ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996            TAG: 9602290019
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                PAGE: E-2  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: FROM OUR READERS

CABLE COMPANY SERVES COMMUNITY

Dear Neighbors:

In a time when so many are complaining about the cable companies, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for Cox Communications.

The support this company offered in my endeavor to raise funds for the Vinton Junior Miss Scholarship Program was remarkable. This company, in funding a scholarship, was enthusiastic about supporting a program that encourages local female high school seniors to be their best.

I have yet to see a company more interested in our children's educations. This scholarship program would not have been possible without the support of Cox Communications, a company truly serving its community with much more than cable service.

Thank you so much, Cox Communications.

Shanan F. Willis

Chairwoman> Vinton Junior Miss

Dear Neighbors:

On Feb. 2, 1996, snow was still falling on deep snow when our neighborhood began to dig out. Several men were walking door to door, looking for work shoveling. One of them stopped next door at the home of an elderly lady who lives alone.

As he knocked on her door, he heard feeble cries for help. He turned away and saw a woman a few houses down, shoveling another neighbor's walk. He went to her for help.

The man was leaving the block when I saw him, shovel in hand, and asked him to clean my driveway. He told me what had happened. The police and an ambulance, after breaking a small window to unlock the door, found my neighbor on the floor. She'd fallen three days before and had lain on the floor in pain since. She was cold and dehydrated, and her hip seemed badly injured.

I require a cane to get around, so our ``Gentleman Shoveler'' cleared my walk and supported me as I went to my ailing neighbor. He cleared a path for the emergency crew to bring her stretcher to the ambulance.

Soon another neighbor, who had called the ailing woman's daughter, arrived.

I want to thank the cast of angels: the woman who was shoveling out a neighbor and called 911; the police and the emergency crew, who arrived quickly and were so gentle and competent with our neighbor; and the neighbors who called the daughter, then plowed through the snow above her boots to come help.

But most of all, all of us thank the angel we know only as Robert, who heard a cry for help and heeded it. Without his action, our neighbor would have died.

Lee Penny Baker

Roanoke

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