Stories from Sunday, November 17, 2013

The award-winning Harris Middle School robot is more than just the sums of its parts. The 2013 Music City BEST Robotics Competition was held on Saturday, Nov. 9, at Lipscomb University in Nashville. BEST stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology and is for students in grades 5-12...

Rebecca "Becky" Soper is an art teacher at Harris Middle School. She is also lead sponsor of the school's robotics design team, or the Eaglebots. Soper was awarded Best Robotics Teacher of the Year during last weekend's 2013 Music City BEST Robotics Competition in Nashville...

Two children from Bedford County have been selected by the Nashville Ballet to join the youth cast in its annual production of Nashville's Nutcracker. Makenzie Martin, daughter of Traci and Michael, and Tamara Uredi, daughter of Jennifer, are joining a total of 170 youngsters from Middle Tennessee and the surrounding areas to perform alongside Nashville Ballet's professional dancers in the local holiday favorite...

Members of Shelbyville Mills Baptist Church sort bulk produce into individual bags to be given out during the church's Second Harvest food distribution. Saturday's food giveaway was the final one for the year, with the next distribution planned for January. (T-G Photo by Sherry Miller)

About eight years ago, Jennifer Jordan Thompson returned to her hometown from Atlanta to pursue a dream, and Wednesday, members of the Shelbyville Woman's Club saw the tangible results of that move. "This was her dream -- to have a dress shop," said Belinda Craig as she welcomed Thompson to the packed house of about 120 members to the Riverbend Country Club...

I was at a Relay For Life meeting last week and one of the team captains in attendance happened to be wearing a "Doctor Who" T-shirt. I didn't know her, but I had to make a point of speaking to her and seeing if she's looking forward to the 50th anniversary special as much as I am...

What a ride it's been. Even though it wasn't the ending that everyone had hoped for, Shelbyville Central's season was a huge success despite a 35-21 loss to visiting Gallatin in second-round action of the TSSAA State Playoffs on Friday night. After posting a 2-3 record midway through the regular season, the Eagles (8-4) closed out the season winning six of their final seven games, including a district championship...

Cold weather and cloudy skies didn't keep supporters of the late Nikki Mitchell from running and remembering her this weekend. Saturday was the first annual 5K Run for the Nikki Mitchell Foundation -- formed after Mitchell, owner of the Normandy River Cafe and Waylon Jennings' manager for 22 years, died of pancreatic cancer in July...

It was one of the largest campaigns during the entire Civil War -- with thousands of Confederate and Federal troops striving for control of Tennessee -- yet it receives little to no mention in the many volumes written about the conflict. That's about to change with the publication of "The Tullahoma Campaign -- The 1863 Civil War Struggle for Middle Tennessee," a labor of love 14 years in the making, thanks to many locals involved with Tennessee Backroads Heritage...

You have to get up mighty early -- 2 a.m. -- to get ready to fill the hungry mouths at the annual Bedford County Senior Citizens Center Ham Breakfast. That's what center director Sonia Miller says has to happen to feed attendees at the yearly November event...

Dear editor: I have been reading more and more of how the City of Shelbyville is in a near panic over the projected loss of anticipated sales tax revenues. Here is one way that the city leaders can generate thousands of dollars for the city, and the county can as well...

Playing with guns is a really bad idea. When reports came in over the scanner Friday morning about a gunman being inside a bathroom at Shelbyville Central High School all hell broke loose as everyone in town panicked over what was going on inside our school...

In 2003, I took my first-ever foreign mission trip, to Nicaragua. Our team of short-term missionaries was being led by Amanda Van Deman, a long-term missionary based in Managua and working for a group called Christ For The City International (CFCI). Amanda was warning us about the difficulties that can result from our enthusiasm and desire to help...

A Walmart employee has been accused of stealing $140 from cash registers. Lisa Ann Grisham, 46, of Zion Hill Road was charged with theft involving merchandise Thursday, Shelbyville police said.. Grisham offered a written confession and said she was "sorry," police said...

The Wartrace Arts Community (WAC) has formed and will hold its first public meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21. The meeting will be at the Wartrace Community Building. Bring a dish to share. There will be a speaker. You do not need to be an artist to attend, nor do you have to live in Wartrace...

Austin Bruce of the Normandy Volunteer Fire Department was one of 18 firefighters from across the state graduating Friday from the fall recruit class at the Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy on Unionville-Deason Road. Located on 330 acres in northern Bedford County, this state-of-the-art training facility has been a "home away from home" for the recruits during the 10-week class...

There are 38 shopping days until Christmas. Oh, boy! I am so excited! I can hardly stand it! Well, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little; maybe more than a little. I am not much of a shopper, and most of the time I am one of those last minute Christmas shoppers...

Wil and Tabitha King of Shelbyville announce the birth of a daughter, Sadie Brooke King, on Oct. 15 in Murfreesboro. The baby girl weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces. She is the granddaughter of Jeff and Cindy Brown, and Billy and Karon King, all of Shelbyville...

John and Lindsey Witten of Elizabethtown, Ky., announce the birth of a daughter, Melody Ruth Witten, on Oct. 9 at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown. The baby girl weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces. She is the granddaughter of Larry and Gwen Lane of Riceville, Tenn., and Danny and Darlene Witten of Elizabethtown. She is the great-granddaughter of Charles and Ruth Murphree of Unionville and Nola Jean Lane of Riceville...

Abby Claire Donegan of Shelbyville was wed to Jared Scott Ester of Shelbyville on the evening of Sept. 28 at First Christian Church in Shelbyville. The bride is the daughter of Tracy and Debbie Donegan of Shelbyville. She is the granddaughter of the late Jesse Dee and Alma Lee Mealer, the late Ruth Rowland and Terry Donegan of Shelbyville...

Kayla Renee Brown of Unionville and William David Walls of Shelbyville were united in marriage on the afternoon of Sept. 14 at North Fork Baptist Church in Unionville. The bride-elect is the daughter of Barbara Brown of Unionville and the late Alvin Brown Jr. She is the granddaughter of the late Sammie and Ruby Blanton, and the late A.C. "Pokey" and Ruth Brown...

So, there is a clock being built that is supposed to run for the next 10,000 years. Long after you and I have a lot of extra time on our hands. The Long Now Foundation, the company behind the clock, was established in 01996 (they use an extra zero in their date to solve a deca-millenium bug that will come into effect in about 8,000 years) and their goal is to make long-term thinking more common. ...