The Winchester Sun Progress 2017

PROGRESS

2017

, t s a p d e i r o t S ure

t u f t h Brig A sup ple me nt to

The Winc heste r Sun

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Contents

6 Unsung Heroes 18 Citizen of the Year 20 Rediscovery & Revitalization

Main Street program focuses on garnering interest, investment in downtown

24 Medicine to museum

Home of Bluegrass Heritage Museum was once busy hospital

26 Honoring heroes

Honor Flight sends veterans on trips to war memorials

28 Recipe for success

Ale-8 uses ties to past to build its future

30 Keeping it in the family

Graham’s celebrates 40 years of family business in new location

32 Losing weight, gaining hope

New perspective on life common thread among extreme weight loss stories

36 Preserving history

18th Century pioneer community preserved at Lower Howard’s Creek

38 Old school, new life

Closed school buildings repurposed

42 Planning a park ‘Iconic greenspace’ planned for former hospital site

46 Birthplace of beer cheese Beer cheese continues to spread — taking Winchester’s name with it

48 Twister tale

Clark residents recall harrowing experience during 1974 tornado

50 The buzz on bees

Beekeepers gather to preserve, protect pollinators

52 Remodeling the ‘front porch’

Competition gym, athletic fields planned at GRC campus

54 Hometown hero

Dale Hatton leverages power of social media to help needy families

56 Firehouse food

Local chef brings gourmet eats downtown

58 A century of care www.adeccousa.com

Clark Regional celebrates 100 years in community

A note from the publisher

PROGRESS 2017

5

Progress showcases our ‘Storied Past, Bright Future’

S

hew! (Read with the biggest exhale you can muster.) Crossing the finish line never felt so good!

The special publication you hold in your hands is the culmination of more than three months of hard work by so many people. I could not be more proud of our team here at The Winchester Sun. Progress 2017 was a labor of love, but whether the emphasis was on the “labor” or the “love” side would probably depend on who you asked and on what day.

In all seriousness, we are very proud of this first edition of a supplement we will create every February to showcase some of the great things going on in Winchester and Clark County. We chose “Storied Past, Bright Future” as a fitting theme for our first year and look forward to coming up with a new one for 2018. We welcome ideas if you have a great theme to share.

We knew we couldn’t tell every story the first time around — and so many great sotries got held back for now — but we truly feel this is a strong representation of the special things going on here

and some of the amazing people that make them happen.

Perhaps what is most exciting is the fact we have only scratched the surface of telling Clark County’s stories!

None of this would be possible without the great team here at The Winchester Sun, including every employee from the front of the building to the back.

The newsroom — managing editor Whitney Leggett and reporters Fred Petke, Casey Castle and Seth Littrell — went above and beyond to find interesting stories and tell them in new and exciting ways. The regular news Mike Caldwell never stops, so it can be a delicate balancing act, one which they handled very well.

The advertising sales team — the dynamic duo of Lana Smith and Dianna Roe — worked hard to make sure area businesses knew how excited we were and understood this was something they

needed to be a part of to reach thousands of potential customers who are engaged in the community.

We owe huge thanks to all these advertisers because, without their support, we would not be able to produce the publication as you see it. Their faith in their local newspaper and passion for celebrating Winchester is what really makes this possible. Each and every ad is an important part of the content as they all tell their own unique stories.

Our customer service team of Terah Hatton and Karen Combs worked with our production team — Ricky Reed, Keith Colwell, Tom Wilson, Desmond Smith, Fannie Smith, Terry Howard, Anthony Frazier, Bobby Hall, Donnie Spencer and George Carpenter — to get the paper to your mailbox.

Hopefully, you — our readers — enjoy this special publication as much as we enjoyed creating it.

We appreciate Winchester and Clark County’s amazing residents for sharing their stories with us.

It is an honor and privilege to tell them.

Michael Caldwell is publisher of The Winchester Sun and Winchester Living magazine. He can be reached at 759-0095 or by email at mike. caldwell@winchestersun.com.

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6 PROGRESS 2017

UNSUNG

Heroes

The Chalfants “I nominate George and Elizabeth Chalfant for their leadership in a variety of ways, but more specifically the Fort Boonesboro Association.

The Fort Boonesboro Association is the largest and most aggressive of the associations attached to state park and state historical facilities. Raising tens of thousands of dollars to support the activities at the Fort and planning and organizing events throughout the year, George and Elizabeth provide the leadership for the organization and make it possible for the facilities to be better maintained and for events to occur.

Without their leadership, this organization would not be able to produce the events and raise the funds necessary to make it one of the important destinations for tourism in the central part of the state.

For that reason, I nominate George and Elizabeth Chalfant as Unsung Heroes.”

David Hoffman

“I nominate David Hoffman for the Unsung Hero recognition.

As a staunch person of faith, David has carried out his faith throughout the community in a variety of ways.

More specifically, and the basis for this nomination, is his work for the Clark County Detention Center.

David has been a constant and abiding presence in the Clark County Detention Center for his jail ministry for a great many years. David is always there and available to discuss with the inmates any issues or concerns they might have with their spiritual journey.

For this reason, I nominate David Hoffman as an Unsung Hero.”

“I nominate Wallace “Gator” Harrison as an Unsung Hero.

A proprietor of a business on Main Street relating to sound and acoustics, “Gator” has been not only an integral part of the downtown area but also an important element providing sound assistance for a host of community events including the Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival, street dances and concerts in the downtown area.

Always willing to help and assist, and do so in a friendly and courteous fashion, “Gator” is an Unsung Hero.”

Wallace Harrison

UNSUNG HEROES • PROGRESS 2017

Roy Turley “No person in this community has given more time and effort over the years for youth sports than Roy Turley.

Every youth sport offered in Winchester/ Clark County has been refereed or officiated by Roy Turley at some point in time.

His example for others, whether it’s a young official or Civitan board member, has been exemplary.

In recent years, Roy Turley was selected as the Winchester/Clark County Citizen of the Year.

For all these reasons, Roy Turley is an Unsung Hero.”

y a d o T oin

Paul Acthison “Paul is very active at his church — Central Baptist — and he is involved with each of these: deacons, Sunday School teacher, Central Loves Winchester, several committees, snow removal, LLL Band, the Out To Lunch Gang, visiting shut-ins, the Boones Creek Association, Ky. Baptist Convention and Ky. Baptist Relief, helping at the Community Need Center, doing house repairs and more.”

— James Poer

Catie, Heart Transplant Recipient Clark County

7

Joe Allen “Always pleasant and smiling, and sometimes singing, Joe Allen is the last person the customer at Kroger sees as he or she is leaving the grocery store.

Considerate and kind, he always has a pleasant word for those shopping at Kroger and invariably he has something to say about a local or national sports figure. His personality warms your spirit and he is always willing to engage in a conversation about sports or local events.

For that reason, Joe Allen is an Unsung Hero.”

8 PROGRESS 2017 • UNSUNG HEROES

Dee Fletcher “When I think of Dee Fletcher I think of the quote from Immanuel Kant ‘We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.’ Going by this quote, Dee has the biggest and best heart I know.

For many years, Dee has worked tirelessly alongside the Clark County Animal Shelter’s staff and other volunteers to ensure the animals at the shelter aren’t put down.

Dee works with others to find rescues, adoptions and foster homes to get the animals out of the shelter. That allows them to enjoy a real life that our pets deserve.

She helps in fundraising to provide medical needs for shelter and foster pets, and to provide low-income spay/neuter vouchers.

Dee is not only an Unsung Hero, she is an angel for many animals.”

Joy Trent “I am a student worker at the BCTC Winchester campus. I want to nominate our campus assistant Joy Trent.

I have seen her go above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis! It is obvious to everyone that meets her that her first priority is the students at our campus. She has worked here for many years, even before our current campus was built. She has touched the lives of many people through her work.

Oftentimes, when I tell people I take classes at BCTC Winchester campus they immediately ask, ‘Does Joy still work there?’ They then go on to tell me something kind she did for them, or how helpful she was during their time in college.

She deserves to be recognized for her dedication to students and higher education in Clark County.”

— Aaron Petrey

“Kitty Strode has served on the City Commission a number of years.

She started the Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival that has grown to a big festival.

She serves on the Main Street Board, formerly Winchester Main Street.

She goes all out on the beautification of downtown. She also serves on the Public Works Commitee.”

Kitty Strode

Candace Quisenberry “In this day and age of so much uncertainty, I am reminded that there are many unsung heroes in our midst. I find strength of character and a positive steadfastness in my sister, who steps out of her comfort zone and has joy in making a difference for the betterment of others.

Candace Quisenberry serves on the Executive Board of Directors for Hospice, and also cared for our cousin, Susan Shearer, until she passed away from cancer. My sister plans to return to the SerendipTea committee to plan and work with the other Unsung Heroes to help the Homeless Coalition. ... She also has her own business and employees. You’ve probably heard of Winchester Therapeutic Massage. .... Candace is married to John and they have a very busy life as well with their own family.

Yes, Candace Quisenberry is my sister and friend. She loves life, her family and she does make a difference that matters.”

“Shannon Cox was first elected to the City Commission in 1998. He has served as vice mayor for a number of years. He has served on the WMU Commission as an ex officio member.

He served on the Winchester Clark County Parks & Recreation board in the 1980s.

He is involved on the following boards: Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army and Clark County Community Services.

He retired from being a school teacher after teaching in the Clark County school system for years, He is involved in football and basketball and Little League baseball.”

Shannon Cox

UNSUNG HEROES • PROGRESS 2017

Howard Frick “Capt. Howard Frick works full-time for the Winchester Police Department. He is honest, fair, unbiased and puts in honest hours plus overtime.

He is always willing to help people; with nothing in return. He does the right thing even when no one sees him.

He is a self-made man and has always worked hard. Howard does so much for the people living in our community. He is trustworthy and does not lie. He is willing to help everyone from young children to the elderly. Howard tries to help others better their lives. He sacrifices his time and own money to help others in need. He is definitely a role model for young adults as well.

Even when Howard is not working at the police department, he is “on patrol.”

No matter what he is doing, he’s willing to help out another.

In his very little spare time, he works parttime at Rolan G. Taylor Funeral Home, comforting families and friends who have lost a loved one.

Amongst all of this, he puts family first. He is the true meaning of a father and grandfather.

He loves unconditionally and goes above and beyond to help out his family members.

He wants to see the best for everyone; family, friends, strangers and our community as a whole. He strives to make our community a safe and marvelous place to live.

I honestly cannot detail each and every act of kindness or help that he has done as I would need numerous pages.”

Pat Cox

Margaret Beatty “Margaret Beatty is a leader and stalwart in our community, but especially with the Winchester Civitan Club.

For all programs and activities that the Civitan Club sponsors, whether it be youth football, youth basketball, or providing assistance to the schools and local organizations as it relates to youth activities, Margaret is always there and present.

Recently, she was recognized during the Martin Luther King Day, GRC basketball activity by receiving the MLK Humanitarian Award.

She is always present, hardworking, and deeply devoted in our community and for those reasons, Margaret Beatty is an Unsung Hero.”

9

“Pat Cox has been a faithful Life Enrichment Associate at Rose Mary C. Brooks Place for 12 years. Every day, Pat goes above and beyond the requirements of her job.

Her compassion and love for the residents of Brooks Place is an inspiration to all who know her. Her smile brightens everyone’s day.

The residents and families who have the opportunity to know Pat Cox are blessed and always compliment her grace. Her quiet, compassionate service and grace to others makes her an Unsung Hero.

Brooks Place is honored to nominate Pat Cox as an Unsung Hero.”

— Tim Janes

Stephen Berry “Stephen works tirelessly to better our community through his work at the Clark County GIS Consortium. Through his unique ability to tell a story with maps and data, he contributes to community-wide projects for the school district, WMU, the city and county. Stephen recently started a local Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee to help this community realize its potential for a prosperous, fit, fun and safe community.

Under Stephen’s leadership, the community adopted its first-ever bicycle and pedestrian transportation plan.

In addition to his day-to-day work, you can find Stephen leading bicycle rides around College Park and downtown, hosting bicycle information booths at school and community events, and using Winchester’s streets to teach college students about walkability. ...”

10 PROGRESS 2017 • UNSUNG HEROES

Phil May “Several years ago, our community embarked upon a program to have murals painted throughout the downtown area. The local artist who took the lead on this was Phil May. Phil spent hours at four locations sharing his interpretation of urban art. The murals are detailed, historically significant and are wonderful representations of our community.

As the author and painter of these murals, Phil May has added immeasurably to the beauty and decor of the downtown.”

Bobby Bailey

Jack Jones

“Over the years, Bobby has provided countless hours of service working on electrical components and features to assist with local festivals and musical events.

More specifically, he has been an invaluable asset with regard to the Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival and other outdoor musical events, both at Lykins Park and in the downtown area.

Always available and willing to assist, Bobby is an ideal candidate to be designated as an Unsung Hero.”

“The Bluegrass Heritage Museum has enjoyed the hard work and sweat equity of dozens of volunteer workers over the years.

Jack Jones is always present when an event occurs at the museum and is always ready to donate his time, talents and artifacts to the museum.

Whether it is being present for school children or an out-of-town group, or even a Second Thursday program, Jack is always present with a smile and information if such is requested.”

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UNSUNG HEROES • PROGRESS 2017 “Beth Kagin works two jobs and is always go, go, going. She never rests or has fun. Beth works at the bus garage and the parks department.

She then comes home to cook dinner or grocery shop or clean and takes care of her husband. She then goes to help her 83-year-old mom who broke her hip and she drives some coworkers who have no car or helps with homeless animals to find them homes.

She is always there when needed.

She helps anyone in need and always makes time to help others.

So the reason Beth is an Unsung Hero is because she is under appreciated for all the hard work she does.

She is a people person and if it is her last dollar she will give it away if the person needs it.

Beth Kagin is a hard worker and loved family member.”

— Kimberly Kagin “It is with great pleasure that I nominate my co-worker Beth Kagin for consideration as a Winchester

... Her high standards for cleanliness and order result in continual positive comments from our patrons.

In addition, she is a team worker, consistently doing her job and offering to help others. “Is there anything I can help you with today?” is a question she asks without hesitation.

Beth is a beacon of the community.

Ask our patrons what they think about Beth, and without a doubt they will tell you they appreciate her friendly face and miss her when she is gone. She strives to learn all our patrons by name and goes out of her way to make them feel welcome Sun Unsung Hero in recognition of her outstanding dedication and con- when they come into our building.

Beth recently had to miss some tributions to her family, Winchestertime from work to care for her Clark County Parks and Recreation mother and when she returned, and the community at-large. she was welcomed with hugs from Beth is a dedicated co-worker. She patrons who were so used to seeing goes beyond what could be expected her smile. Her silent, caring contriof any one person and does so daily butions to her community epitomizes with a smile on her face. Beth is kindness. a very detail-oriented person and ... Beth is a proud Clark County bus oversees the upkeep of the Parks and driver with a bus route both morning Recreation building with great pride. and afternoons, between which she

Beth Kagin

11

works at Parks and Rec. She speaks highly of the children on her bus and truly enjoys the time she spends with them.

Recently, when her mother fell and broke her hip, Beth continued to work as much as possible while also committing herself to the daily care of her mother in her time of need.

Beth does not begrudge this duty, but rather, offers her endless support to her family with boundless love and patience. Her sweet granddaughter and grandson are members of our facility and when they visit the proud grandparent in Beth is evident. ...

Beth is a friend. She listens to all your problems, keeps the peace when the need arises, and loves with simple acts of kindness. She supports her family, her co-workers and her community, day in and day out. ... I could not imagine a more deserving person for the title of Unsung Hero.”

— Deborah Jackson

12 PROGRESS 2017 • UNSUNG HEROES

Brett Cheuvront “... Brett continuously volunteers his own time and money to a vast number of causes, businesses, artists and charities that are in our community. He also is constantly using his social media to spread awareness of upcoming events, donations needed, volunteer opportunities, etc.

I cannot tell you how many events I have personally been made aware of because of Brett. By him spreading this information, he personally helps the charities and causes in our community become more successful and get closer to their goals.

He is also constantly sharing information about local businesses. I have personally attended many functions with Brett, and what I have witnessed is truly inspiring. People are constantly coming up to him to say ‘hello,’ ‘thank you,’ or just to chit chat for a few moments.

When Brett is unable to attend an event, he will always donate financially or with items that an organization may need. Brett is the definition of welcoming all diversity and the pillar of community involvement. I attend as many events as I can and I never see anyone there as often as Brett. ...

His support of the entire city of Winchester and Clark county is truly unmatched. ...

