February 5, 2007
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• Bell and Adler appear on Today's KTHV to promote the 28th annual Arkansas Scottish Festival • Lyon alum goes toe to toe with Iron Mike Tyson • Bach to Bach: Stinson returns to his favorite composer • Preschoolers learn lessons at Lyon • Solo piping competition held here • Longtime dream realized by Lyon alum • Baseball Scots sweep opener versus C of O • Basketball Scots suffer 10th TranSouth setback • Lambuth earns 90-57 win over Pipers
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Lyon College to host 28th annual Arkansas Scottish Festival By Wil Shane The sound of bagpipes will echo through the Ozarks again this spring, turning the foothills into the Scottish Highlands for three days when the 28th annual Arkansas Scottish Festival sets up camp at Lyon College. Last year, 9,000-10,000 people attended the Arkansas Scottish Festival, and Lyon College's director of Scottish Heritage expects even more this year. Slated to run April 20–22, the festival will feature an array of events and exhibits, including bagpipers, Scottish clans, Highland dancers, drummers, falconry, athletics such as soccer and "kilted" golf, sheepdog demonstrations and musical entertainment. The kilted golf tournament will be held Friday, April 20, at the Course at Eagle Mountain. The four-person scramble format will begin at 1:30 p.m. with a shotgun start. For information on sponsoring a team, contact Tami Hall at 698-4211. Food vendors offering Scottish dishes will be open throughout the festival. On Saturday, April 21, at 6 p.m., a dinner and Ceilidh will be held in Becknell Gym. The term Ceilidh–pronounced kay-lee–is derived from the Gaelic word meaning "a visit." Lyon's Director of Scottish Heritage Jimmy Bell, the festival director, said he expects 10,000 people to attend the festival over its three-day run, and they'll get to enjoy some new vendors this year. "We'll have several new vendors, including a book vendor and a couple new general merchandise vendors," he said. "That's what (past attendees) have asked for." The United States Piping Foundation qualifier fires off at 7 p.m. Friday, Bell added. "A $10 admission for some of the best bagpipers in the world," he said. The Festival will also feature amateur and professional competitors in the popular Highland games. Bell said the Highland game events are rooted in warfare tactics. The caber toss is an example of ancient battlefield technique. In this competition, athletes begin by picking up a caber-a large, tapered log that's often thought of as a small telephone pole that can be anywhere from 12-19 feet long and may weigh from 30 to120 pounds. The athlete walks the caber so it rests in his hands perpendicular to the ground. Once the participant gains control over the log, he hoists it into a resting position against his shoulder. He then begins to run with it to gain forward momentum. At the right moment, the competitor plants the caber by suddenly stopping and heaving the pole up into the air in an attempt to make it flip end over end, making the smaller end fall pointing straight ahead in the "twelve o'clock" position. "They get points deducted for being off 12 o'clock," Bell said. The competitors begin the contest with lighter and shorter cabers, working their way up in weight and length until all but one are eliminated. "Warriors used cabers to get across moats," Bell said. "They'd flip the pole over the water and run across on it." Other Highland game events such as the hammer throw and stone put were used on the battlefield as weapons against their enemies, and clan chieftains used the sheaf toss to gauge a warrior's strength. The annual "Big Show," a student talent competition, will be held Friday evening at 8 p.m. in Brown Chapel Auditorium. The festival gates open at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. The athletic, individual piping and drumming and Highland dancing competitions begin shortly thereafter. The opening ceremonies at 1 p.m. on Saturday will feature a parade of clans and all 18 of the pipe bands competing this year will join together to form one large band that marches onto the parade field. Throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, Alex Beaton, a renowned Scottish folk artist, will perform, and the group NeedFire, new to the festival, will also entertain both days. NeedFire is a five-piece Celtic rock band from Dallas, Texas. Around the parade field, clans and Scottish vendors will be set up, handing out information and selling merchandise. Warm sunshine and record attendance numbers poured onto the Lyon College campus at last year's Arkansas Scottish Festival. Bell estimated that 10,000 people attended the event last year, up from the previous year's record of 8,000. "I believe 10,000 was the most ever at this festival," he said. "All the vendors were very happy. Some even wanted to pay right then for this year's spot." Athletes, vendors, drummers, pipers, dancers and clans may register for the festival online at www.lyon.edu/scotfest. For more information, contact Bell at jbell@lyon.edu.Two-day passes for the festival are $18 for adults, and $12 for students age 13-17. Saturday-only passes are $12 for adults in advance and $14 at the gate, and $8 for youth ages 13-17 in advance and $10 at the gate. Sunday-only passes are $8 for adults in advance and $12 at the gate, and $6 for youth ages 13-17 in advance and $8 at the gate. All children 12 and under accompanied by an adult get in free. For ticket or vendor information, contact Brandi Allen at 870-698-4382. |
Bell and Adler appear on Today's KTHV to promote the Arkansas Scottish Festival
Lyon College and the Arkansas Scottish Festival received some valuable publicity on Jan. 31 when two of the College's best-known personalities appeared on Little Rock television.
