Contact: Sharon Fisher
April 18, 2008

MECC Gala to Honor Meador and Feature Entertainment from John & Mary K. Wilson

Virginia Meador will be inducted into the Mountain Empire Community College Foundation Hall of Honor during the Foundation’s annual spring gala on Saturday, May 3 in the Goodloe Center on the MECC campus.

Entertainment will be provided by Big Stone Gap natives John and Mary K. Wilson, who will present a concert of Broadway tunes from musicals that were presented by the Big Stone Gap Music Club. Meador is a past member of this club and accompanist for all but one of its musical productions, making these songs especially meaningful to her.

Meador is a charter member of the MECC Foundation Board of Directors, beginning her first term in 1982 and serving continuously since that time. She created an endowed scholarship in memory of her late husband, Harry W. Meador, Jr., who had been Vice President of Eastern Operations for Westmoreland Coal Company.

Meador is Chair of the MECC Foundation’s Cultural & Humanities Committee, having led that committee since its inception. She also is a member of the Development and Membership Committees and served on the Steering Committee for the Foundation’s “Opportunity is the First Step Campaign” (2000-2005).

A graduate of Big Stone Gap High School and Randolph-Macon Women’s College, Meador has been a member of the Wise County Board of Supervisors for 25 years, being vice chair for ten years. She is a former teacher, executive secretary, and business woman, and has served on numerous boards and been involved in many civic and community organizations. In 2007, she received the Virginia Community College Chancellor’s Award for Leadership in Philanthropy.

She is a charter member, past chair, and currently the Parliamentarian of the Auxiliary to Lonesome Pine Hospital. She has been a member of the Auxiliary for 35 years and was chosen Auxiliarian of the Year in 2001.

She is Chair of the Lonesome Pine Office on Youth, Secretary of the Cove Ridge Center of Natural Tunnel State Park, a member of the Frontier Health Board and Friends of Southwest Virginia Museum, and a volunteer at the Big Stone Gap Food Bank. She also serves on the Phillips-Taylor Memorial Committee.

Meador is a past chair of the Lenowisco Planning District, the Planning District I Behavioral Health Board, and Citizens to Save Big Cherry. She is a past member of the Clinch Valley College Advisory Board, the Virginia State Library Board, and the Building Committees for the C. Bascom Slemp Memorial Library and the Powell Valley Middle School.

She is an elder in the Big Stone Gap Presbyterian Church and has been the organist for more than 50 years. She is a member of Alpha Delta Pi Social Sorority, Tau Kappa Alpha Forensic Fraternity and the American Association of University Women. She has two children, Harry W. Meador, III and Nancy M. Collins, and five grandchildren.

Tickets to the Hall of Honor Gala at MECC are $75 each, $50 of which is tax deductible. Proceeds will benefit the Harry W. Meador, Jr. Scholarship. A reception will begin at 6 p.m. and a full-course buffet dinner will follow at 6:45 p.m.

To order tickets, call Jeri Bledsoe in the MECC Foundation Office at (276) 523-2400, extension 287. Gifts to the Harry W. Meador, Jr. Scholarship fund are also welcome and may be mailed to the MECC Foundation, 3441 Mountain Empire Road, Big Stone Gap, Virginia 24219.

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