An audience member helps Jim Alberti with a high-diving flea feat.

Lots of hype in the past months about the movie, “The Bucket List,” with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman itemizing things to do before they die. DavidsonNews.net has one to add to anyone’s “Bucket List” – The Alberti Flea Circus! Jim Alberti graced the Davidson Public Library with his presence last Thursday and captivated a packed Community Room with his 40 fleas (yes, count them!) and their amazing tricks. Children came with their parents or babysitters, teens came with their friends, and then there were the solo adults who sat on the perimeter seats and perhaps cheered the loudest. A young lady in the audience even dared to pour the water into the pool for a flea’s high flying dive (which resulted in a damp front row of the audience!).

Read more about the Flea Circus, plus reports on William Brown receiving a Lions’ award, the Hartwell‘s sailing vacation, Jamie Hess volunteering in Nepal, and new Pines’ residents John and Dottie Batcha.

Fleas Galore! No dogs Allowed!

Audience members Matthew Shaw, 10; Patrick Harris, 8; and J.P. Shaw, 11, helped with a special performing flea.

Meet Jim Alberti, part magician, part storyteller, part comedian and all entertainer, who came from his home in Winston-Salem to bring a talented troupe of fleas to the Davidson Public Library on July 24. Written up in “Our State Magazine” in 2003, Jim has received wide acclaim in North Carolina as well as other parts of the United States and Canada for the past 20 years. He first took his revived flea circus on the road in the 1980s and has played at many local and state fairs and festivals around the country. In the off-season, he takes his skills on the road to show children how to use their imagination as a tool for learning.

He was a perfect fit for the nationwide collaborative reading program called “Catch the Reading Bug” which the Davidson library is promoting for summer reading. Thanks to Beverly Swanson of our town library for “catching” a date for The Alberti Flea Circus during summertime rounds of libraries in the mid-Atlantic states.

Circus ringmaster, Jim Alberti, first introduced the audience to his talented bear who could balance spinning plates on a stick even when blindfolded. He then read a charming story called “Hector has a Flea Circus.” Next, using long-nose tweezers, he introduced individual fleas and their fabulous feats – to the delight of the audience. It was imagination “run wild” for the gathered flea enthusiasts who wore bright smiles for the 45 minute program and then, having caught the reading “bug,” streamed out into the library’s stacks to find new sources for creativity on the pages of a book. Check out www.albertifleacircus.com and see when it may appear again close to Davidson so you can check this very special item off your personal “bucket list!”

William Brown honored

The Davidson Lions Club presented Davidson resident, William Brown, with the distinguished Melvin Jones Fellowship Award at its July 21st meeting.

Davidson Lions Club Immediate Past President Jeannette Roberts presented William Brown with the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award

The Melvin Jones Fellowship Award is the highest Lions honor and was established to recognize an individual dedicated to humanitarian service. The presentation was made by Lion Jeannette Roberts, immediate past President of the Club.

For over 13 years, William has been involved in both Cub scouting and Boy Scouting, being Master of both at one time. These scout troops meet at the Davidson College Presbyterian Church and are sponsored by the Davidson Lions Club. William is an Eagle Scout as is his oldest son, Douglas. His youngest son, Jordan, is working on his Eagle requirements and will receive this honor in the near future. William’s wife, Mary Jo Clark-Brown, was also commended for her support in the scouting efforts of her husband and sons.

Congratulations to William and his entire family for a well deserved honor.

At Sea with the Hartwells

Sandy and Bill Hartwell of the New Neighborhood took a wonderful vacation this summer exploring islands in the Adriatic on a 60-foot sailboat. Moving to Davidson from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the family missed open water and so decided to take a week long sailing adventure off the coast of Greece. Sandy and Bill invited their three children, Randy (Davidson College ’97), Brooke (DC ’01) and Leigh Ann (UNC-CH) and two friends of the children, Derrick Preston and Chris Milenkevich, to join them.

Sandy and Bill Hartwell and their family spent a week sailing in the Adriatic.

Flying to Athens and leaving from Piraeus, the group of seven rented a sailboat complete with captain and cook for breakfast and noonday meals. Daytimes were spent swimming, visiting, lounging on the deck and admiring the beauty of the Greek coast. Each evening the sailboat stopped at an island in the Saronic chain and the group disembarked for dinner in a local restaurant. Islands visited included Poros, Spetses, Aegina and Hydra where often they were able to tour archaeological ruins or noteworthy sites.

Certainly a highlight of the week was a special dinner on the island of Hydra. The sailboat captain radioed ahead to the restaurant requesting a particular table for two with a view of the sunset and an elegant meal. There unbeknownst to Leigh Ann, she would soon receive a proposal of marriage from Derrick Preston. What a happy occasion for all the family. Derrick and Leigh Ann plan a small wedding in New Orleans next spring with a larger family reception later in Chapel Hill.

Congratulations to all the Hartwells. We are glad to have Sandy and Bill in our community. Bill is a commercial real estate broker for Sperry Van Ness. Sandy is active in St. Alban’s church and also a regular volunteer at Habitat.

