Helping humanity trumps textbooks

SECTION G
APRIL 15, 2012
THE FREE LANCE–STAR
FREDERICKSBURG, VA.
SUDOKU >> G4
.
TV PAGE >> G7
SUNDAY
LIFE
WOMAN ECLIPSED BY LEGEND
MILLIONS OF BULBS ARE SPRINGING TO LIFE IN THE NETHERLANDS
Denver salutes the real person—Margaret.
Once-in-a-decade horticultural show is just one venue for feasting your eyes on flowers.
EXHIBITS >> G5
REVEL IN YOUR ROMANCE
Hawaii’s perfect for honeymoon, anniversary.
TRAVEL >> G6
CELEBRATIONS >> G2
DEEDS >> COLLEGE ON HOLD FOR CAMEROON
Shenandoah casts
a spell on visitors
I
PETER CIHELKA / THE FREE LANCE–STAR
Jonathan Hollingsworth, 20, of Spotsylvania is collecting guitars for children in Cameroon. He departs May 3 for a
year’s stay that will include teaching music. He ‘wants full-throttle engagement,’ says UMW professor Julius Esunge.
Helping humanity
trumps textbooks
BY EDIE GROSS
THE FREE LANCE–STAR
A YEAR IN CAMEROON
Jonathan Hollingsworth was eating
dinner in Fredericksburg, at one of
Aladin Restaurant’s outdoor tables,
when he spotted a homeless man
asking for change.
“We can do him one better than
that,” he told his friends before
inviting the man to join them for a
meal.
“He was quiet at the beginning. By
the end of the night, he was making
the whole table laugh,” said Hollingsworth, 20. “He told me, ‘I
actually haven’t had a real conversation in three months.’ I couldn’t
believe that. I probably don’t go three
hours without talking to someone.”
The encounter last summer was
life-changing for Hollingsworth, who
lives in Spotsylvania County.
He recalled times when he’d avoided eye contact with the less fortunate,
because of guilt or shame or discomfort, and he vowed never to do it
again.
All human beings have worth, said
Hollingsworth, and the very least we
Jonathan Hollingsworth, 20, leaves
May 3 for a year in Cameroon in West
Central Africa, where he’ll volunteer at
a health clinic and teach children to
play the guitar.
He’s collected 10 guitars and raised a
little more than half of the $5,200 he
needs to cover his expenses for the
next year.
If you’d like to donate a guitar
or support his trip, contact him
at [email protected].
Hollingsworth has already started
blogging about his preparations for the
trip and intends to do so all year long at
jonathanhollingsworth.tumblr.com.
He’ll be working with Hope Outreach
International Ministries, a Christian
charity founded by University of Mary
Washington math professor Julius
Esunge.
You can visit the site at hopeoutreach
international.org.
can do is acknowledge that with a
look, a smile, a handshake or something even more meaningful.
To put his beliefs into practice,
Hollingsworth will spend the next
year in Cameroon in West Central
Africa serving some of the country’s
poorest residents.
He’ll volunteer at a clinic in Buea,
on the country’s coast. And he’s also
collecting guitars so he can teach
music to local children.
“I just want to take some time off
and pour my heart into something
other than my textbooks,” said the
Germanna Community College sophomore. “The best thing you can offer
people is actual human interaction.
It’s more important than just cutting
a check to a charity from your
armchair.”
He leaves May 3 and will work
under the auspices of Hope Outreach
International Ministries, a Christian
charity founded by University of
Mary Washington professor Julius
Esunge.
Most volunteers go for a few weeks
SEE CAMEROON, BACK PAGE
‘Client List’ ‘bold series’ for Lifetime
NETWORK AND ITS STAR,
JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT,
ARE SHAKING THINGS UP
WITH A NEW SERIES
BY AMY KAUFMAN
LOS ANGELES TIMES
LIFETIME
Jennifer Love Hewitt stars
in Lifetime’s ‘Client List.’
LOS ANGELES—The billboards are impossible to
miss. There she is: Olive skin
glistening, leg arched seductively, virtually naked save
for flesh-colored lingerie.
Jennifer Love Hewitt has
towered over fast-food joints
and gas stations for months
to sell the actress’s new
show, “The Client List,” on
Lifetime. On the program,
she plays a Texas single
mother who works at a fullservice massage parlor to
make ends meet.
