ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280029
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DURING 1995, NEIGHBORS published articles about a number of people who were working toward goals or on other endeavors. Here, at year's end, we checked back on some of their progress.
One of Neighbors' most recent projects was recalling the almost-forgotten community Christmas candle of December1958.
In researching this article, we learned that all of the principal participants had died. But the daughter of Chuck Verna, who actually melted and poured the hot wax, contacted Neighbors the day the article was published.
Betty Jean McDonald of Roanoke County, called to say her mother, Elizabeth Verna, lives in Salem.
Elizabeth Verna was able to add to the story of the candle and make a correction. Newspaper accounts said an unidentified man offered Chuck Verna advice on getting the wax cool enough to shape into one big candle on the Roanoke Municipal Building lawn. But, said his widow, that's not the way it was.
"Chuck called VPI, and it was somebody there who told him about the pie pans," she said. "[Verna] was getting very frustrated and didn't know what else to do." Chuck Verna worked in the property department at WDBJ-TV (Channel 7), but Elizabeth Verna said she does not know how he got the job of remolding thousands of small candles into a big one.
"I suppose it was because he was a good workman," she said. "He had the attitude that if something could be done he could do it, and when he started something he was going to finish it or bust."
But, she said, the candle project was almost his match.
"He had a time with it," she said. "It worried him to death."
Verna, who continued working for Channel 7 until he retired in the late 1960s, died in September 1983 at age 79.
In March, Jessie Mae Anderson told Neighbors how she had completed GED requirements and started college courses in creative writing and computer use with one goal in mind: to write the story about how she rose from poverty and a poor home life.
Her brother installed a new computer during the summer, but so far she has not had time to begin the actual writing of her life story.
"This semester I signed up for two courses, American literature and computer," she said. Both are night classes at Virginia Western and turned out to be more of a class load than she could handle.
She has continued with her regular schedule of day work and attends classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. In between, she squeezes in reading assignments and study time as well as trips to the computer lab.
"I didn't realize there would be so much involved," she said. "It's been a real challenge and interesting to learn about all the beliefs and philosophy of writers and all the things a computer can do. But I'm not in business, and I don't have a business head on me. I just wanted to learn to use the computer so I can write."
The semester ended Dec. 14, and Anderson plans to take time off from her college education to begin work on her book early in January.
When she resumes her course work, she will lighten the load a bit and take only one course a semester.
For Billy Moran, working toward an Eagle Scout Badge turned out to be something of a frustration and a blow to his faith in humankind.
As part of the Eagle requirements he undertook several improvement projects in Goode and Stonebridge parks in the Vinton area but was bedeviled for much of the summer by vandals who wrecked most of his work.
Despite the vandals, Moran - featured in Neighbors in November - has completed requirements for the Eagle Badge and is waiting for his final test before a board of review of the Blue Ridge Mountains Council of the Boy Scouts. A date for this is expected to be set "any day now."
If he passes that - and he expects to - the Eagle Badge will be officially awarded at a Court of Honor of Troop 18, where he is a member. This troop is sponsored by Campbell Memorial Presbyterian Church.
Earning the Eagle Badge won't be the end of scouting for Moran. He said he plans to become a leader. He's already done some leadership with younger Scouts while he was working toward the Eagle.
The vandals who wrecked much of his work in the two parks are still at large, however.
Jayne Moran, Billy's mother, said police told her they are sure of the identity of the vandals but don't have sufficient evidence to arrest them.
Kristel Jenkins, winner of many beauty pageants, is still waiting for a national title, and her drive to get one is still as great as ever.
But she's had to put ambition on the back burner for most of this year while she holds the state title of Miss Virginia Teen USA. Except for the pageant's national competition, the rules won't allow her to participate in any other competition.
"My state title runs out in March, and after that I'm going to start looking for other pageants to enter," she said.
As Miss Virginia Teen, Jenkins represented Virginia at the Miss Teen USA pageant in August. She did not win but she is satisfied that she gave Virginia good representation.
"I did my best," she said.
In May when Jenkins was preparing for the Miss Virginia Teen pageant, she became aware that she needed to keep her weight in check. Her whole family supported her in this endeavor to the point that the living room in the family home in the Vinton area was converted into an exercise room.
Jenkins said the exercise room is still there, but use of it has slowed down a bit because of various changes in the family routine.
Jenkins, 18, a graduate of William Byrd High School in Vinton, plans to enter Radford University in January and get back on the pageant circuit in late spring and summer.
