Memorial Celebrates With Health Screenings

by Julie Steele

Memorial Health Care System  is offering several health screening opportunities for those in the community in celebration of a new center, and the Year of the Lung and International Spirometry Day.  Julie Steele discusses the screenings with Kurt Schly (rhymes with SPY), director of the new Ooletwah Imaging Center and Dr. Katherine Martinez.

Incue: … Just this past June Memorial opened a new center in the Ooltewah area. The new campus houses a new imaging center, a family practice center and opening on Oct. 4^th, and the Mary Ellen Locher Women’s Center. A grand opening ceremony for the entire campus is set for October 7^th.

To bring focus to preventative lung care Memorial will offer free screening for lung disease. That screening is set for Oct 14.

Those most suited to being tested are those with some symptoms, according to Dr Katherine Martinez, a pulmonologist at Memorial. Results will be available right after the screenings.

If the testing doesn’t look that well, Memorial employees will make recommendations as to where to go from there.

The Spirometry  lung screenings are Oct 14, and no appointment is necessary.     For more information on the lung screenings call 423-495-2635. The Oct 7 screenings at the Ooltewah Imaging Center are from  4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and some of those do require appointments. For more information on the Ooltewah screenings call 423-495-CARE or 423-495-2273. For more information on Memorial Health Care Systems go online to memorial.org.

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The George T. Hunter Lecture Series

Reporting:  Rabbit Zielke

The Benwood Foundation, in conjunction with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Create Here, and the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies, will be presenting Malcolm Gladwell as the first speaker of the 3rd annual George T. Hunter Lecture Series.  Speakers for this series are prominent experts on topics targeting areas of interest for the Chattanooga area.

The speakers for the 2010 Lecture Series include Malcolm Gladwell, Newark New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, Geoffrey Canada, and Dr. Vandana Shiva.  Each of these individuals have made significant advances in understanding humanity, community, science and the world around us.

The first lecture in the series this year will be held Tuesday, October 5th in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga beginning at 7:00 pm.  The event is free and open to the public.  There is limited seating in the hall so plan to arrive early.  There will also be facilities for over-flow to allow as many people as possible to hear the guest speaker.

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Wildwood Ga Bird Sanctuary Allows Raptors to SOAR

by Julie Steele

John Stokes with Barn Owl

If you drive just a bit up I-24 to I-59 and venture out to Wildwood, Georiga, after a bit of driving on a rather washed out roadway you’ll come across SOAR, Save Our American Raptors, a bird sanctuary for raptors that for whatever reason cannot survive out in the wild.  I drove out to soar recently and experienced something she never expected.

dale with falcon

When Dale Kernahan Stokes invited me to visit her and her husband in Wildwood, Georgia, I thought I’d stop by and see a few birds that had been rescued and couldn’t be released into the wild. What I actually saw were beautiful birds, large and small that I would touch, interact with and hold. And more importantly, birds who interacted with me.

My experience at SOAR and with Dale and John Stokes was fun, interesting and educational. To hear that interview, click on “listen to story.”

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Julie Steele with falcon

Wine Over Water

Reporting:  Rabbit Zielke

The Walnut Street Bridge is the perfect venue for Wine Over Water.  In fact the organization that benefits from this annual event was formed by some of the same people who worked so diligently to preserve the bridge and convert it into one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world.  The mission of Cornerstones is to preserve the architectural heritage of Chattanooga and it does this through partnerships and programs that help identify and promote preservation and renovation to re-purpose historic buildings.

Wine Over Water turns the Walnut Street Bridge into almost half a mile of music, food and wine tasting.  Spanning the Tennessee River, the bridge offers beautiful views of the Chattanooga skyline and local mountains which you can enjoy while sampling the wine.  The event begins at 5:00 pm and continues until 8:00 pm.   Music is provided by five Chattanooga bands on different stages.  Food selected to compliment the wines will be available from local restaurants.  Nonalcoholic beverages are also available.

You must be age 21 or older to attend Wine Over Water.

Tickets are available at the bridge or purchased with a discount in advance by ordering online.

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Autumn Children’s Festival This Weekend

by Julie Steele

The Ronald McDonald House 21^st annual Autumn Children’s Festival is October 2^nd and 3^rd at the Tennessee Riverpark on Amnicola Highway. I recently stopped by Ronald McDonald House on  Central Avenue in Chattanooga to take a look around and talk to who I could find available.

They call it the house that love built and it’s evident when you want through the door. While at Ronald Mcdonald House I spoke To Kelly Booker of Soddy Daisy, a new mom who gave birth to premature twin boys in August.  Kelly and her husband have been staying at Ronald McDonald House since the boys’ birth. If you’d like to hear what Kelly says Ronald McDonald House has meant to her and her family, click on listen to story, below.