I have talked to him as well as others and have discovered things he has helped with that no one really knew about. He does not do it for recognition but from a pure heart. He is so well known he is also forever remembered in the new mural on Maple Street with his awesome companion Barkley. ...

I have never seen anyone with as much presence and heart for the community in which he lives and the people within it. ... I am constantly in awe of his commitment to all aspects of our community. From STRIDE, the animal shelter, CC’s, CCCS, Holly Rood, Leeds, Parks and Rec, downtown businesses, local farms, farmers markets, Kiwanis, Civitan, Community Improv and everything above, beyond and in between.

They are in fact too numerous to list here.

We are beyond lucky and blessed to have him.”

The Segresses Marty Jackson “Marty Jackson is a retired Winchester Police officer and police chief who has been hired back by the City of Winchester and has been promoted to the rank of sergeant of patrol.

But we know Marty Jackson as the person who — rain or shine, cold or hot — will be at his post directing traffic at Campbell Junior High School on Boone Avenue. He did this when George Rogers Clark High School was located at that location and he insists on being the person assigned by the Winchester Police Department to assist motorists in a safe drop-off or pick-up of their children at the beginning or end of their school day.

Known throughout the community as a fairminded, hard-working police officer, Marty Jackson can be depended upon to always be at his post. ...”

Bob Cowen

“I got to know Deloris Tapp Segress quite well over the two years I was in Winchester and know she donates her time to a myriad of area organizations and non-profits, including making floral arrangements for many area nursing homes. She and her husband, Dale, also have donated their services, and I want to say funds, to the Second Chance Outreach Center.

I know Mayor Ed Burtner speaks highly of her, as do I. Deloris is also a cancer survivor, yet always has a smile on her face and her infectious spirit lights up the room.”

— Steve Foley “Deloris and Dale Segress constantly give!

Almost daily they do a kind deed for someone. They may drop something off at your door. They may take someone to the airport who needs a ride. They volunteer on many community projects. They take food and give to the needy.

Dale and Deloris are tireless in doing good deeds.”

— Sue Staton

“Based upon his extensive experience and teaching ability in the music area, Bob Cowen has organized numerous musical productions through First Christian Church as a fundraiser for the Generations Center.

His musical talent is renowned throughout the community. As a former music teacher within the Clark County school system, he has used those talents to organize some of the best local productions in recent memory. He also serves as a volunteer working the front desk at Clark Regional Medical Center.”

UNSUNG HEROES • PROGRESS 201713

Jerry Johns “Jerry Johns is the minister of First Chiristian Church but is also involved in the community. He is an energetic person involved in growing fresh vegetables to be given to the needy and he gives devotionals to the Generations Center often.”

— Mary Buckner

Betty Bonar “Betty Bonar is not only a behind-the-scenes volunteer but is very visible in donating her time, whether it is digging in the dirt at the church yard or at the county extension garden to pluck weeds.

Betty always volunteers to take a dish to the sick.

She calls on the phone as a volunteer to remind people of meetings. She is always pleasant and asks how she can help. The amazing part about all of her volunteer work is she is 82 years old and has a husband who is ill from Parkinson’s that she sees to.”

— Sue Staton

Melody McClain “Melody has been a beautician for 30 years.

Many of her clients are elderly. I have seen her walk her seniors to their cars for safety.

Occasionally she will go to their home to fix their hair if there is a special need. She keeps dog treats for clients who stop in with their pets. She showers her clients with kindness.”

— Judy Crowe

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14 PROGRESS 2017 • UNSUNG HEROES

Scott Stephenson “I would like to nominate Scott Stephenson as an Unsung Hero of Winchester/Clark County. Scott is the welfare secretary for the Clark County unit of the Salvation Army.

Scott takes care of people who are in need of emergency heating, electric and rent assistance in our community for the Salvation Army.

Scott keeps meticulous records for his clients to make sure they are taken care of. Scott also deals with the Red Kettle Drive every Christmas holiday for the Salvation Army. He makes sure the kettles are ready for donations, checks up on the bell ringers and even fills in for those volunteers who can’t make their bell ringing appointments.

Scott Stephenson is an Unsung Hero because he goes about his business helping the community, making sure people are taken care of without recognition for his efforts.”

Greg Banks

Tammy Moberly “Tammy Moberly is a very communityminded individual and has been on several boards and committees, just recently appointed to the Chamber of Commerce Board and recently finished her commitment to the Operation Happiness Coat Collection/Distribution Committee.

Tammy not only helps with Operation Happiness and Chamber events, she also is very involved with saving animals of Winchester/Clark County and supports the adoption of animals to good homes.

Tammy has also for several years committed herself to assisting with the Jesus Prom at Calvary Christian Church. Tammy is very involved with the Clark County Homeless Coalition and supports and helps with their major fundraising event each year, SerendipiTea. Tammy has also been a great advocate of Junior Achievement and has been a participant in teaching about our community to our younger citizens.”

Sabrina Puckett “I would like to nominate Sabrina Puckett for Unsung Hero of Winchester/Clark County. Sabrina has spent over 20 years working with our most vulnerable citizens.

During her more than 20-year career working for the Commonwealth, Sabrina worked with children in the Child Protective Services and then transferred to Adult Protective Services and worked in Clark County. Sabrina was promoted to supervisor from Lexington, working in several counties to help those most in need.

Sabrina retired from the state a few years ago. Instead of remaining retired, after a month of retirement, Sabrina went to work for the Clark County Homeless Coalition as a case manager.

No rest for the indomitable Sabrina Puckett.

Sabrina is also a very giving member of her church, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, and volunteers for church events and community outreach. Sabrina also is a volunteer in the vestry at her church.”

Greg Banks has been a wonderful part of the Mosley family for several years. He married our daughter Stephanie Mosley and moved to Estes Drive. My wife Gloria and I continued to live at Maryland Avenue. After we began to have problems with our home, Greg was always ready and willing to make the necessary repairs.

By doing so, he saved my wife and I a lot of money.

Whenever we had difficulty with our automobiles, once again he was gifted with the knowledge and skills to make the repairs needed. Due to severe health problems for me and my wife, Greg took on the challenge to make sure that we were taking our medications at the proper times. Later on it became necessary for Gloria and I to make a dramatic lifestyle change. We no longer could continue to live as we had for the previous 56-1/2 years. A search was initiated to locate a bigger home with a full basement that was finished. Through a blessing from God, we discovered the perfect home with a finished basement area.

We made the purchase of the home and began the task of getting it ready for moving in. For my wife and I to live in comfort, Greg has made a great sacrifice. He and Stephanie moved into our basement so they could be available to assist us within a moment’s notice. For the last few years, when we have had doctor appointments in Lexington, Greg has been “Johnny on the spot” to enable us to meet our scheduled times.

He continues to do all of the outside home maintenance and lawn care. In addition, Greg has also provided outdoor maintenance for three of our neighbors here on Mallard Lane. My wife and I are blessed beyond measure to have Greg Banks as a son-in-law. He continues to demonstrate his love for us on a daily basis.

— Gene and Gloria Mosley

UNSUNG HEROES • PROGRESS 2017

Sarah Perry “My Unsung Hero is Sarah Hubbard Perry. Anyone who has been blessed to be acquainted with her has ultimately been affected by her life and utter graciousness. Sarah, owner of two local businesses, Pilot View Mini Market and Rimar Electric, puts in long, tiresome hours to juggle her busy schedule.

Throughout her day, she jokes and laughs with her co-workers and customers. She created, and founded Winchester’s ‘League of our Own,’ a softball league welcoming women of all ages to participate and enjoy the game she grew up playing and loving.

She hosts an annual memorial poker run for fallen soldier Adam Morefield, which contributions go to the Children of the Fallen Soldiers organization.

She also hosts an annual golf scramble in remembrance of Josh Poer and his life. Numerous fundraisers, along with the ‘The Josh Poer Memorial golf scramble’ contributions go to benefit and avidly support the Winchester Beacon of Hope Emergency Shelter.

The Beacon has recognized her positive attributes towards our community by rewarding her with the honorable Bill Pace award.

Her small acts of kindness out do her larger ones. She would wholeheartedly give the shirt off her back to anyone in need. I am exponentially proud of my mom and all her accomplishments not only for her community, but for our family as well. She’s a kindhearted, caring person and mom to my younger sister, Marly and me.

She is truly an Unsung Hero and should be recognized for all she does. Thank you for all that you do, mom. I, along with many others, appreciate you.”

— Riley Poer “I hereby nominate Sarah Perry to be an Unsung Hero for her work in organizing a softball league for girls and women of all ages and personally investing her time and talents as a coach, league leader and supporter for girls’ softball.

Sarah has demonstrated a willingness to give of herself and meet an important recreational need in the community for girls and young women. As a business person and part owner of Rimar Electric, and as a business partner, having bought and re-opened the Pilot View Market and Restaurant, Sarah has demonstrated her willingness to invest in her community.

15

Instead of talking about there being a need for recreational opportunities for girls and young women, she played a major role in filling that void. Instead of wishing that someone would re-open the Pilot View Market, she took it upon herself to do so.”

“Sarah Hubbard Perry is a woman known by many people of all demographics. Her name exudes happiness. If she sees someone in need, she is ready to help.

She has organized countless poker runs and golf scrambles to honor fallen loved ones and to raise funds for different charities.

She is a mother of two children and is active in their school activities. She is a wife and often works side by side with her husband in their electrical business.

At Christmas, Sarah can be seen carting loads of gifts and food to the needy. But for her, this isn’t just an annual deal. She does this all year long.

She makes it a mission to shop local and can be seen at almost every downtown event, lending support to better downtown Winchester. She started a female softball league so girls and women of all ages can now play softball.

Sarah often works behind the scenes, not wanting to bask in the limelight. But her biggest attribute is her willingness to be a good friend to all, no matter the age, sex, ethnic background, religious background or political affiliation.

Sarah Hubbard Perry makes every person she meets feel special. Sarah is an Unsung Hero!”

— Mary Craycraft

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16 PROGRESS 2017 • UNSUNG HEROES “Charles ‘Shorty’ Hampton has always been my Unsung Hero. He has been an Unsung Hero to so many others as well.

He volunteered to go to West Liberty two weekends to help in cleanup efforts after tornadoes struck the area.

He has also done mission work in Eastern Kentucky as well as stopping to help people that have broken down on the side of the roads. This is whether he knows the person or not.

Shorty has sat with people at the hospital and taken them to the doctor.

He never takes pay or even wants it.

He has been a wonderful husband and provider for me and our four children, as well as a great dad and a wonderful grandfather to our three grandchildren.

Shorty never sees a stranger and is willing to help everyone.”

— Frances Hampton “What makes a hero? If you look up the word hero it pops up a person who is admired for courage, outstanding qualities and possesses noble qualities.”

There are many everyday heroes among us but one stands out in my mind: my papaw.

My papaw is a farmer, above other things. He wakes up around dawn and gets right to work. He used to be a tobacco and cattle farmer.

My papaw is always there to lend a hand if you need help. He is wise in many ways.

So that is why he is a hero.”

— Koty Hall “I am nominating my mother Pearl Allen. First, she has always been the type of person to put others ahead of herself and think of herself last. I saw this displayed all my life but some

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Allens & Hamptons people fail to appreciate it.

Five years ago, my father passed away unexpectedly and it nearly killed us all. Since then, I have seen a Godgiven strength in my mother. It has inspired me and encouraged me not to give up, even when I felt like it at times.

However, she didn’t stop there.

She works at Clark Regional Medical Center as a catering associate. Many think that this entails taking menus and delivering food.

With mom, it is so much more.

She adds nourishment for the soul as well. She does this through kind words, encouragement and the willingness to listen and do what she can to raise people’s spirits. She collects stuffed animals to give to children staying in the hospital as well as chil-

dren visiting others.

She has become attached to numerous patients and visits in her free time to help and encourage them. I see the love she has for them and how badly she hurts when she loses one.

My wonderful aunt Frances along with my mother make sunshine baskets to give to those going through a hard time, whether it be an illness or the loss of a love one.

She truly is an Unsung Hero. She is my hero and I thank Jesus for her everyday.”

— Robert D. Allen “Robert Dewayne Allen is a Godsend to everyone around him. He would give the shirt off his back to anyone to help.

My son works for Heartland Kroger in Lexington and he runs that meat

“Seven years ago, my daughter Donna and her husband Steve moved me and my belongings from Florida to Kentucky. I was under supervised medical treatment including prescribed narcotics.

Donna found a physician and removed the unnecessary narcotics from my pharmaceutical menu and replaced them with healthy eating of fresh fruits and vegetables.

I felt secure in a calm loving atmosphere.

I am 77 years old, disabled and medically dependent. My expenses are exorbitant! Donna and Steve take full responsibility for everything

department with no recognition or praise. He works hard and is very dedicated to going above and beyond.

On his way to work he has stopped and helped a lot of people who have wrecked, not passing them by but stopping to save a life.

On one instance he came upon a tractor trailer truck that had jackknifed in the road. The driver was caught in the truck and his door was jammed shut on the passenger side.

The truck had flipped on the passenger side. The man could not get out.

Robert stopped and got other people stopped so they wouldn’t hit the truck.

With the help of another drive they got the man out, saving his life.

On another instance, Robert came upon a lady who had just wrecked a few minutes before he had gotten to the scene. He could tell the lady had passed away. So he directed traffic until the emergency people could get to the scene. ...

That’s my son, my Unsung Hero!”

— Pearl Allen “My sister Frances is a very giving soul. She is a cancer survivor and has heart trouble and other health issues.

And yet she still works and helps.

She helps me with S]sunshine baskets we give to people with cancer, who has lost loved ones, and others who just need cheering up.

My sister has always been an inspiration to me. She never asks for anything from others, but is always there to give her time and love to others. She has saved many little animals’ lives by taking them in and giving them a home, at her home.

I have seen first-hand just how she grieves when others are sick or in trouble. ...”

— Pearl Allen

that Medicare doesn’t with little complaining.

Both husband and wife work multiple odd jobs including full-time jobs.

Donna presently takes care of a diabetic geriatric patient, a caterer employs her to work parties, she cleans homes and paints.

Did I mention my Alzheimer’s mother was with Donna for 6 years, until she was 97!

I believe whole heartedly that Donna and Steve Campbell are the perfect candidates for the Winchester Sun’s Unsung Hero award.”

— Nancy Franklin

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18 PROGRESS 2017

C I T I Z E N of theY E A R F

STORY BY WHITNEY LEGGETT or Will Hodgkin, serving Winchester and Clark County has been his life mission.

Whether that was from behind the counter as a teller at local banks where we rose the ranks to president, serving on a variety of committees dedicated to historic preservation or his integral role in forming a foundation devoted to improving the community, Hodgkin makes it no secret that he is passionately intent on leaving the community where he was born and raised better than he found it.

Hodkin’s family roots run deep in Clark County. His father, John Hodgkin, once owned and operated the cattle stockyards that were located in downtown Winchester. He went to school locally through eighth grade and then attended Culver Military Academy.

He studied economics at Vanderbilt Univeristy, and returned to his hometown.

He started working as a teller at Clark County Bank and moved up to cashier, before partnering with his cousin and two local attorneys to buy controlling interest of the bank from Lexington financier Garvis Kincaid. Hodgkin served as president of the bank for nearly two decades, but also invested in other projects in surrounding communities.

Hodgkin said he wanted to be a banker when we learned about the business in college.

“Banking has always been a challenge, but an opportunity,” he said. “You get the chance to serve the public, but at the same time, it can be a profitable operation.”

Although he is a banker by trade, Hodgkin is truly a philanthropist at heart.

Hodgkin has been active in the establishment of the Lower Howard’s Creek Heritage and Nature Preserve, the WinchesterClark County Heritage Commission and has been a Hospice East volunteer for more than 20 years.

He is most notably recognized for this many years involved with

Will Hodgkin

PROGRESS 2017

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Megan Grose, PT, DPT

know who offered how much aside from his own contribution.

The group next approached then Judge-Executive James Allen about setting up an endowment fund with $2.5 million from the recent sale of the North American Rockwell building.

The funding was approved and in 1998, the Clark County Community Foundation was formed as an affiliate of the Bluegrass Community Foundation. The first two funds were the Clark County Fiscal Court Fund in the amount of $2.5 million and the Clark County Founders Fund in the amount of $1.5 million — all to be used for charitable purposes.

Today, the Clark County Community Foundation has 18 funds, totaling more than $14 million.

Some of the funds are endowed,

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less fortunate, only strengthening his drive for improvement.

“I’m a great believer in the glass is half full,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of potential in Winchester.

“I think we’re a lot better than where we were 20 years ago, partly because of the Foundation, but as a whole. I think our elected officials are doing a better job. I think our schools are better.”