The series marks a new
creative direction for the
relatively chaste Lifetime,
best known for its rippedfrom-the-headlines, madefor-television movies and
tacky reality shows like
“Dance Moms.”
The move signifies no less
of a change for the 33-yearold actress who rose to early
fame playing a wholesome
girl next door on the longrunning ’90s family drama
“Party of Five.”
But after appearing in a
few teen movies—most
memorably 1997’s “I Know
What You Did Last Summer”—her big-screen turns
weren’t as well-received. It
wasn’t until the 2005 launch
of “Ghost Whisperer” that
SEE CLIENT LIST, PAGE G3
CANNOT tell you why
I turned left at the stop
sign, heading south
on U.S. 11. But I did, on a
whim, and it proved to be
a revelation.
Historic Middletown—
about an hour and a half
from Fredericksburg—
offered a sight unseen, a
place not explored. But
nice as that small town
was, the sight I shall long
remember was not in Middletown but just beyond it,
where the old Valley Pike
follows a ridge through the
Cedar Creek battlefield,
where troops led by Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal
Early and Union Maj. Gen.
Philip Sheridan clashed
on Oct. 19, 1864.
One look westward
across the deeply rolling,
spring-green, farm-dotted
hills to the distant ridge
of the Alleghenies and I
stopped the car. Words fail
to describe such a scene.
My friend CG and I had
set out Saturday to explore
several villages in the upper Shenandoah Valley. We
never got to them.
In an instant, we knew
our plans for the day would
change. There had to be a
way to soak in this wonder,
ARMCHAIR
ADVENTURES >>
PAUL SULLIVAN
to feel it in our pores.
It was that thrilling.
We could stop at the
battlefield visitors center,
or follow that gray thread
of a road off the highway to
stately Belle Grove in the
valley beyond. I took the
thread.
Built in 1797 by Maj.
Isaac Hite and his wife,
Nelly Madison Hite, sister
of President James Madison, Belle Grove was once
the center of a prosperous
7,500-acre farming community. The land was first
acquired through a patent
obtained by Hite’s grandfather Jost Hite in 1714. He
is the first known European settler in the Valley.
Guided tours of the
home are offered, as is a
self-guided tour of the
SEE SULLIVAN, BACK PAGE
PAUL SULLIVAN / THE FREE LANCE–STAR
Commune with nature at the State Arboretum at Blandy
Farm, east of Winchester on the south side of U.S. 50.
GET THIS
exhibits
PONDER TITANIC
IN THE BIG APPLE
A New York City exhibition
on the Titanic features
artifacts and examines the
doomed ocean liner’s place
in popular culture. It’s newly
open at the South Street
Seaport Museum, at the
museum’s Melville Gallery
in Lower Manhattan. That’s
across the street from the
Titanic Memorial Lighthouse dedicated in 1913.
Exhibit highlights include
the original 1911 deck plan
of first-class accommodations. Items from various
films include posters, publicity photos and costumes.
The Titanic sank on April
15, 1912, after hitting an
iceberg during its maiden
voyage to New York from
Southampton, England.
COMING UP IN FAMILY >> PUTTING THE EMPHASIS ON SAFETY
Here’s a
real-man
shout-out
WRITER CONFESSES
CRUSH ON ‘PARKS AND
RECREATION’ CHARACTER
BY MARY MCNAMARA
LOS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ANGELES—There are
many reasons to watch
NBC’s marvelously funny
“Parks and Recreation,” but
at this point I need only one:
Ron Swanson.
Swanson is played by Nick
Offerman, an actor blessed
with a deeply melodious
voice and wickedly expressive eyebrows who has mastered, if not invented, the art
of over-the-top understatement. But Swanson is a sum
SEE SWANSON, PAGE G3
G8
LIFE
FREDERICKSBURG, VA.
.
SUNDAY, APRIL 15, 2012 THE FREE LANCE–STAR
Employ these tricks
for savvy solo travel
BY MYSCHA THERIAULT
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Evelyn Hannon has been
traveling solo for 30 years,
and has learned a thing or
two about senior travel. The
72-year-old tackles travel
adventures many would hesitate to embrace.
