The Focus Magazine August Edition 2017

The Official Magazine of Focused Radio

End of August2017

Tribute to A Matriarch pg 16

Heart of the Matter

Growing to Build the Youth: Working Eating Learning Living 1 The Focus

pg 32

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focus points 6. From the Queenpin: Natural Medicine Cabinet 11. Cover Story: Growing a Legacy 16. Family Tribute- Grandma Lo's Birthday Celebration 25. Rasta Vibrations: Vacation in Jamaica 27. Ask Gizzy: He's one smart Cat 32. The Heart of the Matter 38. Exclusive indie charts Editor in chief: TommyP content supervisor: Erica Jenkins lead visual artist: Brandon crafter Each month “The Focus� spotlights small businesses, entrepreneurs, community events, political topics fashion and the arts, we are poised to stay relevant and to influence what people are talking about and doing.

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From the Editor August is always a special time of the year. People get a chance to enjoy family vacations, take a little time to recharge and now get their music played in rotation alongside the top artist on the charts right now.

This month we see that family was able to come together to celebrate the birthday of a true matriarch. Erica Kane’s Grandma Lo Lo has been an inspiration to so many others in the community. Her love for family allows for us to see the outpouring of love returned during her 80th birthday party.

We also see “Hood News” reporter, Farmer, took a trip across country with the Star City Tee’s, while “Rasta Vibrations” host Ziggy and Boo take us on a trip to Jamaica.

Our cover story shows how you build a community from within and of course we got the latest answers from “Gizzy,” We also are glad to @DjUnique23 of the Lost Boyz on the team. He gives artist the ability to get spins during his show 6p-8p Monday-Friday.

As Always, #StayFocusedMyFriends TommyP

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Funny, insightful, and the perfect way to get your day started...

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Granny Always Said, Be Prepared: Building a Home Apothecary (Part One)

By Jovan Rahsman With cold and flu season just around the corner, fall is an excellent time to start refreshing your home apothecary. Building a basic home apothecary and becoming familiar with common botanical remedies is extremely empowering.

There is so much that we can do at home to care for ourselves and our loved ones. The first step is learning as much as we can about these herbs the second is making sure we have them on hand when we really need them.

Echinacea (Echinacea angustifolia, E. purpurea) Echinacea is an immune system stimulator. It is a wonderful herb to take in tincture or tea form at the first sign of illnesses like colds and flu. Echinacea can be taken throughout the duration of a cold or flu to fight infection and shorten duration. When someone has been exposed to an illness you can look to Echinacea to boost the immune system and hopefully avoid getting sick altogether. One common misconception about Echinacea is that it can be taken every day. It is advised to only use when sick or exposed to a sickness and discontinue use when the sickness has cleared.

Elderberry Syrup (Sambucus nigra) The berry of the Elder plant is high in vitamins C and A. It is antiviral, immune stimulating and makes a delicious syrup. Elderberry syrup is a wonderful medicine by itself but many people like to use it as a delivery system for tinctures when combining herbs. Paying attention to correct dosage, you can add a tincture to the syrup to mask any unpleasant 6 The Focus

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flavors. Echinacea tincture is often blended with elderberry syrup in this way. Some people take a dose of elderberry syrup when exposed to an illness or they simply take the syrup throughout the duration of the illness. Making your own elderberry syrup is a great way to get started making your own medicines at home.

Queenpin Herb Shop offers an elderberry syrup kit that gives you everything you need to get started making your own elderberry syrup at home.

Peppermint (Mentha pirerita) We keep peppermint, in many forms, around the house for tummy aches.

It is especially helpful when someone has flu like symptoms. Peppermint is often taken as a tea. It can be combined with ginger and fennel for digestive issues, blended with elderflower and catnip for a fever or lemon balm and chamomile for a nervous stomach. We mix peppermint essential oil with a carrier oil (1 drop essential oil : 1 tsp- 1 tbl carrier oil) and apply to the tummy externally for a stubborn upset stomach.

Please note that peppermint herb is for tea and peppermint essential oil is for use externally and with caution as it can cause irritation especially on sensitive skin.