Director of Scottish Heritage Jimmy Bell and Academic Services Coordinator Kenton Adler appeared on "Where in Arkansas," the show hosted by B.J. Sams on Today's KTHV, Little Rock's CBS affiliate.
KTHV producer Kat Robinson contacted Bell about appearing on the show to discuss the upcoming 28th annual hosting of the event. Slated to run April 20– 22, the festival will feature an array of events and exhibits, including bagpipers, Scottish clans, Highland dancers, drummers, falconry, athletics such as soccer and "kilted" golf, sheepdog demonstrations and musical entertainment.
Bell and Adler performed "Scotland the Brave" on the bagpipes.
"At the request of the producer we played the Fairlylore smallpipes and performed ‘Scotland The Brave’ at the end of the interview as they went to commercial," Adler said.
But don't call "Scotland the Brave" a song, he added.
"Pipers don't play 'songs' Adler said. "We play "chunes."
During the show, a viewer called in and won a prize for knowing that the Arkansas Scottish Festival is held each April at Lyon College, he said.
"We were happy to be able to give one of our patron packages as a prize for the person that guessed where the picture of the drum major in the kilt was from," Bell said. "I think most folks in Arkansas know about the festival we have in April."
That viewer, Kathy Seward of Donaldson, won a Chief Level patron package to the Arkansas Scottish Festival, including admission for two, an invitation to the President's Reception on Friday night, two Saturday cocktail reception tickets, feast and Ceilidh tickets, two festival t-shirts, VIP parking and access to the VIP tent at the festival.
To view the show online, go to: www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=40858.
Athletes, vendors, drummers, pipers, dancers and clans may register for the festival online at www.lyon.edu/scotfest. For more information, contact Bell at jbell@lyon.edu.
Lyon alum goes toe to toe with 'Iron' Mike Tyson
Lisa
Nelson '94 (right) may be small in physical size, but a man who was once one of the
most feared fighters in history recently found out that she's tougher than she
looks.
On Jan. 22, Nelson, who is now Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Lisa Vandenberg, faced former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in her courtroom when he answered to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence of drugs.
Tyson stood before Vandenberg (see photo below) and gave his name and his birth date during the brief hearing. Vandenberg entered the not guilty plea on Tyson's behalf.
The charges stem from his Dec. 29, arrest in Scottsdale when he was pulled over after leaving a nightclub. An officer found cocaine in his pocket and in a package of cigarettes in his car, according to court records.
The former champ was indicted on felony drug possession and paraphernalia possession counts and two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of drugs. If convicted of all four charges, he could be sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has said he would pursue prison time for Tyson, who was convicted of rape in Indiana in 1992 and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault charges in Maryland in 1999.
Tyson is due back in court Feb. 26.
After a trip down Abbey Road, Dr. Stinson goes back to Bach
After a semester of teaching and performing the music of the Beatles, Dr. Russell Stinson has returned to his favorite composer, J. S. Bach. This semester, in addition to lecturing on Bach at three different conferences in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, Stinson will spend a week on the campus of Baldwin-Wallace College as Martha Arnold Fellow at the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, where he will conduct archival research on Bach reception in the 19th century.
