Shopper Blog: How Powell got its new child-friendly park, the Angora Frog Farm
POWELL
How Powell got its new child-friendly park, the Angora Frog Farm
Al Lesar, Shopper News
Happy endings were all around a couple weeks ago.
Arvin the Angora Frog found a home and the Powell community got a new park.
Three years ago, Arvin and Sabra Brown gifted Legacy Parks Foundation 14 acres of their land that backs up to Crown College. The surprising gesture made for the third park to be added in Powell since 2014 (others were Powell Station Park and Collier Preserve).
“Powell is a very, very supportive community,” said Carol Evans, director of Legacy Parks Foundation. “We’re just fortunate that there are land donors who care about preservation and public enjoyment.”
Sabra Brown, who has passed away since the gift was made, had a passion for reading and nature. Evans said the concept for the park was patterned around those priorities.
A half-mile gravel walking trail will have 13 storyboards telling the tale of Arvin the Angora Frog, a frog with hair, and how he found the Angora Frog Farm in Powell, which will have frogs that look just like him.
Illustrating Arvin
When Arvin and Sabra made their gift, Evans spent some time talking about their vision for the valuable land.
“When Arvin was little, he used to roam around the land with his friends,” she said. “His father would tell him stories. One was about the Angora Frog. We decided to try to bring that story to life.”
When ideas were being considered, Sarah Rump, marketing director at Legacy Parks Foundation, said she knew just the person who could work that magic.
Daniel Wiseman, a New York Times bestselling illustrator, had just moved to the Knoxville area.
“Daniel has a great pedigree in children’s books,” Evans said. “We took a walk in the woods and discussed the possibilities. He got to meet Arvin, and listen to his stories. He is the right person at the right time.”
The panels will tell Arvin’s story, using the names of other frogs from Arvin Brown’s family, with the last storyboard allowing kids to build Arvin’s house so he can stay.
“Daniel tested the story on his 5-year-old and it worked,” Evans said.
Fortunate timing
This has been a production with amazing timing and coincidences for Evans. Not only did the gift catch her off guard three years ago, but the way things have fallen into place have been fortunate.
Terry Turner, owner of All Occasions Rentals and former president of the American Rental Association Foundation, contacted Legacy Parks Foundation board member Larsen Jay. He was looking for a project that could take money and equipment.
The ARAF and Toro Company gave $20,000 toward the project. FirstBank, which will have a new branch in Powell soon, matched it. The ARAF also supplied a dozen pieces of heavy equipment.
“We spread a lot of gravel,” Evans said of the groundbreaking. “In one day, we did what would normally take two or three weeks.
“The way everything has come together has been amazing.”
While the trail is in place, 10 special play features still need to be erected. There is still a need for donations.
“This is such a unique, child-friendly park,” Evans said. “It’s in Powell, but anyone in Knox County or the surrounding area would enjoy it.”
WEST KNOXVILLE
Senior Day a roaring success at Karns High School
Nancy Anderson, Shopper News
About 200 of the 350 seniors at Karns High School attended Senior Day on Thursday, May 11. That’s an excellent turnout, said Seniors Principal Rachel Evans.
“I think the day is important so that seniors can celebrate their accomplishments and remember that while they are grown, they aren’t adults yet. We wanted them to just be kids again for a day,” Evans said.
Evans and her committee completely revamped Senior Day, making it much more fun for seniors, administrators, coaches and teachers alike.
They designed a full day of activities beginning with a pancake breakfast made from scratch by the administrators. During that time, the students wrote thank you notes to those who made a large impact on their high school experience.
At 9:30 a.m. the seniors settled in for awards. There were a number of awards for excellence in academics, athletics, scholarships, and more. Parents were invited to attend to cheer for their child. This is the first year awards were held during the day so friends as well as parents could support the seniors.
Evans said senior Emma Styles probably won the most awards while Haleigh Robinson won the Spirit of Resilience award for having the positive attitude and fortitude to overcome all challenges she faced.
After awards, the seniors walked the school handing out the thank you notes to administrators, coaches, and teachers who made a big impact on the student. Many recipients – as well as seniors – were left in tears of gratitude.
“The thank you notes are a big deal,” Evans. “It’s an opportunity to reach out and let the staff know how much they impacted the student for the better.”
The kids got to vote on what they wanted for lunch. They voted on hamburgers and hotdogs, so members of the coaching staff led by coach Michael Spain got the grills going to cook for nearly 200 hungry seniors.
The culinary class, led by chef Jake Neblett, made sure everything was food safe and even served up macaroni salad and potato salad.
“We got everyone involved, and we’re especially thankful to the culinary class,” Evans said. “They helped serve up lunch and seemed to have a great time doing it.”
