JRHS Legacy
mmaxey
left when I'm gone. I finished my work with the government at the end
of April and I have officially been retired for almost three months
now. I want to stay busy and also find a way to give back to JRHS and
Grenada.
Not sure how to do that.
I had a chance to talk to Carole Leverette White and Sandra Stroud
Howell over the last couple of months about coming back to Grenada and
possibly teaching school. I took the Praxis exam which is a
requirement for non-education degree holders to pass in order to
teach. I got passing scores for both Mississippi and Virginia in
reading, writing and math. The next step would be to test in a
specific area -- history, math, foreign language, etc. I'm not sure
this is what I want to do though.
Another thing I've thought of is trying to find ways to get more
funding for education, health and social programs in Grenada. Again,
I'm not sure how to do that but I've been studying community
foundations. I'm going to meet with some people that work at the
Council of Foundations here in Washington DC. They are focusing on
rural communities. Also, Senator Max Baucas (D-MT) , chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee, is promoting new ways to increase charitable
funding by the big foundations (Ford, Kellog, Gates, etc) for rural
communities. I'm going to talk to someone on his staff. There is a
good deal of interest here and there seems to be some innovative work
already being done with community foundations in other states.
The needs are pretty urgent for rural Mississippi. A study by the
Carsey Institute in New Hampshire highlighted child poverty level in
rural Mississippi as the highest in the nation with almost 4 out of
every 10 children living in poverty and trying to overcome all the
obstacles associated with that -- poor nutrition, limited educational
opportunities, and limited access to healthcare.
See http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/rural_child_poverty_fact_sheet.pdf
for the fact sheet on child poverty in rural areas of the US. There
are some other good studies at the Carsey Institute site in their
"publications" section. One of predatory lending in rural areas is
very interesting. See http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/PredLending.pdf.
That's it for now. I'd be interested if anyone has experience in
working with community foundations. What's worked and what hasn't?
MMaxey
mmaxey
post from my mother regarding a couple of JRHS alumni and what she
sees as important at 86 years of age.
"Remember your friends," she told me the other day.
Her story started when she asked me to go with her to Brister Brothers
pharmacy to pick up her prescriptions. In Virginia, where I live,
there are really aren't any small pharmacies. They have all been
replaced by Wal-Mart and the big discount drug stores. I asked Momma
why we she still shopped at Brister Brothers and she told me a story
that started 49 years ago. My father was diagnosed with malignant
melanoma in late 1957 and he died in February 1958. My mother had
three small children (Hugh was 15, Larry was 10 and I was 5) and
didn't know what to do. One of the people that stepped up to help
during the period my dad was so sick was Ward and Henry's daddy. He
contacted my mother and arranged for her to get $300 from the American
Cancer Foundation for medicine for my dad. My mother said she would
never forget what Mr. Bister did and that she wouldn't shop anywhere
else. My mother has taught me a lot over the years. She keeps
reminding me with little stories like this one of how important is to
remember your friends.
If you need a prescription filled or anything in the way of medical
supplies I hope you will consider stopping by the Brister Brothers
pharmacy. They are part of the good neighbor legacy of Grenada and we
sure need these kind of neighbors.
Also, I can't talk about good neighbors without mentioning Jeb and
Ruth Ann Crawford (JRHS Class of 1953) -- Jeb and Ruth Ann are my
mother's neighbors and they are the best people around -- always
helping out.
Grenada has some really good people. That's nice to re-discover on my
short visits home.
MMaxey
> Seehttp://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/rural_child_poverty_fact...
> for the fact sheet on child poverty in rural areas of the US. There
> are some other good studies at the Carsey Institute site in their
> "publications" section. One of predatory lending in rural areas is
> very interesting. Seehttp://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/PredLending.pdf.