including their own television special in China this wonderful musical group is under the direction of Dr. Robert G. Hamilton we are honored to have them with us tonight and I say that sincerely the Philadelphia Boys Choir and Corral from guess where Philadelphia Pennsylvania or bare with they call it the bear who slept through Christmas tell about the other television show Ted oh well I Ted's so bashful he saved the world I it was and we wish you all a Merry Christmas in the Christmas way Merry Christmas to you and may the season bring you joy Merry Christmas We wish you Christmas too and we hope you keep this The Christmas pageant invites representatives from two youth leadership groups to be a part of our ceremony and here with greetings on behalf of the Girl Scouts his son young packed like this on a night when we all look forward to lighting the tree so we have the chief rainmaker himself who's about to come forward I'm not even going to introduce him according to the script because he's a personal friend that I've loved him for a long long time every city is fortunate and every town is fortunate and every community is fortunate to have spark plugs like Joe Riley a spark plug is somebody who starts the motor the ignition and gets things done ladies and gentlemen our chairman one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet Joseph Riley thank you Willard what a great weatherman we have and what a great guy he is to be with us all the time I'm proud to be here tonight to represent the Christmas pageant a peace committee and I'm the lucky guy who thanks all those wonderful entertainers who are with us tonight and to thank you fantastic people for coming out on a night like this a lot of people put this together and certainly we must pay tribute to General Electric and Frank Legaza who designed this beautiful tree for us and this year with our theme being liberty the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty they've designed a beautiful red white and blue tree for us I want to thank them also for decorating the state and territory trees that we have the DC Department recreation the Greater Washington Board of Trade the Washington Convention and Visitors Association and the Park Service who keep that tree of ours alive every day of the year have all added to the pleasure we're enjoying this evening and a special thanks to the American marketing communications company who have put this wonderful program together for us you know every night here between December 23 we see tomorrow night and December 23 we have entertainment and those wonderful volunteers who provide that entertainment for us every night and we also have refreshments for you when you're here so please take advantage of the good-heartedness of the national corporations who make that possible and a very special thank you to a fine American primitive artist from Duxbury Massachusetts who has painted the fourth in a series which depict the Christmas pageant a piece her 1985 painting shows what was here last year and is filled with her style of rural New England here she is Marie Fox of Duxbury Massachusetts Marie Marie Fox thank you very very much Marie Joe playing a country bumpkin character named Gomer Powell he went on to fame on his own show and along the way everyone discovered he had a magnificent baritone voice I give you now the multi-talented Mr. Jim neighbors


Gallery North in Bemidji is filling February with free, unique craft classes any art lover would enjoy. Lakeland news reporter Cheryl Moore has the details for this week's in focus. These classes are just great. It's great to see people involved in the arts community. Gallery North in Bemidji is bringing a little heat to winter with their warm your heart with the little art classes that free to the public and are taught by members of the community. I'm a quilter and a carver and I'm thinking I didn't want to drag a sewing machine in here for a sewing class. So I was just looking for something we could do with fabric. It wouldn't be February without a few hearts. Today's class took a challenging skill and made it easy to do for anyone at any craft level. It's called a Swedish heart. It's weaving with an extra step in it, going in and out and in and out and in between. And it's easy once you catch on, but catching on sometimes a little trick. So I brought my husband along to help. After going over, then under, then over again and adding a few pieces of crumpled paper along the way, everyone finally started to get it.  From feather painting to iris paper folding to fabric weaving and dream catcher making, the warm-your-heart with some art classes offer a variety of different crafts to boomagee community members. And all they have to do is sign up. And it's just great that they teach us all these different varieties with all these different people in the community.  At the end of the day, everyone goes home with a keepsake. Can put goodies in here. Husband could put a ring box or something in here. Or a jewelry box or chocolates or you can just kind of hang them up for a decoration. Reporting in Bemidji with this week's In Focus, Cheryl Moore, Lakeland News. People can sign up for other February craft classes inside Gallery North. Space is limited and they are filling up fast. So for a list of those classes, check out this story that you just saw on lptv.org. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Cancer. It's a very scary word. But an outstanding treatment facility was here at home. I was led to the Lawson Cancer Center. As a nurse practitioner at the Lawson Cancer Center, we are champions for our patients. I am so happy for Robert. The treatment worked. On Tuesday, May 2, Pikeville Medical Center hosted their Stroke Awareness Day event at the Appalachian Wireless Arena. This is the first time the event has taken place since 2019 and many showed up to receive free screenings and learn about stroke risks. Pikeville Medical Center is dedicated to not only informing but helping those who need it. Yeah, so here at Pikeville Medical Center we're putting on this stroke awareness day to do just that to bring awareness to the community about stroke. So stroke obviously is very important here. We do a great job. We have a multidisciplinary team here at Pikeville Medical Center and we're going to have a lot of those people included here in today's event to talk about things like risk factors, things that we can do as far as treatment, the protocols that we have in place at Pikeville Medical Center that really provide the best care that's possible here right here in the mountains. For strokes, there are modifiable and non-modifiable risks. Adjusting certain lifestyle choices can drastically improve one's health. Obviously, it starts with your primary care provider, so we want patients to take an active role in their health, discuss with their primary care provider about modifying those risk factors. Again, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and smoking. But those are the other factors that patients can really take an active role in. So, modifiable risk factors such as lifestyle modifications are very important. So we encourage our patients to be as active as they can, be active during the week, get outside. We live in a beautiful area. Take advantage of that. Get outside and do these things and be active. Obviously, dietary modifications are something that we always talk about as well. And so again, it's not only about what your provider can do for you. It's about what can you do for yourself? And so we want to try to have patients take ownership in regards to being healthy. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Colum.