Lee Magazine February 2010 - March 2010

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editor’s note F

orgive my geeky soul, but I am psyched to see Auburn University break ground for its new MRI Research Center. I’m sure you know that I also write BRAIN for this magazine, a column in which I frequently talk about what scientists have learned by using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

This is the technology that lets researchers look at our thoughts — or the closest approximation of them — to see creativity, fear, and even warm, fuzzy love dance across our neurons.

When I was a child my parents took us to the Health Museum in Cleveland to see the Invisible Man and the Invisible Woman — or was it the Visible Man and Visible Woman? Anyway, the wonder of these two plastic creations was you could see through the skin to the organs and vessels beneath. I was less than dazzled. When I took the back off an old watch, I could see the gears and spring move and begin to understand how they drove the hands of the watch. When I pried apart a music box, I could see how the little metal cylinder turned to pluck the metal rods and create a song. But while little lights inside the visible beings showed blood moving through plastic vessels, the slight animation didn’t seem to explain very much. My old alarm clock seemed more alive.

But now AU has the magnetic power to truly make the invisible visible. Thomas Denney, the director of the AU MRI research center and a professor in electrical and computer engineering, said a typical MRI magnet is about the same strength as the magnets junk yards use to lift scrap cars into the crusher.

The magnet patients will slide into at AU is twice as powerful. Plus, the university will have a second experimental magnet almost five times more powerful than the kind you usually find in hospitals. It is one of only twenty-eight in the world. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has not approved it for use in day-to-day medical practice, but it can be used in research. Comparing the images it makes to those made by the MRI magnets you see in most facilities is something like comparing the picture on your high-definition television to the one flickering on the 1950s Philco your grandma watched.

AU researchers are going to use this power to help understand traumatic brain injuries plaguing some of our young men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. They’ll also peer into brains of soldiers dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They’ll see the organic, biological beginnings of things we used to dismiss as “all in your head.” As they understand these disorders, they’ll be that much closer to finding new treatments. he brain isn’t the only organ where secrets will be revealed. Already, Denney works with researchers at the University of Alabama to see how the shape of the heart changes when a valve leaks. Ultimately what they learn will help surgeons decide who needs surgery and who would benefit from other therapy. Now this work will grow at Auburn.

Eventually, this magnetic pull could draw new business to Lee County as well. One of the main arms of research at the new center will involve improving the function of the super powerful magnet. That puts the university at the leading edge of a technological tool that will only grow in importance. That’s a nice place to be.

The facility should be open by September. I hope to write many future brain columns based on what’s uncovered there.

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Jenni Laidman

The Place to Find

Your Healthy Balance

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For the smart, savvy Alabama woman

Publisher: Beth Snipes Editor: Jenni Laidman Sales manager: Meg Callahan Sales reps: Betsy McLure Blake Copy Editor: Joey Harrison Web Designer: Brock Burgess Distribution: John Snipes

Contributors

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Food: Smarts: Fashion: Fitness: Garden: Momitude:

Heida Olin Debbie Smelley Taylor Dungjen Lisa Gallagher Connie Cottingham Kelly Frick

CONTACT US AT editor@lee-magazine.com 334-332-2961

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Published by Pickwick Papers Publishing, LLC. Copyright ©2008 Lee Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction and redistribution prohibited without approval. For more information, contact editor@leemagazine.com.

contents February/ March 2010 6

Food

The Ultimate Comfort Meal

8 Momitude

Fight! Fight! Fight!

9

Brawn

Trick Yourself Healthy

10 Garden

Spurge, Glorious Spurge!

18

10

12 Fashion

Style at Your Fingertips

14 Smarts

Helping Daughters Hold Their Own

12

16 Brain

Saving a Precious Asset

18 Cover Story

One woman’s quest to make a dream come true in downtown Opelika

14

8

6

26 Charlie’s Lunch Box Lunch for the world’s children

27 Calendar

Lots of Doings in Lee County

COVER PHOTO BY BETH SNIPES

STOCK

No matter the type of bones you use for your stock, four vegetables are always added. The most difficult part for a lot of folks is tossing out everything but the liquid. Trust me, there is no flavor left in any meat or vegetables after they have simmered all day in water. But the stock is heavenly.

VEGETABLES 3 large carrots — scrubbed, top trimmed of any dirt, broken into thirds 2 large onions — leave the skins but trim the root end, quarter 3 outer stalks celery — scrub well, break into thirds 1 bulb garlic — leave the skins, trim the core end, crush in hand to open the cloves

IStockPhoto

BEAUTIFUL SOUP

Stocking up on the meal feel-good factor

SEASONING Handful (about 20) whole peppercorns 2 whole bay leaves 6 sprigs fresh thyme 8 dry juniper berries (for chicken and turkey only) 4 whole cloves (beef only)

CHICKEN STOCK

15 Chicken legs Place the chicken legs, vegetables, and seasoning in a large stockpot or big Dutch oven. Cover with cold water. Do not boil this stock; bring it to a simmer where only tiny bubbles break the surface, and keep it there. Do not cover completely, but allow some space for the stock to vent. Let this simmer all day.

By Heida Olin Strain and throw away all the meat, bones, and vegetables. Refrigerate in several containers so it will cool down quickly, and Soup is the ultimate comfort food. I could eat a bowl every day skim the fat when it has hardened. Transfer to containers to for the rest of my life and not get tired of it. There are so many freeze. Should make at least 3 quarts. different kinds — vegetable with or with out meat, broth based, creamy, chunky, full of noodles or rice or barley — I could prob- TURKEY STOCK ably make a different soup every day for 365 and still have recipes 1 turkey carcass (saved after a wonderful turkey dinner) or 2 to burn. turkey legs My oma made the best chicken noodle soup in the world. She Follow the same procedure as the chicken stock. I did make always had stock on hand, so in our house, chicken noodle soup this stock with turkey legs in my 6-quart crock pot overnight so I was not a daylong process, and it certainly never came from a can. would have plenty of stock for dressing and gravy at ThanksgivMy Irish grandma had a thing for thick beefy soups with chunks of ing. It worked wonderfully! This stock makes wonderful gumbo. potato, carrots, and mushrooms. Her secret to a rich soup was to sauté the onions and garlic in bacon grease before adding the rest BEEF STOCK of the ingredients. I discovered that a little bacon grease goes a long 3 or 4 beef shank bones way. To get the flavor of grandma’s soup without the artery clogPlace bones, and vegetables in a large shallow pan with sides, ging overkill, I use just a smidge of bacon grease in olive oil. such as the base of a broiler pan or a jelly roll pan. Roast the bones There is also nothing wrong with using a good canned stock, and vegetables in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour to 1½ hours or and I keep a couple of favorite brands on the shelf. But stock is so until bones are golden. Place all the bones, vegetables, and anyeasy and satisfying to make I’m rarely without a few quart contain- thing you can scrape off the pan into a stockpot or large Dutch ers in my freezer. oven. Add seasonings and cover with cold water. Bring the water I never get complaints when I serve soup to my family or friends. to a boil then settle it to a simmer and let cook all day. Again, In fact my niece likes to be invited over when I make what the fam- just throw away the ingredients unless you have a dog who would ily calls refrigerator soup — a conglomeration of whatever I have like to gnaw on the shank bones. Cool and freeze the same as the in the fridge. chicken stock.

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OMA’S CHICKEN NOODLE Oma didn’t have Chef Emeril Lagasse’s Essence but she used the paprika, thyme and pepper so it fits wonderfully in her recipe. My homemade noodles are dried in flour so when I add the homemade noodles I omit the slurry of flour and milk that you use with package noodles.

2 quarts chicken stock 2 carrots cleaned, scraped and grated 1 chopped onion 1 celery heart (The very center of the cel ery, leaves and all — generally about 3 light colored stalks about 2 to 3 inches long, and a core.)

Chicken from 4 roasted breasts (roasted with Emeril’s Chicken Rub), chopped Emeril’s Essence Dry parsley ¼ cup flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup milk Homemade noodles or 1 pound dry egg noodles Salt and pepper to taste

1 10-ounce package frozen peas 1 red pepper, diced 2 quarts beef stock Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven on high and dredge the meat chunks in flour. Add the meat and onions to the hot oil and brown the meat. Add the potatoes, carrots, and pepper. Add the juices from the meat packages and the beef stock. Bring to a boil then simmer until the vegetables are tender. Add the frozen peas and heat through.

