Profile 2011 by Shelby County Newsmedia, Inc.

Shelby County

Profile

2011

Note from the editor: The Shelby County Reporter staff struggled to come up with a theme for this year’s Profile edition. The perfect idea, the one that would sum up how special Shelby County was, eluded us, no matter how hard we tried. We all threw out different ideas — “Shelby County is like a quilt!” “Ooh, what about Shelby County as a cookbook?” — but none of them came to fruition. We were worried about our lack of a theme. Would this Profile be as good as editions in years past? Since I had taken on the responsibility of leading Profile, this worry sat heavily on my shoulders. Profile means so much to this staff and to this community — I didn’t want to be responsible for the Profile that didn’t measure up. But then I took a few minutes to reflect on the contents of this Profile. I thought about Wesley Hallman’s ode to football prominence at Briarwood Christian School, about Neal Wagner’s exploration of the life of T.C. Thompson — the reason why Alabaster’s high school is the only high school in Shelby County not named after its home city. I remembered Jan Griffey’s retelling of the stories behind the Datcher family farm, Katie Hurst’s piece explaining Lonnie Holley’s need to create treasure from trash and Samantha Hurst’s look into what juvenile probation officers go through every day to help kids headed down dark paths. I thought of Jon Goering’s brilliance in telling Shelby County’s stories through photographs and of Davis Potter’s profile of one of the best window tinters in the country. I also recalled my own experience hanging out with Butch and Corley Ellis and learning more about the warm father-and-son relationship behind two of Shelby County’s movers and shakers. I realized I had nothing to worry about. Shelby County is so special it is its own theme. We here at the Reporter are just lucky to be able to tell the story of Shelby County any way we can. Here, we present to you profiles of some of Shelby County’s most compelling personalities and personas. We worked hard on this, and it is our gift to you, Shelby County. We hope it lives up to your expectations.

Profile

Shelby County 2011 Management

Tim Prince Publisher & President

Editorial

Jan Griffey Associate Publisher & Editor Amy Jones Associate Editor Wesley Hallman Sports Editor Katie Hurst Lifestyles Editor Neal Wagner City Editor Christine Boatwright Staff Writer Brad Gaskins Staff Writer Fred Guarino Staff Writer/Public Records Jon Goering Photographer

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Mary Jo Eskridge Customer Service Annie McGilvray Administrative/Advertising Assistant

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Shelby County Newspapers, Inc. P.O. Box 947 Columbiana, AL 35051 205.669.3131 4

Profile 2011

inside...

Person of the year

Quilts of comfort

Mister Sandman 10 Fire family: When fire becomes a family business 15 Descended from slaves, man works to salvage local familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history 17 Climbing her way to the top 21 A championship program 23 Behind the glass 26 Raising a family in faith 28 Manna from heaven 32 Riding on hope 35 Charting a better course 38 Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in a name? 41 Boys of Shelby County 44 Giving Moore 50 Life is a highway 54 44

Profile 2011

TOP LEFT: Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman lets out a laugh while on a conference call in her office. BOTTOM LEFT: Chapman gives an interview to television news crews following a certification of the votes from the November elections. ABOVE: Chapman looks over documents with Chief of Staff Emily Thompson before the start of a staff meeting in Chapman’s office in the Capitol Building in Montgomery. RIGHT: Chapman addresses members of her staff during a meeting.

Beth Chapm

aybe it was the desire to help out her paraplegic cousin as a child growing up in Greenville. Perhaps it was milling around after school inside the Butler County Courthouse, where her mother worked in the tax assessor’s office. It could have been her infatuation, as a sixth-grader, with the Watergate scandal that broke in the early 1970s. No matter the reason, Shelby County resident Beth Chapman grew fond of politics By DAVIS POTTER at an early age. Images by JON GOERING That affection has carried over into her adult life and has led to her position as the Alabama secretary of state. Chapman, who has held the position since 2006, recently began serving her second term after receiving 63 percent of the state’s votes to defeat Democratic opponent Scott Gilliland in the Nov. 2, 2010 election. “I’ve been blessed and fortunate to get an additional four years to do what I really love doing,” Chapman said. “Administration is my gift, and this is the job that I love.” Local residents were emphatic with their support of Chapman, as she received nearly 50,000 votes within the county. “Shelby County is a county of highly-educated people who are very

politically involved in their community,” she said. “It honors me that they do vote for me and have always consistently voted for me in very high numbers. They won’t support you if they don’t think that you’re right for the job. It’s very humbling.” Before running for secretary of state, Chapman served as state auditor for one term. When elections rolled around in November 2006, Chapman was ready to challenge herself. Problems within the leadership of the secretary of state’s office prompted a run at the job. “I genuinely am a fixer,” she said. “I like to take bad situations and make them better. I like to see what I’m doing — where it was, where we’ve brought it and where we can take it. I love a challenge, and I saw so many things that needed to be corrected. It was the perfect opportunity.” Chief among her concerns are military voting and the presentation of photo identification for voters — both when registering and at the polls — in order to prevent voter fraud. “When I ran (for secretary of state), I said, ‘No more dead people voting in Alabama,’” she said. Absentee ballots have also been part of the problem, Chapman said. “How can we write effective laws that will better manage the use and abuse of absentee ballots?” she said. “There’s going to need to be jail time. It’s got to be stopped. There’s got to be tougher penalties, and not just a $50 fine.” Chapman got her feet wet in politics in the early 1990s as a 32-year-old appointment secretary for the campaign of former Alabama Gov. Fob James, who was shooting for his second term. “(James) just saw that I was organized, and that I was a get-it-done, mover-and-shaker type young person,” Chapman said.

Profile 2011

“Administration

is my gift, and this is the job that I love.

”

man person of the year Before working for James, Chapman spent 10 years as the state executive director for the Alabama chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, where she said her business skills and conservative beliefs blended. “With nonprofit, you have nothing to work with,” Chapman said. “Nobody knows better how to make something from nothing than a nonprofit person. It was a perfect fit for me.” Chapman received her undergraduate degree in communications from the University of Montevallo, where she was a Student Government Association officer, the leader of College Night and a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. She also completed her master’s degree in education at the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1990. Her involvement in college activities began putting her political ideas into motion. “You learn different levels of responsibility,” Chapman said. “That structure was excellent for me. College Night, SGA and Alpha Gam sorority are as much responsible for my civic activities and for continuing and realizing the importance of the principles and the values than just small-town America gave me.” Chapman has spent her adult life living in Hoover and the northern part of Shelby County with her husband, James, and their two sons, Winston Taylor and William Thatcher, who were named after former British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Much like the residents of Shelby County, Chapman said her husband’s endorsement has been overwhelming. “Any political person who tells you their spouse does not have input is lying to you,” Chapman said. “Who better to run something past that you’re thinking about and who better to have as a sounding board than your husband

Profile 2011

or your spouse? He’s always there, he always listens and he’s very patient.” Although Chapman is a self-proclaimed “workaholic,” she has understood the importance of a balanced life. “There’s a time for work, and there’s a time for play,” she said. She said her free time is spent watching movies, taking trips to the beach and writing, as evidenced by three books she has written. She can also entertain a crowd, drawing from her weekends performing stand-up comedy routines at various venues in Alabama, Florida and Georgia for a brief time after college. “It was just something I did for fun. I like to have a good time,” Chapman said. “People who work with me cannot believe I have a sense of humor. I can take anything and make it funny — sometimes in a very dry sense.” Humor, she said, is an important part of relating to the people she comes in contact with daily. “It’s important to remain grounded,” Chapman said. “People don’t want someone they can’t talk to or relate to. People want people to represent them who are like them.” With the position being term-limited, these will be Chapman’s final four years as the secretary of state. Chapman said she is unsure of what life after politics will hold. She may later entertain the thought of running for a higher office if given the opportunity. “I’m never going to close the door, but God’s going to have to open one really, really wide for me to want to go through it,” she said. The future, though, can wait. Chapman is focused on the task at hand. “I had a job before the political arena. I’m going to have a job after the political arena,” she said. “I’m going to enjoy my time of service. I’m going to do it, and I’m going to do it very, very well.”

Quilts of comfort

6. 1. During the months before his death on April 22,

2010, Milton White spent much of his time wrapped in a quilt and resting on the couch while the cancer he had been fighting for years raged through his body. “It was sad,” his wife, Gay, said.“It was hard to let him go. But there wasn’t anything that could be done.” The quilt was made by the CUMC quilt ministry and presented to Milton after a round of golf with his friends. Now that

he’s gone, Gay still sees the quilt everyday, but instead of seeing it wrapped around her husband, it rests on a chair in her bedroom. She says she enjoys seeing it – that it was a great source of comfort for Milton, and now it is a great source of comfort for her. 2. Bill Seale can often be found wrapped in a quilt, relaxing in his favorite chair in the company of his wife, Carol, in their home in Columbiana. Bill received his quilt from the CUMC quilt ministry when he started receiving dialysis treatments.

He said although his blanket is a source of comfort for him, he doesn’t take it when he goes in for dialysis because the garments he wears get bloodied when the nurses change out the needles, and he doesn’t want to ruin the special quilt. 3. Columbiana Quilts for Kids cofounders Agnes Pool (Left) and Shellia Gallups (Center left) make a quilt delivery to Owen’s House Executive Director Cindy Greer (Center right) while volunteer quilter Rose Watts (right) looks on. 4. Columbiana resident

Profile 2011

3. When local families face hardships, two groups of Columbiana volunteers have found a way to literally wrap those hurting in warmth and comfort. The Columbiana United Methodist Church quilt ministry quilts personalized blankets for those in both physical and emotional pain. Columbiana Quilts for Kids volunteers lovingly stitch each quilt for children served at local shelters, non-profit organizations and Children’s Hospital. Both groups have produced countless quilts for families across the county and each blanket could tell its own story of comfort and healing. Photo essay by Jon Goering

7. Michelle Carter, whose daughter and son were involved in an ATV accident on Alabama 25, sits on the bed of her daughter, Brynleigh Welch, holding the quilt she received from the CUMC quilt ministry. Welch was killed in the accident when a sedan struck the ATV on which she and her brother Christian were riding. Carter tries to recall the day the quilt was delivered. “It did mean a lot, but I think at the time, we were still a little numb. We were just numb to the whole situation,” Carter said. She said

Profile 2011

the quilt was delivered the day they brought Christian home from the hospital, six days after the accident. 5. Columbiana Quilts for Kids co-founder Shelia Gallups works on a quilt in the Columbiana Public Library. 6. Columbiana Quilts for Kids co-founder Agnes Pool works with a sewing machine during a Saturday morning workshop. 7. Jackie Cates remembers her son Johnny, who passed away Oct. 23, 2008, through his quilt. Johnny was an important and active member of the

CUMC quilt ministry before his death. Jackie said that Johnny had a number of health problems that led to his death in 2008. After Johnny died, his brother Jamie was diagnosed with cancer. The quilt ministry used squares that Johnny had purchased and put together to make a quilt for his brother, so even though he didn’t actually make the quilt, said Jackie, the quilt for Jamie was made using Johnny’s materials. Cancer claimed Jamie’s life on Sept. 3, 2010.

Mister Sandm

Profile 2011

man By KATIE HURST Images by JON GOERING

riving past the home of Lonnie Holley in Harpersville, it’s easy to overlook the rundown trailer and beat-up brown van that lay discarded among the pine trees along the dirt drive. What brings a second glance are the tattered quilts hanging from low tree limbs, the boards of plywood adorned with colorful paintings and the pieces of junk and discarded appliances neatly assembled into chaotic sculptures throughout the yard. A large sculpture of a human profile near the LEFT: Har persville artist, Lonnie Holley, house is carved from yellow foam and stands five sculptures crouches in hi and assemblag s yard where he es out of foun feet tall. Other items, such as electrical wire, a sculptures does the major d materials, su near his house. ity of his work. ch as the yello A light fixture, railroad wood and strands of a mop, wires, twig BOVE: Holley w He forms w foam he used s and hardwar orks on one of to carve the tw e th to e many assem are tied together and dangle from tree branches. Holley’s ap gether, he crea o profile blages in his ya titude for scul tes a piece that pting sandston rd. Placing woo re Holley’s house sits on one lot, but his art pr es en ts th e earned him th e great minds d, e nickname “S in America. BEL knows no border line and sprawls out into the andman.” OW: surrounding land and forest. Holley calls the items in his yard “found sitting on top of the materials,” and he uses them to craft sculptures house. I was learning at a very early age what is be brain dead.” and assemblages that represent broader human now my art, but I didn’t know it then.” Miraculously, Holley recovered from the issues. To Holley, every piece of junk has a When Holley was 7, the woman he lived with accident. After an adolescence spent among message. Items that were once lying beside the died in her bed at home. He said her husband was foster homes and corrections facilities in Alabama railroad tracks or tossed into a ditch in downtown not home when it happened, and blamed Holley and New Orleans, eventually Holley was taken in Birmingham transform into meaningful pieces of for killing his wife. by his maternal grandmotherin Birmingham, who art in Holley’s skilled hands. “Her husband was beating me and whipping on reunited him with his family. What on the outside might look like an eyesore me, claiming I had killed her,” he said. “Every day In 1979, his sister lost two of her to some, is, in fact, the home of a man whose I would get a whooping. One day after getting a children when they work can be found in art museums around the beating, I took a wagon and ran across the street world, including the Smithsonian and the gardens and got hit by a car. It drug me under the car for of the White House. two and half blocks. I was unconscious, Much like his artwork, Holley also managed to and they said I would transform the meager beginnings of his life into a masterpiece story of a man and artist who has overcome.