The autumn children’s festival is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. October 2^nd and 1 to 5 p.m. October 3^rd.   That day  I also spoke to Ronald McDonald House manager of marketing Chinyere Ubamadu. She discussed all the fun that would be happening at the festival, including events new this year.

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History Center Rocks with Nicely Tours

by Julie Steele

The Chattanooga History Center will present three tours as part of River Rocks next month.  Two walking tours will be led by Maury Nicely with another tour led by Daryl Black. Julie Steele discusses the Nicely Tours with  Black.

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MACC Foundation Fall Hodgepodge This Weekend on Signal Mountain

by Julie Steele

Signal Mountain will be teeming with artists and crafters and those who love to shop for it  October 1 and 2 during the annual Fall Hodgepodge. Julie Steele talked with hodgepodge coordinator Dawn Skowronnek  recently about the annual event, recent changes, and changes on the horizon.

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WUTC’s Carnival Cruise giveaway is ending soon… don’t forget to enter!

You’re a WUTC fan, and you know you’re going to help support WUTC during the membership drive. So don’t wait–make your pledge right now, during the pre-drive! If you do, you’ll help make the membership drive shorter, and you can be automatically… entered into WUTC’s drawing for a Carnival Cruise for two.

Visit WUTC online to make a secure pledge, or call 423-425-4756 to make a pledge over the phone.

This isn’t a national giveaway–this is only for WUTC’s audience, so your odds are actually pretty good. Visit www.wutc.org for cruise details and complete contest rules, and hurry–Sept. 30 is the deadline!

Severe Weather Awareness Day

Reporting:  Rabbit Zielke

September 29th is Fall Severe Weather Awareness Day in the Tennessee Valley. The National Weather Service has designated this date to remind citizens of the potentially dangerous storm systems that can occur in the region.

In the event of a severe storm or tornado warning you should go immediately to a safe location.  According the Tim Troutman from the National Weather Service, the safest place in your home is in the basement or lowest level of the house, preferably in an area with four stout walls and no windows.  Take your cell phone and weather radio with you.  Be sure to keep your shoes on in case you need to walk through broken glass or debris after the storm.  If you have a helmet wear it in case of flying debris.

Know your local geography so that you are prepared to react to  storm watches and warnings in surrounding counties.  Severe storms often travel from the south west toward the north east.  Be sure to remain in your safe location until you are sure the storm has passed.

The National Weather Service encourages you to be prepared.  Have a plan in place for your family at home, school, and work and practice this plan with everyone involved.  The following tips are taken from the National Weather Service Preparedness Guide Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, Lightning… Natures Most Violent Storms.

• Know the risk for your area.
• Have a NOAA Weather Radio with back up batteries.
• Discuss weather safety with everyone in your family.
• Bookmark your local National Weather Service office on the internet.
• Conditions can change rapidly in a storm.  Heed warnings and respond.
• Tune in to local radio or television weather information source for storm watch and warning information.
• Check on people who are elderly, very young, or disabled.
• Prepare a safe room in your home.

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“Bridge to Terabithia” Premieres for CTC Youth Theatre

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

October 1 – 17, 2010

Bridge to Terabithia is a sensitive and emotional play about characters that rise above their weaknesses. Jess and Leslie both have a need to be accepted. He wants to appease his father and she wants her new school to view her as anything but an alien. In the woods near their homes, they create an imaginary land in which their friendship flourishes.
Appropriate grades 4th-12th.

Chattanooga Theatre Centre’s Youth Theater Director, Maria Chattin-Carter and actors Savannah McMahan and Alex Griffith talk about this latest youth Theatre Production.

“Bridge to Terabithia,” written by Katherine Paterson is based on a real-life event.     She talks about her motivation in writing the story published in 1977 by Harper Collins:

“I wrote Bridge because our son David’s best friend, an eight year old named Lisa Hill, was struck and killed by lightning.    I wrote the book to try to make sense out of a tragedy that seemed senseless.”

The character Leslie Burke is a fifth grader and new to the small town where the play takes place.      Neither she nor Jess Aarons, her neighbor and classmate feel like they fit in.     Leslie’s parents don’t own a TV although they have a library of books, some of which Leslie introduces Jess to.      The two become great friends and create a fun-filled world of their own in the woods between their houses.

Maria Chattin-Carter says that “Bridge to Terabithia” is about their friendship and the imaginary world that Jess and Leslie create.      When the author was asked in an interview posted here, “What would she like to see children doing more or less of today,” she responds:

Well, of course, I want children to read more. I am not of the throw the TV and computers on the dump school. I just feel that a life in balance is better than one that goes off the deep end in any direction. My admittedly limited experience on the internet and with computer “information,” has revealed that this is a rather shallow sort of knowledge and impersonal sort of human connection. I think great books and real live human beings do a better job of making us wise, compassionate people.

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