Oak Ridge Today

Curves of Oak Ridge helps fill pantries at MMC Hospitality Houses

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Curves Food Donation to MMC Hospitality House

Kim Maes, left, Hospitality House coordinator, and Misti Binkley, owner, Curves of Oak Ridge, stand among the three large shopping carts filled with food and household goods donated to Methodist Medical Center’s Hospitality Houses by members of the Curves gym. (Submitted photo)

The Hospitality Houses at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge received a weighty donation from Curves in Oak Ridge, a gym facility exclusively for women. Members collected and donated about 900 pounds of groceries and household goods to help stock the pantries at Methodist’s two Hospitality Houses—the Manly House and CALM House— which provide free lodging for patients and their families who must travel to Methodist for their cancer treatment.

The effort to collect goods for the Hospitality Houses was part of a Curves’ community food drive, which allowed members to make a donation in lieu of a down payment for their gym membership.

“Women come here because they want to take care of themselves,” said Curves of Oak Ridge owner and collection organizer Misti Binkley. “The food drive membership promotion is a way they can take care of others at the same time.” [Read more…]

Guest column: Holiday inn — Oak Ridge needs lodging for recreational visitors

Posted at
By 1 Comment

By Leslie Agron and Pat Fain

Not so much the old Holiday Inn on South Illinois Avenue next to the Skyway Drive-In Theater (with movie sound piped into the facing motel rooms!), nor even our newest hostelry on Tulsa Road… We’re reaching back to the 1942 Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire flick called “Holiday Inn” in a blatant attempt to stretch a holiday tie-in. With terrific Irving Berlin music, including “White Christmas,” for which it won an Oscar for Best Original Song, they sing and dance their way through the plot: “At an inn which is only open on holidays, a crooner and a hoofer vie for the affections of a beautiful up-and-coming performer.”

Coincidentally, another 1942 event was the founding of Oak Ridge as a part of the Manhattan Project.

Often in our vision for “Something Else” for the economic revitalization of Oak Ridge we have mentioned that this city could greatly benefit from serious development of the visitor portion of our economy. This is a proposal for additional lodging in Oak Ridge to forward that end. We need to take a long, hard look at the characteristics of what is available now versus what it would take to appeal to people coming here simply to visit.

[Read more…]