IN THE BEGINNING The story of this eccentric artist begins in 1950 when Holley was born in Birmingham, the seventh of 27 children. “My mother had six kids before me,” Holley said. “When I was 1 and a half, she gave me to a woman who took me away from Alabama.” Much of his early childhood is unknown, but Holley said at the age of 4 he was sold to a woman at the Alabama State Fairgrounds for a pint of whiskey. “I grew up out near the state fairgrounds, and the drive-in theater was right across the ditch from my house,” he said. “I started picking up paper when I was 5 years old. I started learning about human behavior by watching every movie that came on at the drive-in

Profile 2011

Holley’s yard is his studio.

side of the road, along railroad He collects found material from the

died in a house fire. The family couldn’t afford tombstones for the children, so Holley carved grave markers out of sandstone he collected from a nearby foundry. “It really started something in my life,” he said. “I didn’t know it would excel to the point it has. It stuck in my mind in a way I didn’t understand. I did not know about art; I didn’t even know how to spell art. “My artwork is to show people how thankful I am to get to use my brain in any way I can,” he added. “I didn’t know it would take me to the Smithsonian, but that’s how it happened.”

A FOLK ARTIST IS BORN After carving the baby tombstones, Holley continued making art by carving sandstone. Soon he progressed to using other materials he found from the earth, or littered on top of it. He started building assemblages in his yard, sculptures made of found materials — scraps of wood, strings from a mop, loose hardware and electrical wires. All of Holley’s pieces have a meaning, whether describing environmental issues, human struggles or the evils of HDTV. In 1981, Holley approached Richard Murray, the then-director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, with examples of his sandstone sculptures. Murray put several of Holley’s pieces on display in the museum and introduced his work to the curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Two of his pieces were included in the Smithsonian exhibit “More Than Land and Sky: Art from Appalachia.” “That made me so proud,” Holley said. “I started doing things with that in mind, that I was

doing things for the greater art community.” Holley was soon being praised as a selftaught, Southern-grown folk artist, and his work was being acquired by the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. During this time, Holley was living on a hilltop property near the Birmingham airport. He said the land surrounding his home had more than 3,500 pieces of artwork covering the grass and entwined in the trees. In the late ‘90s, during the Birmingham airport expansion project, Holley was informed his property would be condemned. After a long court battle with the airport authority, Holley moved to his current home in Harpersville and started over. “It’s just what I had to do to endure,” he said. “I had to continue my work because my work was more important than my life situation.”

THE SANDMAN Though today Holley’s work can be found in art galleries throughout the world, his name hailed by art critics and his story told in publications such as The New York Times, his day-to-day life hasn’t changed much since he carved his first baby tombstone. After 30 years of serving the art community, he still wanders the streets of downtown Birmingham searching out material for his work. He works everyday in his yard, murmuring to himself as his hands work a pocketknife over the rough surface of sandstone, creating the profile of an African-American child’s face. His black hair and beard have begun to

tracks or out of ditches and accumul

ates it for use in his yard.

turn gray, but his fingers are still adorned with the gold rings and trinkets of his youth, his fingernails kept long and slender. After moving to Harpersville, Holley started visiting local schools to give art lessons to students. He always brought sandstone to carve and the children in the area soon nicknamed him “The Sandman.” Holley is still often found at local festivals in Shelby County and the Birmingham area, where he’s more than happy to carve a sandstone sculpture while telling his story to anyone who passes by. These days he’s venturing out into new mediums in an attempt to express himself in new ways. He often works with computers now, using programs such as Paint and Photoshop to draw digital pieces of art. He’s also moved from folk art to folk music and is working on recording an album. “I sing about my life, of what I’ve had to endure,” he said. “Or I may sing about stormy weather, what’s in the clouds, what’s in the rain.” Holley now has 15 children of his own along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Holley said he considers himself blessed by all the family in his life. “They come around me and look around at how busy the mind of their grandfather is,” he said. “I tell them their minds are busy.” Though some have called him eccentric, while others have claimed he’s naturally gifted, Holley said he has his eyes set on a higher purpose. “I think I’m a spokesman for the arts of earth,” he said.

Profile 2011

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FIRE

family

Donal d Wayn Shirley (Ri g e, (Le ft) wh ht) passed o is no o w the n his love o fire ch ief in C f firefighting helsea to his son .

By KATIE HURST Images by JON GOERING

ouse fires and car wrecks may seem like odd settings for family reunions, but for several Shelby County firefighters, looking across a blaze into the face of a father, son or brother, is just another day on the job. None know this better than father and son pair Donald and Wayne Shirley in Chelsea, whose easy-going relationship was formed over years of responding to emergencies.

Profile 2011

[When ﬁre becomes a family business] Wayne, who now serves as the Chelsea Fire Chief, said he grew up in the same fire station he now works in everyday. In 1980, Donald helped build that station with his own hands, clearing land and laying cinder blocks. When he wasn’t working as a diesel mechanic, Donald volunteered for the first volunteer fire department in Chelsea. Wayne was 11 years old and thought hanging out at the fire station and riding along on calls with his dad was heaven. “I don’t think I respected it enough then to worry

about him,” Wayne said. “At the time I just thought it was exciting.” As soon as Wayne was old enough, he started volunteering at the station, also. “We always rode together going on calls,” he said. “When we were volunteers, we’d just get in the car or meet each other there. We ran every call that came in.” More than 10 years later, they’re still running calls together even though Donald has retired from the fire department. Now he volunteers on the Chelsea

(Standing L-R) Danny, Phillip, Mike, Andy and father Bill Reid (kneeling) in the fire station where they spent their childhood in Montevallo. Among the five men, the Reids have been fighting fires for more than 100 years.

Citizen Observer Patrol and often assists at fire and police calls. Donald said he likes being able to help out his son and other public safety officials. “If he needs something, he knows who to call and vice versa,” he said. “I keep a two-way radio in the truck so I listen to all the calls. I’ll run home, put on my uniform and go help out.” The Shirleys aren’t the only family that often work emergency calls together. A fire in Alabaster once found five members of the Reid family responding to the same call — Bill Reid, fire chief at the Montevallo Fire Department, and his four sons. Bill said he remembers someone teasing him by asking, “Why didn’t you bring your wife?” The four Reid sons — triplets Phillip, Danny and Mike and younger brother Andy — all said they remember growing up among the fire trucks in

Montevallo. At the age of 14, they each joined the Fire Explorer program, allowing them to assist on calls and learn from the volunteer firefighters. “As long as we can remember, we’ve been running around the fire station,” Danny said. “I remember going out on calls at 3 a.m — only on weekends, of course. All of us and our friends would hang out at the fire station instead of being at home playing Nintendo.” The Reids still spend most of their time at fire stations across the county. Phillip and Andy work full time at the Alabaster Fire Department and Danny and Mike work in Pelham. Mike also volunteers with his dad in Montevallo. “When I look at this place, even just driving by, I think, ‘That’s home,’” Mike said. “This is where we

all got our start.” Phillip said he thinks the reason firefighting often stays within families is the sense of family that already exists within fire departments. All four of the Reid sons now have children of their own but say they have no expectations when it comes to their kids’ career choices. “We were never pressured or pushed in any direction,” Mike said. “Whatever we wanted to do was fine with our parents. I want to have the same attitude with my kids.” Wayne Shirley said he feels the same about his sons, who so far have not shown an interest in firefighting. “I don’t want to force it on them,” Wayne said. “I want them to do what makes them happy. I want them to have that choice like I did.”

Profile 2011

By JAN GRIFFEY

Images by JON GOERING

f land could talk, the stories the Datcher family farm could tell. Begun by former slaves, the now 500-acre farm in Harpersville envelopes the original 100 acres, purchased for $500 by newly freed slaves Albert Baker and his wife, Lucy Wallace Baker, in 1879. Unfortunately, most of the stories of the Bakers’ lives are lost, as often was the case in black families. The pain of the past was something Albert Baker Datcher Jr.’s ancestors wanted to put behind them. But Datcher, after having an awakening of sorts, is determined to learn as much now about his greatgrandparents’ lives as possible. Very few details of the pre-Civil War life of Datcher’s great-grandfather, Albert Baker, and great-grandmother, Lucy Wallace Baker, were passed down within the family. Datcher grew up knowing his ancestors were slaves. After all, most blacks born and raised in the South are descended from slaves. As a young boy, his mother told him what she knew about his great-grandparents. After 50 years of slavery, Albert Baker became a landowner in the 1870s and began a thriving farm that provided shelter and refuge for many during those early years after the Civil War. Lucy Baker Wallace was a noted midwife and delivered many babies during that same time. But Datcher said few of those stories meant much to him until he reached about the same age that his great-grandfather was when he became a free man. “Because I was young, I didn’t care so much. It wasn’t until later, when I was standing up in the graveyard between the farm and the church and was looking at my great-grandfather’s tombstone,that I realized the life he must have led,” Datcher said. “According to his tombstone, he lived until he was 105 — born in 1812 and died in 1917. When I saw that, I said to myself, ‘Wait a minute. He was 50 years old when he became a free man.’ I was

Descended from slaves,

man works to salvage local familyÕ s history

ABOVE: An old photograph of Albert Baker Sr. and Lucy Wallace Baker. BELOW: An old photo album belonging to Lucy Wallace Baker sits on a table at Albert Datcher’s residence.

“F

rom the time I was 7 or 8, when we would go to Columbiana, my mother would point out places to me and tell me why they were important to my family.

”

just about turning 50 myself and I thought, ‘Oh, God. When he was freed after the life that he lived, he had nothing. He never owned anything. Never did his labor mean anything for him. His life really didn’t start until he was 50 years old.’ “Just think about what he accomplished after age 50. Thinking about that made me feel very bad about myself. I went to college for three years — could have graduated, but I wanted to farm. I had every advantage. And thinking about his life, and what he overcame, it made me think about myself, ‘Man, you aren’t worth a darn.’ ” That realization at about age 50 started a fire inside the great-grandson of slaves, and Datcher has spent much of his time since researching their lives and his family.

HIS LIFE WAS NOT HIS OWN Information about Albert Baker’s early life is sketchy. Datcher knows that later in his life, Baker was a slave on the Scott plantation, which was located near the Wallace Klein plantation, between Wilsonville and Harpersville. Those were two of the largest plantations at the time in southern Shelby County, he said. Datcher’s research in the Alabama archives shows each of those plantations operated with more than 100 slaves each. Datcher said evidence shows Albert Baker was a devoutly religious man and attended Scott’s Grove Church. Pastor of the church was the Rev. Scott, who was a white slave owner. “Albert Baker was so religious, I mean, religious to the teeth. One story that has been passed down in the family was he once had his son-in-law arrested for cussing on Sunday,” Datcher said. While Albert Baker was born in the area, the census during that time lists his father as having been from Tennessee and lists the Baker side of his family as being of mixed black and white ancestry.

“All of his Baker relatives are listed as mulattos. We think his grandfather may have been white,” Datcher said. Lucy Wallace Baker, on the other hand, was born on the Wallace Klein plantation, he said. She was considerably younger than Albert Baker, but the two met at Scott’s Grove Church. She lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1930. “From the time I was 7 or 8, when we would go to Columbiana, my mother would point out places to me and tell me why they were important to my family,” Datcher said. “She would point out the Scott place, and she would definitely point out the Wallace Klein plantation.” The one story Datcher remembers hearing from his grandmother, Rachel Baker, daughter of Albert and Lucy Wallace Baker, came about because of her curiosity about the scars on her father’s back. “She said one day he was pulling his shirt off and she saw whelp scars on his back. She didn’t dare ask him about it because he was so strict, but she asked her mother. She told her that he had slipped off the Scott plantation to come and see her, but got caught when he was returning. They beat him for it,” Datcher said.