I’ll be continuing this series throughout the year so eventually you can have a 365 days of home remedies on hand. Have questions? Contact me at herbs@queenpinroanoke.com

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· RITAS

Tickets/Info available online at

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Taste of Autumn John Bramblitt · Reception · Live Painting · Live Auction

Date: October 13, 2017 Time: 6pm to 9pm Place: Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Garden Courtyard Attire: Cocktail Price: $65.00 Food: Heavy Hors D’ Oeuvres

CASH BAR

6pm 6:30pm – 8pm 8pm 8:30pm – 9pm

Cash bar open / Live painting by artist, John Branblitt Food stations open Live auction Desserts served

Hosted by Talent Challenge for Charity to benefit multiple 501(c) (3) non profit organizations including Bradley Free Clinic. Emcee – Kristina Montouri Tickets/Info available online at www.TalentChallengeForCharity.com

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Did you know that approximately 41,000 pints of blood are used each day in the US? So when you donate blood you are helping cancer, trauma, and transplant patients. #donatetoday #donorpride #donatebloodsavelives #weloveourdonors. Schedule today at www. donateblood. vablood.org

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Growing A Legacy It takes a community to raise a child.

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Every Summer of my childhood life, there was one thing for certain. Yes I was on vacation from school and was supposed to enjoy my time off, however it was also a time to work the gardens.

My mom had a small one we did in the backyard, we were city folks so you couldn’t do too much. My grandparents though, it seemed like they had a whole farm. A whole lot of land out in Kingstown, that had to be tilled, 12 The Focus

weeded, fertilized, weeded, cultivated, weeded, etc.

I never truly understood why it was so important to “grow” food when you could so easily go to the grocery store and get stuff right off the shelf. This was too hard to do and took up too much of my time during the summer I thought.

It’s now that I’m older that I finally see that, we all have to eat. We all don’t have bank ac-

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counts that can easily pay for the convenience of shopping.

I also learned that, naturally vegetables and produce doesn’t last as long as they do in cans and so forth. You have to add things which as we are seeing now, could cause health issues.

Young people of the Apple Ridge Farm family under the direction of their leader, CEO John Lewis, partnered with other community leaders to not 13 The Focus

only grow fresh local organic vegetables and produce, they marketed, monitored the inventory, and ultimately sold to the community a much needed “WELL.” Working, Eating, Learning, Living is an initiative to teach youth in the community the value of “growing.” Whether it is the Apple Ridge Farm Summer Camp or coming out on Saturday’s to sell vegetables to the community shoppers, a group of teenagers were engaged this summer.

Missing in the Northwest section of Roanoke is a viable fresh food option. The area has even been labeled a “Food Desert” because of it.

Lewis, who has experience building the community through providing fresh food options in projects he worked on in Richmond, VA, set a plan in action.

He taught the value of growing your own food to young people by gathering elders of the community to plant seeds and work the community gardens of Northwest. The lesson was not to go backwards in history, but rather to move forward on the wealth of opportunities that are available in agriculture.

One of the programs I know Mr. Lewis was working on became a partnership at Virginia

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State University. Now a major funded program, I was in awe to watch this young man put together a similar option here in the Roanoke Valley.

To see people like Arthur Hill, who has worked the community gardens for years oftentimes by himself, pass along the The Pines apartments in art of growing and caring Roanoke, VA is ideally situated to give you easy access to the best of what area hasresource to offer. was things that movies are made for this mostthe precious of. The young people were there paying attention to something that would seem to be boring. At least it was for me when I “had” to do it. These young people volunteered their summer to work, eat, learn, and live.

The WELL is fully functional now. For 12 weeks this Summer, it was set up to provide a solution to the Food Desert of Northwest and it bought out many shoppers. Delegate Sam Rasoul was one of those shoppers that even bought his young son by. The little things like that are what helps bring the community together and helps raise it’s children.

We are all going to have to eat, in order to eat you have to work. Learning along the way makes it easier to have a great time living. Seeing the young people involved with this project truly gave me hope for our next generation of leaders. Seeing the community coming out to support proved that change has come!

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Family Tribute

Lillian Loretta Otey 16 The Focus

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It all started on August 22,1937.

We were blessed with our matriarch Lillian Loretta Croan.

Although her mother who is my great grandmother is still living and is the true matriarch in my family.

My Grandmom Lo, as we call her, is also a matriarch in her own right.

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Grandmom Lo is not only the mother of 7 children, she is also a grandmother of 25 and a great mother of several more.

