The founder and president of Wellspring Academy accused a former
counselor at the school of setting a chain of events in motion
that resulted in him having to close the doors.
Bob Gluhareff called Lisa Grant's actions a "travesty."
At a press conference at the school's Abbitt Hall Friday, Gluhareff
placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of Grant, who he said
was simply a disgruntled employee.
"I'm not to blame for this," the school's founder said.
"She is the cause of this."
Wellspring Academy is a school for at-risk adolescent boys.
On April 18, Grant removed four boys from the property, allegedly
for their safety.
Two of the boys, Gluhareff alleges, were placed at the school
by court order making him their legal guardian.
"It's a travesty what this woman has done," Gluhareff
said. "These boys have been used.
"They have been the pawn of an individual who was apparently
upset about her pay," he added.
Gluhareff said that after the boys were off campus, Grant had
them call their parents, setting off a chain of phone calls between
parents that grew exponentially.
"By midday Saturday I realized that this was beginning to
get out of control," he said. "By Saturday night, I
was worried that we would go under. I knew we wouldn't survive
the attack."
He said that he and other officials made the decision to close
the school due to the number of students withdrawing from the
school, the school's financial situation and an increasingly "riotous"
atmosphere at the school.
"That woman (Grant) turned this school upside down,"
he said.
He acknowledged that Wellspring had been surviving "month
to month" for some time, but he blamed the regional economic
downturn and his own generosity for the school's financial difficulties.
"Last year, we realized the economy had began to slide and
we had to make cuts," Gluhareff said.
He added that the regional economy had placed "tremendous
demands to scholarship more kids.
"By Christmas, I told the staff that we had to tighten our
belts," he added. That belt-tightening came in the form of
cutting staff salaries by 20 percent, according to the founder.
He said his only fault was being too generous.
"If there are errors in the past, it's because we've given
everything away," he said. "My wife and I have been
generous to a fault."
But Grant said she took the boys off campus out of concern for
their safety.
"I stand by what I did," she said yesterday. "There
were some things that were inherently wrong at that school."
She said earlier that with many staff members not being paid,
security staff were quitting.
"With the staff quitting because they weren't getting paid,
who would look after the boys?" Grant said.
"It's like you have this heirarchy of needs," she said.
"When you get down to the basic needs not being met, like
the safety aspect, there's something wrong."
During the press conference, Gluhareff said that Grant's actions
were an inappropriate solution.
"Would any person with a rational mind want to address financial
problems in the way she did?" he asked. "That was a
monstrous action she did. It was atrocious."
Gluhareff said Friday that he would be dealing with his attorneys
on the matter, as well as accusations of financial impropriety
from parents.
Responding to the questions of parents who claim they are due
refunds, Gluhareff said he plans to "do everything in our
power to recoup those funds and re-open the doors."
"Gather around up close, folks," Brad Wike said Saturday.
"I have a message for you."
Wike announced to a group of about 20 Democratic supporters Saturday
that he was challenging Del. Clarke Hogan for his 60th District
seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
As an employee of Dominion Virginia Power, Wike said that he understood
working-class values.
"I watched my father work as a lineman," the candidate
said. "He instilled in me from a very early age that to get
ahead we must work hard and play by the rules.
"But things are different now," Wike added. "I
believe that the good people of our region have worked hard and
played by the rules, but now we are being short-changed."
He pointed out the double-digit unemployment in the region.
"How many of you own $1.5 million estates?" Wike asked.
"Because that's what your delegate spent this year's session
working for," he said. "I'm talking about the estate
tax.
"I'm sure that the good people of Southside - the middle-class
people of Southside - would have rather watched him fight to extend
unemployment benefits or would have preferred to have watched
him guarantee money for health care insurance for our children,"
the candidate said.
Wike promised to be an alternative to the status quo in Richmond.
"If you good people help me get to Richmond, I promise to
stand up for working-class values," he said. "I will
have a strong hand in putting Southside back to work. I will help
to lead the way to making sure we can feed our children and take
them to the doctor."
