TENNESSEE’S ELEPHANT SANCTUARY | A 40-YEAR PUBLIC AFFAIR | IT TAKES A VILLAGE
MARCH/APRIL $4.95
Dr. Juanita Harris, one of 28 people, chosen by our readers, who is helping to make a difference in the Valley and beyond.
noalastudios.com
| noalastudios.com | march/april
march/april | noalastudios.com |
It’s Your Time to Celebrate with up to a $100 Resort Credit! Make any occasion special at Gaylord Opryland Resort From finding a new job to your child receiving straight A’s, we’ll help make your celebration getaway extra special by offering a $50 resort credit per night*. Luxurious spa treatments, delicious dining, unique shopping and fun entertainment options provide everything you need for a joyous occasion.
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GaylordOpryland.com or call (888) 677-9872 (refer to promo code ZJL) OTHER LOCATIONS * Valid through December 30, 2016. Limited number of rooms available for this promotion. Offer does not apply to groups of 10 or more rooms. Offer cannot be combined with any other promotion. Limit one (1) $50 resort credit per night (maximum of $100 per stay). A stay is defined as consecutive nights at the same hotel, regardless of check-in/check-out activity. See website for complete terms and conditions.
| noalastudios.com | march/april
Gaylord National® National Harbor, MD (Washington, D.C. area)
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Join us for
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, MAY 20 and 21 STORIES, SONGS, AND THE SINGING RIVER
9:00am—4:30pm
6:00pm—9:00pm
Guillot University Center, University of North Alabama
McFarland Park - under tent •Rain location: Norton Auditorium, UNA Campus
Thursday, May 19 9:00am and 1:00pm $25.00
SHOALS HISTORICAL TOUR
Wednesday, May 18 7:00pm, GUC Performance Center
AN EVENING WITH DONALD DAVIS
SEPARATE TICKET REQUIRED: $10 • May be purchased prior to the event or on location.
This tour will include Ivy Green– the birthplace of Helen Keller, the Rosenbaum House— designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and Tom’s Wall– a Native American memorial, noted as one of the top 10 environmental arts in the United States. 10:00am GUC Performance Center $5.00 (Cost included for Tour Ticket holders)
The MUSCLE SHOALS DOCUMENTARY A private showing of the award winning film about the music history of the Shoals area. 1:30pm, $25.00
The SHOALS MUSIC TOUR
Visit the W.C. Handy home & museum and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, along with such landmarks as FAME Studios and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. With tour guide Walt Aldridge, singer/songwriter. 2:00pm GUC Performance Center, $5.00 (Cost included for Tour Ticket holders)
Kathryn: The Story of a Teller
A private showing of a documentary about world renowned Kathryn Tucker Windham. Thursday, May 19 7:30pm, GUC Performance Center — FREE Featuring Walt Aldridge, Kate Campbell, Donny Lowery and Mark Narmore
SINGING RIVER SONGWRITERS’ ROUND
the lyrics of your favorite songs? Join us for a songwriters’ round to hear some amazing music and stories of the inspiration behind them!
6:00-9:00pm
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND:
THREE ON A STRING threeonastring.com
Friday, May 20 9:00-12:30, GUC/Loft Morning Session Lunch - PREPAID ONLY GUC Performance Center, ONLY $12 PER PERSON!
COUNTRY FRIED CHICKEN WITH ALL THE FIXIN’S Served on site as lunch on Friday, May 20. Meal tickets must be purchased by Friday, May 13. Tickets may be purchased via mail-in registration or online at www.una.edu/storytelling. NOT AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE THE DAY OF EVENT. 1:30-4:30, GUC/Loft Afternoon Session
Saturday, May 21 7:00pm
THE DILLPICKERS thedillpickers.com
This year, we are kicking the festivities off early with exciting prefestival events—so sit back in your rocker, sip on some sweet tea, and stay awhile!
On the University of North Alabama campus Florence, Alabama www.una.edu/ storytelling 1-800-TALK UNA
Have you ever wondered what meaning lies within
www.una.edu/storytelling march/april | noalastudios.com |
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March/April
features The Heart & Soul of the Valley
42 It Takes a Village
16 WLRH in Huntsville: A 40-Year Public Affair
Twenty-eight Valley residents whose lives and works inspire us every day. produced by sara wright covington portraits by sarah brewer, lauren tomasella carney, carole forêt, olivia reed, and jan renegar
WLRH: A peek inside the studio, as Alabama’s oldest public radio station celebrates the big 4-0.
A mighty vision to rescue Huntsville’s most vulnerable young people from the devastating effects of poverty. by sara wright covington photos by patrick hood, kenya epps, and carole forêt
by roy hall photos by patrick hood
90 34 Old School
50
The first in a regular feature revisiting some of the Valley’s most memorable people, places, and things. We begin our journey with Athens landmark, and downtown Huntsville newcomer, U.G. White. by john kvach and chris paysinger photos by guy mcclure, jr. and john kvach
Portrait of Anna Chilton by Lauren Tomasella Carney
The Golden Girls The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee offers solace to nature’s grande-est dames. by jennifer crossley howard
Cover photo of Dr. Juanita Harris by Jan Renegar
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editor’s letter « Allen Tomlinson
no’ala huntsville advisory board Osie Adelfang ARC Design-Build, Inc. Lynne Berry HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology Sarah Brewer Click Photo Designs by Sarah Brewer Kimberly Casey Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment Donna Castellano Historic Huntsville Foundation Aissa Castillo aislerchic.com Dan Halcomb Huntsville Symphony Orchestra
In every community, there are people who quietly work in the background to make things better. This issue, we’re going to introduce you to 28 of them. This year, we asked our readers to tell us about the people in the community who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make this a better place. There were only two rules, really: the person had to be living at the time of nomination, and the person could not be a politician. We wanted the people in the shadows, the unrecognized heroes who roll up their sleeves and volunteer or do extraordinary things with their careers to help other people, to help the community, or to help make this a better place.
Lauren McCaul deptofagraculture.com Guy McClure, Jr. Athens State University Tom Patterson knowhuntsville.com Dr. Holly Powe Calhoun Community College Olivia Reed Olivia Reed Photography Patrick Robbins Huntsville Hospital Jennifer Swoboda Hagerman & Company Junior League of Huntsville Lauren Tomasella Carney Lauren Tomasella Photography Ashley Vaughn White Rabbit Studios/Vertical House Records Charles Vaughn Vaughn Lumber Company Andrew Wilmon Broadway Theatre League
You responded. We carefully vetted your suggestions, divided them amongst some extraordinary photographers, and put together our second Heart and Soul issue. David, Matt, and the rest of the staff here at No’Ala had nothing to do with the nomination or selection of these people—but we could not be happier with the group. If you see them in the grocery store, at church, or downtown, stop them and thank them for all the things they do. And as you look around and consider the wonderful people who make up this community, jot down a name or two for our next Heart and Soul issue—we’ll do it again in a couple of years! We take a look at some other varied topics in this issue, as well. John Kvach and Chris Paysinger have written a marvelous piece about the history of U.G. White, a downtown staple in Athens and a new resident of downtown Huntsville. We’ll introduce you to an elephant sanctuary in nearby Hohenwald, Tennessee—you read that right, an elephant sanctuary!—and we’ll show you some really wonderful things you can find when you shop locally. It’s a varied issue—but fun! The groundhog didn’t see his shadow this year, which means we are supposed to have an early spring—and we are ready. As this issue goes to press, we’re hard at work on the Entertainment issue, which always signals the beginning g g of warmer weather. Shop the Valley, y’all, and thank our advertisers for their support. Happy spring!
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contents
34
Steps in the right direction
© Guy McClure, Jr.
everything else 10 12
Calendar Selected Events for March/April 2016
Cryin’ Out Loud “That Which Does Not Kill Us…” by sara wright covington
34
Old School by john kvach and chris paysinger
80
ShopGirls by aissa castillo, lauren mccaul photos by lauren tomasella carney
98
Bless Their Hearts “Mike the Protector” by guy mcclure, jr.
100
Food for Thought Puttanesca on the Ritz by sarah gaede
102
We apologize! When we put together the last wedding issue, we made a mistake and listed Brooks Photography three different ways. As you take a look at that issue—and we know it’s one you tend to keep—please note that Brooks Photography, David Brooks Photography, and Kerry Brooks Photography are all one and the same. The two ten-page features have credited him correctly; we apologize!
MARCH/APRIL 2016 Volume 5: Issue 2 ••• Editor-in-Chief C. Allen Tomlinson Chief Operating Officer Matthew Liles Creative Director David Sims Advertising Director Jamie Noles Advertising Sales/Distribution Duell Aldridge Features Manager Roy Hall Graphic Designer Rowan Finnegan Web Designer Justin Hall Shopgirls Aissa Castillo, Lauren McCaul Proofreader Carole Maynard ••• Contributing Writers Sara Wright Covington, Sarah Gaede, Roy Hall, Jennifer Crossley Howard, John Kvach, Guy McClure, Jr., Chris Paysinger ••• Contributing Photographers Sarah Brewer, Lauren Tomasella Carney, Kenya Epps, Carole Forêt, Patrick Hood, John Kvach, Guy McClure, Jr., Danny Mitchell, Olivia Reed, Jan Renegar ••• No’Ala Huntsville is published six times annually by No’Ala Studios PO Box 2530, Florence, AL 35630 Phone: (800) 779-4222 | Fax: (256) 766-4106 Web: noalastudios.com Standard postage paid at Huntsville, AL. A one-year subscription is $19.95 for delivery in the United States. Signed articles reflect only the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors. Advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their advertisements. © 2008-2016 No’Ala Studios, All rights reserved. Send all correspondence to Allen Tomlinson, Editor, at the postal address above, or by e-mail to allen@noalastudios.com. Letters may be edited for space and style. To advertise, contact us at (256) 766-4222, or sales@noalastudios.com. The editor will provide writer’s guidelines upon request. Prospective authors should not submit unsolicited manuscripts; please query the editor first. No’Ala Huntsville is printed with vegetable-based inks. Please recycle.
