Come on up to our mountains!
Visit Banner Elk, NC this summer

Enjoy our fresh mountain air and 74-degree average temp

Make your reservation now at a Banner Elk B&B or Hotel
Here are direct links to each website:

1902 Turnpike House

Banner Elk Inn

Little Main Street Inn

The Perry House Bed & Breakfast

Azalea Inn

Best Western Mountain Lodge

Inn at Elk River

Click here for all links on one page
by website, telephone, location

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014
Volume III Issue 445
Emai: ron@bannerelkmagazine.com
Cell: 828-260-5112
Home Page: BannerElkMagazine.Com
Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved

Weather Forecast for Banner Elk, NC
The National Weather Service

Okay, all is well.
Put back the winter stuff. Again!

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Tuesday, April 15 meeting
Miller Commons on the campus of Lees-McRae College
Speaker: Author Laura Anne Middlesteadt
"What Doesn't Kill Us - My Battle With Anxiety"

Laura Anne Middlesteadt spoke at the Banner Elk Kiwanis Club meeting yesterday.
Photos above: Her book cover with her pen name; showing statistics about mental illness;
and with her mate, Kiwanian John Heinlein.

 "I know the despair of hitting bottom,
and I know the absolute necessity of hope."
-Laura Anne Middlesteadt

Photos and story  
by Ron Johnson

One day Laura Anne Middlesteadt was a stay-at-home mom with a child and enjoyed a normal life, but when the phone rang and the voice on the other end of the phone told her that her mother had been killed while crossing the street by a motorist, her life dramatically spiraled downward and out of control.

Following the tragedy her husband was laid off and he led her and their son across the country to Oregon to gain employment. He was laid off from that job and they traveled back to the High Country. Soon after they arrived back she had to put her dog to sleep, her MRI indicated two brain tumors, and the husband simply got up one day and walked out following 17-years of marriage.

She tried to get an appointment with two Boone psychiatrists but they were not taking new patients so she found one in Wilkesboro who put her on seven types of pills which didn't help her get rid of her feelings of anxiety, fear and depression. It was then that she began to have thoughts that the world would be better off - her son would be better off - if she killed herself.

She attempted suicide twice. Once with an overdose of pills and another time with a razor blade to her throat. "I knew intellectually that is was wrong, but I somehow felt that my son would be better off with his step-mother and not me," she told the Kiwanis audience, an audience so impacted by what they were hearing that one could hear a pin drop.

Seven weeks in the hospital and somewhere inside Laura Ann was the will to fight. She knew that she was a statistic (one in five adults in the U.S. suffer a form of mental illness in any given year), but she was determined to end the torment of her six-year journey into the dark side.

"During this six-year journey, I learned a great deal about the nature of mental disorders and the availability of effective treatment." she said. "I became certified as an 'In Our Own Voice' presenter for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), so I could do my part to raise public understanding of why we must stop drawing a distinction between mental and physical health. The body functions as a whole."

She pointed out that mental illness affects everyone. Nearly 60 million Americans experience a mental health condition every year. Regardless of race, age, religion or economic status, mental illness impacts the lives of at least one in four adults and one in 10 children across the United States.

"People living with mental illness need help and hope: they need a community that supports them, their families and their recovery," she said. "I know the despair of hitting bottom, and I know the absolute necessity of hope. My book - What Doesn't Kill Us - is about both.

Today Laura Ann is fully recovered and is the student teaching coordinator for the Reich College of Education at Appalachian State University in Boone and is taking her "In Our Own Voice" message to the public. She was recently the guest speaker at High Country Writer's April 10 meeting at the Watauga County Public Library in Boone. As one Kiwanian expressed following her talk: "Thank you Laura Ann. It took guts for you to come and speak about your life today." Perhaps that was an understatement.

She and Kiwanian John Heinlein are now preparing to run in "NAMI Walks," the single biggest fundraiser for the national organization. The event will be held in Raleigh, NC On May 3. Laura Ann's team is called "High Country Hope" and is made up of ASU students and community members.

Laura Ann is continuing on her quest to inform the public about mental illness and how to overcome it ... in her own voice, a voice that will save lives. #

On this video you will see and hear a beautiful woman who is fully recovered and has  the guts to talk about her six-year journey through the darkness of mental illness. -Ron

See and hear Laura Ann - Click here for the video

Informative links

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) website
https://www.nami.org/

North Carolina NAMI website

NAMI local affiliate website

NAMI High Country Facebook

High Country Hope team website
(This is your opportunity to contribute to the cause)

Laura Ann and John will join 85 communities and 130,000 people
across America in the annual NAMI Walks to be held in Raleigh on May 3.

