn’t do any worse than I had. Little did I know I was in for the climb of my life!”

“There [in that hospital], I just said that’s it,” Chris recalled. “I’m going to follow the Lord… I said ‘I’ve wrecked my life. You can have it.’ He said, ‘I’ll take it.’ [God] forgave me, gave me a new heart… When he got me, he didn’t get much. But when God gets you, he doesn’t need much.”

The change in Chris’s life was instant. He knew that, as a new Christian, he wasn’t strong enough to be around his friends and family without being tempted by alcohol, drugs, and sex. He left them and told them not to call him, saying, “I can’t be Jesus’s friend and your friend at the same time.” This time away from his old friends and family was critical in breaking free from old patterns.

But far from being alone, he joined a church that adopted this new believer and became his family. Here, he “met friends that cared for me, just because, not for what I could give.”

“I learned what marriage was, I learned what life was, inside that church,” Chris said. “I dove into the church with all that I had.” His fellow believers opened their heart to him. “They loved me, and people took me home. I had dinner in people’s homes.” For the first time, Chris felt good about himself and about his future.

“Six months later, I could go back and see my family and friends,” he explained, “cause there’s nothing they had that would tempt me at that point. But they didn’t really want me around because ‘the darkness hates the light because it’s deeds are evil.’”

During this time, God gave him a new purpose in life—helping others. Groups would ask him to speak and tell his story. People would come to him for help with friends and family caught in addiction. Eventually, God called him to preach, and that’s exactly what he did, returning to college then attending seminary.

Chris said, “That was 40 years ago… [and] I haven’t got over it yet… I’m a satisfied customer.”

Today, he is pastor of Faith Promise, a multi-site church in Knoxville and one of the largest churches in Tennessee. As of August, the church is in a transition from Chris as Senior Pastor to his son Zac as Senior Pastor. Zac previously launched the church’s Farragut campus. Pastor Chris is determined that Faith Promise won’t be a one generational church.

He said, “I just committed that… we are going to reach the next generation. To reach the next generation, you’ve got to be a part of the next generation, so we’re raising up men of God like Chase [pastor of the Farragut campus], young guys and young women that lead across the board. So next August we will pass the baton from myself to my son. I’ll still be here; I’ll still be on staff. But he’ll be the Senior Pastor… This year he’ll do a little more than half the preaching, and then [after the transition], he’ll do the bulk of it. I’ll preach when he asks me to after that.”

Chris Stephens is living proof that God can change lives.

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”

—The Apostle Paul, 1 Timothy 1:15

THE TURN AROUND DEVELOPER DR. IAN MCFADDEN

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF SWEETWATER HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION

As a young man, Dr. Ian McFadden, Chief Executive Officer of Sweetwater Hospital Association, remembers the childhood influences that made him the CEO he is today.

As he explained, “My Mother was a medical librarian for 45 years. I spent time making rounds and delivering papers to various hospital departments with my mother.” Working with his mother influenced Ian to continue working inside the local hospital in Alabama during high school and college.

Throughout his college career, Ian continued to build his relationship with his local hospital under the influence of the CEO. Ian’s father, a county commissioner and board member of the hospital, spoke to the administration and asked them to put his son to work while he was at home. His parents felt it would instill in him discipline and focus. Ian worked for the CEO of the local hospital and got introduced to the administrative side of healthcare. Spending time in each department, Ian learned how a hospital operated and how patient care was delivered. The CEO helped mold Ian’s final career decision to be in Healthcare Administration.

Ian attended the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB), eventually earning a Master’s in Health Administration, after which he worked at the top level of every hospital he was assigned. HCA Healthcare was the first company where he served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a small hospital in Florida.

Afterward, Ian worked for West Tennessee Healthcare in Jackson, Tennessee for nearly ten years, helping to develop their system.

Following a mission trip to Haiti, where he saw extreme poverty, Ian changed his philosophy and joined an inner-city public hospital in Memphis as the COO. “It was at the Re gional Medical Center in Memphis where we developed a culture improvement process that became a staple for every turnaround I would do after that,” Ian says. “Turnaround is not necessarily only about financial and operational issues,” he explains. “It should be cultural as well. If you can turn around the culture, everything else is much easier,” adds Ian.

