Overture Tributary | 55+ Active Adult Living Offering Countless Activity Programs at Overture Tributary

Overture Tributary’s celebrated reputation in Birmingham is owed to more than just its first-rate, premium apartment and cottage style homes.

The active adult community’s lifestyle innovation and wellbeing emphasis are perhaps its most significant differentiators. They encompass detailed measures to keep every resident feeling energetic, engaged, fulfilled, and connected with their neighbors. It’s a community whose idea of creating a satisfactory experience does not end with the home finishes and technological conveniences (though those are essential, as well), but continues to include individual wellness in a wide sense of the concept.

Through detailed planning and professional oversight, led by a full-time Lifestyle Coordinator, residents can depend on routine exercise classes and activities to maintain or further develop their fitness/ health. The community’s extraordinary fitness center is comprehensively outfitted for both individual training and enjoyable group sessions in the adjoining yoga studio. Organized gatherings might also include chess and billiards contests to keep the strategic wheels spinning.

Overture Tributary exists to help residents develop strong community ties with one another. The idea is that your family lives nearby for regular visits, while your neighbors are right next door and ready to join you on the next fitness outing, game night, language course, spa day, or evening trip to a local restaurant. Choose how to spend each day, organize new activities of your own, have the family over for a meal, and treat every day as a chance to reach every wellness goal on your terms.

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Friday, July 28th | 5:00pm - 7:00pm 3171 US-280, Birmingham, AL 35243 Join

“After my first class, I told my mom I didn’t want to dance anymore, but she had already paid for the whole year,” Gutowski said.

And as it turns out, her mom’s desire to instill some stick-toitiveness has reaped some big and unexpected rewards. For one, now Gutowski loves dance.

“It’s an escape from reality,” she said. “You can do so much with it, and I like the way it makes me feel. I just love it so much.”

Not only that — she’s exceptionally good at it, Sayle said.

She said Gutowski is “definitely a talent on the rise.”

“It’s very difficult to get into this program,” Sayle said of the Royal Ballet School. “I’ve had my studio for 27 years and never had a student I thought would even get in to do the audition, but I thought she had a good shot.”

Gutowski joined Sayle’s studio four years ago, and Sayle knew immediately she was different.

“She was blessed with a lot of natural ability as far as flexibility and what in the industry people look for as far as feet turnout and body type,” she said. “But that’s not enough; you have to back it up with your work and your training. She works incredibly hard, and it pays off.”

People who want to dance professionally train six days a week for five hours a day, at least, Sayle said.

“It’s very difficult for them to juggle school with training,” she said. “Meghan is starting virtual school next year so she can train more hours.”

In addition to training, Gutowski spends a lot of time at serious competitions where scouts are looking for the future professionals of the world, Sayle said.

Gutowski recently advanced past the regionals of the American Dance Competition International Ballet Competition and was invited to the finals in Florida. On March 22, Gutowski performed as one of the top 12 at the gala and placed 10th out of 150 girls at the finals.

“It’s a major accomplishment, a huge deal for her,” Sayle said, noting that she’s never had a student invited to perform at the final round of the gala before. “And she’s only 15.”

Sayle said one factor that makes the ADC IBC finals even more intense is that on the first day, competitors are taught a classical solo that they have to perform on stage 24 hours later.

“It shows the judges things like — are they good at picking up choreography? Are they good under pressure?” Sayle said. “They’re able to practice their other dances for months, but they only have a day for this one. All the coaches and students scramble to find studio space so the coaches can work with their students even for an hour to give them last-minute tips.”

But Gutowski “went out and did a beautiful job,” Sayle said. All that work comes with a payoff, too, she said. Ballet students win scholarships at performances such as these. Gutowski has racked up about 15 so far. At this competition, she was awarded scholarships to Next Generation Ballet in Florida, the Pittsburgh Ballet, Cary Ballet

Conservatory in North Carolina and the Colorado Ballet. Some scholarships are for this summer, some next summer and some can be used as short stays during the academic school year, Sayle said.

