Contact: Melissa Reifert
April 2, 2007

MECC Gala to Honor Isaac and Feature Entertainer Little

Good food, good music, and lots of fun are on the agenda for the 2007 Mountain Empire Community College Foundation Hall of Honor Gala. This year’s gala will feature a “celebrity roast” with guest of honor, Robert E. “Bob” Isaac, Sr. and entertainment provided by remarkable musician Jeff Little, known as the “Piano Man from the Blue Ridge.” The event will be held on Saturday, April 21 in the Goodloe Center of Phillips-Taylor Hall on the MECC campus.
With honoree Isaac’s friends paying him tribute, the 2007 gala theme is appropriately titled, “That’s What Friends Are For.” Isaac, who was elected to the MECC Foundation Board of Directors in 1982 and has served on the Board continuously since that time, will be inducted in the Foundation's Hall of Honor during the gala program. From 1991 to 1993, and from 1996 to 2006, he served as Chair of the Foundation Board.

Isaac has also served many other important community causes in the Norton and Wise County area including the Norton School Board, Wise County Chamber of Commerce, Norton City Planning Commission, Norton Kiwanis Club, Knights of Columbus, Wise County Habitat for Humanity, Virginia-Kentucky District Fair, Knob Development Corporation, St. Mary’s Hospital Advisory Board, and Mountain View Regional Medical Center’s Board. He is also active in St. Anthony Catholic Church.

Appetizers will be served at a reception beginning at 6 p.m., followed by a full-course buffet dinner at 6:45 p.m. The “roasting and toasting” will begin after dinner and will precede the concert by Little, who played to an enthusiastic crowd at MECC last year.

According to a review by National Public Radio (NPR), “Jeff Little is a remarkable musician, steeped in the tradition of his native Blue Ridge, yet also a virtuosic and eclectic innovator.” He has performed on NPR’s “Folk Masters Program” and “An American Roots Fourth of July.”

In addition to appearances at many performing art centers, colleges, and festivals throughout the United States and overseas, he has also performed at the Museum of Natural History’s Smithsonian Institution Baird Auditorium in Washington, D.C.; the American Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine; and Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
Tickets to the Hall of Honor Gala at MECC are $75 each, $50 of which is tax deductible. Proceeds will establish the Bob Isaac Hall of Honor Opportunity Fund. This unrestricted endowment fund will be matched dollar for dollar by federal Title III funds.

Call Jeri Bledsoe in the MECC Foundation Office at (276) 523-2400, extension 287 to order tickets to the gala. Gifts to the Bob Isaac Hall of Honor Opportunity Fund are also welcome, and may be mailed to the MECC Foundation, 3441 Mountain Empire Road, Big Stone Gap, Virginia 24219.

The 2007 MECC Foundation Hall of Honor Gala will honor Bob Isaac, longtime member of the Foundation Board of Directors and friend of the college and community. The event will be held on Saturday, April 21 at 6 p.m. in the Goodloe Center.

Jeff Little, known as the “Piano Man from the Blue Ridge”, will be the featured entertainer for the 2007 MECC Foundation Hall of Honor Gala on Saturday, April 21 in the Goodloe Center.

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