He said the country's founders didn't have the current economic
conditions in their mind when they talked about the pursuit of
happiness and the American dream.
"Thomas Jefferson once said 'Men were not born with saddles
on their backs to be ridden by a priveledged few,'" Wike
observed. "I'm afraid that's what's happening.
"It is an honor to even ask for your consideration,"
he said. "The upcoming months will be challenging.
"But we will work hard and we will show them what the middle
class can do when we have a job to get done," he concluded.
South Boston attorney Kim Slayton White has formally announced
her candidacy for the Republican nomination for commonwealth's
attorney for Halifax County.
White will challenge GOP incumbent John Greenbacker in the June
10 primary election.
"The decision to seek the office has been one under consideration
by me and my family for a number of years," said White, who,
with her husband Dave and children Hampton and Katherine, make
their home in South Boston.
"I am confident that my experienced gained as a deputy commonwealth's
attorney for the City of Lynchburg, prosecuting cases for six
years at all levels of the court system, will ensure that a commonwealth's
attorney's office under my administration will be effective and
efficient," White stated in a news release.
In the Lynchburg's Commonwealth's Attorney office she was in charge
of violent crime. She also served as a special assistant U.S.
attorney on federal cases.
"In addition, a commonwealth's attorney's office under my
administration strongly will support the rights of crime victims
and their families by ensuring that they are educated, informed
and involved in the criminal justice system.
"I am flattered by the willingness of my supporters and,
specifically, by my treasurer, John P. Thrift, Jr., to invest
the effort, resources and time required of this campaign."
White is a graduate of Mary Washington College and Mercer University
Law School in Macon, Georgia.
An estimated 35 persons, including those
people who contributed to the development, gathered Sunday for
a dedication ceremony for The Prayer Garden of Main Street United
Methodist Church.
The garden is defined by a stone wall and stone walkways, statuary
and plantings. Focal point of the garden is a cross.
Established September 2, 1999, the Prayer Garden Committee includes
Betsy Anderson, Meredith Bowman, Thelma Crowder, Jean Church,
Rucker and Tom Eggleston, Vivian Evans, Betty Felton, Gene Haugh,
Janice Irby, Jane Jones, Sally and Art Lambrecht, Jennifer Mackintosh,
Roland Maitland, Lois Newman, Sarah Wade Owen, Don Wilkerson,
Marian and Troy Wilkerson.
Yesterday's program included remarks and opening prayer by Pastor
Doug Martin and scripture reading by the Rev. George Gravitt.
Rucker Eggleston sang the anthem, "How Great Thou Art."
An inscription on a key ring given to members of The Prayer Garden
Committee by Chairman Sally H. Lambrecht:
"This belongs to a member of the Best Committee that ever
was! Most creative, most knowledgeable, most hard-working and
MOST APPRECIATED FOR ALL THAT YOU HAVE DONE for The Prayer Garden
of Main Street United Methodist Church, South Boston, Virginia."
This special committee has its own set of guidelines:
1. Just show up when you can and do what you can. (Many have grandchildren
to baby-sit, doctors appointments to keep and wonderful vacations
to enjoy.)
2. The structure of this committee is a circle not a pyramid (
all had their special talents and jobs to do and just did them.)
3. Just plant it where Master Gardener tells you (Timesaver.)
4. We listen to all advice from those people whose hands are in
the dirt beside ours ( Self-explanatory).
5. All photographs of workers are to be taken from the front only
(Also, self-explanatory).
A personalized hand-painted faucet handle was another gift to
each volunteer who showed up to work on this project.
Most Thursday mornings in spring and fall you could see (and hear)
them working on the former Hunt House property between Main Street
United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church.
When the South Boston-Halifax County Historical Museum of Fine
Arts and History moved to its new building, there was a lively
discussion at an Methodist Administration Council meeting about
what to do with this property.
Mrs. Lambrecht was strongly in favor of not selling, and when
asked about possible uses, blurted, "a green-space, a Prayer
Garden." And that is how she got to be chairman of the project!