Stinson, the Josephine Emily Brown Professor of Music and college organist, is also supervising the annual Bach Bash at Lyon, to take place at the Christian Science Society on March 18. The event celebrates the 322nd birthday of the composer with a musical tribute.
In May, Stinson and the students enrolled in his "Bach's Germany" course will (as part of the Nichols International Studies program) travel to Eastern Germany to visit various Bach sites.
Stinson said, "As the composer Max Reger once exclaimed, ‘'Johann Sebastian Bach is the beginning and end of all music'."
Lessons at Lyon: Dr. Carpenter reads to preschoolers who visit campus
This group of preschoolers from Castleberry Elementary at Newport. visited the Lyon campus Jan. 31, to listen to Dr. Tom Carpenter, professor of education, read from the book, "Hallelujah: A Christmas Celebration." The children's teacher, Darlene Crawford, is a 2004 graduate of Lyon College and a former student of Dr. Carpenter's. "I was your teacher's teacher," he told the children. "Lyon was her school. When you grow up, you can come here too." One of the kids noticed Carpenter's alligator skin cowboy boots and asked where he got them. "I swam into a swamp and cut off an alligator's tail to make these with," he said. Miss Crawford said she had been teaching the children the difference between what's false and what's true. "What was that story?" she asked. In unison, the children shouted, "False!" After the reading, Carpenter took the children to lunch at Edward's Commons.
 Dr. Carpenter reads to the children from the Newark preschool. |
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Bagpipers compete in solo contest
The first Batesville Solo Bagpiping Contest was held Saturday on the Lyon
campus. There will be six to eight of these events held around the region each
year to advance the abilities of pipers in the region. The region encompasses
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. The next contests are slated to be held
in Oklahoma City, Okla., in March; Galveston, Texas in June; and, Baton Rouge,
La., in July.
Photos by Sherri Stewart, mother of Gavin Stewart
Judge Jimmy Bell with Shayla Mootz from
Texas and Gavin Stewart of Mountain View at the first Batesville Solo Bagpiping
Contest. |
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Gavin Stewart of Mountain View competes |
 Vince Moore of Springfield, Ill. |
 Nancy Love of Baton Rouge, La
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Lyon
alumna's longtime
dream to be pediatric dentist is realized
When
Crystal Dickerson was a sixth grader at Marvin Elementary in Mulberry,
she knew she wanted to be a pediatric dentist. Going to see her pediatric
dentist Dr. James Lee in Fort Smith was not something she dreaded. Instead, she
enjoyed positive experiences at the dentist and wanted to pursue that for other
youngsters.
Now 29 and married to a medical school graduate in his residency, the only scary part of being a pediatric dentist was starting her own office in Wichita, Kansas, last fall.
"When I started planning the office I was living in Kansas City. I have had a lot of good mentors along the way but it is definitely frightening to go out on your own and start an office. It is a new building. We built the interior from the ground up. The architect was really good. We tweaked a few things. Everything we got was for the kids, even down to the monitors on the ceiling," said Dr. Crystal Walker.
Youngsters entering Walker's office are greeted with a bright purple wall and a jungle mural complete with lions, tigers, parrots, little frogs and cheerful monkeys.
"We used warm colors. The office is very kid friendly, not sterile, and is very inviting for the kids," said the dentist who frequently sings and acts silly while working on her young patients.
Most of the treatment areas are in a common area but several private treatment rooms are for patients reluctant to visit the dentist. Dental chairs have screens above them for video games or cartoons.
Walker is absent from her office on Mondays for a good cause. She spends every Monday working for a small stipend at GraceMed Health Clinic, a ministry of the United Methodist Church..
"Pretty much anyone can receive care at GraceMed. It is for the underserved or underinsured," Walker said.
"It is rewarding when a child is nervous when they come back for treatment and leave smiling. That is satisfying knowing you have helped someone in that way," she said. "The frustrating part of the job is seeing really young kids, less than 2 years old with multiple cavities. Cavities are more of a preventable thing. Parents just don't have the knowledge to take care of their teeth. It is very frustrating for me to have to remove teeth on someone who is 2 years old," Walker said.