In three decades, Hannon
has weathered a threemonth Semester at Sea voyage with 750 students, performed as a film extra in
Hong Kong, interviewed an
African chief in Ghana and
herded cows in Gruyere.
Here are her top tips for
affordable senior travel.
Discounts: Hannon celebrates her seniority by enjoying all of the discounts it
brings her way. A major
source of these discounts is
her AARP membership.
That’s right, folks. Retirement discounts aren’t just
for Denny’s anymore. Hannon leverages the senior
savings allowed with her
AARP card to receive reduced pricing on everything
from trains, hotels and even
hostels. Another area of
vacation savings she leverages heavily is the flexibility
that comes with no longer
having to work for a boss.
She gets more bang for her
buck by selecting shoulder
season vacations and flying
on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when fares are generally
lower.
Fitness: Pounding the
pavement for the perfect
travel photo might be frugal,
but it’s still hard work for
any traveler. Hannon gets
ready for adventure in advance by increasing her daily
walking schedule for several
few weeks before she departs. That way, she knows
she’ll be ready for the extra
sightseeing on her travel
itinerary. When traveling to
Asia, she recommends
throwing in some extra
thigh-muscle exercises:
“You’ll need them for all of
the squat toilets you’ll encounter.”
Concerned about lifting
that luggage? Packing light is
Hannon’s solution. “I travel
to observe rather than to be
observed. That means packing a very small, simple
wardrobe in neutral colors.”
She also favors using a small
suitcase on wheels over lugging a huge backpack.
Activities: Rather than
using her vacation dollars to
stay at expensive resorts
only to lounge by the pool
and eat huge meals every
night, this traveling granny
enjoys putting her talents to
use helping others. Many
areas of need are in countries
where travel costs are quite
cheap, enabling you to stay a
bit longer. Says Evelyn, “An
older adult who has practiced medicine, nursing or
engineering all of their
working life can bring those
precious skills to a volunteer
organization like Cross Cultural Solutions or Habitat for
Humanity in developing
c o u n t r i e s a ro u n d t h e
world.”
When asked why she
doesn’t choose vacations her
peers would consider more
age appropriate, Hannon responds, “In travel, age is just
a number and not important
unless you are cheese.”
PAUL SULLIVAN / THE FREE LANCE–STAR
Allow a minimum of two hours to visit Belle Grove, built in 1797, and the Cedar Creek battlefield visitors center.
SULLIVAN: In an instant, we knew our plans for the day would change
FROM PAGE G1
grounds. While it is much
reduced from its original
size, the estate encompasses 283 acres of what has to
be some of the most beautiful rural country in Virginia.
The Web address is belle
grove.org.
Every Virginian should
see this site, if only to be
reminded of the state’s
impressive heritage. Because we had not planned to
visit Belle Grove, we did not
allow time enough for it. A
more manageable day would
include lunch at The Irish
Isle Restaurant & Pub in
Middletown—which we did
visit—followed by a minimum two hours for Belle
Grove and the Cedar Creek
battlefield visitors center.
Walking shoes and a camera
with a wide lens are musts.
The 1864 battle, centering on Belle Grove and
sometimes going by that
name, was a major clash of
forces contesting control of
the Shenandoah Valley.
Our day did include at
least one stop we had
planned—at the always enjoyable State Arboretum at
Blandy Farm, east of
Winchester on the south
side of U.S. 50.
For anyone who loves the
outdoors, trees, flowers,
gardens and birds, no trip to
this part of Virginia is
complete without a stop at
Blandy. The 700-acre experimental farm is operated
by the University of Virginia. Its collections include
more than 6,000 trees plus
a huge assortment of shrubs
in many themed gardens.
There are miles of trails at
Blandy, a favorite of birders,
photographers, painters and
horse riders.
We wandered trails, treelined walks, a gazebo overlooking a fertile wetland,
and gardens of native plants
and herbs. There is much to
see. Pick up the map of the
grounds at the kiosk next to
the parking lot. And bring a
picnic. There are two very
nice picnic areas. Dogs are
allowed if leashed within
200 yards of buildings. Give
it half a day, minimum, if
this is your cup of tea.
