TexT & PhoTos BY C. RoBeRT WeIsFeLDFor the Bristol Herald Courier

A BINGDON, Va. — Shoes, imprint-ed by feet in all walks of life, are the centerpiece of “The Compas-

sion Project,” in residence at William King Museum of Art through only Jan. 29.

“TCP “ the museum’s first “crowdsourc-ing” exhibition, premiered last First Thursday night. It was masterminded by Abingdon therapist Lori Long, who is also Lutheran Family Services coordina-tor of Minnick Schools for Southwest Virginia. The must-be-seen small exhibit grew out of Long’s experience as chil-dren’s advocate by day, and accredited therapist by night — a direct result of how much time she spends listening at dual posts.

“I got the idea in late October,” said Long, “just from my line of work, talk-ing with people, hearing their stories. ‘Wow’,” I thought, ‘if people only knew where people were coming from, we could be so much more understanding and patient. Wouldn’t it be neat to tell a story through a narrative or artistic expression, using shoes?’”

Long started the idea small, as some-thing for participation at Bristol’s Min-nick school. She was printing out an participants’ invitation at Zazzy’Z, where she maintains her private practice office. In walked WKM’s Callie Hietala.

“Excuse me,” said Long, “aren’t you a curator at William King?”

Hietala liked the idea — the museum is always looking for ways to involve the community. Soon after, Long was eating in a restaurant where she struck up a conversation with her server — a single mom, mother of three, one child autistic. She’d been shot down in the war in Afghanistan. Long thought about how customers would treat her server better if they knew her story, and asked her to do the project.

“See,” said Long, “everybody’s got their issues. It’s easy to get caught in the rush, not listen, see beyond initial judgments.

‘TCP’ is a good reminder for all of us. I had a desire to see it on its feet, if you’ll pardon the expression. So I committed myself to doing a small museum exhibi-tion — in difficult January! I wanted people to be able to start the new year with compassion, kindness and toler-ance to others.”

Why shoes? Long said they’ve always affected her. She used to look at her dad’s work boots, thinking how they captured his character, essence, life story.

“Shoes are personal. They have soul in more ways than one,” said Long. “Our feet are in them every day — they’re an imprint of who we are.”

“TCP” has some artistically embel-lished presentations, but the majority of submissions are plain shoes with narra-tives: short and anonymous, some ini-tialed, a few signed. All told, “TCP” has

gathered together (presently) 67 pair of shoes explaining respective journeys. “It’s for the every-day heroes,” said Long.

Have you ever crawled around on the floor of a mu-seum gallery, pho-tographing shoes? We have. That was a day before exhibi-tion opening, as co-curators Hietala and Kathy Gibian wrestled display and Long dashed back and forth forth to her car, offices,

home. Through the holiday season,

shoes have been Long’s life. They were dropped off by participants, picked up by Long or mailed anonymously. Most are re-gional.

But “TCP” also received sub-missions from Carolina, people exhibitors had no connection with. A few were brought to the states from over-seas. Moreover, people may still contrib-ute — Hietala came up with making “TCP” an ongoing, living instal-lation.

Who hasn’t looked at a pair of shoes and said, “If they could only talk…” Now’s their chance, among participants from infancy into their 80s.

Readers may bring by a pair they’re no longer wearing, untouched or decorated. Sit at a table, write a note, leave both behind. They’re in the project.

Crawling along, we met a fireman, a contractor, women who reignited them-selves in heels or passed them in defer-ence to maturing. We noticed the note written by a mother for a five month-old child. Took in shoes tied to beloved pets, another single one improvised after an accident.

There were decorated platforms, worn sandals, chipper goodwill rain boots. We saw flip flops, clogs, a pair of sexy heels.

The heels were contributed by someone with a terse note — “No story.” There the story is, less confessional yet more intimate than 500 words.

“The heart of it remains compassion,” said Long, “having an understanding, even if you don’t agree. Put yourself in their shoes, walk a mile, understand before you judge. Not a lot of entries are artistic. It’s about tolerance for all, the process, not about a ‘great’ entry. Once shoes and words are together, the beauty comes in — the uniqueness, the diversity. So many walks of life are not yet represented: another pair, another story.”