A FREE MAN — AND LANDOWNER Datcher believes his great-grandfather grew up on a plantation owned by the Singleton family. Later in his life, he was sold to the Scott plantation, he said. After the end of the Civil War and gaining his freedom, Datcher said his great-grandfather continued to live and work on the Scott plantation. The Singleton plantation was owned by Dr. John Singleton, who left his plantation to his son, Dr. W.R. Singleton, also a slave owner, who was about the same age as Albert Baker. “We think they knew each other when they were younger and became such

RIGHT: On his family’s homestead in Harpersville, Albert Datcher looks at an aerial photo of the farm. BELOW: Churchgoers react to a sermon by Pastor Taylor during a service at the Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Harpersville. BOTTOM: Albert Datcher walks through the family cemetery, which is located beside the old Baptist church in Harpersville.

Profile 2011

good friends that Dr. Singleton deeded the 100 acres of land to Albert and Lucy Baker in 1879,” Datcher said. He has the original, hand-written deed, which transferred the land from Singleton to his great-grandparents. “It was said to me that Dr. Singleton cared so much about my greatgrandfather that he sold the land to him for basically nothing. It had to say it was $500 on the deed because you couldn’t do anything for a black person at that time,” Datcher said. The Baker homestead, which still stands on land across the street from where Datcher lives today, was home through those difficult years to a myriad of black families, many newly freed from slavery, looking for work, shelter and food for their families. It was a win-win situation for Albert Baker, who needed labor to help operate his farm. Two who came to settle on the Baker land were Louis Datcher and his wife, in 1880. “Two of Louis Datcher’s sons married two of Albert Baker’s daughters,” he said. Rachel Baker, Datcher’s grandmother, married Frank Datcher, one of Louis Datcher’s sons. Rachel and Frank Datcher’s son, Albert “Red” Datcher Sr., married Ruth Garrett. Albert had sons Albert Baker Datcher Jr., named for his great-grandfather, Willie Floyd Datcher, and a daughter, Josephine McCrimon Kidd. While Albert Baker was busy on his farm, Lucy Wallace Baker worked as an accomplished midwife. “I found records on Lucy Baker being a midwife at the Alabama archives. She was one of only two sanctioned midwives who were ex-slaves,” Datcher said. Her daughter, Rachel, also took up midwifery, he said. “They were also herbalogists and known for mixing herbs and using them to keep people healthy,” Datcher said. One of Rachel’s daughters, Ada Sanders, also became a midwife and

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delivered babies in Alabama from 1940 to 1973. Datcher has her journals, detailing her deliveries. “Between the three of them — Lucy, Rachel and Ada — they delivered children from 1880 to 1973.”

PRESERVING A FAMILY’S LEGACY “For a long time, I did not understand the love for the land that my daddy and my granddaddy showed. I didn’t understand how important this land was, that it had been a magnet for others and had been a safe place, a haven that helped people and families survive,” Datcher said. “When Albert Baker was starting this farm, a lot of families plopped down right in here, next to him. My grandfather did the same thing during the Great Depression. Lots of people stayed right here, helping him.” Datcher’s father, “Red” Datcher, ran the farm from about 1935 to 1972. “Daddy was a most prolific farmer. He had cows, hogs, a hog parlor, sold chicken eggs, had chickens for sale. We had at least 100 head of cattle, we sold between 100 and 150 hogs per year. He also raised cotton, soybeans, wheat, oats, peanuts, sorghum, clover and corn. Today, the Datcher family farm is the largest black-owned farm in Shelby County and is operated by Willie Datcher’s son, Marvin, with the aid of his brothers. Datcher, whose home is filled with notes, papers, books, tattered family records and photos, hopes to compile his research into a book one day. Until that time, he is making certain his only child — daughter Altonett Datcher — as well as his nieces and nephews and other family members know about their roots. “My daughter knows all about her family, everything I have learned. In fact, I may have told her too much. It’s to the point that she is telling me to shut up,” Datcher said.

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Climbing her way to the top

Miranda Carter sits in the Johnny Ray’s restaurant she owns in Chelsea.

t age 14, the thoughts that filled Miranda Carter’s mind weren’t those of the typical teenage girl. She wasn’t hanging around after school with friends, going to the mall or cheering on her hometown sports teams. Instead, after school, she would strike out walking to her job at Johnny Ray’s in Pelham. Since that young age, Carter’s mind has been all business. The 2002 graduate of Pelham High School is driven, and at only 26, she’s

to do so. He had the Pelham store and he had a family. I told him I would run it for him and he was kind of like, ‘Yeah, right.’” Carter was living on her own in her own apartment, working at Johnny Ray’s and going to school at UAB, studying business. “I would go to school from 8 to 11 every morning and then work from 11 to 9 every night as the night manager at Johnny Ray’s,” she said. “I was going to school, paying everything on my own.” She wanted more, and she wanted it quickly.

has money.’ No, no! I didn’t have a dime. I had to borrow money from Josh and from Kevin just to pay for my business license, which was like $100 or something. I mean it was down to the nitty gritty,” she said. Carter literally lived in her restaurant for weeks before it opened, taking care of every detail of opening the business. Her mother, Linda Riopel, took a week off work to help, and her younger brothers, Jeremy and Alex, missed several days of school, working with her at the restaurant. Her family has been an important

well on her way to accomplishing her personal goal of owning three businesses by the age of 30. But it didn’t come easy. “I mean, who loans an 18-year-old $250,000?” she asked, smiling as she thought about the impossibility of the dream she made come true. As unlikely as it seemed, Carter made it happen. At 18, Carter incorporated her Johnny Ray’s restaurant in Chelsea, becoming the youngest person in Alabama to incorporate a business, she said. At age 19, that business opened and by any measure, it has been a success. “My boss at the time, Josh Palmer, who owned the Pelham Johnny Ray’s, was thinking about opening another location in Chelsea, but he was reluctant

When Palmer didn’t take her seriously, she went directly to Johnny Ray’s, who told her she first needed to secure the financing for a restaurant, which would cost about $250,000. “I went to every single bank here — Hoover, Pelham, everywhere — and they basically laughed at me. I had a little bit saved up, maybe $10,000, but that was it,” she said. The more they laughed, the more persistent Carter became. “Then, I went to see Kevin Morris at M&F Bank in Chelsea. And he told me he would loan me half the money to do it, if I could come up with the other half.” Her boss at the Pelham store, Palmer, came through with the other half she needed. “Everybody says, ‘Oh, your family

part of Carter’s success. Brother Jeremy helps manage the Chelsea Johnny Ray’s, which has since expanded to take up the storefront next door to it, and he and Carter have recently opened a second business within it, Yogurt Your Way, which Carter hopes to franchise. Carter, her mother and Jeremy were dealt a serious blow when their brother and son, Alex, the youngest of the three children, died in a gun accident in 2009. The family reacted the only way they knew how: they went to work. “A bunch of people were shocked and some thought it was selfish because we found out about Alex at 2 in the morning and we were at work that same day. We were here every day from opening to close. That was the best thing we could do,” she said.

“I was going to school, paying everything on my own. ”

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Alex was Johnny Ray’s biggest fan and loved to promote the business. He loved to wear the Johnny Ray’s “pig” mascot, she said, and his favorite event was the Chelsea July 4 fireworks display, which Carter and Johnny Ray’s sponsor each year. “He died on June 30 and I knew we had to go forward with those fireworks for Alex,” she said. “Things are a lot different now without him.” Her family — including daughter, Juliana Swinford, age 4 — is her priority. “I wanted to prove people wrong. So many thought it was a joke,” Carter said. “I struggled all my life. I watched my mother struggle and go without for us. She wouldn’t get her hair done. She wouldn’t buy herself makeup. It was a big deal for me to go to college. I knew one day I was going to be able to repay her.” She hopes to eventually sell her Chelsea Johnny Ray’s restaurant to Jeremy and move on to other business pursuits. Her niche in business is starting them and marketing, she said. She has joined the area’s chambers of commerce and every civic group and organization she can, including strong participation in this year’s South Shelby Relay for Life. Also, she hopes to eventually be elected to the Chelsea City Council. “The city and Mayor (Earl) Niven have been so supportive of me. I think I have something I can contribute,” she said. What will her next business venture be? If she knows, she’s not telling. “Until I know it’s going to happen, I’d never tell you,” she said, eyes twinkling with infectious enthusiasm. “I do know it’s not going to be a restaurant. I want something totally different.”

By JAN GRIFFEY Image by JON GOERING

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m a h c

i h p s p n o r i ogr p

Briarwood players walk under the Lions Pride sign after practice.

igh school football By WESLEY HALLMAN of Alabama. The Lions have won more than 70 percent of their games since joining the Alabama High School Athletic players across Shelby County dream Association in 1983. That percentage rose to nearly 80 percent Images by JON GOERING of winning state during the past decade. championships. The staggering numbers are impressive for a program that was once considered At one school, state titles aren’t a dream run-of-the-mill. The Lions wandered through the high school football landscape in the Alabama — they’re an expectation. Briarwood Christian School junior Christian Athletic Conference in the program’s first 11 years of existence. Briarwood quarterback Ben Craft, who saw the Lions’ didn’t experience much success in its first six years under the AHSAA umbrella, football program as an outsider from rival either. Chelsea before joining the team in 2009, is No one confused Briarwood for a championship contender back then. The Lions one of the best sources on the subject. managed only five playoff appearances and one region title before 1990. The first step in Briarwood’s championship progression came when the school “Growing up in Chelsea, we modified our system after Briarwood,” Craft said. “I admired the program. They were always at the top. They always had great players hired Fred Yancey as its head football coach in 1990. and great coaches. That’s what (Briarwood) is known for.” Yancey, who coached high school football in Tennessee and Georgia before joining Briarwood football and championships fit together as tight as the team’s gold the Lions, needed only one season to put Briarwood on the map. helmets and white chin straps. Yancey coached the Lions to an 11-2 record, which was a nine-game turnaround Briarwood is among the winningest high school football programs in the state from the season before he arrived, a region championship and an appearance in the

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Trophies and posters illustrating Briarwood’s past successes sit on Coach Yancey’s desk. BELOW: Briarwood football coach Fred Yancey stands in his offi ce in the Briarwood football facility.

Class 3A quarterfinals in his first season at the helm. Since taking over the program, Yancey has led the Lions to more than 200 victories, 19 region titles, 18 consecutive playoff appearances and three AHSAA state championships. Another magic ingredient in the Lions’ success has been the assistant coaches. Yancey’s staff annually includes at least a handful of former collegiate players, including former Alabama star Chris Donnelly, who won a national championship as a player with the Crimson Tide. Yancey’s staff through the years has included plenty of former collegiate standouts, including former Alabama All-American Jeremiah Castille and Ole Miss standout Mike Forrester. “This is a complete staff,” Yancey said. “They have a big-picture view of why they’re coaching. To them, it’s way bigger

than football. They’re molding kids for a lifetime.” The school has produced approximately three dozen collegiate players during Yancey’s time as the Lions’ head coach, including more than 10 players who played in the Southeastern Conference. Yancey gives credit for the Lions’ accomplishments in the past two decades to the countless players who donned the navy and gold on Friday nights and took the natural-grass field at Lions Pride Stadium. “We’ve always had a bunch of great kids who’ve been willing to work hard,” Yancey said. Many of the best players to matriculate through the Briarwood program were standouts at the same position. In college, there’s a phrase, ‘Quarterback U,’ for programs that consistently produce the best signal

callers headed to play professional football. If there was such a term at the highschool level, Briarwood Christian School fits the bill. There is a common link between the best teams in school history — an All-State quarterback running the offense. From Bart Yancey to Jeff Flannery and Joe Craddock to Barrett Trotter, the Lions always feature a mobile athlete with a strong arm behind center. Craddock, who just wrapped up his first season as the Lions’ offensive coordinator, said the Briarwood program

is known for its quarterback tradition. The tradition includes a special jersey number — No. 7 — reserved for the school’s best quarterbacks. “(Wearing No. 7) means a ton,” said Craddock. “A lot of great quarterbacks wore it before and after my time.” It all started with Bart Yancey, the son of the head coach, who took over a 2-7 team and led it to an 11-2 turnaround in the duo’s first season at the

school in 1990. Yancey became the first Briarwood quarterback to continue his career at

“To them, it’s way bigger than football. They’re molding kids for a lifetime.”