In February, Neighbors featured the story of Robbie Wheeler of Salem and his small book, "Robbie's Reach Out," which he produced as a tribute to his parents, Robert and Nancy Wheeler.
The book may be small in size but it has turned out to be huge in love.
"You can't believe the outpouring of love," Nancy Wheeler said of the way Robbie's book was received. "We've gotten calls from people all over the country."
Nancy Wheeler said that one of the best results of the book was that it has brought the family into contact with old friends they haven't seen for a long time. And, the family has made new friends, too.
Many of the new friends are people who share some of the same difficulties experienced by the Wheeler family - heart problems of Robert, cancer with Nancy and Robbie's cerebral palsy. Many of the people who have contacted the family, Nancy said, are those who have some of the same difficulties and want to share experiences and offer support.
"This has been a most positive outreach," she said of the book. "More than we ever anticipated."
So far the book has been through four printings, and the fourth printing is almost sold out. A fifth printing may be done.
About 1,700 copies have been sold, raising about $1,500 for the scholarship fund at St. Anne's Episcopal Day School in Salem. The school operates at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where Nancy Wheeler was one of the founders. She is chairman of the board now.
Ben Myers, a devout Christian, was featured in Neighbors in July as he began a quest to persuade people to commit to pray for at least one minute a day.
He said he had found great benefit in regular prayer and wanted to help others get tuned into God.
His goal was to sign up 1,400 people, but he has found the task harder than expected. By early December only about 200 people had agreed to his one-minute-a-day prayer plan.
Because of the difficulty in getting people to sign up, Myers shifted tactics early in December. His plan is to call 10 people a day on the telephone and ask them to join him in regular prayer.
"I plan to pick names at random from the phone book and call cold turkey," he said.
No matter how his program turns out Myers says he will not lose faith in the power of prayer.
"God has helped me during the most extreme times in my life, and I want people to know God can help them, too."
Myers, 59, who does custodial work at Green Memorial United Methodist Church, also is promoting his plan with his own radio program each Monday at 7:03 p.m. on WWWR 910.
Schon Williams, who was featured in September, was embarking on an ambitious goal of spreading a message of religious, political and social conservatism to students at the University of Virginia, where he was starting his freshman year.
His aim was to set up a lecture series on campus for conservative speakers to help students become more aware of conservative principles.
Williams, 18, a graduate of William Byrd High School, said recently he hasn't had much luck setting up a speakers' program but he believes that overall he's making headway on bringing a conservative message to UVa students.
"I think I've done pretty good for myself," he said.
Since enrolling in UVa, he has discovered that writing is his best vehicle for getting his word out. In the four months at UVa, he has written several articles and editorials for campus newspapers and other publications in the Charlottesville area. His primary outlet has been the Virginia Advocate, a conservative journal published in Charlottesville and distributed mostly to UVa students.
Williams also worked in the campaign of State Sen. Ed Robb, a Charlottesville Republican, who lost his bid for re-election in November.
As for speakers program, Williams said he has not given up. He plans to take up that cause again next semester and "keep plugging at it."
World travel is becoming almost a way of life for Michael Brown, a music evangelist who is devoting his life to rescuing people from drug and alcohol abuse.
He was in Australia for three weeks in November and December, taking his message to school children there.
A return trip to Australia and trips to England, Ireland and Africa are on his itinerary for 1996.
Brown was featured in Neighbors in September when he held a benefit concert to help promote the Living Free Program he began in July. He was addicted to drugs but turned his life around and now wants to help others do the same and to prevent addiction.
The concert in September was "fabulous," he said, and the recent trip to Australia was "excellent."
Brown said he was invited to visit Australia by drug and alcohol abuse prevention groups there and his other world travels will be on behalf of similar groups in those countries.
His next big event here will be a banquet on May 25 to further introduce Southwest Virginia to his Living Free Program.
Brown is a member of the Evangelical Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit where he says he gets a lot of his support.
Mary Jo Shannon contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Long : 205 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1995 FILE. '95. 1. Kristel Jenkins (right) competed asby CNBMiss Virginia Teen in the Miss Teen USA pageant in August. Although
she didn't win, "I did my best," she said. 2. Schon Williams (below)
aimed to spread a message of religious, political and social
conservatism to students at the University of Virginia, where he was
starting his freshman year. Williams said recently he is making
headway on bringing his message to his fellow UVa students. 3.
Jessie Mae Anderson plans to take time off from college to begin
writing her life story. color. KEYWORDS: YEAR 1995