COVID-19 Uncensored

By Terry L. Whipple, MD, FAOA; Chief of Orthopaedics, Hillelson-Whipple Clinic, PLC; Director, Orthopaedic Research of Virginia

The Physician Within conducts a series of forums this spring and summer to bring more understanding and empowerment to the general public regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus is on the SARS CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 disease, genuine risk factors, vaccines and how they work, personal protection, the emotional fallout and how to best preserve your health during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 forums will provide reliable, verified, factual information that will help you better understand the personal challenges the disease presents. Speakers are all healthcare professionals who are frontline responders to those exposed to the virus. They will unravel the language about coronavirus, making it clear and useful to any listener with concerns about personal or family risk factors. An informed, confident community will be a healthier community.

The first program, COVID-19 Truth and Consequences, was April 14 and provided an overview of the virus. The following forums will be held on May 12, June 9 and August 4. We will provide and explain abundant information. We will address audience questions submitted during the programs, and we’ll archive the forums on the www.fbcrichmond.org website to access for review.

The impact of the pandemic on American society and throughout the world has been horrific. Fortunately, rapidly developed vaccines that are predominantly safe and effective have been dispersed for available protection for every adult in the United States. Although they aren’t perfect, they are safer than contracting the COVID-19 illness for almost everyone, and certainly for the population as a whole. While “the greatest good for the greatest number” is a laudable objective, everyone needs empowerment for personal decisions. We encourage you to hear the facts and apply your own wisdom.

Note: The Physician Within, jointly sponsored by Richmond’s First Baptist Church and the Richmond Academy of Medicine, has no political, financial or business connections. The information we provide is for the sole purpose of empowering individuals to make wiser personal decisions about their health, to make reliable, informed choices about disease and injury prevention.

---

Read Full Post »

Open Doors and Hearts to Richmond’s Students

By Donna Earley

Dr. Somerville’s charge to the congregation at Richmond’s First Baptist Church to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond and beyond has always resonated with me. I remember when he explained it this way “find something that breaks your heart and then roll up your sleeves and do something about it!”

I found my heartbreaking moment last summer when the public school systems announced that children would not be able to attend school for in-person learning. Many of my friends who live in the counties surrounding Richmond were planning neighborhood learning pods, hiring tutors and making plans to work from home so they could supervise their children while they learned virtually. But I started to wonder about our neighbors in the City of Richmond who are essential and hourly workers who cannot work from home and therefore can’t be at home to supervise their children. What about our neighbors who cannot afford to hire a tutor and don’t have the community resources to form a neighborhood pod? It turns out, I was not the only one wondering this.

Staff members Bonnie Wilmoth, Steve Blanchard, Candi Brown, Ann Carter and Michael Lacy were all concerned, too. We mobilized our teams and planned to open the temporarily empty Sunday school rooms to provide Wi-Fi, supervision and a safe place for children to attend school virtually. On September 21, 2020, we opened the First Learning Center to nine elementary students. Ellie Carter, Will Maynard, Nellie Martin, Anthony Vega and Thomas Brown, all young adults who grew up and were nurtured at FBC, joined in to help with teaching. I am in awe of how they opened their hearts to these children and dedicated themselves to making the Learning Center a success. They have found a meaningful way to connect with their church as young adults and are truly making us proud to call them our own.

We quickly found that just being a child-minding center was not enough for these students. Many had been without instruction since the previous March and were behind in academics. Many needed special learning accommodations or had suffered trauma in their young lives. We felt called not only to help them academically, but to provide afternoon enrichment activities and provide two hot meals each day. Many church members started devoting countless hours to the center tutoring, crafting, reading aloud, playing with, and loving the children.

Our reputation as a learning center that provides quality care and academic support for students grew. More parents and school administrators asked if we had room for additional students. We quickly realized we needed an administrator for the center to grow properly. Ira Nealy had relocated recently from Arkansas to Richmond to begin training at another facilitated learning center in the city. When he concluded his training, we were blessed to hire him as full-time administrator. Additionally, we were fortunate to hire Keyonta Lee, also from Arkansas, to serve as a full-time staff member at the Learning Center. Many of you may recognize these names from FBC mission programs to Helena, Arkansas, where they both grew up. Also, in 2015, they served as Interns at FBC. Under Ira’s creative and innovative leadership, our center is thriving in ways we could only have imagined when we opened in the fall.

students and Ira Nealy

Ira, Keyonta, the staff and our volunteers have grown our facilitated learning center from nine to 20 students. They fill their days with structured academics, enriching afterschool activities, and plenty of love and encouragement. Briar Chatterjea teaches Dance and Movement each week. The Richmond Ballet has brought their Minds-In-Motion program to our center. Jeanne Dortch has become the center’s Librarian, allowing the children to take books home to read. Franklin Hamilton comes to read aloud to the kids. Shirley Ramsey provides counseling. Beth Holthaus, Susan Hughes, Sue Atkins, Lillian Bruce, Davis Buckbee, Andy Berry, Phillip King, Carol-Ann Moore, Virginia Watson, Maura Davis, Gavin Kashiwabara and Gwyn Garrett all provide tutoring and afternoon enrichment.

None of this would be possible without the family of FBC saying, “Yes! We can help!” Thank you for your gifts of money and time to support this program. The ripple effect of this program is deep and wide. Because these 20 students are in a safe place to learn from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, their parents and guardians can go to work, put food on their tables and pay their bills. Their communities benefit because of the hope these families share with their neighbors.

Because of your faithfulness, we were able to share extra funds at Christmas. One family said, “Your church has shown me support that I don’t even receive from my own family.” Another said with tears in her eyes, “Y’all are just different.” The ripples keep growing; we were able to make the proper contacts for one mom to get a good job interview. One troubled student now has a mentor who spends time with him and provides fatherly advice. One mom joyfully told us that her student was deeply depressed before coming to our center. Now he laughs all the time, can sleep all night without anxiety and looks forward to spending each day at the center.

Thank you, First Baptist family, for loving your neighbors and bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to these families.

---

Donna Earley joined the finance office staff in 2018 and now serves as the Director of Stewardship and Development. In her new position, Donna develops initiatives to grow church contributions and encourages engagement through stewardship. Donna and her husband Brad are longtime members of the church along with their two daughters, Mary Sage and Sarah.

Read Full Post »