THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160506
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Portrait of a hero:
Nelson Slavin of Norfolk is 83. Thursday he took some donated medical equipment to his Masonic Lodge to give to people who need it. Then, despite a doctor's advice to slow down, he went to get more supplies for another project he heads, the ``sunshine committee.''
``It's in my religion, and it's in my being,'' said Slavin, who has done yeoman service as a volunteer for 40 years.
And this July, if health permits, he'll help do what most people will only do in their dreams. He'll go to Richmond and help carry the Olympic torch.
Slavin is one of seven local and 5,500 national ``community heroes'' nominated by admirers and chosen Thursday by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to help carry the flame on the U.S. portion of a journey that begins March 30 in Greece and ends July 19 in Atlanta.
The project was sponsored locally by United Way of South Hampton Roads.
The others in the area are Dr. Jack Adkins, Lou Ann Baines, Rosa Edwards, Jamie Labbe and Elizabeth Linville of Virginia Beach; and Lonnie Blow of Norfolk.
Adkins, 72, a Virginia Beach dentist, regularly closed down his practice and gave his time to small villages in India and Africa. He said of the village in Benin, Africa: ``I had a terrible time leaving. Something kept drawing me back.''
Adkins, who frequently enters 100-mile-or-more bicycle charity rides, says he'll carry the torch on wheels. It's a thrill. ``The Olympics are probably one of the greatest achievements man has had,'' he said. ``We put aside politics, stupidity and religion, and participate and enjoy each other's company. To be part of that is just great.''
Jamie Labbe, a Virginia Wesleyan College sophomore, will carry the flame by wheelchair.
Labbe teaches religious education to kindergartners, volunteers at a local courthouse and has served as ``goodwill ambassador'' for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. ``He doesn't let much stop him,'' said his mother, Carol.
Rosa Edwards, a physical education specialist at Alanton Elementary School, ``gives her heart and soul to the children,'' said Lindsay Shepard, who nominated her. She began a multicultural club at the school that ``helps black males realize how important they are as human beings,'' Shepard said.
Elizabeth Linville is a special education student at Cox High School who is active in school sports, plays in the band and gives much of her time to others. ``She's a hero to me,'' said her mother, Phyllis Duncan, ``because she sets an example for me of the way to live a good life.''
Linville plans to run, at least part of the one-kilometer distance. ``It's really an exciting thing to do,'' she said.
Lou Ann Baines, a Green Run High School senior, is a tutor, a fund-raiser and president of a partnership program that matches students from her suburban high school with those from rural Creeds Elementary School.
Lonnie Blow is a social studies teacher, an assistant basketball coach and counselor at the Norfolk Detention Center. Last January, he crawled through a smoke-filled house in Portsmouth and rescued a 3-year-old girl.
The torch will be ignited from the sun's rays in Olympia, Greece. After a relay through that country, it will be flown to Los Angeles. From there it will be carried through 42 states on the way to Atlanta. Its closest route to Hampton Roads will be through Richmond. ILLUSTRATION: Color map by KRT
by CNB