CHEESY BROCCOLI SOUP This is a Saturday night “let’s watch a chick flick and eat soup from a cup” recipe. ½ medium onion, chopped ½ stick butter 2 tablespoons olive oil ¼ cup flour 2 cups whole milk (you can also add a couple tablespoons of cream to make it rich) 2 cups chicken stock ½ pound fresh broccoli, chopped

2 carrots, diced fine 1-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon hot sauce ½ pound (8 ounces) grated sharp cheddar cheese Salt and pepper to taste ¼ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

Melt the butter in the olive oil in a small Dutch oven. Add flour and whisk until a light golden. Slowly stir in the milk. Add the stock and bring to a simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the vegetables and cook until they are tender. Remove about 1 cup of vegetables and set aside. Pour the hot soup carefully, in batches, into the blender and puree. Return the pureed soup to the pot and add the reserved vegetables, mustard, hot sauce, and cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and all is well combined.

Add the nutmeg and serve. -lm

Heida Olin is a local caterer and educator. You can reach her at heida@ lee-magazine.com.. Please visit her blog at www.lee-magazine.com

Sauté vegetables in small amount of olive oil sprinkle with seasoning Add stock, chicken, and parsley. Bring to a boil and add noodles, lower heat, simmering until noodles are tender. Whisk together flour, salt, and milk and add it to the soup. Stirring, bring soup back to a simmer.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with hearty bread for a perfect comfort meal.

GRANDMA’S IRISH BEEF SOUP I’ve used the frozen soup vegetables in this in a pinch, and the Pacific brand of beef broth tastes almost like mine. This isn’t quite stew, but the juices are wonderful sopped with a biscuit. Buying a shrink-wrapped marinated beef shoulder saves time.

1 pound beef shoulder filet, peppercornstyle marinated cut into bite size chunks.

Save any juice from the marinated beef for the pot 3 tablespoons olive oil (or 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon bacon grease) Flour for dredging the meat 1 onion, chopped 2 potatoes, peeled and diced 2 carrots, peeled and diced

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www.christinesgourmet.com LEE MAGAZINE 7

M O M I T U D E

IStockPhoto

BATTLE FATIGUE

Man your stations, it’s going to be a heck of a war

By Kelly Frick I’m going to say something that mothers should never say.

I don’t like my children right now.

There I said it.

I love them. Love them more than I ever thought possible to love another human being.

But for the past month, I can’t stand to be around them.

The minute I walk in the door after work, one of them stomps up to me screaming about some egregious act the other has committed. Then Child Two appears shouting, “Did not!” Then they both scream until I’m forced to scream “STOP IT!” Then I’m upset that I yelled. And they go right on fighting.

There hasn’t been a bedtime in three weeks that hasn’t ended in a toothpaste fight and someone crying. Usually me.

The three most commonly heard phrases in our household: 1. It’s not fair!

2. You always take his/her side!

3. You’re ruining my life!

How did this happen? It seems like yesterday Emma was three, holding her newborn brother John so tenderly in her arms. She sang to him and cooed over him. As time went on, he crawled behind

8 LEE MAGAZINE

her, looking up with admiration at his big sister. When she learned to read, she’d sit him next to her and read Dr. Seuss. He’d pretend to read with her.

Now Emma is ten; John is seven. She calls him a baby; he calls her a meanie (or worse). Then he rushes toward her, fist drawn. She screams and runs through the house. The dog howls, the cat hides.

My husband and I sit the children down, talk about how they need to be kinder to each other. How sometimes you have to ignore an annoyance, or not taunt your sibling into a fight. That the only person in the world who will ever understand who you truly are is the person you are mad at right now.

On cue, one of them sticks a tongue out at the other and the whole fist-scream-run episode ensues again.

My husband orders everyone to bed.

“It’s all your fault,” Emma says to John.

“Is not!”

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not always like this — just more than I’m comfortable with.

“Can’t we just all get along?” I asked my husband.

“It will pass,” he assured me. “After all, didn’t you fight with your brothers when

you were little?”

Good point. (I’d still like to whip them for that time they locked me in my room, knocked over Mom’s favorite plant, and blamed me. Idiots.)

Still, mothers shouldn’t feel this way.

We are supposed to think our children are angels. We are supposed to want to spend every waking moment with them. We are supposed to turn bad behavior into teaching lessons. We are not to watch the clock until 8 p.m. on a school night, waiting for a moment’s peace.

I called my mother last night to confess my parenting ills.

“Mom, was there ever a time when you didn’t like us kids very much?” I said.

“Yes,” she responded. “I call it the seventies.”

“No, seriously.”

“Seriously.”

(Clearly she still remembers the lockedin daughter and tipped over plant.)

So maybe my husband is right. Maybe this sibling fighting will depart as quickly as it arrived.

Otherwise it’s going to be a long decade. -lm Kelly Frick is a writer and mother of two.

B R A W N

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Long lasting behavior change starts with a positive mindset.

The next step is thinking about it. Identify what you want to do, and why, and why else, and really, why? If you’re ready to change a behavior, you should be confident that you can do it. On a scale of one to ten, if you are a four, it’s time for more research and soul searching. If you are an eight, identify your obstacles and strategize.

If you’ve thought about it, and you’re ready to take on a new challenge, don’t go it alone. If you find it easy to break the agreement you made with yourself to get to Zumba class, accountability is your best strategy. Tell a friend to meet you there, or tell the instructor you’re planning to come. Talk about your efforts with others, and you will be more likely to follow through. Invite them to come with you. Talking about your plans is a solid step in your change process.

I wish you the best of luck becoming your best self. And remember, as a last resort, try sleeping in your workout clothes. If that doesn’t work, sleep in your workout clothes in the car. If that still doesn’t work, sleep in your workout clothes in the gym parking lot.

You know yourself, or if you don’t, you can. Talk with friends, a trainer, or a wellness coach. If you want to reach or exceed your goals then think, find support, strategize, and succeed! -lm

Surprise! You’re fit!

Lisa Gallagher, director of the Fitness Center at the Opelika Sportsplex, is a wellness coach, personal trainer, and group fitness instructor. You can contact her at lisa@lee-magazine.com.

Exercise some healthy self-deception Auburn’s full service spa

By Lisa Gallagher

Judy, a dental hygienist and mother of two, told her daughters Erin and Kaitlin to put their clothes at the bottom of their beds, fireman-style: shoes, socks, pants, S undies, and shirts, all in a line.

If this didn’t get her fifth and H seventh grader out of bed and out the door on time, the next stepOwas to sleep in their clothes. If that didn’t work, the girls would sleep P in their clothes in the car. If that still didn’t work, Judy would have them sleep in their clothes in the car in front of the school. This idea so horrified the girls that there was no problem getting out of the house thereafter.

Apply this type of trickery to your fitness program. Craig, a software company CEO, puts on gym clothes in the morning and brings his suits on a hanger. This way he has to work out before his first meeting. Patty, a registered nurse, doesn’t make coffee at home on weekdays, and instead has a cup at the gym. This gets her out of the house on time. I’ve even heard of workout buddies swapping gym bags. If one decides to skip a workout, they are effectively deciding for both. Now that’s accountability.

Tricking yourself fit involves identifying the obstacles to your workouts and finding a solution. Maybe you would workout on your Gazelle Edge Glider if it was in front of the TV, or you would jog if that were the only time you listened to your iPod. What inspires you to go, and what makes you stop?

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www.spaauburn.com LEE MAGAZINE 9

G A R D E N

Photos by Connie Cottingham EUPHORBIA “DESPINA”

Eclectic, Extraordinary Euphorbia

DEER PROOF, DROUGHT RESISTANT: WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?

By Connie Cottingham

SPURGE!

It sounds like a curse, but this group of plants is a blessing for gardeners. It’s also a blessing for those who garden with limited water or an abundance of deer. Plants in the genus Euphorbia add color and unusual form to gardens and containers.

Euphorbia is one of the largest plant groups, with more than 2,000 species, including the most popular florist plant. And it’s a new darling in the annual market. It also includes the largest number of succulent species — about half of the species in this genus are succulents. This is a fascinating group of plants, whether in the landscape or on a windowsill, and can quickly turn a gardener into a collector.