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the collegiate level when he signed a scholarship to play at Samford University. Yancey still attends every Briarwood game, his father said. “(Bart) is our biggest fan,” Yancey said. Flannery was the next great Briarwood quarterback, as he led the Lions to back-to-back Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 3A state championships in 1998-1999. Flannery also played collegiately at Samford. The tradition continued with Craddock, who quarterbacked Briarwood to its first AHSAA Class 5A state championship in school history in 2003. Craddock, who played in college at Middle Tennessee State University, recently joined the Lions’ coaching staff after a professional playing career in Italy. Trotter, the most recent college-ready quarterback to come out of the school, is a redshirt sophomore at Auburn University. Trotter, who led Briarwood to the Class 5A championship game as a senior in 2007, holds most of the Briarwood passing records, including career passing completions, yards and touchdowns. The quartet holds the premier spot in the statistical record book at Briarwood in all passing categories. The group is joined by three other standout quarterbacks who wore jersey No. 7, including Daniel McClurkin, Alex Mitchell and Paul Barber. Yancey said he was able to see the potential in each of his star quarterbacks before he took the field. “We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of great athletes come through the program,” Yancey said. “We’ve been able to take great athletes, train them and work with them.” One word comes to mind when the quarterbacking quartet and other past Briarwood football players are the topic — family. From head coach Fred Yancey coaching his son at quarterback and Forrester, a defensive assistant coach, teaching his sons the same fundamentals he utilized as a player, there have been many family connections within the program since 1990. If there was a first family of Briarwood Christian School football, it would be the Castille family. All three of Castille’s sons played for Yancey at the school. Any offensive record not held by a quarterback most likely has Tim Castille’s name written at the top. Tim starred on both offense and defense on Briarwood’s two AHSAA Class 3A title teams in the late 1990s before following in his father’s footsteps in Tuscaloosa. Tim is now in his fourth season of professional football with the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs. Simeon Castille, Jeremiah’s middle son, played key roles in the Lions’ AHSAA Class 5A state championship team in 2003. Simeon also played at Alabama before spending time with the NFL’s San Diego Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals. Caleb Castille, the youngest of the siblings, wrapped up his career at Briarwood following the 2009 season. Caleb is currently a redshirt freshman for the Crimson Tide. Yancey recruited Jeremiah to the school as an assistant coach during Tim and Simeon’s playing careers, but he joked the former NFL Player wasn’t the main target. “I’ve joked with all of our coaches, ‘I wasn’t only trying to get you, I was also trying to get your sons,’” Yancey said. “We’ve had some great players come through the program, and the Castille brothers lead the pack.” Members of the Castille family played a key role in Briarwood’s best teams, but they weren’t the only reason for the Lions’ success. The star players have always been surrounded by committed role players who gave the Lions their championship

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edge, Yancey said. Players have meant the most to Yancey. It’s evidenced by a glance at his office. The school’s championship trophies are buried behind a stack of paperwork. Meanwhile, photos of the school’s past players are plastered on bulletin boards around the office. Posters written in calligraphy document the seasons of the best teams in school history. Yancey and his assistant coaches sit around a conference table watching game film and soak it all in on a daily basis. “That’s really one of the fun things about coaching at Briarwood,” Yancey said. “We’ve had so many great kids who were never stars, but they bought in and meant a great deal to the program. They made other players better.”

RIGHT: Briarwood football players and coaches join in prayer following practice.

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the

BEHIND GLASS

ounging in a rocking chair in the back room of his shop on a cool October day, Richard Wormington takes an afternoon break from his work. Wormington, the owner of Accurate Tint and Audio in Pelham, grabs a cigarette off the table in front of him, positions it between his lips and ignites the end with a lighter. The dormant season allows for more of these breaks for Wormington, who estimates that he does 15-20 auto window tinting and audio jobs per week. “This time of the year is my slowest time of the year that I have,” Wormington said. As the smoke slowly exits through his nose and mouth, he sits approximately 210 miles from his hometown of Milton, Fla., where breaks were hard to come by. Wormington spent his childhood living in a trailer with 15 brothers and sisters and his mother, Diethilda, on a plot of land owned by an uncle in the north Florida city. Wormington’s mom worked at a local gas station, and his aunt and uncle struggled to keep steady jobs. The trailer was nearly all they had. With no running water, Wormington and his siblings bathed in a nearby creek. The chickens and pigs his uncle owned served as the family’s food source. “Mostly all we would ever eat was just eggs, pork and beans,” Wormington said. Wormington wanted better, and he would have to try to get it on his own. With little to no source of income and with school falling through — Wormington said he was in and out of 12 schools before dropping out in the 10th grade — he found his first job at age 14 at a nearby junkyard. “School wasn’t paying for me to eat,” he said. “I had to get a job.” A year later, Wormington landed a job at a car wash in Niceville, Fla. “I told them I was 16, but I was 15,” he said. “It was just so I could get the job.” Before issuing his first paycheck, Wormington said his employer asked him for his driver’s license to verify his age. “I’m like, ‘Well, I ain’t got one. To be honest with you, I’m 15,’” Wormington recalled. He was fired on the spot. As he was leaving, Wormington was approached by a fellow employee with an alternative — get into window tinting,” Wormington said. Wormington took an instant liking to the new

job. “I got pretty good pretty quick,” he said. After a couple years of training, Wormington was ready to put his skills to the test. At 17, he entered a tinting tournament in Daytona Beach in April 2001. Wormington finished in first place and fielded job offers from tinting companies in California and Texas. The 18-year-old took a job with Sun Pro Glass Tinting in Stafford, Texas. Wormington’s career immediately took off. Celebrities such as hip-hop singer Beyonce, former professional basketball player Nick Van Exel and former boxing great George Foreman called Sun Pro owner Bob Hanson, looking for someone to tint the windows of their homes. Wormington was at the top of the list. “He was a young guy, and everything about him was gung-ho,” Hanson said. “Whatever you put him on, he did a good job. I give him a thumbs up.” Wormington also tinted the homes of singer Jewel and actor John Travolta, the Enron tower and a space shuttle for the Houston-based Johnson Space Center. “That’s when tinting windows got more exciting for me than it ever has,” Wormington said. While the money was good, one part was

By DAVIS POTTER Images by JON GOERING

missing. “Family,” he said. “That means more to me than anything. I wanted to be closer to my family.” So Wormington left Sun Pro in 2005 and moved with his girlfriend, Shay — whom he would marry a year later — to the Birmingham area, where his mother had relocated with her boyfriend. He used his savings to buy a house in Maylene and took a job working for his future stepfather at a local steel plant. It was an experiment that wouldn’t last long. “I didn’t click with him too much,” Wormington said. At the same time, the Tom Williams BMW dealership in Irondale had an opening for a tinter. “I went up there and tinted a car for them just to see what I could do,” he said. He got a job tinting the dealership’s cars on the weekends. Soon, Wormington realized owning a business was a real possibility. In February 2007, he rented a building in the area for $400 a month and opened his first business. He upgraded to his shop at 3193 Lee St. in June 2008, where he’s been ever since. “(Owning a business) was my goal,” he said.

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“That’s all I cared about.” After nearly a year and half of successful operation, the business took a hit Wormington didn’t see coming. Wormington was offered the opportunity to tint the windows of 28 California hospitals in December 2009. He accepted the job and closed his shop for the entire month, leaving the checkbook to the company account behind. One of Wormington’s employees, who had a key to the building, decided to take advantage of his absence, stealing more than $27,000 from the company account. The hits kept coming. Six months later, Wormington walked into his shop on a Monday morning in June 2010 to find most of his tint, audio equipment and wheels damaged while the rest was stolen. He said insurance only covered $10,000 of the estimated $23,000 in damages and theft. The course of events left the business’ finances in shambles. “I was tripping bad,” Wormington said. “I took a big hit.” Wormington was able to stay on his feet with funds from the recently completed hospital jobs along with money he had saved, but he is still feeling the effects. He has cut his number of employees from eight last year down to two. “I haven’t ever been this far down,” Wormington said. Still, Wormington’s current predicament hasn’t altered his heart, something witnessed by 19-year-old Allen Isom, who was given an opportunity by Wormington to start a detailing business out of his shop. “He’s got a good heart,” Isom said. “He cares about people.” Wormington still finds ways to give back despite his financial hardship by donating money annually to local orphanages and schools. He sees his contributions as a way to make an impact. “If you grow up and you don’t have money, it should be a base and something to jump off to make you want more for your own self,” he said. ABOVE: Richard Wormington works in his shop. LEFT: Richard Wormington, owner of Accurate Tint and “You say, ‘Hey, I grew up this way and I don’t Audio, shakes hands with shop employee Jeremy McDonald as McDonald leaves for the day. want my kids to grow up this way.’ It’s something you don’t want nobody to go through. So I kind of praise him because he’s so good,” Aubrey he said. figure if I can help a little, it’s worth it.” Whether that vision becomes a reality And the financial strain hasn’t stopped said. “I’ve seen people he’s met and dealt with. I’m proud of him.” remains to be seen, but Wormington won’t give Wormington from doing what he loves. Wormington insisted he has caught up enough up. The now 27-year-old said he completes “A lot of people down people who live in approximately 1,000 tinting jobs a year and to start thinking about his next project — an allclaimed to have won three additional national in-one car garage complete with window tinting, trailers,” he said. “Not everybody has the will car restoration, car audio, truck accessories, and the might to want more for themselves. tinting tournaments. Wormington’s brother, Aubrey, stands along oil changes, a mechanic’s shop and a paint and Being able to just deal with that kind of life, body shop. you’ve got to be strong. I’ve never gave up on the back wall of the shop, shaking his head. “Anything you could think of doing to a car,” anything.” “It amazes me because he’s my little brother. I

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By AMY JONES Images by JON GOERING

hen Hurricane Ivan hit the Gulf Coast in 2004, most grabbed their loved ones, packed their cars as quickly as they could and hit the road in search of dry land and safety. Randy and Rebecca Krueger, along with their daughters, Megan and Emma, packed their pop-up camper, left the relative safety of central Alabama and drove south, passing all those fleeing on their way. “Everyone was driving north, and we were driving south. We were there for six weeks with no shower,” said Rebecca. “That was the first big (moment), when we knew, ‘If you’re available, God’s going to use you.’” The Kruegers, who have lived in Calera for the past four years, have held fast to that motto for years. All four work hard to glorify God through their actions every day. “When you’re doing what God wants you to do, he meets your needs,” Rebecca said. “It’s not (politically correct) to say ‘God, God, God,’ but that’s definitely where our heart is.” The Kruegers learned about life, love and God from someone who had seen it all — Rebecca’s grandmother, Betty Doug-

las, affectionately known as “Mama.” In 2005, while the Krueger family was still reeling from the news that Rebecca’s mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, another blow came — Mama had a bad fall and needed continual care. The family soon learned Mama was also suffering from congestive heart failure, Crohn’s disease and dementia. Rebecca and Randy immediately knew they would offer to care for Mama. “Our family was a huge benefactor of her life of giving, and because of that, there was no way that in her time of need we could do anything but care for her,” Rebecca said. In just 10 days, the family packed up their home of 13 years in Chalkville and moved to a handicapped-accessible home in Hoover. The girls, who were 11 and 9 at that time, did physical therapy daily with Mama, constantly reading and sitting with her. “The girls learned what it really means to love someone, to sacrifice of your own wants in order to meet someone else’s needs,” Rebecca said. “To say it wasn’t hard would be a lie, but to say we were the ones who received the blessing would be an understatement.” The family’s time with Mama ended after seven months, when she passed away. Being around someone who truly needed help made the family determined

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Raising a family in faith

to continue showing that love to all. On Oct. 9, 2010, all four Kruegers devoted their day to working at the Calera AOK clothing drive from early in the morning until mid-afternoon. Just before 7 a.m., dozens of residents from Shelby and Chilton counties lined up in the rising sun and morning haze to get what they needed for their families. Eventually, 857 would go through that line. Calera resident April Miller, who was shopping for herself and her two children, said she was amazed by the clothing drive and the love shown. “Oh my God, it’s been life-saving. My children are clothed, and I’m not having to work more than one job to buy their clothes, so I can actually spend time with them. It’s amazing,” Miller said as she combed through a box of children’s socks. “It’s the fact that people donate their time and clothes. They have other things they could be doing, but this is for everybody.” Emma, 14, stood at a rack of coats and shoes, helping anyone who asked try on whatever they needed. Her red shirt read, “Growing in the fruit of the spirit.” “I love being able to help people like this,” Emma said. “A couple of years ago, a little boy came in with no shoes and socks. He had a pair of socks he wore all the time. They were dirty and just covered with stuff. When we gave him a new pair of shoes and socks, his eyes lit up.” Megan, 16, worked with her father to serve hot popcorn and sweet lemonade

