We call this good-looking little firecracker Marcus, in homage to the complicated father figure in the young-adult Divergent book series. But this Marcus is more charming than complicated. We asked a staffer about him, and the first word out of her mouth was “awesome!” Marcus is strong, healthy and so puppy-like for a grown up boy. He is a 2 year old Rhodesian/ Hound Mix who is hankering for a home with you. To adopt Marcus or any of the other available dogs and cats searching for a home, visit pawsatlanta.org or stop by the shelter at 5287 Covington Highway in Decatur. Paws for the Cause

“Paws for the Cause,” an event sponsored by the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office to promote animal cruelty awareness, was April 18 at Glenlake Park in Decatur. The event included pet adoption, vaccines, microchipping, and a fashion show.

At left, Isabella Leon, 2, pets “Bono” who is looking for a home.

At right, Cary Caramelo, a volunteer for Canine Cellmates, and Fancy, who has worked with inmates in the Fulton County Jail. As part of the program, inmates in local jails help train pets before they adopted at local shelters.

Photos by Phil Mosier

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VetHeart of Georgia and Canine Companions for Independence will host the 28th annual Atlanta Dog Jog on May 2 at Piedmont Park. The popular community event features a one-mile run or walk with dogs at 9 a.m. and a 5K at 9:30 a.m. Registration is available online at active.com (keywords Atlanta Dog Jog) or at atlantadogjog.org.

Children are infamously good at begging for a new pet. Whether it’s an adorable new puppy or sweet little kitten, sometimes parents know that their children just aren’t ready for that responsibility. For parents concerned with their children’s readiness to care for an animal, or parents simply wanting to satiate their child’s desire to interact with adorable furballs, PAWS Atlanta’s PALS camp is the perfect summer solution. PAWS Atlanta PALS provides young animal lovers an opportunity to interact with their favorite furry friends while learning key responsibilities of pet ownership. Each camp day will include a lesson on humane education, a workshop from a veterinarian or animal expert and several hands-on animal lessons designed to foster a special appreciation for animals. Camp dates are June 15-19, June 22-26, July 13-17 and July 20-24. The cost is $250 per week. Visit pawsatlanta.org for more details.

Pets Are Loving Support Atlanta (P.A.L.S.) will mark its 25th anniversary on June 7 from 2 to 5 pm at Park Tavern’s Piedmont Room. Founded in 1990 by two Atlanta businesswomen, P.A.L.S. supplies ongoing care and support to the pets of Atlanta area people living with critical illness, disabilities, and the elderly. City Councilman Alex Wan will speak at the event and there will also be food provided by Dennis Dean Catering, a cash bar, a silent auction, and DJ Jen Peer-Rich. The event is free of charge, however a suggested donation of $20 will be appreciated and assist P.A.L.S. in continuing their heartfelt mission. For more information, visit palsatlanta.org.

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Doing good deeds while making mother-daughter memories

By Ellen Eldridge

by making six-year commitments to serving others in the community.

The main mission of the National Charity League, which started in California in 1925, is to foster mother-daughter relationships in a philanthropic organization committed to community service, leadership development and cultural experiences, said District Specialist Sharla Calloway.

“I think I have a better relationship with both my daughters because of this,” Kay Stueve, of Buckhead, said. “It’s something not about shopping or makeup or boys. We have a relationship built on serving others.”

The national organization spread in 1996 from its roots in California to Texas and Georgia, with the RoswellAlpharetta chapter, said Calloway, who is also a past president of the RoswellAlpharetta chapter.

Women of “The “Roaring Twenties” had more of a chance to speak up about what they wanted and what they wanted for their daughters, Calloway said.

“I think it had a lot to do with the fact that there were society and debutant balls, and some women in California who were part of that scene in the ‘20s wanted their daughters exposed to doing more good in the world,” Calloway said. “The original chapters were all about creating opportunities and a philanthropic thrust for their daughters.”

Kay Stueve and the elder of her two daughters, Rebecca, were invited by a sponsor to join their local Texas chapter in 2007, when Rebecca was going into the seventh grade. Younger daughter Kathleen joked that she got pulled in even before she was old enough to join officially.

“I was in third grade, involved with a lot of at-home activities,” Kathleen said. “I was just a tag-along. I needed member of the organization.”

Kathleen Stueve estimates her family averages 200 hours a year at 17 different philanthropies.

When the Stueve family moved from Texas to Georgia, they worried their work with NCL might end, but an “expansion chapter” started in Buckhead in 2002, Stueve said. She is now involved with creating an expansion chapter in Macon, which would add to the existing eight chapters in Georgia.

Calloway said each chapter could form its own identity in the national structure, so the Buckhead chapter does things a bit differently than the Dunwoody chapter.

“Not everyone who applies or is sponsored gets in,” Calloway said. “We keep it small so the leadership is meaningful, and we do ask people to commit for six years.”

Whitney Frank joined the Dunwoody chapter of NCL in 2009, when her eldest daughter was going into seventh grade. “To be eligible to join, you must have a daughter going into seventh grade,” she said.

Frank said that though she didn’t fully know what they were getting into at the time, she looked forward to serving needs in their community while spending time with her daughters. Her involvement at the girls’ school led naturally to her finding a sponsor for NCL work.

