Shopper news • APRIL 6, 2016 • A-5
Revered Ag teacher blooms in new garden Two years ago, life looked grim for Mike Blankenship.
Betty Bean At a time when he was facing serious family illnesses, he was notified that his agricultural program at North Knox Career Technical Education Center in Halls was being disbanded because of declining enrollment. His students were distraught. “2014 was a very tumultuous time. My son passed away, then my dad p a s s e d away three m o n t h s later. Two deaths in the family – plus the spiraling down Blankenship process at work. Anytime you’re RIFed, it’s tough.” But his students, particularly rising seniors Ryan Cox and James Dunn, decided to fight for their Future Farmers of America club and their teacher. When CTE supervisor Don Lawson found a spot for Blankenship at the Career Magnet Academy in East Knox County, their efforts spurred him to allow Blankenship to spend part
Career Magnet Academy FFA members at their first state convention this spring: (front) Paul Stiles, Lauren Williams, Brittany Read, Darby Swanson; (back) Josh Rutherford, Tylor Gann and Tobias DuBose.
of the school day at North Knox, so Cox, Dunn and their classmates could finish their agriculture studies and continue to participate in FFA. It involved a lot of driving, but Blankenship says the commute was a snap compared to his first 12 years of teaching when he made a 50-mile round trip to and from his home in Gibbs to Doyle High School (he has been a teacher with Knox County Schools for 37 years). This year, he’s at CMA full-time, and has found a
niche in the school’s Sustainable Pathway, where 13 students – most from north and east Knox County – enrolled in the program. One has moved, so he’s down to 12, still twice the number he was teaching at the Halls campus. He is proud that 11 of them will be headed “upstairs” next year to take college-level classes (CMA is housed on the ground floor of the Strawberry Plains Pike branch of Pellissippi State), and he’s proud of the brand-new FFA Chapter TNO337 he’s established there.
His teaching day starts with an agricultural science class, and he’s added an agricultural business and finance class in the second term and hopes to expand into business finance. “Our pathway is a little different from any other program in the county. This is all so new, like building a plane – you look out and we’re working on this wing. We’re always in transition. No two days are alike.” Blankenship is also teaching college and career readiness to ninth-graders, beginning the process of preparing them for the future. He is proud that his students will be able to enroll in dual-credit (college level) courses that will put them far along the path to college degrees. But one thing he misses is having a greenhouse like the one he built on the Halls campus, where he maintained an annual Christmas tradition of raising and selling poinsettias. “Oh, I miss it. But we’re working on that. It’s still in the talking stage, but we’ve ID’d potential locations.” Overall, Blankenship is grateful for the new challenge and optimistic about the future. “I am not an ax grinder,” he said. “Whatever is put in front of me, I’ll do my best to reach young people. I’m still standing.”
government
Mayor Tim Burchett with Jackie Booker Griffin at Jackie’s Dream.
Burchett boosts Jackie’s Dream Café The place was packed, but no one was complaining when Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and his people came to lunch at Jackie’s Dream. Jackie’s Dream Café opened March 6, 2015, at 2223 McCalla Avenue. It was a life dream for owner Jackie Booker Griffin. “I come from a family that cooks,” she writes on her website. “It’s what my mother, grandmother and uncles taught me. “We made our own jelly, chow-chow, pickles. My grandfather had chickens
We’re cooking!
Ashes, McIntyre (not that one) tour Cuba Three weeks ago, my wife Joan and I, along with my sister-in-law Kathy Ashe from Atlanta, joined a Yale Alumni Tour of Cuba for 10 days. It was fascinating. As Joan says, it was a trip not a vacation. Also on the trip was another Knoxvillian, Dr. Anne McIntyre, who is a retired UT professor of psychology and lives in Sequoyah Hills. We flew into Santiago from Miami on the eastern end of the island not far from Guantanamo Bay where the United States has a military facility. For the next six days we journeyed across the island and ultimately arrived in Havana two days after President Obama’s visit. While the people were friendly and genuinely seem to want an improved relationship with the U.S., the economy and lifestyle were clearly third world. Cuba is longer than Tennessee (about 700 miles) and the eastern end has been neglected by various regimes. Deferred maintenance is the order of the day as many historic buildings were collapsing or close to it. Carts were pulled by oxen or horses including carts used as taxis to transport people.