After completing his doctorate at UAB, Ian went overseas, forming his own firm, HRM International. His firm took hospitals in Saudi Arabia and Dubai and put them through the cultural development process to help them achieve rapid margin improvement with great success. “Covid changed all that,” Ian says.

Beginning in 2020, he didn’t want to travel anymore because of the pandemic. So, he decided to return to the U.S. and find the right place to be in rural community health, a place reflective of the type of community he grew up in. Ian joined Sweetwater Hospital in January 2021.

Sweetwater Hospital is a 70-bed rural facility serving East Tennessee. Ian, who has visited at least 50 hospitals in this country and around the world, feels the model of Sweetwater Hospital is probably the best that he has seen of a rural world-class facility. The debt-free hospital has everything a community expects to get from a healthcare perspective; pristine facilities, state-of-the-art technology, highly qualified staff, a growing roster of primary and specialty providers and specialists, and an outstanding support system from the community.

The residents of the five counties, Meigs, McMinn, Roane, Loudon, and Monroe,

Sweetwater Hospital serves, view it as their “place of destination for healthcare.” And it is a dominant player in this market and has good support from the physicians and community.

“At Sweetwater Hospital,” Ian says, “all the facilities are updated or newly developed.” We most recently added a new patient tower with an updated seven-bed ICU. There are plans to add eight additional ICU beds within the next year. The hospital has also added satellite facilities, including Urgent Care, Industrial Medicine, and Physical Therapy. “We’re doing all these things because the market recognizes Sweetwater Hospital as the place to go for healthcare,” Ian says.

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) will be offered starting later this year with the Da Vinci Intuitive Robot already purchased and onsite. This will precede the start-up of a Diagnostic Cath Lab the following year, for which a certificate of need has already been secured.

The core values of Sweetwater Hospital are changing. Until recently, its image was that of a traditional rural hospital serving the population of Sweetwater, approximately 6,000 citizens. “Now, we want to go from taking care of people in Sweetwater and understanding their healthcare delivery needs to caring for people in the entire five counties,” says Ian.

“We can serve those 500,000 citizens.”

Ian points out they are developing a systematic concept of caring for a broad area of people in a region of five countries. As that entails becoming more innovative, they now foster innovation as a major value. “We also foster growth as a major value,” Ian adds. “We foster respect, integrity, and dignity for our people as a major value. Building a culture of employee engagement is also essential, and we have a family-oriented culture because everybody knows everybody in a rural community.”

“We believe our responsibility is to take care of this region’s people, and we have that ingrained in everything we are about,” Ian says. “We are changing our culture from Sweetwater-oriented culture to East Tennessee region-oriented culture. We want to put family values at the forefront.” Sweetwater Hospital doctors are also committed to the East Tennessee region a nd its community. “Our values are patientfocused and community-based,” says Ian.

To read more about Sweetwater Hospital Association, visit www.sweetwaterhospital.org.

FARRAGUT: COUNTDOWN TO LIGHT THE PARK

November 21st 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Founders Park at Campbell Station, 405 N. Campbell Station Road, Farragut, TN

The Town of Farragut and the Farragut Business Alliance unveil holiday cheer with more than 68,000 lights. This FREE event also features live entertainment and refreshments.

For more information, visit: VisitFarragut.org/events

LIGHT THE PARK

Hot to Trot 5K/10K and Fun Run

Tennessee, celebrates talented middle and high school students, and supports arts education. This annual exhibition provides the opportunity for students to participate in a juried exhibition and to have their artworks displayed in a professional art museum environment.

For more information on the exhibit, check out: KnoxArt.org/exhibitions/etrsae-2022

Thanksgiving Day Thursday, November 24th 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. 11619 Parkside Drive, Farragut, TN

This Farragut Thanksgiving tradition is brought to you by Fleet Feet Knoxville and is the perfect start to your family’s Turkey Day.