Hodgkin also points to organizations that have emerged in the last two decades, like The Greater Clark Foundation, with eyes on bettering the future of Clark County.

He said the charitable dollars in Winchester-Clark County far exceed most other counties in Kentucky, which leads him to believe the sentiments of that 1995 article are no longer true.

“Winchester is far from averageville,” he said. “One reason is our pool of charitable dollars, but the main reason is the potential to further build philanthropy in our community. We have made a start, but there’s much more to do.”

Maggie Tincher PT, DPT, CSCS ,Clinic Director

Storied past,

but more than half of the funds are discretionary and distributed by the direction of the advisory board. To date, more than $4 million has been granted from CCCF discretionary funds to charitable organizations for the benefit of Winchester and Clark County.

Some of the more noteworthy accomplishments achieved thanks to grants from CCCF include the Clark County Community Services matching grant of $150,000 to purchase the existing building; the Clark County Dental Initiative, which supplies fluoride varnishes to students and reduced the decay rate to less than 10 percent; the GoodGiving Guide Challenge, through which the Foundation provides matching dollars to support local nonprofits; and the Ralph Oliver Scholarships awarded to Bluegrass Community and Technical College students.

Hodgkin said his involvement with the foundation has been eyeopening. Through site visits and his philanthrophy, he’s seen the parts of the community where people are

Lauren Stubbs, PT, DPT

the Clark County Community Foundation, an organization of which he is a founder and past president.

The start of the Foundation can be traced back to a 1995, when Hodgkin said his sister sent him a copy of a Courier-Journal article titled “The Road to Averageville.”

The article revealed that among the 120 Kentucky counties, Clark County was average in almost all categories.

He took that assessment of his hometown very personally.

That same year, Hodgkin gathered with Janet Prewitt, Ralph Oliver, Carla Van Meter, Arthur Walson and Richard McCready to discuss how they could improve the community. They concluded money was at the root of the improvements they hoped to make.

Hodgkin said each person wrote on a piece of paper how much they could either donate or raise toward an endowment fund devoted to projects in the community. The estimate was about $1.5 million.

Hodgkin said to this day, he doesn’t

19

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20 PROGRESS 2017

Rediscovery & Revitalization

Main Street program focuses on garnering interest, investment in downtown Winchester STORY BY FRED PETKE

M

any have bemoaned the fate of Downtown America for decades, as shopping districts have moved from the middle of town to strip malls, shopping centers, big-box compounds and even into cyberspace.

As trends continue to evolve, life remains in downtown Winchester. In the past couple years, there is a tangible sense of energy and excitement around downtown. Even as longtime anchor businesses like Graham’s Boot, Western and Work Wear and Bridges and Lane Hardware have moved or closed, new businesses are moving in to fill some of the void. Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner said there has been tremendous change during his 35 years in town, first as city manager and now mayor.

His first day in Winchester, he said, was the same day the old railroad depot was demolished without warning. The Brown-Proctor Hotel was empty. The Leeds Theater was still showing movies. The post office was

Storied past, Bright future

PROGRESS 2017

Saving the Sphar building

on the courthouse square. The downtown Dairy Queen didn’t exist. Kentucky Bank hadn’t built its current building yet.

“I think all downtowns, and certainly our downtown, have suffered the loss of establishments that were part of the fabric of downtown,” he said.

“There are anchor locations that have transformed themselves, so the downtown has transformed.”

Main Street Winchester, formerly known as Winchester First, has been one of the driving factors in the vitality in downtown Winchester, Burtner said. For at least the last decade, the city program has organized events and met with business and property owners, all with the goal of bringing people and vitality back to downtown Winchester.

In 2009, it hosted the first Beer Cheese Festival to honor the snappy spread, which was created around Winchester and Clark County. As the festival has become more successful, it has helped fund other events, Burtner said.

Now, there are a couple of seasonal wine-tasting events at downtown businesses. There’s a summer concert series about to resume for its second year.

There was a Better Block

event, designed around a weekend to pump a lot of interest into downtown with pop-up shops and other events.

“The events are the big splashy things but there’s so much planning going on behind the scenes,” Main Street Winchester Executive Director Rachel Alexander said.

For the past year, a downtown master plan has been developed to provide guidance and a plan for further renovating downtown and making it an interesting, friendly and inviting place.

“That we’ve been working on a master plan has generated a lot of interest in downtown,” Alexander said. “We’ve had a lot of buildings sell to people who are interested in renovating them for businesses. The new crop of businesses that have come in in the last year have been really complementary to the other businesses.”

Some of the latest are a distillery and Big Blue Woodworks.

Just in the past two years, Dirty South Pottery, Mason, The Prissy Peach, Sugar Belles and Eklektic Alchemy have all opened in downtown Winchester.

“That’s been thrilling,” Alexander said. “We’ve had so many wins I could talk all day.”

More than a century ago, the building at the corner of Depot and Main streets was at the core of Winchester’s transportation and a key player in the agriculture business of the region.

In 1880, Levi Goff and Valentine White (V.W.) Bush started a feed and seed business, Goff and Bush Grain and Seed, on Main Street in Winchester, right next to the railroad line.

V.W. Bush started the building in anticipation of the completion of the Big Sandy Railroad, according to a report in the Clark County Democrat from Aug. 11,1889.

Goff and Bush Grain and Seed ceased operation in 1936, which opened an opportunity for the Sphars, a father-son team.

In July 1936, W.R. Sphar and W.R. (Bill) Sphar, Jr., formed a partnership, which they named Sphar & Co., to handle feed, seed, fertilizer, grain and wool. They rented a section of the V.W. Bush warehouse.

The remaining three-story building is one of the oldest structures in downtown Winchester and one of the last structures standing on North Main Street with significant ties to the city’s rail history.

Less than three years ago, the Sphar building was decaying with little hope of a better fate. Today, the 136-year-old building is owned by the City of Winchester with grand plans for renovation and repurposing into a welcome center and office space.

The former owner, Wayne Wilson, approached the city in 2014 about buying the building, which had fallen into disrepair and was facing several code violations from the city. After forging a partnership with Clark County and The Greater Clark Foundation, a plan was hatched to buy the building for $100,000 as a first step.

The city received a $1 million state Transportation Enhancement grant, and Clark County was awarded a $500,000 community development block grant. The Foundation pledged $350,000, which included the purchase price for the building.

In August 2016, the city hired GRW Engineers to design the work for the 27,000-square-foot building. Construction could start during the spring, Winchester City Manager Matt Belcher said previously. The building could house a number of things, including a welcome center for downtown Winchester and offices for the Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Winchester, among other possibilities. One of the conditions of the state grant is there must be a transportationrelated element as well.

The total cost for the project has not been determined, though there are structural issues which must be resolved before other work takes place.

21

22 PROGRESS 2017 One of the big things for the future is renovating the Sphar building, a former warehouse and seed business dating to the late 1800s.

Last year, the City of Winchester finalized plans to purchase the building, in a partnership with Clark County and The Greater Clark Foundation, with an eye to restore it for public use and a welcome center for downtown.

“It very easily could have gone the way of the depot,” Alexander said.

The building is one of the anchors on the far north end of Main Street, Burtner said, across the railroad tracks from Depot Street, now home to the Winchester-Clark County Farmers’ Market during the warmer months.

On the other end of Main Street is the Bluegrass Heritage Museum in the former Guerrant Clinic. In between, there’s a little bit of everything, including Leeds Center for the Arts.

There are several locally-owned restaurants, a variety of antique stores and a business district around the Clark County Courthouse.

Some businesses have come, some have gone, some have been replaced.

Two of the mainstays, Bridges and Lane Hardware and Graham’s Western Wear, left re-

“(Downtown Winchester is) really special. When you live in a place and see it every day, it’s easy to take it for granted.”

— Rachel Alexander, Executive Director of Main Street Winchester

cently. Graham’s relocated elsewhere in Winchester, and the owners of Bridges and Lane retired. Since then, a new hardware store opened in the Bridges and Lane space, and the Graham’s location is partially leased.

Alexander said there is still room for more.

“I’d like to see more new businesses come in and the continued success of our downtown businesses,” Alexander said. “I’d like to see us be proud of our downtown.

“More restaurants (is) … on everyone’s list.

The studies show we could support this.”

More diversity among downtown stores is another goal, she said.

“We’ve lost out of those shopping dollars to Lexington,” Alexander said.

Encouraging more downtown living would help the district, and its businesses, as well.

“I’d also like to see more upper-floor living in downtown,” Alexander said. “There is some, but there is room for more. That’s a built-in customer base. I think a lot of people like the

idea of living in downtown.”

Part of the master plan is creating an investment fund to help those who own buildings downtown or who want to relocate to downtown.

“Sometimes, with really large buildings, the cost of bringing the entire building up to code is a burden,” she said. “We want to help the businesses downtown stay downtown.

“A lot of our buildings (are available) but are not in great shape. When businesses want to come downtown, they may not have the funds to make it appropriate for them. We’re lucky several buildings have sold recently and investors have made them ready.”

Downtown Winchester is just a unique location, Alexander said.

“It’s really special,” she said. “When you live in a place and see it every day, it’s easy to take it for granted. The high side of Main Street is so neat. You don’t see that everywhere.”

FIRST

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(Disciples of Christ)

24 PROGRESS 2017

Medicine to Museum Bethany Hospital, Winchester’s first hospital, in 1915. E.P. went on to become the first president of the Clark County Health Department before opening the Guerrant Clinic in 1927.

E.P. bought the building at 217 S. Main St., built in 1893, after the owner, Dr. John Ishmael, retired from his medical practice on Lexington Avenue, said Sandy Stults, director of the Bluegrass Heritage Museum.

E.P. renovated the home to be more fitting for a hospital by dividing bedSTORY BY EMILY VINSON rooms into two rooms, adding operation and scrub rooms to the third floor or nearly two decades, the Bluegrass Heritage Museum has been lo- in the 1930s, and eventually an elevator was put in to make transporting cated in the Romanesque revival-style home at 217 S. Main St. patients easier.

On the second floor of the museum, visitors can still find a tribute “It was a full-fledged, 14-bed hospital,” Stults said. “For a period of time, to the home’s former occupants. Some Winchester residents were the Guerrant Clinic was the biggest and most prominent in Clark County. even born in the second-floor birthing room when the house was the GuerThey had an operating room, doctor’s offices, a birthing room and nursery, rant Clinic. as well as an infectious ward. So everything they needed was all there. ” The Guerrant Clinic was a hospital from 1927 to 1989, started by Edward The first floor of the building Putney Guerrant, known as E.P, to serve the people of Winchester and be served as doctors’ offices and a accessible for residents in eastern Kentucky. waiting room, and doctors would A passion for the medical field spanned four generations of Guerrant men, rotate in and out of the available which eventually led to the opening of the clinic. Henry E. Guerrant studied offices, Stults said. Nurses’ quarters medicine in Cincinnati and instilled the passion into his son Edward O., were located behind the hospital called E.O., who served as a military aide in the Civil War. After the war, E.O. and had a ramp that led to the secstudied and practiced medicine before realizing his calling as a Presbyteond floor for easy access to the birthing room and to bring the patients food. rian minister. He traveled throughout Appalachian, serving people through It’s now the Guerrant Mountain Mission Bed and Breakfast.

Both medicine and mission were passions of the Guerrant family, and the both ministry and health clinics. hospital’s location in Winchester allowed residents from eastern Kentucky E.P. Guerrant, E.O.’s son, followed in his father’s footsteps and opened

Home of Bluegrass Heritage Museum was once busy hospital

F

Storied past, Bright future

PROGRESS 2017 access to health care, continuing E.O.’s years of service to the region. E.O. traveled throughout the region during his time in the war and was active in providing medical care, building schools and helping with some churches, Stults said.

“I think its important to note that one of the reasons they wanted a hospital here in Winchester was its close proximity to the mountains,” she said. “Because Dr. E.O. Guerrant served in the Civil War, it was his mission to provide medical care to the people of eastern Kentucky, and to provide education. His son was able to continue that through the clinic.”

For several years, funding for the clinic came from a coalition of churches in this area that gave money for patients who couldn’t afford care, Stults said. E.P. Guerrant would make yearly reports to the Presbyterian Church on the hospital’s services and would reflect on the number of mission patients who were covered through the church.

E.P.’s son, E.O. Guerrant II, more familiarly known as “Dr. Eddie,” joined his father at the clinic after World War II. He shared the practice with his father until E.P. retired, and Dr. John Hubbard joined the clinic in 1954 and stayed until its closing in 1989.

While running the hospital, Dr. Eddie continued his family’s commitment to serving eastern Kentucky. He researched pancreatitis and was often asked to consult pharmaceutical companies on its treatment, according to museum documents.

From 1971 to 1989, Eddie and Hubbard closed the top two floors and used the first floor as a doctor’s office to see patients, Stults said. In 1989, they walked out, locked the door and left everything.

Not long after, the Bluegrass Heritage Museum found a new home in the former hospital.

“In 2000, the museum board was looking for a building, and the Guerrant family graciously gave us this building,” Stults said. “We obtained the building and received grant money to renovate the building to be a business. On Oct. 12, 2004, we

opened the doors to our first floor.”

The museum was renovated over time, with the second floor opening in 2007 and the final room opening in 2012, Stults said. The community played a big role through fundraising, even the Clark County Community Foundation matched the museum dollar-for-dollar to pay off $70,000 in renovation debt within eight months.

“It was done through the help of local foundations, grants and the contributions from the community,” Stults said. “How the community has bought into us has just been amazing. I can’t stress enough the support from the community.”

The Bluegrass Heritage Museum has three floors of exhibits. Some will rotate and others, like the Guerrant Room, the preserved operation room from the old hospital, are integral parts of the museum’s history. Exhibits include Civil War in Kentucky, an agriculture room, a military history room, Homer Ledford’s workshop and a Bell South exhibit. Some of the items are owned by the museum and others are on loan from mem-

25

bers of the community.

“I think when people realized we were here to stay, they realized this would be a great place to have their stuff displayed,” Stults said. “People just kept bringing us things. In the agriculture room, everything is ours. There is nothing on loan and it’s crammed full.”

The museum has also been taking steps to share Kentucky’s history on its website, adding photo archives and oral history project tabs to the site. The Winchester Stories tab contains a series of short documentaries that include interviews of citizens with accompanying photos. The project was started in 2010 by the Winchester Historic Preservation Commission and includes stories on the Leeds Theatre, the Guerrant Clinic and more.

The museum recently added an AfricanAmerican History tab, and Stults has already received emails from people, both local and out of state, thanking the museum for the highlighting African-American history.

“We are focusing on beefing up our website.

We’re really looking toward the digital and improving our website through archiving,” Stults said. “My hope is that if someone is researching a relative, they might come across our website, and see photos or documents we have on there, and it would be wonderful for them to discover the relative’s history.”

Although the building on South Main Street has undergone several transformations from a home, to a clinic and now a museum, the years of service as a hospital remains an integral part of the museum’s mission to share the Bluegrass region’s history.

The third floor operating room looks as it did in the 1930s, as if untouched for decades. The examining room once on the first floor now shares the history of Kentucky agriculture. The clinic’s original outdoor sign now hangs inside to greet museum visitors.

The Bluegrass Heritage Museum is open Monday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Visit bgheritage.com for more information.

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26 PROGRESS 2017

Honoring Heroes

Honor Flight sends veterans on trips to war memorials STORY BY CALLIE MILLER

A

fter decades, World War II, Korean War and Vietnam veterans are finally getting the welcoming homecomings and appreciation they deserve through Honor Flight Kentucky.

Vietnam Army veteran George Campbell was drafted in 1968, and he retired from U.S. Special Operations Command 33 years later.

Several years later, Campbell found out about Honor Flight when visiting the Vietnam Memorial one afternoon in Washington, D.C. While he was there, Campbell met some veterans from an Honor Flight from Cincinnati. Campbell talked with a medic who was on the trip, and when he got home, he started researching the program.

Honor Flight was founded in 2005 by retired Air Force Capt. Earl Morse, who worked as a physician’s assistant at a veterans’ clinic in Springfield, Ohio. Morse found out many of his patients had not seen their memorials in Washington and wanted to do something to change that. In May of that year, Honor Flight took 12 veterans to Washington, D.C. to see their respective memorials.

Now, Honor Flight has grown to 136 programs in 42 states and flown almost 300,000 veterans to Washington. Sponsors ensure veterans never have to pay.

After learning about Honor Flight, Campbell embarked on the next Honor Flight from Cincinnati. He acted as a “guardian” to a marine; guardians provide emotional and physical support to veterans during the flights.

