ALETHEIA
Volume XXVI, Number 22
Montreat-Anderson College
April 27,1993
Students, Citizens, and Forest Service Ban T(^ether
Groups spend Endless Night Fighting 450 Acre Forest Fire
By Matt Haney
Thursday evening, about 4
pm, a fire broke out
in the furnace of a
house on the side
of Big Piney Ridge.
Soon thereafter
two propane tanks
exploded scatter
ing embers into the
nearby woods and
the largest fire in
Montreat's modern
histroy was under
way.
The fire
spread quickly in
the dry,high wind
conditions. Fire
teams from as far
away as Morganton
came to assist,
many of them ill-prepared be
cause tehy had been told to come
M-AC students psrticipate in
"bucket brigade"
Photo taken from Asheville-Citizen
Times
to combat structure fires rather than
forest fires.
In the early
stages, the fire was
much to much for
the fire departments
on hand to combat
alone. Montreat
citizens and stu
dents banned to
gether to save
homes and establish
fire lines.
Three groups
of students went up
the mountain side to
establish fire
breaks. Ben Fort-
son and Jay Guffey
led a grouop of
about 15, mostly
outdoor Recreation Majors, up
the Northern ridge. Shawn
SGA Offers Leadership Courses for Credit
By Kathryn Letterman
The Student Government As
sociation has created the following
leadership Development Courses:
GE 121, 122, 221, 222, 321, 322,
421, and 422, which will be of
fered for one half credit hour. This
series of courses may be taken by
student leaders that serve on the
SGA Legislative Committee and
have voting rights. These courses
are designed to enable students to
recommend and render decisions
about student legislation. Also,
these students will learn more about
parliamentary procedure. These
courses may be taken up to four
credit hours.
GE 131, 132, 231,232, 331,
332,431, and 432 is another series of
elective courses that may be taken by
student leaders serving on both SGA
Executive and Legislative commit
tees and have voting rights. These
students will prepare advisory reports,
revise the SGA constitution when
necessary, and develop skills in par
liamentary procedure. Also, students
will become more familiar with
Robert's Rules of Order. This is series
of courses will beoffered for one hour
of credit.
The courses will be graded by the
SGA president, the Vice President, and
both of the SGA faculty advisors. The
purpose of these courses is to en
hance leadership skills on campus.
Suddeth’s Talent to be Recognized in Anthology
By Marsha Evans
Robby Suddeth, a sophomore
at M-AC, entered his poem "Child
ish World"i in the North American
Open Poetry Contest. The poem is
about "the sadness of the way the
world is some
agementfrom English professor Brian
Fuller. "He didn't just fool around and
tell me what he thought I'd want to
hear, "Suddeth replied.
However, Suddeth's biggest in-
f 1 u e n c e
Childish World
Broken tickled children squint holding
exaggerated lifetimes in a single
searing tear, they squint and dare
to show expressions laced with anger,
challenging passersby to mold their emotion,
to pretend to care.
One crouches beside the cracking curb,
filling the fissures with enough mental
energy to complete weeks of homework,
staring brown and lonely forsaken
eyes as the perfect world dances
and dances to a stolen tune
pouring from the heart of a scraped-knee child.
times seen
through a
child's eyes,"
says Suddeth.
The talented
work made it
into the semi
finals and will
be published
into an anthol
ogy of poetry,
called A Break In The Clouds, this
summer.
Suddeth drew a lot of encour-
came from
close friend
Clay Mar
tin. "He Ls
one of the
rare people
who also
wanders
aroundinthe
lealmsofthe
abstract"
In addition, Suddeth entered two
poems in the M-AC Art Festival ad won
a $25 award for a poem left untitled.
Stewart and about 10 students
went up the soutem ridgeline wiht a
forest service, and 12 men from
Davis Dorm braved a head on
assauld between
teh ridges wiht
the Skyland Fire
department.
The north
ern ridge team
was racing
against time, the
fire was spread
ing rapidly up the
mountain and to
the north. "We
wfe able to con
trol it at the bot
tom, states Jay
Guffey, "but up
higher on the
ridgeline it was
worse, we weren't
able to get there
in time."
Andy Warner, who was with
the Davis men between the ridges,
said, "It was incredible how fast the
fire moved." When asked about the
large burning oak that fell about 15
feet from him, Andy could only
resond, "It made me really trust in
God."
Mark Neil, Becky Brown,
Amy Dill, Shawn Stewart and Brent
Ozanne worked all night and into
the morning with the Southern
Ridge team. Ozanne manned a
chain saw while the rest of teh team
cleared bmsh and dug trenches. Ac-
Remains of House which burnt
during Montreal fire
Photo taken from Asheville-Citizen Times
cording to Stewart, "When our line
held,it was a great feeling."
By Friday morning, the forest
service had arrived in force and
students were
no longer
needed on the
ridges. The
battle of logis
tics was to be
gin in emest on
the part of MR A
and M-AC.
Bob Gra
ham, Mark
Neil, and
Steven Walker
were instru
mental in coor
dinating the use
of McGregor
and other col
lege facilities to
meet teh needs
the firefighters.
While Jack Spencer, his staff, and
student volunteers like Krista
Neilson, Erica Becum, Michelle
Nicholson and Kristina Strickland
worked without sleep to feed the
hungry firefigters.
When it was all over, the fire
had consumed 450 acres and three
homes. Carl Johnson, of the forest
Service, expressed, "The students
wre very effective at getting what
you needed where you needed it
quickly. We've really appreciated the
college and conference center. We've
not once wanted for anything.
Greybeard Hayers Present Arms' and the Man
Show a success despite low Crowd turnouts
By Ed Heidel
On Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday April 22-24, the Grey
beard Players presented their
spring production Arms and the
Man. Many hours of hard work
and preperation were put in by
the cast and crew. Although the
audience was not as large as
expected due to the fire noone
was left unsatisfied. Notable
characters included Rod Stewart
as Sergius, a comic if not cocky
Serbian officer. "Rod really
consistantly captured the com
edy of his character," Frances
Domingues stated. The choco
late Cream Soldier played by
Mark Bolick won the sympa
thies of the entire audience. Ev
eryone involved in the produc
tion was dedicated to bringing
quality theatre to Montreat.
Bryan Wilson a second semes
ter freshman was quoted as say
ing, "The sets and costumes were
excellent considering the lim
ited theatrical resources Mon
treat has." Hopefully this is a
foreshadowing of great things
to come from the Greybeard
Players as the drama department
continues to grow. This year
alone there have been more pro
ductions than in teh past three
years combined. Jennifer Hard
man was quoted as saying, "The
atre is a medium of communica
tion that Montreat has been ne
glecting for too long." This pro
duction would not have been
possible without the dedication
of Brian Fuller and Julianna
Lassiter assisted by the Theatre
Practicum class.