For more information, visit: VisitFarragut. org/events

FARRAGUT SONGWRITERS SHOWCASE

February 26th, 2023

6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

November 21st through January 1st

7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Kingston Pike & N Campbell Station Road, Farragut, TN

From dusk to 10 p.m. nightly, the holiday lights will be on along Campbell Station Road from the I-40 commuter lot to the Campbell Station Inn Plaza at the intersection of Campbell Station Road and Kingston Pike.

For more information, visit: VisitFarragut.org/events

KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART—EAST TENNESSEE REGIONAL STUDENT ART EXHIBITION 2022

Farragut Community Center, 239 Jamestowne Blvd Knoxville, TN 37934

November 25, 2022 through January 8, 2023

1050 Worlds Fair Park Dr Knoxville, TN 37916

The ETRSAE showcases the strength and diversity of art education programs in East

Celebrate Tennessee Songwriters Week the last week in February at the Farragut Songwriters Showcase. Enjoy performances by local singer songwriters. Food and beverage will be available for purchase from our local restaurants. Tickets will go on sale in January 2023. Mark your calendars now to attend this evening of great music.

For more information, visit: VisitFarragut.org/events

MONROE COUNTY: ArtFest 2022

Friday, November 25th, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. & Saturday, November 26th, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Salt & Light Studios, 152 Old Athens Pike, Sweetwater, TN 37874

ArtFest 2022 is an art show and sale for East Tennessee high school, college, and university art students to display and sell their creations. This event is open to the public. A Scholarship for the Best Students Art will be presented by Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and the Best Student’s Art Display by 3 Generations Art Studio and Gallery for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place.

Enjoy 3 days of shopping with local artisans on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and again on Sunday.

SWEETWATER SMALL TOWN CHRISTMAS

November 26th 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

did during the French and Indian War. Throughout the day, demonstrations will be taking place, such as cooking, laundering, blacksmithing, and artillery drills. There is also a Christmas church service with Parson John and wassail tasting. Be sure to step into the infirmary, compare a soldier’s barrack to the commander’s quarters, and stop by the Cherokee encampment. The evening portion begins at the Visitor’s Center at 6 p.m. and includes a candlelight tour of the fort and a rare night firing of the canon.

MADISONVILLE CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE

Madisonville Christmas Lighting of the Square

November 25th 6 p.m.

Downtown Madisonville

Come gather in downtown Madisonville on November 25th as the community lights up the town and kicks off the holiday season!

A WEEKEND AT RIVERBEND

November 25th through 27th 1110 Fairview Rd Tellico Plains, TN 37385

SWEETWATER CHRISTMAS PARADE 2022

December 2nd 7 p.m.

Downtown Sweetwater

December 3rd 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Monroe County Courthouse

18TH

CENTURY CHRISTMAS GARRISON

December 3rd 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Fort Loudoun State Historic Area Bring in the holiday season and celebrate Christmas as soldiers

It’s the 2nd year of this magical event in downtown Madisonville, and we’ve made it bigger and better! Join us on December 3rd to enjoy the favorite features of last year’s festival and the new additions, including the Madisonville Kiwanis Christmas Parade Finale —the first NIGHT parade since 2013!

TELLICO PLAINS CHRISTMAS CANDLELIGHT WALK

December 3rd 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Downtown Tellico Plains

Come join us in Tellico Plains, TN for the Christmas event of the year! Our downtown merchants will be opening up their shops for their annual open house. The luminaries throughout downtown will guide you through the perfect old fashioned Christmas experience. Santa and the Grinch will also both be here! This is a family event you do not want to miss!

To learn more or to register, go to: VisitMonroeTN.com

GATLINBURG:

ANDERSON COUNTY: CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS

December 9th through December 10th

GATLINBURG WINTER MAGIC

November 10, 2022 through February 28, 2023

For more than 30 years, Gatlinburg has celebrated Winterfest with millions of twinkling lights on festive holiday displays throughout the city. Soak up the spirit of the season from the comfort of your own vehicle and take a memorable journey on the exciting Gatlinburg Winter Magic Lights Tour.

