HALLS
The Guest List uses speed-dating format, but for women's friendships
Al Lesar, Shopper News
For the last six years, Jordyn Thompson has worked a remote job as a data analyst with minimal human contact beyond her family.
The Fountain City resident felt something was missing from her life.
So she decided to do something about it.
She came up with the idea for The Guest List, a women-only social group with a focus on interaction that could lead to friendships.
The first attempt at organizing the group was on July 30. Thompson was blown away when she saw had gotten responses from 46 women who were interested in attending. When the meetup finally happened, 40 showed up at the Holiday Inn at Cedar Bluff.
Thompson came up with the idea of a speed-dating format, except for friendship. She had a card for everyone that
had questions to help break the ice. Each couple had a four-minute give and take, then moved on to the next pairing.
With her data-driven background skills, Thompson took the results on the cards, collated them and came up with possible friendship matches for each person.
“One woman sat out in her car in front of the hotel for 15 minutes,” Thompson said. “She said she was afraid to come in because she was so lonely. I told her if she had a problem to find me. I would help her. At the end of the night she said, ‘This was the best time I’ve ever had.’ ”
Starting a dinner series
After a couple more speed-dating-format events, Thompson plans on exploring options for the group to gather once a month. She has contacted different venues in the community to host functions and expose the women to what they do best.
“We want to create some really cool events that people would be interested in attending,” Thompson said. “I try to partner with new restaurants and venues. They get a chance to show themselves to a group of women.”
Thompson’s next phase is to start a monthly dinner club series that will make the sharing a little less formal. Thompson charged $15 per person for the first event to cover the cost of the conversation cards she had for the event as well as her time to input all the information and come up with matches.
She said most of the women attending came up with four matches. The one with the most had eight and the least, two.
Lessons learned will help in the future
Some of the topics on the conversation cards included things like: Something that you changed your mind about; a family tradition; a dream girls' trip; I’d like to be an expert in what hobby; describe yourself in three words.
The group’s maiden voyage taught Thompson some lessons:
∎ Stick to about 36 women ‒ max. A smaller group is better.
∎ Spread out. Sitting elbow to elbow tends to make a very loud environment.
∎ Change it up. People love new experiences.
“I’m a social butterfly,” Thompson said. “I’m a people person. I love hosting events and I’m very organized.”
The Guest List has two Facebook pages, one public and one for members only. Events and dates will be listed on both. It's also on Instagram and TikTok.
BEARDEN
Catholic High graduate named Haslam Leadership Scholar
John Shearer, Shopper News
Catholic High School graduate Amelia Ainsworth is used to being on the stage and hearing applause as a longtime dancer, singer and musician. But now she is front and center amid accolades in a different sort of way – as a University of Tennessee at Knoxville Haslam Leadership Scholar.
“It was a really exciting last few months,” she said over the phone recently after receiving the news that she had received what is considered UT’s most prestigious merit-based scholarship. “It was unexpected, and I am really happy how everything turned out.”
This enthusiasm was most evident, she jokingly said, when she was at school while working on their musical production, her first one as a student, and she received the call that she had been selected as one of the scholarship recipients. “I looked at my phone, and it said Jim Haslam (Sr., the Pilot Oil founder and one of the scholarship benefactors),” she said. “Everybody said that they could hear me across the room as I kept saying thank you. I was really, really energetic.”
As she recently discussed her life to date and career goals as a UT freshman, she said that she has been a fan of orange for some time, but not as some might imagine. Her parents, Melissa and Stephen Ainsworth, actually went to Clemson University – known for sporting a slightly different shade of orange – as has her brother.
But after the family moved to Knoxville from North Carolina when she was 7 years old, she also became enamored with the Knoxville environment and realized as she began applying to colleges that UT would be a good fit. “No place connected with me like UT did,” she said, adding that she had also seriously considered Belmont and Auburn. “I love living near the Smokies and enjoying the UT spirit. And growing up in Knoxville, it’s hard to resist cheering for the Vols.”
Ainsworth – who joins West High graduate Henry Casey and Hardin Valley Academy alumnus Matthew Greenwood as three of the 16 freshman scholars – said she had first heard about the Haslam Scholars program after applying to the UT's University Honors College. Additional applications and interviews followed before she received the exciting news that she was a recipient.
She said she has enjoyed all the extra enrichment she has received since school began, from special leadership speakers and classes to recently learning she will be in a special study-abroad program next May in Chile and Argentina. And she has enjoyed living in Dogwood Hall and getting to know the other scholars in her cohort.
While she has gone through much of her life with purpose, she said with a laugh that she has no idea yet what she wants to major in or what career path she wants to take. But she feels UT and the Haslam support network will certainly help in that area.
“It will probably be something in music, but I am also looking at marketing and finance and seeing where that takes me,” she said.
While growing up, she had eclectic experience in the fine arts. For starters, she was involved with the nonprofit Go Contemporary Dance Works and its mentoring program, she said, and was selected for all-East Tennessee and all-state choirs.
At Catholic, she also formed a student-led worship band and sang and played the guitar. She was a student section leader involved in social media and events, has served as a counselor at the Catholic-affiliated Camp Marymount and has taught First Communion classes to children.
Ainsworth, who enjoys Pilates and playing country music on her guitar in her spare time, credits her high school for instilling so much positivity in her. “They gave me the opportunity to explore my creative side and made me realize that everybody has something to offer,” she said. “Catholic does a good job at that.”