Parting Shot by lauren tomasella carney Connect with us on Facebook: No’Ala Mag Instagram: noalastudios, Pinterest: NoAlaStudios, and Twitter: @NoAla_Magazine
march/april | noalastudios.com |
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calendar
Now – Sunday, May, 15 Celestial Dreams: The Art of Space Jewelry Using precious gems, minerals, and metals, artist Kathy Chan interprets the genuine awe of the cosmos and its vibrant oasis, Earth. A self-taught jewelry artisan, Huntsville-based Chan’s instincts and talents have earned her numerous accolades, including 14 international awards. Sun-Mon 9:00am-5:00pm; Admission Charged; US Space and Rocket, One Tranquility Base; (256) 837-3400; rocketcenter.com Tuesday, March 1 – Friday, April 29 The Visitors Center presents The #IHeartHSV Collection The Convention & Visitors Bureau, in partnership with The Arts Council, presents a brand new collection of locally made and curated items celebrating Huntsville and Madison County, to celebrate the Year of Alabama Makers. Sun Noon-5:00pm, MonSat 9:00am-5:00pm; Free; Visitors Center, 500 Church St; (256) 533-5723 Friday, March 4 – Friday April 29 (Fridays Only) Friday Night Artist Market The market features art vendors, open artist studios, independent shops, hallway demonstrations, performances, relaxed open houses, and a strong sense of community and connectedness. Patrons are invited to come early for shows in the theatre and peruse art of all kinds in this comfortable indoor setting. 5:00pm-8:00pm; Free; Lowe Mill, 2211 Seminole Dr; (256) 489-7000; flyingmonkeyarts.org Saturday, March 5 – Saturday, April 30 (Saturdays Only) Downtown Huntsville Food Tour This guided walking tour winds through Huntsville’s historic downtown, visiting six unique food tasting locations. Stops include Huntsville’s premier gastro-pub, a delectable European inspired eatery, and the coffeehouse that introduced the city to the delights of gourmet roasting over 30 years ago. 11:00am-1:30pm; Admission charged; Location provided with ticket purchase; (800) 656-0713; huntsvillefoodtours.com Saturday, March 12 The Americas: Canadian Brass “The world’s most famous brass group,” the engaging and dynamic Canadian Brass, delight with a broad repertoire including trademark Baroque and Dixieland tunes, along with new compositions and arrangements created especially for them. 7:30pm; Admission charged; VBC Mark Smith Concert Hall, 700 Monroe St; (256) 539-4818; hso.org Saturday, March 19 EarlyWorks Society’s Bunny Brunch and Egg Hunt The EarlyWorks Society hosts their third annual Bunny Brunch and Egg Hunt at the Children’s Museum, with two reserved seatings. The Easter Bunny will be available for photo opportunities during each brunch. 9:00am and 11:00am; $15, Free for children under one; EarlyWorks Children’s Museum, 404 Madison St; earlyworks.com Friday, April 8 – Sunday, April 10 Alabama Youth Ballet Theatre presents Cinderella Witness this enchanting story told through dance in Alabama Youth Ballet Theatre’s annual Fairy Tale ballet. Fri 7:00pm, Sat 2:00pm and 7:00pm, Sun 2:00pm; Admission charged; VBC Playhouse, 700 Monroe St; (256) 881-5930; alabamayouthballet.org
Saturday, April 9 – Sunday, April 10 Huntsville Ballet Company’s Peter Pan The Huntsville Ballet’s season closes with the world premiere of Peter Pan, featuring original choreography by Artistic Director Phillip Otto. The Huntsville Ballet Company is excited to interpret J.M. Barrie’s enchanting story through the beauty of ballet. Sat 2:30pm and 7:00pm and Sun 2:30pm; Admission charged; VBC Mark Smith Concert Hall, 700 Monroe St; huntsvilleballetcompany.org Wednesday, April 13 Night of a Thousand Flowers This highly anticipated event includes live music, a spirited live auction, and a less hectic, but sometimes more competitive, silent version. Both auctions feature unique plants rarely seen at public offerings, and large container arrangements designed and planted by local plant suppliers. Experts will be available to answer questions and provide a shopping partner to make your experience more enjoyable. 5:30pm-7:30pm; $45; Huntsville Botanical Gardens, 4747 Bob Wallace Ave; (256) 830-4447; hsvbg.org Thursday, April 21 An Evening with Glenn Lowry, Director, The Museum of Modern Art Lowry lectures and writes in support of contemporary art, on the role of museums in society, and on other topics related to his research interests. He is a member of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Board of Trustees, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the steering committee for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and a resident member of the American Philosophical Society. He also serves on the advisory council of the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. In 2004, the French government honored Glenn with the title of Officer dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. 7:00pm; Admission charged; Huntsville Museum of Art, 300 Church St; (256) 535-4350; hsvmuseum.org Friday, April 29 – Sunday, May 1 The Illusionists Praised as “a high-tech magic extravaganza” by The New York Times, this mind-blowing production has shattered box office records across the globe, dazzling audiences of all ages with its powerful mix of the most outrageous and astonishing acts ever to be seen on stage. Fri 8:00pm, Sat 2:00pm and 8:00pm, Sun 2:00pm and 7:30pm; Admission charged; Von Braun Center, 700 Monroe St; (256) 5186155; broadwaytheatreleague.org Friday, April 29 – Sunday, May 1 Panoply The Southeast’s premier arts festival, featuring art, music, and more, in downtown’s Big Spring Park. Fri 5:00pm9:00pm, Sat 10:00am-9:00pm, Sun Noon-7:00pm; $10 day passes, Free 12 and under; Big Spring Park; (256) 519-2787; artshuntsville.org
march/april | noalastudios.com |
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cryin’ out loud » Sara Wright Covington I’ve realized that a crisis can bring out the crazy in us all, and we find ourselves saying things completely outside of who we are.
THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL US… One of my favorite guides to writing, a book by William Zinsser titled On Writing Well, advocates letting someone someon else’s brilliance tell your story in their own voice, using their direct quotations. Zinsser writes, “H “His own words will always be better than your words, even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land land.” I’m going to do exactly this, as some brilliance I’ve recently come across is of greeting card writer Emily E McDowell, whose biting wit more eloquently illustrates the point of this essay far better tha than I ever could: “Together, we can find a cure for the phrase ‘what doesn’t kill us makes us strong stronger.’” Very simply put, McDowell is marketing to the masses the universal truth that people sa say really, really ridiculous things when they are at a loss for words. My youngest daughter wa was diagnosed with cancer last summer, and I began following McDowell on social media when my friend Stephanie and I were marveling over how it seems that when people ssimply don’t know what to say, they often say the first thing that comes into their brain. b McDowell is also a cancer survivor, and her sass and snark have manifested throughout her illness. Her version of dark sarcasm peppered with non-floral hint hints of hope have resonated deeply with me, as I found myself flailing to cope in a se sea of everything happens for a reason-esque phrases thrown at me everywhere fro from doctor’s office kitten posters to cashiers at Publix. I’ve never met Emily M McDowell, but if we did meet, I would be tempted, in a very non-stalker-like w way of course, to throw my arms around her and declare us soul mates. Three days after my daughter’s diagnosis, we were sent to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and told to pack bags for two weeks, but to be prepared to stay for a month. In that excruciating three-day waiting period, I quickly realized how many times I have been guilty of using those very same cliché comfort phrases I now found echoing in my ears. In the past, I’ve often prided myself on always thinking before I speak. I’m rarely the person who puts her foot in her mouth, and on the rare occasion when I do spew off the first tthought that enters my brain, I’m regretful almost immediately and will lie aawake for days turning it over in my head. But again, people, myself included, so sometimes say really, really ridiculous things when they don’t know what else to say. Lucky for me, very rarely were these people close to me, but usually just acsay quaintances or, in a couple of cases, complete strangers who were just scrambling qua for ssomething to say when they somehow caught wind of the situation. A few of favorites: my fa daughter is going to be fine! I read all about her type of cancer on the internet. Your da It has, like, like a 95% survival rate. I know how hard ha this must be. My little one just had his tubes out and it was awful. Do they think there is something that causes this type of childhood cancer? Do your kids take they should start taking vitamins. vitamins? Maybe the Were these things said will w ill-intentions? Of course not. Was I hypersensitive to any phrase I saw as insinuation, however silly that might seem, that this was my fault in some way? Yes, defieven a remote insinuatio nitely. As a mother mother, I’ve llearned that “mommy guilt” ranges from neglecting to hand make your child’s nitely valentines for the class party to skipping a night or two of the recommended 20-minute reading at
bedtime to make sure they get into an Ivy League college to, yes, them getting a cold because you weren’t making them wash their hands enough. And even though I could mostly let these things slide, they still made me want to grab a roll of duct tape and start taping people’s mouths shut. My youngest daughter had cancer—I think this phrase rolls through my head at least a couple of times an hour every day, and I imagine it will forever. And even though it mostly just stays in my head, it’s definitely escaped my lips a time or two over the months as well. I’ve used it as an excuse: I’m sorry I can’t keep the church nursery. My daughter can’t come to church because she had cancer and is immunocompromised from chemotherapy. I’ve used it as a warning: I’m sorry that your dog died. My daughter had cancer last year. And sometimes even as a verbal retort: (to a cab driver when he picked me up at the front gates of St. Jude and asked me if I was enjoying my stay in Memphis) Yes. Cancer research hospitals are just like Disney World. My child may have cancer, but I’m having a flipping phenomenal time. (I cried in the next breath and apologized to him profusely.) So, yes. I’ve realized that a crisis can bring out the crazy in us all, and we find ourselves saying things completely outside of who we are. But, through everything we have gone through over these months, I’ve also learned that we have friends whose blood runs as thick as that of our own families. And for all of the thoughtless things that were said, the people who mattered the most just showed up. And didn’t say stupid things. The days after our daughter’s diagnosis are mostly a blurry vision of dinners brought to my doorstep, care packages for our Memphis stay assembled, and friends shielding phone calls from people for which I didn’t have the energy for making conversation. I even have a vague memory of walking in to find one friend scrubbing the dirty floor of my laundry room on her hands and knees, while two others washed and put away dishes in my kitchen. Another thoughtful friend brought us a notebook and organizational folder filled with maps of Memphis and driving instructions to various places, as well as a list of things to remember to bring (insurance cards, driver’s license, etc.) because she knew I would be too frazzled to think of these things. Friends brought sweaters and blankets to ward off the chill of the hospital, toys and games for the baby, and even books and magazines to keep us occupied. I didn’t ask them to do any of this. Like I said, they just showed up. And didn’t say stupid things. So my advice when faced with comforting a friend having a difficult time is to try and keep your Google searches, home remedies, and Chicken Soup for the Soul quotes to yourself. Sometimes there is so much solace in admitting we don’t have the words for someone, but that we are there for them nonetheless. If you do find yourself without the words, do as I often do and steal someone else’s, provided they aren’t cliché. And when all else fails, there really isn’t a wrong occasion of crisis to say the following: “I’m so sorry you have been dealt this hand. I love you. Now here’s a casserole and a bottle of vodka for you to enjoy while I do a load of your laundry.”
march/april | noalastudios.com |
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scene
Emily Watkins, Christy Hall, Gary Huckaby, Jr., Zac Daniel, and Michelle Price Bob Gibbs and Dave Davidson
Annette Birchfield and Jeannie Galloway
Cathey Carney and Tricia Williams
Cheryl Maddox and Michelle Price Jane Tippett, Brandon Hunt, and Cynthia Tippett Masucci
Above: The Historic Lowry House Preservation Fundraiser january , · the wine cellar, huntsville
Anne and George Lewis and Patricia Woolfork
Dr. Gary Huckaby © Xx
Below: Arts Huntsville’s Art Tour of Homes january , · private residences
Sheri Belmont and Nona Carson Katrina Weber, Peggy Bilbro, and Phoebe Graham Steve and Sue Johnson Cathy Van Valkenburgh and Cindy Hallman
Lara Isbell and Ken Chojnacki
Patricia, Mark, Lynn, and Bryan McCarter
* Names for photos are provided by the organization or business featured.
Jani Brill and Eric Osborne Carri Walters, Evan King, and Alicia Revelle Xx
march/april | noalastudios.com |
| noalastudios.com | march/april
by roy hall » photos by patrick hood
march/april | noalastudios.com |
WLRH IN HUNTSVILLE: A 40-YEAR PUBLIC AFFAIR
ALABAMA’S OLDEST PUBLIC RADIO STATION is easier to locate on a radio dial than on the campus of UAH. Tucked quietly away in an unassuming single-story office building, the studios of WLRH fade away among the university’s glass and concrete mid-rise buildings, human-made lakes, and sudden streets that spring out of nowhere faster than digital cartographers can plot them on your GPS. On the day we visit, Morning Blend host Ginny Kennedy’s voice travels from her microphone to the station tower on Monte Sano, ricochets off a satellite, and arrives in our speakers before her location ever appears on our newfangled digital display. We are lost. Nearby, and in a similar predicament, is violinist William Harvey, Morning Blend’s live guest for the day. We manage to locate the studio before the GPS or the violinist and are greeted at the door by none other than Ginny Kennedy herself, who takes a quick break from her live mike to serve as receptionist. Eager to begin the interview, Kennedy ushers us toward her studio. A moment of uncertainty ensues. And then, in quick succession, one lost violinist is found, identities are sorted, and no beats are missed. The show goes on. It goes on the same way it has at WLRH for 40 years: thanks to the wits, resourcefulness, and dedication of the six employees who constitute the on-air talent, research, news, programming departments, IT support, grantwriters, and, yes, receptionists, for a 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-a-week, 100,000-watt radio station dedicated to the public interest. And while the number of permanent employees has held mostly steady for the past 40 years, the one constant throughout four decades of broadcasting excellence and creative mayhem is Morning Blend co-host Judy Watters, whose arrival at WLRH was just as circuitous as both our own and Harvey’s. As the violinist plays the Star-Spangled Banner live on-air, Watters tells us her story and WLRH’s, beginning where the two converge, on a mountaintop, in America’s Bicentennial year, 1976, with a music teacher’s modest proposal.
A MODEST PROPOSAL Public television beat public radio to Huntsville by a few years, so when Judy Watters took her idea for a music education children’s program to a public broadcast station in the spring of 1976, she visited the unassuming home of WEBT, on Monte Sano mountain.
| noalastudios.com | march/april
march/april | noalastudios.com |
WLRH IN HUNTSVILLE: A 40-YEAR PUBLIC AFFAIR
“I HAD TAUGHT HUNDREDS OF KIDS. BUT A MICROPHONE, ME, AND THAT’S IT? IT WAS TERRIFYING.” —JUDY WATTERS
JUDY WATTERS | noalastudios.com | march/april
“There was a block building with an antenna, and inside, one engineer running the whole show.” Watters’ young sons were big fans of WEBT’s children’s show Grunches and Grins, and Watters, a music education major and former teacher, thought Huntsville children might benefit from another show, one featuring musical edification as entertainment. Showbiz can be tough, even when it’s in the public interest, and the engineer informed Watters that WEBT wasn’t currently in the market for new programming, musical or otherwise. In fact, Grunches was the station’s only original show. But if Watters was really serious about her idea, she might want to introduce herself to a gentleman by the name of George Dickerson. A former commercial TV newsman, Dickerson’s interests had shifted, according to the engineer, and now he had a mind to bring public radio to Huntsville. In fact, Dickerson was in the process of converting a first floor room at the Huntsville Times into a radio studio, if Watters wanted to drop by. “So, I gave George my spiel,” Watters says matter-of-factly of her second stop that day, and her unscheduled appointment with destiny. Exactly what Judy Watters said to George Dickerson in 1976 is anybody’s best guess. Whatever she said, and however she said it, the meeting led to a career beyond anything she’d imagined. Watters has all the charm and generosity of a natural born storyteller, as congenial in person as her voice is assuring over the airwaves. She knows music inside and out, too, and the sheer joy she exudes when she talks about it and the station she loves is palpable. But before Watters could even be considered for a job at a radio station, much less begin transmitting her love of music to the Tennessee Valley, she had to clear some bureaucratic hurdles that seem unnecessarily byzantine in hindsight. “In those days, to be a broadcaster, you had to have a third class radio license,” Watters relays. To get the license, you had to take a test. “It was difficult stuff ; Ohms and watts,” among other technical not-so-niceties, according to Watters’ recollection. So, off she went to the library to study, every day for seven weeks, and then to Atlanta, where she sat for the three-part test. The test results were foregone, written into her DNA, in a way so neat and convenient they would elicit eye-rolls if one of Watters’ Sundial Writer’s Corner author’s wrote it down in a book.
march/april | noalastudios.com |
WLRH IN HUNTSVILLE: A 40-YEAR PUBLIC AFFAIR
The early days: WLRH employees and volunteer producers, 1976.
