In the past several weeks two towering, iconic women that impacted American culture and politics for decades have passed away. First Dolly Parton, and last week journalist, publisher and early second-wave feminist Gloria Steinem. A Virginia Tech professor who had a brief encounter with Steinem years ago at a conference remembers her. Dr. Bonnie Zare is professor of sociology and women’s studies at Virginia Tech, she recalls meeting Steinem at an airport. In the mid-60’s Steinem went undercover for about two weeks to work as a Playboy Bunny at Hugh Hefner’s place in New York, intent on exposing the conditions the women working there had to endure. More from WFIR’s Gene Marrano:

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A new event is coming to the Dog Bowl Market.  5 Points Music Sanctuary is celebrating arts from all disciplines.  Denise Allen Membreno has more

The first ever 5 Points Art Harvest is a celebration of art, creativity, music, and community. 5 Points Founder and Executive Director, Tyler Godsey says the event is an invitation to create art.

“This event itself has got different forms of interaction points and what we’re calling harvest stations,” added Godsey. “So we have a bunch of instruments where we’re doing an instrument giveaway in which people can come and decorate their own guitars, ukuleles, mocarenas, and a bunch of instruments. We’ll be able to decorate those, take them on the parade. We have a tie-dye station for people to get free tie-dyes and do tie-dye bandanas. We have a community mural that we are painting together. There’ll be a paint-by-numbers concept.”

Other hands-on experiences include a bubble garden, yard games, face painting, and a goat petting zoo. Godsey says this event is about collaborations.

“Core partner for this event is VIA, which provides jobs and schools for families with autism and those with developmental disabilities,” said Godsey. “We will have a Five Points dog walk and parade. We partnered with the Daisy Art Parade to come in and create a little mini Daisy Art Parade at the Dog Bowl. We’ll feature a Five Points poster gallery that will have all of our poster artists that work for us throughout the year.”

The 5 Points Art Harvest is September 13th at the Black dog Salvage Dog Bowl Market from 11 am to 4 pm.  Find a link to tickets and information at WFIRnews.com.  Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.

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The 5 Points Art Harvest is your chance to enjoy and create art.  The inaugural event offers different ways to experience creativity.  Denise Allen Membreno reports.

5 Points Music Sanctuary is famous for putting on concerts, but the new 5 Points Art Harvest is a way to celebrate all forms of art.

“It is the platform of creative capacity that we offer to photographers, live painters, installation artists, street performers, poster designers,” continued Godsey. “All of these individuals are seeking ways in which they can explore their own creative ingenuity. And one of the things that’s really important for me and important for our organization is to honor the fact that we have platforms available and not just be focused on how we present music, but it’s on how we present a community. that goes along with that.”

That’s Tyler Godsey Executive Director of 5 Points Music Sanctuary.   The 5 Points Art Harvest is September 13th at the Black dog Salvage Dog Bowl Market from 11 am to 4 pm.  It has what Godsey calls Harvest Stations where all ages can interact and create art.  The goal is to create a sensory friendly event.

“The Dog Bowl is a public access space,” said Godsey. “It’s not just a place where we put on our concerts. I view that as a community asset for the long run. And when we put on events there, I do want to look at how we can explore not just what we hear, but the things that we see, the things that we taste, the things that we share. When we understand that these experiences are about all of the senses, we can start to open up our minds and our eyes to different ways in which our community He comes together for these things.”

Find a link to tickets and information at WFIRnews.com.  Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.

Art Harvest Information

Art Harvest tickets

Mixed signals from the new Virginia Consumer Sentiment Report released by Roanoke College, showing that consumer sentiment fell sharply after modest gains were recorded in the first quarter survey. The new online poll taken with almost 600 respondents in early to mid-August reveals that Virginians feel worse than they did about their circumstances in February. Wage growth has not kept pace with the resurgence in inflation in the latest Roanoke College survey, nearly erasing the real-wage cushion that had supported household spending earlier in the year. Roanoke College economist Dr. Alice Kassens says stubborn inflation and higher gas prices related to the war with Iran are a major reason. But Virginia households keep spending and are more optimistic than the national average about the future. Kassens, Dean of the Roanoke College School’s of Business, Economic and Analytics says politicians running on both sides of the aisle can make hay with the survey results:

The loss of Medicaid coverage expected by new work requirements and funding cuts to SNAP – the food stamp program -could place more strain on local food pantries in Southwest Virginia – and on food banks like Salem-based Feeding Southwest Virginia.  President and CEO Pam Irvine says they’ve started to see more people seeking assistance at the food pantries they service over 26 counties and in 9 cities, as components of the Big Beautiful Bill start to come online; many of those changes to Medicaid and SNAP in the budget bill were timed to go into effect after the mid-term elections. Governor Spanberger has signed an executive order called Keep Virginia Covered but acknowledges the Commonwealth won’t have all the funds needed to cover all the potential losses to the SNAP program that gives lower-income families more purchasing power when they buy groceries. More from WFIR’s Gene Marrano:

Wawa has been in Virginia for more than 25 years, with more than 135 of its convenience stores and fuel stations in the Commonwealth – but has only started to expand into the western part of the state. This morning they cut a ribbon on West Main Street in Salem, giving away free t-shirts and coffee. The Pennsylvania-based chain has plans to open 30 more Wawa’s in Western Virginia over the next five years. The opening this morning included a hoagie-building contests between local police and fire departments, and a donation made to Feeding Southwest Virginia. Wawa has plans for 60 stores in the I-81 market over the next 10 years, averaging more than 7.5 million dollars investment per location. Each store will employ around 35 associates on average. Kim Dowgielewicz is director of Wawa  store operations in Virginia:

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A Blacksburg non-profit has been named a finalist for the 2026 DOT-ORG Impact Awards.  The winner of the international award wins $50 thousand. WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno has more on Hope to Walk.