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TOP: Laughing while chatting and greeting customers, Rebecca Krueger makes sure guests at the AOK clothing giveaway find what they are looking for. ABOVE: Emma Krueger helps out during the AOK clothing giveaway. to shoppers. She said she loves the small moments of joy she can offer to families, especially children. “My favorite is when the little kid gets

a bag of popcorn and his face lights up,” Megan said. “Even with a language barrier, you can see, ‘IT’S POPCORN!’” Megan said she works to use her talents

for God’s glory. She writes music and lyrics about “life and God.” “I feel like God gave me the talent to write and the passion to do it. So I feel like

that’s what God wants me to do,” she said. Megan and Emma are also involved with Calera’s community in different ways — Megan has played the role of Belle, of “Beauty and the Beast,” at the Calera Public Library’s Fairytale Ball, while Emma is a team helper with the Field of Angels special-needs baseball league. “It’s really neat to see how God has opened doors for us to be used. We couldn’t do this by ourselves,” Megan said. The Kruegers also spearheaded the initiation of the Calera Farmers Market. Rebecca and Randy came up with the idea through discussions with city officials, and Rebecca serves as the market manager. They worked to get a grant to help fund the market, which had a very successful first year in 2010. “It wasn’t just, ‘come pick up your produce,’” Rebecca said. “It was, ‘come meet your neighbors.’ The farmers market was an outlet to help promote community.” Randy agreed, saying he wanted to be proactive in Calera instead of being negative. “We did something to help Calera become a better place and a better community instead of sitting around saying, ‘The City Council is spending more money,’” Randy said. Others have noticed the Kruegers’ devotion to their home city. Peggy Lee, an organizer for the AOK drive, said the Kruegers never cease to amaze. “First of all, Rebecca is the most incredible organizer I have ever known, through AOK and the Farmers Market. Everything she does, she does to perfection,” Lee said. “What can I say? They are the most incredible family I know. They

Megan Krueger helps a guest at the Acts of Kindness clothing giveaway free a hand for lemonade while her father, Randy, gives away popcorn. are a team. An incredible team.” Randy, who teaches a Bible study for teenagers, said his focus is on trying to understand what God wants him to do. As long as he leaves the keys to his spirit in God’s hands, he’ll be OK. “Before God redeems us and brings us

back, we’re dead. What I do to serve God is not about me at all,” Randy said. “The more I understand how much he loves me, the more natural it becomes. It’s about getting closer to him.” However, all of it — the AOK clothing drive, the Calera Farmers Market, the

Bible study class, helping family members — all of it is just what the Kruegers do. It’s natural for them. “My hope is that through what we do, others will realize, with just a little bit they can help the community,” Rebecca said. “We don’t feel like we do very much.”

“The girls learned what it really means to love someone, to sacrifice of your own wants in order to meet someone else’s needs.”

All-Rounders In The Making... If there’s a young tennis enthusiast in your family, come explore the Pelham Racquet Club, just a half mile east of I-65, where you’ll discover some of the finest facilities and best instructional opportunities anywhere in the southeast. On twenty clay and five hard courts, all with tournament grade lighting, we host youth leagues and offer private and group lessons.

Let’s Play in Pelham: Home to 13,000 tennis matches each year. www.pelhamonline.com

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Heaven Manna from

chill from the frosty morning might prick the air inside Shepherd’s Harvest Church in Alabaster if warmth didn’t radiate from those leading the Saturday service. There is no judgment here. As worship begins, people don’t sheepishly seek an open spot on the back row — they walk to the front with smiles wide. The words flowing forth from Don Smith’s mouth passionately plead with the visitors to know God isn’t punishing them with their struggles. He implores them instead to understand that all have struggles and all should use them to better appreciate life. “Something all of us goes through, but especially the poor, is pain and suffering. To address it, and let the scriptures bring them a better understanding, helps ease their pain,” Smith said. Smith added that many times a myth spreads when someone is going through something that they must have done something bad. “This is happening all over America right now, and people just have to call out to God,” he said. “You’re going to see things the way God sees them because you’re going to identify with suffering.” While Smith warms hearts inside the church with God’s love, fellow volunteers, not a mile down the road, prepare to fill the cars of those same people with food. Manna Ministries began modestly out of Smith’s garage 26 years ago when he felt convicted to be more than a Sunday Christian. Two decades later, volunteers continue to seek out those most in need and feed them both spiritual and physical daily bread. This often requires 4:15 a.m. trips to Publix, Piggly Wiggly or Sysco. “When they call, we go. Some way, somehow we’ll be there,” said longtime volunteer Wayne Blankenship. Sysco provides frozen fish and meat sometimes as often as twice a week. Publix regularly provides baked breads and pastries still days before their sell-by date. Piggly Wiggly sends them away with boxes of items such as Hungry Jack potatoes. Volunteers warm themselves inside the store-

room as they proclaim God’s goodness proven by shelves overflowing with canned vegetables and snack cakes. One glorious day in October, volunteers had to place tables of food outside a storeroom crammed to the brim, said Smith. “Some weeks we run like dogs,” Smith said. “But those are the good weeks. It’s the weeks we don’t get calls that we dread.” Volunteers dread the weeks when no stores call with loads of food to take away. They dread these situations because they worry how they’ll look those in need in the eye if they don’t have enough to fill their carts each Saturday. Blankenship clearly remembers the first time he asked a store for food. “I said, ‘You going to throw that away? Don’t throw that away. I’ll feed my grannies,’” Blankenship said. Volunteers love their “grannies,” mostly widowed women who come through the food line each and every week to supplement fixed in-

By SAMANTHA HURST Images by JON GOERING comes. Many regularly fill the mouths of multiple family members — children who’ve lost jobs or grandchildren they now raise. One of those grannies is Cellie Watson of Birmingham. Watson receives a small pension check. She came to rely on the help of Manna in 1999, but the organization remains diligent in keeping her fed 11 years later. Watson cooks one mouth-watering meal a year for the board’s annual meeting. “If they can feed me all the year, I can feed them once a year,” she said. “The Lord has blessed us with them.” What they get in return is immeasurable. Eleven-year-old Jonathon Hadden of Alabaster works at the ministry every week. “The people here are my friends now and I

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LEFT: Manna Ministries Executive Director Phyllis Harbin, right, and volunteer Debbie Davis work in the organization’s office. BOTTOM LEFT: Worshippers at the morning service that Manna Ministries holds at a church down the street from its location in Alabaster gather in the front of the church to join Luis Garcia, facing, in praise. RIGHT: After leading the group in a nondenominational church service, Luis Garcia recieves a hug while David Martires waves goodbye to visitors heading out of the service with the blue tickets they need to get food from the pantry.

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get to help them,” he said. “I’ve got to know them pretty well since I began coming.” Longtime volunteer Debbie Davis of Montevallo asks her kids to stock buggies with her each Saturday morning. “We bring our kids out here, our families out here so we can teach them to love others,” she said. Loving these people comes first. Filling their stomachs comes second. Manna doesn’t aim to fill a buggy and send those in need on their way. Volunteers pack the cars of those in need with food and then stand and talk to them a while about the weather, about their life, about God. They aim to fill their stomachs and their souls. Executive Director Phyllis Harbin said the greatest testament to their efforts lies in seeing people lifted out of the food lines by God to volunteer. Just a year ago, 16-year-old Maria Herrera pushed a buggy brimming with food out into the parking lot with her mother, Guadalupe, and her three sisters. Herrera and her family now stand behind the tables filling those same buggies. “We had come here to the church because we didn’t have enough money for food,” Herrera said. “But when we realized they needed help, I thought, ‘I can help.’” And so she did. The Herreras still need the help of Manna from time to time to ease the ever-growing costs of feeding a family. But still being in need now and again prevents them from forgetting what those in line feel like. Maria, Gaudalupe, Silvia, Iris and the youngest sibling Natalie rise early every Saturday to do their part. Natalie particularly loves to make up decorated bags of sweet muffins, candy or Little Debbie cakes for the kids. Guadalupe brings hot tamales each week for the volunteers. Smith wishes more people had hearts like the Herreras. “I want people to get off the pew; get in their community and let them see Jesus,” Smith said.

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R id in g o n h o p e

Daniel Chaplin rides his horse, Ali, during a riding session at Special Equestrians on the Indian Springs School campus.

s 20-year-old Daniel Chaplin rides his horse, Ali, through the low-hanging branches of a wooded trail, he sits tall in his saddle, never relaxing his professional composure or grip on the reins as Ali moves in pace with the single-file line of horses. When Daniel

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hears a police siren much as horseback By KATIE HURST from the highway riding. His hand in the distance, shoots up to make Images by JON GOERING his ears prick up, a swinging lasso-like slow smile spreads circles in the air as across his face and his demeanor chang- he sings under his breath and dances in es. The siren has reminded Daniel of a his saddle. When instructors and volunsong, one of the few things he loves as teers who walk alongside the horses ask

him what heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s singing, Daniel just laughs. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too late â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he and Ali are in their own world now. Daniel was diagnosed with Down syndrome when he was born. By taking once-a-week lessons at Special Equestrians, a therapeutic riding center in Indian Springs, Daniel has found both passion

and healing. On Ali’s back, Daniel does not suffer from Down syndrome, he escapes from it. Daniel started taking classes at Special Equestrians when he was 10 years old after moving to Indian Springs with his family. Like most new riders at the facility, Daniel started out riding his horse with a team of three to four volunteers to help him guide and control the horse. Daniel’s mother, Jane Chaplin, said before Special Equestrians, Daniel had never been close to a horse. Now it’s hard to tear him away. Jane tried for years to find an extracurricular activity for Daniel. In a family with two older, high-achieving and athletic siblings, Jane said she thought it was important for Daniel to have an activity that was his own. “In St. Louis, we tried recreational community sports,” she said. “He did baseball, and that was good until they started kid pitch. The only time he got on base was when he got hit with the ball. He didn’t mind; he thought that was a good thing because he got on base. It’s just been hard because he’s not fast and he’s not strong, so it’s hard for him to be on a team sport.” Like she suspected, horseback riding was an instant hit with Daniel, who Jane said has always loved animals and being outside.

Daniel mounts Ali, the horse he has been riding for years at Special Equestrians. Now that he’s been riding at Special Equestrians for 10 years, Jane said his skill level and passion has progressed. Daniel can now ride Ali in the riding arena independently, trotting and weaving through poles.

“He was excited in the beginning because it was a social event,” Jane said. “In the last three or four years the change that I’ve seen is that at first he was just connected to people, then the horse became more important. Now it’s

about the horsemanship.” Dorrie Fuchs, assistant director of Special Equestrians, said Daniel has a special relationship with his horse, Ali. It’s important to make sure rider and horse have a compatible personality combination, she said. Since Daniel first mounted Ali, it was obvious they were a match. “He’s good with Daniel, and Daniel is good with him,” Jane said. “Ali is mildmannered and he’s gentle, which is good for Daniel. Daniel is not good at having to give powerful kicks to the horse to make him go. I think it’s stressful for him. He’s never had to do that with Ali.” Ali has gotten out of Daniel’s control only once, Jane said. While Daniel was riding, Ali unexpectedly started cantering, galloping faster and faster toward the fence. Jane said she watched in horror as Daniel leapt from Ali’s back and fell to the ground. “Dorrie rushed over to him and said ‘Good job, Daniel, that was a perfect emergency dismount,’” Jane said. Daniel wasn’t hurt in the accident,and Jane said since then he likes to tell people about how skilled he is at emergency dismounts. “That’s something that could have been very scary, and he gained a lot of confidence from that event,” she said. Along with better physical balance, Jane said confidence is one of the best benefits Daniel has gained from horse-

“Horseback riding is more than

a sport for him, it’s a relationship.” Trusted Advisors

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Daniel stretches during warmups at the beginning of a riding session at Special Equestrians.

back riding. This fall, Daniel enrolled in two classes at Samford University, becoming the school’s first student with Down syndrome. Jane said he’s not yet eligible for a degree, and Daniel’s two classes are on a trial basis. Despite his low ACT score, the school agreed to let Daniel take the classes because of his high grades in his regular high school classes. Jane said none of this fazes Daniel. “He’s desperate to declare a major,” she said. “From his point of view, he hears everyone around him talking about

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declaring a major, so he wants to, too. He says geography is going to be his major because that’s the class he’s taking now.” Though his classes are on a trial basis, Jane said the college experience has been good for Daniel. He’s joined the gospel choir and has already made several new friends. Making friends has never been a problem for Daniel though, who Jane said would never say anything negative about anyone. His constant good mood, warm personality and, of course, knowledge of horses has made him a kind of big brother

to many of the younger riders at Special Equestrians. Jane said among all the changes that are currently happening in Daniel’s life, horseback riding has remained one of the few constants over the last 10 years. He continues to impress family, friends and Special Equestrians staff with his progress. Last year, he competed in the Special Olympics on the equestrian drill team. The event required him to walk and trot his horse independently and memorize several complicated patterns in the ring.