Campbell flew with the Cincinnati chapter several times until he noticed a lot of applications were coming in from central and southeastern Kentucky. Neither Honor Flight Tristate (Cincinnati) nor Honor Flight Bluegrass (Louisville) was able to cater to these veterans, as they focused on the veterans in their own areas.

Campbell met with a group of six other volunteers from the Cincinnati and Louisville Honor Flight programs to discuss the possibility of creating a new chapter that would depart from Lexington.

Honor Flight Bluegrass hosted a flight from Lexington in September 2015 sponsored by East Kentucky Power.

“When word got out about that flight, they started coming in literally by the hundreds,” Campbell said. “We grew overnight from a database of 25 to almost 450 veterans on a waiting list that wanted to go.”

Honor Flight Kentucky was formed Dec. 8, 2015. Campbell said their national leadership encouraged the new hub to start small, by taking about 25 veterans on the first flight.

“‘No’ has never been an acceptable answer for me,” Campbell said. “Being in the military, that’s not in my vocabulary.”

Instead, Honor Flight Kentucky successfully flew 130 veterans to D.C last year.

Honor Flights are free for every veteran, meals included. Each veteran brings his or her own guardian, who accommodates his or her needs throughout the day. Guardians usually pay for their own flight, but sometimes sponsors pay for the guardians as well.

“For the 14 to 16 hours you are with the veteran, there is nothing else in your life,” Campbell tells the guardians.

Vic Bloomfield, a Navy World War II veteran, said he was impressed by the entire experience, and he appreciated his own guardian when he went in August 2016.

“Everybody had somebody looking after them whether they needed it or not,” he said. “They did so much for us.”

Many veterans take friends and family members as guardians, but no spouses are allowed, because Campbell wants the day to be solely about the veteran, and he doesn’t want them attempting to take care of their spouses’ needs during the trip. This way, the veterans get the most out of the experience.

Campbell remembers his first flight with the

PROGRESS 2017 new chapter clearly.

“We realized we pulled this off,” he said, when they landed in Lexington at the end of the day.

“The months of planning, the months of working to get these veterans together, and we realized we gave them that special day; that was good.”

Campbell said organizing and planning each Honor Flight is a “monumental task,” from setting the itinerary to arranging for medics to come.

However, he knows giving veterans this opportunity is important.

“If you do give them that special day, everything else is worth it,” he said.

Though Roy Bates, a Marine veteran who served in the Korean War, had visited the Korean memorial previously, because of Honor Flight, he was able to visit his wife’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery.

“George is the one that made that dream come true for me,” Bates said.

The group made a special stop so Bates could go to his wife’s grave for the first time.

“It made the trip that much more meaningful to me,” he said.

Bates insists every veteran should go on an Honor Flight, especially those who might say they aren’t worthy or don’t deserve to go.

“I talked to some veterans who don’t think

27

“The months of planning, the months of working to get these veterans together, and we realized we gave them that special day, that was good.”

— George Campbell, Honor Flight Kentucky board member

they’re qualified to go because they weren’t in the combat zone,” he said. “I think every veteran that served honorably should go.”

Bates lost his right leg and part of his left leg in a land mine explosion, so he asked a friend to be his guardian, and she pushed him in his wheelchair for the duration of the trip.

“She was terribly excited about going,” he said.

“She made it really interesting.”

Campbell gives each veteran a call to tell them when he can get them on a flight and learns a little about them before he ever actually meets them. That’s the most rewarding part, he said, “to hear their stories and then to meet them at the airport on the day of the flight.”

Along the way, the veterans get several unexpected surprises.

“Many of these men and women, they never received a homecoming. Nobody ever said ‘thank you,’” Campbell said.

One marine fell to the ground and cried at the

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homecoming celebration, he said. When medics were concerned, the Marine told Campbell, “In over 70 years, you’re the first people that ever said ‘thank you.’”

Campbell challenges people to get veterans they know to apply for Honor Flight so they can have their own special experience, because more and more veterans are dying every day. He also encourages people to sign up to be guardians for their family members or friends.

“If you want to spend the day with an American hero, sign up,” he said.

Honor Flight is always looking for financial support, because every little bit helps, he said.

East Kentucky Power and Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Kentucky have sponsored flights in the past, and the University of Kentucky will be the first college or university to sponsor an upcoming flight in May. Guardians and veterans can apply for Honor Flight at www.honorflightky.org.

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28 PROGRESS 2017

Recipe for success

Ale-8 uses ties to past to build its future STORY BY MIKE CALDWELL

G.L. wasn’t intimidated. He fought back in court, twice, and won. Twice.

But, he was also smart and wanted a backup plan. Wainscott began looking for other flavors, a journey that took him all the way to Europe and the discovery of ginger beer.

Although ginger beer was too spicy for his tastes, the entrepreneur knew there was a foundation there.

So, G.L. began experimenting.

The epiphany moment came when he mixed ginger with citrus.

“He came up with a winning combination and THE LEGEND recipe that is unmatched,” said Deanne Elmore, The story of the local soft drink and bottling marketing and public relations manager who has company has been told many times over the been part of the Ale-8 “family” for the past 16 years. A majority of Winchester residents probyears. ably know it by heart.

Still, G.L. didn’t have a name for his fledgling G.L Wainscott, already a successful businessdrink. So, he headed to the one place he knew evman in the lumber industry and about every other eryone would be: The 1926 Clark County Fair. venture he tried, became fascinated with a carWainscott, always the showman, held a contest bonation machine he saw on a train ride. to name his new creation. A young fairgoer ofThat chance encounter spurred him to start his fered up the phrase “A Late One,” which was very own soft drink company in 1902. He bottled 1920s slang for “the latest thing.” and distributed distilled water and fruit-flavored The legend of Ale-8-One was born. sodas at a building on North Main Street.

Four years later, in 1906, his first signature MOVING FORWARD recipe came with Roxa-Kola, named after his wife Although Ale-8, the only soft drink invented in Roxanne.

Kentucky still in existence, became renowned for But the victory was somewhat short-lived. its signature taste, it also gained strong loyalty for Coca-Cola, already a growing soft drink giant, its unique and consistent look. didn’t want competition and fought hard to put In 1940, the long-neck 12-ounce bottle made its cola startups like Wainscott’s out of business. debut. This bottle, known locally as “The Green

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le-8-One, Winchester’s very own soft drink icon, has a variety of ingredients to which it can attribute its 90 years of success.

Some are the actual unchanging components of the secret recipe while others are far more intangible, such as the fierce customer loyalty the brand instills. The most unique ingredient, however, may be encapsulated in a single word that comes up over and over again.

Magic.

Dragon,” is the inspiration for the current bottle.

That bottle also featured the debut of the iconic shield logo that adorns Ale-8 packaging and branding to this day. Company officials say the red and white shield represents the close-knit group of people who make and enjoy Ale-8, and the four stars that appear on the label represent the four generations charged with carrying on the family legacy.

In 2009, that responsibility fell to Fielding Rogers, Wainscott’s great-great-nephew. He became the youngest family member in Ale-8 history to assume the leadership role.

He was 28.

Rogers was determined not to stray from the family business’ roots and was committed to the idea that Ale-8 had to be made from scratch.

As this generation’s sole steward of the family secret, he is the only one who ascends a brown spiral staircase in the back corner of the production facility that leads to the batching room. It is there that he mixes the secret formula, batch by batch, still by hand. Still to this day, his greatgreat-uncle’s handwritten notes hang on the wall to inspire him.

For Rogers, the combination of flavor and customer loyalty has been the ingredients to the company’s success.

“Ale-8 doesn’t taste like anything else,” he said.

“That and our customer loyalty are what makes us who we are.”

Those green glass bottles, both the refillables and the non-returnable variety, are still very

PROGRESS 2017 important to the company.

“It is a point of differentiation for a small family brand. So, we are fighting really hard to hang on to this type of package because it creates a lasting impression that nobody else can,” Elmore said, going on to again talk about that special ingredient of magic. “When I go introduce Ale-8 in a new environment, and we are doing it in a grocery store, we give away full green glass bottles because that’s the magic. There is nothing magical about getting a sample out of a two-ounce cup from someone who doesn’t know anything about it. So, we are pretty fanatical about training our people to talk about knowing Fielding, knowing the story, sharing the passion of Ale-8.”

The soft drink company is one of a few lone hold outs still producing refillable bottles.

“We hear all the time that they are the best tasting Ale-8 there is,” Elmore said. “We think it is because each bottle carries with it the good memories of each previous use.”

When going strong, the company can fill about 600 bottles a minute at the production facility/ warehouse that sits near the intersection of Bypass Road and Interstate 64.

For those doing the math, that equates to about 240,000 a day.

They could add two shifts if they needed more of the precious liquid, Elmore said.

29

available at grocery and convenience retailers throughout Kentucky, and in parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Ale-8 employs about 115 people, with almost 100 of those being full-time. The company has grown by about 50 percent since the 71 it employed in 2001.

The company began some plant improvements, updating and minor expansion earlier this year.

Through it all, one of the keys to continued success is the fierce loyalty of its drinkers.

Strong connections to Red River Gorge, the rock climbing community and other pockets of individuals like church groups, Boy Scouts and others remain vital to success.

THE FUTURE “The loyalty is a magic formula you can’t exCelebrating its milestone 90th anniversary in plain until you have been here, worked here, 2016, Ale 8 laid a foundation for the next decade grown up around here and drank Ale-8,” Rogers and beyond. said. “When it gets in your blood, it is there forThe company launched in Cracker Barrel in ever.”

February 2016, now reaching customers in 42 The future looks bright, in large part, because states through the partnership. Today, Ale-8-One of the company’s deep roots in the past. is among the top 10 selling items in the Cracker “In general, our philosophy is ‘always do the Barrel Old Country Store. right thing.’ Of course, everyone says that,” RogAle-8 launched in the Kroger Central Division ers said. “And we take the long approach to everyin Indiana last April, marking the first launch out- thing. If it doesn’t make sense 5 years or 10 years side the Commonwealth of Kentucky to a major from now, we don’t do it.” retailer.

That seems to be a magic formula that has In addition to online sales Ale-8 is currently been working for nine decades and counting.

It is a high-tech and very structured operation.

Sanitation, safety and quality are three key ingredients for the production side.

The quality control department does a variety of about nine tests every half hour including sugar, carbonation, acidity, taste and seal. The bottle washer and other pieces of equipment are tested hourly, every gauge and every nozzle.

“Just to make sure every Ale-8 tastes the same,” Elmore said.

At the far end of the facility are the syrup tanks and secret recipe room.

“It’s where the magic happens,” she joked.

There’s that word again.

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30 PROGRESS 2017

Keeping it in the family

Graham’s celebrates 40 years of family business in new location STORY BY F R E D P ETKE

T

he story of a 40-year-old family business began with a trip downtown.

Rose Graham stopped by Buddie Hopkins’ boot store on Main Street one day in 1976 to buy a pair of work boots for her husband, Alvan.

“We farmed all our lives,” their son Drew Graham said. “She went down to Buddie Hopkins’ to buy him a pair of work boots.”

One thing turned into another and the store changed hands that day.

“They’ve always kidded about those being the most expensive pair of boots he’d ever owned,” Drew said.

From that point, Rose Graham ran Graham’s Boots, Work and Western Wear until shortly before her death in 2008.

In a 2001 Winchester Sun article, Rose Graham said she had worked in retail since she was 18 and had dreamed of owning her own store.

In 1976, she was working at Loma Manufacturing in downtown Winchester when she made the trip to Hopkins’ that fateful day. Hopkins, Drew said, was a family friend and was about to go out of business.

After checking with Alvan, she said they purchased the inventory in 1976 and the building in 1977. For the next 31 years, Rose Graham built the business.

She expanded the inventory from just men’s clothes to women’s clothes, work clothes and boots.

“We’ve always been really successful with the store but our customers are the ones who have done it for us,” Rose said

in 2001. “If we didn’t have them, you wouldn’t be here, would you?”

Through the decades, Graham’s was a mainstay of downtown Winchester, catering to its clientele and staying true to itself. Hopkins’ name even remained on the door for all those years.

There was one time Rose said she thought about remodeling the store. Those thoughts ended pretty quickly, thanks to her customers. The farmers, she said in 2001, objected because they didn’t want to worry about their muddy boots messing up the new carpet inside.

“As long as I’m here, it’ll be just like it is,” Rose said.

Through her life, the store was Rose’s domain.

“I helped some in the afternoon,” Drew said. “Most days, I went back to the farm. Dad would come down and help during the Christmas and busy seasons.

“Her business was work wear and Carhartt. She carried a little of everything.”

Graham said his mother had contracts with Rockwell International to come on the property and sell boots to the employees. Through the decades, the business survived and thrived in downtown.

Rose never retired from the store.

“She was 80 and she loved it,” Drew said.

Time, though, marched on. Drew’s wife Lorra, who had worked at the store before she and Drew married, went back

Drew and Lorr

a Graham

to the store as their children grew. Following Rose’s death, Lorra took over the day-to-day operations of Graham’s.

“When (Rose) started, she had 1,200 square feet,” Drew said. “When Lorra took over, we bought two neighboring buildings. When we left, we had about 6,000 square feet.”

Still, it wasn’t enough. A move became a possibility, then a necessity.

“We had to,” Lorra said. “We had to downsize ourselves or move.”

The decision was not easy.

“We sat and prayed in parking lots for two years,” Lorra said, “even on deciding whether to move or not.”

Lorra said they had an agreement worked out in 2015, but it fell through. There was more prayer in parking lots around Winchester, she said, until they found the space next to Bypass Rental on Bypass Road.

During the first 17 days of October 2016, the Grahams, their staff and friends moved the entire store from Main Street to Bypass Road.

The store never closed.

“I feel like we doubled our space,” Lorra said.

“Customers tend to look more. They browse,” employee Beverly Estes said. “When

PROGRESS 2017

Storied past,

31

“I know I’m a school job with most of them,” she said. Many, though, have continued to work part-time at the store after getting fulltime “grown-up” jobs elsewhere, she said.

More than once, she has sat down with some of those younger employees for serious parent-to-child style talks, she said.

“If I see them struggling, I’ll back them off they came in (downtown), it was for a specific the schedule,” Lorra said. thing.”

“They love these kids like they love their After only a couple months in the new locaown,” Estes said. tion, Lorra said it was the right move. The And, the customers are friends. customers have agreed.

“That’s important, especially in a commu“It was a bittersweet move for them because nity like this,” Estes said. it was Rose’s store,” Lorra said. “There was Their travels to national shows and convensome opposition from some of the long-time tions have added dedicated customers from customers. Now that they’ve been here, some neighboring states including West Virginia, have said ‘I think Rose would be proud.’”

Ohio and Tennessee. They still do a lot of After 40 years in Clark County, family rebusiness with local companies, she said. mains a dominant theme around the store.

“We’re always adding new brands,” Lorra Lorra still handles the day-to-day business said.

“We’re always looking for the new latest and travels to several shows a year. Drew and greatest. helps in the evenings and busy seasons after “Drew’s mom was 80 when she retired. I working at the University of Kentucky College don’t think Drew will let me retire.” of Agriculture during the day.

Graham’s Boots, Work and Western Wear is Their kids are grown, but Lorra said she located at 847 Bypass Road. Hours are 8:30 looks at their younger employees as her children as well. a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

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PROGRESS 2017

Losing weight, gaining hope New perspective on life common thread among extreme weight loss stories

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STORY BY WH ITN EY LEGG ET T ccording to the American Heart Association, nearly 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese.

Kentucky now has the fifth highest adult obesity rate — 34.6 percent — according to the “The State of Obesity,” an annual report raising awareness about the seriousness of the obesity epidemic.

Statistically, trends of obesity and lifelong struggles with weight start as early as toddlerhood. The 2016 report found that in Kentucky, 13 percent of 2- to 4-year-olds are obese, 20 percent of 10to 17-year-olds are obese and 18.5 percent of high school students are obese.

Being overweight or obese poses an increased risk for health problems like heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes. Extra weight can also exacerbate pre-existing health conditions like arthritis, gall stones, respiratory problems and sleep apnea.

Research has also shown obese people are discriminated against for jobs, in relationships and even in school.

Losing substantial amounts of weight can be difficult, but not impossible as the five people who share their stories here prove. Each person lost more than 100 pounds, each by different means, at varying rates and with their personal struggles along the way.

While their stories vary, a common thread emerged: life after extreme weight loss provided more hope for the future.

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Crystal Christy

t 34 years old, Crystal Christy weighed 369 pounds and found her extra weight made day-to-day life difficult.

“I was on six prescription medications, including two for blood pressure,” she said. “I couldn’t stand or sit for long periods. Just basic daily activities like going to the grocery store or climbing stairs were difficult. I would get out of breath just walking across the room.”