She advises parents to start brushing a child's teeth when a baby's teeth come in.
"Limiting the frequency of sugary drinks and snacks is key," the dentist said.
Walker earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Lyon College at Batesville, then went to University of Missouri Kansas City Dental School where she met husband Robin. After dental school, she completed a pediatric dental residency at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
"I did not have any problems in college coming out of Mulberry High School. If you have a goal and go for it, you can do anything you set your mind to if you have the perseverance," she said.
"My husband Robin is entering family practice. He has two more years. We are planning on staying here. I don't think my mom is too thrilled about that but we are getting settled," she said.
They spend time with the Walker family in nearby Clearwater, Kansas, especially at Sunday dinners.
Crystal Walker's connection to health care extends beyond her dental practice and her husband's residency. She strives to raise awareness for breast cancer in honor of her mother's survival.
The little girl from Mulberry who dreamed of emulating her pediatric dentist, is achieving that dream, one child at a time, with the help of monkeys swinging in her office.
Baseball
Scots sweep opener versus C of O
Lyon College utilized a sterling pitching performance on the front end of a doubleheader and an 11-hit attack in the second half to notch a season-opening twin bill sweep of College of the Ozarks Sunday at Scots Field.
In the opening game, Justin McGarity (1-0) went the distance for the Scots in a 3-1 victory, twirling a complete-game four-hitter.
Lyon scored two runs in the bottom of the third and one in the fourth to take a 3-0 advantage. C of O plated its lone run in the top of the sixth.
Mike Sanchez' leadoff solo homer in the second game set the tone for a 9-7 Lyon College win.
The Scots scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 9-4 cushion into the seventh, but allowed three runs before Jeffery Matlock came in and closed the door for the save.
Derek Bond (1-0) earned the win in relief of Brian Carr.
The Scots will play University of the Ozarks at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Scots Field.
Basketball
Scots suffer 10th TranSouth setback
JACKSON, Tenn. -- The Lyon College Scots' TranSouth Conference slide reached 10 games Saturday night with a 89-63 loss to the Lambuth Eagles, the No. 6-ranked team in NAIA Division I men's basketball.
The defeat drops Lyon College to 9-13 overall and 0-10 in the TranSouth. Lambuth improves to 20-3 overall and 10-1 in the conference.
Levi Taylor was the only Scot who scored in double figures, earning 15 points while pulling down six boards. Lyon's Trey Salley and Jonathan Donaldson netted eight points apiece.
Four Eagles landed double digits nights in the scoring column, led by Jeremy Weddle with a game-high 21 points. Ivan Jenkins pitched in 17 points and teammates Tobin Foulke and Kierren Lovick had 15 each.
Lyon shot just 39 percent (23 of 59) from the field in the contest while hitting only 45 percent from the charity stripe. Lambuth shot 41 percent (31 of 74) from the field and sank 19 of 23 foul shots (82.6 percent).
Lyon takes on Freed-Hardeman in a conference game at 8 p.m. Thursday in Becknell Gym.
Lambuth earns 90-57 win over Lyon College
JACKSON, Tenn. -- A second-half cold spell from field-goal range handed the Lyon College Pipers their third consecutive TranSouth Conference loss in a 90-57 defeat at the hands of the Lambuth University Lady Eagles Saturday evening.
Lyon shot just 38 percent from the field in the second half, while its Lambuth counterparts hit 52 percent from field-goal range during the same span. The Lady Eagles parlayed that shooting percentage and a 40-24 advantage in the rebounding department into a 47-26 halftime run to win the contest going away.
Forward Maribeth Waters paced the Pipers with 13 points while teammate April Carter accounted for 12 points.
Lambuth's Megan Fuqua led all scorers with 19 points while teammate Reggie Maddox dropped in 18 points and had a game-high nine rebounds.
The loss sinks Lyon College to 9-12 overall and 3-7 in the TranSouth Conference. Lambuth improves to 15-7 and 7-4 in the league.
The Pipers play Central Baptist tonight in Conway. On Thursday, they will host conference foe Freed-Hardeman in a game beginning at 6 p.m. in Becknell Gym.
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