After lunch, the seniors voted on a field day filled with games, sack races, tug-o-war, a water balloon fight, and play with a parachute donated by Karns Elementary School.
“I think other than the balloon fight, the kids loved the parachute most. It harkens back to younger days and was fun for everyone,” Evans said.
The revamped Senior Day was so well received by the students that Evans said she’s already thinking of fun things to do next year.
Info: www.knoxschools.org/karnshs
BEARDEN
International correspondent visits UT at student's invitation
John Shearer, Shopper News
As a doctoral student at the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism and Electronic Media, Teodora Trifonova tries to get A-like or good grades like any serious student.
But she also recently helped get an A-level national TV news correspondent to campus as part of her studies.
In a move she initiated and helped coordinate with some full-time faculty members, the school was able to have PBS “NewsHour” foreign affairs and defense correspondent Nick Schifrin speak and moderate a symposium.
“He’s a well-known journalist and correspondent and one of the leading correspondents for ‘NewsHour,’” said Trifonova in summarizing the event afterward. “We were more than happy we got him.”
The award-winning reporter – who was a student newspaper journalist at Columbia University in New York when the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, occurred and later worked for ABC News – spoke on April 28.
He was at the school for an international reporting symposium related to the war in Ukraine.
As part of the event, journalists from the U.S. and Ukraine who have been covering the war spoke via Zoom on April 27 about their experiences, and then Schifrin spoke the next day at the International House on campus.
After mentioning in his talk of the emotional scars he gets reporting from such places as Ukraine and Afghanistan, he then moderated a panel discussion that included four faculty members from UT, who offered a broader look at the impact of the wars there. Joining him were business Ph.D. student Nataliia Yakushko, Dr. Elis Vllasi from the Baker Center, Dr. Natalie Rice from the College of Communication and Information’s Research and Innovation Center, and history professor Dr. Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius.
Trifonova said the idea for the event came about a year or so ago. The teaching assistant and researcher is from Bulgaria near the region where the war in Ukraine is taking place. She has also been a correspondent and worked for a Bulgarian TV news station and for a period was on the foreign desk for PBS’ “NewsHour,” where she became acquainted with Schifrin.
Knowing his accomplishments and the respect he has as a journalist who had also worked for Al Jazeera America, she passed the idea along to UT journalist faculty member Dr. Joy Jenkins, under whom Trifonova has served as a research assistant. Jenkins and the School of Journalism and Electronic Media officials liked the idea, and with the help of fellow faculty member Dr. Amber Roessner, they were able to get a grant for the event.
And with Trifonova’s personal invitation to Schifrin, they got a scoop of sorts in getting this reporter known for his own scoops, such as getting the first video of Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan after the Al-Qaeda leader was killed in 2011.
Trifonova thought the event − designed to raise awareness in the UT community for what is taking place in Ukraine and Eastern Europe − was successful and that Schifrin’s visit was well received. She said he had prepared his speech specifically for his UT visit.
The only hitch, she joked, was that the weather delayed his flight to Knoxville, causing a few anxious moments among coordinators. But she still had time to visit with him some during his half-day stay.
“I showed him the campus and he loved the Hill,” she said. “And I showed him the Communications Building. He loved it all and said it was very beautiful.”
Jenkins, who said it is somewhat unusual for a doctoral student like Trifonova to help coordinate a symposium with a well-known speaker, said Schifrin was very accommodating to the UT community while in town.
“He was really humble and accessible,” she said of the correspondent who grew up in Los Angeles. “He was really easy to engage with. He took time to introduce himself and talk to people.”
Jenkins, who will soon be leaving UT to take a professorship at the University of Missouri where she did her doctoral studies, said that Schifrin also took time after the program to greet people, who included students attending.
Trifonova said his visit cemented the fact that she knew he would be the perfect speaker for the event she helped dream up.
“He was very easy to work with,” she said. “Nick is someone who knows what he is doing. I invited him because I knew he was the right person.”
Despite the seasickness, these islands are worth the trip
NORTH KNOXVILLE
Schulz Bräu Maifest: celebrating spring, German-style
Carol Z. Shane, Shopper News
A classic German beer garden – or biergarten – isn’t the first thing you think of when you think of Knoxville.
But as it turns out, our city is home to one of the largest and best biergartens in the South.
And from Friday, May 12 through Sunday, May 14, fans of authentic craft beer and genuine German cuisine thronged Schulz Bräu Brewing Company to celebrate Maifest.
For the second year, Schulz Bräu has offered this official spring festival, which is described as “a farmer's market, spring festival, and mini-Oktoberfest all in one.”
