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MossColumn: Power of One is in our DNA

By Bill Moss, Published: November 8, 2014

When it comes to individuals who make a difference, Hendersonville has always been blessed.

Jean Hoogstra recognized that people suffering from terminal illness would be better off in their homes than in a hospital. She founded Four Seasons Hospice, which today is a model for the country in end-of-life care.
Chat Jones with one of the children who benefited from swings for handicapped children.Morris Kaplan thought that blacks and whites should work in harmony for the common good and that the Kiwanis Club should find a way to send needy deserving kids to college and the public library should be a source of knowledge and civic betterment and that the Kiwanis Club should honor law officers once a year. He made all those things happen.
When he heard that young moms at the Balfour alternative school lacked disposable diapers for their babies, Chat Jones took it on himself to launch the Balfour Babies program. When he found out there was such a thing as swings for handicapped children, he set out to make sure every playground in Henderson County had one.
The spirit of service runs in the family. Donnie Jones, Chat's brother, had been a baseball coach all his life. Donnie got to thinking that plenty of youth leagues offered sports for the able bodied but none did for handicapped children and adults. He started Special Needs Baseball — which morphed into Donnie JonesSpecial Needs Sports when he added basketball and cheerleading — and now the year-round program serves the entire Western North Carolina region and is a model for the nation. People with handicapped children from all over call Donnie to ask how he did it.
Caroline Long heard "no" one time too may when she tried to get treatment for her two children with autism. So she created her own program, the Grotto School at St. Gerard House, which became, you guessed it, a model nationally.
Tom and Sue Fazio started the Boys & Girls Club so  children from needy families would have a safe place for recreation, homework and fellowship. It's helped hundreds of local youngsters achieve success.
Can one person make a difference? It would appear so. Drink the water around here and change the world.
Jeff Miller read about Earl Morse, a pilot and Air Force veteran from Ohio, and how he had flown World War II veterans to Washington to see the National World War II Memorial. Great idea, Miller thought. He invented a bigger version, called HonorAir, and chartered entire passenger jets to take loads of WWII veterans to Washington, absolutely free. At last count, the Honor Flight Network that Miller and Morse cofounded had flown 150,000 80- and 90-something men and women to Washington. It may be the most admired and successful charity for veterans in American history.

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Jeff Miller poses with Blue Ridge Detachment Marines Corps League members Rich Windish, Bill Dewey and Herb Spies.Driving past the Miller's Fine Drycleaning sign on King Street on Monday I could not help but marvel at how the theme had repeated itself once again.
Miller became aware of Andrew Tahmooressi on the Fourth of July. The Marine took a wrong turn off a freeway in San Diego and wound up in a Tijuana jail. Miller being Miller, he did not just tsk-tsk, crack open a beer and let it drop. He drove downtown, dug out his letters and used 11 of them to spell a name that would stay on the board for 119 days. Neither symphonies nor Cub Scout packs nor coats for the needy could dislodge Miller's vow to keep Sgt. Tahmooressi top of mind.
When the sun rose on Saturday, a half-foot of snow was not the only news in Hendersonville, and as far as Miller was concerned it was not even the biggest news. The Mexican government had freed Tahmooressi the night before. Marines from the Blue Ridge Detachment of Marine Corps League deployed to King Street to erect the new message: "Andrew is free," it said. "Welcome home."
In 10,000 communities across America, someone could put up those words and motorists would say: "Huh? Andrew who?" But in Hendersonville, people knew who knew Andrew was, and thanks to Miller's campaign, local folks played a role in setting him free.

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When I talked to Miller on Saturday morning, he was already thinking about the next project to help veterans.
The Tahmooressi case "ought to be the kick-start for PTSD," he said, referring to the syndrome that Miller's World War II honorees called combat fatigue. "Did you know more than 20 veterans die every day from PTSD-related causes?"
I could almost hear the wheels turning in Miller's head.
Anyone who doubts that one person can make a difference ought to spend a little time reviewing the modern history of Hendersonville. It seems like we're the world capital of the Power of One.