COMMUNITY CALENDAR STUDENT EXCHANGES

• If you are 15- to 18-years-old with a basic knowledge of German language, you can apply for a scholai-ship to spend one academic year in Germany. AYUSA International, a nonprofit high-school exchange program is now accepting scholarships, which cover program fees, cultural orien-tations placement with a German host family, enrollment in a local high schools and in-country sup-port For more information, call r e gional manager Janet Baker at 1-800-727-4540. ext. 542.

• The International Education Forum is seeking families to pro-vide room and board to interna-tional students. For more information, call 1-800-843-9054.

• Nacel Cultural Exchanges is now offering new programs for teens to travel to South America, Europe and Asia during the school year. New countries include: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Italy, Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia. India, Israel. China, Indonesia. Japan. Taiwan and Thailand. Nacel also offers pro-grams in France, Spain. Germany, the Ivory Coast, Mexico and Quebec. Tlie program is open to students ages 13-18. For more in-formation. call Evelyn and Julian Prince, Michigan coordinators, at 810-626-6641 or the Nacel national. office in St. Paul at 1-800-622-3553.

PUBLIC MEETINGS TODAY • Tekonsha Township Planning

Commission, 6:30 p.m., Township Hall.

HEALTH • Lakeview Square mall walk,

6:30 to 9 a.m. weekdays. Blood pressure screening offered from 7 to 8:30 a.m.

• Calhoun County Health Department, free or low cost pelvic and breast exams, including mammograms, free for women over 40 with a limited income, 191 College vStreet. To make an ap-pointment, call 966-1234.

SPECIAL INTERESTS • North American Patriots

Association, 6:30 p.m. today. Speed's Restaurant, 1425 W. Michigan Ave.

• National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Michigan Chapter, 7 p.m. today. Clarion Hotel, 3600 E. Cork St., Kalamazoo.

• Interaction of Kalamazoo Inc. (for single adults), 7:30 p.m. Friday, People's Church. 1758 N. 10th St., Kalamazoo.

• Michigan Singles Interna-tional Ltd. dance, 8 p.m. Friday to 2 a.m. Saturday. PJ's, 310 S. Mechanic St.. Jackson, and 8 p.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday, Mason Hills Golf Club, Tomlinson Road, Mason. Admission $6.

• First Friday Singles Dance, 9 p.m. Friday, Kindred Spirits Banquet Hall, Lake Street west of Sprinkle, Kalamazoo, $5.

• Amateur Radio Club of Battle Creek 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Russ's Restaurant 963-4574.

SENIOR CITIZENS • Blood-pressure check, 9 to

11 a.m. Friday, Burnham Brook Center.

• Senior meals, dining senior-style lunches served by Elder Services Department of the Community Action Agency are available 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday in Springview Towers, Bedford Manor, Franklin Center. Washington Heights United Methodist Church and Mercy Pavilion Lakeview Center, 11:30 a.m. Monday. Wednesday and Friday in the Springfield Senior Fellowship Center at the Battle Creek Area Math and Science Center, 765 Upton Ave. Make reservations the previous open day at 963-1212.

TO SUBMIT INFORMATION • Please send items to

Community Calendar, 155 W. Van Buren St., Battle Creek 49017-3093. Or fax to 964-0299. Please in-clude your name and phone.

SETTING IT STRAIGHT • Grace Rond was preceded in

death by great-grandson Todd Winningham. Because of a clerical error, his name was incorrect Due to incorrect information given to the Enquirer, he was not listed as a grandson on Page 4A Wednesday.

The Battle Creek Enquirer cor-rects errors of fact To report an er-ror, call 966-0674.

HOW TO REACH US Have a story tip or idea? Here's how

to reach us 24 hours a day: • Reader hotline: 966-0681 • fox : 964-0299 • Great Lakes Free-Net: Leave a

message in the Battle Geek Enquirer conference area.

• E-mail: enquiref@moil.tds.net

LOCAL THURSDAY, JULY 3 1 , 1 9 9 7 B A r n j - ; CREEK ENQUIRER 3 A

$10,000 transaction unexplained Prosecution focuses on caretaker's power of attorney at trial

TRACE CHRISTENSEN The Enquirer

Robert Rogers changed his mind about giving Sharon Zachary legal control of his affairs.

Fourteen days later, he was mur-dered.

A few weeks after that, Zachary, 31, was arrested and charged with mur-der, felony murder and armed rob-bery.

During her murder trial this week. Assistant Calhoun County Prosecutor David Wallace has been calling wit-nesses to bolster his theory that Zachary killed Rogers because of his money.

Rogers, 80, was found beaten to death April 26, 1996, in his home on South Raymond Road in Emmett Township.