Hope to Walk has been providing legs to amputees in developing countries since 2015. Founder Phil Johnson has invented a low-cost prosthetic leg which the organization gives to amputees at no cost.  In the past 11 years Hope to Walk has grown from three clinics to 7 clinics, several of which are in development. Reed Kennedy, Volunteer Executive Director says the legs are made in Blacksburg, bagged and then volunteers take them overseas to fit those in need.

“And they then use the components in the kit to customize the lead to the patient,” explained Kennedy. “They’ll grind the foot down to the right size, they cut the pylon off at the right length, and they build the socket.”

The clinics are in Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia and Tanzania.  Kennedy says Hope to Walk’s mission of helping amputees has coincided with an initiative of Lions Club international

“They have adopted diabetes as one of their focus areas and hope to walk,” said Kennedy. “We’re kind of the back end of diabetic treatment for those that get an amputation. We restore their ability to walk. And about 80%, Phil, estimates of the patients that he puts a leg on, they’re diabetics. They lost their leg due to diabetes.”

Kennedy says it costs $250 dollars to make each leg. As a finalist for the 2026 Dot-Org Impact Awards they are guaranteed to receive at least a 25-hundred-dollar prize.  Hope to Walk and 35 other finalists are vying for the $50,000 grand prize.  Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.

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A Blacksburg nonprofit is expanding and receiving international attention.  As WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno tells us Hope to Walk is meeting the need of more amputees in developing countries but the need for more prosthetics is increasing as well.

In its 11 years of providing free prosthetic legs to amputees Hope to Walk has grown from three clinics to clinics in Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia and Tanzania.  Reed Kennedy, Volunteer Executive Director says in 2025 the organization almost tripled the number of amputees who received legs the prior year, and this year they are tracking to double last year’s total. He says the need is growing.

“Last I heard, 72 million people are amputees that can’t afford a prosthetic leg,” said Kennedy. “And it’s growing because of the diabetes, which is raging not just here in the US, but in other countries as well.”

 As a finalist for the 2026 Dot-Org Impact Awards they are guaranteed to receive at least 25-hundred-dollar prize.  Hope to Walk and 35 other finalists are vying for the $50,000 grand prize. Kennedy says it costs $250 dollars to make each leg a small price to change someone’s life.

“He came in and Phil fitted up with a leg and he started walking there in the clinic and I looked in his face and tears are coming down his eyes,” remembered Kennedy. “His daughter and grandson are there. They start crying. Then I start crying. I was not expecting the emotion of getting a leg and what it means to these folks because it totally changes their life.”

Kennedy says these prosthetic legs breath new life into the individuals they fit. Adults can go back to work and the children they serve can once again play and go to school.  Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.

Hope to Walk

Nicole Gray is a massage therapist by trade – but now she can call herself a muralist, after completing her first solo project, painting a Blue Ridge Mountain scene on the side of Ayres Hall at Roanoke College, at the corner of College Avenue and Clay Street in Salem. Gray studied drawing at Virginia Western Community College under Jon Murrill – a Roanoke College alum who has become a prolific mural painter in the Roanoke Valley.  One of those challenges was a stretch of rain showers between mid July and mid August that led to some downtime – but Gray completed the project just before Roanoke College students returned to campus. The mural is part of the school’s plan to reimagine campus Main Street corridor as a life-learn-work-play hub integrating the college with the City of Salem. The design came from the College, Gray was grateful they chose her for the mural project

Are you ready for some football? Roanoke College takes the field for game one of season two tomorrow night on the road. The school’s Director of Athletics, who helped hire the Maroon’s high-profile head coach, says he’s expecting the team to take it up a notch from 2025.  5 and 4 last year,  6-4 when including a forfeit at the season’s end by Averett. Director of Athletics Curtis Campbell thinks Roanoke College hit a home run when they hired NCAA Division 1 long time assistant and recruiting standout Bryan Stinespring as the Maroons head coach. Roanoke College fielded a club team in 2024 and won the four games it played against JV-level squads, before officially joining the Old Dominion Athletic Conference in 2025. More from WFIR’s Gene Marrano:

Brand new bicycles and safety training for 125 deserving youngsters in Salem City Schools. That could be the reality by the beginning of the new year, as part of the Salem Lions Club “Wheels of Hope,” initiative. Garry Lautenschlager is with the non-profit Salem Area Ministries, which was turned down for a grant the non-profit community organization has been awarded in the past on several occasions to establish school food pantries – then the Salem Lions Club came to the rescue, making a significant contribution towards the purchase of 125 bicycles that will go to children most in need at Salem elementary schools. More from WFIR’s Gene Marrano:

Attending medical school – if you’re lucky enough to have the grades and are chosen from an application process where hundreds or thousands of other college graduates may be vying for the same slot – is daunting enough. Then there is paying for four years of Med School. Now money set aside in the state budget has led the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors to approve a sizable tuition rate cut for the medical school in Roanoke. It costs around $64,000 per year right now for each of the four years in-state students at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine will have to pay at some point – but now it will cost them $15,000 less each year after the announced tuition cut. Dr. Rebecca Pauley is a physician and Vice Dean at the School of Medicine. She says the med school receives about 6000 applications annually – the 2026 first year class is 64 students. More from WFIR’s Gene Marrano: