ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
The first Southeast Roanoke Harvest Festival will be Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Jackson Park.
It will feature live music, games, refreshments, craft and bake sales, and a softball tournament.
The festival, sponsored by the Southeast Roanoke Christian Partnership, is intended "to draw the people in Southeast together into a more caring and concerned group of people," said Boots Repass, the festival's chairman.
"It seems that nothing much ever gets done for Southeast. It sort of gets left by the wayside."
The partnership consists of five churches, the Rescue Mission of Roanoke Inc. and the Presbyterian Community Center.
The center provides emergency food and financial help valleywide to people in poverty, said Pat Dillard, executive director.
The churches are: Belmont Presbyterian, Belmont United Methodist, Belmont Christian, Ninth Street Church of the Brethren and Waverly Place Baptist Church.
They banded together to expand their ability to provide services to the area, which is home to many elderly people, in addition to families with young children.
Current services include a twice-weekly medical clinic for children's nutrition and immunization needs, a weekly parenting program and a literacy volunteer program. Grant money is being sought for a pastoral counseling center.
Southeast is perhaps best known for its proximity to the Norfolk Southern East End Shops and for the American Viscose plant that closed in the late 1950s.
"A lot of people in the churches don't live in Southeast any more," said Elliott Hipp, the pastor of Belmont Presbyterian and director of the partnership. "They remember a very different neighborhood."
"The idea was possibly to begin an identification event for the Southeast community - not just the churches, but the whole community of people," said Sam McPhail, pastor of Belmont Methodist.
In the event of rain, the festival will be moved to Belmont Christian Church, 1101 Jamison Ave. S.E. For information, call Boots Repass at 563-9114 or Hazel Moody at 890-3084.
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