I only wish this outdoors
showcase of the Shenandoah Valley was half as far
from Fredericksburg.
ON THE NET
Armchair Adventures/Plus is
now up and running. Check it out:
armchairadventuresplus.
blogspot.com.
Paul Sullivan of Spotsylvania
County, a former reporter
with The Free Lance–Star,
is a freelance writer. Email
him at [email protected].
Winning millions creates new set of problems, one Maryland winner says
BY MARY CAROLE MCCAULEY
AND JUSTIN FENTON
THE BALTIMORE SUN
BALTIMORE—A Tarot card might
have foretold that Ellwood “Bunky”
Bartlett would win $32.6 million in
the 2007 lottery.
Unfortunately, the spirit world
provided no omens that might have
helped the 45-year-old practicing
Wiccan better manage his good
fortune.
In the wake of last month’s
record $656 million jackpot,
Bartlett of Westminster, Md.,
agreed to talk about the things that
have gone wrong—and right—in
his life during the past three
years.
To help the newest mega-millionaires avoid repeating his mistakes, Bartlett offered an important
tip:
Remain anonymous. Take the
winnings in the form of an annuity
parceled out over 26 years, instead
of in a lump sum. Curb impulse
spending by stashing winnings in a
trust fund that requires several
signatures to authorize major purchases.
“Otherwise, everybody and their
brother will find you and try to get
money from you,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett was by all accounts a soft
touch who gave away millions to
friends and strangers. He hired
buddies, bought them first-class
plane tickets, officiated at their
weddings and helped them buy
homes—only to watch helplessly
as long-standing relationships disintegrated.
The former accountant readily
admits to making bad business
decisions. Plans that were widely
publicized at the time, such as
expanding the New Age bookshop
near White Marsh, Md., that he
considered his “spiritual home,”
failed spectacularly. (Wicca is a
nature-based religion based on
ancient traditions of witchcraft and
white magic.)
A record label that Bartlett
started at the request of his wife,
Denise, released just two albums
before it folded, including one
featuring former reality show contestant Dilana Robichaux.
“People always said that I was
too kind-hearted and wore my
heart on my sleeve,” he said. “One
of the mistakes I made was giving
money to help other people realize
their dreams instead of my own.
Then, when the businesses
crashed, I looked like the bad
guy.”
When Robichaux first met
Bartlett, he impressed her as a man
adrift, a man in search of a focus.
“To me, Bunky was kind of a lost
soul,” said the singer, who was
runner-up during the second season of the CBS reality show “Rock
Star: Supernova.”
“You could kind of tell he was a
bit fearful of what he was going to
do with all this money.”
But not everything was a bust for
Bunky.
The lottery winner estimates
that, after paying 2010 taxes, he
says he still has $15 million to $16
million left in the bank.
His children, Ryan, 26, and
Ashley, 24, are doing well. He
purchased his late mother her
dream house on the water in
Sparrows Point, Md., and says she
got a lot of pleasure during her final
days from feeding the ducks each
morning.
A pizza franchise Bartlett bought
with the sole purpose of ensuring
he could get delivery to his rural
home has beaten the odds and is
about to celebrate its second
anniversary.
The Bartletts also own investment property consisting of four
houses and four commercial
spaces.
And he is finally using his lottery
winnings to finance a dream of his
own—creating the ultimate video
game. True, Bartlett is being
criticized for asking the public for
contributions instead of bankrolling the project entirely. But that
hasn’t deterred him.
“I’m never bothered by criticism
that I shouldn’t do something
because I don’t have the experience,” he said. “I’m an idea man,
and I can hire the people who can
make my ideas reality.”
Even before he entered the public
eye in a big way, Bartlett, who at the
time lived in Dundalk, Md., was
perhaps the world’s most colorful
accountant.
Within days of winning onefourth of the $330 million prize, in
September 2007, he told news
outlets in the U.S., Britain, Finland
and Russia that his win had been
preceded by a Tarot card reading
that told him to slow down and
focus on his spirituality.
Because he is so generous,
Bartlett can’t help being bewildered by what he terms as the
“haters” who have excoriated him
for creating a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter. He’s seeking
$1.1 million to create a test-ready
version of the project he’s tentatively calling “Your World.”