Around the World to Volunteer in Nepal

It is always interesting to keep up with young people who have grown up in Davidson and now are using their time and energy to help others. Next month we should have reports from Tyler Krentz returning from Sierra Leone and Alex Gunn returning from Rwanda. This week we have reflections from Jamie Hess who spent three weeks in Nepal in June. Jamie returned from Nepal to Washington, D.C. to pack his belongings and leave with his wife, Karina, for a new job with Catholic Relief Services in Guatemala. Busy young man!

Jamie Hess is joined by three Nepalese orphans who became cherished friends during his three weeks in Nepal

Jamie has been eager to visit Nepal since his uncle, Mike Hess relocated near Kathmandu four years ago to spend his life helping orphaned children. (Mike is the brother of Davidson College Economics Professor Peter Hess.) At present Mike has founded two homes for the children in Dhapasi on the outskirts of Kathmandu and a third home in Lamahi. (See the Nepal Orphans Home website.) Jamie was able to spend time in each home and writes, “I feel blessed to have the opportunity to observe firsthand what my uncle has devoted his life to. The children in the three homes are absolutely fantastic…happy, generous, well-behaved and full of potential – in stark contrast to the way we might expect them to be because of the poverty and violence that many suffered or witnessed at young ages.”

Jamie spent his first week in Dhapasi and the second week, traveled to Lamahi with a volunteer from South Africa. There they taught English and spent their days with 25 kamlari girls who had been rescued from indentured servitude. Although the practice is illegal, many landless parents in the area sell their young daughters for meager sums. During his time in Nepal, Jamie coordinated a poster project with the children using a mini-grant from the International Initiative to End Child Labor (IIECL) and the Emily Sandall Foundation.

Ms. Utsha Khatri

He was also able to make a brief visit to Chitwan National Park where he took an elephant tour in the jungle and observed a variety of animals.

Thanks to Jamie for sharing his travel with us. It is also interesting to read the reflections of another visitor to Nepal, Utsha Khatri(DC ’09), who is volunteering at Mike Hess’ orphanage in Dhapasi for a month this summer. Her story can be found on www.davidson.edu as a part of “Summer Stories.”

Twigs from The Pines:

Meet John and Dottie Batcha

It might be said that any time you need a news story, just go sit in the lobby of The Pines and wait for the story to “drop into your lap.” There are so many new and interesting residents in the 24 recently completed Villas at Laurel Ridge. How fortunate Davidson is to have these talented people in our midst and this week DavidsonNews.net introduces our readers to the Batcha family and tells which spouse will soon be speaking at the United Nations.

Dottie and John Batcha have many wood carvings of African animals from their two trips there.

John and Dottie Batcha moved into a brand new villa last February. John and Dottie lived in Connecticut and Michigan while raising three children as John had a career for 28 years with Asgrow Seed Company, now owned by Monsanto. When two of their grown children were living in the Charlotte area and one in Atlanta, they moved to North Carolina in 1995 to try our milder winters and found the South to their liking. Now their son, Todd, and his wife live in Tampa, FL; another son, Tim and his family live in Peachtree City, GA; and their daughter, Nancy, and her family live in South Charlotte. Dottie and John considered numerous retirement communities in the area but settled on The Pines and are enjoying the spaciousness of their villa as well as the friendliness of our town.

John Batcha has not been sedentary in retirement from Asgrow Seed Co. He spent eight years working for Partners of the Americas and in 1998 founded Seed Programs, Inc. (www.seedquest.org/spi) to provide garden seed and gardening expertise to impoverished communities in developing countries enabling them to grow their own food. John continues to serve as President of SPI and through his commitment to curbing hunger and his active membership in Rotary, he has been invited to speak at the United Nations this November. One day a year there is a Rotary International United Nations Day. John will speak for 15 minutes on world hunger, a UN representative will speak for 15 minutes and then they will entertain questions for an additional 15 minutes. A small fraction of time to devote to such a large issue but what an honor for John!

The Batcha family on safari in Africa this summer.

John and Dottie love to travel and have just returned from two weeks in Kenya and Tanzania with two of their children, their spouses and four grandchildren ages 3, 6, 11 and 13. Quite an accomplishment to arrange travel for ten people flying from Atlanta to Amsterdam to Nairobi but the Batchas pulled it off without a hitch. Leaving Nairobi in two vans, each with a guide, the family visited Tsavo National Park, Amboseli National Park, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater and the Northern Serengeti, staying in Serena Lodges throughout their travels. Asking for a highlight, John and Dottie agreed immediately: the animals! Another interesting note was that one of their guides came from Kikuyu on the outskirts of Nairobi and was a member of Sigona Presbyterian Church which partners with the Davidson College Presbyterian Church. Dottie told him that members of his church were visiting in Davidson while they visited with him on safari. Small world!

We welcome John and Dottie to Davidson and will follow up on the Batchas when John returns from New York City and his UN visit.