ANGRY ABOUT MONEY

On April 12, Rogers asked his attor-ney. Patrick Hirzel. to revoke the

IN OTHER TESTIMONY Other highlights Wednesday in the trial

of Sharon Zachary: • Barbara Canfield, a branch manager

for Michigan National Bank, said Robert Rogers closed a joint account with Zachary containing nearly $60,000 on April 2 ana opened a new account in his name. "He said he didn't want her to have access to the account/' Canfieid said, "because she was taking money without his authority."

• David Garity testified that Zachary promised to contribute $40,000 toward a business venture. Garity, Zachary and her brother-in-law were to put up a total of

power of attorney he had given to Zachary on Dec. 4, 1995 - the same day he made her sole beneficiary of his estate, estimated at $750,000.

Power of attorney gives a person the right to act on another's behalf, of-ten in financial matters. But Hirzel said Rogers was having doubts about giving that legal right to Zachary.

"He had come in late March with a complete printout from a bank and in-dicated transactions in the checking account," Hirzel said. "He said he had

$60,000 to start a machine shop, Gantv said. She paid $5,700 and Garity said they bought equipment for the business on April 27,1996.

• A representative of Ford Motor Credit Corp. said records showed that Rogers pur-chased a car and two pickup trucks in o five-week span in September and Odober 1995. The purchases were made at Battle Creek Ford, where Zachary was a salesper-son.

• A Michigan Department of Treasury spokeswoman said Zachary did not file state income tax returns in 1995 or 1996.

real concerns about one for $10,000 and he didn't know what it was for and was seeking my advice about the transactions.

"He asked me, What am I supposed to do about this?' " Hirzel recalled.

Hirzel suggested Rogers talk to Zachary about the problem.

"He came back another day in April and revoked the power of attorney." •

Two weeks later, Rogers was blud-geoned to death with 25 to 30 blows to the head.

Zachary had been taking care of Rogers before he made her sole ben-eficiary of his estate, specifically ex-cluding his own son, Donald.

"He had never had the best rela-tionship with his son," Hirzel said.

Within weeks after giving her power of attorney, Rogers became an-gered because Zachary spent at least $66,000 on herself and family, the prosecution has contended.

Zachary has denied she killed Rogers. Defense Attorney John Hofman has said the evidence shows that others, including Donald Rogers, had more of a motive than Zachary to kill Rogers.

Rogers had become a target of break-ins and robberies after word spread that he carried large sums of cash.

WILL WASN'T CHANGED

Hirzel testified that while Rogers wanted the power of attorney re-voked, he made no move to remove Zachary from his will.

"He said he wanted to do that (re-voke the power of attorney) because he felt uncomfortable since he could-n't account for the $10,000 and he wanted to handle his own affairs."

Hirzel then asked him about chang-ing the will.

"He said, 4No, its all right for now.'" During questioning by Hofman,

Hirzel said Rogers described Zachary as like a daughter.

"He said she was much better than his son and that he was going to live with her."

Rogers did live with Zachary and her family in a house two doors away

8 from his own for several weeks before his murder.

Later Wednesday, David Zebell, an attorney appointed to oversee Rogers' estate, said the man's land and cash were valued at about $750,000 after his death. • •

Zebell. said Rogers owned . 11 parcels of land and had 11 accounts in five or six banks. He also found cash in safety deposit boxes and police found $133,000 in cash hidden in the house.

The son, Donald Rogers, has con-tested the will. A trial in probate court has been delayed because of the crim-inal case against Zachary.

Zachary's trial is in the third week and the prosecution could end its case by Friday.

FOCUS: OUR CLASSROOMS

Literacy focus of meeting Teachers gather to share tips on reading

In unison, a group of young chil-dren turned the pages of My Little Book of the 3 Billy Goats, reading the words aloud.

Teacher Nancy Davis read with them.

"So many stu-dents, especially in lower grades, they lose so much over the summer they've gotten the previ-ous year in school," she said.

Davis helps teach a summer read-ing program at Westlake Elementary School for children at all reading lev-els.

She's one of more than 400 educa-tors in Battle Creek this week for a conference designed to help them build classroom skills for literacy learning.

The conference. Literacy Learning in the Classroom, has drawn school administrators and teachers from all grade levels to the conference at Harper Creek High School. Most are from the Battle Creek area.

The point is to encourage educa-tors to reflect on what they are doing and help them improve their skills, said Jan Duncan, formerly of Well-ington College of Education in New Zealand - a country which has, at times, had some of the highest liter-acy rates in the world.

Literacy is of ongoing importance, and educators say it's important to keep the spotlight on it.