The Museum of Appalachia Experience the serenity of an Appalachian Christmas at the Museum of Appalachia! The centerpiece of this holiday event is an evening tour of the Museum’s pioneer village. The cabins will be adorned with old-fashioned Christmas decorations and festively lit for the occasion. Activities will include storytelling, live nativity, music, and wagon rides. Demonstrations will include blacksmithing, sorghum making, and more.

EAST TENNESSEE POLAR PLUNGE

January 1, 2023

Tellico Lake at the Poplar Springs Boat Ramp in Loudon, TN

Join other courageous folks and jump into the chilly waters at 12:00 noon on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2023. Proceeds from the event will go to the Watershed Association of the Tellico Reservoir to help in their efforts to perform waterway cleanups and litter education. Not only will it be for a good cause, but it’s a great way for the entire family to start off 2023!

For more information or to download a self-guided tour map, go to: Gatlinburg. com/events

FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE:

RHYTHMIC CIRCUSHOLIDAY SHUFFLE

November 26th through November 27th

The Franklin Theatre, 419 Main Street Franklin, TN 37064

Hailing from Minneapolis, MN, Rhythmic Circus is an internationally renowned, 12-member live music and tap dance ensemble. Experiencing one of their adrenaline-soaked dance performances feels like witnessing the rebirth of an art form,

one that forged all kinds of stylistic hybrids, but is something else entirely.

Their name, Rhythmic Circus, might seem strange for a quartet of hoofers and a live band, but actually, their magnetic, high-energy shows are all about juggling a combination of dancing, humor and music— all wrapped within a bundle of positive messages. It seems to be a rare occurrence where family can enjoy an evening together, with children of all ages laughing and stomping their feet alongside each other. Rhythmic Circus provides that atmosphere and entertainment.

Notable national performances include the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., an extended off-Broadway run at New York City’s premier nonprofit performing arts theater—New Victory Theater, and an appearance on the reality television series America’s Got Talent.

For more information, go to: FranklinTheatre.com

The Franklin Theatre, 419 Main Street Franklin, TN 37064

Larry, Steve & Rudy: The Gatlin Brothers are Grammy® award-winners who have dazzled audiences for more than six decades. They have accrued a lifetime of noteworthy achievements in their storybook career, including a Grammy® for Best Country Song (“Broken Lady”), three ACM awards for Single of the Year (“All The Gold In California”), Album of the Year (Straight Ahead) and Male Vocalist of the Year, along with five nominations for CMA Vocal Group of the Year, Single, Album. The brothers have accumulated seven #1 singles, 32 Top 40 records; more than 20 studio albums and five BMI “Million-Air” Awards.

KNOX COUNTY: FANTASY OF TREES

REGAL CELEBRATION OF LIGHTS

November 25th 5:15 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Krutch Park Extension, Market Square, Market Street

Join us for the lighting of our 42-foot-tall Mickey Mallonee Christmas in the City Tree in Krutch Park Extension. Enjoy live music with The Deltas at 5:15 p.m. with the lighting of the tree ceremony starting at 6 p.m., free activities, photos with Santa and more! Live music on Market Square Stage starting at 6:30 pm with Evelyn Jack—enjoy jazz, mixed with a little blues, and holiday favorites.

December 23rd 8 p.m.

Knoxville Convention Center

East Tennessee Children’s Hospital presents the Fantasy of Trees is returning in 2022, better than ever. The annual event is the hospital’s largest fundraiser, attracting nearly 60,000 people during the week of Thanksgiving. Travel through a forest of more than 350 beautifully designed trees, holiday accessories, store front windows, door designs, table centerpieces and an Adopt-a-Tree forest decorated by local school children. All priced to sell.

Market Street will have local businesses doing crafts with children, stop by Home Depot’s Little Elves Workshop, make a card to be sent to our local veterans with Holidays for Heroes. And don’t forget to stop by and see the miniature train set!

THE GATLIN BROTHERS COUNTRY & CHRISTMAS

November 23rd through 27th

SLEIGH THE PEPPERMINT TRAIL

November 25, 2022 through January 8, 2023

Downtown Knoxville

Follow the trail of peppermints on the sidewalks of Downtown Knoxville to discover all sorts of treats featuring the favorite red-and-white candy. From candy cane coffees at morning brunch to craft cocktails sipped by candlelight, you’ll find peppermint treats round almost every corner – along with plenty of gingerbread, cinnamon, cranberry, apple spice, and other holiday flavors. Plus, boutiques and gift shops feature peppermint-themed t-shirts, scented soaps, candles, and all kinds of holiday surprises.