Last year at the Universal Ballet Competition, Gutowski won a scholarship for an intensive in Kansas City, which she participated in recently during spring break, and she has another at a ballet academy in Houston soon. This summer, in addition to her month at the Royal Ballet School, she will spend time at the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.

Gutowski said she loves the intensives.

“Every place is different, and there’s a lot of different teachers and dancers to learn from,” she said.

That all helps toward her goal of dancing professionally one day.

“I just really want to dance in Europe, any place in Europe,” Gutowski said. “It’s been a dream of mine.”

At the end of April, Gutowski had the lead role as the Queen of Hearts in Alabama Dance Academy’s spring production of “Alice in Wonderland.”

Gutowski’s mother, Rachel, said it’s moving for her to watch her daughter perform and know all the training she’s done to make that happen.

“I was thinking it was going to be a little phase, but it just grabbed her,” she said. “When she was first able to really string sentences together, she would tell me she wanted to dance. By the time she was in the third or fourth grade, I could really tell she had something extra. It’s very emotional for me watching her do something that comes so naturally for her.”

UWCA pools resources from donors to help fund the work of these agencies.

“As long as we can continue to undergird and support United Way, those nonprofit agencies will have the support they need,” said Jackson, who lives in the Liberty Park area.

That’s why in conjunction with UWCA’s 100th anniversary celebration this year, the organization has a goal of making sure its work is endowed for the next 100 years.

“We are firm believers that when we come together as a whole, the possibilities are endless,” said Drew Langloh, UWCA president and CEO. “Our 100-year impact on the central Alabama community proves this, and we look forward to continuing to pave the way for real, tangible change for the next 100 years.”

Those future plans start with a celebration of where they’ve been and where they’re headed. On June 24, UWCA supporters, partners and neighbors are invited to CityWalk in Birmingham from 3 to 8 p.m. to enjoy live music, food, performers, games, a partner agency fair and more.

In the coming months, UWCA will also unveil six community park projects, one in each county served by the organization.

Jackson said she’s especially excited about that aspect of the 100th anniversary. As part of her long involvement with UWCA — which has included being a part of its Young Leaders Society, DIVAS, Women United, J. Mason Davis Leadership Society and the Tocqueville Society — she is now serving on the centennial celebration committee and the centennial parks subcommittee.

“We want to identify an existing park that can be renovated or expanded or find a property where a park can be built,” she said.

Part of the project involves fundraising to construct and maintain the parks as well as to find volunteers needed along the way.

“I’m excited about the impact that the parks will have on bringing the community together, as well as offering opportunities for outdoor classrooms, providing a chance for children to learn in an outdoor space that is in the heart of their community,” Jackson said. “We’re trying to make the parks accessible to the whole community and bring diverse individuals together to enjoy the space. That helps communities thrive.”

Jackson said bringing different voices to the table is one of the best parts of UWCA.

That’s how it all started 100 years ago, Langloh said — around a table. In 1923, a group of local business people got together to deal with the social problems in the rapidly growing city of Birmingham.

“When you read the minutes from back then, you begin to understand that the organization was seen as a device or a mechanism,” Langloh said. “Oftentimes, they would come together if there was a big issue brewing in the community that needed attention.”

Calling themselves Birmingham Community Chest at that time, they organized to help fight issues like tuberculosis, a disease that was heavily burdening local medical facilities.

“What I find interesting is that even though the issues today are very different, the dynamic is very similar for the organization,” Langloh said, noting that BCC has gone through several name changes over the years, including United Appeal in 1956 and UWCA in 1992. “Today, we still roll up our sleeves and sit at a common table together and talk about issues facing us today and how we are going to go about solving them. Even though we’re very different than we were in 1923, the reason for our existence is the same.”