The most popular euphorbia of all is Euphorbia pulcherrima, the poinsettia. You’re also probably familiar with the houseplant, Crown of Thorns, another euphorbia. Poinsettias are the largest flower crop for U.S. growers with more than 65 million sold each year. What many of us see as an indoor holiday plant is, in its native Mexico, a roadside shrub. It can be grown outside in the warmest areas of the United States. Since we all are familiar with poinsettias, let’s use it to explore the characteristics that distinguish this genus. The red “petals” many think of as the flower parts are actually modified leaves called bracts. The “flower” is actually the small cluster of yellow, green, and sometimes red buds at the center of the bracts.

The selection of garden euphorbia is growing, and there are a range of unique blooms and colorful foliage on plants that are

10 LEE MAGAZINE

both low-maintenance, and drought- and deer-resistant. Some have cactus spines, others practically no leaves (Sticks on Fire).

Some have brightly colored leaves, such as the rounded burgundy leaves on the tropical Caribbean Copper Plant (Euphorbia cotinifolia), which looks similar to a smoketree and create a bold statement as a summer annual in a container planting by the pool.

The evergreen perennial euphorbia — especially those that take on a burgundy cast in fall — highlight cool season container plantings.

Several euphorbias are host plants for moths and butterflies.

Euphorbias usually prefer good drainage and some sun. These plants seem to be relatively short-lived perennials (still well worth planting), sometimes reseeding to create a mass planting.

Euphorbias thrive and multiply without any supplemental water under pine shade near my driveway.

As tropicals become more popular in gardens, tropical euphorbias are moving into gardens as container plants and annuals.

One recent annual on the market is euphorbia Diamond Frost, which spreads into a low, three- foot-wide mound that blooms all summer. This tough plant handles Southeastern heat and humidity with ease. It looks similar to florist’s baby’s breath with its billowing mass of tiny white blooms. It thrives in containers and works well as a filler between maturing shrubs.

The milky sap of many euphorbias irritates skin and stings eyes. It’s also what makes euphorbia practically deer-proof. The

g,

sap was employed by the Greek surgeon Euphorbus in his potions centuries ago, hence the name. The common name of spurge comes from “espurge,” meaning “to purge,” referring to its medicinal use as a purgative. I’d recommend chamomile tea for a tummy ache instead of messing with any wicked euphorbia sap. -lm

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GARDEN FAVORITES Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae forms a rich evergreen groundcover that can handle dry shade. It has received a Royal Horticulture Society Award of Garden Merit in its native England, where it 334-749-9552 grows in woodlands.

Euphorbia hybrid Blackbird (“Nothowlee”) outperformed six other euphorbias at the University of Georgia Trial Gardens in 2006. Evergreen foliage in shades of reds and purples are topped with chartreuse blooms in early summer, creating quite a show in a plant only a foot high and wide.

Euphorbia “Despina” holds its bluegreen foliage all winter. It has proven itself in Texas A&M plant trials, yet is cold hardy to Zone 4.

Euphorbia “Efanthia” has evergreen foliage that takes on a burgundy cast in cooler weather with fun blooms spring into summer.

Euphorbia x martinii “Rudolph” has red growth on the tips of each branch in winter, just like Rudolph’s red nose. This plant grows three feet tall and wide.

Connie Cottingham is licensed in three Southern states as landscape architect. You can reach her at connie@lee-magazine.com.

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F A S H I O N

IStockPhoto

MULTICOLOR MADNESS

Stylish accents at your fingertips

By Taylor Dungjen

F

ashion insider Laurie Schechter once said shoes are the exclamation point at the end of the fashion statement. But some funkier punctuation on that statement can freshen your look without the expense or pain of balancing on six-inch heels: Fingernail polish.

Having your nails painted is an easy way to bring out an accent color in a shirt, necklace, or jacket. It’s a great way to bring spunk to a monotone ensemble. If you’re up for the effort, your nail polish accessory can change every day, always ahead of the season’s “it” colors.

As the weather warms, it’s always refreshing to shed darker colors from fall and winter and slip into something springy. This year, consider passing up the traditional

12 LEE MAGAZINE

pastel hues — think anything that reminds you of Easter egg coloring. Or, if you are dead set on pastels, do something a little different and try a polish with a matte finish. Using a flat color is an on-point trend that will carry over from winter with ease.

But if you’re ready to go bold, try gold, white, sand, and pale gray. White and pale gray might sound safe and boring, but by moving them from winter colors into warm season wear, it’s more highbrow fashion than ever. Don’t stop with muted tones.

You can’t go wrong, ever, with bright ruby red. Or try a blue metallic or purple with a high sheen.

And consider nail art or French tips with a new twist. Instead of white and natural, try a black and brown combination or perhaps red with sand or pale gray tips. The

possibilities could be endless. (Auburn University fans might even find themselves with blue nails and orange tips — at least for special occasions.)

The French tips are easy to do at home if you don’t want to pay the salon prices.

Your local drugstore has kits that will show how to apply a crescent-shaped sticker to your fingernail so lines are straight and even. A kit costs anywhere from $5 to $8, depending on the brand.

This spring, instead of a $50 necklace, splurge on a bottle of nail color. You can’t go wrong with salon favorites like OPI or Essie, but don’t be afraid to spend a little more for a color you can’t live without. If there’s a color you like but aren’t sure you want to commit, purchase a less expensive brand and try it first.

A FEW MORE NAIL TIPS:

PRECISION

& color

• Darker colors can sometimes stain your nails yellow. To avoid this, apply a base are what great hairstyles depend on coat first.

• If you’re worried about nail polish making your nails more brittle, use a nail strengthener instead of a base coat before you apply nail polish.

• Give your nails a rest from time to time.

Some time without polish is good for them.

• Avoid nail polish and nail polish removers that contain formaldehyde.

• To avoid chipped polish, put the last LET US HELP YOU swipe of color on from left to right, just under the tip of your nail; don’t polish right to the edge. That’s where most chips start.

• Use a top coat to ensure a longer-lasting additional services manicure. Short nails are less likely to chip • KERATIN COMPLEX RELAXERS • SOCAP HAIR EXTENSIONS than longer ones.

NOVALASH EYELASH EXTENSIONS • RAPID LASH• EYELASH PERMS AND TINT • To help your nails dry fast, dip them in a bowl of ice water. Don’t be a masochist, but expect it to take at least five to 10 Restore the beauty of your favorite minutes. -lm

FIND

your STYLE

Timothy’s

Taylor Dungjen is a freelance writer who often covers fashion. Write to her at taylor@lee-magazine.com.

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LEE MAGAZINE 13

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Breaking the

‘I hate myself’ trap

By Debbie Smelley

Y

ou think that if your daughter works hard and puts in quality study time, she will achieve academically, right? Holy report cards, Mom and Dad, there’s a lot more to that equation.

In the lower grades, girls are happy to compete. Ask any elementary teacher.

They’re as feisty as the boys in the classroom or on the playground. Kids at that stage are all about the same. Hormones, though, are just around the corner.

Once the kids move to middle school, new variables become critical. Girls’ academic prowess has a lot to do with selfesteem and their assessment of their own beauty. Girls mature physically and socially faster than boys. They care what others think about them, and they crave peer acceptance. For middle schoolers suddenly navigating an environment two or three times larger than their elementary school,

14 LEE MAGAZINE

finding a group to hang with is more important than finding their lockers or their next class. High school girls, especially freshmen and sophomores, want to fit in, not stick out. They want to wear the latest fashions (ouch – I just had a flashback to junior high when I begged my mother to buy me a polyester pantsuit with a widelapelled blouse) and carry the “in” designer brands. The once academically competitive may become docile in class, allowing boys to dominate. Many girls shrivel in the spotlight. I see it time after time, year after year Here are some ways you can help protect your daughter.

Booster shots: Girls can lose selfconfidence during this period, according to a now-classic 1991 study by Lyn Mikel Brown and Carol Gilligan. Getting them involved in an activity outside school,

where they can be themselves, helps build self-esteem. Church groups and youth groups are options. So are hobbies. Encourage her if she has an interest in photography, or painting, or some area all her own. On the home front, give her more responsibility. Let her have a say in family decisions. Let her know others depend on her. And then praise, praise, praise her for her contributions.

