News

LOCAL BRIEFS: Brookes honor, Literacy Council directors, life center award

Linda Brookes’s son, John Brookes, and Charlotte Overbaugh cut ribbon.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 17, 2018

Theater honors Brookes

Friends, supporters and leaders of Hendersonville Community Theatre celebrated the dedication of a reception area in honor of longtime member Linda Brookes, who passed away last March.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Linda Brookes was a Henderson County resident since 1973. After retiring as an educator, she devoted the next 25 years to the community theater in her adopted hometown. The consummate volunteer, she could be found selling tickets at the box office, serving patrons at the refreshment counter, performing on stage as a delightful comic actress and directing shows. She twice served as board president and was awarded the HCT John Palmer Award for efforts on behalf of HCT. She was also a major financial supporter of the theater, donating more than $100,000 over her lifetime.

Literacy Council 
adds new directors

The Blue Ridge Literacy Council Board of Directors at its December meeting elected new board members who begin three-year terms this month.
The new board members are:
• Margaret Price, a retired nurse executive and health care administration consultant. A volunteer tutor in the English as a Second Language program, Price will represent tutors on the Program Committee.
• Helen Bishop, who has a diverse background in high level leadership and training positions, most recently in the Unitarian Universalist Church. She is currently an organizational development consultant for nonprofit organizations. A volunteer in the Family Literacy Program, Bishop will serve on the Board Development and Governance Committee.
• Octavia Dunbar, an employment consultant with the North Carolina Department of Commerce with training and experience in human resources. She previously worked as a paralegal and social worker at Pisgah Legal Services. Dunbar will serve on the Resource Development Committee.
Blue Ridge Literacy Council matches adult learners with volunteer tutors who are trained to provide instruction in ESL, reading, math, GED preparation and job skills. Students are both adults for whom English is not their native language and native English speakers who, for various reasons including learning disabilities, did not achieve a high level of literacy. Some tutors help eligible students prepare for the U.S. citizenship examination while they study English.
Tutors and students meet at the Literacy Council office at Blue Ridge Community College, in the public library, churches and other donated spaces.
Family Literacy is a new program this year and a collaboration with Smart Start, supported in part by the United Way. The program is designed to break the cycle of multigenerational poverty by educating both children and their families. Family Literacy groups meet at Grace Lutheran Church, another supporter.

Life Care Center 
earns business award

Life Care Center of Hendersonville recently won the Business Development Award of Excellence for parent company Life Care Centers of America’s Blue Ridge Region.
 
On Dec. 5, Life Care’s Eastern Division held a banquet at the company headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee, honoring one skilled nursing and rehab facility in each of its five regions.
 
Life Care Center of Hendersonville was nominated for establishing a partnership with local orthopedic doctors and for being chosen as a premier post-acute provider by Park Ridge Health.
 
“Winning the business development award was a tremendous honor,” said Kathy Carver, business development director at the facility. “We spent a lot of hours and legwork on the campaign, and our entire team was proud of our accomplishment.”
 
Life Care Center of Hendersonville, at 400 Thompson St., is one of two rehabilitation and skilled nursing centers in North Carolina managed by Life Care Centers of America.
 

Family Resource Center 
receives grant for PREP

The Children & Family Resource Center received a $45,000 grant from the Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation to provide salary support for a Coordinator for the Preschoolers Reaching Educational Potential Program (PREP), which prepares children for successful learning through early detection of developmental delays.
Every year, PREP coordinators screen more than 1,100 preschoolers in three key areas of development: motor and concept skills; social and language skills; and vision and hearing. Follow-up services and/or referrals are provided for children who show signs of delay in any of these areas.
Since 1996, the Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation has awarded 1,835 grants on behalf of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas South Central Community, totaling more than $83.1 million to organizations serving unserved or underserved populations. In this recent grant cycle, Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation awarded $1,001,728 to 26 non-profit organizations. Of the 26 grants, 12 were in the area of education totaling $460,975; 10 went to social services for a total of $402,753; the remaining 4 were health care related totaling $138,000. The organizations that received grants are located in Buncombe, Gaston, Henderson, Jackson, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Richland, Rutherford, Union and Watauga counties in North Carolina and York County, South Carolina.