“It’s not for everybody because it is a time commitment, and our daughters have so many opportunities to do things,” Kay Stueve said, “but, yes, you see a mother-daughter and you see friends who are like-minded and think this would be a great opportunity, so you write a letter of recommendation.”

When they moved to Buckhead, Stueve and her daughters focused on charity work rather than lament the friends they missed in Texas.

“Moving when Rebecca was in eighth grade was hard, but NCL gave us the opportunity to spend time together instead of focusing on our woes and missed friends,” Kay Stueve said.

Calloway said that NCL membership benefits mothers and daughter in more ways than just the time they get to spend bonding.

“Through cultural experiences in the community, the National Charity League exposes mothers and daughters to different areas of the arts,” Calloway said.

The Stueve family concentrates most of its time with the CFY organization, which distributes computers to children during workshops.

In the Frank family, mother Whitney and daughters Addie and Olivia help 12 philanthropic organizations in the area, which includes Sandy Springs and North Fulton. “We prepare food, and then serve the homeless and working poor [at the Sandy Springs United Methodist Church’s ‘Feed and Seed’ program held every other week],” Frank said.

In addition to serving at the Community Assistance Center, Frank and her daughters have delivered Meals on Wheels, and provided snacks for clients of Senior Services of North Fulton.

“We have ushered at theater productions for Christian Youth Theater and have packaged food for Stop Hunger Now,” Frank added. “My girls have also spent multiple summers as volunteer camp counselors for the Dunwoody Nature Center and Spruill Art Center.”

They have also sorted donations and ‘shopped’ for foster families at Foster Care Support Foundation, spent time cheering up elderly residents at Mt. Vernon Towers and been responsible for the Survivors Tent at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Frank said.

“The impact has been multilayered,” Frank said. “My girls have not only been exposed to the needs of the community around us, but they have learned to be leaders, they have learned to be team players, they have learned to be compassionate and generous, and they have seen the difference a helping hand can make.

“My girls are now 18 and 16, and I know that NCL has made a difference in how they see the world. I am so grateful to be a part of this organization.”

By Joe Earle

Let the real campaign begin.

In the final hours of the 2015 General Assembly, state lawmakers approved public votes on whether to create new DeKalb County cities called LaVista Hills and Tucker. Supporters of the new cities, who have been lobbying for their creation for years, now turn to winning public support in a Nov. 3 referendum.

“The hard part is ahead of us,” former LaVista Hills Yes co-chair Mary Kay Woodworth told a crowd gathered April 13 in a Lavista Road restaurant to celebrate the legislative win and distribute new yard signs for the coming campaign.

Allen Venet, now sole chair of the LaVista Hills Yes group, said the supporters would begin raising money, distributing their message and organizing community meetings to try to convince their neighbors to approve the new city.

The legislative effort “is behind us,” Venet said. “It’s a whole new ballgame.

Now we have to work hard to get our message out.”

He said the group planned “to hold as many neighborhood meetings as people will let us in to talk.”

If voters in the area approve it, LaVista Hills would take in nearly 70,000 people and stretch from neighborhoods near Emory University to ones outside I-285. It would become the most populous city in DeKalb County and would share a border with the proposed city of Tucker. Much of the last-minute legislative bickering over the new cities’ proposals was about where to draw that line.

Venet said that if LaVista Hills wins approval at the ballot box Nov. 3, voters would return to the polls to elect members of its new city council on the day set for the 2016 Georgia presidential primary.

Venet said campaigns for the proposed new cities already face organized opposition.

“We have a difficult task,” he told the crowd. “Very few people like change. We can make the case that this is a better form of government [than DeKalb County]. We have reasons we have cities all around us that are better at spending their tax dollars and better at serving their citizens. Not perfect, but better. The opposition just says no.”

Not everyone at the gathering was convinced that the new city was needed. “I’m trying to make up my mind,” Jim Reagan said. “I think it may be a good thing because most of the people are so fed up with DeKalb County’s corruption they want something different.”

Jack Riggs said he moved into a DeKalb County neighborhood in 1994 “specifically not to have city taxes.” He said he wanted to see proponents and opponents on the same stage, arguing the same points, before he made up his mind.

And Rhea Johnson, who said he supported the concept of the new city, worried that not enough preparation had gone into it. “I am absolutely in favor of it, but there are serious issues,” he said. “There is no plan. ... It has to be well-planned, well-organized and wellexecuted. It needs to have a plan.”

But others were eager to see the new local government created so they could join Dunwoody and Brookhaven among the “new cities” created in Georgia since Sandy Springs won legislative and voter approval nearly a decade ago.

Bill Kushner said he was so eager to live in the not-yet-created city of LaVista Hills that he moved. His house had been in a disputed area that might have ended up in the proposed city of Tucker, he said, so he bought a new home a few blocks away that was safely within the boundaries of the proposed LaVista Hills.

Nearby, Stan and Betty Mislow reviewed a map of the proposed city boundaries posted on the wall of the restaurant. They said they’d lived in their home, located in the center of what could become LaVista Hills, for 42 years.

They support the city proposal. “I think it’s wonderful, a great idea,” Stan Mislow said.

Betty Mislow said she had friends who lived in other newly created cities, such as Sandy Springs. “They seem to thrive,” she said. “Why shouldn’t we? I think it’s a great opportunity to voice our opinions when they don’t seem to be heard by anybody else.”