Beauty is only skin deep: If teenage girls develop their sense of beauty only from movies and magazines, their concept of it becomes very narrow. Magazines aimed at teen girls are loaded with beauty products and clothing and light on substance. You need to step in and teach your daughters that a beautiful mind is sexy. Good humor is sexy. Kindness is attractive. Being fit is more important — and more attainable — than becoming a toothpick-size model.

Can we talk?: Set aside some moth-

er-daughter or father-daughter time on a regular basis. No cell phones, no TV, no iPods. Talk to each other – about anything – while you take a walk, ride bikes, or get coffee.

Let’s get physical: A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in the Journal of American Public Health, found that “physical activity is linked to academic achievement.” The research found girls with 70 to 300 minutes of physical activity a week scored higher on tests than did girls who had less than 35 minutes a week. Girls who play sports tend to be more confident, have better concentration skills, and better classroom behavior. The bonding and camaraderie that is part of team dynamics pays dividends.

Fancy packaging: OK, it wouldn’t hurt to occasionally let your daughter indulge in some bling or make a splash in the fashion world. Just don’t let her talk you into any polyester pantsuits. -lm

Opelika Main Street presents

Spring Showcase 2010 Spotlighting the must-have items for spring At the Depot, Sunday March 28th 1-4 pm

Debbie Smelley is a teacher and mother of two.

You can reach her at debbie@lee-magazine.

www.opelikamainstreet.org

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING PROGRAM:

FEATURING OLLI /AUALL CHARTER MEMBERS Monday, March 22, at10:00 a.m.

Come at 9:00 a.m. for coffee, birthday cake and Information Fair

OLLI AT AUBURN’S  CELEBRATE   20 ANNIVERSARY    TH

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For more information: Call 334-844-5100 or visit our website at www.olliatauburn.org Auburn University is an equal opportunity institution

No reservations needed!

B R A I N

Be A Champion!

Demanding the best care for your gray matter

By Jenni Laidman

I

n the battle of the sexes , women are winning a contest they may want to lose: For the first time, more women than men are dying of stroke — some 55,000 more every year.

More than 60 percent of all stroke deaths are in women, researchers from Michigan State University reported last year. In part, it’s an accident of demographics: Stroke is most often a disease of aging — after age fifty, your stroke risk doubles every decade.

Women live longer than men on average, so more of us survive to have a stroke.

But take no comfort in this explanation.

Piles of evidence say we could reduce the number of strokes if doctors, hospitals, and women wise up.

Dr. Kerri Remmel, director of the Stroke Center at the University of Louisville, spelled it out for me recently. Remmel says research shows that when a woman has a stroke, she is less likely to receive the care she needs to save brain cells and prevent future strokes. The No. 1 treatment for stroke is an intravenous dose of the clotbusting drug tPA (it stands for tissue plasminogen activator) But tPA must be administered within three hours of symptom onset. The sooner it is delivered, the more cells it saves. But a study published in the journal Stroke by the Michigan investigators showed women are thirty percent less likely to receive tPA after stroke.

Sometimes, that’s because we get to the hospital late. A study published in the journal Neurology showed women take 46 percent longer to report to the emergency room with stroke symptoms than men. Every minute of delay kills 1.9 million brain cells. A wasted half hour is 57 million brain cells gone. Are you really feeling that flush?

Here’s more bad news. Investigators say women are also less likely to get the drugs

16 LEE MAGAZINE

that prevent future strokes, such as medications to control high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes— all important risk factors for stroke. Women are also less likely to be directed to smoking cessation counseling, or be treated for deep vein thrombosis — other stroke risks. “These are scientifically based guidelines for care and they’re administered fourteen percent less frequently for women,” Remmel says. he Michigan researchers found that a woman who goes to an emergency room with stroke symptoms waits an average twelve percent longer to see a doctor than a man does. It also takes emergency personnel sixteen percent longer to get her to a CT scanner for brain imaging. These are national averages. Some hospitals are better. Others are worse. The brain scan is essential in deciding whether a stroke patient receives tPA. Although blocked blood vessels cause most strokes, about thirteen percent are caused by a leak in a vessel. For people with this type of hemorrhagic stroke, tPA is deadly.

The No. 1 enemy here is our ignorance.

If you don’t know how to recognize a stroke, realize you’re at risk for one, and demand proper care, you’re taking a chance.

The risk factors you can’t control are age, being a woman, heredity, and a previous history of stroke, heart attack or TIA — transient ischemic attack, often called “mini-strokes.” Also, African Americans are twice as likely to suffer strokes.

But there is plenty you can do to prevent stroke. igh blood pressure increases your risk of stroke five-fold. Your blood pressure should be less than one hundred and twenty over eighty. If it’s higher, then Remmel says to talk to your doctor about medication. Exercise and diet also help.

T

H

High cholesterol. Women with levels of low-density lipoprotein — the “bad” cholesterol — of 100 or more have an almost three-fold increase in stroke risk, according to a 2007 publication in Neurology, which looked at stroke in 27,000 women.

Other studies show statin drugs prescribed to control cholesterol reduce the incidence of stroke. Exercise also helps reduce cholesterol.

Diabetes: Uncontrolled diabetes doubles stroke risk. Medication, diet, and exercise are essential interventions.

Migraine with aura: If you’ve ever had what some describe as a “ground-glass” visual effect before a migraine, or you see a migraine aura but don’t get the headache, your risk of stroke may be three to six times higher than the general population’s, Remmel says. She advises women to talk to their doctor about preventing auras and headaches. Medications that ease migraine pain, such as Imitrex, are vasodilators and may actually add to stroke risk, she says. irth control pills and hormone replacement therapy. These estrogen products increase the risk of stroke. In one study of women fifty to seventy-nine years old, those on an estrogen saw a forty-one percent increased risk of stroke, a twentynine percent increased risk of heart disease, and a twenty-seven percent increased risk of breast cancer. Women who use bioidentical hormones instead of products like Premarin have not dodged this problem.

Although “bioidenticals” have not been evaluated for risk, they work just like estrogen and doctors believe cause the same deadly trouble.

•Smoking: doubles the risk of stroke and increases risk of heart disease and a variety of cancers. What other evidence do we need to prove this is a deadly habit?

• Atrial fibrillation: This abnormal heart

B

IStockPhoto

rhythm in which the upper chamber of the heart beats irregularly is not a common disorder, but it is an important risk factor in stroke because it allows small clots to form in the left atria. Those clots can then travel to the brain.

People over forty with a-fib should be on the blood thinner warfarin, Remmel says. Yet research shows sixty-five percent of the people who are appropriate candidates for this blood thinner — sold as Coumadin as well as other brand names — are not on the drug. Another study looked at patients discharged from a hospital and found that only thirty-eight percent of the men and twenty-one percent of the women who should have been given warfarin received it. Warfarin is a difficult drug, requiring close supervision and a risk of bleeding, but Remmel says that a risk-benefit calculation shows the benefit of stroke prevention far, far outweighs the risk of bleeding. “Strokes from atrial fibrillation are horrible, devastating strokes,” she said.

•Other stroke risk factors are narrowing of the carotid artery — the one that rises to the brain through the neck — heavy alcohol use, obesity, and sleep apnea. All are treatable risks.

Remember that women get to the hospi-

tal later than men? Part of the problem is we don’t recognize stroke symptoms. Clip this out and hang it on your mirror until you have it memorized. Stroke symptoms include • Weakness on one side of the body.

• Difficulty talking, confusion.

• A painful, sudden headache, referred to as a “thunderclap.” (These are associated with hemorrhagic strokes. ) • Dizziness and loss of coordination.

• Women with stroke sometimes report face and arm pain.

• Women may report sensations of tingling and buzzing.

• A woman’s stroke may be signaled by sudden sensory changes on one side of the body.

