Springdale Morning News
Published By Stephens Media
monday, aug. 27, 2012
NWAONLINE.COM
Hospice Home
Opening Set
For March
An Edition of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
$1.00
prepped and pampered
Circle of life to complete second
facility providing end-of-life care
By Misty Gittings
[email protected]
BENTONVILLE — A new
building popping up north of
Orchards Park will provide
end-of-life care to Northwest
Arkansas residents. Circle of
Life Hospice plans to open its
latest facility on Legacy Parkway in March.
The 24-bed hospice home
will replace an eight-patient
facility Circle of Life is leasing from Legacy Village.
The Bentonville facility
will provide a needed option
for residents of Benton and
Carroll counties, according
to Jessica Young, communications and marketing coordinator for Circle of Life. The
eight-bed Bentonville home
has been open for two years
and stays full, she said. Circle
of Life also operates a 24-bed
hospice home in Har-Ber
Meadows in Springdale.
“We want to fill the needs
of the community by providing this hospice home,” Young
said. “With the new home,
they will have closer access
to care. We’re basically meeting an unmet need.”
Hospice caregivers provide
a compassionate environment for dying patients and
bereavement support for
their families. Most of the
patients at Circle of Life stay
for about a week, according
to staff members.
Circle of Life accepts insurance, Medicare and Medicaid,
but patients are not turned
see hospice page 2a
STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE
Mason Walker, 13, center, uses a blower Friday to dry a show cow as his sisters Whitney, 11, left, and Catelyn,
9, help in one of the family’s cold rooms at the Walker family’s Willow Springs Ranch in Prairie Grove as the family
prepares for this week’s Washington County Fair.
Fair A Tradition
155th Annual county event begins tuesday
By Kayla Paine
[email protected]
I
STAFF PHOTO MARC F. HENNING
Mayor Bob McCaslin, left, Debi Hadner, Bentonville
Planning Commission member, and Chris Sooter, Bentonville
alderman, explore Wednesday the chapel under construction
at Circle of Life Hospice in Bentonville. A tour of the facility
was led by Ryan Langston, second right, and Catherine
Grubbs, Circle of Life Hospice representatives. The 40,000square-foot facility will open in March.
GETTING STARTED
FAYETTEVILLE
t’s 6:30 a.m. Time to wake up;
there’s work to be done.
It’s a hot summer day at
Willow Springs Ranch in
Prairie Grove and the Walker children are heading out to the barn to
tend to their prize-winning cattle.
Mason, 13, and Whitney, 11, have
one brown and white Hereford
heifer and three black Maintainer
heifers. The siblings bring the heifers out of the 65-degree temperature-regulated room to start their
day.
They greet the animals they
spend more time with than their
best friends, and feed them. For
see fair page 4a
STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE
Several of the Walker family’s calves stand in an enclosure
Friday on the family farm.
Parent Teacher Groups
Raise Money For Extras
By Amye Buckley
[email protected]
Seniors Lead
The Way
SPRINGDALE — Shyrah
Perry knows moving
up in classification is a
daunting task.
FULL STORY, 6a
T o d a y ’ s w eat h er
86/65
BEAVER LAKE
1,112.4 FEET
SPRINGDALE
MORNING NEWS
Volume 18, Number 293
© NAN LLC, 2012
6
38333
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5
ROGERS — New swings
grace the playground at
Bonnie Grimes Elementary School this year,
thanks to the Parent
Teacher Organization at
the school.
“We had been saving
for several years,” said
Angela Herring, outgoing
PTO president.
This year’s fundraisers will include a catalog
sale, family nights at local
restaurants and an NWA
Naturals fundraiser, said
Patrese Hudgins, incoming PTO president.
Last year, nearly every
morning at Bonnie Grimes
Elementary School began
with the same scene as
one of the first-grade girls
stopped by the office to
count out the change she
brought as a donation,
Herring said. She had
heard the Parent Teacher
Organization was saving
for swings. In the course
of a year, the girl donated
$47 in change.
“ I f eve r y b o dy ge t s
involved and contributes
in a small way, it makes a
big difference,” Hudgins
said.
Next year the Grimes
group will focus
STAFF PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF
Benjamin Viveros gets a push Friday on the
playground from Sara Freeman, Grimes Elementary
student teacher.
on technology.
Parent teacher groups
are gearing up for the
new school year with
fundraisers from fall festivals to candy bar sales.
By saving and raising
money, they give teachers just that little extra
that doesn’t come from a
see extras page 3a
Walmart Gives Support
To Charter School
By Teresa Moss
[email protected]
BENTONVILLE — Walmart
has thrown its support
behind a charter school organization that wants to open a
school in Bentonville.
Lewisville, Texas-based
Responsive Education Solutions plans to submit an
application to the Arkansas
Department of Education
next week. Company officials are collecting letters of
support for the application
from local organizations and
politicians.
“On behalf of the more
than 18,000 Walmart associates living and working
in Northwest Arkansas, I’m
writing in support of the
charter school application
submitted by Responsive
Education Solutions,” wrote
Susan Chambers, executive vice president, Walmart
Global People Division.
C h a m b e r p ra i s e s t h e
Bentonville School District
in the letter, but states a
rigorous charter school
option would “only enhance
an already thriving education
climate.”
Responsive Education
Solutions runs more than
50 public charter schools in
Texas, and had more than
10,600 students enrolled in
2011.
The Bentonville location
will be the organization’s
first school in Arkansas, if
approved. A letter of intent
Charter
Schools
For information
about charter
schools in
Arkansas, visit
arkansased.org.
WEB
WATCH
filed with the state claims the
school will open as a kindergarten through eighth-grade
school for 445 students. It
will add one grade a year
until the school is kindergarten through 12th grade with
685 students.
Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy will offer a classical education, if approved.
“Walmart hopes the Arkansas State Board of Education will be supportive of
giving families the choice to
consider an option such as
Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy,” Chamber
wrote. “The classical, college
prep education offered at the
academy would be an excellent addition to a fine education offered by public schools
in Bentonville.”
The Arkansas Department
of Education Board received
eight applications for openenrollment charter schools
last year, said Diana Gross,
Arkansas Department of
Education Division of Learning Services program adviser.
None of the schools were
approved.
see charter page 2a