Standing at 5 feet, Christy’s waist was bigger around than she was tall, she wore a 5X T-shirt and had to shop at a big-and-tall men’s clothing store. Christy’s weight had prohibited her from being able to put on her own socks for about three years.

“It got to the point where I wasn’t living, I was just surviving the day,” she said.

Christy said she has been overweight as long as she can remember, mostly because of bad eating habits. Despite being overweight growing up, she remained active playing basketball and softball at George Rogers Clark High School. She even earned an athletic scholarship to play softball at Spaulding University in Louisville. However, an injury to her back while playing in college left her unable to play or exercise.

“With my eating habits what they were and basically being inactive, my weight ballooned,” she said. “At 34 years old, my back was in terrible shape so I went to a neurosurgeon to talk about surgery.”

Her surgeon said, as heavy as she was, surgery wasn’t an option. The extra weight would put too much strain on the fusion on her spine, and ultimately, the surgeon didn’t think his tools would be long enough to reach her back.

“He told me there was nothing he could do about the pain until I lost 100 pounds,” she said. “I told myself I had to try something.”

After an online search, Christy found Health Management Resources, a nutrition program offered at the University of Kentucky and Baptist Milestone Center in Louisville, where she now lives.

“They basically taught me how to eat again,” she said. “For the first three months, I ate nothing but their shakes and their entrees and detoxed from all my bad eating habits.

“Then they taught me how to eat again in the real world.”

She started the program in April 2014 and by September of the same year, she lost 100 pounds.

In October 2015, she met her weight loss goal of 232 pounds. She has maintained that weight within a 10-pound fluctuation for more than a year, and said her life has completely changed.

She no longer takes any medication and she didn’t end up needing the back surgery.

Her weight loss took her on an emotional journey.

“Everyone wants to talk about how you look or how your health improves after weight loss, but no one tells you the emotional change that happens,” she said. “My identity completely changed.”

Through her weight loss, she learned to value herself more.

“I learned that I’m worth it,” she said. “I am worth the effort it takes to prepare my meals. I am worth carving out time to make sure I eat when I need to. I am worth all the struggles and challenges and really amazing things that come with it.”

She wants to share that inspiration with other people struggling with their weight. Christy shares her story on her employer’s website, rfxtechnologies.com, through a blog, where she is open about her journey, and admits all the struggles were worth it.

“A lot of people measure weight loss in terms of calories or jumping jacks,” she said. “But there is no amount of cookies, pizza or brownies that are worth the ability to put on your own socks.”

PROGRESS 2017

C

Jennifer Winburn

lark County native Jennifer Winburn recalls being overweight from as early as the time she started kindergarten.

“I was very obese all through my school years, high school, college,” she said. “Then after I got married and started working, I continuted to gain weight because of my unhealthy eating habits and my genetic history.”

Winburn said growing up, her weight caused her to spend her days on the sidelines watching other kids do all the things she wished she could, like cheerleading, going to amusement parks, clogging and swimming.

“I didn’t do the things I wanted to do because I was ashamed and embarassed of my weight,” she said. “I excluded myself from things because of my weight. I found myself not even going to the movies because sitting in the seats was uncomfortable.”

Even as a marching band participant at GRC, Winburn’s weight set her apart from the other kids. She had to have her uniform specially-tailored with extenders.

Winburn said she tried a variety of fad diets and other methods of weight loss over the years with little to no success, admitting her willpower was lacking.

It wasn’t until she realized her extra weight was prohibiting her from being the type of mother she wanted to be that Winburn decided to take action.

“When my daughter, Jana Beth, was seven years old, she wanted to learn to ride her bike,” Winburn recalled. “Due to my obesity, I wasn’t able to help her. That was one of the first signs that I was not being who I wanted to be as a mother.”

At 35 years old, Winburn — who now works as a data and student information coordinator for Clark County Schools — weighed 345 pounds. Her extra weight caused her to have aching joints and limited her at work and home. She decided to have gastric bypass surgery to lose the weight once and for all. Winburn had a Roux-enY surgery in 2010 and lost 200 pounds. Today, she still maintains her weight loss within a 10-pound fluctuation.

She has learned to exercise and eat healthier, and is able to participate in things she only dreamed of as a child, including clogging competitively at Studio One School of Dance with her daughter.

“I don’t take things for granted,” Winburn said. “I live my life very actively instead of from the sidelines.”

She said she also takes pride in teaching her daughter healthier habits. Most of all, her weight loss means she will be around for her family longer.

“My doctor told me with my eating habits presurgery, I would have probably died before I was 60,” she said. “By losing the weight, I’ve added about 20-25 years on my life. I’ll get to be around to see my daughter grow up, that means the most to me.”

I

Brandi Owens

n December 2015, Brandi Owens had a wake up call.

At 27 years old, she weighed 305 pounds, suffered from extrutiating back pain and was crippled by depression.

“I woke up one morning and I was lying in my bed, my back hurt so bad I was having to get epidurals for the pain and I was depressed all the time,” she said. “I decided that no one can make me happy but me. I needed to take charge of my problem or it was going to kill me, either by heart attack or diabetes, or I was going to kill myself.”

Owens said her weight struggles have been lifelong.

“I was bullied from elementary school all the way up to high school for my weight,” she said. “I eventualy developed depression and at times had some pretty bad thoughts because people made me feel bad for not looking like society’s idea of a woman.”

After years of yo-yo dieting and even bouts with eating disorders, the Winchester cosmetologist and 2006 GRC graduate decided she had enough. She visited her doctor and a nutritionist. By January 2016, she was prepared to start her journey towards a healthier and happier life.

“I approached my weight loss like I’m an addict,” she said. “I am addicted to food and sugar like someone is addicted to drugs. While I was dieting, I went through horrible withdrawals and terrible cravings.”

In the first month she lost 17 pounds just by simply cutting back on her food intake. Owens admitted she could eat an entire pizza by herself in one sitting and still feel hungry, so by simply eating better, she was able to see results immediately.

In month two she added exercise and eventually developed a love for running.

“I started little by little,” she said. “I would just run until I couldn’t run anymore and then I’d walk. Then I’d run again until I couldn’t anymore.”

By the summer, Owens was able to participate in four 5Ks and today she runs almost 10 miles a week. She sticks to a high-protein, low-carb diet.

Over a year’s time Owens lost 117 pounds. She hopes to lose about 30 more and then focus on toning up.

Besides feeling better physically, she said her weight loss has drastically improved her outlook on life.

“I never thought I had it in me to lose the weight,” she said. “I honestly thought I never would. I’m not in that dark corner beating myself up anymore. I feel like I’ve shed my skin and I can finally start living.”

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34 PROGRESS 2017

A

Chris Shearer

t 32 years old, Chris Shearer was in so much pain it was difficult to walk. At 325 pounds, his extra weight was exacerbating an injury to his knee making it hard to perform his basic job functions or be active with his young children.

“I was working at a job that was decently phsyical and I was in pain every day,” he said. “I injured my knee playing football in college and it was to the point it hurt too much to even walk sometimes.”

Doctors told Shearer he would eventually need a knee replacement and that news was a wake up call.

“I wanted to be able to play with my kids and then, on top of that, I have doctors telling me I needed a knee replacement when I was only 32,” he said.

Shearer found a job that was less physical and then he found CrossFit, which would help guide him down a path of 100 pounds of weight loss.

“A friend and I were both struggling with being oveweight and inactive, so we started at CrossFit Strode Station together,” he said. “At first, it was horrible. My knee hurt constantly, I was extremely out of shape and it was horrible for months.”

Despite the pain and difficulty working out, Shearer found the CrossFit community kept pulling him back in.

“CrossFit is two-sided for me,” he said. “It feels like a sport to me.

Because I was an athlete, I like the feeling of a team atmosphere. The biggest thing, though, was that when I first started and I was always last by a long shot, people would come out and finish the work out with me. It seemed like the person who was last was getting more cheers of encouragement than the person who was first.”

Shearer said CrossFit is about functional movement and incorporates workouts that focus on movements you would do throughout a typical day. Through CrossFit, he learned to like running.

Shearer went from barely being able to walk at 32 to running half marathons, multiple 5Ks and participating in Strong Man competitions today at 35.

Along with exercise, he sticks to a variation of a paleo diet, which focuses on high protein, low sugar and no carbohydrates, and encourages eating fresh fruits and vegetables while avoiding packaged and processed foods.

Through his weight loss and fitness journey, Shearer said he learned about making healthier, sustainable choices.

“I’ve lost weight in the past by just replacing two meals a day with a shake, but that wasn’t sustainable,” he said. “I’ve learned that I don’t have to be super strict all the time but I learned to just make better choices all the time.”

Shearer said his weight loss has postponed his knee surgery, but more importantly made him a better husband and father.

“I have more energy and I can play with my kids for a longer period of time,” he said. “I’m a more engaged parent. I’m a better husband because I have the energy and physical ability to be more attentive at home.”

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Kara Willoughby

s a middle schooler, Kara Willoughby recalls realizing being overweight made her stand out among her peers.

“Kids can be cruel sometimes,” she said. “I was bullied a lot for my weight and it was about that time I realized my weight kept me from really finding a place I fit in.”

Feeling excluded and unaccepted because of her weight, Willoughby eventually developed depression and extreme social anxiety.

She tried a variety of fad diets growing up, but nothing ever stuck.

At 23, she weighed 352 pounds. She was pre-diabetic and took medicine daily for high blood pressue, which also caused headaches. The extra weight caused her knee pain and left the single-mother of one fatigued most of the time.

Willoughby began to consider having weight loss surgery when a coworker had success with a gastric sleeve surgery.

“I decided that was going to be better for me and Myia,” she said.

“I’m a single mom, she depends on me, she needs me. I needed to prolong my life as long as I possibly could. If that meant having surgery so I was healthier and I could be a better mom for her, then that’s what I felt I needed to do.”

Willoughby sought out weight loss surgery at Georgetown Bariatric Center, where she underwent a lengthy and detailed pre-surgery regimen of doctor’s visits, medical testings, psychological evaluations and even insurance struggles.

In July 2015, she had gastric sleeve surgery, which removed about 80 percent of her stomach, including the stretchy bottom part that contributes to overeating.

“My stomach basically went from the size of a football to the size of a banana,” she said.

The surgery would set her on a journey of rediscovery as she taught herself how to eat again and more importantly how to view food and herself.

“I wish people could understand the mental part of weight loss,” she said. “For a lot of people who are overweight, there are bad eating habits, but there is also a mentality about food that plays a huge role. After the surgery, I had the stomach of a skinny person, but mentally I was still 300 pounds.”

Over about 18 months, Willoughby dropped 165 pounds. Her goal is to lose about 40 more and then maintain her healthy weight.

Today, she no longer suffers from high blood pressure, she isn’t pre-diabetic and she has more energy to spend time with her daughter and mother.

Best of all, Willoughby said she has an improved perception of herself.

“I treat myself better,” she said. “The way you treat yourself is the way others are going to treat you. I used to lack confidence and I degraded myself, so others did the same. Now, I respect myself and I know that’s the respect I deserve from others.”

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FIRST CHURCH OF GOD PLEASE JOIN US FOR WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP: SUNDAY WEDNESDAY 9:15 am - Colby Cafe in the Library 6:30 pm - Student Ministries 9:45 am - Colby Connex Classes 7:00 pm - Colby Kidz 10:45 am - Worship Service & Colby Kidz & Adult Bible Study - Family Worship (First Sundays) 6:00 pm - Small Groups

2500 Colby Road Winchester, KY 40391 859-744-2387

www.wfcog.com www.facebook.com/wfcog Lead Pastor: Allan Hutchinson

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Romans 6:4

Preserving 36 PROGRESS 2017

HISTORY 18th Century pioneer community preserved at Lower Howard’s Creek STORY BY SETH LITTRELL

A

t the southern edge of Clark County along Athens-Boonesboro Road sits what may appear to many as an unassuming field that dips into a valley.

Few would assume at one point in history it was one of the most bustling places in Kentucky.

Lower Howard’s Creek Nature and Heritage Preserve was created in 2001 to protect numerous populations of endangered plant life as well as the historic and archaeological features in the valley. The preserve has expanded over time to include 338 acres of land.

While a walk in the picturesque valley today is largely silent save for the sound of running water and local bird life, a stroll along the creek in the early 1800s would have been met with the sound of heavy machinery and wagons making and transporting goods to and from the frontier.

“At one point in time this was the biggest industrial settlement west of the Allegheny mountains,” Clare Sipple, the preserve’s manager, said.

The area began as a buffalo trace, a path through the hills that large animals would use to travel to water and pastures. The animals would find the easiest path through the tough terrain. When Native Americans, and later European pioneers, came to the area, they followed the buffalo paths and eventually turned them into their roads.

One such road was the Salt Springs Trace, which settlers at Fort Boonesborough took through Lower Howard’s Creek to make salt at Blue Licks.

In 1782, Col. John Holder, a famed defender of Fort Boonesborough, established a pioneer station in the valley.

“Holder was a smart businessman,” Sipple said. “Like everyone who came west, it was about acquiring land that could then be sold.”

Soon enough, hundreds of people were living in the valley. The creek’s nearconstant flow made it an important resource for the valley, able to power several mills running big pieces of machinery on the properties nearby.

The mills supported a felt factory in addition to several small farms and quarries and later a distillery and cooperage.

Despite the area going into decline after the Civil War as people flocked to jobs in the cities, families lived along Lower Howard’s Creek well into the 1900s, and at one time, the buffalo traces that began as trails for animals had grown into well-travelled county roads.

Today, much of the evidence of the community that once thrived at Lower Howard’s Creek is gone, though old portions of stone fences and chimneys still

Storied past, Bright future

PROGRESS 2017 dot the landscape.

However, efforts are being made to restore much of the preserve to the shape it would have been in during the 1800s, led by Sipple with the help of volunteers using grants to help pay stone masons and other contractors.

“My goal is to get this place to the point where people can walk through here and get a sense of what it was like back then,” Sipple said. “To walk along the roads and see the old buildings where people used to live and work.”

Sipple, her volunteers and occasionally hired contractors have worked to restore more than a mile of the old stone fences that lined the once-busy roads in the valley. In addition, they have designed and installed steps and a suspension bridge to help make navigating the area easier.

Volunteers have also poured considerable time into collecting and preserving artifacts in and around the still standing remnants of the Bush family farmhouse, which consisted of a now destroyed log cabin that had two stone buildings — both of which are still standing — built onto it.

Sipple said the house was occupied until the 1940s. She met one of the previous residents who once operated a moonshine still on the property during prohibition.

Unfortunately, the house has suffered damage not just from the elements, but from vandalism as well. Sipple said a previous owner of the property allowed someone to strip some wood furnishings out of the house, and since then, it has been picked over by unknown people searching for artifacts who have caused more damage in the process.

Since the creation of the preserve, Sipple and her volunteers keep a watchful eye on the property, and they have erected a shelter over the house to keep it safe from the

elements. It now also has the protection of being a state preserve, meaning those who try to collect artifacts from the site or cause any damage can face fines or criminal prosecution. The preserved site is still accessible to those who want to view it, but only by registering for a guided tour led by Sipple and others at the preserve.

Sipple and other workers aren’t just interested in maintaining the crumbling remnants of the once thriving community along Lower Howard’s Creek, however.

In line with her goal of giving people the opportunity to “walk through history,” the group is continuing its efforts to acquire new land and restore as much of the settlement as possible.

To that end, the Friends of Lower Howard’s Creek are always looking for volunteers

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and donors.

The Friends of Lower Howard’s Creek is a community-based organization that works in partnership with the Clark County-Winchester Heritage Commission and the Clark County Fiscal Court to develop and maintain the preserve.

While the fiscal court owns the land, its management is largely taken care of by the volunteers, who clear invasive brush from the area, maintain the trails and work to restore walls and structures where applicable.

Joining the organization brings perks as well, with members being allowed to schedule time to enter the full preserve rather than sticking solely to the public trail.

To learn more about Lower Howard’s Creek, visit www.lowerhowardscreek.org.

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38 PROGRESS 2017

Old school, new life

Closed school buildings repurposed STORY BY F R E D P ETKE

W

hat do you do with an old school?

Buildings are designed for a specific purpose. Some, like homes, are universal and easily adaptable or renovated to the desires of new residents. Sometimes, if the building sits long enough, the only option is to tear it down and build something new on the property.

Public buildings, such as churches, hospitals and schools, present real challenges.

A 2013 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found major metropolitan areas including Philadelphia and Detroit closed, sold or leased dozens of old school buildings in urban neighborhoods. About 40 percent of those were re-used as charter schools. Those that were sold often went for less than market value, citing a number of issues including condition, unwieldy design and layout, and poor locations.