• Women sometimes report generalized weakness rather than weakness on only one side of the body. ne thing to talk to your doctor about: baby aspirin. A study of women over forty-five with no stroke risk factors were followed for ten years. Half of the group took 100 mg of aspirin every other day. The women in the aspirin group had a lower incidence of stroke. In men, aspirin reduces heart attacks, for women,

O

it’s strokes. f you’re on hormone therapy, talk to your doctor. Many physicians are recommending lower estrogen doses, or prescribing it every other day. The trend is to wean women from estrogen use by age sixty. Remmel says some evidence suggests that taking aspirin with estrogen may reduce stroke risk, but again, this is something you should take up with your doctor. And the aspirin does nothing to reduce breast cancer risk. If you have a family history of transient ischemic attack – the so-called mini-strokes — or any other risk factors, such as smoking, reevaluating hormone use is essential.

“Women need to be their own champion,” Remmel says. “They need to say to their doctor, ‘I want to know my risk factors are now. Blood pressure of one hundred sixty over ninety is not OK with me.

I want my LDL (bad cholesterol) to be under one hundred. I want my blood sugars to be within the normal range. I want to be in the normal weight range. I want to know what my cardiac function is.’ The patient has to be her own champion.” -lm

I

LEE MAGAZINE 17

Above: Opelika artist Iain Stewart’s rendering of the Event Center project.

Lisa Beck is reinventing the former Opelika Coca-Cola plant.

The triumph of a woman with a plan

BUILDING A DREAM, BRICK BY BRICK BY BECK

L

isa Beck stands in the middle of a dream and, incidentally, the path of a cutting winter wind, talking above the high whine of a mortar saw slicing through a thick wall of old brick and clay.

That dream is under construction, and

she’s giving a tour of it: the Event Center Downtown, which right now is the empty shell of the old Coca-Cola bottling plant in Opelika. The wind whips so bitterly through the sprawling old warehouse that workmen trundle huge heaters from place to place. But Lisa seems unaware of the cold and the thick electrical cords and saw-

horses she neatly dodges as she walks. I’m shivering, and I see only the gray cement floors and great gaps where big windows and walls used to be, but Lisa sees something else: space after marvelous space for weddings, conventions, parties, gatherings, dinners, dances, and quiet conversations over drinks.

STORY BY JUDITH SHEPPARD PHOTOS BY BETH SNIPES 18 LEE MAGAZINE

“We’re only doing this in the middle of the worst economic downturn in this country’s history,” she says with a wide gesture and a rueful laugh. Even she has to shake her head over her timing and her temerity. Then she adds what is clearly a mantra: “Never say ‘if,’ only ‘when.’”

The Event Center Downtown, which Lisa and her husband Chris hope to open in February, isn’t Lisa’s only business. She has two others, a real estate holding company and Professional Event Planning Services, which helps raise funds (including bringing the Little League World Series to Auburn) and handles every detail of conventions (including a wild hog conference

sponsored by Auburn University experts).

But, at 36, Lisa has proven herself adept at gracefully tending a dozen concurrent demands on her time.

In fact, most people land on one word to describe her: “Persistent.”

“That’s an understatement,” says Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller. “I say that in a complimentary way. But then, I’m fond of entrepreneurs ... Some folks can take the easy road, and some folks can take that challenge. And if you’re successful — and she will be — the joy of that, people just can’t imagine.”

The Becks are counting on a lot of joy.

They are transforming the 72-year-old

building into a 30,000-square-foot place where 700 people can attend a banquet, music fans can come to small concerts, and parties and weddings can happen in a rooftop garden or on a terrace (complete with waterfall). No other area venue will be able to open up wide warehouse doors to accommodate boat or auto shows. Its flat brick and glass facade and the flowing Coca-Cola signature above the entrance will remain — a stipulation of the deed — but almost everything inside the big hollow space will be new, Lisa says, shaping the outlines of the future rooms, bars and stairs with her hands.

It’s an audacious undertaking, a $3 milLEE MAGAZINE 19

lion venture the Becks put together after going to at least eight banks (in a time of bail-outs, no less). Lisa was rejected so many times that, even as one bank official turned her down one last time, he acknowledged how much he admired her tenacity. “Lisa, I didn’t just hide in my office when I saw you coming,” she recalls him saying. “I knew you’d just find a way to come on in. I went out the back door.” inally, she landed a loan from Southern States Bank in Opelika, a local institution. The city came through with a $30,000 grant to help create a parking lot next to the center, after Lisa kept showing up in city offices — and city meetings — “numerous times,” says Al Cook, Opelika economic director, in something close to a long-suffering tone.

This month, the Opelika planning director nominated it for a statewide award for best reinvention of a historic building.

Yet the idea had nearly mystic origins. It came to her, literally, “in a dream.”

“I dreamed I had an old warehouse,” she says. That was it: “Once I’ve got it in my heart, I’m going to do it.”

F

“I was extremely uneducated,” she says flatly, remembering that painful fact. “Extremely. I failed English composition three times. I literally could not write a paragraph. In fact, I have a copy of the very first paragraph I made an A on” — and that paper was written at OSU. She also has her college transcript and brings it out of a file: “See how the grades get better and better?” she says, tracing the upward trajectory of her grade-point average. All that time, Lisa juggled two, sometimes three jobs in addition to being a mother of two boys — Zackery, now 19, and Trey,

came so many challenges. She was abused as a child, she was a black woman in the South, but she was determined to become an anchorwoman. And she did. She would not give up until she finally got what she wanted. I looked at the hurdles she had to overcome. It all became part of the plan.”

“The Plan.” She speaks the words triumphantly. If ever a person could be said to glow, Lisa does at this moment, looking back at how far her grit and sense of purpose has taken her, and envisioning what lies ahead. “The Plan” carried her here: Owner of three companies; mother

IF OPRAH COULD DO IT …

Grand plans notwithstanding, Lisa is no Ivanka Trump: Every penny she has, she’s earned. She grew up with little money in Oklahoma, daughter of a single mother.

At 16, she became a single mother herself.

The path in front of her seemed bleak, its outcome predictable — working unskilled jobs, piecing together child care, always one paycheck away from catastrophe. “Listen, everybody is a statistic of some kind,” she said, leaning forward. “And I wasn’t going to be that statistic. I had to break out of that cycle. I knew the only security there was, was in education.”

With an eye on Oklahoma State University, Lisa entered a community college in Tulsa and hoped she’d make grades that would open the four-year institution’s doors to her. But in spite of hard work, her grades remained abysmal. OSU rejected her. Desperate, she lobbied various officials until she found one willing to admit her on academic probation.

But that, it turns out, was actually the easy part.

20 LEE MAGAZINE

Lisa keeps an eye on the progress, paying attention to detail.

now 15. It was the children, she says, “who gave me my strength.” She worked nights for four years at a Tulsa pizza joint called Mazzio’s and days as a nanny; some mornings, she also filed records at a chiropractor’s office. She cleaned houses, “a lot of houses.” She volunteered at an alternative school, worked for a non-profit youth services group, and spent three years as a case manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters, focusing her efforts on the often-overlooked children with disabilities.

For a role model, she chose Oprah Winfrey.

“She provided inspiration ... The way I viewed Oprah is, here she is, she over-

of two teenage sons, one intensely interested in software engineering and one who’s at this point “the typical happy-go-lucky” high school freshman; stepmother to two sons — Warren, 18, an Auburn University student, and Christopher, 23, in Colorado in the Air Force; married to a man “with tremendous compassion and a huge heart” (Her first marriage ended in divorce after eight years); and on the brink of a venture that qualifies her as one of the gutsiest business owners around.

“What stands out most to me about Lisa is her determination,” says Chuck Hurston, former president of the board of the Auburn University Letterman Club, which

Lisa Beck’s business partner, Dale Downing, shows where her desk and chair will be in her new office.

Lisa and her business partner, Dale Downing, have managed for six years. (That club, restricted to AU athletes of letter status, facilitates alumni networking and provides athletic scholarships.) “She is unwavering in her journey” toward her goals. he graduated from OSU in 1998 with a degree in human environmental sciences, with an emphasis on families, children, and community service, married for the first time and moved to Auburn in 2001 with her first husband and two sons. She took jobs as a temporary employee for Auburn University’s human resources department. There she focused on projects for families with special needs, such as efforts to combat poverty and illiteracy in the Black Belt, which sharpened her fund-raising and event planning skills. She made a lot of contacts, including some who became her first clients. She also met the similarly energetic Dale Downing, who had grown bored after retiring from the city of Auburn’s parks and recreation department and was working in the office of the dean of the College of Human Sciences.