With 29 days to go, 63 backers
had pledged $20,774. Detractors,
meanwhile, wonder why a multimillionaire is asking for money.
“My budget for this game is at
minimum $5 million, so I’m going
to be investing a lot of my own
money,” Bartlett said.
He’d like to release the game in
2014, but he’ll wait as long as he
needs to get the details right. And
luckily, he has that option.
“Winning the lottery buys you
time,” he said.
“Before I won the lottery, I had to
go to work, I had to do this, I had to
do that, I had to, had to, had to.
Now, if friends call up and ask if we
want to go on a cruise, we don’t
have to plan years in advance. We
can just go.”
CAMEROON: Germanna student putting studies on hold to help the needy
FROM PAGE G1
at a time, said Esunge, a
native of Buea, which sits at
the base of Mount Cameroon, an active volcano.
Hollingsworth is the first to
go for a full year, he said.
“He wants full-throttle
engagement,” said Esunge.
“He’s incredible.”
A BUSY YEAR AHEAD
This isn’t Hollingsworth’s
first mission abroad.
Last summer, he and sister
Emily, 18, traveled with fellow Grace Church of Fredericksburg members to the
mountains of Honduras to
help support an indigenous
community.
It was rewarding, said
Hollingsworth, but the community’s needs were greater
than his group could possibly
meet during their short
stay.
To make a lasting impact
somewhere, he felt he needed
to stay longer.
He started researching
volunteer options and discovered that the founder of
Hope Outreach International
Ministries was also a member of his church. That’s
when he contacted Esunge.
The UMW math professor,
who came to this country
about 10 years ago for gradua te s c h o o l , s u g ge s te d
Hollingsworth get his feet
wet by volunteering for three
months. But Hollingsworth
insisted on nothing less than
a year, and after consulting
his parents and his pastor,
Esunge realized he was “the
real deal” and could handle
the commitment.
Hollingsworth will live
with a local family. He’ll
spend roughly half of each
day helping establish a digital
records-keeping program for
a local charity clinic. The rest
of his time will be divided
between two schools, where
he’ll teach kids between the
ages of 6 and 14 how to play
the guitar.
Every now and then he’ll
take his skills on the road,
helping volunteers and staff
members deliver goods and
services to the most rural
parts of Cameroon.
He also intends to pitch in
on local construction projects. For instance, Hope
Outreach International Ministries is helping an orphanage build a bakery so the
youngsters can learn a trade
and the income can sustain
the orphanage.
“He’s going to be pretty
busy,” said Esunge, who
noted that Hollingsworth’s
drive to serve others gels
perfectly with his group’s
mission. “We’re happy to
just be a bridge he can cross
to reach his dream.”
SPREADING THE LOVE
Hollingsworth has raised a
little more than half of the
$5,200 he needs to cover his
plane tickets and a year’s
worth of expenses.
Friends and family have
been generous, said his parents, Amy and Jeff. Recently,
while Amy was walking the
family dog, their longtime
postal carrier caught up with
her, pulled out her wallet and
donated $20 to the cause.
“She started crying and
she said, ‘These are my kids,
too, and he’s doing God’s
work,’ ” said Amy.
His family always sensed
he might choose this path,
said his mother, and it’s
made them all more conscious of how they treat the
people around them.
“You raise your kids that
way and teach about social
justice,” she said, “and then
they grow up and challenge
you.”
Hollingsworth said he’d
love for the homeless man he
encountered last summer to
know how inspiring he was.
Ultimately, he said, he’d like
to start a nonprofit or partner with an existing one to
make this his life’s work.
Last summer, Jonathan Hollingsworth and his sister helped
indigenous people of Honduras on a church mission trip.
For now, he’s excited to
pack up just the bare essentials and put his Christian
principles into practice,
spreading love and hope to
those who need it most.
“I think the world is tired
of hearing about a Jesus they
haven’t experienced,” he
said. “People say, ‘Know
Jesus’ love, Jesus’ peace,
Jesus’ mercy.’ But before you
can tell people Jesus is
anything, you have to show
them love, peace and mercy,
and then say, ‘The way I love
you is the way Jesus loves
you, and he loves you even
more than I can.’ ”
Edie Gross: 540/374-5428
[email protected]