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The Roanoke Star-Sentinel November 26 - December 2, 2010
NewsRoanoke.com
Community | News | Per spective
[Grandin Village Parade]
Roanoke Welcomes Holidays
P3– One of the best kept “shouldn’t be” secrets in the Valley - Roanoke’s very own Community Band - strikes it up for the holidays!
Inspiring
Optimism P4– Hayden Hollingsworth highlights two Roanoke doctors who offer remarkable stories in overcoming adversity.
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Photo by Gene Marrano
or more than three decades, it’s been as much of a harbinger of the upcoming holiday season in these parts as the extra supplies of turkey and stuffing in local stores are for Thanksgiving. The Grandin Village Holiday Christmas Parade, sponsored by the Grandin Village Business Association, brings several thousand people (perhaps, no one knows) from the Grandin Court and Raleigh Court neighborhoods out into the streets, while thousands more line the sidewalks to cheer them on. There were the usual marching bands and local dignitaries – but there were also countless young children being pulled in wagons and strollers by their parents - with many dressing up as > CONTINUED P12: Parade
Roanoke College received a $2.5 million bequest from the estate of the late Mary Ellen Hardin Smith, of Roanoke. This gift, the second largest by an individual in College history, will endow the Shields Johnson Scholarship, to provide financial assistance for students from the Roanoke Valley. The scholarship is established in honor of Smith’s first husband, the late Shields Johnson, a 1931 graduate of Roanoke College and a former reporter, business manager, and vice president and general manager with Times-World Corp.
> CONTINUED P2: Judge
“This scholarship, born in the mind of students in significant ways as these Mary Ellen Hardin Smith decades ago, scholarships will help top students from will now make education more afford- the area realize their dream of a Roanoke able to students from the Roanoke Valley education.” Smith, the former Mary Ellen Hardin, for years into the future,” Roanoke Colmet Johnson when they were lege President Michael Maxboth students at Roanoke ey said. “Her commitment Education College. Smith was a charter to the Roanoke Valley and to member of Roanoke College’s the education of students was exemplary and Roanoke ColSociety of 1842, the leaderlege is honored to establish this scholar- ship group for those who leave a gift to ship according to her wishes.” the college in their will. The group was Brenda Poggendorf, vice president established in 1982 and today includes of enrollment, said the gift “will impact 840 members.
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“She was a great believer in education,” family friend Lucy Ellett said of Smith. “She loved to garden, she loved animals and she loved her church. She was a good friend to many and had a wonderful sense of humor. She lived modestly but was generous in donations to causes she believed in.” Smith was a charter member of South Roanoke United Methodist Church. She joined the church with her mother in > CONTINUED P2: Bequest
News 7 Anchor Ready for “The Big Leagues”
P6– Old and new merge beautifully as Mount Pleasant Elementary School shows off its new makeover.
Photo by Gene Marrano
Students at Faith Christian School in SW County get in the Christmas spirit as they pack gifts for needy children around the world.
Operation Christmas Child: Good Fun with a Mission
P10– Jack and Stan Lanford have paved endless miles in becoming leaders in the transportation industry.
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$2.5 Million Bequest Will Help Valley Students Attend Roanoke College
Pleasant School
Road to Fame
A federal judge indicated he could rule on the constitutionality of the federal health care law by the end of the year, after hearing arguments recently in Virginia’s suit challenging the law and its individual insurance mandate. Virginia’s is the first state case to be heard on the State Govt. merits of its arguments. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is asking for an injunction against the entire health care act if Judge Henry Hudson finds that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. The Virginia case rests on a simple premise: That the federal government’s attempt to stretch the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to allow it to force individuals to buy a private product – private health insurance – is unconstitutional. “The individual insurance mandate represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional exercise of federal power because it penalizes Americans for not engaging in commerce. In other words, you can get fined for doing nothing,” Cuccinelli said following the hearing. “This case is not about health care. This case is about protecting our liberty. This case is about the states providing a check and balance to the federal government, which is exceeding the power we, the people, gave it through the
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Your Band!
Hayden Hollingsworth
Judge Could Rule on Health Care Law by Year’s End
Who wouldn’t mind getting out of class for a bit to stuff brightly wrapped shoeboxes with Christmas gifts for needy kids? For the third year students from grades K-12 at Faith Christian in southwest Roanoke County, collected money - more than $1100 - which was then turned into toys and personal hygiene kits. Those items were placed into more than 100 boxes, bound for poor children in places like Haiti. Socks, candy, toothpaste, soap, coloring books, crayons, small stuffed toys and homemade Christmas cards were piled on several tables, waiting for students from the older grades at FCS to pack them up for shipments that will be distributed by a local church. “Organized chaos,” said marketing and public relations director Susan Childs reflecting on the scene. Student leaders Anna Willis and Trevor Byrd helped orchestrate the process, which sends out Christmas gifts “to children that > CONTINUED P3: Operation
There’s nothing – before landing a full wrong with staying time job in television. here in Roanoke to She eventually became anchor or report on a weekend anchor at the news if that’s what WJAC in Johnstown you want to do, but and the Blair County Natasha Ryan has her bureau chief. eyes set on a larger A parking deck colprize. To that end lapse she covered as a the WDBJ television part time reporter for news anchor will set an FM radio station sail from the Star City, while still in college leaving the 67th larghelped jump start her est TV market behind early on. “That day for top-15 Seattle and they called me in and NBC affiliate KING-5 offered me my boss’s in January. job,” she recalled, “esLeaving just short of Natasha Ryan in the field. sentially I became the five years here, Ryan news director.” (30) said she has been constantly torn A partnership with WJAC TV in throughout her career between the an- Johnstown led her to a position with the chor desk and field reporting, which she State College bureau (the home town does sporadically for News 7. for Penn State). “I was acHer main duties are anchortually working two [media] Media ing the 11pm newscast, and jobs … and waitressing,” she the news hour on “My19.” chuckles. Soon Ryan had a Ryan, a Penn State graduate and jour- full time gig with an Altoona television nalism major, worked in Johnstown station and became a weekend anchor and Altoona, PA in both radio and tele- about two years vision news after graduating from col- later. > CONTINUED lege – pulling double duty for a while Ryan applied P2:Anchor
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