CO-OP SUPPORTS CHARITIES WITH DONATION DAYS, FUND-RAISERS

Date: April 23, 1998 Section: NEIGHBORS Page: N5

Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op manager Elizabeth Good has a vision.

Good wants to establish the co-op as a center for community activism in the Grandin Road and Raleigh Court areas of Southwest Roanoke. And she has plenty of ideas to get the grass-roots project up and moving.

Good, who manages the vitamin, herb and body care supplements section of the health-food grocery, arrived in Roanoke from Boulder, Colo., 31/2 years ago with her daughters, Latima, 18, and Ariel, 7, and husband Bruce Phlegar, who is also a co-op manager.

It was with Phlegar that Good developed an idea that they had seen in larger, national health-food grocery chains: donating a portion of the proceeds from one day a month to a local nonprofit charity.

Since September the co-op has contributed at least $200 and up to 5 percent of the day's profits to organizations such as the Roanoke Wildlife Rescue, the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, RAM House, the Roanoke AIDS Project and St. Francis of Assisi Service Dog Foundation.

Good has established the next two donation days as events to attract more customers.

On Saturday, in celebration of Earth Day, the co-op will donate proceeds from sales from the store and a vegetarian barbecue, which runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., to the Nature Conservancy's Bottom Creek Gorge, a 1,657-acre preserve on Bent Mountain. The money will be used to maintain trails and for general upkeep of the area, Good said.

"I chose the Nature Conservancy because it went with the theme of Earth Day, and I love Bottom Creek," she said.

On Earth Day, local musician Jim Crawford will play bluegrass and folk tunes, show pictures and share information he gained while writing a book on a community of farmers that lived in the gorge around the turn of the century.

Good maintains no real system to determine which groups the store will benefit. She picks many from personal knowledge and has recently begun receiving letters from groups that would like to be considered. She does have one request: The group should publicize the event in advance and provide volunteers to answer questions on donation day and to sign up new volunteers.

"It's good for both of us," Good said of the arrangement between nonprofits and the co-op. "If people have an awareness that by coming in and shopping they're supporting an organization, it's an easy way of doing it. It's less painful than writing a check for $100."

The co-op's next event will be a pancake breakfast on May 16 to benefit the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League. The league will begin a mural project then, under the artistic direction of Polly Branch and Anne Pfeiffer, to create mural and tile mosaics on buildings in the Grandin Road area. Good said the co-op will be the first building to receive a tile mosaic, and all are welcome to help on the two-year project.

"It's really going to be a work in progress," she said. "Hopefully we can get people to sign up and come in on a regular basis to finish the project."

Good envisions the Grandin area as a village, with the co-op as its center of activity.

"The co-op has stayed in business because of the support of the community. We felt like we wanted to give back to the community," Good said.

CAMPUS

MARISA LINDA FROST, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Frost of Roanoke, was recently elected into membership in Washington and Lee University's Gamma of Virginia chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Frost is a senior at the Lexington school.

JOMA SHANE WHISNANT, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Whisnant of Roanoke, recently was elected into membership in Omicron Delta Epsilon, national honorary society in economics. Shane is a senior at Hampden-Sydney College.

PHILLIP SCOTT RICHMOND of Roanoke, recently was inducted into the Ferrum College Alpha Pi Chapter of Alpha Delta Mu National Social Work Honor Society. The 1995 graduate of Northside High School is a junior social work major.

CPL. BARRY S. LINK, son of Marvin E. and Marguerite Link of Roanoke, recently was promoted to his present rank while serving with Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine Corps Combat Development Center, Quantico. He is a 1994 graduate of Cave Spring High School.

AIRMAN ALAN L. MARTIN JR. AND AIRMAN 1ST CLASS LISA A. SMITH, recently graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. Martin is the son of Alan L. Martin Sr. of Roanoke. He is a 1997 graduate of Patrick Henry High School. Smith is the daughter of Michael Smith of Craig County.

Submit items to Jon Cawley in care of the Neighbors section by mail at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010, by fax at 981-3346, or by e-mail at jonc@roanoke.com

Caption: PHOTO: (headshot) Martin