THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 1996 TAG: 9606050150
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 09 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ZUNI LENGTH: 79 lines
If a set of Homer Laughlin dishes, Georgian pattern, circa 1940, is just what you've been searching for, you can find it - and a whole lot more - Saturdayat Zuni Presbyterian Center's 7th annual benefit auction.
Again this year, Center Director Robert Bishop has scoured the state, collecting items for its major fund-raising effort.
Bishop, who went to school in 1988 to learn to be an auctioneer, will be assisted by Herb Jones, a former Extension agent who has a new career as an auctioneer.
Bishop said he has been overwhelmed by the generosity of supporters - from one end of the state to the other. This year's sale has the usual auction variety: appliances, lawn equipment, furniture, wood, bicycles, kitchen supplies, old records and coins. But there also is the not-so-ordinary: an antique, yellow gold, diamond cluster ring, the finest piece of jewelry Bishop's ever auctioned, he said; the dishes, a tuna fishing rod, a 17-foot pleasure boat, handmade quilts, 100 old school desks.
And there are several cars: a 1978 Pontiac, a `79 Pontiac, `89 Chevrolet Celebrity, and an `82 Chrysler Imperial, a collector's auto in excellent condition, according to Bishop.
There also will be something new - and old - on the auction block. The new item is farm equipment. The old element of the farm equipment is that it all has been used at the Zuni Center.
It dates to the original concept with which the center was developed: that mentally-challenged young adults could find success working in an agricultural environment. They helped grow crops and raise hogs and cattle.
Over the years, the center's focus moved gradually from agriculture and into the community. Students there were employed in businesses in surrounding Isle of Wight and Suffolk. The center established its own businesses, peanut processing and the greenhouse.
Selling the farm equipment, Bishop said, marks ``the end of an era.''
But things never stay the same. So, in a continuing effort to keep up with the innovations in teaching the Zuni students how to become a part of their own communities, the auction this year, in a way, will herald several new beginnings.
Bishop, director for more than 20 years, has been promoted to director of public relations over all Presbyterian Home and Family Services programs. He'll still be based in Zuni, but his responsibilities have expanded. A new Zuni director is expected by Aug. 1.
In mid-June, the sounds of hammers and saws will echo across the landscape as what once were dormitories are remodeled into four group homes. Each will have its own kitchen, dining room, laundry room.
Zuni, Bishop said, will become a transitional residential employment center with a population of only about 34. In the past, about 50 students have lived on campus for four years. In the future, how long each student stays there will be judged on an individual basis.
``It will be a complete overhaul,'' Bishop said. ``We are becoming less institutionalized, more community-based.''
The peanut processing business will be expanded. Bishop expects to spend about 10 percent of his time in his new position promoting Zuni's peanuts.
``Eventually, we'd like to become large enough for people in the community to be employed in the peanut operation,'' Bishop said. ``They will be working side by side with our mentally-challenged young adults.''
All of the changes are meant to keep up with everything that is being learned about dealing with mental retardation, helping youngsters who go through Zuni to make choices for themselves and to understand that their own quality of life can be - and should be - the same as anyone else's.
Meanwhile, it takes a lot of money to help these young people, and the auction is one of the best ways the Zuni center has found to meet those financial obligations.
It has always been a success, Bishop said. It has always been well supported. And it has always been a good day filled with fun, food and bargains. ILLUSTRATION: AT A GLANCE
What: Benefit auction
Where: Zuni Pres-by-ter-ian Center
When: Saturday, , 10 a.m.
Cost: Bid numbers, $1
Getting there: Follow U.S. Route 460 to Route 645 (Yellow Hammer
Road), one mile east of Zuni. Turn left onto Yellow Hammer, go 2 1/2
miles and follow the signs. by CNB