Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 24, 1994 TAG: 9405240007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
WYTHEVILLE - Bill Demby, who is seen playing basketball on a DuPont commercial despite having lost both legs in Vietnam, visited the Polymer Corp.'s Wytheville manufacturing facility Saturday during its 20th anniversary open house.
DuPont is the supplier and Polymer is the manufacturer of the ``Seattle Foot,'' part of the protheses worn by Demby in the commercial.
Demby lost both legs from the knee down in 1971 when a rocket hit the truck he was driving in Vietnam. After a year in Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, he found that participation in sports gave him the self-confidence to put his life back together.
He has earned a college degree, holds the national amputee record in shot put, discus and javelin, and is a certified ski instructor for the National Handicapped Sports & Recreation Association.
In 1984, he became one of the first testers for a new artificial limb called the Seattle Foot. Its ability to store and release energy as a real foot does gave Demby the chance to play basketball as he once had. In 1987, he and the prostheses were featured in the award-winning DuPont television commercial that aired nationally.
Now a part-time counselor with the ``disAbilty Awareness Project'' in Howard County, Md., he helps provide motivation and encouragement for others, particularly children, with disabilities.
Forum on New River|
WYTHEVILLE - Jean White, director of the National Committee for the New River, will outline the activities of that Blacksburg-based organization when she addresses a forum on the river at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Bland Hall at Wytheville Community College.
She said she would talk about the group's various efforts to protect the river throughout its watershed, some of the projects now underway and some of the potential problems the river faces in Wythe County.
White spent the latter part of last week in Washington, where she helped push for a bill before the U.S. Senate to designate a 14.5-mile section of the river in West Virginia as a wild and scenic river, giving it additional environmental protection.
The symposium is open to the public at no cost.
Wytheville Chautauqua
WYTHEVILLE - The 10th annual Wytheville Chautauqua Festival will be held June 18-26 and the Chautauqua office will open Monday to get ready for all the musical, educational and performing activities for that week.
The office will be located in the former Fulton home on 4th Street, across from the Wythe County Courthouse. It will be open Monday through Saturday (except for Memorial Day) from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through June 29, and can be reached by calling 228-6855.
Volunteers providing information and answering questions will include Mary B. Austin, chairwoman; Kathryn Brockman, Rage Young, Dianne Stephens, Tillie Scott, Margaret Baumgardner, Wilma Synder, Edith Gann, Lucile Newhard, Marty and Rachel Bocock, Jo Patterson, Frances McFarlane, Martha James, Norene Holston, Dot Havens, Mary Haines, Jane Umberger, Irvin and Ruth Bondurant, Mary White, Mae Glass, Virginia O'Connor, Grant Tuttle and Earl Odom.
The festival will open with a parade at 10:30 a.m. June 18. Prizes will go to winning floats in youth, religious or civic, private entries such as antique cars, and commercial categories.
Entry forms will be available at the office and must be returned by June 14.
Ager Par playground
WYTHEVILLE - A community playground is being designed for Ager Recreation Park in Wythe County by some of the children who will be using it.
Ideas for the playground are being solicited from children at schools throughout the county and incorporated into the plan.
The county Board of Supervisors is making the property available. The construction is being funded by donations and volunteer labor, and is scheduled to be carried out during a week sometime this fall. Arlene Crockett, one of the project coordinators, said it would be like ``an old-fashioned barn-raising.''
Early school start
WYTHEVILLE - Last winter's weather helped convince the Wythe County School Board to start the 1994-95 year four days earlier than this one.
Schools will open Aug. 22 and include five built-in snow days and five more that can be taken from the planned April 14-21 spring break. If no more than 10 days are lost to winter weather, the next school year will end June 1, 1995.
The earlier opening date means Wythe County students will get only a little more than two months of summer vacation this year. The current school year will end June 16, because of the 20 days lost to weather this year.
The last day for seniors will be June 10.
WCC home studies
WYTHEVILLE - Wytheville Community College will offer 17 home study courses this summer in which students use print, audio or video tapes and other kinds of materials instead of attending traditional classes.
Materials and textbooks will be distributed at an initial orientation meeting at 7 p.m. in Grayson Hall Commons on campus Monday for all courses except those in the child care field, which will have their meetings Tuesday and Wednesday instead. Further information is available from Dan Jones at 228-5541 locally or toll-free 1-800-468-1195 elsewhere, extension 235.
Students not already registered can register on their orientation night. Offerings include economics, psychology and marketing tele-courses through Blue Ridge Public Television, transfer courses in history, political science, government and philosophy, and occupational courses including accounting, business, child development, childhood education and others.
Chautauqua pageant
WYTHEVILLE - The entry deadline for contestants in the 1994 Chautauqua Pageant is Wednesday.
Categories are by age: Miss Chautauqua (17-23 years), Young Miss (14-16), Junior Miss (12-13), Miss Pre-Teen (9-11), Little Miss (7-8) and Wee Miss (4-6). Entry fees are $50 for Miss Chautauqua and $35 for the others.
Entry forms are available from Sherry Dean, contest chairperson, at 1600 W. Fulton St. or by calling 228-3275 after 5 p.m. The contest will be June 3, with winners participating in the annual Chautauqua Festival opening activities June 18.
by CNB