Those which were sold, commonly became housing units, churches or office space. Some schools were simply demolished and the property was used for other projects.

In the last two and a half years, Clark County Public Schools had to decide what to do with five schools as it closed the smaller schools in Clark County and consolidated within the remaining handful of schools.

Trapp, Pilot View, Providence, Fannie Bush and Hannah McClure elementaries were all closed between 2013-14. All except McClure, which is still owned by the district and is used as the county’s preschool center, have been sold by the district and are facing new futures.

Storied past, Bright future

TRAPP ELEMENTARY

The former Trapp Elementary may be

one of the most dramatic repurposing plans among all the former schools. The building was vacant for most of the first year, but has since been purchased by Sheppard’s Hands to become a transitional shelter for female military veterans and their children.

Lady Vets Connect and Sheppard’s Hands collaborated in 2016 and signed a contract to purchase the school from its owners, Brian Howard and Allen Taylor.

Work is underway to renovate the school, which has been vacant since 2014.

The facility will be a transitional center for female veterans and their children as they adjust to civilian life and recover from other issues including post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual trauma and spousal abuse, organizers said.

Bringing the school up to date will be an expensive proposition, with early estimates at $1.2 million.

The school’s coal-fired furnace has already been removed, but has not been replaced, said Wanda Martin who is working with the program.

“The big thing is the school is in great shape,” she said. “The community has been so great with donations for all kinds of things.”

Much of the artwork throughout the school, like in the cafeteria and library, will remain, she said.

Several companies in Winchester and Lexington have helped with in-kind donations, like removing the furnaces and fixtures, donating paint and thinning the brush behind the school, Martin said.

The group, though, really needs help raising funds to purchase the new furnace, she said.

Phillip Elam runs his cabinetry business in part of the former Pilot View Elementary. Elam, who also serves as caretaker for the property, said a church congregation uses part of the school, which is owned by an online education company.

Wanda Martin of Shepphard's Hands says the Trapp Elementary cafeteria will resume its original function once the woman veterans ceter opens in the former school. The school's artwork will remain, she said.

PILOT VIEW ELEMENTARY

Instead of the sound of children walking down the halls, woodworking tools can be heard in the halls of the former Pilot View Elementary. Phillip Elam runs his cabinetry business from the school while he serves as caretaker of the prop-

Michelle McClease of Providence Christian School helps fourth-grade student Ethan Tuttle with one of his lessons.

PROGRESS 2017 erty for Kentucky Covenant Education Corporation, which purchased the building from the school district.

Eventually, the building will house Jefferson College at Pilot View. According to a pamphlet for the school, it will focus on online classes founded on teaching methodology and procedure, cultural and social awareness and benevolence.

“They’re going to have some online classes here for different languages: Hebrew, Greek and some Arabic,” Elam said. “They’ll have a few other classes” which may start in the spring.

Part of the school has also been rented to Sabbath Keepers, a local church congregation for weekend use, Elam said.

“We have a few other functions here occasionally,” he said.

There’s a lot of work to be done. The college’s pamphlet lists completing recording studios, replacing the HVAC system, repairing and equipping the classrooms and repairing the gym floor as the top goals for 2017.

FANNIE BUSH ELEMENTARY

Fannie Bush Elementary closed at the end

of the 2012-13 school year, shortly after being named one of the worst school buildings in the nation. A year later, Grace Bible Church had purchased the property and began the process of bringing it back to life and up to building code. The leadership was even familiar as church pastor Lee Cruse was principal at Fannie Bush for 15 years.

The church paid slightly more than $150,000 for the building and grounds, then took several months to renovate and bring the school back to a usable state for the church and its ministries. The former gymnasium is now the sanctuary. Some classrooms were turned into nurseries for infants and toddlers.

The church added a community feeding program shortly after moving into the school, for anyone in the community who needs a meal. In 2016, the church fed more than 6,000 people, Cruse said.

“It has been tremendous,” Cruse said. “I always thought this was a great building.”

The building took very little work, he said.

The church had to replace all the doors and facings, and installed air conditioning in the former cafeteria, which is the sanctuary now.

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Cricket Cruse, wife of Grace Bible Church minister Lee Cruse, hangs curtains on the window of a nursery located just off the sanctuary of the church which is now located in the former Fannie Bush Elementary School on Main Street.

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Mrs. Tipton takes students all year with a recital in June and our annual Nutcracker performances for Christmas. We offer classes in beginner ballet, intermediate ballet, advanced ballet, adult ballet, tap, Zumba, and private lessons. We begin students at 2 and up with the first class always being free. At the Sterling Academy of Dance, you will study with an exciting, caring, and loving staff. You will be challenged to reach your potential as a dancer and artist in a nurturing, supportive environment.

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40 PROGRESS 2017 The biggest thing was dealing with all the leftover and stored items the church didn’t need, including desks and chairs.

The church is slowly making plans to build a standalone sanctuary on the property, which would free more space within the school for ministry, he said.

“Who knows what we’re going to do,” he said.

PROVIDENCE ELEMENTARY

The former Providence Elementary on Old Boonesboro Road is one of two former schools now home to churches.

Providence Pentecostal Church purchased the property in May 2015 to house both its church and Providence Christian School. Pastor Joey McClease said at the time, the church planned to transform the school library into a chapel for students, as well as worship space for the congregation.

The school was built in 1960, and closed at the end of the 2013-14 school year. According to news reports, the church offered $188,000 for the property and building, less than $40,000 below the appraisal price.

A year and a half after purchasing the school, both the church and school are well-established and growing.

“This holds a close place in our hearts,” said Michelle McClease, a teacher and Joey McClease’s wife. “We were glad to keep it alive.”

The building itself took little work to meet the church’s needs.

“They maintained Providence pretty well,” she said. “The only things we had to repair was where it sat empty.”

A new stage turned the former library into the chapel and sanctuary for the church, she said. Providence Christian School occupies a couple of its classrooms for its six students from kindergarten through fourth grade.

The building alone was a significant increase in space for the congregation.

“We enjoy all the land,” she said. “We only had 2,500 square feet. We came out here for 25,000 square feet and nine acres of land.

“We hope eventually to build a new sanctuary on the lot adjacent. It holds us for now. We’re looking forward to growing.”

What’s in a school’s name?

Fannie Bush Elementary

Miss Fannie Bush was the principal of the Washington Street School at the time it was destroyed by a tornado. The Clark County School Board then purchased and remodeled a two-story, eightbedroom mansion on North Main Street from the Simpson family in 1922.

The Simpson home was then named after Bush and remained the school until 1955. A new Fannie Bush Elementary was constructed in 1956 on the original grounds of the Simpson mansion at 250 N. Main St. A library addition was added in 1968.

Baker Intermediate School

Rev. Henry E. Baker Sr. was chosen in 2014 following a community write-in campaign for suggesstions. His name was chosen for the fifth- and sixthgrade center now housed in the former Clark Middle School on Martin Luther King Drive.

At the time, Baker was 92 with a legacy of community service and ministry.

Baker pastored Broadway Baptist Church for 38 years before he retired in 1993. He was also part of the integration of Winchester High School in 1956 and became Clark County’s first elected African-American when he was voted to the Winchester Board of Commissioners from 1980-84.

Hannah McClure Elementary

The former Hannah McClure Elementary School is now the Clark County Preschool. McClure’s portrait still hangs inside the front door. Beneath it is a plaque which reads, “Our first principal 195660.”

Former McClure principal Frank Vermillion said McClure taught at the Hickman Street School for many years and

the district decided to name the new school in her honor and promote her to principal. Initially, she objected to the name of the new school.

“She was a very humble person,” Vermillion said. “She finally let them do it.”

Justice Elementary Willis Justice was a former principal of Pilot View Elementary, Hannah McClure Elementary, Central Elementary and Clark County superintendent from 1979-84.

Justice Elementary is built on the site of the former Central Elementary.

Vermillion said Justice was initially hired in Clark County as principal at Pilot View. As other principals retired, Vermillion said the rest were reassigned and Justice went to McClure and Central before becoming superintendent. He retired as superintendent in 1984.

“He was my closest friend,” Vermillion said. “We ran around together as principals. Willis was a strict but good principal. He was good to be around."

Conkwright Elementary

William Conkwright was superintendent of the Clark County School District for a span of 32 years from 1936-68, including a couple years over the Winchester district as well. Vermillion recalled Conkwright visiting his tworoom schoolhouse when he was a first-grader with the other board members.

After graduating from college, Vermillion was hired

by Conkwright as a truancy officer. In the early 1960s, the Winchester school district voted to combine its high school students with the county’s at the new high school on Boone Avenue, Vermillion said.

“They didn’t like that at all,” he said. “They built it for the county and didn’t want all the city kids there. They rejected it.”

The state board of education, though, ruled to eliminate Win-

chester High School, combine the students and appointed Conkwright as Winchester’s superintendent as well, he said.

Conkwright’s name is now used for Conkwright Elementary School, which is housed in the former Conkwright Middle School on Mount Sterling Road.

Campbell Junior High School

Robert D. “Bob” Campbell was a long-time Clark County student, teacher, coach and administrator within Clark County schools. He graduated from Clark County High School in 1954 and returned after earning degrees from the University of Kentucky to teach history and coach basketball at Central School, beginning in 1958.

Through the years he served as Head Start director and principal at Belmont Junior High School and George Rogers Clark High School. He became an assistant superintendent in 1977 and remained there until he retired in 1993.

Campbell was selected as the namesake for the seventh- and eighth-grade center now housed in the former George Rogers Clark High School building at 620 Boone Ave.

Shearer Elementary

The land for Shearer Elementary was donated to the school district in 1970 by the Shearer family. The only stipulation, according to the school, was that the building be named for shipping magnate O.F. Shearer and his wife Leila Curtis Shearer.

The original school opened in 1972 and was designed for 550 students.

On Oct. 28, 1998, the school was destroyed by a fire. The current school, which opened in 2000, was built on the original site and retains the Shearer family name.

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42 PROGRESS 2017

PLANNING A PARK ‘Iconic green space’ planned for former hospital site STORY BY WHITNEY LEGGETT

A

hospital can hold deep meaning for a community. It’s where some of life’s most happy, sad, exciting and terrifying experiences take place.

Clark County’s own hospital, Clark Regional Medical Center, was tucked away on 30 acres of land just off Lexington Avenue for more than 40 years. It was between those four walls people took their first and last breaths, learned devastating news, found healing and recovery, welcomed loved ones and said their last goodbyes others dedicated their life’s work to promoting the well-being of their neighbors.

In April 2010, LifePoint Hospitals, a national firm based in Tennessee, announced its acquisition of Clark Regional Medical Center in a deal that brought a new multi-million dollar hospital to Winchester.

From the sale of the nonprofit hospital was born The Clark Regional Foundation for the Promotion of Health, which would later become known as The Greater Clark Foundation.

“The foundation was created from the sale of the hospital assets to LifePoint Hospitals,” GCF President and Chief Executive Officer Jen Algire said. “The proceeds of the sale — $24 million — went into an endowment, and the foundation

retained ownership of the land, which includes the 30 acres at the Traveling Trail on the Bypass and Colby Road and the 30 acres at 1107 W. Lexington Ave.” From that endowment, the foundation made it a point to be a catalyst for change in the community.

“The mission of the foundation is to be a community catalyst,” Algire said. “Particularly around ambition for a vibrant community and trying to create a more resilient community so when times are tough, we can respond more effectively.”

That mission includes building the capacity

PROGRESS 2017

43

of other organizations and individuals. Sometimes that work is done through grant-making, inviting public speakers or sending community members to training.

Algire said the foundation’s goal is to contribute to the economic, aesthetic and civic value in Winchester-Clark County.

One major task of the foundation was to dream of ways to repurpose the land where Clark Regional once sat.

Part of the stipulations of the sale to LifePoint was a new hospital be built, necessitating a new use for the old land, Algire said.

“For the first few years after the sale, people didn’t really think about this property too much because the hospital was still operating here,” she said. “It wasn’t until the spring and summer of 2012, when the new hospital opened, that people started to really understand we had an opportunity to do something with this piece of property.”

REPURPOSING THE PROPERTY

With the foundation’s mission to build up the community in mind, the board decided to include the community in the decision about how to use the property, which is bordered by Lexington, Maryland and Bon Haven Avenue and Interstate 64.

“When you think about where we are, we’re in the midst of two very well-established residential neighborhoods, so we started to think about how we could best use the property,” Algire said. “We decided to invite feedback from community members. What are their thoughts?

What is missing from the community? What would they like to see?”

Repurposing the space as a sort of community gathering space became paramount, Algire said.

“We pushed people to really talk more about what they meant and the idea of a green space of some kind, not just for a single purpose like baseball or football, but for the whole community, emerged,” she said.

The concept of a park wasn’t on the board’s radar at first, but the idea continued to emerge from community feedback.

“We kept hearing that we could leave a legacy of well-being in the community in the place where the hospital once stood, and of course the hospital was very important to the well-being of the community,” she said.

When the board became serious about the idea of a public green space, the public was invited to become even more involved.

In February 2013, around 100 people attended fourhours of brainstorming and interactive workshops to establish a foundation of what the community wanted to see at the space.

From that meeting, the guiding principles for the design were established, including the desire for the space to be mentally and physically inspiring, geared toward family and individual activities, intergenerational, educational, have an emphasis on interactive and functional public art and feature environmentally-friendly infrastructure. Above all else, the space needed to add cultural and economic value to the community.

Next, a committee of about 20 community members was established as an advisory committee to the project. The committee was involved in nearly 18 months of planning for the space, which became known as Project 1107.

“It was important that we had community members in a leadership role,” Algire said. “That connects with the principles of the Foundation.”

A preliminary concept was released in 2015, announcing Project 1107

Storied past, Bright future

Developed from a community steering meeting, the guiding principles of Project 1107 focus on inclusiveness, education, environmental impact and value for the community. The principles are used to make decisions regarding the park, which is still in the planning phase. (Photo submitted)

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Since the announcement in 2015, the foundation has been operating relatively “under the radar” in terms of the project, but much work has been done to prepare the site for its future use, Algire said.

“I think a lot of people thought we could stick a shovel in the ground and just get started,” she said. “They ask how hard can it be to build a park?

They forget that there are still businesses operating on the site and it’s going to be for public use, so we want to see it through. More importantly, we’ve made a commitment for this park to be best-of-class, the kind of park people aren’t going to expect from a community our size.”

Those expectations take more work than meets the eye, Algire said — which is where Beth Jones, program officer of built environment, comes in.

Jones was hired in 2014 with the chief goal of implementing the park plan.

Jones said, simply put, her job is to build a park, but that may mean any variety of tasks from day-to-day.

“On any given day to accomplish this project, it could mean I’m working on more of the business side writing requests for proposals, then I’m outside with an arborist tromping around in boots looking for invasive species to manage, to managing the land at the traveling trail, or researching security systems for park bathrooms, or public relations or outreach to neighbors.

“In any given day, it can be that diverse.”

Recently, Jones was tasked with working closely with a team of 25 Clark County children in fourth through sixth grades to plan the children’s adventure space, which will be the flagship project at the park.

RC T

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as “the intentional repurposing of the former hospital site into an iconic green space that will establish a legacy of well-being in Clark County.”

The Foundation announced the site would feature event gardens, which will include native plants and overhead shade structures, and sculptural mounds that will pay tribute to a former Native American settlement at the location.

There will be walking and running trails designed for a variety of athletic and leisure uses.

Adventure areas for children, which will include play equipment designed to encourage mental and physical activity and promote outdoor activity, also are featured in the design.

The plans include large lawn areas and interactive art pieces.

August 1, 2016 Image: March 2016

AV

PROGRESS 2017 Jones said the youth-designed play area will be located exactly where the hospital once stood and will be the most visible feature at Project 1107.

Guided by “play experts” from Learning Landcapes Design, the students became experts themselves.

“We spent time with them to learn about different play areas and play topics,” Jones said. “We asked them to think about how they want to play, then to also consider their siblings, their peers, their family and friends, even people with disabilities.”

The youth made models and suggestions for the play area.

“The designers took the models and input and brought that to life in the concept,” she said.

The play area will not only incorporate the youth’s ideas, but also aspects of local culture.

“One of the things we’ll see in the design are a couple of custom iconic pieces that specifically relate

45

nesses relocate. We see it as something that’s going to add some social cohesion — a bridge A PARALLEL PROCESS for people who normally wouldn’t Algire said right now, the Foundacome together to meet and build tion is operating on “parallel proconnections.” cesses.”

