Channel 3- Chattanooga police and SWAT team members were called to the Super 8 Motel in Ooltewah Wednesday, the incident was reported as an EMS call
Channel 3- Chattanooga police and SWAT team members were called to the Super 8 Motel in Ooltewah Wednesday, the incident was reported as an EMS call for help around 1:30 p.m. A spokesperson says the call turned into a disorderly conduct call when a man barricaded himself in a room. It was reported SWAT negotiators talked to the man, even using his friends and coworkers in hopes of convincing him to come out of his room. The incident which lasted about 3 hours shut down Lee Highway and Exit 11 just as school was getting out Wednesday afternoon.Police say the man is now in custody. Jerome Patrick works with the 37-year-old and said the construction team traveled here from Greenville, South Carolina for a job at the Little Debbie Plant. He says the man stayed back this morning after not feeling well. The man was taken to the hospital to be checked out. Police say he will likely be charged for vandalizing the motel room. The Chattanoogan reports- The FBI has termed the Hixson man who killed five military personnel in Chattanooga in a shooting rampage as a “homegrown violent extremist.” Ed Reinhold, who oversaw the investigation, said Mohammad Abdulazeez acted alone in attacks on military installations at Lee Highway and Amnicola Highway. Meanwhile, the Navy said it will posthumously award Purple Heart medals to the four Marines and a sailor killed by the lone terrorist in July. Another Marine wounded in the shooting will also be awarded the Purple Heart. Channel 3- RHEA COUNTY, TN (WRCB) – Multiple agencies were on the scene of a train crash in Rhea County Wednesday. It happened on Walnut Grove Road near Manufacturers Road in Dayton. Dispatchers confirm a truck was hit by a train. One person was in the vehicle at the time of the crash. That person has been transported to a local hospital for examination and treatment. The person’s condition is not known at this time. We will keep you updated as more infomation becomes available. The Cleveland Daily Banner and Rick Norton reports- Now that the newly merged Empty Stocking Fund has far exceeded organizers’ dreams with more than $62,000 in donations, and the William Hall Rodgers Christmas Basket Fund continues its push toward a $23,000 goal, both popular Christmas drives are looking ahead to Saturday’s headliner events. The Cleveland Christmas Party for Children, which is supported by Empty Stocking Fund proceeds, will provide wrapped gifts and a festive party for local kids in need. More than 1,200 Cleveland and Bradley County children will attend the Yuletide celebration in four different shifts in the Ocoee Middle School gymnasiums, beginning at 8 a.m. While the children are enjoying games, snacks and other festivities in one gym, their parents and guardians will be receiving wrapped gifts that will be taken home and placed under the family Christmas trees. At the same time that the Christmas Party for Children is bringing smiles to the faces of some of the community’s cutest little ones, William Hall Rodgers Christmas Basket Fund volunteers will be loading up boxes of food staples into the vehicles of eligible families from the Tri-State Warehouse on Urbane Road. The Basket Fund distribution, which will help 957 local families, will also kick off at 8 a.m. This is the Empty Stocking Fund’s inaugural year as a combined Christmas drive. Earlier this summer, founders and organizers from three popular initiatives — Cleveland Christmas Party for Children, Creating Christmas Memories and the Empty Stocking Fund — announced their merger, with the new-look entity assuming the Empty Stocking Fund name. The Cleveland Christmas Party for Children is about 70 years old and was founded by the late Rev. M.E. and Mrs. Littlefield, grandparents of Steve Hartline, owner of WCLE Mix 104.1 radio which has worked over the years to keep the Littlefields’ dream alive. The original Empty Stocking Fund is 40 years old, and was co-founded by Tom and Sandra Rowland back when the Cleveland mayor was a WCLE radio station owner, and the late George R. “Bobby” Taylor, a popular banker who went on to serve as co-founder of Bank of Cleveland. Creating Christmas Memories, which is 20 years old, was founded by Cleveland businesswoman Brenda Lawson who is as well known for her civic-mindedness as she is her entrepreneurship. Because these drives often found themselves being supported by the same donors, supporters and volunteers, organizers came together and unified the initiatives, while retaining some of the most successful features of each program. Judging from the success of this year’s 10-day Empty Stocking Fund drive which concluded last Friday and raised $62,009.21, the merger has been strongly accepted by the Cleveland and Bradley County community. “It has blown my mind,” Hartline told the Cleveland Daily Banner shortly after the radio station’s finale event Friday in the Professional Development Center at Life Care Centers of America. “I would say on behalf of the more than 1,200 boys and girls in our community who will be blessed by this party, ‘Thank you!’” Hartline said the merger has accomplished exactly what organizers wanted — a streamlined approach that takes the best of three programs and meshes them into a single entity that is supported even more strongly by the community. It is also in keeping with the original dream of Hartline’s grandfather whose vision was for Cleveland children in need to be able to better enjoy a Christmas season while remaining focused on its reason, Hartline said. He called this year’s inaugural Christmas program a community success. “This is a true Cleveland and Bradley County tradition that is