April 2022 | Volume 13 | Issue 1
TRUITT
INSURANCE & BONDING HOME & AUTO • BUSINESS • LIFE •SURETY VILLAGELIVINGONLINE.COM
MOUNTAIN BROOK’S COMMUNITY NEWS SOURCE
(205) 254-3005 | truittinsurance.com
CARING FOR OUR ‘GREEN EARTH’ April is Earth Month, and there’s lots of eco-activity in Mountain Brook By JESSE CHAMBERS
A
pril is Earth Month, a time to celebrate nature and ponder the effects that human beings have on it. April 22 is Earth Day, celebrated annually since 1970, when the environmental movement came of age. As we mark these events in 2022, the stakes couldn’t be higher. According to most scientists who study it, climate change — environmental disruptions caused by carbon emissions into the earth’s atmosphere — is a huge, growing problem that affects the whole world, including Mountain Brook and Alabama. It can be depressing to read the news reports about the environment. It’s also disempowering to feel you can’t do much to help.
Bella Donner, center, a senior at Mountain Brook High School, puts a flowering dogwood seedling in a bag as Saylors Pursell, left, a junior, and Margaret Nichols, a senior, work together to prepare seedlings to give to first graders at the elementary schools in Mountain Brook through Leadership Mountain Brook at Leaf and Petal in Mountain Brook Village on Feb. 27. Photo by Erin Nelson.
But people don’t have to feel powerless. In Mountain Brook, many officials, teachers, students and residents have taken action to help the environment. We celebrate some of their stories for Earth Month.
INSPIRING THE CHILDREN
Each year, a group of highly motivated students from Mountain Brook High School takes part in the Leadership Mountain Brook program and completes special projects to make Mountain Brook a better place. For 2022, those projects included an Arbor Week celebration. The Mountain Brook Board of Landscape and Design donates tree seedlings to the community each year, including to every first grader in
See EARTH | page A28
Beloved Mountain Brook resident remembered
Donna Greene died Jan. 31 at the age of 74. The thousands of women whose lives Donna impacted immediately took to Facebook to share photos and memories with Greene. Photo courtesy of Sharon Head.
Donna Greene leaves legacy of leading girls Bible studies for 4 decades By INGRID SCHNADER One February day in 1982, Joy Cooper was standing in her kitchen with Mountain Brook resident Donna Greene waiting for school to let out. Greene would be leading a new Bible study for sixth grade girls at Cooper’s house. Suddenly, all the girls started arriving at once. From her kitchen window, Cooper could see what looked like a mob of 11-year-olds marching up the
INSIDE
Sponsors............... A4 News....................... A6
driveway with their mothers. “I looked at Donna and said, ‘Oh my goodness. God answered our prayers,’” Cooper said. This was the beginning of a longstanding Mountain Brook tradition. Every year for the past 40 years, Greene spoke to more and more girls about Jesus from Cooper’s downstairs playroom, expanding her Bible studies to more ages of girls in middle school and high school. There weren’t nearly
Chamber............... A9 Business...............A10
Community.......... A12 Schoolhouse.......A20
enough chairs to sit all of the attentive listeners, but the girls were happy to crowd in and sit on the floor, Cooper said. Donna Greene died Jan. 31 at the age of 74. The thousands of women whose lives Donna impacted immediately took to Facebook to share photos and memories with Greene. Even if you didn’t attend Greene’s
Faith..................... A22 Sports.................... B4
See GREENE | page A30 Spring Home & Garden........... B8 facebook.com/villageliving
Cooking with Love
All-South Metro
Annie McDonald — or Miss Annie, as she’s known to thousands of area students — is living out her passions.
Four Spartans — Ty Davis, Kyle Layton, Emma Stearns and Mary Jane Lassiter — named to 2022 All-South Metro teams.
See page B1
See page B6