Algire said parks like Project A request for proposals for a 1107 are known to bring visitors design and construction firm is exfrom hours away and can be a pected to be approved at the board source of pride for communities. of directors’ meeting in this month.

“This park is not going to solve AN AMBITIOUS FUTURE “There’s nothing we can do any major problem, but we feel Once the park is complete, construction-wise until we have the like it’s a symbol of our comAlgire and Jones expect a huge design and construction firm onmitment so enabling the compayback on the community’s inhand,” Algire said. munity to solve problems,” she In the meantime, Jones is focused vestment. said. “Having a park that people “Overall, this park is going to heavily on site preparation. Already don’t expect to have in a comshe has worked to remove a variety bring a legacy of well-being,” munity like ours should become Jones said. “What does that of invasive vegetation and opened mean? It’s going to provide health a point of pride. We want to conthe “viewscape” from Lexington tribute to bringing that sense of benefits for exercise and stress Avenue. pride back into the community. management. It’s going to bring Three doctors’ buildings on the “The park in and of itself isn’t economic vitality to the region. property have already been regoing to fix every problem that Great public spaces create jobs moved and three more are slated ails the community, but we want for removal once the addition to the and bring new businesses to the people to see that we can dream Clark Clinic at CRMC is completed area. It’s something that is rebig and we want to prove that we ally looked for and researched this spring. can achieve what we dream.”

Algire said work on the site could in communities now when busito Clark County’s and Appalachia’s culture,” Algire said.

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begin as early as the end of 2017, though.

“It’s a project that’s going to last multiple generations,” she said.

“There’s no benefit to going fast and not really seeing it through.

We’re trying to be responsible. We have limited resources in the grand scheme and we want to be the best stewards of that.”

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46 PROGRESS 2017

Birthplace of

Beer Cheese

Beer cheese continues to spread — taking Winchester’s name with it STORY BY C AS EY C ASTLE

C

lark County’s favorite snack — the ever-versatile beer cheese — was among its best-kept secrets for awhile.

And while it might not be a household name just yet, its popularity is certainly on the rise. Winchester’s Beer Cheese Festival will enjoy its ninth year this summer. The local Beer Cheese Trail is in its third year. Fast food chain Hardee’s menu features a Budweiser beer cheese bacon burger.

As diverse as it is adaptable — there are as many recipes for the dish as there are ways to eat it — beer cheese has become nearly as ever-present as Winchester’s other culinary mainstay — the soft drink Ale-8-One. The two are linked in ways other than just Clark County’s dietary culture. In

2013, state legislation passed to proclaim Clark County the “Birthplace of Beer Cheese.” It was the same year a similar measure was passed proclaiming Ale-8 the official soft drink of the Bluegrass state.

While that legitimized the two at least in Kentucky, it also swayed Executive Director of Winchester-Clark County Tourism Commission Nancy Turner’s strategy for attracting tourists.

“That really got a lot of wheels turning and we switched our focus a little bit,” she said. “While we’ll always concentrate on history, we shifted some focus to culinary attractions and the timing was right for that.”

Not only is beer cheese enjoying some time in the sun, but Kentucky tourism has turned to the state’s culinary specialities to draw in travelers and “foodies,” which

PROGRESS 2017 helps push beer cheese into the spotlight.

“Culinary tourism is huge in Kentucky right now — it’s really huge everywhere,” Turner said.

“But we have so many dishes and foods that are unique to this state that no one else can claim.

Luckily for Clark County, beer cheese and Ale-8 are two of those.”

Even the most delicious versions of beer cheese won’t draw people in if no one knows they exist.

That’s where the Beer Cheese Trail comes in. The eight-stop tour of Winchester and Clark County’s restaurants gives visitors an incentive to “try ‘em all.” Buying a beer cheese item from five of the eight locations will earn you a T-shirt.

Getting all eight makes you a “Beer Cheese Ambassador” with a chance of being randomly selected as a guest amateur judge in the annual Beer Cheese Festival.

“We know, at minimum, people are spending $50, because by the time you do the trail, you’re making that kind of investment,” Turner said.

“Along with that, they’re exploring our heritage and a lot of times finding more they can do here just because they got off the road to come and do the Beer Cheese Trail.”

At least one day a year, a lot of people find their way to downtown Winchester to celebrate beer cheese — thousands of them.

The Beer Cheese Festival offers more than just a chance to taste some of the best beer cheese for festival-goers and a shot at bragging rights for vendors, it has grown to include arts and crafts vendors, food vendors, a kids’ area and other entertainment.

“It’s surprised all of us how big it’s gotten, especially for a one-day festival,” Main Street Winchester Executive Director Rachel Alexander said. “We want to continue to build on that success.”

Alexander and the festival committee mean more than just drawing a bigger crowd when saying “build.” They want to draw in more festival-goers and more vendors — and more professional beer cheese manufacturers.

“Every year, more people are familiar with the

festival,” Alexander said. “We’re only on our ninth year so there’s lots of people who haven’t heard about us yet.”

To do that, Alexander has asked the state for a list of registered businesses who make beer cheese. Vendors who participated in previous years will get an invite. To help recruit more competitors, the prize for victory has increased.

The winner of the judged competition and the people’s choice award-winner both get $1,000, along with ad packages totaling more than $5,000. Second place will win $300 and third place $200 in 2017. Even competitors who don’t walk away with the coveted hardware will be showcased in advertising for the event.

“With what we’ve put together for this year, we hope we can attract a more robust group of competitors,” Alexander said.

To help spread the word, Turner and Alexander are cooperating to piggyback on each other’s efforts. The Beer Cheese Festival and the Beer Cheese Trail will work to cross-promote as the two advertise in different markets.

There’s also talk of giving out a special reward alongside the trail’s T-shirt if the cheese log is completed at the festival. How that combination will look is still up in the air, but the two sides are definitely interested in creating an incentive for trail-goers to take part in the festival or getting festival-goers interested in the trail.

HOW FAR CAN BEER CHEESE GO?

Beer cheese is not a snack interested in sitting on its laurels.

While the Beer Cheese Trail has eight stops, there’s no reason the lineup won’t change — or expand.

“The more the merrier,” Turner said. “If we add stops, we’d want to change the formula. If we have 15, we’d probably require more than five stamps.

“We’re revisiting the trail every year or so.

We want to make sure our current partners are happy. Do they want to stay on? Are there additional restaurants who want to be a part of it?”

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A Beer Cheese Trail Committee will also review the requirements for joining the trail. As of now, the dish must be original to the restaurant and be prepared on site.

“Are we alienating other Clark County beer cheeses?” Turner said. “You don’t want to go to five restaurants and have the same beer cheese.

We want it to be unique. But we want to promote Winchester and Clark County, so it will be interesting to see what the discussion looks like.”

The Beer Cheese Festival will continue to find ways to grow. Beer Cheese Boulevard — the taste-testing area which serves as the festival’s centerpiece — could run from Washington Street to the Bluegrass Heritage Museum, and Alexander would love to see the event reach a point where the entire space is used. She would also like to see it be a weekend-long event as interest grows.

In 2018, the festival and Winchester’s Rock the Block concert series will combine to create a pseudo two-day event.

“We started Rock the Block on Saturday and it was a great event, but this year we’ve moved it to Friday because we think it will do better. With scheduling conflicts, we had to go with the last Friday in June this year,” Alexander said. “But next year, we plan to do the second Friday so the concert will happen before the Beer Cheese Festival. We can pull those together as one bigger event.”

The festival has grown in attendance each year, though by how much depends largely on the weather. In its third year, the event had an estimated 3,000 attendees. Last year, around 12,000 braved the sweltering heat to visit downtown Winchester for the event.

While the word spreads — like beer cheese across a cracker — the snack and its influence will continue to grow. Alexander and Turner will continue refining how the community can showcase it.

“There’s always room for improvement,” Turner said. “And we want it to be the best we can make.

That’s the objective.”

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48 PROGRESS 2017

Twister Tale STORY BY S ETH LIT TR E LL

F

or Gary Epperson and Bill Kennon, the date of April 3, 1974, will live on in infamy.

It was not only the day they narrowly survived a direct hit from a tornado, it was also the day they say their faith in God was reaffirmed.

For Epperson, the day began as a relaxing spring morning without a care in the world.

“I had just got back from spending the winter in California, and I got back to my mom’s place out on Old Ruckerville Road toward the end of March,” Epperson said. “I was trying to regroup and figure out what I was going to do now that I had gotten back.”

Part of that consideration included mastering the martial arts, which Epperson said he had taken an interest in. To that end, he in-

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Clark residents recall harrowing experience during 1974 tornado

vited his karate instructor and lifelong friend Kennon over that afternoon to practice their katas.

“I was totally unaware of the weather, totally out of touch with the forecast and everything,” Epperson said. “Evidently my parents were too because my mom and dad had left just before (the storm) to go to church. My dad was an elder and song leader at Pharis Hill Christian Church, which is about three miles down Old Ruckerville Road. They had invited us but we declined of course. We decided that working out and doing martial arts was more important.”

The two spent the afternoon out in a field near Epperson’s family farmhouse practicing karate until they noticed the sky getting darker, but not the way it normally did in the evening.

“The sky had a funny color to it, kinda green and yellow, weird looking,” Kennon said. “We looked up and there was checks falling from the sky from banks in Richmond. It spooked us a little bit.”

Epperson said he and Kennon decided to go inside the house and make dinner. But while they were inside cooking, they began to notice how deathly quiet it had gotten outside.

When they looked out a window to see what was happening, Epperson and Kennon said they were shocked.

“All of a sudden I’m looking out the window and the wood house which we had just filled up just shook and went right across the yard and was gone. Everything was gone. There wasn’t nothing but a spot where it was,” Kennon said.

Epperson then recalled how the winds

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PROGRESS 2017 caused his family’s large tobacco barn to “implode” and disappear into the sky.

“So we grabbed each other, and we stuck our heads underneath this little couch in my mom’s dining room/kitchen area,” Epperson said. “We asked God to protect us and spare our lives. We literally — both of us — thought it was the end, we really did. We promised that if he saved us, we’d be in church the next Sunday.”

While they were on the floor, Kennon said the windows bowed inward like bubbles before shattering and throwing glass throughout the house.

After what both men describe as the longest few minutes of their lives, the tornado passed and they left the house to examine the damage.

“We could still hear people screaming all up and down the road,” Epperson said. “To be entirely honest with you, I didn’t even know it was a tornado. I didn’t know what had happened.”

The two decided they should go to check on Epperson’s parents at the church, so they went to the driveway to get in Gary’s vehicle.

“I had a Volkswagen van, and pretty much everything I owned was in that Volkswagen van. I had my climbing gear, my camping gear, my guitar and bongos, my food and my clothes,” he said.

But when they arrived at the driveway, the van was gone. Epperson and Kennon said there was no sign of it anywhere, and Kennon’s car, a heavier Oldsmobile that had been parked right next to the van in the driveway, had been blown into the center of a nearby road.

They jumped into the Oldsmobile and began driving to the church only to find that a fallen tree had blocked the road.

“Well, you hear the story of how when you get so much adrenaline you get superhuman powers or whatever,” Epperson said. “Well

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there was a tree laying across the road. Bill and I get out and we grab that daggone tree and we pulled that sucker out of the road. I can’t believe we actually did it.”

When they reached the church, Epperson discovered his parents were fine.

“They just said there had been a storm up there,” he said. “They weren’t even aware of the tornado hitting.”

When the family returned to the farmhouse, the scope of the destruction set in.

“My dad fell asleep standing up in the kitchen, I never will forget that,” Epperson said.

Epperson and Kennon both say the tornado made them more weather aware.

Epperson said he lost most of his belong-

49

ings when his van blew away, and he had to scrounge for clothing in the following days.

The Winchester Sun reported on April 4, 1970, that 89 people in Kentucky were killed in the massive storm. Multiple tornadoes touched down all over the eastern central United States, leading to President Richard Nixon declaring Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee to be areas of national disaster.

Fifteen people in Clark County were reported to have been treated at the Clark County Hospital for injuries sustained in the storm. Though there were no deaths, the twister destroyed nearly all of the trailers in Wills Trailer Park on Iron Works Road and heavily damaged George Rogers Clark High School, leading to millions of dollars in property damage throughout the county.

Epperson and Kennon did their parts to help the community recover in the aftermath of the disaster.

And they were both in church the following Sunday.

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50 PROGRESS 2017

The buzz on

BEES

Beekeepers gather to preserve, protect pollinators STORY BY S ETH LIT TR E LL

of Clark County’s agricultural element, and beekeepers can play a vital role in controlling growing group in Clark County is swarms in urban areas while at the same time beginning to generate considerable buzz. creating local products.

While not yet an official club, the Pollinators, like honey bees, travel from group gets together once a month at the Clark plant to plant collecting nectar. As they do, County Extension Office to discuss beekeepthey spread pollen that helps the plants reing. produce.

“This got started a couple years ago through However, some modern farm practices like a winter school,” Agricultural Agent David the increased use of pesticides, have had Davis said. negative affects on the populations of bees After several Clark Countians said they and other pollinators that allow plants to rewere interested in learning more about beeproduce. keeping, the group began meeting in 2015.

Many beekeepers also try to educate people on what farming conditions are bad for bees.

As pollinators, bees are an integral part

A

One such beekeeper is Craig Stotts, who said he initially began keeping bees to supply his wife, Molly, with honey she could use to bake.

However, he soon became interested in beekeeping and now has as many as eight hives on his family’s small farm in the city. The extra honey generated by the hives is then packaged and sold by the Stotts’ business, My Father’s Garden, at the Winchester-Clark County Farmers’ Market.

“I just thought it was the right thing to do, and it’s an interesting subculture,” Stotts said.

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PROGRESS 2017 with lessons learned from years of experience, Stotts is one of several area beekeepers who can help people in the community deal with swarms of bees which occur when a hive produces a new queen and she, along with her followers, goes in search of a new place to build a hive.

“Beekeepers can capture swarms and use them to make honey,” Davis said.

Stotts and others in the community will collect the swarms for free and take them home to their hives, increasing their own potential to create honey while at the same time controlling the location of the bee population.

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES

The popularity of the group has led some to discuss the possibility of creating a Clark County Beekeepers’ Association.

If established, the association would give the beekeepers of the community an official club and a unified voice to promote education about the environmental importance of raising honeybees as well as the impact modern farming tech-

niques have had on bee populations.

The group recently met to hear about the organization and operation of the Blue Grass Beekeepers Association based in Lexington.

Davis said while some Clark County beekeepers showed interest in forming an association, no one has stepped forward to take the lead on the project.

He said while he and the extension would support the creation of an association in any way it could, he is not a beekeeper himself and does not have the time needed to commit to a leadership role. However, the extension office does see itself having a role in the future of beekeeping in the county.

“We’re about education,” Davis said.

“It’s as much about educating these folks because (bees) are so important for agriculture. Farmers need bees to pollinate crops.”

Davis said anyone considering starting a hive in Clark County should come to the beekeepers meetings to get advice from more experienced beekeepers.

The group meets every third Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Extension Office.

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52 PROGRESS 2017

Remodeling the

‘FRONT PORCH’ Competition gym, athletic fields planned at GRC campus STORY BY CASEY CASTLE

I

f the words of Oregon State University Athletic Director Scott Barnes are true — “Athletics are the front porch of the university” — then George Rogers Clark High School must have a hard time accepting guests.

“It’s not the most important room in the house, but it is the most visible,” Barnes argued.

GRC is one of the newest schools in the state. It’s a beautiful campus — albeit one with no competitive facility and no way for its entire student body to gather in one place.

The school was built in an effort to fix facilities issues across the district. By combining middle schools into the old high school, the district was able to shutter older, smaller elementary schools. But the resources were not available to complete the campus — namely

a competition gym, football field, baseball and softball fields and tennis courts.

The land is cleared and graded for the addition of those facilities but when those will be in place has been a mystery until recently.

The competition gym’s expanded size caused a bureaucratic delay, but officials consider it a formality to get the waivers necessary to break ground once the ground thaws in late spring.

Part of the expanded size was to help accommodate graduation ceremonies for the high school.

“The gym is larger than recommended,” GRC Athletic Director Jamie Keene said. “Once we explained the graduation purpose, the Kentucky Department of Education was on board.

We don’t foresee any problems.”

Still, the facilities probably won’t be available for use until the 2018-19 academic year.

That’s one more year of sharing the facilities at Campbell Junior High and shuffling around to other gyms in the district. While that seems like a mere inconvenience, it can have a lot of trickle-down effects.

“The district has a lot of gyms but that’s a bit of a misconception,” Campbell Athletic Director Ken Howard said. “They aren’t sitting empty. All the elementary school gyms have after-school care. Typically, those kids are in those gyms until 6 p.m. Those schools have their own assemblies, plays and ceremonies.