Strains of live music filled the air; performers included Grammy-nominated accordionist/producer Alex Meixner and local favorite and Oktoberfest regular, accordionist Waclaw Koneczny. The Concord Brass and pianist/accordionist Mike Beckley were on hand, and The Smoky Mountain Oompah Band performed in full lederhosen.
Rain also made an appearance.
“With the poor weather this time around, we probably averaged around 4,000 guests who visited us over the entirety of the three-day event, Saturday being our big-hitter,” said Christen Watson, Schulz Bräu’s marketing and event manager for the past two years.
But the members of that still-very-considerable crowd enjoyed themselves immensely, not least because of Meixner, known worldwide as a musical innovator who cross-pollinates his formal training in classical, jazz and ethnic music styles with pop music, funk, jazz and polka.
“Maifest is just about our only festival that’s advertised as a more relaxed, slower-going event,” said Watson. “We keep Maifest planning to the basics, including live music, market vendors, a beer release, and some kitchen specials.
“That being said, Alex Meixner, our performance headliner for the event, really blew our expectations out of the water! He and his band did a wonderful job with crowd engagement and bringing a lot of energy into our springtime event. While the group has traditional polka music backgrounds, they come together to put a modern twist on what you might expect of polka to create something you can’t often find. It’s been great having them at Schulz Bräu!
“Also, we have to give a shout-out to Mia’s Niche, a vendor who provided the bartenders with free flower crowns. All other vendors who joined us were also a joy to have and we always appreciate the work they put in that adds another level to our festivals.”
The next one – Schulz Bräu’s seventh year anniversary event – happens June 9-11. It includes the company’s traditional 150 Stein Giveaway that commences on Saturday, June 10 when the doors open.
Info: http://www.schulzbraubrewing.com/
HALLS
Sara McCandless adds small moments of joy to the everyday
Ali James, Shopper News
Sara McCandless moved to East Tennessee from Colorado after visiting in 2014. “I absolutely fell in love with it. The weather is nice, the people are even nicer,” McCandless said. “I went to Portland to get my BFA in illustration at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, then my partner got a job back in Knoxville and we are so thrilled to be back.”
Initially McCandless thought she would focus on picture books and merchandise creation.
“Coming out of college I thought I would just go into picture book illustration. Then I started doing collaborations with people in the Knoxville area. I started doing a lot of stickers and poster prints and people seemed to connect to that.”
McCandless redid her portfolio last August, creating a smaller, more focused set of merchandise.
“I make artwork that exists on T-shirts, totes and adds small moments of joy to the everyday,” she said. “I really like when someone picks up a sticker or shirt and says ‘so me’ or buys it as a gift for someone.”
There is a warm and whimsical aesthetic to all of McCandless’ designs.
“I believe that art enhances all aspects of our lives,” she said. “It can inspire feelings of love, be a powerful tool of processing grief and just inspire love, joy and connection.”
One of McCandless’ most popular designs on her T-shirts, totes, patches and bumper stickers is the phrase “I have completely forgotten whatever I was doing.”
“My favorite part is if I start drawing a sketch and think this might have some legs to it, I turn the iPad around to show my partner, and if he starts laughing, I know I have something worthwhile here,” she said.
McCandless said she will be in Nashville June 16-17 as a vendor at Porter Flea Market. “That is my next big event, and I’ll also be at Rocky Top Game Con (May 26-28),” she said. “It seems like a bunch of fun. It is generally a tabletop and board game convention. I hope to peddle my wares and meet some fun people.”
McCandless keeps busy. “I print all of my bags and posters at Paris Woodhull’s studio and that’s where I also manage her production,” she said.
“I sell wholesale at a couple of retailers in Nashville: Gift Horse, Made in TN and A Shop of Things as well as in other regional stores,” McCandless said. “And one store in Canada that has been fun to sell to, they reached out to me online and have been super lovely.”
At the recent Retropolitan Craft Fair and Dogwood Arts Festival, McCandless’ illustrations were well received.
“I love that Knoxville really shows up for the maker community,” she said. “They will say one of my ‘Corn Dog’ or ‘I heard the chip bag open’ stickers remind them of their dog and then I would ask to see pictures of their dogs. I had a really good time connecting with people…
“My goal is just to inspire joy and thank Knoxville for showing up for me,” she continued.Follow @saramccandlessart to see the full range of merchandise and upcoming vendor events.
BEARDEN
Wild win sends Catholic baseball to state finals
John Shearer, Shopper News
Catholic High School’s baseball team has made an unusual and somewhat surprising late season run to reach the state tournament.