“My dad had a radio and TV store and played in a Glen Miller-type big band. I’ve been in the symphony, taught public school, private horn, private music lessons, been a church choir director.” Her and husband Harry’s sons, Ken and Harry, are both professional musicians. Even so, she says, “Much to my surprise, I passed all three parts.” George Dickerson looked surprised, too, when Watters reappeared in his still-unfinished Times building studio and informed her future boss that he was looking at the proud holder of an Alabama Third Class Radio License, and that she was still interested in hosting a kids’ music show, if he was still interested. He was still interested all right: he hired Watters on the spot, but not to host a children’s music show. He hired her as a full-time public radio announcer. “I was almost 40.” And they say there are no second acts in American lives.
LIBRARY RADIO Watters recalls that Dickerson and his freshman class of broadcasters, managers, and grant writers— around 20 employees total—completed the transformation of Times studios, and on the morning of October 13, 1976, Library Radio Huntsville (the station’s first license was held by the Huntsville Public Library) went on the air.
| noalastudios.com | march/april
Press coverage of WLRH’s launch, October 13, 1976. Left to right: George Dickerson with special guest and old-time radio star Chester Lauck, of the Lum and Abner radio show
Judy Watters, with her Morning Blend crew, circa 1987
Left to right: Huntsville Library board members Eleanor Murphy and Jane Roberts, and Huntsville Library board president, Elbert Watson, beneath the original WLRH tower on Green Mountain
Morning Blend co-hosts, Judy and Harry Watters
march/april | noalastudios.com |
WLRH IN HUNTSVILLE: A 40-YEAR PUBLIC AFFAIR
“I’D LIKE PEOPLE TO REALIZE WE’RE NOT AN ARMY; JUST A HANDFUL OF FOLKS KEEPS THIS GOING.” —BRETT TANNEHILL
Watters refers to that first day fondly as “one of the scariest of my life.” “I had taught hundreds of kids. But a microphone, me, and that’s it? It was terrifying. I used to have to read the news at the top of the hour. I tried to put the most important things first, because my voice would start shaking.” About that familiar voice, Watters says she was never aware of it or its potential radio appeal. “I just wanted to be surrounded by music. As it turns out, I have a low-pitched voice, and that seems to work well.” Indeed. An encyclopedic knowledge of music helps, too, of course, and Watters makes use of hers, along with WLRH’s impressive music library, to plan her shows. “I go by the classical—and classic—calendar: Beethoven, Bach, Willie Nelson. I take home the CDs I plan to use for the next show, and I sit at the kitchen table with my boom box and a legal pad, and ask myself, ‘What would follow in a graceful manner?’” That first year at WLRH didn’t proceed quite as gracefully as an episode of Morning Blend. Funding problems and growing pains marred those early days, and nine months in, WLRH’s signal almost went silent, and for good. There was no blueprint for a first-time public radio station; the hiccups and hurdles of balancing a large staff with a limited budget proved almost insurmountable. The staff began to drift away— some were let go; others, Watters included, sensed the end was nigh and left of their own volition. “Only George was left in the studio, ultimately, pressing buttons,” Watters says. At the last minute, the Alabama Educational Television Commission (AETC) stepped in and offered to take over WLRH’s license and to pay a limited staff. But not until the new fiscal year began in October of ’77; it was still the end of May. In a last-ditch effort, Dickerson went before the Huntsville City Coun-
| noalastudios.com | march/april
BRETT TANNEHILL march/april | noalastudios.com |
WLRH IN HUNTSVILLE: A 40-YEAR PUBLIC AFFAIR
cil and made the case that a city with a reputation grounded in technological progressiveness needed a public radio station. The Council agreed, ponying up $100,000 to keep WLRH afloat until the AETC could take over in the fall. “They saved the day,” Watters says.
“IF YOU LISTEN TO THIS STATION AND DON’T GIVE MONEY, IT’S JUST PLUMB TACKY.” —KATHRYN TUCKER WINDHAM Today, WLRH is still funded by the AETC and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And by listeners like you—and Kathryn Tucker Windham. The Jeffrey author’s honorary aristocratic stature as one of Alabama’s most beloved writers afforded her the luxury of speaking the plain truth during her frequent appearances on Writers Corner. And while WLRH would never be so bold, they do appreciate any support their listeners can offer. They depend on it, in fact, even when that support isn’t necessarily monetary.
SHANE SCOTT
“I’d like people to realize we’re not an army; just a handful of folks keeps this going,” says WLRH General Manager Brett Tannehill, who, in his college days, interviewed Ms. Wyndham for APR on many occasions. “Pitching in 50 bucks makes a huge difference.” If you can’t afford a donation, “send us a comment. Let us know how we’re doing.”
In return, the WLRH family sees part of their role as reciprocating their listeners’ appreciation. “We want people to feel like this is a community radio resource, in all areas,” says Tannehill. One of the ways they do that is their creative use of Public Service Announcements. NPR provides its affiliate stations with time blocks in the mornings and afternoons for local content, and WLRH uses those time slots to publicize local non-profits. “We’re giving away time for free. Some stations prefer to give that time to themselves or too their underwriters.” Rather than burying their FCC-mandated PSAs in the middle of the night when nobody’s listening, WLRH places theirs front and center, devoting prime air time to 60 or 70 non-profits.
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“Driving up from Tuscaloosa, I wondered why they were doing all those PSAs,” Tannehill recalls of his trip up I-65, radio on, headed for his job interview in Huntsville. “But the more I wrapped my head around it, I realized how important the PSAs are to the community.” As WLRH’s new General Manager, Tannehill maintained the station tradition. Instead of a burden, WLRH sees PSAs as a rich opportunity for community-focused programming. And the way they produce PSAs is different, too. “You don’t hear PSAs anywhere else the way we do it here,” Tannehill says. “They’re a big part of our on-air sound.” Unlike almost every other station, the voices we hear in a WLRH PSA are not voice over actors. “Those are the voices of the people who work to improve our quality of life.”
GINNY KENNEDY
This generosity is a product of empathy: “We don’t have a marketing budget and neither do the non-profits we feature. They should be spending their money on their mission, not on promotion.” “We have a wonderful arts community, and they don’t get the recognition they deserve.” That’s Ginny Kennedy’s take, and the reason she incorporates interviews with local artists into Morning Blend. Kennedy grew up listening to WLRH. A master’s in communication took her to Atlanta, before motherhood brought her back to a more manageable lifestyle in north Alabama. “I wanted to be a stay at home mom,” she says. Kennedy returned to 89.3 on the FM dial, too, and one afternoon, she had a question about one of their infamous PSAs, so she rang up the station. Judy Watters answered the phone. The kindred spirits instantly recognized one another, and after Kennedy mentioned her work at Atlanta’s public radio station, WABE, Watters interrupted: “Let me transfer you to a manager.” Kennedy’s innocent phone call led to a two day-a-week hosting gig, and another familiar verse in an established refrain at WLRH, where smarts, moxie, and resourcefulness trump more traditional job requirements.
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WLRH IN HUNTSVILLE: A 40-YEAR PUBLIC AFFAIR
“I had to work really hard at it,” Kennedy says of her early days as a classical music producer and host. Atlanta’s WABE pre-programmed everything. Not so at WLRH. “I wrote everything down, timed it, had binders full of play lists to keep myself on track. It’s like knowing your way around the forest.” Or, in the case of Morning Blend’s Friday request show, a game of Jenga. Ginny Kennedy isn’t Dr. Frasier Crane; she has no Roz on the other side of a glass window, fielding calls and feeding information into an ear piece. Kennedy pulls music in advance of each live request show, and answers her own phone. If a caller requests, say, Rhapsody in Blue, “I think, ‘Okay, I’ll pull the 18-minute piece I had scheduled, and stick that in its place.’” And no fleet-footed production assistants dart between the studio and the CD library, either. It’s just Kennedy “running back-and-forth from the music library and answering the phone.” Callers are sometimes a little flummoxed by that last bit. Kennedy hears
“YOU DON’T REMEMBER ALL THE SHOWS YOU DO, OR THE SCHEDULES. YOU REMEMBER THE PEOPLE.” —BETH NORWOOD
BETH NORWOOD
different versions of this almost every week: “You’re Ginny! Why are you answering the phone?” “Because it rang!”
Kennedy’s Morning Blend co-host and Lowe Mill-based artist, Beth Norwood, rang the station years back, too, offering her services as a former University of Alabama radio announcer. Six part-time years later, her playful sense of adventure and a stalwart commitment to her station’s mission have made her a WLRH fixture. “You don’t remember all the shows you do,” Norwood says of her years at WLRH, “or the schedules.” What you do remember? The musicians, artists, and community leaders who’ve told their stories—and ours—over the course of 40 years. “You remember the people.”
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WLRH IN HUNTSVILLE: A 40-YEAR PUBLIC AFFAIR
You remember the small WLRH team, too; the ones still here and the ones who have gone. And they do seem like a family—supportive and complimentary of one another, even when out of earshot, the WLRH staff feels more like a family than a family, sometimes. Kennedy. Norwood. Tannehill. Then there’s Chief Operator Joe Cook, and All Things Considered host Shane Scott. Scott’s commitment to WLRH’s proud legacy of journalistic integrity guides him as he chooses what stories to cover, and how he covers them, avoiding the sensational in favor of the meaningful. And Bob Labbe, “Microwave” Dave Gallaher, and Brad Posey, who donate their time, allowing WLRH to serve as broad an audience spectrum as possible, seven days a week. Come to think of it, the concept of family is more than a metaphor at WLRH. Judy Watters and her husband, NASA engineer Harry Watters, co-hosted Morning Blend and Sundial for years. Family commitments led Watters original co-host, Wayne Blackwell, to leave the show. After a series of temporary fill-ins, Harry Watters, always “very proud of the station and also very musical,” stepped in. Watters and her husband negotiated their professional partnership with the same ingenuity and inventiveness the staff brings to bear on all their challenges. It was Harry’s idea to get a jar and some black marbles. “If either of us is ever unhappy, we’ll drop a black marble in the jar. We won’t discuss it,” she remembers. Harry and Judy worked together until three weeks before his death from cancer in 2000. “There was never a black marble.” One of the things that holds families together is a sense of shared tradition. This is as important to the WLRH family as any other. But the successful operation of a public radio station requires more than just tradition; namely, it requires keeping up with the technological times. Even if GPS technology hasn’t kept up with WLRH, WLRH intends to keep up with sweeping trends in media delivery, in order to continue reaching the “family” of listeners it serves. But whether that future content is delivered through podcasts, streaming video, the Internet, or traditional radio is ultimately not the point. The medium is not WLRH’s message; serving the community is. And as WLRH looks toward its 40th anniversary in October 2016, they invite their listeners to travel with them on their journey into the future, wherever, and via whatever medium, that journey leads. In the meantime, keep an ear out for one heckuva birthday party, as WLRH prepares to celebrate the start of its fifth decade later this year. Exciting details to follow. Stay tuned.
WLRH’S LOCALLY-PRODUCED CONTENT, COURTESY OF THE FOLKS YOU’VE JUST READ ABOUT, IS LISTED BELOW. For a full program guide, including information about WLRH’S all-news and all-music HD channels, streaming audio of previously-aired WLRH programs, or to listen online, visit wlrh.org. Morning Blend, Mon-Fri 9:00am-Noon Sundial Writers Corner, Mon-Fri 9:30am and 6:44pm Brass, Reeds and Percussion, Sat 1:00pm The Arts Underground, Sat 2:00pm The Invisible City, Fri 7:00pm and Sat 10:00pm Talkin’ the Blues, Sat 8:00pm Really Good Music Show, Sat 9:00pm Reelin’ in the Years, Fri 9:00pm Radio Reading Service, Mon-Fri 7:00pm on 89.3 HD3
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STEM Teaching Tools now available at Free 2 Teach! Free 2 Teach is known for providing free classroom resources to public school teachers in Madison County. Now, we’re excited to launch the Free 2 Teach STEM Lending Library! The first building block of this innovative program is a series of high-quality, reusable, 3-D biology models.