The first job was to clear away two truckloads of trash, debris
and poison ivy. Committee members walked the property, brainstormed
ideas and began to see that the property almost naturally divided
itself into four areas.
This has now evolved into the Meditation Garden, the Sun and Shade
Garden, and the Children's Garden. A fourth area will be a future
project of United Methodist Men.
The Sun Garden was first to be developed. This area, next to the
split-rail fence, was dug sixty feet long by twelve feet wide
and four feet deep.
The first plantings were seven crepe myrtle trees, all donated
by committee members as memorials to their families. Members of
the congregation shared bulbs from their yards and homeplaces
and over six hundred bulbs were planted that fall.
Instead of Easter lilies, the congregation brought more than seventy
azaleas to church. These were then planted in the Shade Garden
area next to the fence by the Methodist Education Building.
An armillary, donated by the Memorial Committee of the church,
and memorial St. Francis statuary, were placed here.
Some of the azaleas were placed in the Children's Garden which
is just below the walkway between the two churches. This area
has four stone benches in a natural circle meeting area, the very
beautiful and unique Burton Memorial Fountain and St. Anthony
statuary.
Close to this area is a small sitting or meeting area with wooden
chairs and a bench.
The first item to be placed in the Meditation Garden, the area
closest to Main Street, was our cherished nine-foot copper cross,
designed and donated by Robert Cage.
This was set in a huge stone for the second Easter of the Garden.
Because the cross is visible to the three churches in the immediate
area, he created a three-dimensional rather than a flat cross.
"I wanted something so that any way you looked at it you'd
see a cross," said Cage.
The stone retaining wall was also a major project. Committee members
selected stones one by one at a local quarry until a truck load
was accumulated and hauled to the garden property.
Certain committee members had the very special stonemason skills
to build and finish the actual wall.
Old curbstones from South Boston city streets were used for the
steps which lead to a beautiful aggregate sidewalk leading into
the garden from Main Street.
The most recent project is the laying of the flagstone terrace
which circles the cross. More stone benches will be placed in
this area, and some future sensor lighting is planned.
This Meditation area is planted in only green and white blooming
flowers, shrubs and trees including the Star Magnolia tree.
One goal of the committee is to have year-round beauty in the
Garden with choice of plants and our very efficient and water-saving
irrigation system. There are azaleas that bloom twice a year and,
just donated, were a dozen Lenten Rosesone of the few winter
blooming flowers.
Most of these are in the Shade Garden around the wooden letters
reminding passersby that you "You Are God's Child."
The committee's major goalto develop the Prayer Garden open
to the community as an ecumenical quiet place for prayer or meditation,
a place to "Be Still And Know That I Am God" is
almost completed.
Members of this special committee are:
A quotation on a bronze plaque in The Prayer Garden sums up what
the committee thinks is the purpose of the Garden:
"Let the peace of this place surround you as you sit or kneel
quietly. Let the hurry and the worry of your life fall away. You
are God's Child. He loves you and cares for you, and is here with
you now and always. Speak to him thoughtfully, give yourself time
for Him to bring things to mind."
You didn't have to talk to Halifax County coach Kelvin Davis
to tell he was seriously disappointed.
The look on his face following Thursday night's 9-5 loss to archrival
GW here in a key Western Valley District baseball game said it
all.
"I thought we had a chance," said the dejected Comets
coach after his team fell to 4-5 overall and dropped to 1-2 in
the Western Valley District standings.
"We didn't make the plays."
That, in essence was the story of the game for the Comets.
Halifax County, which had been shaky on defense at times this
season, committed four errors that allowed GW to score six unearned
runs.
It wasn't until the sixth inning that GW scored its first earned
run of the game.
The three most costly errors came in the outfield where leftfielder
Dwight Greene, centerfielder Brent Long and rightfielder Chris
Lowery all dropped balls on what appeared to be fairly routine
plays.
That was a big contrast to the night before when the Comets played
solid defense in a big 14-5 road win over Franklin County.
"This was a big disappointment," said Davis.