He took home a gold medal. Jane said she doesn’t know what the future will hold for Daniel. While others his age are planning their future careers, Jane said with Daniel, they just take one step at a time. His success at Special Equestrians has given her hope that he will continue to progress and overcome obstacles in his path. Wherever life’s trail leads Daniel, Jane said she’s sure he’ll always continue riding. “He’s never gotten tired of this,” she said. “Horseback riding is more than a sport for him, it’s a relationship.”

Charting a better course By SAMANTHA HURST Images by JON GOERING

ohn Miller folds his arms across his chest, props himself up against a wall in his colleague David Hall’s office and fixes his eyes on a spot across the room as he recounts a tormenting moment early in his career as a juvenile probation officer. A kid, with a father in jail, was being ordered to return home to his mother, who Miller knew to be a reckless drug addict. Miller said he never so adamantly disagreed with a judge’s decision, but that time he did because he knew what the teenager was going home to face. It didn’t take but a minute for Miller and the judge to break into a fiery argument. “We went behind closed doors and had a good shouting match,” Miller said. “The judge, she told me, ‘What you’ve got to do is not take it so personal.’ I looked at her and, I remember it like it was yesterday, said, ‘I take every one of these kids personal.’” And Miller has for 28 years. All of the probation officers in Shelby County’s Juvenile Probation office find themselves worrying about many of their cases as if the kids were their own flesh and blood, Hall said. “One probation officer we have would drop her own kids off at school and then go pick up one of her teens and take him to the alternative school because his mother had no way to get him there,” Hall remembered. Probation officers here struggle through countless sleepless nights. With 15 staff members and an average of 500 cases at a given time, it’s easy to see how. Each probation officer carries about 60 cases; some more intensive than others. Parents call authorities, frantic when a child runs away from home. A school administrator e-mails a probation officer because a child missed 14 days of school in the past two months. Law enforcement officials arrest a 13-year-old for possession of marijuana. So many pictures of troubled teens get painted in the juvenile office every day. But not all troubled kids are bad kids. “I’d say 98 percent of the kids we see are good kids,” Hall said. “The majority of these kids are just making poor decisions.” There are three types of cases that lead to the involvement of juvenile probation. These include dependency where there is an instance of physical, emotional or sexual abuse; delinquency in which a crime is committed such as vandalism or drug possession; and child in need of supervision or CHINS cases when a child is truant from school or beyond the control of a parent. Miller and his team deal with all of these issues and more daily. The trick is striking a balance. Officers must hold the kid accountable for their actions and ensure the community’s safety, all while upholding the best interest of the child. And this can’t be done inside the walls of the courthouse. “You cannot get to know these kids sitting behind a desk,” Hall said. “You’ve got to get in the school. You’ve got to get in the community. You’ve

Probation Officer Tori Ramsey talks with a teenager in her office at the Shelby County Courthouse.

got to get in their homes.” Hall said home visits reveal much about a child’s behavior and the stressors that cause it. Hall vividly remembers a surprise home visit he did years ago. He said a knock on the door produced the young man he had been working with for just weeks. The teen was nervous and apprehensive about inviting Hall inside. Once Hall stepped foot in the door he understood why. “The home was like an episode of ‘Hoarders’,” Hall said. “There were newspapers and magazines sacked from the floor to the ceiling and just a pathway leading from the door inside the house.” Hall said it’s important in his job to not be judgmental but to know how to discern what stressors at home could be affecting the child’s life. A filthy home or one without food in the cabinets does more to a child’s psyche than many might realize, he said. “I think the toughest thing for me, early in my career especially, was gaining confidence with these kids. Most of these kids are really cynical about adults. Trusting adults is not high on their

list,” Hall said. In many cases, this apprehension to trust adults stems from abuse — physical or emotional. Hall said the primary difference between typical probation work and that of the juvenile probation office is that juvenile probation deals often with an entire familial unit, not a single individual. He said this often complicates situations. You have to decipher who’s telling the truth, which can be more difficult than you might think, he said. “To be successful in this job, you can’t do it individually,” Hall said. “You have to do it as a team.” Hall isn’t simply referring to his internal team, either. The juvenile probation office must work in tandem with law enforcement, mental health professionals, the department of human resources, school administrators and parents. Some cases take months. Other cases take years, sometimes even five or more. Leanne Rigney works primarily with truancy cases. She found her calling as a clerk in the juvenile probation office when she was just a teenager.

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A sign reading “Hire A Teenager While They Still Know Everything” hangs in the probation offices in the Shelby County Courthouse.

She finds difficulty in closing cases. “I won’t let my cases go,” Rigney said. “I have a hard time with that. We all get so attached to different kids for different reasons.” The attachment can lead to some of the most painful moments in a probation officer’s career. All agree the hardest part comes with the death of a child. “I guess those are some of the darkest times,” Hall said. “You begin doing a lot of soul searching and can’t help but think, ‘What if I could have done something.’” All of the officers in Shelby County’s juvenile probation office have worked long enough to witness such a tragedy. Hall said it’s almost as trying to watch a kid

he has poured years of energy into face a felony conviction. He said once they reach the age of 16 and commit such a crime, there is little more he can do for them. The latter is the reason Ryan Burroughs became a probation officer. He wants to steer kids away from life entrenched in crime. “I always knew I wanted to do something that would allow me to work with kids and the community and help kids get past all the things I saw people my age get into when I was younger,” Burroughs said. There are rewards beyond measure in the job. Burroughs said he took particular joy in the dayto-day interaction with the kids. Both Burroughs and Miller recently relished seeing two teens who

formerly came through their office now accomplish major life goals. One young man spoke to students at the Shelby County School of Technology about life in the National Guard, while another dropped by the office with his mom to see Miller and thank him for where he is in his life today — a student at Southern Union Community College. “I have the best job; I have the best job in the world because I get to meet so many wonderful, wonderful kids,” Miller said. Hall said there are not many things more rewarding than seeing a kid that was such a thorn come back 10 years later with a new life. “I knew it was an occupation where you’re not going to get wealthy, but you become rich in so many other ways,” Hall said.

“Most of these kids are really cynical

about adults. Trusting adults is not high on their list.

”

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EVENTS

Evangel Classical Post ad School, at 423 option Thompso Christian Alabas suppor ter Th n t Run on , will host its firs Road in Co e Alabama Jan. 22. nn Po t Snowb all the ections (APAC st Adoption Registr ati first Tu ) group on beg the rac esday ins at from e starts of each meets at 8 a.m 7 a.m., and Me 6:30-8 p.m. per per at the Fir month . Cost of son, $50 thodist st Unite 10K. $25 109 per per Ch d son for 03 Highw urch in Ala baster, the at For mo ay 119. (866) 803 re info, call 949-2722 -2722. or

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City Co uncil con e Alabaster N. Acker ing iss - Birmin uing bui siders ceasgham in som lding per e to force city neighborh mits oods severa to bri ng the l developers ir sub streets div up Jan. 24, to city standa ision rds. 2001 joins the gro — Alabaster wing of local number commu tobacc nities o ven to ban “If it’s din within year, thi this good this its city. g machines nk of how will be good it next yea r.”

QUOTAB

LE • 2A

— Kid s First Dir Cindy Ha ector wkins

Profile 2011

ooking through the most recent Shelby County phonebook or taking a look at the weekly public records in the county courthouse will yield no mention of a family forever entwined in Alabaster’s history. A tall headstone in Birmingham’s Oak Hill Cemetery serves as a small testament to Thomas Carlyle Thompson’s eternal impact on Shelby County’s largest city. “I don’t think any of the family is living anymore,” said Bobby Joe Seales, president of the Shelby County Historical Society. “The last living member died several years ago.” Visiting one of Alabaster’s schools, reading about the city’s history or taking a walk on the Buck Creek Trail, it is easy to see why the Thompson name lives on nearly 90 years after the death of the man who started it all. T.C. Thompson was the third child born to Jesse Sampson Thompson and his wife, Henrietta, in 1950. From humble beginnings in Oak Bowery, slightly north of what is now Auburn, Thompson built an empire in Jefferson and Shelby county before his sudden death in 1922. Today, Thompson High School, the remains of the Buck Creek Cotton Mill village off Alabama 119, the Empire building in downtown Birmingham and many other local landmarks exist today because of Thompson’s works. After Thompson and his wife, Julia, moved to Siluria in the early 1890s, the businessman incorporated and slowly be-

WhatÕ s in a name?

At the time, Siluria gan building one of By NEAL WAGNER the largest cotton had an elementary mills in the nation and a junior high Images by along the banks of Shelby County Historical Society school, but no high Buck Creek. school. As the years passed, more and more One year before his death, Thompson people began moving into present-day donated land and invested his personal Alabaster to live in the mill’s village, which money to construct a wooden, fourfeatured everything from general stores to classroom Thompson High School builda hotel and doctors offices. ing near where Thompson Intermediate Much like the recent population boom School stands today. The original building was a far cry from in present-day Shelby County, the influx of people in the early 1900s also placed a the seemingly endless hallways and cavburden on the area’s schools, said Seales. ernous gymnasiums of the current THS.

The four classrooms easily housed all of the area’s students. A small counter and a few picnic tables served as the school’s lunchroom, and the auditorium doubled as a gymnasium. A row of outhouses behind the building served as the school’s restrooms. Students from other towns, like Elliottsville, rode to THS in the school’s first school bus, which consisted of a covered wagon pulled by a pair of mules. When the nation was ravaged by the Great Depression in the 1930s, T.C. Thompson again paid out of his own

TOP: After the former THS building burned down in 1951, the Shelby County Board of Education rebuilt the school on the same site off Alabama 119 where the Thompson Intermediate School stands today. ABOVE: Thompson High School’s fi rst school bus consisted of a mule-drawn wagon driven by J. Walter Foust and Jacob Zuiderhoek. The wagon transported students daily from the Elliotsville area to THS off Alabama 119.

“The history of Thompson runs deep because it affected so many communities throughout the years.” Profile 2011

The former Thompson High School building (Left) and the Thompson Junior High School building (Right) both burned to the ground in 1951, and were replaced by a new school where Thompson Intermediate School stands today. pocket to ensure the school remained active, and the teachers were compensated for their work. “Mr. Thompson would pay the teachers when the school system didn’t have any money to pay them,” Seales said. “He was really involved, as you can tell.” As the years passed, the wooden building began to deteriorate due to semester after semester of wear and tear on the aging building. “The building was really in awful condition,” Seales said as he looked at grainy, black-and-white photos of the school. “In the later years, they didn’t really do a lot to keep the building up.” The school continued to deteriorate until a disaster struck at 10:15 p.m. on Jan. 23, 1951. Firefighters responded to a fire engulfing the high school and the nearby junior high building. By the time the fire department had the blaze, which started in the school’s lunchroom, under control, both buildings were in ruins. “The rumor has it that the building ‘accidentally’ burned down because it was so dilapidated, and that was the only way they could get a new building,” Seales said with a laugh. Because the school system had added an eight-room brick building near the wooden high school and junior high buildings in 1949, which did not burn in the fire, school officials decided to rebuild the high school by adding onto the brick building. The rebuilt high school served the city until 1987, and currently serves as the Thompson Sixth-Grade Center and Intermediate School.

Because the county’s population was much lower in the 1950s than it is today, the old THS building served students from as far away as what is now Greystone and Hoover on U.S. 280. “The Thompson school zone went all the way to about one-and-a-half miles on the other side of 280,” said Allen Fulton, a former THS principal and 1961 graduate. “There was no Chelsea, no Oak Mountain and no Pelham back then. “It’s amazing that everyone from that huge area went to Thompson,” Fulton added. “The history of Thompson runs deep because it affected so many communities throughout the years.” Even though Thompson High School is synonymous with Alabaster today, it is not the only high school the city has had. In the late 1960s, segregation created a short-lived, black-only school in the Simmsville community. For decades, Thompson was a whitesonly school, and black students attended grade school in a small, wooden building off U.S. 31. When the black students reached the high-school level, they were bused to Prentice High School in Montevallo, which is now the Montevallo Middle School. But the Shelby County population growth soon caused the board of education to construct a new black-only school in what is now the Shelby County Instructional Services building off U.S. 31. “The school only existed for one year, because they integrated the schools the year after the school was created,” Seales said. “That building then became the Re-

naissance High School.” After the schools were integrated, the Thompson High School building on Alabama 119 slowly became more crowded every year, and the conditions at the school deteriorated throughout the late 1970s, Fulton said. “The old school was in bad shape by the time we moved out of it,” Fulton said of the Alabama 119 building. “The plan was to build a new high school, so they did only essential maintenance on that building. The problem was that it was like that from 1971 until they built the new high school in 1987.” After the current THS building was

completed in 1987, school officials slowly moved “everything that was not nailed down” from the old high school to the new building, Fulton said. “Then, on a Friday, we went class to class and dismissed them to the gym while we loaded their desks onto a truck and took them to the new high school,” Fulton said. “We started class at the new building on that following Monday. “The kids were really excited, because the new building allowed us to offer a lot of programs that we didn’t have the facilities for at the old building,” Fulton added. “And that new building has served us very well since then.”