The Molecules of Life Kits will help our public school teachers provide enhanced classroom instruction for our community’s high school students for many years to come.
These models can be borrowed by high school life science educators from the Free 2 Teach store. Each kit features 3-D plaster models of the four classes of macromolecules that are found in living cells: proteins, DNA, carbohydrates and cell membranes.
Free 2 Teach, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has been serving teachers in Huntsville City, Madison City and Madison County public school systems since 2013. Free 2 Teach operates a free resource store stocked with teaching materials and classroom supplies, funded and donated by the community. These resources are available for free to more than 3,800 public school teachers and their 52,000 students, improving the educational experience of our children and strengthening our community’s future workforce.
To find out more about the STEM Lending Library or to support Free 2 Teach, please visit www.free-2-teach.org. | noalastudios.com | march/april
News, classical music and more 88.7 FM Muscle Shoals • 100.7 FM Huntsville www.apr.org
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old school » John Kvach and Chris Paysinger
So, a scientist, his son, an airline pilot, and some city government employees walk into a bar… photos by guy mcclure, jr. and john kvach
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A
s a kid who loved history, I felt pretty cheated. Just over the horizon, beyond my grandfather’s cottonfield, there stood a rocket. It was plunked there at some point to welcome people from the North to Alabama as they zipped down I-65 with cars full of rambunctious kids bound for our sugar-white sands along the panhandle of the Gulf. I suppose that it was to translate our state’s achievements and progressiveness to those outsiders who still remembered our firehoses and police dogs from their grainy black and white TV sets. My distance from history didn’t just end with my rocket. I lived in a 1970s brick rancher, built by my grandfather for my parents. I grew up in Elkmont, only a few miles from the Tennessee state line. It was a “town” in only the loosest sense of the word. It was really just a community, with a small kindergarten through high school, with roads spoking out from what was then a dilapidated downtown. Now, 30 years later, I find myself a history teacher. And I also realize that I am no less frustrated with my experiences with the past than those days from my childhood. In the intervening years I received a teaching degree at Auburn University and have taught American history in Alabama public schools for 18 years. It would be very simple to blame my frustrations with history on the condition of education in this state or nation. Or, perhaps, students are apathetic about school in general and history in particular. And, of course, the subject has increasingly been marginalized in the curriculum ever since Sputnik was launched into the ozone. But the truth is that I have had, for 40 years, an historical itch that I just can’t seem to scratch, no matter how hard I try. I think that I am attuned to what is going on in the world of history. I care about the content. I read history books. I attend meetings of my local historical society in Athens, where I live. My wife and I have renovated two historic homes in 13
© Guy McClure, Jr.
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seemed it would shutter, after having anchored downtown Athens retail since 1917. He even remembers at age seven, standing at the Case Knives counter, leering at the sharp glint of the blades, until his dad broke down like so many others and bought one for his son. Soon enough, Emerson, and a cadre of Huntsville people, trekked to Athens, to try and make sense of whether U.G. White Mercantile would be the right fit for the Rocket City. I watched this part as an interested bystander, a friend of Derrick’s, and a fan of U.G., but having no skin in the game. But, looking back now, what I saw was the beginning of a change. The potential problem was that few downtown Huntsville buildings really reflected what a 100 year old mercantile needed. And it was at this point where the intersection of past, present, and future began to get a little more than cloudy. years of marriage. I collect old junk. I have been on the board of directors for an antebellum home/museum. I have toured far too many Civil War battlefields. I have spoken at state historical conferences. I have a master’s degree in history from the University of Alabama, Huntsville. I watch, every Monday night, Antiques Roadshow. In reality, my experiences with the past probably closely reflect those of the average person who considers himself a “history buff.” Even though I have the ability to experience history on my own terms now, until recently I might as well have been eight again, trapped in my brick rancher, staring at that damn rocket. And, maybe for years, I blamed the proximity to Huntsville on my woes. I’ve never looked in the Yellow Pages, but I am very sure there are more than a few businesses employing “rocket” in their brand. But thankfully, something is happening in the Rocket City that is changing the town for the better. And even perhaps, changing the way I look at the past. In the fall of 2014, I was talking to my buddy John Kvach, a history professor at UAH. He was rambling on about something and mentioned that he and Chad Emerson, the CEO of Downtown Huntsville Inc, had talked about reaching out to a large outfitter as a destination retail store in Huntsville. It just so happened that I was leaning on the Case Knives display at U.G. White in downtown Athens. It would be easy here to say that the rest is history. But that would be a little too simple. And it would wash out the better part of the story, which brought together a fairly unlikely cast of characters. Derrick Young has owned U.G. White for the last eight years. He also flies airplanes for American. But he is a guy couched in the past. He stepped in to keep U.G. White going when it
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If, in this tale, Derrick Young reflects the past, and Chad Emerson the present, it only stands to reason that someone working toward things that don’t really even exist be the future. Enter the Hudson family, co-founders of HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a Huntsville based genetics company, mapping, literally, our better future. They owned an available building downtown, most formerly known as Crossroad’s Music Hall. So now, Young had to make his way over to survey what Huntsville had to offer. Downtown Huntsville has spent the past 200 years molding itself to a world bent on change. Plans to improve the town sprung up almost as soon as the first houses and storefronts emerged around Big Spring. Twickenham mansions, new church spires, and smoke from busy factories replaced the old-growth trees along the cotton frontier. Paths gave way to dirt roads, dirt roads became paved avenues, and paved avenues yielded suburbs that stretched beyond the shadow of Monte Sano. If the definition of history is change over time, then it is easy to see that Huntsville has succeeded more than it’s failed. Each successive generation has built, rebuilt, and improved upon what others had done before them. Yet, in more recent years, downtown Huntsville has struggled to remain relevant as bedroom communities, research parks, and contrived shopping malls pulled people away from the city’s core. Empty storefronts sat as silent reminders of past failures memorialized in granite, concrete, and glass. Americans became tethered to cars, making close, accessible parking a natural right rather than a mere convenience in many minds. For these reasons, and many more, it seemed as if the American downtown was going the way of telegraph wires, railroad stations, and daily newspapers.
© Photos by John Kvach
Clockwise, from top, left: Taken soon after the removal of the stage and wall that blocked the front windows, which created a decidedly cave-like effect; During the installation of vintage oak flooring (sourced from Evolutia in Decatur) over the existing concrete; Stained floors and paint in progress— softening the interior of the space with wood and details was key in bringing the Mercantile back to life; Vintage beadboard, painstakingly installed in small sections overhead, makes the space soar and draws the eye upward.
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Through all of this, these objects, the idea of place and context, all of the things normally associated with history, somehow took on a new life. © Guy McClure, Jr.
In Huntsville as of late, however, the opposite has happened as the forces of urban and suburban have come together in a way that highlights the strengths of both. In early spring 2015, those forces aligned at a building appropriately named “The Crossroads” in downtown Huntsville. The Crossroads Building, or Mason Building, as it was originally named, was built in 1927, with a flair and style that reflected the Roaring Twenties. Good times and better profits allowed James Mason and John Manning to hire an architect rather than just a draftsman for their commercial furniture store. Yellow terra-cotta tiles, large plate glass windows, and Art Deco embellishments stood out in a downtown marked mostly by brick and mortar. Although the growing skyline of Huntsville became a symbol of agricultural, commercial, and industrial dominance in North Alabama, looming behind these exciting days was personal and professional loss, collective failure, and intense suffering. The Great Depression hit hard, snuffing out the spirit of a generation that would not be relit until the end of World War II. The Mason Building survived economic panic, war, and changes in ownership
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but failed to make it beyond the shifting demographics of the 1970s. Urban renewal proved to be too much for Mason’s Furniture, and in 1977 they closed the building and the business. For the next 40 years the building became home to various night clubs, bars, and restaurants. Its elaborate facade stood as a reminder of what had been and, perhaps, what could be in downtown Huntsville. The third act of this story, however, starts with the same sense of optimism that marked the first two. Like the founding of Huntsville and the construction of a modern skyline, the reemergence of downtown Huntsville and of U.G. White Mercantile in the old Mason Building relied heavily on individuals with a vision to improve the city. Three entities crossed paths at the right moment with the same vision. It would take the combined efforts of a scientist and his son, an airline pilot turned small business owner, and forward-thinking city government employees to rescue the old building and contribute to the reemergence of downtown Huntsville.
© Guy McClure, Jr.
When Derrick told me the building on which he had settled for the new U.G. White Mercantile, I was doubtful. When I went in it with him, I was downright incredulous. I had spent years in the Athens store, in which crossing the threshold was something akin to teleportation to sometime simpler, much like what your grandparents tried to conjure when they insisted you listen to old stories. My memories of the Crossroads building involved late nights listening to my hometown favorites, the Alabama Shakes. Or, watching Jason Isbell reunite for one night with former bandmates, the Drive-By Truckers. Or the night I found a 20 spot lying on the ground, and bought rounds of cold PBRs for my buddies. Those were my memories of the building, however cloudy. But, in the brightness of day, and without the effect of cheap beer, the building seemed worse than I remembered. At least, it didn’t remind me of my Athens U.G. White. It was black from the ceiling to the concrete floor, with red “accents” that most closely resembled the color of blood. It still reeked of
stale booze, with no natural light piercing the black abyss within. “How long do tetanus shots last?” I asked Derrick. But Derrick wouldn’t be swayed. He almost ran laps inside the building, painting a picture of what could be. “Case Knives will go here,” he said, and the need for an extra long table to keep the taff y. He envisioned light, and color, and the re-creation of time, place, and meaning, all from what I saw as thinnest air. And according to Emerson, the Hudson family had seen the potential in the building too when they renovated, upgraded, and rescued it after years of neglect. “The initial visionary leadership of Jim Hudson for Downtown Huntsville continues to result in exciting growth for our city center. Buildings like the former Crossroads location, now known as the Mercantile Building, continue to be transformed into destination retail, like the U.G. White flagship store.” So, what was I missing in all of this?