kept alive by the generosity of our citizens,” Hartline said. “To everyone who donated financially, or with time or in items, thank you so very much. At Mix 104.1, we do our very best to create community.” He added, “But, we are just the facilitators for all the good that hundreds, if not thousands, of people did with this year’s Empty Stocking Fund. I am so very proud to partner with Brenda Lawson and Creating Christmas Memories, and to look forward to the greatest Christmas Party we’ve ever had on Saturday.” Last year’s drive received some $42,000 in donations, meaning this year’s goal was $42,001. The target was easily eclipsed by a whopping $20,000. Hartline credited the surprising amount to 1) the program merger which brought together a collective of donors, some of whom had previously supported either the Empty Stocking Fund or Creating Christmas Memories, or both; 2) the fact that WCLE’s listening audience over the years has expanded, thereby reaching more potential Christmastime donors; 3) the support of the Cleveland Daily Banner which has provided publicity, both in news articles and editorials; and 4) the natural giving spirit of the Cleveland and Bradley County community. There’s also another reason, one that serves as a common cause for the first four, Hartline said. “I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the reason for all of this is a child, the Christ child,” the longtime radio man said. “We believe that through these gifts atSaturday’s Christmas party, that these children and their families will experience the love of Jesus Christ. That’s the most important part of this entire community endeavor!” That was the vision of his grandfather and it is what keeps the annual program alive year after year, Hartline said. Of Saturday’s party, Hartline said all the children are preregistered so they already know what time they’ll be arriving for the Ocoee Middle School festivities. “That’s how Brenda’s [Lawson] organization has always done it,” he said. “It helps us to know who’s coming, and when.” He added, “The gifts will be wrapped for the first time ever, which is a dream come true. Many, many volunteers wrapped gifts, and lots of these were high school students. As is part of our new format this year, this allows parents who are picking up the gifts in one of the gymnasiums to save them for Christmas morning or whenever their family celebrates.” Saturday’s Cleveland Christmas Party for Children will include a visit by Santa Claus, as well as what Hartline described as “… an army of volunteers!” “And, Mount Olive Ministries, which is always a huge part of our Empty Stocking Fund, will be singing carols.” Lawson, whose Creating Christmas Memories initiative is the youngest of the three merged programs, said the community has continued to support the newly combined initiative, as evidenced by the total $62,000 gift. “This year with the merger of our three organizations, it has been a learning curve for all of us,” Lawson said. “Each organization had to work out details to best serve the community. Overall, we have had volunteers and donors step up and help us make this a fantastic event.” Lawson is looking forward to Saturday’s grand finale. “I feel on Dec. 19, the fruits of our labor will be the faces of the boys and girls who come to the party and have a fun time,” she said. “The parents will take ownership of their children’s gifts, already wrapped and ready to keep in hiding until Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning.” She added, “Finding the gifts beneath their own trees, we hope, will make it a more memorable and meaningful event for the entire family. Once again, my hometown has made me so proud to be a part of such a loving and giving community.” Lawson pointed to the work of Empty Stocking Fund volunteers who for a few weeks now have been preparing for this weekend. “There are hundreds of volunteers working, shopping, wrapping and helping coordinate for the big day on Saturday,” she stressed. “None of this would be possible without all of these caring people. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to each and every one who has been, and will be a part of, helping us celebrate Jesus’s birthday with more than 1,200 children!” Like Lawson and Hartline, Rowland credited the hard work of a league of volunteers whose unpaid labors are making Saturday’s giant party possible. He also said the combined program’s success is made possible by generous donors. “I could not have been happier with our partnership between Creating Christmas Memories, the original Empty Stocking Fund and the Cleveland Christmas Party for Children,” the longtime Cleveland mayor said. “Clevelanders have come through and supported our efforts, and as a result over 1,200 children will have a weekend to remember as we gather Saturday to culminate our efforts.” Rowland pointed to how each partner contributed to this year’s success. “For Brenda Lawson and her staff, it involved coordinating volunteers, shopping, wrapping and staging,” he said. “For Steve Hartline and his staff at Mix 104.1 WCLE, it involved live on-air appeals to get the word to listeners. They have worked tirelessly to get the word out.” The mayor added, “For hundreds of volunteers and donors, it is a way of giving back to people who need assistance this year. We are appreciative to Kellie Bracken and her volunteers from First United Methodist Church who stepped up to take on this giant Christmas Party for Children. Games, prizes and lots of love are in store for the youngsters who attend. Our local schools, teachers and SROs have been an important part of this partnership.” Although this is the newly named Empty Stocking Fund’s inaugural year as a merged program, Rowland called it a huge breakthrough.
