Marie Alcorn tastes one of the entries in the soup contest.

After a hellish 10 days of fighting rain, hail, mud and snow on the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build site in West Knoxville, Alan and I were ready for a little down time when last Friday rolled around.

We have come to really admire a little project called CAC Beardsley Community Farm. Beardsley Community Farm is an urban demonstration site that has promoted food security and sustainable urban agriculture since 1998. The half-acre main site sits on the former grounds of Beardsley Junior High School. In 1996, the City of Knoxville provided funds to convert the abandoned school grounds into a garden and build a greenhouse. The same year, the Community Action Committee (CAC) received a grant to complete the conversion.

Today, Beardsley Farm has raspberry and blackberry brambles; muscadine grapes and blueberries; a young orchard of fruit and nut trees; and a community garden, all situated on six and a half acres of a public park—in addition to the half-acre demonstration site. The Farm is maintained by a farm manager, a small team of AmeriCorps members, and numerous volunteers from the Knoxville community.

Their fundraisers always are so much fun. (read more)

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Kathy Hamilton, left, leads the breakfast line.

The “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” house is built, the Watson family is moved in, and the folks who worked on it are back to their normal lives, perhaps a little bit changed by the experience.

All this is good. But one thing I hated to see go was the VIP tent! It turned out to be a wonderful venue for parties and fundraisers. Definitely not your same ole, same ole.

This is just a quick little blog post about a breakfast held there last Monday. The invited guests were members of the Executive Women’s Association of which Christi Branscom, president of Grace Construction, the lead builder on the Extreme project, is president-elect. Also invited were members of Women in Construction.

By this time, the house was nearly finished and Christi invited Extreme’s executive producer, George Verschoor, to say a few words. He told us that the Volunteer state had really  “stepped up” to build the house through very tough weather.  And he told us again how our VIP tent was the best in the history of the show. Thanks, Gift Gourmet & Interiors. (read more)

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Con Hunley on Jan. 15, 2012, at the VIP tent of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's" Knoxville build

When my friend Gina Changas and I heard that entertainers were needed to play the VIP tent for fundraisers during the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build, we both had the same idea: Con Hunley!

And what a good idea it was. Hunley and his band sold out the $125-per-ticket event. And when it was over, folks who never had heard him before had been turned into fans. “I knew he had a great voice, but he is so much more than that. He is such an entertainer,” said Christi Branscom, the president of Grace Construction, the lead builder on the project. “He was just amazing.”

For his part, Hunley said he had a good time, too. He said playing the 75-seat VIP tent reminded him of his early days playing small venues like The Corner Lounge in Knoxville’s “Happy Holler” neighborhood, where he got his start. (I hope he noticed that the VIP tent was a little more elegant than “The Corner!”) (read more)

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Inside the VIP tent Saturday

Last week, the Robinson Road build site of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” was a muddy, cold mess. Heavy machines were slipping and sliding. People were falling down in slippery muck. There really was nowhere to go to get your feet on solid ground — until it froze!

But, starting late Thursday, a little oasis sprang up. A small bit of pristine, soothing heaven in the midst of a noisy, chaotic and slimy construction site: the VIP tent!

The VIP tent is something that is set up on every “Extreme” build. It is used for entertaining and to thank sponsors and others who have made the “Extreme” event possible — and to raise money to benefit the selected family. The folks from “Extreme” visited our VIP tent and proclaimed it the nicest they have seen in over 200 builds! Now THAT is saying something! (read more)

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Moxley Carmichael staff members. Ha. Just kidding. It's the UT dancers at the pep rally for "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Our sponsor logo just happened to be behind them when our buddy Saul Young of the News Sentinel shot this pic.