See this video and please know that
you can help sponsor Laura Ann and John.
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President Buxton signs a cooperative agreement at Langfang Oriental Institute of Technology

Lees-McRae College signs
cooperative agreements in China

 

Lees-McRae is proud to announce they have signed cooperative agreements with four Chinese institutions. Though still in their infancy, these relationships hold many possibilities for the expansion of Lees-McRae's global education programs.

 

In March 2014, President Barry M. Buxton, Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Kacy Crabtree, and Director of International Programs Marv Williamsen traveled to China and met with university presidents, high school principals and Ministry of Education officials to discuss strategies for Chinese students to enroll at Lees-McRae.

 

"China is a country with a 5000 year history and I believe they will dominate the next decade both economically and culturally," said President Buxton. "China has the ability to mobilize it's citizenry behind identified priorities. Educational exchanges between our two countries represent a wonderful opportunity for mutual respect and understanding."

 

Cooperative agreements have been signed at Langfang Foreign Language School, a residential high school; Oriental Institute of Technology, a junior/technical college; Shan Xi Lingshi High School, a residential high school of 6,000 students; and Oriental University City, a campus of seven different universities totaling 75,000 students.

 

Several of these institutions are located in or near Langfang, 50 miles south of Beijing. LangFang is known to be a city on the rise, with the largest airport in the world currently under construction just outside the city and many government offices set to be moved within its borders.

 

As part of these relationships, Lees-McRae will be establishing a Confucian classroom on campus and has already received a rare scroll artwork from Mr. Xu Zhiqiang, the general manager of Oriental University City, for display in the classroom.

 

This summer, Lees-McRae expects to host a delegation of businessmen from China led by Dr. Xu Hongwei, a representative of the Ministry of Education in China. Dr. Xu has been instrumental in the development of the College's Chinese relationships. In addition, this summer the College will also potentially host a select group of 15-20 Chinese high school students for an American culture program to introduce them to the Lees-McRae campus.

 

International students representing ten countries are currently enrolled at Lees-McRae. In addition, the College offers a variety of global education programs including exchange programs through Hanaam University in South Korea, faculty-led academic trips to New Zealand, Belize and London, and independent study abroad programs through affiliation agreements with five international education agencies. An annual study abroad fair is also held to educate students on the opportunities available to them.

 

Prior to this visit to China, in the summer of 2013, Williamsen and instructor of business John LaCapra traveled to China to begin the initial research for these relationships. Additionally, Dr. John Thomas, former chancellor of Appalachian State University, and Dr. Jensen Jen, who lives locally, have been invaluable in constructing these relationships.


President Buxton and his hosts during one of the many dinners held in his honor throughout his trip.
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Last Saturday - A day like no other in Banner Elk
See the photos from five major events in one day!

Here's a sample of the wonderful reviews at Amazon

Poignant, compelling, raw, direct, humorous, and certainly at times painful, this book presents a portrait of the monumental struggle of a life lived with mental illness, and the ultimate redemption of joy over suffering.

If you aren't prepared to question what you thought you knew about mental illness, don't open the book. The author invites you on her journey, confides in you, slowly draws you in; before you realize the wall has fallen, you are inside the mental illness, and can no longer keep your comfortable, polite distance from it.

It is this view from the inside that becomes the defining strength of the book. Indeed, through the reading, I've been forced to revisit my own painful childhood with a bi-polar mother, and to see that past for the first time through the eyes of my mother herself.

Yet, if you have yourself struggled with mental illness, or are currently battling it, no doubt the book contains an even greater wealth for you. Mental illness must be the loneliest of diseases. It may become for you less lonely after reading this book. Additionally, I believe this would be a valuable read for those working in the mental healthcare industry. Awareness of the experience from the "other side" could only improve the care and services you provide.

I hesitated to purchase the book at first due to the low price and recent release, but I'm glad I did. I can only imagine that the author would like to make the book as widely available as possible, and set the price accordingly.

If the book has a weakness, it may be the limited space given to raising awareness of the medical nature of mental illness (for instance, the way mental illnesses respond positively to medication, as do most other types of illness and disease).

One is left wanting more, or perhaps a list of definite resources for further exploration. Yet, this is not a medical text or informative pamphlet, but the story of a life. And that is of course its strength - not a dry list of information, but a wrenching story of despair, suicide, and ultimate recovery. It's quite the journey.
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Have a Wonderful Wednesday and see you tomorrow.-Ron