There’s not a lot of time they sit empty.

“So we have to beg and borrow and use gyms

as they are available. Sometimes that is inconvenient, but the adults in this community are working together. The principals at those schools have been very welcoming to us. They understand. They get it.”

The schools have shared and shuffled events since the high school opened in 2014.

While the programs in the district have shared amicably, just about everyone is ready for Campbell to be Campbell and GRC to be GRC. “We have a great working relationship with the Campbell administration,” Keene said.

“But they are just as excited to have their own identity.”

“I think teams should practice in the gym they play in,” Howard said. “We don’t have that luxury.”

So while some are anxiously awaiting all of the competition fields and courts to be complete, the gym is the real pearl.

“Having everything here so when school ends our coaches and players won’t have to go somewhere else to compete or have practice,” Keene said. “Having that additional gym will help in so many ways. Right now, the dance team practices in the lobby. Cheerleaders practice at Baker (Intermediate School). Having that additional gym alows us to have more of our sports teams on our campus and not have to involve other facilities.”

Once built, the competition gym at the high school — which has an auxiliary gymnasium for practices — will have locker rooms, weight

PROGRESS 2017

53

rooms and meeting rooms, as well as a trophy showcase and a lobby. It will be large enough to host graduation ceremonies and 10th Region basketball tournaments with a capacity of about 4,500.

“That gym is encompassing more than just a basketball court,” Howard said. “It should be the biggest gym in the region when it’s completed. That’s going to attract a lot of people to our community and our school district. That’s never a bad thing.”

And it will help people who come looking for a game and can’t find one.

“It will make life easier for a lot of people,” Keene said. “It makes life easier for the administrators, students, parents — they will have just one location where their children will be. It helps visiting teams. As much as we try to communicate where games are played, people show up at the wrong place for the game. Once we get those events on this campus, everyone will know it’s right here.”

For GRC students, a gym of that size would offer something they have never had.

“We are four years without having a schoolwide assembly,” Keene said. “That’s going to be a welcome change.”

Keene said going so long without a schoolwide pep rally has had a negative impact on the student body’s interest in its competitive teams. But not even considering those, there have been no school-wide speakers or a chance to get all the students together.

“Having the ability to get the entire student body together at the beginning of the year will be a big difference,” he said. “Our students deserve this. Our community deserves this.”

It’s not clear just how the rest of the district’s facilities will be affected once the facilities are operating on GRC’s campus.

The varsity girls and boys soccer teams compete at the Cardinal Soccer Complex on the campus of Strode Station Elementary. The GRC baseball team has a field inside the city near the Clark County Preschool. The high school softball field is on the hill behind Campbell.

The middle school baseball team plays at Lykins Park, while its soccer teams compete at Justice Elementary — a very limited competitive site.

When the high school football and basketball teams move operations to GRC’s campus, the middle school teams would take over the facilities left behind at Campbell. But what about the rest?

“We haven’t been in talks deep enough to sort those things out,” Keene said. “We don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We want to get the facilities built here.

“The soccer teams may still want to use (the soccer complex at Strode Station) for some things. It’s a beautiful complex. The Bermuda grass is immaculate. But on a rainy day, they may come to the high school and play on the turf. But our middle school needs a place to play, too. So we haven’t dove into those discussions enough to know what’s going to happen.”

Until the gym and fields are a reality, Howard and Keene will continue their juggling act. Maybe as the construction progresses, they will allow themselves to get used to the idea of a relatively lower-stress competitive season.

“What will excite me is when ground is broken,” Howard said. “When they break ground, there’s no turning back. I’m excited for that.”

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54 PROGRESS 2017

Hometown hero

Dale Hatton leverages power of social media to help needy families

of their own things after joining a Facebook group called People Helping People. They also took up donations for the Clark County Homeless Coalition through another Facebook group.

About five years ago, they decided to do it on their own and later through Dale’s own Facebook.

STORY BY C ALLI E M I LLE R “There are just so many good people in n their first date, Dale and Terah Hat- Winchester that are willing to help,” Dale ton, now married 11 years, passed an said. elderly man pushing a cart while they Dale thinks it makes a difference when peodrove down Main Street. ple know their donations are going directly to Terah remembers Dale pulling the car over a home in need, which makes them feel more on the side of the road, and watched as he willing to give. jumped out and pressed some money in the When someone messages or calls Dale tellman’s hand. ing him they can’t afford to buy something, he “And I said, ‘That’s a good man,’” Terah remakes a post explaining to his 2,500 Facebook called. friends what that person needs. People then Dale has proven that statement true over comment on the post with their belongings the last decade, as he dedicates his time help- they are willing to part with. ing people in need.

Dale picks up the furniture, clothing, toys Dale doesn’t use Facebook for the reason and anything else to hand-deliver to the permost people do. Instead, he uses the power of son in need. He said his top priority is to help social media to connect with and help people people who have had house fires. in need.

Dale is on the board for Beacon of Hope, the Through his personal Facebook page, Dale emergency homeless shelter in Winchester, reaches out to the community on a regular and aside from helping with fundraisers, he basis. One donation at a time, Dale is making also asks the community for donations — Winchester and surrounding towns a better anything from silverware to couches — to place. help people furnish their new homes when Dale and Terah began by donating some they leave the shelter.

O

Before Dale’s parents died, they told him, “If I give you any advice, I want you to help as many people as you can help,” he said.

He took that advice to heart.

“From then on, I just kind of started making that my focus — to help anybody I could help,” he said.

Dubbed “blessing trips” by his wife, Dale sometimes drives through neighborhoods when he has extra food to give away.

One time in particular, “We just drove though poorer neighborhoods and handed mac ‘n cheese and tomatoes out the window,” Terah recalled. “I mean, it sounds insane, but it’s a blast.”

Sometimes, it’s as easy as moving a TV to a home across a street. Other times, since Dale doesn’t have a truck, he enlists the help of his Facebook friends to move furniture to neighboring towns.

“It’s more of a passion than a hobby,” he said.

His passion stems from personal experience.

“I’ve been there,” he said simply.

Dale didn’t have much growing up, living in a three-room house without indoor plumbing.

He had to work hard until he got in a position where he was able to help other people in return.

The Hattons dedicate at least 20 hours a week to the outreach projects. Usually, when

PROGRESS 2017 Dale leaves Millennium Motors, where he works as the sales manager, he commits a good portion of the rest of his evening to the community.

Though he tries to get finished by 8 p.m., he still takes calls and tries to be available at all times.

Dale once helped a man who lived in Winchester’s homeless shelter and walked every day from there to Kroger, where he worked.

When he saved up enough money to get an apartment, he moved in on his birthday weekend. Dale said his most memorable moment was filling the man’s entire apartment with gifts with the help of friends while he was at work.

“He had nothing,” Dale said.

The same man now volunteers at Beacon of Hope with Dale.

Modern Woodmen, a financial services organization, presented Dale with the “Hometown Hero” award in October for his efforts in the community.

“I get calls and messages constantly, and I tried my best at first to keep up with every one of them,” he said. “I had to slow down because it was emotionally and physically wearing me out. That’s probably the hardest thing,

just not being able to help somebody.”

Storage is one of Dale’s biggest problems.

He doesn’t like to turn away donations, but sometimes he doesn’t have room for them.

Many times though, Terah said a friend will donate something, and then shortly after, someone messages Dale looking for that thing, and they are able to give it away. She doesn’t think this is a coincidence.

“It’s the big man,” she said.

Though most of the exchanges go well, Dale said some people have taken advantage of his giving nature.

“I’ve had people, like, I’d give them a washer, and the next day I’d see it on the trading post for sale,” he said. “I’ve gotten a lot more selective on who I help.”

Now he does home visits so he knows their situation before helping them.

Dale also donates presents to children for their birthdays when their parents can’t afford to buy gifts, and he gets especially busy around the holidays.

“We made some Christmas miracles come true,” Terah said.

However, there is no age limit to the people Dale helps. Dale said one grandmother cried when he brought a Christmas dinner to her

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“You know when they start crying that they really needed it,” Dale said. “I do God’s work.”

Though he works right up until the holidays, he takes time off to spend those special days with his family. And although the outreach work can sometimes become time-consuming, Dale’s family does their best to be understanding.

Terah said if she ever feels he is spending too much time being “the hero,” she doesn’t tell him to stop, but instead makes it an opportunity for family time. The Hattons sometimes bring their children on their ‘blessing trips’ so they can spend quality time together and instill in their kids the values they were taught.

During these trips, Dale gets most excited on the drive to a home, knowing how happy he is about to make the families he visits. The kids in neighborhoods he goes to often even know his name.

“I would just start knocking on doors, and then everybody just starts yelling, ‘Hey, hey, Mr. Dale’s here!’” he said. They’d all come to the back of the truck, and I’d start passing it out, cases of stuff. It’s the coolest feeling.”

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56 PROGRESS 2017

Firehouse

FOOD Local chef brings gourmet eats downtown STORY BY FRED PETKE

ployee, accepted an offer to lease the space and reinvigorate the Engine House. he building which houses the Engine “In 1994, I attended culinary school,” Atkins House Deli + Pub has been a focal point of downtown Winchester for more said. “I worked for Bob that summer.”

The deli became an important place, as Atthan a century. kins’ career as a chef took off and he traveled Originally, the building was just that: the around the country. engine house for the Winchester Fire Depart“Every time I was in Winchester, I was at ment, along with City Hall and the first library, (one of) three places: my parents, my buddy’s built in 1885.

In more recent decades, it’s been a destina- house or the Engine House. I’d sit there with my buddies and catch up or talk to Bob. Over tion for good food. For about three decades, the years, I’d talk to Bob about my beer cheese Bob Tabor ran Engine House Deli and made or he’d come to my restaurant. He came to me River Rat beer cheese from the building on about doing something with the deli when it Lexington Avenue. was inactive,” he said.

In 2015, Steve Atkins, a former Tabor em-

T

In early 2014, Atkins had been contracted to cook at the Winchester County Club and started a catering company in town. The country club, though, left his staff with a lot of time on their hands. He started thinking about Tabor’s offer.

“It dawned on me I could prepare the food at the club and shoot it over to the deli,” Atkins said. “It was a win-win because we gave the deli a breath of life. Basically, I got to keep the people I had employed.”

It soon became Engine House Deli + Pub, with an upgraded menu and a new presence.

“We built the bar,” he said. “We’re offering a lot of locally- and regionally-produced beers.

PROGRESS 2017 That hadn’t been done before. We did some changes aesthetically with the interior and lights.”

The decor under Tabor’s management was eclectic, to say the least. In a 2008 interview with the Sun, Tabor spoke of the old bathtub, a fire alarm from an Ohio fire station, a bench from the long-demolished Winchester railroad depot, a marquee from the Leeds Theater and a soda fountain from a drug store in Morehead.

“My food is nostalgic as well as the decor,” Tabor said at the time.

There was a lot of cleaning before the revamped restaurant opened, Atkins said.

“We’ve done the best we could to clean it up,” he said. “We kept a few of Bob’s old things and put my spin on them.”

The response to the rebooted deli, though, surprised Atkins.

“Frankly, it did three times the business I thought it would,” he said. “I’ve been very pleased with it. The support we’ve gotten from the community is outstanding. We’ve made a lot of people happy.”

Now, Atkins is planning on opening a second restaurant in downtown Winchester on Main Street across from the Clark County Courthouse. The grand opening will occur later this

Expires March 31, 2017

57

spring, he said, for the presently unnamed eatery.

“The new building offers an opportunity to have a kitchen large enough (for things) I’m unable to do right now: prepare plated meals you’re not going to find around here,” he said.

“We’ll be able to use local produce. It’s offering that opportunity for growth.”

The restaurant, he said, will have one half with deli-style food. The other half will be geared toward private dining, with plated entrees and a full bar.

“They’re going to be refined and well-turned out meals,” he said.

The menu will be “as local as possible” with three or four core offerings and the rest will change frequently, depending on what is available locally, he said.

It’s also the opportunity to invest in downtown Winchester.

“I’ve traveled a lot and it’s difficult to find anywhere like downtown Winchester for the architecture and friendly feel,” Atkins said.

“The community’s response and patronage has shown myself and other folks doing business downtown … it is possible. There’s significant investment in downtown. We’re actually making some stuff happen.”

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LOCAL AGENTS SINCE 1949 PROUDLY REPRESENTING

58 PROGRESS 2017

A century of care Clark Regional celebrates 100 years in community STORY BY S ETH LIT TR E LL

F

rom operating out of a house after its founding in 1917 to an expanding campus with 500 employees, Clark Regional Medical Center has seen substantial growth and success over the course of its first century in existence.

The hospital is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2017, and administrators say CRMC’s growth is not done yet.

According to CRMC board member Ed Mastrean, much of the success the hospital has seen in recent years is a result of it being purchased in 2010 by LifePoint Health headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Mastrean said the hospital’s board — which oversaw operations prior to the sale — was interested in selling to LifePoint because of its track record in making small and mid-sized hospitals successful in the region.

“We didn’t just want to be a transfer station to a hospital in Lexington,” Mastrean said. “We wanted a full-service hospital here in Clark County.”

In the Bluegrass region, LifePoint also owns hospitals in Versailles, Georgetown and Paris.

CRMC Chief Executive Officer Cherie Sibley said the communication among the hospitals has created a valuable network for information sharing, especially about health issues

Storied past, Bright future

specific to the area, such as finding the best approaches to handle the epidemic of drug abuse that has escalated in recent years.

Another advantage of having a parent company has been the ease with which expansion at the hospital has been facilitated, Sibley said.

“If the hospital was on its own it would have to look into getting loans to cover the expansion costs,” she said. “We don’t have that issue.”

In fact, LifePoint announced plans to build the current facility off Lexington Road as soon as it acquired CRMC. The $70-million campus was completed in 2012, and in 2015, the hospital broke ground on a 45,000-square-foot expansion of its Clark Clinic that will be completed this year.

Sibley said the expansion will create room for services that have been in demand locally, including cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation, a sleep clinic, a wound care clinic, a center for rehabilitation, a diabetes clinic, a Coumadin clinic, a congestive heart failure clinic and additional physician suites.

PROGRESS 2017 A COMMUNITY PARTNER

The expansion of services to match local needs is not new for CRMC, Sibley said, it’s how the hospital has been running since the creation of its new campus offered room to expand.

“When someone is having a medical emergency, every second counts,” Sibley said. “Being able to provide services here so people don’t need to go to another town to access a hospital is a benefit to the community.”

CRMC marketing director Katy Hedge said in addition to helping in emergency situations, having a hospital conveniently located in town helps remove barriers for people who need regular or even preventative care.

“Some people have issues finding transportation to go to Lexington or to other hospitals,” Hedge said.

The convenience of offering an increasing number of services locally is just one way CRMC acts as a community partner, Sibley said.

Hospital staff and volunteers are also often out in the community participating in health fairs and other events to promote public health.

Clark Regional is also the

OVER 40 YEARS IN BUSINESS. LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED

county’s second-largest employer — behind Clark County Public Schools — with nearly 500 employees and more than 75 physicians on staff.

Many employees have been with the hospital since before the sale to LifePoint, when the hospital was still located at 1107 W. Lexington Ave. “Our staff and volunteers do an outstanding job,” Sibley said. “Our health fairs and community outreach wouldn’t be possible without them.”

But the hospital doesn’t have to directly hire people to help bring jobs to the community.

“When companies are looking to locate in a community, one of the first things they look for is whether or not there is a fullservice hospital there,” Sibley said.

Much like the quality of a school district, the size and quality of a hospital are often looked at by businesses and individuals thinking about making a community their home.

FUTURE OF CRMC

Sibley said after a century of providing quality health care, Clark Regional is far from finished.

The hospital is constantly

Many Clark Regional Medical Center employees have been around to see not only the sale of the hospital, but advances in medical technology. Sheri Reynolds, pictured at right and above, has worked at CRMC for 31 years and now serves at director of radiology. (Photo submitted)

59

Churches

60 PROGRESS 2017

The Clark Clinic houses the offices of a variety of doctors, including local pediatrictian Dr. Lauren Kostelnik, pictured above with a patient.

looking at ways to improve its scope of services and quality of care, and even more initiatives are on the horizon.

One example is the hospital’s partnership with the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky to provide oncology services.

Sibley said many of the medical professionals on staff are UK graduates, and she thinks the partnership will strengthen both entities.

Mastrean said the progress CRMC has made is exactly what the hospital’s board of directors was looking for when they made the decision to sell to LifePoint.

“We want this to be a hospital that people traveling on Interstate 64 will come to if they need care, rather than continuing through to someplace else,” he said.

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