Over the past 100 years, UWCA has met a variety of changing needs. It organized relief during the Great Depression. It led the way in race relations with the addition of its first Black board member, Dr. A.G. Gaston, in 1966 and with the establishment of a boys’ club in his name.

UWCA also leveraged nearly $21 million to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Alabama in 2006.

All of this and much more has been done with the vital support of the community, Langloh said. In 1923, Birmingham Community Chest met a fundraising goal of $500,000 to help its 31 agencies. Now with more than 200 agencies, UWCA is hoping to raise its endowment to $100 million to ensure that kind of assistance keeps going.

“The whole reason for United Way is to serve the community,” said Langloh, who has worked with UWCA for 24 years, 15 of those as CEO. “To me, it all starts with this fundamental belief that this organization is owned by the community, not owned by anyone in particular. Because of that, we’ve been successful in that each generation that comes along has picked it up and stewarded it through their time and then handed it off.”

UWCA has worked over the years to “keep fighting for the health, education and financial stability of every person in our community,” and Langloh said he is “pretty confident and hopeful that the work we’re doing now will help perpetuate that model into the future.

“The issues will be different, but what I’m really hopeful for as we’re launching this endowment campaign is to make sure it’s still there to bring the community together to work on their problems, whatever they might be,” he said.

For more information about the centennial celebration, visit uwca.org/100years.

2023

Sports B6 Get Away for a Day B8 Events B10 Opinion B14

By LOYD MCINTOSH

The Oak Mountain High School mountain biking team won its first state championship, and two riders won individual titles following the conclusion of the 2023 season in early May. The Eagles were the top squad in the state all season long, taking first place in the first four events on the 2023 schedule before coming in a close second to Hoover High School in the state championship meet at Fort McClellan in Anniston on May 6-7. Despite the second-place finish in the final meet of the season, Oak Mountain had amassed enough points throughout its meets to claim the regular season Division I title.

“It was a very successful year for us,” said John Harrison, Oak Mountain head coach. “Hoover squeaked by us by a few points in the final race, but it wasn’t enough for them to take the championship away from us.”

Additionally, Oak Mountain senior Sam Calvert earned the 2023 varsity boys championship, and James McCallister captured the eighth grade boys title. Calvert’s points championship is especially impressive considering he was recovering from a crash in the fourth race of the season at Noccalula Falls.

“Sam is the fastest mountain biker in the state, but he didn’t get to race as hard in the last race because the week before he had a really bad crash and got a concussion,” Harrison said. “He had enough points to stay in the lead and win the state championship.”

Calvert, who has been on the Eagles’ mountain biking team since the sixth grade, has developed into one of the top mountain bikers in the Southeast and signed a scholarship to continue racing at the University of Montevallo. Harrison said Calvert has been vital to the success of the team as a competitor and as mentor to the team’s future leaders.

“Sam is one of my team co-captains, and he is definitely a leader on the team,” Harrison said. “He sets a great example for everybody else, and he's been really good about helping the younger riders on the team.”

Since its inception, the OMHS mountain biking program has grown from two athletes to 49, including 10 girls, an important metric since a portion of a team’s point total must come from girls’ competitions during the season.

“We had 10 girls on the team this season, which is more than double the amount that we’ve ever had before, which really helped us a lot with scoring,” Harrison said.

Several additional members of the Oak Mountain Eagles finished strong in 2023, including Ben Walker (eighth place, varsity boys), Alana Smith (fifth place, JV2 girls), C.J. Taylor (fifth place, JV2 boys), Sarah McCallister (second place, JV1 girls), Wilson Davis (seventh place, JV1 boys), Anysa French (eighth place, freshman girls) and Nina Evans (second place, freshmen girls).

The success is the culmination of close to a decade of work to not only establish the Eagles mountain biking program, but to make mountain biking a viable sport for high schoolers and middle schoolers throughout Alabama. Harrison launched the team with just two athletes nine years ago, when his sons expressed interest in competing in the newly formed Alabama chapter of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association.