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Yet during the process of standing aside, watching U.G. White take shape through the efforts of three people, with very different expectations for what defines a place like Huntsville, I finally began to see beyond that rocket. And, it seems Huntsville has too. Perhaps I was only looking at what had been, rather than what could be. Derrick saw that potential. He recognized the upgraded electrical, the sleek new kitchen upstairs, the new sprinkler system, all of which had been added by the Hudson’s. Emerson looked to a beautiful downtown that needed a few more options to cause people to linger, rather than use Clinton Avenue as a shortcut home from Redstone Arsenal. And Emerson wanted something real, and authentic not a plastic version of a downtown experience. The Hudson’s perhaps saw it sooner than most, investing early in what today Emerson sees as “just the beginning of a massive re-positioning of Downtown Huntsville as a major live, work, and play asset for the city and the region as a whole. “ Huntsville has been blessed with minds that see the past as a foundation for the present, and the present as a springboard for the future. In the early 19th century Thomas Fearn, a physician and planter, invested his time and treasure into the Indian Creek Navigation Company, Huntsville Water Works, Planters’ and Merchants’ Bank, and the first city library. He saw these assets as a way of pushing a small cotton town beyond its mark. Today we are more familiar with his accomplishments as being the beautiful canal that links both sides of Big Spring Park, and his bank, now called the First National Bank building, silently sits on the southwest corner of Huntsville square, a photographic oasis for bridal and prom pictures. A century later another forward thinker moved to Huntsville and changed the complexion of the city. Tracy W. Pratt, like Fearn before him and Emerson after him, moved to North Alabama and began to make changes at a time when Huntsville was at a crossroads. Pratt built the West Huntsville Cotton Mill and enticed the Merrimack Manufacturing Company to set up shop in town. Pratt brought thousands of jobs to his adopted community, helped get trolleys to new mill villages, and started a Chamber of Commerce to represent a new way of thinking in Huntsville. Like Fearn’s accomplishments before him, Pratt’s legacy still is a part of our commu-
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nity. Pratt’s mill would eventually be bought and renovated by Jim Hudson and turned into Lowe Mill. The visions of past and present stand as testaments to why a new generation of downtown stakeholders, among them Derrick Young, are willing to look to downtown Huntsville as a new place to reinvent and grow, for the better of many. And so Derrick set off to renovate what is now the Mercantile Building on Clinton Avenue. This might sound a bit too easy, unless you know Derrick. He has a penchant for authenticity and a disdain for cutting corners. The renovation became an exercise in measuring, scraping 100 year old beadboard to get the right finish, finding just the right vintage oak floor treads from Evolutia in Decatur, mixing and dobbing paint—the list is inexhaustable. As the project began in earnest, I had the unique opportunity to spend a great deal of the summer of 2015 searching out vintage goods for the new U.G. White. Derrick was tied up with the decisions of a massive renovation, lighting, floors, installation, and, always, budget. Because I am a teacher, I had the time to explore and find just the right things for a “new” old mercantile. (My daughter Avery is nine, and every day we would climb into my truck and set off.) We crawled through basements, attics, junk stores, and backyards, and we almost suffocated in a stifling hot barn in Tennessee. We drank Coca-Cola out of glass bottles, ate barbecue at tumbledown roadside shacks, and talked over the impending world of fourth grade. And found some awesome stuff for the store. I helped Derrick load 20-foot-long heart pine counters from general stores, disassemble, and then reassemble, 80 feet of shelving from an old hardware store in Tennessee. He stepped on more rusty nails than I could count, dancing and kicking until the offending board became dislodged. We sweated buckets through humid August days. We hauled, moved, and cleaned 40 years of dust and filth from glass display cases. Through it all, he couldn’t have been happier. We would walk into an abandoned hardware store, and the dark-
ness would fade until the veiled silhouette of history took form, and his crooked grin would break into a laugh, only because he could already see it in place, and that it would make people happy in downtown Huntsville. Through all of this, these objects, the idea of place and context, all of the things normally associated with history, somehow took on a new life. Previously for me, and assuredly for the typical high school or college student, history was the dusty stuff of textbooks. It sat flat, on paper, immutable and static, and then manifested itself on a test as an essay, which, admittedly, sounds amazingly miserable. Yet during the process of standing aside, watching U.G. White take shape through the efforts of three people, with very different expectations for what defines a place like Huntsville, I finally began to see beyond that rocket. And, it seems Huntsville has too. During the process of U.G. White coming to fruition, I began to realize that history and the future aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive of one another. And to my amazement, Huntsville was already proving that downtown, right under the noses of many of us. In 2013 Charlie and Sasha Sealy opened Belk Hudson Lofts, taking the time and effort to integrate vintage brick and save old murals in the design of a “new” living space. Soon, another of their projects, The Avenue, rising on the corner of Holmes and Jefferson, will reimagine in new form a previous model of downtown Huntsville architecture, loft living above, retail below. The guys at Old Town Beer Exchange wanted a bottle shop, supplying downtown with a steady stream of suds that seem to have sprung from the mind of a boozy scientist. Yet they sourced brick from the Coca-Cola factory, tracked down a thick slab of ancient wood for a bartop from a tumbledown local barn, slicking it with inches of glistening lacquer, and keep the wine selection stacked in vintage shotgun shell crates. Perhaps the most ironic twist in the new life of the Mercantile Building is that U.G. White will occupy the bottom two floors, while Pints and Pixels will be opening soon on the third. They will be offering up cold local beer and serving Anaheim Chili. They have a full stable of vintage video and pinball games, with walls covered in futuristic murals, another blending of past, present, and future for the Mercantile Building. Now, I find myself wanting to linger in downtown Huntsville, increasingly looking for an excuse to come over. I will end up at OTBX, sitting next to a row of locals, comparing the saison to the porter to the Hefeweizen, all agreeing on the virtues of each. Or I will crave the charcuterie at The Bottle, or the cozy atmosphere at Church Street Wine Shoppe, or the faire at the food truck rallies. And I look forward to what hasn’t happened yet, which gives me a better reason to explore downtown Huntsville, in the future.
The Athenian Players of Athens State University present
Sh l k H l es es by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle April 14 - 16 at 7:30pm April 17 at 2pm April 21-23 at 7:30pm
McCandless Hall Athens State University Tickets at the door
www.athens.edu/athenianplayers
A four-act play written by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Dr. Hugh K. Long
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by s by sara ara wr wright rig ight ht c covington ov vin ingt gton gt on n » photos ph tos by patri pho patrick ick h hood, ood od,, k ke kenya n a ep nya ny eepps ps an and c carole caro ca role l fforêt orêt êt
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© Carole Forêt
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It Takes a Village
Dr. Kreslyn Kelley-Ellis and Bobby Bradley
| noalastudios.com | march/april
© Patrick Hood
community here in Huntsville. “Gloria and I became aware through our independent experiences that poverty was at a level in the city that we didn’t even fully see,” says Bradley. “I think the whole idea was to help move children from their current circumstance of poverty into sustainability.” After further research, Bradley and Batts organized a group of local leaders and educators to travel to Harlem, New York, to study the Harlem Children’s Zone, a 24-block area of Harlem, where President Geoffrey Canada focused his efforts on creating a village of educational, emotional, and social support for children of the impoverished areas of Harlem. From their time in Harlem, they were able to conclude that although Huntsville had poverty, its circumference was much smaller than Harlem’s and Huntsville neighborhoods didn’t face many of the obstacles present in the Harlem neighborhoods. “We decided then that we knew if they could do it there, we could do it here,” says Bradley. “Our community is not as large and we don’t have as many varied problems. We have poverty, but it’s a smaller community and we felt that the population in general is very philanthropic here in Huntsville.” As they embrace for pictures, it’s apparent that Village of Promise leading ladies Bobby Bradley and Dr. Kreslyn KelleyEllis have the sort of relationship that goes beyond just conversations at board meetings and exchanges through emails. “I knew this girl before she was even born,” says Bradley smiling fondly. “Her mother and I grew up in the same neighborhood.” That very same self-described neighborhood of poverty would become the motivation for both of these women to move mountains in order to make certain that a childhood of poverty did not define them, but pushed them to prosper— both dedicating their lives to helping create a vision, and a definitive path of action, for children to break the cycle of generational poverty. That vision has taken on form in non-profit organization Village of Promise, a group born from co-creators Bradley and Gloria Batts, who made it the group’s mission to eradicate generational poverty one neighborhood at a time. “Poverty is a cycle,” says Executive Director Kelley-Ellis, “and we model what we see. So until we can provide a different experience, children will end up in the same place.” This different experience they are setting out to create involves a model of educational and social support programs, positive reinforcement, bountiful resources, and, most importantly, family. From its very inception, Village of Promise has made it a duty to not only provide a different experience for children of poverty, but to continue to provide that experience from cradle to college, a model of sustainability that sets it apart from other nonprofits. Co-founders Bobby Bradley and Gloria Batts first identified the need for an organization like Village of Promise while working within the Lincoln Village
Kreslyn Kelley-Ellis was one of the educators summoned for the focus study in Harlem, and was involved as a volunteer from Village of Promise’s early beginnings. Her own impoverished background, combined with her experiences as a multi-faceted educator, gave her essential insight for the program’s initial vision. “I have a background in business and education,” says Kelley-Ellis. “I’ve been a special education teacher, a school curriculum specialist, and a school principal all at Title One schools, which are high poverty schools. I grew up in poverty and my mother grew up in the same neighborhood as Bobby and Gloria.” In her new role as Executive Director, Kelley-Ellis focuses on ensuring children the surroundings she didn’t have as a child. She says the most common obstacles they see for the kids are general environment, lack of access to medical care, diet and nutrition, and even transportation—major stumbling blocks for a child to overcome in order to succeed. “A lot of these kids are from single parent homes and have young mothers who aren’t emotionally mature,” she says. “There are just so many issues there and we just try to fill the gap. We don’t want to just plant the seeds, we want to nurture them and watch them grow. I was the only one of my mother’s four kids to graduate from high school and I left home at the age of 19. I wanted to live in a community that reflected what the real world was.” After over two years of planning and research, Village of Promise was officially born in January of 2011. Bradley says the group focused on four well-defined goals to get them off the ground, modeled closely after the Harlem Children’s Home. “First, we picked a neighborhood where we would focus,” says Bradley. “The Harlem Children’s Home is very
march/april | noalastudios.com |
It Takes a Village
place-based. You select a neighborhood to focus on because you can’t focus on everyone. So we picked the neighborhood where our building now stands, as it had the highest level of poverty. Based on the 2010 census data from our original research, we found there were about 1,770 kids at the age of 17 and below in this neighborhood with a 48 percent poverty level. We had a willing principal at the school and that launched us. We have been working there since then.” Once a geography was established, Bradley said they worked to identify a series of best-practiced programs—programs with proven track records of success they could begin implementing with the kids. Along with establishing solid programs, Village of Promise also sought to establish solid relationships within their community. “We wanted to not only be in the community, but to establish community partners,” says Bradley. “We want to work with the other organizations.” Village of Promise has formed partnerships with Huntsville Housing Authority, Manna House (Bradley says food is key), Huntsville City Schools, UAH, Randolph, and Cornerstone Initiative, just to name a few. “One of our goals is to make sure the organization has relationships with other organizations that can meet all of their needs even if they fall outside of a program,” she says. Lastly, the group set out to have a system of accountability to make certain their programs are effective in their implementation. When a child signs up, the parents sign release forms giving Village of Promise access to school records, medical issues, and other statistical data about each child. The data they collect depends on where the child is in the program. “We wanted to initially focus on data to make sure we could track the kids from the moment we pick them up in the program to the moment when they leave,” says Bradley. In addition to forming strong relationships within their neighborhoods and community, Village of Promise builds its model on forming relationships and trust with the families. “Parents across the board are involved. They love their children, and they want the very best for them,” says Bradley. “The whole idea here is to guide the support system for these children from cradle to college, so that at the end of that process, they are in a career that will sustain them and their families.”
“THE WHOLE IDEA HERE IS TO GUIDE THE SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR THESE CHILDREN FROM CRADLE TO COLLEGE, SO THAT AT THE END OF THAT PROCESS, THEY ARE IN A CAREER THAT WILL SUSTAIN THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES.” BOBBY BRADLEY
| noalastudios.com | march/april
© Kenya Epps
“POVERTY IS A CYCLE AND WE MODEL WHAT WE SEE. SO UNTIL WE CAN PROVIDE A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE, CHILDREN WILL END UP IN THE SAME PLACE.” DR. KRESLYN KELLEY-ELLIS Building that support system begins as early as before babies are even born with the program’s Infant University program, a nine-week course offered to expectant parents and parents with infants and children up to four years of age. “They start off with a healthy breakfast,” says Kelley-Ellis. “They have a workout class, and then we have different presenters. We have someone who comes in who provides assessment for the kids to identify any early speech issues. The parents are in class also and they are learning about brain development, healthy discipline versus punishment, and even how to use art with their kids. We even have an interpreter for our many Hispanic and Latino families.” After a child reaches the age of three, Village of Promise offers multiple educational, spiritual, and social programs for elementary age children all the way through high school. Kelley-Ellis says the long-term vision will be for children and families to begin with the Infant University Program and then to transition seamlessly into successive programs with no gaps, fulfilling their “cradle to college” mission. “So after Infant University, they can go to Family Connections, which is focused on family and child time, family mentoring, and family service learning,” she says. “A lot of that programming is creating that time for families to spend time with their peers, other families, and for them to think about how they want to change their community.” Beyond Family Connections, children have the option to move onto the Freedom School, a six-week summer reading program designed to instill a love of reading at an early age. “I envision we will eventually have a seamless pipeline, where there will be no gaps,” says KelleyEllis. “Every time they finish one program, they can start another. We are slowly filling that pipeline up so the kids can be involved at all times.” Now entering its sixth year in the Huntsville community, family continues to be the focus for Village of Promise, and after years of sharing office space at Genesis II, Inc., their monumental growth has led to the organization transitioning their space into what was formerly the Center for Development Learning School—a facility much more able to house their growing family. With the new location in the neigh-
© Kenya Epps
march/april | noalastudios.com |
It Takes a Village
© Kenya Epps
borhood where they operate, Village of Promise is now able to bring kids to their own location, versus conducting all of their programs out in the schools. “At the beginning of the program, we started with about 12 or 15 students at Butler High School, and of the group we were working with, six of those kids are in college now,” says Bradley. “There are others who are starting to work in jobs. So those are early successes. It changes the course of the legacy.” With six successful programs in place, Village of Promise now has a board of 15 people, an advisory council of 22, and over 150 volunteers in their organization. Co-founder Gloria Batts remains the Program Director while Bradley has recently transitioned from Executive Director to a position on the board. Kelley-Ellis has moved easily into Bradley’s former role, and both women couldn’t be more excited about the growth of the Village of Promise family. “We have built momentum so quickly,” says Kelley-Ellis. “I envision in the next five years we will have 1,000 kids in our pipeline, and that we will be able to prove just how effective our programs are by how well our kids are performing. I envision that our kids will exceed in terms of their academics. I see them having entrepreneurial pursuits with us helping them tap into their inner hopes and dreams, and I see Village of Promise continuing to make sure we are steering them in the right direction to fulfill those hopes and dreams. I think we will become an organization that other communities flow to, to learn how to eradicate generational poverty in their own communities.” It’s a big goal—one that Kelley-Ellis says she often likens to her experience of viewing the massive expanse of the Grand Canyon for the first time. “Our tour guide said ‘just a little bit of water at a time created the Grand Canyon,’” she says. “Any little bit of growth we see is worth celebrating, and just that little bit of celebrating can put a child into the next step. I love to see our families smiling and saying ‘thank-you’ and ‘gracias’. I love knowing that when I go to sleep tonight that I am part of an organization that is really making people’s lives better.”