Grandmom Lo has been so much more then a grandmother. She has been a wife, a nurse, and a true woman of God. A woman of God is a woman who has been saved by Jesus Christ and who submits to the work of the Holy Spirit in her.

That is exactly what she has done all my life. My grandmother has saved many of us through her prayers. Her faith is unlike anyone I’ve ever met. She has this incredible strength from God to be a powerful leader of our family and even though she has been diagnosed with dementia a leader is what she will always be.

On Saturday August 27, 2017 we celebrated my grandmother’s 80th birthday by giving her a birthday party. Believe it or not grandmother told me she never had a birthday party before. Not to worry, we made up for it. The party was a huge success. Her kids were there, her grandkids her sisters, cousins and friends.

She not only pulled everyone on the floor to dance, she sang her own birthday song. Of course she danced to all the songs, but most importantly to her was DJ CMilli played all of her favorite Barry White songs.While doing all of this she even wore a tiara.

Since she never had a party or went to a club we had to show her what partying was all about by making sure she was n VIP all the way. The VIP room was made up with red curtains and red leather 18 The Focus

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seating. She had balloons , beautiful white roses and to top it off a Chanel Birthday cake.

This birthday party was truly the best one I’ve ever been to.

Thanks to everyone who made it a true success . A special thank you to Kay, owner of VIPz Sports Bar And Lounge Bistro, DJ C Milli and of course my cousin Ayana for such a Fabulous birthday cake.

Only the best for a true matriarch.

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#GetThewordout Since March 2014, Faith 4 A Cure and Virginia Blood Services has partnered together to “GET THE WORD OUT” about Sickle Cell Anemia. In order to do so we have used a diverse range of settings, such as: • Higher Education • Faith-based Organizations and forums • Community Engagement • Media/Broadcasting • Health Fairs • Public Service Announcements • Blood Drives At some point in their life, Sickle Cell patients will need a blood transfusion. In many cases blood transfusions are routine treatments. Because of this fact, the primary focus in getting the word out is through hosting blood drives throughout the state of Virginia. It doesn’t just stop here. Faith 4 A Cure is on a mission to create awareness and education not just in Virginia but globally through the use of social media, web presence, radio and television, speaking engagements, educational forums, and much more.

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K & J's Cafe'.... A New FLAVA for the Roanoke Valley..... A locally christian owned restaurant with lots of good foods.....

2523 Melrose Ave NW Roanoke, Virginia

You can even order online www.kandjcafe.com 24 The Focus

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Rasta Vibrations Hellshire Beach is one of our favorite beaches located in Portmore, Jamaica, which is the parish of St. Catherine Many people call it paradise, I call it my home away from home. But, for my husband along with many others from Jamaica and descendants calls it HOME. Jamaica is an island located in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. So, we would like to share one of our must visit locations anytime we visit the beautiful island of Jamaica.

Hellshire Beach is one of our favorite beaches located in Portmore, Jamaica, which is the parish of St. Catherine and where famously known DJ Vybz Kartel one of Jamaica number one DJs (singer) was born and raised from a youth.

The beach is said that it is famed for its fried fish from the different stalls (here in America we say vendors) and I will be the first to say “YES” it is famous and very tasty. Where else can you swim and eat fresh seafood from the sea? Possibly many places but, nothing like fried fish and festivals. It is always a large cooler full of fresh fish and you can choose whichever fish you think looks good.

The beach has near white sands with a very small trace of black sand. I didn’t know it was a difference with sand but, I do know that the water is as blue as the sky above. And on our last visit just this past July we was there for nearly 5 hours. Did I mention we love the beach? Our 25 The Focus

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zodiac signs tells all he is air and I am water. Do I need to say more “we love the beach” Hellshire Beach is a popular public beach conveniently located for the residents of Portmore and not far from Kingston. The beach was once called “Healthshire” due to its reputation as a health retreat its name has since evolved into “Hellshire” though both pronunciations are technically correct. Anytime I visit Jamaica it is a must that I visit any beach but the name Healthshire serves up to it’s true name because, it really does something to my soul.

So, if you make your way to the wonderful sunny island of Jamaica that we love make sure you take advantage and know that Hellshire Beach is a fabulous day trip to take with good friends. And if you’re lucky you might catch a spectacular sunset like we did!