“One day we got to talking, just talking, and we kind of hit it off,” Downing recalls as

dream to start an event planning company.

I was kind of doing odd jobs for her, and she told me, “ ‘Well, Dale, when I get enough money, I’m going to hire you full-time.’” hat happened about a year later. In fact, the Event Center Downtown website lists Downing as one of the three people launching the center. (“Dale is my left hand and my right hand,” Lisa says.) Both are workaholics, Downing acknowledges, but different.

She’s the organized one whose office is orderly, polished and serene; Lisa’s is the one with the heaps of files and belongings scattered on the desk and floor, as if the occupant started to move in but got called out of town. Lisa is the creative, extroverted one, the “front man.” It doesn’t hurt, surely, that she is a tall blond with a sunny smile and amber eyes flecked with gold. Though sometimes, in a society that so prizes and envies youth and beauty, her abundance of both has seemed to rub some people the wrong way — friends have repeatedly told her to chalk up cruel gossip up to jealousy. “I guess I never knew I stood out,” she says, “until I had some painful experiences.”

T

S

Lisa Beck, her husband, Chris, and Dale Downing, her business partner, hold an impromptu meeting.

she sits in a spare room of the office building at 219 South Eighteenth Street in Opelika that Lisa bought and renovated. (For a time, Lisa and her two sons lived in the loft apartment upstairs.) “She told me about her

LEE MAGAZINE 21

The view from the top of the Event Center.

COMPASSION AND LASAGNA It would be surprising if Lisa didn’t meet skeptics. She can seem almost too good to be true, a Cinderella conjured up by Frank Capra with undertones of Horatio Alger, the heartland, and the American Dream. To some, she may look just plain

media coverage.

But it looks easy only if you don’t know Lisa’s whole story, which is much more complicated and harrowing than Lisa is yet ready to divulge. “There is a lot more to Lisa than people realize,” says Tracy Ryberg, who saw Lisa almost daily a few years

“Lisa doesn’t listen to what other people say about other people. She’s not afraid to say what’s on her mind. I’m like that too; maybe that’s why I like her.” lucky: for instance, the night she went before the Opelika City Council to introduce her project and ask for support, a crowd of residents furious with the local cable television franchise were also there. Television and newspaper reporters were there to cover the ruckus. Pow! Instant multi-

22 LEE MAGAZINE

- Andrea Musso

ago when they both showed up at 5:30 a.m. to work in their businesses in downtown Opelika — Ryberg owned a sewing and craft shop she’s since closed, Lisa, the Professional Event Planning Service — the business that convinced her that a versatile event venue was needed in the area.

“She has had no help, no help at all,” Ryberg says. “Everything she has, she’s earned. And deserves. She’s an awesome lady.”

Sandra Wilder, a friend in Auburn with whom Lisa threw block parties three years in a row, agrees. She knows that Lisa refers to 2009 as “The Year of the Depression,” marred by some painful personal conflicts and the struggling economy. But “I would never have the courage she has. Never.

Lisa has had to fight for something her entire life. She has had to do so much on her own and she has had so many obstacles put in her way. But she has worked so hard.”

Still, Wilder adds, “She makes me laugh a lot.” Once, Lisa dragged her and her husband Don Wilder to Victoryland in Shorter, Alabama, to enter the greyhound park’s drawing for a free Range Rover. “She was so sure she was going to win it, and she

said, ‘If I don’t win it, I hope you do, and you can give it to me.’” (In fact, no one won the Range Rover.) On one of their several trips, Don Wilder remembers, Lisa, Sandra Wilder, and another friend “bragged about their pedicures” until he took a photo of their tootsies, posed all in a row. “Can you imagine, a picture of just six feet?”

Andrea Musso remembers falling into a friendship with Lisa when she wouldn’t join in office gossip. “Lisa doesn’t listen to what other people say about other people,” she says. “She’s not afraid to say what’s on her mind. I’m like that too; maybe that’s why I like her.” The occasional surprise visit with a pan of lasagna — “she cooks a large amount of food” — doesn’t hurt either.

Lisa was there for her on some of her worst days in business, Ryberg says. “Ev-

erything in the world was coming down on my head. Lisa was always bringing me a gift to cheer me up. She always knew the right thing to say.

“There are not a lot of Lisas out there,” Ryberg says. “She will always be in my life.”

Lisa says she has “special empathy” for people in trouble, especially disabled children. It led her to accept a job to raise $600,000 for the Billy Hitchcock Miracle Field in Opelika — but only if organizers would up the ante to a $1 million facility that would include not only a baseball field for the disabled but a picnic area and a playground.

Former Letterman president Hurston and his colleague Jimmy Harris speak glowingly not only of her good work in the Letterman Club but of her character. “She is truly compassionate and caring and has

developed special relationships with a lot of the members,” Hurston says. “Her communication to club members about members in special need has helped raise thousands of dollars for them.”

“My wife has multiple sclerosis, and every time I see her, the first thing she does is ask me about her,” says Harris. “She calls her and has offered to sit with her. She is a very caring, ethical person.”

Many people say Lisa never meets a stranger. Here’s an example: At a seminar at the AU Hotel and Conference Center a few years ago, she says, she noticed an older woman sitting several rows in front of her who kept looking at her and smiling.

When the program broke for lunch, Lisa went to introduce herself, since obviously the woman had been trying to get her attention. “She said, ‘I wasn’t looking at you.

I was looking at the door for my friend,’” LEE MAGAZINE 23

Lisa recounts with a laugh.

That was Mary Berry, a retired human sciences professor.

Now they’re good friends. Recently Berry returned from a trip to Greece, wanting to know about the event center. While they sat outside the Coca-Cola building in the car, Berry handed Lisa a box containing a clear round pendant. It is engraved with the name of a Greek department store whose owners stubbornly started business in the face of all advice, and in the worst economic times in that country’s history — just as Lisa was doing.

“She said it should bring good luck,” says Lisa.

DREAMS COME TRUE It’s late afternoon on that same cold day, and Lisa now stands, coatless and gloveless, outside the building, keeping an eye on the workers framed in empty windows. It’s been two hours, maybe, but she can’t stop talking about her dream, warmed, apparently, by her passion.

“She is probably the most driven person, the most driven person to succeed, that I have ever known,” says Don Wilder. “She wants to do something, and she does it right. If anybody can make this succeed, she can.”

Ryberg is sure of it, for other reasons. She was in the small group that first walked through the warehouse, before the purchase. She found the moment moving. “I don’t know how Lisa feels about me, my kind of faith,” she reflects. “But when I was there, I just had to walk away from the group.

Opelika artist Iain Stewart’s rendering of the Event Center courtyard.

å

“I could just see it — people in the place, the whole thing. I said, in my head, ‘This is going to happen. She owns it. It is going to succeed.’ Lisa came over and said, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘This is it. Your dream. You own it.’”

She’s a little more flexible on the timeline than Lisa, who had hoped the center would open in December and now marks March as the latest date. “It will happen. Maybe not on her time,” Ryberg laughs. “But it will happen. You know the saying — ‘If you want to make God laugh, make plans.’

“When the time is right,” she says, “the doors will open.”

Not if, Lisa might add, but when. -lm

Judy Sheppard is a freelance writer and an associate professor teaching journalism at Auburn University.

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-LM

LEE MAGAZINE 17

EVENT CENTER: The Details LOCATION: 614 N. Railroad Avenue, site of former CocaCoca bottling plant PROJECTED OPENING: no later than March

AFTER

Concrete MakeOvers BEFORE

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AU Hotel & Conference Center, the area’s largest at present, has limited space.

TRULY UNIQUE. CONCRETE NEVER LOOKED AS GOOD!

• A ballroom that can seat 700 at formal banquets or be divided as needed into smaller rooms for meetings, reunions, groups and parties. The original cement floors, stained a custom color, will remain, allowing heavy displays as in car and boat shows. It will have advanced multi-media capacity.

• A bar overlooking the main room, possibly constructed of wood reclaimed from an old outbuilding. It can also be shuttered and separate from the ballroom.

• A bar upstairs open only a few evening hours for “grownups. “The saying is, the problem in Auburn is that there’s no place to go that’s not inundated by college students,” says Lisa. “And the problem in Opelika is, there’s no place to go.”

• Dressing rooms for brides, grooms, musicians.