After eight years under the auspices of NICA, Harrison helped spearhead the formation of the Alabama Cycling Association. Officially launched in 2023, ACA brought more than 30 teams for the inaugural season.

Mountain biking is a club sport unsanctioned by the Alabama High School Athletic

Association, meaning that mountain biking teams don’t receive funding from school athletic departments. Harrison said the team has a great relationship with Oak Mountain High School, including support from principal Andrew Gunn, who has allowed the team to use the school for recruiting, meetings and other team-related events.

The Oak Mountain team has raised its own funding over the years and relies on volunteer coaching. Harrison, for instance, is an engineer at Schoel Engineering, and all of the 14 assistants helping run the team are parents, including Tara McCalister, who has two children on the team. In fact, it was McCallister who ran the team during the last competition in Anniston, while Harrison was away for his son’s wedding in Montana.

“The state championship was the first time in nine years that I’ve ever had to miss a race,” Harrison said. “She [Tara] took over for the state championship and managed the team perfectly and brought home state championships. I'm so proud of her.”

Now with a state championship and the sport continuing to grow, Harrison said he has no intention of changing his coaching philosophy, which has always been focused on encouraging young people to get a bike and do their best, whatever their best may be.

“What I always tell them at the sign-up meetings is, ‘Every time you show up for practice, I expect 100%, and every time you race, I expect 100%,’” Harrison said. “‘I don’t care what your 100% is. If your 100% isn’t as fast as somebody else, that doesn’t matter to me.’”

“That philosophy has been very successful for us,” he added, “and kept the riders coming back and bringing their friends with them, which has kept us growing.”

No one ever questions the bi-annual dental checkups, the yearly’s, the mam smash, the male probes, the 24-hour clean outs. These procedures are considered as “the normal” preventative protocol. However, no one considers having their spine evaluated to prevent problems from developing, why is that? When do you think adding noninvasive spinal checkups to the list make sense?

Consider this point. Spinal evaluations ARE extremely important because it houses the spinal cord and nervous system. Your entire human body inside and out depends on a healthy spinal column. If, over time, the spinal column becomes out of balance, wear and tear will occur which can lead to pain, inflexibility, lack of proper function of body systems, reduced optimal living, osteoarthritis, and potentially more! A spinal structure out of balance negatively affects how you live your life. Wouldn’t prevention of spinal deterioration and the associated health problems make sense?

Indeed, chiropractors are most known for pain relief by using our hands and providing chiropractic adjustments. Often relief from pain in the back, neck, shoulders, knees, and other parts of the body will occur. It’s done so by gradually realigning the spine, restoring proper motion of the restricted areas and ultimately, reducing pressure on the nerves. Even if there is chronic pain, consider chiropractic care because it can help improve the situation.

Yet, why wait for pain? Be proactive with evaluations and care prior to any spinal problems occurring. By doing so, the benefits are life changing. Here are some points to consider.

1-Chiropractic adjustments improve joint mobility and increases flexibility thus making it easier to perform daily activities and exercise.

2-Chiropractic care helps correct postural imbalances, leading to better overall health and improved posture because poor posture can lead to a host of health problems, including back pain and reduced lung capacity.

3-Chiro care can improve athletic performance and prevent injuries by improving joint mobility and reducing muscle tension hence why chiropractic care can help athletes perform at their best.

4-Most importantly, Chiro care is a holistic approach to healthcare that focuses on the body’s natural ability to heal itself. With regular chiropractic adjustment anywhere from weekly to monthly, one can improve their overall wellness and help prevent future health problems.

For individuals in their 50’s through 70’s, chiro care offers the much-needed improved flexibility and pain relief. It’s called protecting the health that you have and improving the functional abilities of what you have lost. Additionally, for this age group, chiro care improve balance and coordination, helps reduce the risk of falls and other accidents. Also, it helps improve your immune system function by reducing stress on the nervous system and enhancing the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Naturally, this can lead to improved overall health and an improved quality of life. Regular chiro