To that end, Long hopes to revive and enlarge the show, repeat it, travel it. She hasn’t submitted a pair herself.

“It’s crazy, I should,” said Long. “But I’m listening, look-ing for ways to better under-stand, help people find their way.

“Found myself in line the other day, getting impatient with a cashier, hurry-ing. But I started thinking, ‘What’s two minutes?’ Looked beyond what I per-ceived, at her arm, her hand. ‘You have no idea,’ I told myself, ‘what she’s been through, is battling.’ That changed my perception. It costs nothing to be kind, but you’ve got to work at it.”

The exhibition includes shoes with statements from one stateside home-less person and refugees from camps in Greece and Jordan. All tug at the heart. Refugee messages came through Long’s 23-year-old daughter, Blaine, who had signed up to travel for an outreach orga-nization, responding with international aid during crises.

“Life is not peachy or fluffy,” said

BRISTOL HERALD COURIER u HeraldCourier.com SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2017 u C3COMMUNITY

Walk Through

Shoes sought through Jan. 29 at WKMA

YOU SHOULD KNOW» To contact Lori Long to contrib-ute shoes, call 276-393-5728, or 276-207-3509. » For info on Lutheran Fam-ily services of Virginia, offering educational and behavioral support through Minnick schools in Bristol, Harrisonburg, Roanoke, Wise and Wytheville, visit lfsva.org. LFSVA serves children with complex needs, ages 5 to 22, hoping to achieve the return of some to public education. LFSVA additionally offers adoption and foster care services, and ser-vices to adults with disabilities.

Walks Of lIfe

“Shoes are personal. They have soul in more ways than one. Our feet are in them every day — they’re an imprint of who we are.”

— Lori Long

ROBERT WEISFELD/FOR THE WASHINGTON COUNTY NEWS

Callie hietala of William King Museum and Lori Long, who came up with “The Compassion Project,” collaborated on the exhibit of shoes for WKMA.

“homeless. Desperate. Will work for food.” A “TCP” submission and its message make a powerful statement on the human condition at home.

The journey of a five-month old child is docu-mented by his mother in the “TCP” exhibit.

‘The Compassion Project’

shoes worn by a homesick Pales-tinian in a Jordan refugee camp are in William King Museum’s ‘The Compassion Project.’ his message ends: “Where do I belong? I want to belong —I want to work and have a family someday — outside of the camp. I am stuck in Jordan. It is my dream to go back to Palestine. I am a Palestinian Refugee. I am somebody.” he signs off: “Peace Be Upon You. I am Muhamed. one Love.

LeFT: A firefighter’s testimony documents the journey his work boots have taken: boots have seen loss, relief and moments of startling joy. They’re currently on display in WKM’s “TCP.”

A pair of leather pumps and a vintage suitcase with a reconstituted handle, recall a woman’s career journey to an urban area, and her regional path back to rear her children in a moun-tain setting.

several “TCP” submissions speak to animal loved ones.

A woman’s past enjoyment of wearing high heels, and she notes her decision to stop wearing them. See WALK, Page C6

Armstrong credits Bob and Martha Sargent with fostering his focus on win-tering hummingbirds.

“Bob and Martha Sar-gent are interesting folks,” Armstrong shared, noting that Bob passed away in 2014. “They were very pas-sionate about birds and passionate about learning about birds and sharing what they knew.”

Armstrong said banding at Fort Morgan gave the Sargents a platform to in-teract with people and tell them about birds and the importance of conserving coastal habitat as a stop-over site for migrants.

“Showing someone a bird close up generates excitement and interest in birds,” Armstrong said. “That’s invaluable for con-servation.”

The Alabama banding operations also forwarded the cause of science.

“The data was impor-tant because it showed what was coming through and where birds were go-ing,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong noted that winter hummingbirds were a major focus of the Sargents’ work for a number of years before he got involved.

“They travelled from their Clay, Alabama, home all over the southeast to get winter birds,” he said. “The project just got so big they realized they needed to train more people to get birds so the project could grow without so much pressure on them.”

