Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104050025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARIANNA FILLMORE/ SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
He turns others' litter into high-tech learning opportunities for students at a tiny mission school deep in the hills and hollows of southeastern Kentucky.
For the last ten months, Kroger has sponsored a program whereby it will purchase for any school or library an IBM computer and printer for every $225,000 worth of cash register receipts collected. The United Methodist Church in Blacksburg decided to take advantage of the offer to equip the business class of their Redbird Mission school in Beverly, Ky., with 21 personal computers and printers. All across the nation, church members have been saving their Kroger receipts and sending them to the mission.
Bess, a long-time member, has turned the project into a personal crusade.
After retiring from Hercules in 1982, he went back to work as a part-time bagger at the Kroger store in University Mall in 1987. Bess, who had been a Kroger manager 50 years earlier, noted that "the manager there asked me to come back and I needed something to do."
When Kroger announced the program and his church decided to participate, Bess began picking up the receipts left behind by the customers. Soon he had the cashiers on every shift saving receipts for him and had arranged for a collection box next to the trash can outside the entrance.
In December, his second heart attack in two years forced Bess into total retirement. But he has not given up his quest. He picks up receipts from the cashiers and the box every morning and even checks the trash can.
Of the $500,000 in receipts recovered by the church as of April 1, Bess has collected $327,000 - more than enough for one computer and printer. "I just like helping people out when they're in need," he said in a soft, slow voice.
The Rev. Jack Minnick of Blacksburg United Methodist Church and the church secretary, Janet Tabor, praise Bess for his enthusiasm and dedication to the protect.
"Redbird has far exceeded any of the other mission schools involved in the program mainly because of Bess and his personal involvement and interest," said Minnick.
"It is one of the most exciting programs that the United Methodist church has in the United States because you can see such wonderful results. We think of poverty far away, but this is right here at our back door."
The Redbird Mission School is part of the Redbird Missionary Conference, which covers seven counties in the economically depressed coal-mining region of southeastern Kentucky. The closest major town is 45 minutes away over narrow, twisting roads. It is, according to Dr. Charles T. Pinkston, general conference superintendent, "a fully accredited, total, private Christian school for grades K-12." Approximately 400 students attend, most of them on greatly reduced tuition plans. The school program also reaches almost 200 children in nine early childhood development centers.
The campaign to provide the high school with computers represents an effort "to bring the students up to par" with those from other school systems, said Minnick.
He points out that computers are a way of life these days. If the young people are going to leave the region after graduation - as many do - he believes they must be able to compete for jobs. Knowledge of computers will give them this edge.
Last June, when the program began, Redbird Mission School set a goal of 21 computers. Through the efforts of people like Bess, it has received 23. Pinkston hopes to have enough receipts by June 1 - closing date of the offer - to obtain 30.
The conference includes a 1,500-acre farm, a medical center with ambulance service, the school, churches and outreach centers. It also encourages women of the region to practice the handiwork of their Appalachian heritage by sponsoring two quilting centers and a craft store, which markets the products of more than 40 area residents.
Bess has never been to Redbird, but hopes to stop by the school when he visits his brother in Lexington this spring. He would like to see first-hand the results of his collection efforts.
Receipts from any Kroger store anywhere are acceptable for the Redbird project. They may be placed in collection boxes or taken to any United Methodist Church no later than June 1.
As Bess has shown, individuals can make a difference.
by CNB