| noalastudios.com | march/april
march/april | noalastudios.com |
produced by sara wright covington portraits by
sarah brewer, click photo designs by sarah brewer lauren tomasella carney, lauren tomasella photography carole forêt, carole forêt fine art olivia reed, olivia reed photography jan renegar, green tree photography
| n noalastudios.com oalastudios.com | march/april
Ever notice how the voices that pass through the media’s megaphone aren’t always the ones that ought to be amplified? Over the course of the next several pages, it’s our pleasure to buck that trend by introducing you to 28 people who really have something worth saying. Educators, volunteers, activists, caregivers, community-minded businesspeople, each of whom, in big ways and small, make life in the Valley a little bit sweeter for all of us. It’s our way of saying thank-you. The next time you run into one of them at the bank, or the post office, or the grocery store, you may want to say thank-you, too. We’d also like to say a very special thank-you to the five local photographers who lent their talent to this feature. We’re never at a loss for inspiration or beauty in the Valley, and that’s something else to be thankful for.
march/april | noalastudios.com |
The Heart & Soul of the Valley
Karen Thomas, Creator of Casa Grande Farmers Market to benefit The Princess Theater, Decatur What or who is the biggest motivator in your life? Service, community, and love have been tremendous motivators. I’ve learned from others how important it is to be present in life and participate in a meaningful way. When we allow ourselves to truly know each other, it presents a wonderful opportunity for authentic connection, where it then becomes possible to use our similarities and even differences to create a brighter set of futures.
© Jan Renegar, Green Tree Photography
| noalastudios.com | march/april
What are you most passionate about? I come from a family of Chinese medicine practitioners—my grandfather and father were skilled acupuncturists and teachers of Chinese medicine in China and Taiwan. I learned from my father, and I have been practicing Chinese medicine and acupuncture for almost 50 years now. I think integrative medicine is the future of healthcare. My daughters, Drs. Helen and Amy Ly, are both neurologists and medical acupuncturists. By blending the best of Chinese and Western medicine, we can provide healthcare that is at once safe, effective, and accessible.
© Sarah Brewer, Click Photo Designs by Sarah Brewer
Dr. Alexander Ly, CMD, Lac, Founder, Dr. Ly Natural Health
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The Heart & Soul of the Valley Heather Bookout, Photographer What are you most passionate about?
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© Carole Forêt, Carole Forêt Fine Art
My greatest passion is to photograph a woman in such a way that she is able to look at her portraits and really see herself. That always involves a revelation about her beauty. It gives her proof that her beauty exists and is real. That proof is lifechanging for some and encouraging for all that experience it.
William Hampton, Huntsville Revisited
I love Abraham Lincoln’s quote, “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.” My passion is to share the rich, diverse history of HuntsvilleMadison County and to encourage young people to interview older family members in order to collect and archive their family history. I am on a lifelong mission to collect stories and photos to share with future generations.
© Lauren Tomasella Carney, Lauren Tomasella Photography
What are you most passionate about?
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The Heart & Soul of the Valley | noalastudios.com | march/april
Marshall T. Schreeder, M.D., MPH, Co-Founder of Clearview Cancer Institute and Board Member of Russel Hill Cancer Foundation Who is the most inspirational person you have ever met? My patients. At the time that is their valley of fear, they inspire and motivate me constantly by their courage, their love for one another, and their faith. Every day they show me new insights into the purpose and meaning of life.
© Lauren Tomasella Carney, Lauren Tomasella Photography march/april mar ar arch/ rch/ c /apr apr pril il | noalastudios.com no n oala lastu sstu tudios.c dio ios.c s com m |
The Heart & Soul of the Valley
Anna Hubble Chilton, Senior at Grissom High School Is there any cause or nonprofit important to you? Merrimack Hall, and the Johnny Stallings Art Program, because I can dance there, take some classes there, hang out with my friends, and things like that. If I couldn’t go to Merrimack Hall I wouldn’t be learning all these things, and that dancing is like art. I love to perform, and dancing there makes me happy and all the classes like yoga, art, choir, Project Up, general fitness, and creative writing are fun.
© Lauren Tomasella Carney, Lauren Tomasella Photography
| noalastudios.com | march/april
What are you most passionate about? I am passionate about advocating for youth. The greatest limitations on a child’s potential are opportunity and support. So many of our kids could be great, but they never get the chance. Opportunity without resources is not opportunity at all. I make it my life purpose to see that more kids get chances, so each child has the opportunity and the resources to be great.
© Lauren Tomasella Carney, Lauren Tomasella Photography
Chaundra Weston Jones, Johnson High School Parent Coordinator
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The Heart & Soul of the Valley
Kevin Wieseman, Director of Athletics and Extra-Curricular Activities for Huntsville City Schools What or who is the biggest motivator in your life? My father, Bill Wieseman, spent nearly 40 years as a teacher and coach. I would sit on the living room floor as his former students and players would come by the house and introduce their new bride or baby. It was as if they were saying thank you without actually saying thank you. This also occurred in grocery stores and community events all over North Alabama. I knew at an early age I wanted to be a teacher and a coach one day simply because of the appreciation people had for my dad.
© Olivia Reed, Olivia Reed Photography
| noalastudios.com | march/april
Cheryl Carlson, Owner of Karma Rags at Lowe Mills Arts & Entertainment Is there any cause or nonprofit important to you? I love small-scale local projects; how people put their heart into a project they believe in. That’s why my shop, Karma Rags, offers two micro grants every year, one each for a local artist and a project organizer. It’s $250 unconditional dollars to create an artwork or organize a project that in some way makes a difference! In 2015 our micro grant artist recipient created 52 artworks and then gave them away. Our 2015 community project micro grant allowed the residents of a local veteran’s living group to landscape their house.
© Jan Renegar, Green Tree Photography march/april | noalastudios.com |
The Heart & Soul of the Valley Josh Williams, Veteran Consultant, Turning Point Consultants Is there any cause or nonprofit important to you? I am passionate about the emergence of a noble warrior class of leaders from our nation’s veterans, so that through their wisdom our young men and women will be given the tools they need to transform our society from a state of fear to a reclaimed state of hope.
Reverend Kerry Holder Joffrion, President and CEO of Turning Point Consultants What are some of your hobbies and interests? I have a special passion for empowering people, and my greatest joy comes from working with veterans and military personnel in the area of healing, particularly with challenging treatment of PTSD. The servicemen and women in our country are honor-worthy, but first we have to truly see them.
Zara Renander, Consultant, Turning Point Consultants Is there a cause or nonprofit that is important to you?
| noal n noalastudios.com oal o oa a ast asst as tud udi ud u dios. os com om | m mar ma march/april arch/ ch//apr apr rill
© Olivia Reed, Olivia Reed Photography
My extensive travels have given me the ability to bridge gaps between cultures. As Director of a Center for Pilgrimage and Reconciliation in Huntsville, I expanded my understanding of conflicted situations, as well as my awareness of the many opportunities for healing. I am particularly interested in the ways we may welcome our service men and women coming back from war.
From left to right: Josh Williams Kerry Holder Joffrion Zara Renander
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The Heart & Soul of the Valley
Bill Roark, Cofounder and CEO of Torch Technologies What are you most passionate about? Over the past few years, my passion has been to build Torch into a great place to work, as well as a trusted community partner. With the help of my Torch colleagues, we continue to make that happen. More recently, I have begun to engage more personally with the community in other areas. Currently, I serve as Chair of the Community Foundation, where I am committed to ensuring that the resources and organizational structures necessary to aide North Alabama nonprofits are present, well into the future.
© Sarah Brewer, Click Photo Designs by Sarah Brewer
| noalastudios.com | march/april
Gay Hinds Money, Retired Logistics Analyst, Redstone Arsenal What are you most passionate about? I am very passionate about Maria Howard Weeden and the Weeden House Museum and Garden. As a member of the Board of Directors, I am proud of the work we have done to restore this historical home to its past glory, and for the creation of a gallery to showcase Maria Weeden’s fabulous paintings. Huntsville is so fortunate to have this restored 1819 home showcasing the work of a renowned, nationallyrecognized artist and Alabama Poet Laureate.
© Jan Renegar, Green Tree Photography march/april | noalastudios.com |
The Heart & Soul of the Valley
Ranae Bartlett, Executive Director of Madison City Chess League and Vice-President of Madison City Board of Education What are you most passionate about? I am an advocate for public education, and its promise that every child receive equal educational opportunities. I am also passionate about introducing chess education to our students. I serve on a State Department of Education task force that has initiated a Chess in Schools program throughout Alabama. Some think smart people play chess, but it’s actually the other way around—chess makes you smarter. It’s a confidence builder, too. It also helps students exercise a part of the brain necessary for pattern recognition and understanding consequences.
© Olivia Reed, Olivia Reed Photography
| noalastudios.com | march/april
Kristina Hendrix, Athens-Limestone Community Association Is there any cause or nonprofit important to you?
© Olivia Reed, Olivia Reed Photography
I really enjoy learning about causes that bridge people together. I think it’s important to find causes and organizations that make history relevant to our everyday lives and to help us not repeat the past. I joined the AthensLimestone Community Association because their purpose is to create a connection between the history and future of Athens and Limestone County. Through their efforts, more people understand a part of our history that was not taught in our schools and are eager to learn more.
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The Heart & Soul of the Valley Dr. John Dunkel, Retired Physician What are some of your hobbies and interests? I still maintain an interest and passion for the profession of medicine, Thrive Alabama (previously, The Davis Clinic and AIDS Action Coalition), and the lives of those infected with HIV.
© Lauren Tomasella Carney, Lauren Tomasella Photography
| noalastudios.com | march/april
John and Carol Dunkel march/april | noalastudios.com |
The Heart & Soul of the Valley Erin Owens, President of The Women’s Guild of Huntsville Ballet Is there any cause or nonprofit important to you?
| noalastudios.com | march/april
© Carole Forêt, Carole Forêt Fine Art
My two favorite nonprofits seem quite different, but they do have at least one thing in common. The first is the Huntsville Ballet. As Huntsville’s only professional ballet company, they bring artistic excellence, educational opportunities, and community outreach to North Alabama. The second nonprofit is Bags of Blessings, a weekend food backpack program that works with the CARE Center and the New Hope Children’s Clinic to address the problems of rural poverty. One supplies food for the body and the other food for the soul, and we need both!
Antonio Leon McGinnis, Executive Director of Harris Home for Children What or who is the biggest motivator in your life? © Olivia Reed, Olivia Reed Photography
I come from very humble beginnings. I grew up in Public Housing and had to overcome a lot of obstacles just to be able to make it out. This has been my biggest motivator in life, because I feel it is important for those who make it out to come back and inspire others to know that they can do the same. Young people need role models, and I choose to be that role model for those who are often forgotten.
march/april | noalastudios.com |
The Heart & Soul of the Valley Jerry and Amanda Lee, Co-founders of the Rise School of Huntsville What or who is the biggest motivator in your life? Jerry: Our greatest motivators are our faith, family, and ensuring barriers to a fully inclusive life are removed for people with special needs.
Amanda: Who inspires me are all the parents who also fight for inclusion for their child, especially in the public schools. It’s a tough fight with not a lot of support. We are a small group peppered across the state and United States.
| noalastudios.com | march/april
© Olivia Reed, Olivia Reed Photography
Who is the most inspirational person you have ever met?
What are you most passionate about? Helping others, giving back, and making a difference in someone else’s life while remaining humble.
© Lauren Tomasella Carney, Lauren Tomasella Photography
James Duke, Thrive Alabama
march/april | noalastudios.com |
The Heart & Soul of the Valley Lyla & Woody Peebles, Sixth Generation Mooresville Residents and Founders of The Dance Hall Woody and I love creating life out of old things. We created a lovely dance hall for our daughter’s wedding out of an equipment shed. Eight thousand bricks, overhead lights and fans, and country counters were added to make magic for brides and grooms in a common farm setting. But the most important thing about our area is the land—the fertile red soil is the breath and soul of every living thing. We attribute everything we have learned to our parents and their experiences in life.
