Features

By SHAINA STOCKTON, Staff

Missionary Doug Donithan scrolled through the collection of photos that he’s taken over the years in Tacloban, his home city in the Philippines where he has served for over 20 years.
Photos flashed across the screen of smiling children playing in and around modest but immaculately tidy homes; quaint street markets filled with busy customers; worship sessions in two different rental buildings that served the group as churches; and fisherman launching their boats into the crystal clear water.

Two winners were chosen to transform themselves through personal training, and The Gazette is following their progress. Travis Haynes has completed his 12-week journey, while Treva Osborne is still undergoing a transformation to improve her overall health.

Oakland Elementary School’s kindergarten classes are raising funds to send 75 gift stockings to an adopted soldier’s unit this Christmas.
Operation “Santa Soldier” Stockings not only involves students in putting together gifts for American soldiers for the holidays, but also establishes a bond between the adopted unit and students through a pen pal program. Students will write to the soldiers and hear back about their travels overseas.

By SHAINA STOCKTON, Staff

After readying the equipment and flipping off the lights, three members of Lambsburg-based paranormal team Operation Spiritseekers marched into the basement of a Galax restaurant.
Their trip down the steep stairs lead into a dark basement, where Rachel McDonald placed several pieces of electronic equipment and sensors, a flashlight and a ball  — all devices that a spirit could use to communicate with the living — in a cluster on the basement floor. Standing back, she spoke into the blackness.

Author Joe Tennis has collected dozens of ghost stories from throughout Southwest Virginia and Tennessee for his latest book — tales of spectres, witches, phantom trains and an apocalyptic cyclone.
Earlier this year, Tennis held listeners in his thrall at a discussion of these supernatural stories at the Crossroads Institute in Galax. It was part of an ongoing series to teach locals about the area’s heritage.
A native of Virginia Beach who lives in Bristol, Tennis, 44, is a columnist for the Bristol Herald Courier. He has also written for Virginia Living.

By SHAINA STOCKTON, Staff

Forty years ago, Twin County Regional Hospital opened its doors for the first time to begin a new effort of community-oriented healthcare.
Today, through its many changes, the staff hopes to continue serving the community through a growing affiliation with Duke LifePoint.

CANA — St. Paul’s beloved librarian will continue to have an impact on the school and the community where she taught and touched the lives of students for 37 years.
Joyce Slate had enough time in her career to make a generational impact on St. Paul students and on their sons and daughters, as she encouraged reading, sponsored the yearbook, documented the school year with her camera, took children on field trips and threw fundraising events to be able to afford those trips.

A holiday tradition will come full circle in the City of Galax this year as the annual Community Christmas Chest project is passed back into the charge of the Galax Volunteer Fire Department.
Over the past 30 years, the fundraising project that puts together food boxes for the needy at Christmas, has been tended by the Galax Y’s Men Club, which has fostered a strong increase in community support. This year, the club has decided to give the project back to the organization that originally oversaw it.

This year, the Galax Downtown Association (GDA) will still host the city’s annual Halloween celebration, but the merchants’ organization members will make it a community event instead of trying to do it all themselves.