"There is no sense in us not making plays like that. We had
just come off of the big win Wednesday night against Franklin
County. But, that's the game of baseball.
"I told the guys to keep their heads up because this district
race is still neck and neck," added Davis.
" Anybody can beat anybody on any given night."
The Comets errors at crucial points in the game were big in helping
GW seal the win.
"It was a tremendous win for us," said GW coach Scooter
Dunn, a former Halifax County High School head varsity baseball
coach.
"We needed it desperately and I know K.D. needed it too."
Dunn said the Comets errors were big for his team. But even after
his team opened a big cushion, Dunn said he never considered the
win in the bag.
"Any run on this field (Comets Field) is big," said
Dunn.
"The only way you can get beat on this field is you don't
score any. I've been in many ball games here for the past four
years and before that for 10 or 12 years. I've seen 10-run leads
get swallowed up on this field in a matter of 30 minutes.
"You're not safe," added Dunn.
"Every run you get ahead of your opponent the better off
you are, but you're still not safe."
Even with the Comets miscues in the outfield, there was some spectacular
outfield play on both sides.
In the top of the fourth inning, Long redeemed himself from his
error in the third inning by making a spectacular over the back
catch next to the centerfield wall to rob GW of an almost sure
run-scoring hit.
Prior to that, GW star Kenny Lewis made a spectacular diving catch
in centerfield of a ball to rob the Comets of what appeared to
be a certain run-scoring hit.
There was plenty of hitting too.
The Comets had seven hits with hurler Robert Carter and Jason
Lloyd each getting two hits.
Lowery, Jake Owen, who came in off the bench and Ryan Roller,
the designated hitter for Jody Nelson, had a hit each.
GW had 10 hits with two players in the bottom half of the lineup,
Travis Reynolds and Cory Moore, getting three hits each.
Halifax County opened the door for GW early, allowing GW to score
two of its first four runs as the result of Comets errors.
GW's Ben Harrelson opened the second inning with a single, stole
second and then scored an unearned run when Lowery, the Comets'
rightfielder, misplayed a fly ball off of the bat of GW pitcher
Steven Bowers.
Travis Reynolds came up with a base hit to put runners on first
and third. A double by Moore with two out added two runs and gave
GW a 3-0 lead.
GW ran its lead to 4-0, scoring another unearned run, this one
coming when Long, the Comets' centerfielder, couldn't make the
play on a ball hit by Reynolds.
Things looked bleak for Halifax County at that point but the Comets
rallied for four runs in the bottom of the third inning to tie
the game.
Lowery started the inning with a single. Roller reached base on
an infield hit to put two runners on the sacks and Carter singled
to load the sacks.
Lowery scored when Matt Clay reached base safely on a fielder's
choice to make it a 4-1 score.
With Lloyd at the plate, Bowers hurled a pitch that Harrelson,
his catcher, couldn't grab.
Roller scored as the ball got past Harrelson and Carter, who was
on the move from second base, scored when Harrelson's throw to
Bowers, who was covering the plate, missed the mark.
That play put the Comets back to within a run at 4-3. Lloyd followed
by delivering a base hit to score Clay to tie the game at 4-4.
Long reached base on a GW error to put two runners on the sacks
and Bowers hit Drew Lewis with a pitch to load the bases.
With two out, Lowery, stepping up to the plate a second time,
laced what appeared to be a sure extra-bases hit to centerfield.
But Lewis, GW's speedster, came up with a spectacular diving catch
that robbed Lowery of a hit and put an end to the Comets' rally.
"My hat goes off to the guys because they did fight back,"
said Davis.
"We made them make some plays. They bobbled some around in
the infield also. When we put the ball in play, things like that
can happen."
The Comets returned that kind of favor to squelch a GW rally in
the top of the fourth inning.
After Carter gave up a two-out, bases loaded walk that gave GW
a 5-4 lead, Long came up with a spectacular over-the-back catch
next to wall in centerfield to rob Bowers of what looked like
an almost certain extra-base hit.