© Lauren Tomasella Carney, Lauren Tomasella Photography
| noalastudios.com | march/april
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The Heart & Soul of the Valley Kathleen Paul, Director of Happy Trails Therapeutic Riding Center, Inc. What or who is the biggest motivator in your life?
| noalastudios.com | march/april
© Olivia Reed, Olivia Reed Photography
The motivators in my life are the children we serve. In 2014, a three-year-old girl spoke her first word (“GO!”) on the back of our pony, Snowball. One of our little ones, who struggles with autism, made eye contact and gave me a big smile during a recent session, and three-year-old triplets will soon take their first steps. I’m also motivated by the courageous parents who advocate for their little ones every day. Their struggles are legion, but so are their rewards!
Noel King, Vice President King Insurance Agency What are some of your hobbies and interests? Other than traveling when I can, I also love being neck-deep in community service. I volunteer my time and skills for many nonprofits and serve on various boards. I am jokingly referred to by my Facebook friends as “Mr. Decatur” because I love being in the know about new businesses coming to town and fun activities to participate in, and I love sharing that news with others. I am a vocal advocate for our city and love helping friends and acquaintances remember that Decatur is a great place to be.
© Sarah Brewer, Click Photo Designs by Sarah Brewer march/april | noalastudios.com |
The Heart & Soul of the Valley
Eula Battle, Executive Director, Free 2 Teach Is there any cause or nonprofit important to you? I taught school for 31 years. Teachers spend a lot of their own money to compensate for dwindling funds allocated by the state. While volunteering at a holiday gift drive in December 2009, a friend and I noticed a collection bin for school supplies. The seed for Free 2 Teach was planted. We talked to businesses about collecting supplies to be donated to teachers at no cost. Initially, those supplies were stored in my garage. Today, Free 2 Teach operates a 10,000 square foot retail and warehouse space, providing free supplies to all full-time classroom teachers in Madison County’s three public school systems.
© Jan Renegar, Green Tree Photography
| noalastudios.com | march/april
Dr. Juanita Harris, Director of Weapons Development and Integration at Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center Who is the most inspirational person you have ever met? The most inspirational person I have ever met would have to be Mrs. Lynne M. Jackson, great-great granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott and President of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. I recently met her when I became a recipient of the Dred Scott Freedom Award. What inspires me most about Mrs. Jackson is that she took a negative historical event and refocused it to affect positive change in the community. It was amazing to be in the presence of a descendant of someone who fought for the freedoms I am now afforded.
© Jan Renegar, Green Tree Photography march/april | noalastudios.com |
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shopgirls » By Aissa Castillo and Lauren McCaul » Photos by Lauren Tomasella Carney
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Evelyn Wright Carolyn Blue, June Guynes, Kate Purvis, and Harvilee Harbarger Alice Bentley and Katie Shaver Mary Butler
Ruth Von Saurma, Evie Spearman Jib McLain, Sarah Wright, Wimberly Watts
Jane Troup, Jane Brocato, and Judy Maxwell
Alice Bentley and Mary Butler © Xx
Above: Grace Club Awards Luncheon
Below: Painted Violin Unveiling Party
december , · the ledges
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Naomi DuBois, Beth Wise, and Ann Rivard Debbie Washburn, Clare Grisham, Gregory Vajda, and Valerie Brown Clare Grisham, Beth Wise, and Niaomi DuBois
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Sara Beth Fair and Gregory Vajda
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| noalastudios.com | march/april
by jennifer crossley howard » photos courtesy of the elephant sanctuary in tennessee
march/april | noalastudios.com |
In the rural outskirts of Southern Tennessee, some 80 miles from Nashville, lies the path to the Volunteer State’s lesser known destination for stars. Here, on more than 2,700 acres of loblolly pine, bamboo, and lakes, former entertainers retire to run wild. In the small town of Hohenwald—population 3,700—The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee provides a place for elephants that have lived in captivity to thrive, shielded from the public. In midwinter, with its skeletal trees, gray sky, and one front yard full of clawfoot bath tubs, Hohenwald looks more like the setting for a Southern gothic fairy tale than the home to 14 elephants. The sanctuary’s elephants are veterans of zoos and circuses, often both, and all of them are female because they tend to cooperate better in performance environments than bulls. The public watch African and Asian elephants online through EleCams, which film behavior ranging from the mundane to spirited rumbles, trumpeting and trunks beating against the ground. On a recent 20-degree day, the elephants stayed in their barns. If the sun is out and it is below freezing, they are usually allowed outside briefly. “From sunup to sundown we’re checking on them, throwing them hay,” said Stephanie DeYoung, the sanctuary’s director of elephant husbandry. “Every day is different.”
| noalastudios.com | march/april
Seeing an elephant cavort in the snow looks unnatural, yet Asian species fare better in cold weather than their African sisters. Hohenwald, which means “high forest” in German, accurately describes the elephants’ playground and “forever home,” as DeYoung calls the sanctuary. Popular elephant pastimes include pushing down tall, skinny trees and sleeping in the woods. In its 21 years, 27 elephants have lived at the sanctuary, and retiring an elephant to Hohenwald can take months or years. Histories of dangerous encounters with their keepers send some animals here, while private owners of some animals decide to remove them from public life for their wellbeing. Others retire after a life of performing that can lead to health problems. Elephants can live 70 or 80 years, DeYoung says, and many come to the sanctuary at midlife or younger. “We take in elephants of any age,” she added. “It’s not just a bunch of old ladies who come here.” Hohenwald is the only other elephant sanctuary accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries in the United States besides one in Galt, California. The sanctuary
Misty enjoys a morning stroll.
survives on total private funding from 30,000 donors around the world, and it employs 44 people on a $2 million payroll. The sanctuary’s 2015 budget was $3.5 million, and fundraising yielded more than $4 million. Donors stretch from as far as Fiji to down the road.
“She would kind of stand out by the barn like ‘am I okay to walk around and do what I want?’” DeYoung said.
“Our mission is focused on providing them a natural habitat and giving them as much of a natural habitat as possible in captivity,” said Janice Zeitlin, CEO of the sanctuary.
Asian elephants roam a 1,700 acre habitat, and African elephants occupy 70 acres, with 230 acres to be added for them. Elephants that retired together from a circus dwell on 200 acres. The sanctuary began leasing 200 acres from International Paper in 1995 and purchased land in 2003, expanding to 2,700 acres.
Often cramped living conditions in zoos and circus stalls can lead to chronic arthritis and foot disease. “Elephants need vast amounts of space and the ability to move, and a lifetime of performing in the circus has very limited opportunity to do that,” DeYoung said. Newfound freedom provides amusement and education to staff. When Hadari, an elephant from the Nashville Zoo came to Hohenwald in September, she didn’t know what to do. Most elephants at zoos are on a schedule so they are visible to visitors as much as possible.
At night, Hadari split her sleeping between the barn and outside just because she could.
The sanctuary’s eldest elephant is Shirley, whose life at 68 years old rivals Hemingway’s legendary adventures. She was captured in Asia when she was five years old. In the 1950s, while she was traveling with a circus in Cuba, Fidel Castro took power, and his forces held the circus captive. Shirley then survived a shipwreck off the coast of Nova Scotia that killed two other elephants. In 1975 while in another circus, an elephant broke Shirley’s right hind leg, which left a permanent bend, but she’s still standing. She came to the sanctuary in 1999.
march/april | noalastudios.com |
“The stories these elephants have are almost as if someone made them up,” DeYoung said. “That’s the reality of captive elephants.” The sanctuary’s brick welcome center in downtown Hohenwald—nestled between a market and a print shop—will transform this year. The expanded, renamed Elephant Discovery Center will open in early 2017. Additions are projected to cost $1 million for the purpose of teaching visitors about the sanctuary’s mission and its residents. An outdoor breezeway area is set to open this fall, and a 40-seat theater, expanded gift area, and multimedia exhibits will open next year. “It’s going to be really busy, noisy, and exciting in a very short amount of time,” said Todd Montgomery, education manager at the sanctuary. “I know we will have people from all over the world.” Howard+Revis, a Washington, D.C.-based design firm that has worked with the Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution, is heading the project. “We know that educating the public is what will provide a better life for captive and wild elephants for generations to come,” Montgomery said. He visits area schools and leads distance learning programs online, connecting to 19 states, Canada, and the United Kingdom in 2015. He has also connected virtually to libraries, a birthday party, and a hospital in chats akin to Skype.
During such chats, children, perhaps craving their own freedom, usually understand the plight of elephants in captivity. “They get it, like yeah an elephant should have time to push over a tree if they want to,” DeYoung said. She is not surprised by intrigue of elephants. “There’s something about elephants that people just love to learn bout,” she said. “In general, people think elephants are really fascinating animals. Very rarely do you have someone who says, ‘Uh, I’m not into elephants.’” The Elephant Discovery Center will add three jobs at most and will rely heavily on volunteers. Besides the discovery center and school visits, the sanctuary maintains a public face through national ambassadors, and a YouTube channel, and by providing college scholarships to Lewis High School seniors. “Something we work on and are really proud of is how we do a lot of work and show people we are a part of this community,” Montgomery said. His classroom visits earned him fame with local school kids. “He’s got his own little fan club here, it’s great,” DeYoung said. Leaving the elephants off display garners a mystique and opportunity for education that can be lost at the zoo, DeYoung said.
Asian elephants roam a 1,700 acre habitat, and African elephants occupy 70 acres, with 230 acres to be added for them. Elephants that retired together from a circus dwell on 200 acres. The sanctuary began leasing 200 acres from International Paper in 1995 and purchased land in 2003, expanding to 2,700 acres. | noalastudios.com | march/april
interaction with elephants or guarantee to see them, according to Montgomery. The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries guidelines recommend limited public access at sanctuaries, including tours strictly for educational value, and no direct interaction with elephants. Researchers occasionally study there, but they do not interrupt the solitude of the elephants. Last fall, Duke University tested night drones to be used in the African country of Gabon to count forest elephants. And when elephants die, necropsies precede on-site burials. Veterinary staff from the University of Georgia and University of Tennessee perform necropsies. The sanctuary shares findings with organizations to learn more about caring for geriatric elephants. Elephants are encouraged to bond, but they aren’t expected to get along, DeYoung says. But time has eased bad blood. “We have elephants who have been here 10 years and could not get along and had playdates, and for some reason about six months ago during one of their playdates they didn’t want to separate and have been together ever since,” Zeitlin said. Shirley, the sanctuary’s oldest resident, snacks on pumpkin in the late afternoon.
“Our ability in being really creative in teaching people about elephants, you lose a lot of that if you’re standing there staring at an elephant,” DeYoung said. “You’re not reading the graphics and really taking in the educational experience.” Zeitlin and DeYoung attribute some of that growing interest to The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus decision to retire all of its performing elephants by this May. Those elephants will reside at the circus’s Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, a facility that has attracted controversy. “[That decision] has boosted a lot of interest in this facility because people Google ‘elephant’ or ‘where do elephants go when they retire’ and that sends them here,” Montgomery said. “At a micro level, we are getting a lot of phone calls and a lot of emails asking what does retirement mean, what happens with your elephants? So It’s moving the public conversation about that forward.” Though the public is not allowed inside the sanctuary, VIP donors may tour the sanctuary’s infrastructure but have no
Those three elephants—Minnie, Ronnie, and Debbie— moved to Hohenwald after residing in Illinois with the Hawthorn Corporation. The United States Department of Agriculture prosecuted the corporation, which trained and leased elephants to circuses, for violating the Animal Welfare Act. “You see one, you see all three,” DeYoung said. “I can’t help but think it’s because they’ve been allowed to build their relationship in their own time in their own way.” Sukari and Rosie followed Hadari in November from the Nashville Zoo. Together, they make up the “Nashville trio,” as DeYoung affectionately calls them. She speaks of the elephants the way a bemused but no-nonsense mother might talk about her children. Sanctuary caregivers use no dominance with the elephants, practicing Protected Contact Management. They use a barrier, usually a 10-foot wall, between them and the elephant as well as physical distance and fences. During a medical exam, vets use bamboo rods with masking tape on the ends to guide the animals to place their body parts into wall compartments. They receive positive reinforcement if they comply.
march/april | noalastudios.com |
Ronnie, Minnie, and Debbie take in the sanctuary’s 2,700 plus acres.