BEFORE

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• A paved garden off the main room, with a waterfall backdrop for weddings and photographs.

AFTER

• An authentic wine cellar.

• Dual kitchens, allowing clients to choose their own caterers rather than be restricted to prix fixe menus.

BEFORE

PLANNED: a rooftop garden with a view of the spire of the Lee County Courthouse; possibly, a special use of the original “syrup room,” the soundproof chamber where workers mixed Coca-Cola’s secret formula for Opelika bottling.

A number of entities have expressed interest, says PEPS partner Dale Downing, from a gospel group from Tennessee, a three-day storytelling festival in Georgia, fraternities and sororities looking for places to hold dances, and Red Cross officials staging blood drives.

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334•444•3020 LEE MAGAZINE 25 www.ctiea.com

Some of the children provided lunches through Alicia Storbeck’s efforts with the Charlie’s Lunch program. Volunteer cooks, center, bottom row, are among the many who make the program work. Some of the children provided lunches through Alicia Storbeck’s efforts with the Charlie’s Lunch program. Volunteer cooks, center, bottom row, are among the many who make the program work.

Lunch all over the world

Local business helps feed children

By Sydney Fagen

A

licia Storbeck’s business is in Lee County, but children half way around the world have full tummies because of it.

Her efforts help a group called Charlie’s Lunch provide hot noon meals to children in developing nations through a partnership between Storbeck and the charity called Charlie’s Lunchbox.

Sam and Janey Stewart were missionaries in Guatemala when they started Charlie’s Lunch in 1997. The couple created the charity in memory of their son, who died at age twelve from complications of a heart condition. On the Charlie’s Lunch Website, the Stewarts recount how their son gave his lunch to a classmate on the first day of kindergarten. Charlie always put others first. The Stewarts sought to embody his spirit by building lunchrooms that serve hot meals to impoverished children in Guatemala three times a week.

The Stewarts still work in Guatemala, but Charlie’s Lunch operates thirty lunchrooms on three continents.

When Storbeck started selling jewelry and gifts through home parties two years ago, she wanted to do more than make money; she wanted to make a difference.

“We felt very strongly that our company

26 LEE MAGAZINE

knew this was what they were looking for.

Initial Outfitters, Storbeck’s company, began selling lunchboxes and a cookbook with recipes from the seven countries with Charlie’s Alicia and Jim Storbeck Lunch service.

The lunchboxes cost nineteen dollars and the cookbooks are twelve dollars, and onehundred percent of the profit goes to the charity. Storbeck declines to say how much is donated per item. Consultants sell both through home parties. The company also collects donations on its Website, www. initialoutfitters.com, through its Lunch Money fund.

In its first year collaborating with Charlie’s Lunch, Initial Outfitters hoped to build and stock one lunchroom. But the response to Charlie’s Lunchbox was so great, it was able to open seven lunchrooms in its first year. To date, Initial Outfitters has raised $45,000.

The Storbecks have visited nine of the lunchrooms in Central America. Storbeck says that what the Charlie’s Lunch kids de-

sire more than anything is affection. “The kids would line up around you in droves just waiting for their hug or a compliment,” she says.

Glenda Gooden of Opelika has been involved with Charlie’s Lunch since its inception. Gooden began visiting Guatemala in the mid-1990s, first with her church, then with Auburn Mission Team. She met the Stewarts on her first trip to Guatemala.

Years later, after Charlie’s death, she became involved with the development of some of the first lunchrooms. She enjoys returning to the same town year after year, first to help construct a lunchroom, then to help feed children who come there.

“The kids are beautiful,” she says. “It’s a lot of fun to see them grow up and make a difference in their own community. A lot of Charlie’s Lunch graduates will work in the lunchroom after they’ve graduated.”

Gooden values the work Initial Outfitters has done to help Charlie’s Lunch.

“They’re building new centers, but keeping them funded through the years. That’s important.” -lm Sydney Fagen is an Auburn freelancer in her last term in the Auburn University Department of Communication & Journalism.

calendar February/March 2010

Ongoing through May 15: A survey of contemporary and traditional arts and crafts from the Southeast United States, “Tradition/Innovation: American Masterpieces of Southern Craft and Traditional Art,” features more than one hundred master works in glass, ceramics, fiber, metal, and other media, at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p .m. Saturday. Admission: Free. Information: 844-1484 Ongoing through March 2: Winter Invitational 2010, works by a variety of regional artist and craft persons, Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center Gallery, 222 East Drake Avenue. Information: 501-2963.

Ongoing: To celebrate that there’s nothing so nice as formal wear, the Lee County Humane Society, 1140 Ware Drive, Auburn, offers Tuxedo Tuesday discounts for “tuxedo” wearing pets. All adoptions of black-and-white cats and dogs, as well as solid black cats and dogs, will cost $50.

Information: 821-3222 or lchs@leecountyhumane.org.

Ongoing: Third Thursday Late Nights, 5 to 8 p.m., Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn, offers gallery visits and a wine tasting

by Fine Wine and Beer by Gus. February 6 through April 17: An exhibition of the photographs by Chris Mottalini showing the neglected buildings designed by modernist architect Paul Rudolph, “After You Left, They Took It Apart: Demolished Paul Rudolph Homes,” Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p .m. Saturday. Admission: Free. Information: 844-1484.

February Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: Walkers of all ages can join the Auburn Stride Walkers at 11 a.m. three days a week, including at Kiesel Park off Chadwick Lane on the 10th, Auburn Public Library,749 East Thach Avenue, on the 12th, Town Creek Park, South Gay Street, on the 15th, Charlotte & Curtis Ward Bike Path at the entrance to Chewacla State Park on the 17th; the Jule Collins Smith Museum, South College Street, on the 19th; Dean Road Recreation Center, 307 South Dean Road, on the 22nd; Auburn Technology Park — North, at the pond, on the 24th; Hickory Dickory Park, Hickory Lane and North Cedarbrook, on the 26th.

February 11: Renowned classical guitarists Valerie Hartzell and Chad Ibison perform, 7 p.m., Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, 901 South College Street.

Admission: $5 for museum members, $10 for nonmembers.

February 11: Author Frank Griffin discusses his book, “Touched by Fire,” noon to 1 p.m., at the Brown Bag Lunch, Cooper Memorial Library, 200 South Sixth Street, Opelika. Information: 705-5380.

February 11: Free testing, information, and snacks are available at the Mended Hearts Health Fair, 2 p.m., Health Resources Center of the East Alabama Medical Center, 2027 Pepperell Parkway, Opelika. Information: 887-3440.

February 11, 12, and 13: The 21st Annual Daddy-Daughter Date Night, Lexington Hotel, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 per couple and $5 for each additional child. Information: 501-2930. Ticket numbers are limited and available at the Dean Road Recreation Center, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

February 12: Winter Constellation Class, 7 p.m., at the Mary Olive Thomas

Demonstration Forest on Moore’s Mill Road, one mile on the left past the new CVS. Admission: $2 for members of the Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve, $3 nonmembers. All proceeds donated to Haiti. Dress warmly and bring a flashlight.

Rain date, February 13. Information: 7076512.

February 12: Auburn University Symphonic Band and Concert Band perform, 5 p.m., Student Activities Center, AU campus.

February 12: The Sundilla Acoustic Concert with John Flynn, 7:30 p.m., Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 450 Thach Avenue. Admission: $10; students, $8. Children 12 and under, free.

February 13: The Mother and son Cowboy Roundup takes place at Storybook Farm, 300 Cusseta Road, Opelika, 6 to 8 p.m. Cost: $30 per couple and $5 for each additional child. Information: 444-5966.

February 13: Zumba Love 4 Haiti Zumbathon Fundraiser, 1 to 3 p.m. at the Opelika Sportsplex & Aquatics Center gymnasium, 1001 Andrews Road. Cost of participation is a donation. All proceeds benefit victims of the recent earthquake.

February 15: Donate old and new books to the Opelika Learning Center, 214 Jeter Avenue, during the Opelika Reads Book Drive Day, beginning at 8 a.m. The school also accepts gift certificates, checks, and money orders. Checks and money orders should be payable to Opelika City Schools — For Opelika Reads. Information: 745-9700.