Nearly 1,000 folks showed up Wednesday for a pep rally whose purpose was to introduce the senior producer of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and let him tell us what to expect next week when the Emmy-winning TV series rolls into town to tape a Knoxville episode. (read more)

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Just after midnight, we ended up in the hotel room of Judith and Michael Foltz at the Oliver Hotel on Market Square. From left: Alan Carmichael, Richard and Dawn Ford, Judith and Michael Foltz

For the past 11 years, we have been celebrating News Year’s Eve with two other couples: Richard and Dawn Ford and Jackie and Ray Fisher. Sometimes we go out to eat, sometimes we go to a party, and sometimes we watch the ball drop at Market Square.

This year we did all three. And we saw a ton of fun people along the way! See for yourself.

(read more)

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Ellen Robinson, right, with her new boss, Debbie Stevens

As the new year approaches, our friend and colleague, Ellen Robinson, has accepted a new challenge. She is leaving her post as vice president at Moxley Carmichael to head up the marketing efforts of Lewis, King, Krieg and Waldrop, the largest law firm in Knoxville (if you rank by number of attorneys).

Since we often do work for Lewis King, it was natural that the firm’s managing partner, Debbie Stevens, would consult with me when she wanted to hire a big marketing gun. We are friends in addition to having a business relationship, so over drinks one evening at the Bistro on Gay Street, we hashed out a list of folks who might fit the bill for the new job. Debbie said she wanted “someone like Ellen” for the role. (Debbie is nothing if not a diplomat!) (read more)

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Tom and Merri Lee Fox, at left, of Gift Gourmet & Interiors; Christi and Scott Branscom, in center, of Grace Construction; and Libby and Kevin Keck of SchoffnerKalthoff Mechanical Electrical Service

I hope you have heard by now that the Emmy-winning ABC television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is coming to Knoxville to build a home for a deserving family next month. This is the show that enlists tons of community volunteers and donated materials and — while the selected family is whisked away for a week-long vacation — rebuilds a special home for them over the course of just a week. The project, which normally would take almost a year to complete, is accomplished by literally thousands of local folks toiling around the clock to get it done. (read more)

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Phyllis and Jim Nichols try on props to have their picture made in the photo booth.

I apologize for being such a poor blogger the past few weeks. Work has been just crazy busy. Besides, I still get a bunch of hits just by leaving the photo of Allison Burchett in that dress on the blog’s first page! Ha!

But Christmas season has been rushing by like the water out of a fire hose. I wanted to post a few photos of some of the fun events before New Year’s arrives and “the most wonderful season of all” is just a dim memory.

The Knoxville Convention Center, a great Moxley Carmichael client, hosts a Christmas reception with a marketing purpose every year. It is an opportunity to showcase not only the fabulous facility, but the impressive skills of the culinary staff headed by talented executive chef, Chris Moore. Whereas some fancy holiday parties may shine with opulent luxuries like caviar and lobster, the Convention Center took a different approach. (read more)

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If the lights had not come back on, we would have missed seeing Allison Burchett in this knock-out dress! Oh, that's her hubby, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, with her.

“An Evening in Paris” was the theme last Saturday for the Symphony Ball, an annual gala produced by the Knoxville Symphony League to benefit the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. But as Alan and I drove west on Lyons View Pike toward Cherokee Country Club where the event was being held, the venue could not have looked less like the “City of Light,” as Paris is known.

A car crashing into a utility pole behind Ashe’s Wine and Spirits had plunged the whole neighborhood — including the tony country club — into pitch black darkness. We were somewhat concerned about what the evening might hold. But when we entered the lobby, folks were in a surprisingly good mood, chatting loudly and using cell phones to see where they were going. Perhaps an explanation for the good spirits was the fact that, despite the power outage, the bar never shut down! In about 30 minutes, when the lights suddenly came back on, a huge roar went up from the crowd. Seems the biggest problem had not been the difficulty seeing and bidding on the more than 200 silent auction items beautifully displayed on tables in the River Room, but the fact that the big TV set in the bar — the one showing the SEC championship game between LSU and Georgia — had been rendered out of commission during the outage. (read more)

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