Area Families Help Operation Christmas Child Change Lives with Simple Gifts

Maynardville, TN, July 2021— Union County families believe it is never too early to make a difference, which is why, whether it is July or December, they are transforming shoeboxes into gifts of joy. Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, delivers the shoeboxes—filled with school supplies, hygiene items and fun toys—to children in need worldwide.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Sew ‘N Vac in Knoxville, TN with my mother-in-law, who had tinkered with her sewing machine and gotten the settings mixed up, so we took it in for service. The owner, Steve Osborne, remembered trading with her more than a decade ago. She traded her mother’s old quilter for a new sewing machine. Osborne looked it over and fixed the settings and replaced a missing foot and refused to take any money for the service. He was just taking care of a customer.

The Union County 4-H Demonstration and Interactive Exhibits Contests allows youth to highlight their exceptional presentation abilities in a supportive environment at our Annual Achievement Day. Youth will learn from professionals as well as their fellow 4-H members.

2021 Union County High School graduate and four-year letter winner Caitlin Mays has received a softball scholarship and signed with Milligan University.
Mays finished her career with the UCHS girls’ softball team with an impressive batting average of .319.
“Caitlin is a hard worker and an overall great kid to coach,” said Coach Lance Lay. “Milligan is getting a special kind of student and player. I wish her the best.”

Chiropractic colleges accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) offer Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree programs. (CCE is the agency certified by the U.S. Department of education to accredit chiropractic colleges in the United States.) Admission to a chiropractic college requires a minimum of 90 semester hour credits of undergraduate study, mostly in the sciences.

I truly believed I was going to have a fun adventure to tell my friends when I got back home. Let’s just say things didn’t go as planned.
Let me back up a little here. It was the summer of 1980 and I was fifteen years old. Mom, Mamaw Jo, Papaw E.O., and I were spending the weekend in Fletcher, NC. In case you’ve never heard of it, Fletcher is a small town just a little east of Asheville. Papaw’s army buddy Porter lived there and he invited us over to spend the weekend with him and his family.

The Bible tells us that in the beginning, God gave the first man and woman only one commandment. They could eat of all the trees of the Garden of Eden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God had a very good reason for this. Before they ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve were innocent like children, not knowing that anything was wrong.

This salad is so pretty. Tasty, too. It could be the star of your potluck recipes. It will stand alone as a supper dish as well.

At the beginning of my first class in college, the instructor drew two circles on the chalkboard; one huge one and a tiny circle above it. He explained that most of humanity fits in the large circle. College educated people were in the small circle. We were in the small one, he said. Ok, but there are some mighty strange ones on our circle. let me explain.

Normally I am a plant lover kind of guy, but there is a group of foreigners that I love to hate. They are classed exotic invasive plants, and they are determined to take over the world an acre at a time, disrupting native plants and ecosystems as they go. Probably the most notorious and recognized invasive in the south is Kuzdu (Pueraria montana). You don’t have to drive far to find its vines carpeting the ground, trees, buildings, and anything else standing in the way.