Richmond Free Press December 24-26, 2020 edition

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Spotlight on Birth In Color RVA

Cherished Holiday Memories B1

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Richmond Free Press © 2020 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOL. 29 NO. 53

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

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A first for cable news B2

DECEMber 24-26, 2020

‘Best gift ever’ Henrico mother receives the gift of life — a liver transplant — from 21-year-old son By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Thanks to receiving from her oldest son what she calls “the best gift ever,” Tashawn D. Jones, 41, is enjoying an especially bright holiday season. Just a few months ago, her prospects for celebrating Christmas were dim. Her liver was failing and her doctors told her she needed a transplant. That’s when her son, Au’Qwon M. Turner, stepped up and gave her part of his liver after tests showed he fit the profile of an ideal donor. A health care worker himself, the slender, soft-spoken 21-year-old called the donation a no-brainer. “Honestly, it was my mother,” said Mr. Turner, who provides in-home personal care for patients and also works at the McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center in South Side. “If I could help her out in her sickness, I definitely wanted to do it.” For Ms. Jones, a former employee at VCU Medical Center where she had the life-saving transplant operation in late September, her son’s generosity has given her a new lease on life. Her liver failure left her disabled and unable to work for more than two years as her health declined. She and her youngest son, a freshPlease turn to A4

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Tashawn D. Jones continues to recuperate at her mother’s home in Henrico County after transplant surgery in which she received part of a liver donated by her son, Au’Qwon M. Turner.

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Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Tracey Avery-Geter, a nurse practitioner supervisor, gets a dose of the new Moderna vaccine Wednesday morning from Sara Noble, a clinical nurse manager, at the Richmond Health District office in Downtown.

Latest COVID-19 vaccine ‘a great opportunity’ By George Copeland Jr.

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has come to Virginia, with Richmond and Henrico officials marking the arrival with a news conference Wednesday morning following the first vaccinations. Shirley Bakka, a public health nurse with the Henrico County Health District who specializes in immunizations, was one of the first to receive the Moderna vaccine dose. She had no trepidation in receiving the vaccine. In fact, state health officials sent out a photograph published in 1962 of Ms. Bakka as a 2-year-old in Please turn to A4

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Biden taps diverse slate for top jobs By Reginald Stuart

Backed by repeated state and U.S. Supreme Court affirmations that a majority of voters in America legally elected Democrat Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States, President-elect Biden and his teammate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, have been steadily building a unique White House leadership team that dramatically reflects the nation’s diversity. With hundreds of appointments to go in the coming weeks, 12 of 42 Biden’s leadership designees are African-American, including retired Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III as secretary of defense and U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio as secretary of housing and urban development. Both are cabinet level positions. President-elect Biden also picked Michael S. Regan, a North Carolinian known for pursuing the cleanup of toxic

waste dumps and pollution-ridden landfills in poor and minority neighborhoods, to serve as the new director of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Regan currently heads North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality. In addition, President-elect Biden has selected noted economist Cecilia E. Rouse

to chair the president’s Council of Economic Advisers; named veteran diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and appointed former National Security Adviser Susan Rice as director of the White House Domestic Please turn to A4

Free COVID-19 testing Free community testing for COVID19 continues. The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following location: Tuesday, Dec. 29, noon to 2 p.m., The Diamond parking lot, 3001 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. Drive-thru testing. Appointments are encouraged by calling the Richmond and Henrico COVID-19 Hotline at (804) 205-3501 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Testing will be offered while test supplies last. The Chesterfield County Health Department also is offering free COVID-19 testing at the following locations: Second Baptist Church, 5100 W. Hundred Road, Chester, 1 to 3 p.m. Monday, Dec. 28. Walmsley Boulevard United Methodist Church, 2950 Walmsley Blvd., 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Dec. 29; and 10 a.m. to noon, Thursday, Dec. 31. St. Augustine’s Catholic Church,

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Will Newton/Associated Press

Rei Alvarez picks out a tree at Frank Pichel’s tree lot on Dec. 6. Mr. Pichel cut Charlie Brown-style Christmas trees from his land and sold them for whatever people wanted to pay to benefit the Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School in Richmond’s East End.

‘Charlie Brown’ Christmas trees lift school, spirits By Denise Lavoie The Associated Press

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Quality time Clarence Thornton and his 5-year-old son, Chauncey, spend quality time together Tuesday at Hotchkiss Field in North Side. The youngster, a kindergartener at Richmond Prep, is close to his father and loves spending time outdoors with him. When the two are together, Mr. Thornton says he offers his son lessons on manners and how to play with other youngsters. The proud dad said young Chauncey received straight As on his first report card.

Frank Pichel’s Christmas trees will probably never be chosen to light up New York’s Rockefeller Center. They look more like the droopy, pitiful tree made famous in the 1965 children’s animated classic, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” But Mr. Pichel and his customers don’t seem to mind in a year when little seems normal. His trees have been flying off a tiny neighborhood lot since he started selling them last month to raise money for a private middle school that provides scholarships for students from an impoverished area of Richmond. Customer Camm Tyler, a 36-year-old digital consultant, looked over his uneven tree as he propped it up against a fence and prepared to carry it home. “This is the perfect 2020 tree,” he said. Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School in Richmond’s East End was started Please turn to A4


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