Before integration in the late 1960s, African American students in Alabaster attended school in a black-only grade school off U.S. 31.

Profile 2011

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Profile 2011

Boys of Shelby County

n a crisp October day on the Ellis family farm in Columbiana, father and son, Butch and Corley Ellis, ambled through the barn, collecting what they needed to feed their three beautiful horses. Beyond the pen where the horses cantered, a fertile family garden grows with fig trees, muscadine vines and grapevines. As Butch and Corley filled water pails and feed buckets, they talked quietly with each other, often breaking into smiles or chuckling together.

As Butch stayed at the fence, to make anyone around them feel By AMY JONES petting the horses, Corley said the comfortable. Ask Butch, who has two of them are a team — as is the been the county attorney for alImages by JON GOERING entire Ellis family. most 50 years and who spent a de“We’re such a close-knit family,” cade in the Alabama Senate, what he said. “We truly enjoy each other’s company.” he wants people to remember about him, and he’ll say Butch and Corley Ellis share many things — a love for with a straight face, “The main thing I want my legacy to Auburn University, a deep desire to enjoy the outdoors be is a long way off.” and, perhaps most tellingly, quick smiles and even quicker Mention Corley’s charming wife, Julie, and he’ll tell the wits. story of how they first met at a yard sale, topping the tale The two consistently lob jokes at each other, looking off with “I like to tell people I picked her up at a yard sale.”

Profile 2011

The Ellis family loves to spend time at this cabin on their property, which several family members built by hand. However, the Ellis family’s influence in Shelby County is downright serious, starting with Butch’s grandfather, Handy Ellis, who was Columbiana mayor for several terms before becoming a state senator and, later, lieutenant governor. Handy’s son, Frank, Butch’s father, “was the only one in the family with good judgment,” Butch said. “He was a farmer.”

Frank owned a dairy farm in Columbiana, where Butch and other various members of the Ellis family now reside. The farm covers about 450 acres of land. “From the time I was 8 years old until I went to college, I was up at 3 a.m. every day of my life,” Butch said. Perhaps that explains why Butch went to Auburn with no intentions of being a farmer. Instead, he began by studying mechanical engineering.

“Back then, you took an aptitude test when you went to college, but they didn’t share the results of the test with you,” Butch said. “I was in mechanical engineering, and I had trouble with mechanical drawing. I went to the counselor, and he said, ‘It’s no wonder. You have no mechanical ability at all!’” Soon enough after that, Butch found his way into law school. He married Diane Bentley after his first year of

“My great-grandfather was the lieutenant governor, my dad was in the Legislature, so you’d have thought I’d know better than to get into politics.” Profile 2011

Corley (Left) and Butch Ellis laugh as they greet one of their three horses.

Profile 2011

law school, as she supported him on a $35-a-week job. They had been sweethearts since she was 14, he 15. After Butch graduated law school, he moved back to Columbiana with his bride and the rest, as they say, is history. The two had three children, Christy, Kelly and Corley — all of whom either live on the family farm or close by. While the three were growing up, they watched their father fight for Shelby County in the state Senate from 1982-1994. He helped pass a special tax in 1993 to pay off the county’s debt, which had Shelby County teetering dangerously close to bankruptcy. Butch’s oldest daughter, Kelly, is a pharmacist, while Christy is a full-time mom. Corley, the only son, is a real estate broker and a county commissioner, committed to affecting the county in a positive way as his father has. “My interest in politics goes back to when Dad was in the Legislature and we were in financial trouble (in Shelby County),” Corley said. “That’s when I took an interest in strategic planning. The rest of the time was just waiting

RIGHT: Butch (Left) talks with his grandson, Jon Connor Davis and his son, Corley. The Ellis family pride themselves on spending as much time together as they can.

Profile 2011

Butch Ellis walks out to the horses on the family’s property. for an opportunity. Don’t know if I was looking for it, but it fell into my lap.” Corley was appointed to the County Commission in 2006, after Commissioner Billy Johnson passed away. He was re-elected in 2008, and now is the commission chairperson. While he’s proud of his record of public service, he has no problem joking about it. After he became a commissioner, Corley attended a

conference where he was asked to explain why he became a public servant. “I said, ‘My great-grandfather was the lieutenant governor, my dad was in the Legislature, so you’d have thought I’d know better than to get into politics,’” Corley said with a huge smile as Butch chuckled. He quickly turned serious again, however, as he spoke about living up to his family history of service. “It does give the responsibility, for lack of a better

term, to step up and do your part,” he said. “I have big shoes to fill.” Butch said Corley’s on the way to achieving just as much as his forebears did. “It makes me feel very proud. A big part of my life has been for the county,” Butch said. “What we have now is a very strong county. I’m very proud of that and proud Corley’s a part of that. I’m pleased to see Corley shoulder some of the responsibility to keep it on track.”

Profile 2011

Telling your stories is our pleasure. CMYK Outside

CMYK Outside

NEWS

Vehicle pursuit becomes two-car wreck By AMY JONES Associate Editor

HOOVER — A driver attempting to escape a possible traffic violation ticket may end up facing more serious charges after causing a two-car wreck on Old Montgomery Highway on Dec. 30. Cpl. Steve Smith, a public inforofficer with the Alabama Burglary suspect mation Troopers, said a state arrested in North State trooper attempted to pull over Shelby Jayme Wilson, 48, of Bessemer on Wesley Keith Dinkel was Valleydale Road in Hoover for a arrested after deputies found traffic violation. him with stolen property. 9A Wilson refused to stop her red according to a press release issued by from Dodge Durango and a pursuit the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. began. After Wilson turned onto Officers located three individuals in a vehicle in the parking lot matching the Old Montgomery Highway, she lost control at a sharp curve, hitdescriptions given by an employee. While investigating the trio for alleged ting a black Toyota Camry driven shoplifting, officers discovered what they believed to be an active “one-pot” meth- by 59-year-old Cynthia Scott of amphetamine lab. The Shelby County Drug Helena. Smith said both Wilson and See METH, Page 2A Scott were taken to the hospital. Charges are pending for Wilson.

Police find meth lab in vehicle By BRAD GASKINS Staff Writer A shoplifting call earlier this week in Alabaster led to the discovery of an active “one-pot” methamphetamine lab inside a vehicle in the parking lot, local authorities said. Ricky William Easterling, 34, of Verbena, Penny October Chandler, 31, of Prattville, and Christopher Wayne Headley, 33, of Clanton,

SAR honors local woman

were arrested in connection with the discovery. All three were charged with unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance and trafficking in methamphetamine. They were booked into the Shelby County Jail and are being held on bonds of $1.6 million each. Chandler also was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Alabaster police were called to the WalMart at the Colonial Promenade on Monday, Jan. 17, regarding suspected shoplifters,

Diane Seales takes home one of organization’s top awards. Online exclusive at AlabasterReporter.com

Visit ShelbyCountyReporter. By STEPHEN DAWKINS com for aSpecial recaptoof the Reporter tournament action.

THS prevails over Panthers

LIFESTYLES

Thompson boys’ basketball team wins close game with its biggest rival. 8A

CONTRIBUTED/SHELIA YATES

Hundreds of local residents lined the streets of Alabaster’s Simmsville community Jan. 15, as the Kids First Awareness Community Center hosted a Martin Luther King Jr. peace walk on Shelby County 11 in Alabaster. Following the walk, Kids First dedicated Mt. Olive Road to Martin Luther King Jr.

LIVING

Weekend of unity honors King By NEAL WAGNER City Editor

Nick Barnes defeats cancer

Community columnist Sandra Thames documents boy’s battle with cancer. 3A

ONLINE POLL Were you off work for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday? 43% 7%

50% Yes, I was off Friday Yes, I was off Monday No, I worked both days

The Kids First Awareness Community Center celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday Jan. 17 by mixing unity with competition at the Shelby County Instructional Services

By AMY JONES Associate Editor

When Mike Blackwell walked into the offices of the DAY Program 28 years ago, he knew he’d found where he belonged. The DAY Program is a long-term alterna-

First’s weekend-long celebration of King’s birthday. On Jan. 15, the center organized a prayer walk down Shelby County 11 through Alabaster’s Simmsville community before dedicating Mt. Olive Road to King.

tive program for at-risk Shelby County students who need academic or behavioral counseling. Blackwell, now the DAY Program director, had been a teacher and a retail manager, but hadn’t found satisfaction in his career choices.

Faith and tennis

Radio personality, Bill See KING, Page 2A “Bubba” Bussey, See ARREST, Page 3A starts FCA tennis in Shelby County. 5C

One day with the DAY Program three decades ago changed everything. “I immediately fell in love with the concept,” he said of his first experience with the program in January 1983. “There’s people that care about these kids, and there’s

In your backyard

Opinion/Public Records.................4A A-Z Kids.........................................5A Classifieds.....................................6A

EVENTS

Calendar........................................7A Calendar........................................

All classified ads are now FREE for individuals. (Some restrictions apply)

Center in Alabaster. More than 50 people of all ages and races filled the center’s gym throughout the afternoon as several five-member teams played round after round of basketball. The basketball tournament was the final event in Kids

A new day for Shelby County’s at-risk students Help for your

INSIDE

Sports............................................8A

A Jemison resident is being held in the Jefferson County Jail after he was arrested Jan. 7 in Shelby County on criminal complaints of enticing minors for sex. Cameron Lee Emerick, who was born in January 1990, allegedly arranged to meet who he thought were a 14-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl on Jan. 7 at a hospital in Shelby County but instead was arrested by agents with U.S. Department Homeland Security Investigations unit. As of Jan. 20, authorities were unable to verify the hospital at which the arrest occurred. The Alabaster Police Department played no role in the arrest, said department Deputy Chief Curtis Rigney. Emerick, who was employed as a Chilton County E-911 dispatcher at the time of the arrest, is being held in Jefferson County Jail with no bond. The suspect is

Snowball run today

Post adoption support

Evangel Classical Christian School, at 423 Thompson Road in Alabaster, will host its first Snowball Run on Jan. 22. Registration begins at 7 a.m., and the race starts at 8 a.m. Cost of $25 per person, $50 per person for the 10K.

The Alabama Post Adoption Connections (APAC) group meets the first Tuesday of each month from 6:30-8 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Alabaster, at 10903 Highway 119. For more info, call 949-2722 or (866) 803-2722.

Submit your ad online at AlabasterReporter.com or call 205.669.3133

taxes

kids that are given a shot. in a school to graduate,” Yes, these kids have trou- Blackwell said. “We have ble reading, but there’s a a success plan that we Local assistance putoffer in place for each stuchance they’ll make it.” CPAs on taxinreturns. 7C comes in, with dent that Much has changed the three decades since, academic and behavioral but the DAY Program’s goals.” Students are referred goal remains the same. “Our goal is to get a See AT-RISK, Page 2A child and get them back Faith................8C

INSIDE

Classifieds.....3B Classifieds..... Education.......8A Business.........7A

Records...........5A A LOOK BACK Lifestyles........1CDEATHS • 3A Opinion..........4A Sports.............1B

N. Acker - Birmingham

 Jan. 27, 2010 — The Alabaster City Council considers ceasing issuing building permits in some city neighborhoods to force several developers to bring their subdivision streets up to city standards. Jan. 24, 2001 — Alabaster joins the growing number “If it’s this good this of local communities to ban year, think of how good it All classified ads are now tobacco vending machines will be next year.” FREE for individuals. within its city. (Some restrictions apply). — Kids First Director Cindy Hawkins

QUOTABLE • 2A

Submit your ad online at ShelbyCountyReporter.com or call 205.669.3133

Groups say no to tax renewal By NEAL WAGNER City Editor

SPORTS

Man arrested on child enticement Holiday Hoops complaint

SPORTS

OPINION

A few Pelham-based political activist groups are asking Shelby County residents to vote “no” during a Feb. 8 special election to extend the county’s 30 mills of property tax until 2041. The Shelby Mothers Against Raising Taxes, with the support of the Shelby PHOTO/JONCounty GOERINGchapter of The Campaign for Liberty ReadersREPORTER sound in Alabama, the Rainy Day Patriots and the

off Montgomery on taxes Emergency responders load a victim of a crash near the intersection of Old Highway Online readers share their opinions and Riverchase Parkway in Hoover into an ambulance on Dec. 30. on proposed property tax renewal.