“They have the choice to participate,” DeYoung said. “If they show a fear of something, we build up that confidence, they can walk away.” “We have a saying around here,” she added. “We go by Elephant Standard Time. If the elephants today aren’t feeling it, we will try another day. That’s where not having visitors really makes a big impact on how we manage our day.” The decision to adopt Protected Contact Management followed the death in 2006 of caregiver Joanna Burke, according to Zeitlin. She was killed by Winkie, an Asian elephant from Burma, who still lives at the sanctuary. Burke was standing close to Winkie assisting during an eye exam when the animal knocked her down and stomped on her. During that time, the sanctuary followed Free Contact where barriers are rarely, if ever, used. Discriminating elephants with dangerous pasts or being lax around more docile animals is not an option, DeYoung stressed.
| noalastudios.com | march/april
“That’s how accidents happen,” she said. Anxiety is far from DeYoung’s thoughts when she’s with the elephants. “It’s not a fear,” she said. “It’s a healthy respect. There’s a big difference…The fear would be if you worked with people you didn’t trust.” To build confidence among caregivers and other staff, a fulltime safety manager audits safety practices and equipment. Almost three years ago, the sanctuary introduced training levels for working with elephants that includes months of reading, tests, and mentoring. “People underestimate all the hard work that goes into it,” DeYoung said. “They are dangerous animals, and we don’t take that for granted at any point in our day.” Following Burke’s death, the sanctuary received more national attention when a co-founder sued after she was fired.
In its 21 years, 27 elephants have lived at the sanctuary, and retiring an elephant to Hohenwald can take months or years. Elephants can live 70 or 80 years, DeYoung says, and many come to the sanctuary at midlife or younger. The sanctuary is still involved in a lawsuit with Carol Buckley over the ownership of an elephant. In 2010, the sanctuary board fired her. She was also president and chief executive. “There were no answers,” Buckley said, by phone from Nepal. “The board completely surprised me with their action to remove me.” She was barred from the sanctuary, where she lived, and left behind Tarra, a now 42-year-old Asian elephant she had raised since Tarra was two years old. The pair had not been separated for 35 years, and before settling in Tennessee, they traveled for 10 years with circuses and for 10 years worked in zoos. Buckley realized that zoo life left Tarra with little stimulation and space to roam. “As time went on, Tarra grew larger, and I was not satisfied with the lifestyle,” she said.
ganization began providing training for elephant handlers, trainers, and riders and elephant foot care in 2010. Buckley said the sanctuary has not allowed her to see Tarra in five years but, “I do know how she’s doing,” she said. Montgomery, in an email, said the sanctuary has allowed Buckley to see Tarra. Regarding Buckley’s surprise at her dismissal, he wrote, “I believe that those many people and board members that were involved in addressing the events that were presented to the board because of Ms. Buckley’s actions and complaints from others about her would strongly disagree.” Blais departed from the sanctuary in 2011, and is building an elephant sanctuary in Brazil, for which he recently received a grant from the Hohenwald sanctuary. Zeitlin commends Blais’s and Buckley’s work.
After 10 years of dreaming and studying about a place for captive elephants to reside, Buckley found a piece of land in Tennessee, which she calls “special and holy.” She and Scott Blais, then a former elephant keeper, opened the sanctuary in 1995. “It was glorious,” Buckley said. “It was culture changing in America.” She generally supports non-dominant free contact when taking care of elephants. Buckley says caregiver Joanna Burke was under strict instructions not to be around Winkie without a barrier. She did not disclose this fact after Burke died, she said, because she did not want to appear like she was blaming Burke for her own death.
“It’s great that they’ve taken their experiences here and are building them to help elephants around the world,” Zeitlin said. She declined to comment on Buckley and her relationship with Tarra, but said the lawsuit “is down to one issue and it is on the ownership of Tarra.” Buckley is optimistic that she will see Tarra again soon. Despite their differences, Buckley and the sanctuary share one common goal. She applauds The Elephant Discovery Center and its purpose to inform the public. “Any time you educate, I think that’s a fabulous thing,” Buckley said. “Education is the key to change.”
In collaboration with the National Trust for Nature Conservation in Nepal, Buckley’s Elephant Aid International or-
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bless their hearts » Guy C. McClure Tension fills the air. It intensifies, and now it is just a few inches from me, an unseen animal, possibly hungry. I am its prey.
“MIKE THE PROTECTOR” This is a story about fear and trust, and the unspoken connection between two beings who share a morning ritual along a wooded path. Whether or not you believe it is up to you. About four years ago, I experienced the joy of the Swan Creek nature trail, in my hometown of Athens, for the first time. The Swan Creek trail was developed years ago by the city as a recreational respite for those needing a bit of exercise, or those wanting to marvel in a fairly untouched part of the town. I’m an early riser and usually make it to the trail as day breaks. The early hour means that most of my walks are in solitude, allowing me to witness all types of animal life just starting their day as well. As I approach the creatures, they scamper into the thick vegetation that line the path opposite the creek shore. Rabbits, squirrels, foxes, and deer; I’ve seen them all. And on lucky days, I see Mike. Given his name by a friend’s son, the majestic Great Blue Heron stands in the rushing water about half way down the path. Often I miss him—Mike always sees me before I see him. But about once a week, in a silent moment of discovery, I happen upon him. Every time, I’m so shocked by his beauty, I can only stop and stare, awestruck by the sheer breadth of his span, the richness of his blue feathers, and the grace of his propulsion. Mike tolerates my gaze for about 30 seconds before spreading his wings. He does not fly away in fear or out of aggression; I feel he just wants me to witness his power and ability. Yes, it is always a lucky day when I see Mike. I won’t know how lucky until early one winter morning. Frost had stripped the foliage from the brambles and saplings that floor the woods on the west side of the path, leaving only a mass of limbs and vines to serve as a hiding place for animals. The cold and absence of early morning light had stripped the path of all but one of its visitors, too. I notice first an eerie quiet in the path, the woods, and the creek. Something is different, and the difference is unsettling. Next, I realize I haven’t seen any of the small animals that usually dart away, bounding into the dry thickets as I turn a corner and come into view. As I progress further along the trail, I begin to notice small bits of fur and feathers scattered about. Then small bones, scoured and snapped into sharp points. And finally blood—drops and streaks of it—as if a fierce battle had been fought here overnight. A feeling of uneasiness overcomes me. Halfway down the path I turn to make my way out of the woods and leave the trail. That’s when I hear it, a guttural growl, low and monotone, coming from the thicket just off the path alongside me. I quicken my pace, careful to deny the source of the sound the attention it craves. Nevertheless, the growl keeps time with my steps, always just a couple of yards from my feet,
unseen in the foliage. Tension fills the air. It intensifies, and now it is just a few inches from me, an unseen animal, possibly hungry. I am its prey. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, steam rises from the nostrils of the still-unseen creature. I know in my bones the animal is rising on its haunches, preparing to strike. As I brace myself for the inevitable attack, a shadow crosses my face. I close my eyes and curl into a ball. My blood and bones will join the others that should have served as a warning. Then, joining the growl, a new noise—like a crow’s caw— intense, but not malicious. I look up in time to see a blur of blue cross the sky, and I know the shadow crossing my face belongs to Mike. The Great Blue Heron hurls himself toward the thicket, talons outstretched, striking the creature with a thundering force. Mike’s enormous wings stabilize him, grasping the undergrowth, freeing his instruments of attack to do their damage. His beak pierces the animal’s skin, eliciting screams of pain. After what seems like an eternity, I hear the creature’s wounded cries as it retreats deeper into the thicket. I sit on the crushed gravel path as Mike straightens himself and comes to a full stance. He doesn’t look at me. There is no acknowledgement of what he’s done. I hear myself saying Thank you, Mike, as he turns and flies away. The wind from his wings as he flies over my head is the sweetest I’ve ever experienced. Months passed before I finally gathered the courage to return to the path. I saw the rabbits and squirrels and the other early morning creatures. And I saw Mike. I came upon him in his usual spot. I stopped and stared for 30 seconds, and then he flew away.
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food for thought » Sarah Gaede
PUTTANESCA ON THE RITZ I love to try new recipes, but once in awhile it’s good to have something to fall back on, something requiring little thought that I can whip up at the last minute without going to the grocery store. It recently occurred to me that I return to the same ingredients over and over again—canned tomatoes, Kalamata olives, capers, garlic, and, of course, olive oil. It also dawned on me that I often use these same ingredients in variations on a common theme—puttanesca. Pasta puttanesca, which literally means “in the style of a prostitute”, or, as I like to call it, “Naughty Girl Pasta,” is believed to date from the mid-twentieth century. A 2005 article from Il Golfo, a daily newspaper serving the Italian island of Ischia, claimed that sugo (sauce) alla puttanesca was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, owner of an Ischian restaurant and nightspot. According to the article, Petti’s moment of inspiration came at closing time one evening. A group of customers wanted something to eat, but he was low on ingredients. They instructed him: “Facci una puttanata qualsiasi” or “make any kind of garbage. All Petti had on hand was pasta (of course!), four tomatoes, two olives, and some capers, with which he made a pasta sauce that was an instant hit. He later included it on his menu as spaghetti alla puttanesca. Recipes for pasta puttanesca vary according to preference. The Neapolitan version is made without anchovies. Chili peppers are sometimes added. With the salty, flavorful capers, olives, and anchovies, and the fragrant garlic, it’s a real umami bomb. Traditionally the sauce is served Spaghetti alla Puttanesca with spaghetti, although it also goes well with penne, bucatini, linguini, and • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil vermicelli. • 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped I have provided three different recipes alla puttanesca: one the classic pasta, one a pizza, and one a super-healthy fish version I came up with recently while I was experimenting with baking in foil. All are easy to make, and just enough different from each other to add all three to your repertoire.
• 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes in purée, preferably San Marzano, squished through your fingers • 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved • 3 anchovy fillets, chopped, or 1 tablespoon anchovy paste (optional) • 1 1/2 tablespoons drained capers • 1 teaspoon dried oregano • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes • Salt and black pepper to taste • 12 ounces spaghetti or other pasta • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley • Freshly grated Parmesan, optional Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, olives, anchovies or paste, capers, oregano, and crushed red pepper. Simmer sauce over mediumlow heat until thickened, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain pasta; return to pot. Add sauce and parsley. Toss over low heat until sauce coats pasta, about 3 minutes. Serve with Parmesan if desired (I like mine without). Serves 4. I cut this recipe in half for 2 people, and refrigerate the extra tomatoes (not in the can!) for another day.
Puttanesca Pizza I make pizza at least twice a month. This is one of my absolute favorites. I make my own dough, and bake it on a pizza stone that has been preheated in the oven for an hour at 500 degrees. You can buy prepared dough at Publix in the bakery, press it into a metal pizza pan, and bake at 450 degrees until browned and bubbling. • • • • • • • • • • • •
Prepared pizza dough, enough for a 12-inch pizza Cornmeal 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon dried oregano 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Italian cheese blend (NOT the kind with cream cheese) 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped 20 or so Kalamata or other Greek olives, pitted and coarsely chopped 3 tablespoons capers, drained 3 thin slices red onion, separated into rings 1 large ripe tomato (8 ounces) seeded, diced, lightly salted, drained, and squeezed dry Freshly ground black pepper Dried red pepper flakes to taste
While dough is rising or coming to room temperature, preheat oven and stone, if using. Combine the shredded cheese with the garlic, and prepare the other toppings. When ready to bake, place a sheet of parchment paper on the peel, sprinkle lightly with cornmeal, and stretch the dough out into a large circle (or press it into the pan). Pour the olive oil on the dough to help smooth it and make it easier to stretch. Sprinkle the oregano on the crust, followed by the cheese, olives, capers , onions, and tomato. Add a few grinds of pepper. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges of crust are golden. Serve with red pepper flakes on the side, if desired.
Snapper Puttanesca • • • • • •
2 6-ounce red snapper, grouper, or tilapia filets 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Salt and pepper to taste Dried oregano to taste 1 large garlic clove, very thinly sliced 1/2 cup halved grape or cherry tomatoes, tossed with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, salt, and pepper • 1/2 cup Kalamata or other Greek olives, pitted and coarsely chopped (I like to mix black and green) • 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed • 1 1/4-inch thick slice red onion, separated into rings Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Tear off a sheet of heavyduty aluminum foil, twice as long as it is wide (18x36 inches.) Fold crosswise across the middle, then unfold. Dry fish with paper towels, rub on both sides with the 2 tablespoons olive oil, and place next to each other left of the fold line. Sprinkle fish with salt, pepper, olives, and oregano to taste. Scatter garlic, tomatoes, capers, and onion rings over fish—it doesn’t really matter in what order. Fold the right half of the foil over the fish, and seal on all three open sides with double folds. Make sure the folds are tight. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and let sit unopened for about 3 minutes before serving. I use my kitchen shears to cut the package open from the middle, being careful of steam. I like to serve this with couscous, orzo, or rice to soak up the juice. To double, make 2 packets with 2 filets each.
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parting shot » Lauren Tomasella Carney
MAKING A SPRING BREAK FOR IT
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for a
Brahms Festival Saturday, April 16, 2016, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 17, 2016, 3:30 p.m. Mark C. Smith Concert Hall, Von Braun Center Huntsville, Alabama Tickets: 256-539-4818 or www.hso.org
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