HOLIDAY
HOLIDAY
The tradition continues
Safe turkey tricks
Local and national artists will perform at Macy’s Great Tree Lighting at Lenox Square on Nov. 20. 5
Thermometer use and placement are among the keys while preparing your turkey so that it’s free of bacteria at serving time. 8
Put Litter in Its Place Let’s Do Our Part to Keep DeKalb Beautiful
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER
Copyright © 2016 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
November 19, 2016
Volume 22, Number 30
www.crossroadsnews.com
Volunteers can help families have Thanksgiving meals By Donna Williams Lewis
“He said, ‘I can see some tables in the parking lot and people coming with pumpkin pies and just with food,’ ” Grace said. Grace, who has served meals to the homeless for years, loved the image and decided to try to make it happen. She said the man gave her 26 cents – twothirds of the money he had at the time – to jump-start her fundraising. “It felt like $26 million,” she said. “It was the birthday gift of all birthday gifts.” Grace is using social media to drum up support for the event, which she plans to hold on Nov. 24 in the parking lot near Karma Bistro at 1179 S. Hairston Road in Stone Mountain. “It’s a day for people to sit down and re-
Volunteers sort items for food baskets for Lift Up Atlanta on Nov. 12 at Hillcrest Church of Christ on Snapfinger Road in Decatur. The nonprofit helps homeless and lowincome families.
A homeless man’s vision of a parking lot filled with people sharing food on Thanksgiving Day has morphed into a grassroots effort to make his vision a reality. On birthday on Nov. 2, Minister Bella Grace encountered Antoine and his wife in the strip shopping center parking lot at the corner of Redan Road and Hairston Road. Grace said the conversation soon turned to Bella Grace Thanksgiving Day. The man looked at the area around them and imagined its transformation on Thanksgiving Day. Please see VOLUNTEERS, page 2
Sharif Williams / CrossRoadsNews
Stone Mountain family thankful for first home Mother of two got help with down payment
LaKesha Head holds the doormat she received from officials with the nonprofit ANDP and Bank of America, which provided down payment assistance.
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Thanksgiving at LaKesha Head’s home is a big, noisy affair. Everybody is there – her daughters Taylor and Kortney, her mom, dad, grandmother, five aunts and uncles, sisters, nieces and nephews, cousins. The whole lot. Last year, there were 30 people. This year, the house will be teeming with family and friends again – and it will be full of extra thanksgiving. “The only difference this year, it’s going to be my own house,” said Head with a laugh. Thanksgiving, which falls on Nov. 24, will be exactly a month after Head closed on her first house in Stone Mountain on Oct. 24. Like most Americans, she had dreamed for years of owning a home, but credit issues and coming up with the down payment were always an obstacle. She said she improved her credit score, and when she got a new position and a raise two years ago, she began thinking homeownership might be possible.
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
A year ago she began working with real estate agent Redessa Brown, who attends church with her at Holy Band of Inspiration Deliverance Temple on Glenwood Road. “It was time,” Head said. “I was ready.” It took her five months to find the twostory four-bedroom/three- bathroom house on Ruby Run in Stone Mountain. “This was the only one I liked,” she said. “Once I saw it, I stopped looking.” Ironically, it has the same floor plan as the house she was renting in Ellenwood for $1,110 a month. “I knew it would be perfect for my family,” she said. The house was listed for $129,900 and Head needed $3,500 for the down payment. “I didn’t have it. I was $1,000 off.” Two months ago she found out that she didn’t have to come up with the 3.9 percent down payment. “I felt ecstatic,” she said. “I screamed. I started crying.” The down payment help – funded by a $1 million Bank of America grant to ANDP – came in the form of a $30,000 interest-free second mortgage. It reduced her monthly mortgage payment to $731.17. “I called Taylor with the news. We were Please see HOME, page 4