Jackie and Max Polley with Max's national theater volunteer award.

Happy Fourth of July weekend to all our readers.  Weatherwise this is a wonderful week for any activities.  The dry breezes keep us a little cooler whether mowing the grass, walking the dog or weeding the garden.  The first garden tomatoes are being sliced for sandwiches – yum! – but watch out for the tomato worms.  Those beautiful green creatures can defoliate a tall plant in just hours.

Around Davidson today brings news of travel to Kenya by Davidson church members as well as an in depth report on Max Polley’s trip to Tacoma, Wash., to receive a national theatre award.

A WELL DESERVED HONOR FOR MAX POLLEY

Hooray for Max Polley!  This retired Presbyterian minister and Professor Emeritus of Davidson College has just returned from Tacoma, Wash., where he received the Robert E. Gard Superior Volunteer Award.  This award is given by the American Association of Community Theatre (AACT) to individuals over the age of 65 chosen for their volunteer work in community theatre.  The AACT is made up of 215 theater groups from 43 states, including Davidson Community Players. (See our July 1 Theater Notes for more on that and other theater news.)

Max Polley (center) with his AACT award. Click photo to read more in our Theater Notes column, in the Guide. (Stephen Bird photo)

Max was nominated by Davidson Community Players for his lengthy involvement in the group.  His son, Vance, was a member of Connie Welsh’s Children’s Drama Workshop and urged his dad to try out for a production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” in 1975.  Max said that when he walked onto the stage, he felt at home.  His confidence before a live audience led Max to perform in an additional 21 productions and to serve as the first chairman of the Players’ board.  Later he served another decade on the board and now at age 81, continues to volunteer with DCP.  Max and his wife, Jackie, residents of The Pines since 1999, are not active on stage but continue to volunteer and make financial contributions to the Davidson Community Players.  Frequently you will find one or the other at the ticket sales’ table or ushering at performances.

With Jackie unable to make the trip to Washington state, Max asked his daughter, Lynn Polley Krepich of Leesburg, Va., to accompany him.  Lynn, like her brother, grew up in theater under the guidance of Connie Welsh’s weekend basement workshops.  Spending the last week of June in Tacoma, Lynn and her dad attended 12 one-hour condensed theater productions (including “How I Learned to Drive” and “Catfish Moon” – performed in Davidson recently by DCP) which were competing for honors.  They also found time for a boat tour of Tacoma Harbor, a trip on a clear day to the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, and a visit to the Museum of Glass, where they saw Dale Chihuly’s astonishing 500-foot pedestrian “Bridge of Glass” entranceway. (Dale Chihuly is a Tacoma native.)

Receiving a plaque as one of three (and the only one able to make the trip) recognized for their volunteer service to community theater was a great honor for Max.  Another great honor was being able to attend an evening “Afterglo” party with Lynn and dance with her on the occasion of her 26th wedding anniversary – the first time to dance with his daughter since the wedding reception following her marriage to Mike Krepich on June 25, 1973.  Spending time one-on-one with your children, at any age, is special and certainly for Max, an additional highlight of his trip.

Congratulations to you, Max, on a well deserved recognition.

DCPC VISITS ITS PARTNER CHURCH IN KENYA

Thomas Hall at the animal orphanage with Sigona preschool children.

Davidson College Presbyterian Church (DCPC) has nurtured a partnership with the Sigona Presbyterian Church of East Africa for years.  This past month, seven young people and three adults traveled to the outskirts of Nairobi to make personal connections with the congregation there.  This third delegation to Kenya included DCPC youth Cameron Clark and Thomas Hall, youth from Davidson Presbyterian Church Camille Hughes and Donja McCauley, Davidson College students Hannah Lyon, Betsy Lyles and Lisle Gwynn, and adult leaders Shelli Latham, Donna Hatfield and Rebecca Clark.

The group met several times over the past months to make plans for the trip, discuss the history, economy and political climate of Kenya and ideas for worship and interaction with their partner church.  Their first travel test came in Charlotte when their flight to JFK was canceled due to weather in NYC.  Instead of leaving on June 11 as intended, the group was sent back to Davidson, and rebooked the next day on other carriers. They had a 10-hour layover in London where they visited the sights and finally arrived in Nairobi very early on Sunday, June 14.  (Whew! Gotta be airline flexible these days!)

The group performs an “energizer” dance during Social Sunday at Sigona Presbyterian.

Once in Kenya, the group experienced the daily working of the Child and Youth Development Centre of Sigona Church in the township of Kikuyu, visited the homes of preschool families and stayed overnight with  Sigona Church members.  They also hosted a field trip for 50 preschoolers with bag lunches packed by the Davidson team.  (Raisins were not a favorite but the candy was a huge hit!)   The interaction with members of the Sigona Church was certainly a highlight for rising 10th grader, Thomas Hall, son of Bill and Rachel Hall of River Run.  In Thomas’ own words:  “We all made many new friends and talked to kids our age with such different lives. All of the homes we visited greeted us with shouts of “karibu” and “jambo” and welcomed us into their houses without knowing us at all.  This welcoming atmosphere continued throughout our time in Kenya and will continue as part of the partnership that our two churches share.”

Betsy Lyles with some of the preschoolers.

The group’s visit to the Kibera slum of Nairobi was perhaps the most eye-opening event of their stay when they toured the Soweto East village undergoing intensive government slum upgrading addressing housing and sanitation. Soon 1,800 families will leave this slum village and move into an apartment complex with 600 units.  There three families will share a unit:  one room for each family with common kitchens and eating areas.

The group also enjoyed a few days on safari in the Masai Mara game preserve, a six hour drive from Nairobi, where they saw almost every animal native to the range except for a rhino.  The group returned to Davidson on June 23 filled with stories of hope, hospitality and need, not to mention new friendships made and many email addresses exchanged.

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Have news for Brenda? Write to her at hbarger@bellsouth.net.