February 17: The 2010 Champions for Kids Campaign Kick-off Luncheon for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Lee County includes a visit by Olympic Gold Medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Family Life Center of Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church, 650 Jeter Avenue, Opelika.

February 18: Chris Mottalini gives the Third Thursday Late Night Artist’s Talk, 5 to 8 p.m., Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, 901 South College Street.

February 18: A benefit performance of LEE MAGAZINE 27

the “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” sponsored by the Public Relations Council of Alabama, takes place at the Telfair Peet Theater, beginning with a 6:30 p.m. reception. Tickets: $20, adults; $10, children, available at the AuburnOpelika Tourism Bureau, the Auburn Chamber of Commerce, Village Mall information desk, the American Red Cross, and The Corner News. Proceeds benefit the Lee County Literacy Coalition.

February 19-21 and February 2327: “The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee” will be performed at 7:30 on all show dates except February 21, when there will be a 2:30 p.m. matinee. Tickets: 844-4154. AU Students free with valid student identification; general public, $15; AU faculty, staff, seniors, grade school and high school students, $10.

February 23: A screening of “Trimpin: The Sound of Invention.” followed by a discussion with the film’s director, Peter Esmonde, and Trimpin, the artist/inventor/engineer/composer, 4 p.m. Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn.

February 24: Mark Twain visits the Auburn Public Library, 749 East Thach Avenue, at 7 p.m., in honor of The Big Read 2010, which this year celebrates Twain’s “Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Twain is performed by actor Jim Aycock, who played a defense lawyer in the Walt Disney production, “Tom and Huck.” Aycock, also a musician, can be heard on radio and television commercials, including one for Subway. In addition to channeling Twain, Aycock will talk about the process of becoming the author, whose real name was Samuel L. Clemens, and his experience on the Walt Disney production, “Tom and Huck.”

February 26: The Sundilla Acoustic Concert with Miche Fambro, 7:30 p.m., Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 450 Thach Avenue. Admission: $10; students, $8. Children 12 and under, free.

February 27: The Whistle Stop Pickers perform at the Lee County Historical Museum on Highway 14 in Loachapoka at 1 p.m.

March, every Monday, Wednes-

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day, and Friday: Walkers of all ages and abilities can join the Auburn Stride Walkers at 11 a.m three days a week. Walks are March 1 at the Yarbrough Tennis Complex, 777 Yarbrough Farms Boulevard; March 3 Auburn Soccer Complex, 2340 Wire Road; March 5 Auburn Technology Park — South, meet at the pond; March 8, Highway 14 Bike Path, meet at Overtime Restaurant; 10th, Kiesel Park, off Chadwick Lane; 12th, Auburn Public Library, 749 East Thach Avenue; 15th Town Creek Park, South Gay Street; 17th, Charlotte & Curtis Ward Bike Path, Chewacla State Park entrance; 19th, Jule Collins Smith Museum, South College Street; 22nd, Dean Road Recreation Center, 307 South Dean Road; 24th, Auburn Technology Park — North, meet at pond; 26th, Hickory Dickory Park, Hickory Lane and North Cedarbrook; 29th, Yarbrough Tennis Complex; 31st, Auburn Soccer Complex.

March 2: Hear glass artist Cal Breed, the creator of Orbix Hot Glass atop Lookout Mountain in Northeast Alabama, 4 p.m., Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn.

March 3 through 6, and March 8: The Auburn Area Community Children’s Theatre performs “Suessical Jr!” Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center Gallery, 222 East Drake Avenue, Auburn. Tickets: adults, $8; students and seniors, $6. Performances begin 6:30 p.m. On March 6, there is also a 2:30 p.m. matinee. Reservations: 741-5333.

March 4: “Nat King Cole As I Know Him,” starring Tim Wells, 7 p.m., Dixon Conference Center, Auburn University.

Tickets: $25; with the reception and reserved seating, $75. Tickets: 749-2751. Information: 741-9837. The performance raises money for the Museum of East Alabama.

March 5: The Sundilla Acoustic Concert with Jim Photoglo, 7:30 p.m., Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 450 Thach Avenue. Admission: $10; students, $8; children 12 and under, free.

March 5 through March 29: The Auburn Preservation League Photography Exhibit, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center, 222 East Drake Avenue. In-

formation: 501-2963.

March 6: Children from kindergarten through high school will focus on animal anatomy from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Saturday Art Club at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, 901 South College Street. Information: 844-1484. Instruction is tailored for each age level.

March 6: The Whistle Stop Pickers perform at the Lee County Historical Museum on Highway 14 in Loachapoka at 1 p.m.

March 6: Leave the kids at the Frank Brown Recreation Center, 235 Opelika Road, Auburn, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., and enjoy Parents Night Out. The program accepts children six through twelve. Cost: $25. Pre-register, Dean Road Recreation Center, 307 South Dean Road. Information: 501-2962.

March 8 through 10: “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing,” by Judy Blume, performed at the Auburn University Theatre Upstairs, Telfair Peet Theatre, corner of Samford and Duncan avenues, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: 844-4154. AU Students free with valid student identification; general public, $15; AU faculty, staff, seniors, grade school and high school students, $10.

March 9: Opelika furniture maker Kimberly Sotelo discusses her award-winning work, 4 p.m., the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, Auburn.

March 9: Dinner & A Movie, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, 901 South College Street, features The Reckoning. Dinner at 5 p.m., and the movie at 6;30 p.m.

March 9: The Auburn University Community Orchestra performs Schubert, Tomasi, and Dvorak, 7:30 p.m., First Baptist Church, 301 South Eighth Street, Opelika. The program is free.

March 11: A reading of “Should’ve by Roald Hoffman,” 7:30 p.m. at the AU Theatre Main Stage, Telfair Peet Theatre, corner of Samford and Duncan Avenues.

Tickets: 844-4154.

March 13: Re-enactors bring history to life at the Lee County Historical Muse-

um on Highway 14 in Loachapoka, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Whistle Stop Pickers perform at 1 p.m.

March 17 through April 8: The 2010 Auburn Floral Trail, more than 14 miles of spring blossoms.

March 20: The Whistle Stop Pickers perform at 1 p.m. at the Lee County Historical Museum on Highway 14 in Loachapoka.

March 26: Ten Grand Slam, the Opelika Historic Preservation Society fundraiser, 7 p.m. Opelika Armory. Tickets are $100 per couple. Information: 734-3362.

Saturday, March 27: The Whistle Stop Pickers perform at the Lee County Historical Society Museum on Highway 14 in Loachapoka at 1 p.m.

March 26 through 28: East Alabama-West Georgia Will Graham Celebration, a three-day evangelical Christian gathering. Information: 502-8805.

Marcy 27: Keep Opelika Beautiful Garden in the Park, a day of family fun with venders, food, children’s activities and more, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Opelika Municipal Park, 1102 Denson Drive.

Admission: $5. Information: 749-4970.

March 27: The Two-by-Two Unity Run includes a 5K and 1-mile run-walk-wheel, starting at Opelika Municipal Park. Runners hooked together at the wrist with Velcro. The 5K race begins at 8 a.m., the 1-mile event at 9:30 a.m. Information and cost: 705-5138 or at www.auburnrunning.org.

April 2 through April 30: Spring Invitational 2010, landscapes and still life paintings by area artists, Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center Gallery, 222 East Drake Avenue. Information: 501-2963.

AY HOME!

April 3: The Whistle Stop Pickers perform at the Lee County Museum on Highway 14 in Loachapoka at 1 p.m.

April 3: The Art Run/Walk for Children, sponsored by the Junior League of Lee County, begins at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 South College Street, with 8:30 a.m. registration. A 5K run begins at 9:15 a.m. and walks of 1.5 miles and 5K begin at 9:30 a.m. Registration is $15 before March 15 and $20 after. Children ten and younger are free. The museum will host special children’s activities on the day of the run.

April 3: Opelika Easter Egg-tivities begin at 10 a.m. with arts and crafts for children in second grade and younger, pictures with the Easter Bunny, snacks, and storytellers on Courthouse Square; 10:45 a.m., Easter Parade around the square; 11 a.m. Super Spectacular Egg Hunt for 25,000 eggs.

April 3: City of Auburn Easter Egg Hunt begins 11 a.m. at Kiesel Park. In case of rain, the event will take place April 4 at 2 p.m.

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