The couple began recruiting new banders to cover different geographic regions of the southeast-ern United States.

“So I was trained to be able to help cover the East Tennessee area,” Arm-strong said. “For me, all birds are interesting and full of many unknowns that we don’t yet appreci-ate. Hummingbirds are near the top of the list and we are just learning how their tongue works and their abilities and special-izations for flight. Add to that the abilities of winter hummingbirds to survive and thrive in the winter, it just makes you want to study them.”

A species known as the rufous hummingbird has been one of the more prevalent winter hum-mingbirds. This species is known to reside as far north as Alaska during the summer nesting season. As a result, the rufous hummingbird has some adaptations to help it sur-vive frigid temperatures.

Armstrong worked at the Knoxville Zoo for 36 years. “I was bird curator,” he said. “Curators decide what is in the collection, how you take care of them and help in the training and management of staff.

Armstrong wants to learn where humming-birds wintering in the southeast go when it is time to breed.

“We only have one clue so far,” he said. “One bird that was banded in winter in Florida was recaptured in summer in Alaska.”

There’s still a lot of un-knowns. “We don’t know if they have migration routes or how strong their fidelity is to wintering sites,” Armstrong said.

He does have a theory about how some of these western species of hum-mingbirds found their way to Tennessee.

“I think some originally got blown off course,” he said, “But with more awareness of winter birds and more feeders out, more are surviving and more will return. There may be a genetic compo-nent to going east instead

of going south, but it will take time to show that’s a possibility.”

By far, the ruby-throat-ed hummingbird — the expected hummingbird in the eastern U. S. from late March to October — is the species he had most often banded.

“So far, I’ve banded right at 3,500 ruby-throats, 90 rufous hum-mingbirds and two Allen’s hummingbirds,” he said.

Armstrong would like to document wintering hummingbirds birds in Virginia, but he needs help finding them.

“It’s funny, but I’ve not had any calls from Virgin-ia,” he said, although he has had “plenty of calls”

RICHMOND, Va. — Applications are being accepted for two three-week summer sessions of the Virginia State Parks Youth Conserva-tion Corps (YCC).

The application dead-line is March 1.

The program will be held June 25 to July 15 and July 23 to Aug. 13.

Teams of 10 partici-pants will be chosen from current high school students be-tween the ages of 14 and 17. Each same-sex crew is led by three trained, adult crew leaders. Applicants must demonstrate an interest in protecting the environment.

While no prior ex-perience is necessary, participants will work outside, and the ser-vice is physically de-manding. YCC crew members are provided room, board, T-shirts and equipment. They receive a $500 stipend at the end of the three weeks.

YCC participants help with projects, includ-ing wildlife and fisheries habitat improvement, trail and campground construction. To apply, visit www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/youth-conservation-corps.

Long. “We put a lot of demands on others and self. We think if people are different, we can’t have a connection to them. Yet no matter where we’re from, despite color, politics, experi-ences, our emotions are all the same.

All feel love, excitement, jealousy, sad-ness. I hope the show will help people slow down long enough to consider being tolerant.”

Long reported that an area histo-rian, Deborah Brown, has mentioned “TCP” as a springboard for a theatri-cal production.

Certainly it has the bones of one. Long, Hietala and Gibian hope it can

keep evolving. Meanwhile therapist Long remains

oriented toward others. Shoes still up to future wear, she

emphasized, could always be do-nated to the needy.

Robert C. Weisfeld is a freelance writer and an Abingdon resident. He may be reached at

features@bristolnews.com.

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PHotos by RobERt WEIsFELD

An improvised “shoe” from “TCP,” created by hikers after a kayaking accident.

ABOVE: These shoes are from Mimi Harris, Abing-don’s cel-ebrated owner of Frag-mented Gallery.

One “TCP” submission salutes sustainable energy. Its recycled wise old owl is made from a dilapidated shoe, paint swatches and packing material.

LEFT: Satin pumps attest to a woman’s rebirth, due to her newly discovered love of salsa dancing.

VA State Parks Conservation Corps seeks youth for program

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solution from C5

solution from C5

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see BANDING, Page C7