THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603290213
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Long : 234 lines
Operation Smile would like to respond to the letter from Shirley Bedsole printed in the March 17 edition of the Portsmouth Currents.
Operation Smile does indeed operate a dental clinic in Norfolk in partnership with the Norfolk Department of Health and several other Norfolk-based organizations.
The clinic serves the indigent population of Norfolk using facilities and services provided by the city of Norfolk, as well as other organizations, for Norfolk residents.
To date, the Park Place Dental Clinic in Norfolk has helped more than 3,000 Norfolk residents.
Operation Smile refers inquiries from other citizens of Hampton Roads to the dental clinics that are operated in their cities.
In Portsmouth, dental services are available at the Portsmouth Dental Clinic. Dr. Martin and staff are committed to serving the citizens of Portsmouth and can be reached at 399-4588.
As always, Operation Smile will continue to serve around the corner and around the world.
Vickie R. Hunt
Domestic Programs Education Coordinator Operation Smile
March 19, 1996 Compassion lives
Recently, I wrote a letter to the editor about my desperate need for help with my teeth.
I was amazed at the immediate response and compassion I received. When I wrote the letter, I was very desperate and angry. I felt like I was alone and just didn't matter. But compassion is not extinct. Sometimes when you're desperate and extremely in need, it is hard to understand that someone can't help you because they don't have the funds. I know that I am not the first or the last of the people that organizations will have to turn away.
Isn't there something we could do about this? We have evolved so much. Can't we now become involved? If we all give just a little, then together we will be giving a lot.
There are lots of people who find themselves in a needy situation all the time. What if your day comes one day?
To those who helped me and are helping me, they are just a face to others, but to me they will always be my heroes.
I give to them my gratitude, forever.
Shirley Bedsole
DeKalb Avenue
March 22, 1996 Substance over style
As a Portsmouth native, I sympathize with Portsmouth City Council's desire that our city present an attractive face to visitors and passersby.
How much more critical is it, however, to work towards improving the well-being of all people who live in the city! Such broad-based improvement calls for a change in old patterns, old ways of seeing and doing. Portsmouth Community Development's commitment to strive for fundamental transformation for the sake of all is to be applauded.
Change reaching to the roots of the body politic takes time and patience. The contractors whose work is being criticized - people who have not had the same opportunity as established companies to hone their skills - are eager to redo their work to satisfy their customers. For the sake of the whole city's well-being, let's give them a chance.
Julia Dorsey Loomis
Swimming Point Walk
March 13, 1996 Merchant says thanks
Five years ago, the Currents ran a story about a new business opening in Portsmouth. Our small business, The Washing Well Store, opened May 1991 and has been a very successful business for my husband and me and has brought our family many blessings.
From day one, we've felt an enormous outpouring of love from this community and want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the kind souls who have helped us along the way.
From the homemade goodies we received as gifts, to the tips we were given for a job ``well done,'' we have many memories of the kindness showed to us, and to our family.
Even the city itself, from the city manager to the sanitation workers, has always treated us with love and respect, and for that we are very grateful. Portsmouth is a small business-friendly city.
Our family has moved on to new opportunities in the St. Louis area, but The Washing Well Store has been sold to a fine and talented young man named Norman Pierce. Leaving a successful business you've spent five years cultivating is never easy, but it was made easier by the fact that we admire and trust Norman. He exemplifies all the qualities we built our business on - qualities such as honesty, integrity, kindness and decency.
To conclude, our hearts are filled with gratitude for all the love we received from this community. And we're grateful a good man will reap the benefits of the seeds we sowed in growing our little business. We've told our immediate family to call on Norman when their appliances need repair. We also invite our extended family - all the citizens of Portsmouth - to call on Norman Pierce.
Thank you for supporting us.
Tom and Rosemary Thornton
The Washing Well Store
March 21, 1996 Kudos for story
We are extremely grateful to Janie Bryant for her excellent feature article on the work of Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless, a story that ran Sunday, March 17, in the Currents. It contained accurate, sensitive and realistic description of the winter shelter that was hosted by five downtown churches and supported by another 14 churches which provided food and volunteers each night. The article was not only informative, it expressed the feelings and commitment of volunteers who see the need for a shelter and transitional housing. It described the situation of some of the homeless individuals who sleep in churches, each one of whom has his or her own story and needs.
Early on March 17, the men loaded the cots and blankets on a truck. Five of them volunteered to unload them at their destination, one of the host churches, and it was then that they expressed to us concern about where they would sleep, especially in the event that the weather turned cold once again. We explained that while we also were distressed, we could not stay open until the end of March without more churches being involved.
The board of directors of Volunteers for the Homeless is studying programs in other cities as a prelude to opening next winter. Busing to outlying churches, as well as the use of downtown sites, is an alternative which is used in Norfolk and Richmond. Whatever we decide to do, we need more churches to open their doors if we are to continue this important ministry which was begun five years ago.
