Short takes

An advance in the health care field

Virginia Western Community College this week welcomed students to the new Center for Science and Health Professions — a $26 million, 68,000-square-foot building along Colonial Avenue in Roanoke. A remarkable building in that it is the first new one on the campus in 20 years. But what’s inside is even more noteworthy.

“I call this a premiere building. All the space, the equipment, the bells and whistles,” said college President Robert Sandel.

Classrooms are equipped with today’s technology, what students will encounter in the real-world practice of medicine that they seek to enter after Virginia Western. Their new lessons will shorten the learning curve once they report to the workplace, a tangible benefit for area employers.

The expansion also allows Virginia Western to accept more students into health care programs that have filled up quickly and forced too many onto waiting lists. In having the capacity to teach more students, the community college continues to fill its role in training competent workers to fill high-demand health care jobs.

The legacy of Al Pollard

When Al Pollard died in 2006, downtown Roanoke’s restaurant scene was taking off, finally drawing office-dwellers to linger after work and younger people to come by later. Corned Beef Co. and Frankie Rowland’s Steakhouse, which Pollard co-owned with Roger Neel, were very much a part of the scene. But it was Pollard’s mentoring of others, like Metro! owner Andy Schlosser, that played a larger role in the success of helping to build a vibrant, eclectic mix of restaurants. When Pollard died, his many friends sought a way to keep the spirit of his work alive by helping others get into the restaurant business.

Around the same time, the Culinary Institute at Virginia Western was taking off, thus creating the perfect pairing.

The Al Pollard Memorial Foundation has given $200,000 so far to the Culinary Institute at Virginia Western to offer scholarships. Now, the school will be called the Al Pollard Culinary Program, and the foundation pledges $300,000 more over the next five years to help support even more scholarships.

The final sculpture from a master

Next June, to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing, a new sculpture called “Homage” will be dedicated at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. It is the final work of Jim Brothers, the Kansas artist who created the memorial’s stunning sculptures. He died this week at the age of 72 when he lost his battle with cancer.

Brothers’ sculptures are “so powerful that they don’t really need text to go along with them,” said memorial President April Cheek-Messier. So true. Children just learning about World War II and D-Day do not need much of a primer to understand the drama that unfolds at the memorial, thanks to Brothers’ command of his subject. It was said that he was obsessed with details and never satisfied with his work. It also can be said that those who view his sculptures cannot help but be moved by the details of work well done.

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