The Division II-AA team not only beat region champion Baylor of Chattanooga on their home field May 17 in the first two games of a potential three-game series to qualify, but they also did it in a unique way.
With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh and last inning, but with Catholic getting the last at-bat despite being the road team, Ben Sompayrac got a hit and Ryan Theobald was rounding third to attempt the winning score.
He was thrown out at home plate, but an umpire said the Baylor third baseman had interfered with him as he was running, so he was called safe and Catholic won the second and deciding game, 2-1.
“I’m just happy for these players,” said an excited Catholic coach Caleb Moore afterward. “They’ve fought all year. We’ve been through some adversity, but they’ve believed in each other and that’s the most important thing right now.”
Making the trip even more special: to beat a team some expected to possibly win the state championship at the Spring Fling beginning May 23 at Wilson Central High in Lebanon.
“I don’t know the last time we’ve beaten them,” said Moore. “We just refocused on today and tried to win each inning.”
Added senior pitcher and first baseman Ben Sompayrac, “We got swept by Baylor in the regular season and it was not pretty at all. We just came in wanting to put pressure on them and make plays, and we got some big hits when we needed them.”
Catholic’s improbable run to the state and a 28-9 record also included beating Brentwood Academy of the Nashville area in a three-game series in the opening round of the playoffs.
The Irish had beaten Baylor in the first game, 5-2, with Sompayrac, the son of Catholic principal Dickie Sompayrac, turning in a good performance on the mound. Fellow senior Ian Hubbard had two RBIs, as did Miller Spence.
In the second game against Baylor played 30 minutes after the first one ended, Hubbard and Sompayrac reversed roles, with Hubbard pitching nearly six quality innings and Sompayrac getting the key hit late. Hubbard also helped himself with a solo home run early to get to wear briefly the big green leprechaun’s hat kept in the dugout.
For Catholic, though, the season’s storyline has included the theme of perseverance more than a little luck of the Irish.
“We definitely love each other, but if I had to choose one word to describe this team, it’s definitely resilience,” said Sompayrac, adding that catcher Joey Lamattina had to miss a good part of the season. “We’ve been hit by so many blows, injuries or just getting smacked by other teams, but we just keep fighting.”
Added coach Moore of the team’s chemistry amid the challenges, “It’s been fun. These guys, they are fun to be around. They practice hard, they cheer for each other all the time.”
Other key members of the team include junior and Mr. Baseball finalist and Virginia Tech commit Hudson Lutterman, who pitched late in the second game, and senior shortstop and Tennessee commit Daniel Parris. Other senior contributors besides Sompayrac, Hubbard, Spence, Theobald, and Lamattina have been Evon Kolesar, Jacob Camfield and Richie Delacruz. The coach said about seven or more of the seniors plan to play college ball.
Moore has coached at his alma mater of Catholic since 2015 after his own career as a standout at East Tennessee State. He also played three years of minor league ball in the Minnesota Twins organization.
While he admitted transitioning from a player with his own dreams to coach took an adjustment, he is greatly enjoying working with the Catholic program. “My glory days are behind me and I’m just trying to get these kids to fan those aspirations and I’m here for them,” he said.
And qualifying for the state this year has been special, he added, saying, “We’re just trying to soak it in right now.”
And for Sompayrac, reaching the state by having an upset win in the hometown of his parents and grandparents, including the late Hamilton County Commissioner Howard Sompayrac, was also special.
“To be able to represent the last name a little down here, it means a lot to me for sure,” he added with a smile.
NORTH KNOXVILLE
Kids have a lot to crow about at Farm Day at Chilhowee Park
Carol Z. Shane, Shopper News
The day was overcast and not too hot when more than 1,500 elementary schoolchildren hoofed it over to Chilhowee Park for the Annual Farm Bureau Farm Day, also known as “Ag In Classroom Farm Day.”
Volunteers from Farm Bureau, the Farm Bureau Women’s Group, the Knox County Sheriff’s Department, the Tennessee Division of Forestry, AmeriCorps, Cruze Farms, Knox County Soil Conservation District, the Knox County 4-H Horse Project and Goat Project, and many other individual farmers, hobbyists and supporters had the children clucking with interest and crowing with delight at all the interactive exhibits.
“Do you know how trees begin?” asked Terry Wilkerson of a group of youngsters, who thought they might know but couldn’t come up with a definitive answer on the spot. Wilkerson gestured to the trees outside the covered pavilion. “They don’t start out this size. They start from seeds. And how do you think seeds get planted?”
“By us?” ventured one small boy. “Yes,” said Wilkerson, “we plant them, but have you ever seen a squirrel? A squirrel will take walnuts and bury them all over the place. And we hope he forgets where he put them!”