GW added another run in the top of the fifth inning when Reynolds,
who had walked and stolen second base, scored on an error by Greene
who failed to track down a fly ball hit by Lewis.
The Eagles rallied for three more runs in the top of the sixth
inning, a rally that started with Carter walking Harrelson and
Bowers with one out.
A base hit by Reynolds that scored Harrelson put GW up 7-4. That
hit ended Carter's night on the hill.
Davis said he was pleased with Carter's effort, a night on which
Carter fanned seven batters and scattered seven walks and eight
hits.
"Robert threw the ball well and kept GW off balance,"
Davis said.
"Somebody's got to catch the ball behind him. We just didn't
do that tonight."
Lloyd was brought to the mound for the first time this season
and he responded well, fanning four of the seven batters he faced
in the contest.
He allowed two hits, one an infield hit.
Lloyd fanned the first batter he faced to make it two out in the
inning.
But Moore stepped up and lashed a hit to centerfield to score
Bowers and Reynolds to give GW a 9-4 edge.
Despite the two GW hits, Davis said he was pleased with what he
saw from Lloyd.
"I thought he looked good," said Davis.
"He's got good velocity on his fastball and his slider was
working.
"We had to bring him in to try to stop them (GW) and unfortunately
they (GW) came up with a big hit. I wish we were up (leading)
in that situation but we weren't."
Lloyd gave Halifax County its final run of the game in the bottom
of the seventh inning.
Batting with one out in the inning, Lloyd sent one of Bowers'
pitches over the wall in right centerfield.
The Comets have two games on tap this week, both of which will
be on the road.
Halifax County will travel to South Hill Thursday to face Park
View in a 5 p.m. contest.
On Friday, the Comets will travel to Amherst County. That game
will start at 6 p.m.
Funeral services for Mr. Paul Lewis Seamster
were held yesterday at the First Baptist Church of Republican
Grove.
The Revs. Shelton Miles and Dr. Elwood Seamster officiated.
Burial followed in the church cemetery.
Mr. Seamster, of Cousin Lane in Nathalie, died Friday at the home.
He was 52.
Mr. Seamster was born in Halifax County on March 27, 1951, to
the late Henry Lee Seamster and Virginia Pierce Seamster.
He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Republican Grove.
Mr. Seamster is survived by his mother, one brother, Dr. Elwood
Seamster and sister-in-law Diane Epps Seamster of Clover, S.C.
In lieu of flowers, please consider the First Baptist Church of
Republican Grove building fund.
A memorial service for Mr. Harvey M. Wade
will be held today (Monday) at the Bermuda Pentecostal Holiness
Church, 101 West Hundred, Chester, Va., beginning at 1 p.m.
Mr. Wade, a resident of Chester, died April 25, 2003, in a Richmond
hospital. He was a retired millwright.
Born in Halifax County, he was the son of Emitt Wade and Verna
Lloyd Scott and was 74 at the time of his death.
Mr. Wade is survived by his wife, Ophelia Wade; sons Bill and
Mike Wade; daughter Janet Wilson; sister, Sarah Leber; brother
Johnny (Walter) Scott; and other family members.
Mr. William "Billy" Chester Wagstaff
of 3244 Bethel Road, Halifax, died April 26, 2003, at Halifax
Regional Hospital. Born in Halifax County on December 29, 1931,
he was 71 years old at the time of his death.
Mr. Wagstaff was the son of Mr. Robert Wilkie Wagstaff, Sr. and
Mrs. Mildred A. Newton Wagstaff and was married to Irma Jones
Wagstaff.
He was a member of Bethel Baptist Church.
He is survived by his wife and two sisters, Lucille W. Martin
and Pauline Throckmorton of Scottsburg; two brothers, Robert Wilkie
Wagstaff of Halifax and Earl L. Wagstaff of Scottsburg; and a
number of nieces and nephews.
Services for Mr. Wagstaff will be held Monday, April 28, at 2:00
p.m. at Powell Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Dr. Tony Brooks
and the Rev. Katrina Brooks conducting services.
Burial will take place in Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery.