Town Talk

Friday, January 1, 1904

"Bear patiently with the defects of others, and labor to amend thy own."

- Thomas Fuller

HEARD ON THE TOWN

THE NORTHSIDE Neighborhood House board of directors, staff and volunteers will celebrate the agency's 89th anniversary on Valentine's Day.

Rachel Gammon, the agency's executive director, said in a news release that the organization has responded to the needs of North Chattanooga residents through a variety of programs that provide "a hand up, not a hand out."

"Northside Neighborhood House's three programs -- Emergency Direct Assistance, Education for Children and Adults and two thrift stores, are recognized as contributing to the core of a healthy and productive community," Gammon says.

The Northside Neighborhood House was founded to serve individuals living in North Chattanooga, the information notes. Over the years, the service area has expanded to also focus on Red Bank, Hixson, Soddy-Daisy and Bakewell.

Last year, the agency served more than 4,000 people through programs including Christmas food and toy distribution, utility bill assistance, tax preparation assistance, after-school and summer programming for kindergarten through eighth-grade students, GED programming in collaboration with Re:Start and providing food, household items and furniture at an affordable cost.

"The past several years have clearly shown us that any of our neighbors can fall on hard times and simply need a hand up," Gammon says. "We feel very fortunate to assist our neighbors through some of their most difficult times and to provide them with resources to better meet their next challenge."

The Northside Neighborhood House is located at 211 Minor St.

EAR TO THE GROUND

photo Artists Ellen Franklin, Victoria Pearmain, Marie Miller and Janis Wilkey, at the opening of their exhibit at In-Town Gallery. Photo by Spears McAllester

THE OPENING reception for "The Traveling Paints" art exhibit was held recently at In-Town Gallery on Frazier Avenue. Flutist Carolyn Insler, an artist at In-Town, and guitarist Jim Palmour entertained at the event.

The four artists featured refer to themselves as the "Paints," said gallery spokeswoman Helen Burton, and "have been carrying their portable paint kits to various locations around town and along the rivers to capture the fleeting scene as the light changes."

"Marie Miller, Janis Wilkey, Victoria Pearmain and Ellen Franklin have been friends for years, and all find that painting outdoors on location is the best way to produce a beautiful and authentic image of what they actually see," Burton explains. "Each artist has a unique style, so the same subject will have its own look, and many different views at the same location."

"Plein air painting is not for the faint of heart," says Miller. "You have to stand in the sun and put up with bugs, wind and rain."

Wilkey says that being outdoors, immersed in the atmosphere of the scene, gives more information to work with than painting from a photograph.

"No camera can capture the nuance of color you get in the sky and the landscape," she says.

The newest oil paintings by the four artists are on exhibit through February. In-Town is located at 26A Frazier Ave.

TOASTS

photo Ladies of Charity board President Jeff Raabe, in back, with Notre Dame High School students, in front, from left, Joshua Deocampo, Mary Grace Napolitan, Mackenzie Guice, Margaret Raabe, Michaela Guice, and Shannon Wells. In back are Nick Chambers, Seamus Finnegan, Grayson Hargett, Raabe and Spenser Turley.

NOTRE DAME High School students were honored at school by Ladies of Charity of Chattanooga board President Jeff Raabe for money they recently collected for the organization.

According to Kay Parish, chairwoman of the Ladies of Charity marketing committee, the students raised more than $2,500 for the organization's annual Christmas Giving Program. The money was used to help area families with groceries and gifts.