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Ask Gizzy?

He’s One Smart Cat

Hello Focused Magazine Viewers It’s Ask Gizzy Time Again!! Ask Away????

Michelle Woolfolk Asks Mr. Gizzy ...Do people know how great the Mingle and Mixers are?

Gizzy: MEOW to that!! My Tommy and Erica are never home on Thursday nights there always having a purrfect time at those mixers.. while Mr.Gizzy has a purrfect time at home Vida Buckner Asks Mr. Gizzy - when we gonna see you in person?

Gizzy:Never!!! I’m a cat not a person!!!

Melissa Kelly Author Asks Mr. Gizzy,-why do you look so sad?

Gizzy: Sad is one thing Mr. Gizzy is not ... Attitude yes pretty much!!!

My name is Mr.Gizzy I can not be sad with a name like that Melissa Kelly Author Asks Mr. Gizzy-will my dreams come true?

Gizzy: I’m Mr. Gizzy not Gizzy the psychic....

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Haley Day Miss District of Columbia Jr.High America-Asks Mr. Grizzly- Whom is your favorite celebrity cat?

Gizzy: Not my name!!! Your a first timer so you get a pass... However do not insult my name... My favorite celebrity cat is That no one other then Me, Mr.Gizzy thats who!!!

Haley Day Also asks-if you were to choose a restaurant for a great family meal where would you go?

Gizzy: For a family meal The Cats Meow is not a option so you and your family will have to find the next best thing...

Katie Clifton Owner of Queenpin Acupuncture Asks Dear Gizzyhow do you keep your cool when someone invades your personal space?

Gizzy: Hmm... that’s simple the look on my face keeps all beings away from invading my space so I’m cool!!!

Ask Gizzy your questions by following him on twitter

@askMrGizzy

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Pastor Cliff

Elder Otey

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Picking Shade to Flatter Your Face

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The Heart of the Matter

I Love and lust, two very complex four-letter words. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary describes love as a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person, and lust as a strong desire.

Whether we want to admit it or not, each and every one of us desires to be loved. Unfortunately, many confuse love with lust. One things for certain, love does not always lead to lust and lust does not always lead to love.

Love is selfless while lust is selfish. Love is all inclusive and lust exclusive.

The Bible gives us a perfect example of lust in King David. King David desired (lusted after) another man’s wife. After having this man’s wife and learning that she was pregnant as a result, the King devises a plan to cover up his actions. For those of you that know the story, you know, that plan didn’t quite work out; and to cover up his dirty deed the King had her husband killed.

Lust can cause us to do things we would normally never do.

But then, on the other hand, so can love. Love in its purest form is unconditional, which is not always easy. In fact, unconditional love can sometimes be very hard, especially towards those very “unlovable” individuals; but the Word says that we must love everyone as we love ourselves.

Matthew 22:36-40 (Amplified Bible) “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” And Jesus replied to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your

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God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for others]. The whole Law and the [writings of the] Prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t love themselves, because they’ve never been loved, or have been loved wrongly. Some people can’t love, because they’ve been raised to hate. Some people can’t love because of fear, so rather than love, they too hate. As a result, rather than love each other as God intended, we wind up hurting, hating and killing each other!

I imagine the conduct of the people of the world deeply saddens and hurts God as it would any parent. How would you feel as a parent, knowing that the children you gave birth to hate each other, can’t get along and kill each other?

How would you feel as a parent, if after you’ve given your children the best of everything, they take it for granted and rather than being grateful feel a sense of entitlement?

How would you feel as a parent, if after all you’ve given your children they never spend any time with you? And then when they do come around their so busy texting, tweeting and instagraming that they ignore you?

The world has become a fast-paced, self-centered me, my and I type of world and God is not pleased! His Word says that “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” If the land ever needed healing, it is now!

I pray that each of us will take a moment and think of how we love each other. The Bible tells us that “Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when 33 The Focus

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The Gathering Place, where the Church assembles for praise and worship to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to exort, teach, preach, pray and fellowship with other believers. Come be apart of this move of 2535 Melrose AVE NW God..

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right and truth prevail]. Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].

Love never fails [it never fades nor ends].�

Is your love like that? It’s time for us to love each other as God loves us and how He commanded we love each other.

I love you!

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I'm Every Woman

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