The District 6 Democratic Party is always angling to get pictures into the Shopper. There are the frequent trash pick-ups, the various parades, the frequent guest speakers. But the March meeting takes the prize. Seems county commission candidate Donna Lucas was guest speaker. Janice Spoone said some members arrived early to find a fire truck at the Karns Middle School, smoke everywhere and their library meeting place closed. Mike Knapp rushed to “We’re Cooking” to arrange a meeting space while Spoone and the school librarian found paper, markers and tape to post notices of the meeting change. The smoke was from a new heating/ air system and all is well. “You would have loved the excitement,” wrote Spoone. “Other than the fact that I probably smelled like smoke, we had a good group for the Lucas campaign meeting.”
Victor Ashe
The cars are in large part holdovers from the 1950s which have been continually restored due to the embargo and lack of new vehicles being imported. On the other hand, the bus we rode in was brand new as were most buses for tourists. Internet service was spotty at best and expensive for Cubans ($2 an hour). Hotels outside Havana were clean but basic in their service. Parts of Havana itself were modern and current and other parts were collapsing. The drive we took from Ernest Hemingway’s home outside Havana to the central part of the city passed several highly impoverished areas. Havana itself has an incredible old city which exceeds San Juan in Puerto Rico in size but has been neglected since the Castro revolution. While President Obama made overturns to the Cuban people, he had not been gone more than one day be-
Dr. Anne McIntyre, former Mayor Victor Ashe and Joan Ashe at the Ernest Hemingway house in Havana on a recent trip to Cuba with Yale Alumni Travel. Both Victor Ashe and McIntyre are Yale graduates and live in Knoxville.
fore his remarks were blasted by Fidel Castro who stills lives and appears from time to time in well-planned venues. But it was Fidel’s brother, Raul, the current president, who hosted Obama. It was also clear that change is coming to Cuba, but at a very measured pace. In terms of infrastructure and advancing into this century for their economic well-being the country is 30 years behind. In terms of democratic processes, it’s not there in any meaningful way. ■ Blount Mansion
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is hosting a dinner talk on Molsey Blount, wife of Gov. William Blount, by Dr. Nancy McEntee at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, at Holly’s Gourmet Market. Tickets, $60 each, can be reserved at 865-525-2375. Proceeds go to Blount Mansion. Not a lot is known about her, but like many wives, she was very influential after she moved here in 1792. This year, which is the 225th birthday year of the Knoxville, is also the 90th anniversary of the Blount Mansion Association which
so we had fresh eggs. We hardly ever went to the store. We made everything from scratch, and I continue to do it that way. Everything is peeled, cut and chopped here. We eliminate cans whenever we can. I had fresh green beans and corn all summer long.” Since taking office, Burchett has used the occasional Dutch-treat lunch with the mayor to showcase locally owned restaurants. This one is known for its soul food and hot chicken. Hours and menu are online at jackiesdream.com
saved this historic house from being turned into a parking lot in 1926. Dr. McEntee has written a book titled “Molsey Blount: Colonial First Lady of Tennessee.” ■ Groundbreak ing for the new $160 million State Museum in Nashville is today with Gov. Haslam and author Jon Meacham leading the ceremony. The new facility is needed, but its design has been roundly criticized by several architects. The firm employed is from Minnesota with little knowledge of Tennessee as several
Tennessee firms, including Knoxville’s McCarty Holsaple, were rejected. The Nashville Scene has described it as “a dumb box of a porch with no time or place and mute to the expressive powers of architecture.” The Museum Commission on which I serve had no role in the design of the building. The final say was made at a higher level. I hope the governor takes another look at this design after the ground is broken so that like our State Capitol it is seen as an iconic building 50 to 100 years from now.
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