Reading, writing and communica-

LIZ | WYATT

SCOTT SERSDKINE/THE ENQUIRER

Sara Brownlee, left, and Amanda Parkinson read from the same book during a summer reading program at Westlake Elementary School.

tion skills carry on into adulthood, making it crucial for children to be-come literate early on.

"It enters their everyday lives," said Theodoris Smith, a first-grade teach-er at Battle Creek's McKinley Ele-mentary School for 25 years. "It makes a difference in what they will do for the rest of their lives in terms of reading, writing and expressing themselves."

In Calhoun County, most recent fig-ures show about 8 percent of adults 25 and older have less than a ninth-grade education, most of whom are considered functionally illiterate, said May Jo Nye of the Calhoun County Literacy Council.

"I'm thrilled with the efforts that the schools are putting in to make sure that the children are successful when they're children because then they won't have as many frustrations when they are adults," Nye said.

"I just want to learn more about reading," said Amanda Parkinson, 11, a sixth-grader at Lakeview School District's Territorial School, who is taking the summer class at Westlake.

Her mother, Noreen Parkinson, en-rolled Amanda so she could catch up on her reading skills

Amanda understands the impor-tance of bringing up her reading skills. "If you don't know how to read, it will be hard to get a job and stuff."

Staff Writer Liz Wyatt covers educa-tion issues. Her column appears on Thursdays.

LIZ WYATT Battle Creek Enquirer 155 W. Van Buren Battle Creek, Ml 49017 Phone: 966-0676 E-mail: Enquirer@mail.tds.nef

I!

' . SCOn SERSDKINEAHE ENQUIRER

Andrew Block, left, and David Vaden spend part of their summer, reading.

NEIGHBORS PLUS

Ex-Bearcat star is counselor at Jordan's camp

FOR THE ENQUIRER

Cory Gibson jokes around with Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan during a basketball camp for youth sponsored by Jordan.

It's been a superstar summer for former Battle Creek Central High School basketball standout Cory Gibson.

Earlier this month, Gibson, who now plays basketball for Valparaiso Uni-versity, was one of about 30 NCAA players in-vited to serve as counselors at a basketball camp sponsored by Chicago Bulls su-perstar Michael Jordan.

It began when Mark Schere, a former assistant coach at Valparaiso who now is head coach at Elmhurst College near Chicago, asked Gibson to be a counselor at Jordan's camp, which is held at Elmhurst College for youth ages 12-17. Jordan also spon-sors a similar camp in California.

"First I thought, "Right, like (Jordan) is really going to be there, '0

Gibson said of his childhood hero. "But he showed up every morning at 9 a.m. to do a clinic for the kids."

And despite his wealth and fame, Jordan was just like one of the guys, Gibson said.

"He's really down to earth," Gibson said. "He was cracking jokes with me. The first day, he was giving me a hard time about wearing Reeboks (instead of Jordan-endorsed Nike shoes)."

The only signs of Jordan's super-stardom were the different cars he drove to the camp each day.

4The first day, he drove a red Ferrari," Gibson said. 4The next day it was a black Corvette, then a black Ferrari, and one night he drove a dif-ferent red Ferrari. On the last day, he was in a big old Range Rover."

About 450 youths attended the four-day camp. But they weren't the most demanding fans, Gibson said.

"The parents were really worse

than the kids," Gibson said. "They would see him and the parentswould flip out Michael, please just one au-tograph.* "

The camp counselors - players from schools such as Duke, North Carolina, Arizona and others - played together each night after camp, and one night Jordan joined them. Needless to say, he drew quite a crowd.

"There must have been 5,000 peo-ple there just to watch a pickup game!" Gibson said.

Even several of Jordan's NBA col-leagues - including Juwan Howard -showed up at the camp. . While he's already had quite an ex-

citing summer, it's far from over for Gibson. On Aug. 8, hell head for Croatia and Macedonia as part of Athletes in Action for a combined bas-ketball/missionary trip.

'Well be playing their professional teams over there," he said, and doing missionary work when they aren't

playing. > Gibson said he still is in need q t

funds for the Athletes in Action trip, and anyone who would like may sench their tax-deductible contribution^ made payable to Campus Crusade for Christ, to Scott Drew, 202 Andover Drive, Valparaiso, IN. 46383.

In the fall, Gibson will return to* Valparaiso, where he will be a junior^ academically but, because of injuries that sidelined him for a season, will be^ a sophomore for NCAA eligibility. ^

• « » * J?

GIVE US A CALL

Ne t̂bors Plus is a supplement to the; weekly Neighbors section. If you have news Uj? for Neighbors or Neighbors Plus, caN Steve ; Smith at 966-0663 between 6:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., or fox the mformotion fo us ol 964-0299

- V

0