Constitution Party of Alabama, is opposing the property tax extension for several reasons, said Campaign for Liberty State Chairman Marcelo Munoz. If the tax issue passes Feb. 8, it will extend the county’s current 30 mills of property tax for 30 years. Currently, the tax is set to expire in six years. “We don’t think the board has made a good case for extending the taxes for 30 more years,” Munoz said. “Nobody is suggesting that we don’t fund the schools, but

you can go ahead and pass it for 20 years or 15 years.” Shelby County Superintendent Randy Fuller said the school board is looking to extend the taxes until 2041 to better handle Shelby County’s growth. “State law allows it to extend for up to 30 years,” Fuller said. “For high growth areas like Shelby County, this was the optimum length for us to be able to address the growth

See RENEWAL, Page 2A

Johnson trial set for April

‘

year in review FROM STAFF REPORTS We continue our look back through the biggest storylines and biggest names of 2010. JUNE

SPORTS

2010 Brookwood on U.S. 280

BROOKWOOD EMERGENCY ROOM ON U.S. 280 APPROVED Brookwood Medical Center moved one step closer to building a freestanding emergency room at the intersection of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119 June 30. The announcement came after administrative law judge James Wilson recommended the hospital move forward with building the emergency room, which would be the first of its kind in Alabama. JULY BENTLEY WINS RUNOFF Columbiana native Dr. Robert Bentley defeated his opponent Bradley Byrne during a July 13 Republican gubernatorial runoff, sealing his spot on the November general election ballot. With about 97 percent of the state reporting, Bentley had about 56 percent of the vote to Byrne’s 44 percent. In Shelby County, Bentley had about 52 percent of the vote, and Byrne had about 44 percent. After winning the runoff, Bentley went on to face Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks. VINCENT SAYS YES TO THE QUARRY The Vincent Town Council approved White Rock Quarries’ plans to build a limestone quarry within town limits. The council passed an ordinance approving the mining company’s request to rezone 886 acres of land to accommodate the quarry during the council’s July 15 meeting. The council also passed an ordinance to annex all of White Rock’s property into the town of Vincent. ALABAMA SOLDIER KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

See REVIEW, Page 2A Vincent quarry approved

Police arrest Texas child molestation suspect Panthers fall to

By NEAL WAGNER City Editor

rival Thompson

PelhamBy dropsNEAL key areaWAGNER contest. 7A

City Editor

Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Michael Joiner has set an April 4 trial date for a man accused of shooting and killing Pelham police officer Philip Davis. Kimberly resident Johnson Bart Wayne Johnson faces two counts of capital murder, one for intentionally killing an on-duty police officer and another for intentionally causing death by shooting from an occupied vehicle. He has pleaded not guilty on both charges. Johnson was arrested on Dec. 4, 2009, several hours

NEWS Eve misdemeanA Christmas or theft arrest by the Alabaster Police Department led to indeREPORTER PHOTO/JON GOERING cency with a child charges Alabama’s Sam Bodner celebrates after scoring in the first of three games against rival Auburn and an extraat the Pelham Civic Complex on Jan. 14. dition of a Pelham resident. Alabaster throughout the city, according to taurants and hotels. The rush By NEAL WAGNER P o l i c e Pelham Marketing Director Eva also provided exposure for the City Editor Preparetoto take responded Civic Complex and the city, Shepherd. the polar Walmart in plunge As many as 5,000 people came Shepherd said. The first hockey meeting 29 Polar Plunge ben“It not only helped us. The between two of the most bitter through the Civic Complex’s the Jan. Colonial efiting Special Olympics. Visit rivals in college sports brought doors during the inaugural trickle-down effect was great,” Prom enade PelhamReporter.com. an economic spike to the Pelham ice Iron Bowl weekend, which Eulogio shopping cenSee ECONOMY, Page 2A Civic Complex and businesses meant big business for area resONLINE POLL ter on Dec. 24 after officials called to Did store you attend the ice Iron at at the the Pelham report a Bowl theft store. When Complex? officers Civic arrived, they arrested rooms at Pelham City bathrooms hasn’t been set to begin practicing By NEAL WAGNER 75% 25% 35-year-old Pelham residentCity Editor Park after a failed septic high for the past few in February, functionMario Roberto Eulogio on one tank forced the city to months, said Pelham ing bathrooms will soon Parks and Recreation become a necessity, of the shut them down. count of third-degree Members theft Crandall said. Because the septic Director Billy Crandall. Pelham City Council of property, a misdemeanor “On February 5, we However, with are considering several tank failed shortly before methods of returning the winter temperatures Pelham’s youth base- will start baseball and charge. service to a pair of bath- arrived, demand for the ball and softball leagues softball out there, and we “He was buying something at Walmart, and I believe he INSIDE A LOOK BACK stole Opinion/Public a packRecords.................4A of batteries,” said A-Z kids.........................................5A Alabaster Police Department Classifieds.....................................6A  Jan. 28, 2009 — The Pelham Deputy Chief Curtis Rigney. Calendar........................................7A High School Pantherettes EVENTS HONORS Sports............................................7A “They arrested him and ran his dance team wins its sixthstraight state title at the All Ladies’ Lunch Jan. 24 Montevallo graduates name through the computer, Stars State Competition at and it turned out he was on theGreater Shelby Chamber The Pelham residents Patrick Martin Samford University. of Commerce will host a Ladies’ Batey, Alesha J. Dawson, Stephanie run from Texas.”  Jan. 31, 2001 — Pelham Lunch and Learn event at Chrisie’s Lee Jolley, Jessica L. Mitchell, boys’ basketball team avengWhen officers ran Eulogio’s Creations on Jan. 24 from noon-1 Micah J. Simpson and Jennifer N. es an early season loss to p.m. Woodbery recently earned degrees name through the national Oak Mountain by beating the classified ads are now Fore more information, contact from the University of Montevallo. crimeAllFREE database, they discovEagles 48-47. for individuals. Chrisie Hawkins at 914-1045. State Sen. Slade Blackwell spoke (Some restrictions apply) ered the man was wanted by during the Dec. 17, 2010, commencement ceremony. your ad online at HarrisSubmit County, Texas, on two PelhamReporter.com or indecency with a child charges call 205.669.3133 related to a case under investigation by the Houston Police Department. The indecency with a child charges came after an 8-yearold Texas girl told police the

Iron Cup boosts economy

UM gets new President

NEWS

Bride Guide

See DAVIS, Page 3A

Failed septic tank creates dilemma for Pelham

Spring 2011

<HV

are going to have a lot of kids that need to go to the bathroom,” Crandall told the council during its Jan. 17 meeting. “We need to do something

Shelby County

In your backyard

See TANK, Page 3A

DEATHS • 3A B.M. Stafford - Pelham

QUOTABLE • 2A “It’s y’all’s call. It’s how you want to spend the money.” — Pelham Mayor Don Murphy

See CHILD, Page 2A

Marissa

Jenkins Love crossed oceans for her proposal

Shelby County Newspapers, Inc. ShelbyCountyReporter.com•AlabasterReporter.com•PelhamReporter.com ShelbyLiving.com•WellnessAlabama.com•ShelbyCountyBrides.com

Profile 2011

Moore

Giving

By SAMANTHA HURST Images by JON GOERING

groggy Betsy Moore pulls herself out from under the covers, exhausted from a busy night before of fixing dinner, getting kids to bed, straightening the kitchen and grading papers. She knows by the yawn erupting from her lungs that this will be a long day. All the same, she pulls herself together. “Even on my worst day, I could be someone’s greatest hope,” she said. “If I’m having a bad day, I just can’t take that out on my kids.” Her kids include her own four children and her seventh-graders at Montevallo Middle School. Principal Sheila Lewis said she has supervised many novice teachers, yet Moore epitomizes the term “tenacious” more than any she’s worked with before. “Moore has qualities I wish many of my veteran teachers possessed,” Lewis said. “She has love for her students — a determination to teach the whole child despite the many obstacles she must first overcome.” One part of those obstacles involves navigating life as a teacher when she never thought she’d be one. Moore and her family moved to Shelby County when she was 14. After graduating from Thompson High School, she spent four years in the Army before spending the next seven working as a dispatcher for the sheriff ’s office. Moore said through both experiences she encountered people she knew had missed out on opportunities that could have changed their lives for the better. So, at 34, with kids, Moore enrolled in college. Three days after graduation, she put marker to whiteboard as a teacher at Montevallo Middle. “When your parents are teachers, you swear you are never going to want to do what your parents do,” she said. “But I thought, ‘Wow, if I was teaching in school I could provide people with direction.’ I think through everything I had seen I felt the best way to make a lasting change was to go into education.” Despite difficulties Moore has faced in just her second year, she refuses to give in. Lewis said the seventhgrade class is the most challenging group in the school, but Moore truly loves them. “Every kid has something good about them and I do believe that,” said Moore. “Even the toughest kids have value in them. Sometimes they just need somebody to show them some grace.” Moore makes an effort to really know her students. Some of them need to know you care about them, she said, but might need to be left to their own. Others might require more direct attention during and after class. She tries not to pry but also makes an effort to let them know she sees they may not be 100 percent that day, but she’s there for them. It’s not about teaching a lesson and hoping the kids figure it out themselves. Moore aims to gauge a child’s needs by his or her behavior, Lewis said, and then instructs the child based on those needs. This requires creativity and dedication. Moore works long hours, coming in at 6:30 a.m. and

not leaving before 6 p.m. Her lessons are very creative and engaging, Lewis said. Moore conducts tutorial sessions every morning she doesn’t have assigned breakfast duty and offers opportunities for students to re-test if they haven’t received a passing grade. Coworkers voted Moore “Faculty Member of the Month” in December. She was even selected by Alabama Power to receive a New Teacher Grant of $1,000 during her first year. The grant allowed her to purchase additional supplies and materials. Moore also served as the school’s track coach this year. Many of the team members were not financially able to pay the track donation. This placed quite a burden on the team. Attending their first meet, MMS runners showed up at the starting line in plain gym shorts and faced teasing

from opposing schools. Moore couldn’t handle allowing her kids to face that embarrassment again, so she went out and solicited funds from friends, neighbors and relatives to help with uniforms, transportation and tournament entrance fees. The MMS track team finished second in the county tournament last year. Moore arrives to school equipped, not only with lesson plans, track uniforms and patience, but often with Walmart gift cards. Moore has seen the reality of what the families of some of her students are facing. To go a step beyond her role as teacher, she makes a point to budget enough money to purchase regular Walmart gift cards, which she then presents to the school counselors to give to any family they find in need, Lewis said.

“Even on my worst day, I could be someone’s greatest hope.” 50

Profile 2011

Moore asks for no recognition for these acts of compassion. She said she doesn’t want any child to feel uncomfortable around her because she knows his or her family is in need. “I feel very blessed in my life; I feel very fortunate to have a job and my kids are healthy. I can’t imagine what some of these kids do go through,” she said. “I don’t know who needs it, but if I can spare it, why not?” This still-green teacher knows she has so much more to learn about disciplining students, but she knows they can all grow together. “I’m always happy I made the choice to go back and teach. The greatest thing about teaching is watching the kids just enjoy themselves,” she said. “Even beyond that, though, is when you see them enjoying school, enjoying learning. When you can see that pure joy in their eyes —that’s the best part for me.”

ABOVE: Evelyn Moore, an English teacher at Montevallo Middle School, talks to her class about writing using descriptive details during class. RIGHT: MMS seventhgrader Monisha Gresham laughs while Moore reads the paragraph Gresham wrote during Moore’s English literature class aloud to the class. The assignment was for the students to write a paragraph about their favorite thing in their room, and Gresham chose a poster of Justin Bieber.

Profile 2011

Life is a

highway

LEFT: A moss-covered wood fence separates a tree from Alabama 25 south of Columbiana. ABOVE: A handful of wildflowers peek through the grass on the side of Alabama 25. BELOW: A rusted chain holds a fence shut on the side of the road where Alabama 25 runs past Montevallo and out of Shelby County into Bibb County. BELOW LEFT: Along a stretch of Alabama 25, cotton waits in the fi elds to be harvested. Photo essay by Jon Goering

Profile 2011

LEFT: The sun sets along a stretch of Alabama 25 in Calera. TOP: The sun sets on a grave marked only by a pile of white pebbles, a tattered American flag and a camouflage University of Alabama baseball cap near the back of the Harpersville Garden of Memories. ABOVE: The lights from a produce shop on Alabama 25 in Calera light up a cold winter scene. BELOW: At the corner where U.S. 280 meets Alabama 25, an old tattered flag and broken sign stand close to a farmer selling local produce from a truck. BELOW LEFT: Following a rain storm, a rainbow stretches over the top of Alabama 25 south of Columbiana.

Profile 2011

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Profile 2011