Anne Hyde Long
Portsmouth Volunteers
for the Homeless
March 22, 1996 Mayor Webb lauded
Gloria Webb has served her constituents faithfully and with diligence.
Since Mrs. Webb has served as Portsmouth's mayor, I have seen marked progress in our fair city. Mayor Webb's State of the City address, as published in the March 17 edition of the Currents, sums up the mayor's major accomplishments, but still does not truly picture the mayor in her full array. The mayor is visionary; an intelligent, efficient, progressive, compassionate and caring city leader who is not afraid to make a tough call.
The building of the new I.C. Norcom High School was a sore point and a source of discord for many residents of the city of Portsmouth. Mayor Webb supported the building of the new I.C. Norcom in order to bring unity to Portsmouth's citizens and to put this controversial issue to rest. An added plus is that new school is a definite marketing point for the city.
There are many components to running our city, so let's stop blaming and pointing fingers and come together for the betterment of Portsmouth.
Mayor Webb is a jewel. This courageous lady is truly the mayor of the people and she needs the support of all citizens of Portsmouth in order to continue the progressive strides made by our city and to bring Vision 2005 to fruition.
I encourage all citizens to cast their ballots on May 7 to reelect Gloria Webb as mayor for the city of Portsmouth.
Tyrone Hines
Vermont Avenue
March 25, 1996 Truck flak
My husband and I are the owners of the truck on West Greenway Court (letter, Feb. 25 Currents). I would like to respond to our fantasizing neighbor, if you can call someone who has never spoken to you or even attempted to be civil to us . . . a neighbor.
First, our truck weighs 9 1/4 tons (which is less than a city school bus or city trash truck), not 35 tons - if this was the case, we could never haul any loads.
Secondly, he made reference to a torn-down phone line. If he had checked his facts, he would have found that the phone lines are supposed to be 16 feet from the ground, and that we had called two weeks before notifying the phone company of wires hanging too low. Our truck stacks and all are only 13 feet, 2 inches high.
In regard to the real estate value, the two homes he refers to were for sale before we moved in and the reason we know this is because my husband and I looked at the homes before deciding to buy the HUD home a little ways down the street from these two homes. The HUD home dropped its real estate value before we moved in. And since buying our home well under the city assessment, our home's value has raised well about city assessment - with our truck parked in the driveway.
Only after we bought our home and made improvements, did the two homes we previously looked at sell for above city assessment, not under-priced as he claimed.
My husband and I share a driveway with our neighbor to our right who does not have a problem with our truck, nor does the neighbor to our left, behind us or directly across the street from us. But the neighbor who lives over 180 feet from our truck does.
Our truck is started less than 10 feet from my home, and nothing on my walls falls off or shakes from vibrations, nor does my neighbor's full-length wall china cabinet, and they share a driveway with our truck. But, yet, the vibrations travel the 140 feet of my driveway, take a convenient right turn and go directly across the street to my fantasizing neighbor's house.
So, instead of proclaiming himself the law of the neighborhood, maybe he should get a new hobby.
C.M. Rogerson
West Greenway Court
March 21, 1996 Firefighters mourned
I am the wife of a Chesapeake firefighter and member of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2449.
First, I would like to express my deepest sorrows and sympathies to the Frank E. Young and John R. Hudgins Jr. families, friends and firefighters, Emergency Medical Service brothers and sisters and their families. This is a tragedy that no one should endure.
My life has been touched by knowing so many men and women in the department since my husband has been in. But I realized more so this week how even more special and precious these people are. Not only do they have life-endangering jobs that are physically and emotionally taxing - jobs that most people I know could not handle - they love people and they love each other; there is a strength there that is unbelievable.
This past week, I have met, hugged and cried with men and women (some I knew, most I didn't), who have come from within the Chesapeake department and the Hampton Roads area and from as far away as Canada, Wisconsin, Connecticut and small counties in Virginia I never knew existed, to pay their respects to these fallen firefighters and their families.
Although, I sadly regret the tragic circumstances under which I have come to meet these people, nonetheless my life has been deeply blessed by the love and comfort they have given me and to one another.
I am writing not just to express my sorrow and condolences, but to appeal to those firefighters to maintain those bonds that were so strong to begin with and that have grown triple-fold recently. Gather together and fight for what is right, for what you need to keep yourselves and your communities safe - be it more manpower, equipment or benefits. You need to do it!
I also appeal to the citizens, not just of Chesapeake but of the Hampton Roads area, to support the firefighters' associations. They are the voices of the firefighters, the ones who risk their lives and their families' futures to save your lives and your futures. Write to and call your council members, not just now but in the future, too, when issues and concerns are brought forward.
God bless the families, the firefighters and EMS, their friends and the community who have all been touched by this.
Lisa J. Kreisel
Beamon's Mill Trail
Suffolk
March 25, 1996 by CNB