And at UT, she feels the Haslam Scholarship program is also aiding her and other students in finding their strengths and interests. “Most of my traits are centered around positive relationships,” she said. “It is something I am tapping into – my strengths and doing what I do for good.”
And she is doing all this in her hometown of Knoxville while enjoying the rewards of a scholarship that students from faraway would also love to experience.
“Knoxville has been so welcoming all my life. I couldn’t imagine going any other place,” she said.
KARNS
More than a crown: Meet Hardin Valley Academy’s Homecoming royalty
Nancy Anderson, Shopper News
For one unforgettable night, the spotlight belonged to Hardin Valley Academy’s Homecoming King and Queen. But behind the crowns are two students with stories, dreams and a high school journey that made this moment much more meaningful than a title.
For Homecoming King Brian Gant, the road to the crown was a rocky ride. As a child in the foster care system, he sometimes slept in a different home each night for weeks at a time. He jumped from school to school until he landed at Hardin Valley in the eighth grade and was ultimately adopted by Donnie and Kelly Drawdy.
Gant is a remarkable young man who runs track and participates in multiple school clubs. Rather than simply ask for the popular vote he initiated an attitude of inclusion and went about meeting and making friends with his classmates.
“Each candidate wrote a 500-word essay, then wrote a résumé. After that, I passed around a video explaining why they should vote for me. I talked to everyone that I could, but I didn’t ask them to vote for me outright. I wanted to make friends and I did! I wouldn’t have if I didn’t run for Homecoming King,” said Gant.
Homecoming Queen Jaelyn Jimenez, daughter of Julio and Evelyn Jimenez, said inclusion was her platform as well. She and Gant have been thick as thieves since the eighth grade. They frequently tell friends they are twins.
Each said they couldn’t believe it when their name was called during the Homecoming half-time ceremony.
Gant said he froze and had to ask his mother if that was his name called.
“When they called my name, I just froze. I think I had an out-of-body experience,” he said with a chuckle.
Jimenez said it’s a moment she’ll remember for years to come. She got chills when she heard her name called. She said she knew it was a defining moment in her life.
The newly crowned king and queen both say they plan to volunteer around the community as part of their reign. Both belong to the Interact Club, which gives the students an opportunity to give back to the community through volunteering at such places as food pantries and the Fantasy of Trees.
“I plan to continue to volunteer places around the community. My dad even offered to come and help, so I’m really looking forward to giving back to the community," Gant said.
Jimenez, who said being elected Homecoming Queen was a great honor, is a soccer player and section leader in the stands spreading school spirit during football games. She said the school spirit and the spirit of inclusion were her favorite parts of the high school experience at Hardin Valley Academy.
Gant plans to attend East Tennessee State University for nursing while Jimenez plans to study marketing at either ETSU or the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Info: https://hardinvalleyac.knoxschools.org
POWELL
Back Nine Golf simulators make golf an indoor, round-the-clock game
Al Lesar, Shopper News
Golf has always been a passion for John Miner.
He learned the game as a youngster in the “old man’s group” on Dandridge Golf Course. He honed his skills while playing on the state championship team at Jefferson County High School with current PGA Tour member Peter Malnati. Then he carried on his own career at Carson-Newman University.
While a member of the golf team at Carson-Newman, he met his wife Jennifer, from Halls, while she was on the women’s team.
So golf runs in the family.
Life occasionally gets in the way of a six-hour round on a course. Miner’s real job is selling medical equipment throughout the state of Tennessee, so the Halls resident's time is sometimes limited.
To scratch the golf itch, he found Back Nine Golf in West Knoxville, which provided an indoor simulator experience that’s as high-tech as it comes. He discovered the facility last September.
“It gives you all sorts of options,” Miner said. “You can play any of 200 courses, 18 or 36 holes, in an hour or two.”
The biggest problem was that it was a long drive from Halls. He and Stetson Moore of Halls, who became a partner in this venture, decided to bring Back Nine Golf to Powell at 3505 W. Emory Road.
Variety of uses for simulators
The facility in Powell, which is in the same plaza as the KARM store and Workout Anytime, is a 4,000-square-foot enclosure that will feature three simulator bays, a chipping bay, a putting room and another smaller putting green.
This state-of-the-art technology measures everything that’s possible to be measured with a golf swing. It can be used for competitive golf, having people play the holes of any choice of course, or used strictly as a teaching tool for instructions.
Miner said he took over the building in July. Back Nine Golf suggested companies that could help in the construction process for a franchisee. The target finish date is the middle or end of October.
People who buy memberships would be able to use the facility anytime day or night ‒ 24/7. The process would start by booking an after-hours tee time via phone. The phone would then be sent a code to unlock the facility 15 minutes before the tee time.
No food or drinks will be sold at the facility, but they will be permitted to be brought in.
Weather doesn't affect indoor golf
Miner is convinced there are people in the Powell area who share his fascination for golf or want to be introduced to the game.
“I’m one of those golfers who is obsessed with getting better,” Miner said. “This is a way to stay involved even in the winter.”
The vision is for the facility to be used for camps for juniors as well as opportunities for folks to work on their game or just have fun.
Space would be available to rent for birthdays, corporate events or other celebrations.
He said there will be several levels of memberships available. They would cost somewhere between $150 and $250 a month, but it hasn’t been worked out yet.
There will be public hours available — 8 a.m.-4 p.m., when walk-ins will be welcome — at least initially.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Shopper Blog: The Guest List uses speed-dating format, but for women's friendships