The rodents, said Wilkerson, can also help us harvest pecans because they know when they’re ready. “Watch the squirrels.”
Another exhibit offered a lesson in churning heavy cream into butter. Schoolkids were vigorously shaking cup-sized containers; Kyle Nolen of Farm Bureau said it would take “about three minutes if they’re really shaking hard.”
Farther on, Brandy Allen and Parker Phillips of AmeriCorps watched as kids used chopsticks to grab rubber snakes and worms out of two very different containers of water – one clear, one cloudy with mud and silt. “They’re seeing how much food that fish can get, based on whether the water is clean or dirty,” said Allen.
At another table, a girl ground wheat seeds – also called kernels – into flour while Annie Crawford, who raises wheat on her own farm, sat nearby kneading it into dough. “The seeds rise on the head of the wheat,” she explained. “When it’s harvested it’s sorted into the grain and the straw.”
Some kids got to virtually harvest their own crops, courtesy of the “ag simulator,” encased in its own trailer.
“This is the cab of an old John Deere tractor,” said Kailyn Kosko of Farm Bureau. “The kids sit in it and they pick whatever crop they’d like to harvest, and then it takes them on a 30-second to a minute video of harvesting that crop.”
The animals, of course, were a big draw. The first pavilion included some chicks under a heat lamp. On site next door were a young horse, a sow with a dozen piglets, llamas, a massive Clydesdale, goats, Border Leicester sheep and an 11-month-old Jersey steer.
All in all, it was a spectacular day for the impressionable youngsters, who might possibly think a little differently about the food they eat, the trees they climb, the water they splash in and the wild and domestic animals they encounter.
Info: tnfarmbureau.org.
OPINION
The great purge hits a stumbling block
Leslie Snow, Shopper News
Outwardly, everything about me is neat and tidy − my car, my house, even my yard. But looks can be deceiving. Because if you take a minute to peer beneath the surface, you’ll discover the unruly flotsam and jetsam of life hidden behind my cupboard doors or shoved into a dark corner of my closet.
I always promise to do better. Every year when the ball drops on Times Square, I vow to become a neater, more organized version of myself. And when that fails, because it always does, I resort to self-flagellation. I chastise myself regularly for letting the clutter get the best of me. I call myself names like “messy person” or “sloppy,” but the name-calling never leads to significant change.
But every once in a while, I get a bee in my bonnet and decide to purge. I frantically toss out everything I haven’t used, worn, or thought about in a year. That’s the rule: If it hasn’t made me happy or sparked joy in a year, it has to be tossed out, given away, or donated.
Yesterday, I was in the mood for a little spring cleaning and self-flagellation. I planted myself in my bedroom closet and purged like the dickens. It was exhilarating and satisfying, and I felt certain I was making real progress. Then I hit a stumbling block. Because buried behind a hideous sweater-vest and a pair of ugly walking shoes were two dresses I’ve never worn before, with the tags still on.
I tried to think back to when I’d bought them. I vaguely remembered a wedding and luncheon I was supposed to attend but never did for some reason. I counted back the years and realized those dresses were at least 15 years old. Maybe 20.
That means every couple of years during one of my purges, I’d come across these two dresses and decide they were worth keeping. In some way they had sparked joy and escaped their final resting place. It had to be the tags. I kept them because, even after 20 years, they were still “new.”
Yesterday, I’m proud to announce, I neatly folded the unworn dresses and placed them in the “donation pile.” It felt good. Then when my husband got home, I retold the story of the day’s great purge. He seemed perplexed when I got to the part about the dresses.
“You’ve kept dresses you’ve never worn for nearly two decades?” he asked, incredulously. Before I could answer, he followed up with another question. “Do you have any idea how weird that is?”
I nodded yes. I definitely knew it was weird.
Then on a lark I said, “Should I try them on? Just for fun? To see what they look like after all this time?”
He laughed and said, “Bring it on.”
But here’s the kicker. After I tried them on, my husband said, “Those dresses look great on you! You should keep them. I don’t know if they’re in style anymore, but I can see why you bought them all those years ago.”
So back in the closet they went. With their musty, unloved smell and their tags still in place.
I don’t know if I’ll ever wear them. They must not have sparked joy or I would have worn them to some luncheon or afternoon wedding along the way.
Now, it seems, they’re destined to live out the rest of their days in the back of my closet, shoved behind my fuzzy snow boots and the mother-of-the-groom dress I was certain I would wear again.
Leslie Snow may be reached at snow column@aol.com.
Sheriff Tom Spangler puts the squeeze on Glenn Jacobs’ governor ambitions | Ashe
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