Join storied Nashville singer-songwriter and author Andrew Peterson as he presents the Advent song cycle Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ. Now in its 23rd year, Behold the Lamb will feature guest artists Jess Ray, The Arcadian Wild, Andy Gullahorn, and Jill Phillips, along with an all-star cast of Nashville songwriters and session musicians. The concert brings the singing and playing of Peterson’s original folk-roots infused rendition of the Christmas story as it is foreshadowed in the Old Testament and brought to bear in the New. The tour is sponsored by International Justice Mission and Kyser Capos.

NEW YEAR’S EVE AT THE SUNSPHERE

December 31st

Starts at 8 p.m., ball drop at midnight

World’s Fair Park, Festival Lawn

Bring in 2023 with your friends and family at World’s Fair Park with food trucks, free activities including a silent disco at 8 p.m., DJ Music at 9 p.m. and live music by K-Town at 10 p.m. Ball drop from the Sunsphere at Midnight.

WINTER JAM

January 21st, 2023

WIVK CHRISTMAS PARADE

December 2nd 7 p.m.

Along Gay Street

Join us for everyone’s favorite parade, the WIVK Christmas Parade! Bands, dancers, lighted floats, characters and Santa Claus parade down Gay Street and brings fun holiday spirit to all! The parade will start on Church Avenue near the Coliseum, then turn right onto Gay Street ending at Magnolia.

Thompson-Boling Arena, 1600 Phillip Fulmer Way, Suite 202, Knoxville, TN 37996

Christian music's largest annual tour!

BLAKE SHELTON CONCERT

February 24, 2023

7 p.m.

Thompson-Boling Arena, 1600 Phillip Fulmer Way, Suite 202, Knoxville, TN 37996

BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD

December 14th 7 p.m.

Tennessee Theatre, 604 S Gay St Knoxville, TN 37902

MCMINN COUNTY: HOLIDAY TRUNK SHOW

November 25th through 26th

The Arts Center, 320 N. White St

Our annual indoor exhibition and sale of fine arts and crafts

is held the weekend of Thanksgiving each year. A nice variety of art and crafts is available for sale during this show with items for all tastes and budgets.

KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA HOLIDAY CONCERT

December 11th 2 p.m. ACMS

Ring in the holiday season with the symphony in this crowd favorite family pleaser!

A VIEW FROM THE SYCAMORE

CHATTANOOGA:

ROCK CITY’S ENCHANTED GARDEN OF LIGHTS

November 18th, 2022 through January 1, 2023, nightly

1400 Patten Road

Lookout Mountain, TN 37409

MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET

December 2nd through December 10th

The Arts Center, 320 N. White St A Classic Christmas Play.

ATHENS CHRISTMAS PARADE

December 5th 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Athens Chamber of Commerce, 13 North Jackson Street, Athens, TN

December 15, 2022 through February 6, 2023 320 N. White St., Athens, TN

For more info, go to AthensArtsCouncil.org

SEVIERVILLE, TENNESSEE:

SHADRACK’S CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND

November 4, 2022 through January 1, 2023

Smokies Baseball Stadium

See the gorgeous light show synched to Christmas music. To learn more and to see other locations, go to: ShadrackChristmas.com

Warm your heart during this nighttime, family tradition as you walk through Rock City Gardens’ winter wonderland. Located a quick drive from downtown Chattanooga, this magical Christmas lights experience is one of Chattanooga’s memorable winter events.

Take a stroll down the lighted Grand Corridor in Yule Town, experience the twinkle of icy lights in the Arctic Kingdom, and the Magic Forest comes alive to reveal exciting enchantments!

All guests must reserve an entry time in advance online. Tickets cannot be booked upon arrival at the ticket desk. Annual Passholders do NOT need reservations.

To learn more, go to: SeeRockCity.com