Profile 2013

Profi le 2013

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Note from the editor: Welcome to the 2013 edition of Profile, our annual publication that takes an in-depth look at the people, places and organizations in our community.

While planning this magazine, we were inspired by the many different people and organizations that are making a difference in Shelby County. In fact, “inspiring” is the word I would choose to represent this publication.

Chris Goodwin, a recent Shelby County High School graduate, lost his leg – and almost his life – in a horrific car wreck during his senior year. He fought his way back, learning to walk again, joining a wheelchair basketball team and making plans to attend college.

Leslie and Theresa Whiting wear many hats. He’s a postal worker and City Council member. She’s a teacher and on the board of a local arts organization. Together, they serve as ministers of a Columbiana church, and Leslie volunteers as the chaplain at the county jail.

Kirk Mancer joined the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce last year, bringing a wealth of experience and new ideas with him. He’s pushed forward the Shelby One initiative and helped the chamber forge even closer connections with local municipalities.

Myers Plants and Pottery is a beloved garden center in Pelham that has served county residents for more than two decades, providing steady service as the county population exploded around it.

Owens House, Shelby County’s Child Advocacy Center, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The organization oversees forensic interviews in child abuse case, as well as offering counseling, parenting classes and education programs free of charge – all on a limited budget.

As you can see, there’s no shortage of inspiring stories in Shelby County, from business success to community involvement to the triumph of the human spirit.

We hope you’ll find a story within these pages that inspires you.

Profile

Shelby County 2013 Management

Tim Prince Publisher & President

Editorial

Jan Griffey Associate Publisher & Editor Amy Jones Associate Editor Mickel Ponthieux Sports Writer Katie McDowell Lifestyles Editor Neal Wagner City Editor Christine Boatwright Staff Writer Jon Goering Photographer

Marketing

Alan Brown Advertising Director Jill Harvell Marketing Consultant Meagan Mims Marketing Consultant Thomas LaBoone Marketing Consultant Nicole Loggins Marketing Consultant Rhett McCreight Marketing Consultant

Classifieds

Diane Fant Classifieds Sales Consultant Tracy Jones Classifieds Sales Consultant LaShan Johnson Classifieds Sales Consultant

Customer Service

Mary Jo Eskridge Customer Service Annie McGilvray Administrative/Advertising Assistant Hailey Dolbare Administrative Assistant Christine Roberts Administrative Assistant

Production Daniel Holmes Design Jamie Sparacino Design Amy Baldis Design

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

Profile 2013

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Person of the year A minor setback The nocturnal news source Answering the call Beating the odds Being Elijah Driving the economic engine Learning to be dad Putting hope first Seeking championships Growing into the family business Reminders of the Past Field of angels The 15th president A place for children From player to coach Heroes of the deep Working on the water 10

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Leader of the pack

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PAGE 6: Carol Bruser. ABOVE LEFT: As part of Carol’s job at the University of Montevallo, she does plenty of outreach with local schools and organizations. ABOVE RIGHT: Carol Bruser, the Leadership Shelby County coordinator, is devoted to the program. “Everything I do involves Leadership Shelby County in some way,” she said.

Carol Bruser | Person of the Year

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ven when Carol Bruser is wearing all black, she’s the most colorful person in the room.

Just ask, and Carol, the Leadership Shelby County coordinator, will tell you all about how she conquered her fears when she went through the leadership program herself in 2000-2001.

“I went through not knowing anything about the program,” said Carol, who said she was terrified of doing some exercises, such as the trust fall, when she would need to trust her fellow participants to catch her. “I practiced for weeks at home falling off my bed onto (my husband).”

However, it wasn’t long before Carol fell in love with Leadership Shelby County.

“After you do this program, you can go anywhere in Shelby County, to any event, any party, and you’ll know five people there,” she said. “You won’t find another Leadership program like this anywhere.”

Leadership Shelby County, which is based at the University of Montevallo, is an annual program that offers participants a chance to become leaders for Shelby County through participating in full-day sessions on high-priority topics in Shelby County, such as education, economic development or the justice system.

The program’s mission is to enhance

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By AMY JONES Images by JON GOERING the quality of life in Shelby County.

Carol’s title — “coordinator” — doesn’t divulge how devoted she is to the program, however.

“Everything I do involves Leadership Shelby County in some way,” Carol said.

In a way, it was inevitable that Carol would have this job. No matter where life has taken her, she’s always been a leader, as Leadership Shelby County President David Bobo said.

“It is very fitting that Carol is the leader of a leadership program.

She is like the athlete who, by her involvement, makes the entire team better,” Bobo said. “She ensures that credit for the successes is spread as widely as possible throughout the group. She is a fantastic leader.”

HER PATH TO LEADERSHIP Carol, who moved to Vestavia Hills with her family when she was 13, was part of the third graduating class from Vestavia Hills High School.

She stayed in the area, moving to Pelham 36 years ago after she married her husband, Buddy.

“We moved to Pelham, which was teeny-tiny. We didn’t even have the interstate,” Carol said. “I’ve seen Pelham grow tremendously.”

She stayed home with her three children until they were grown. Carol and Buddy have five grandchildren, who all live in the area.

“I go home on the weekends and from Friday night to Sunday, we just have a house of children all weekend

long. We have a swimming pool, so we swim and we eat,” said Carol, laughing.

“We’re very fortunate because we are all very close. Our children must really like us, because they hang out with us a lot.”

When Carol was bringing up her children, she worked with several different organizations — she was on the Women’s Committee of 50, was the president of the Charity League and was PTO president at all of the schools her children attended.

“I didn’t do it for any other reason than to make a difference in my children’s schools,” Carol said. “When I was a stay-at-home mom, I worked harder than I do now.”

Through her work with the PTO at area schools, Carol built the connections that would eventually lead to her work with the Greater Shelby County Education Foundation, a nonprofit that helps provide financial support for schools and support for education initiatives.

In 2000, the coordinator for the Education Foundation stepped down.

Carol, already a member of the foundation’s board, stepped in as the interim coordinator — and remained in the role for eight years.

In fact, when Carol went through Leadership Shelby County, her class was broken up into three groups, each of which had to come up with a project that would improve the quality of life in Shelby County. Her project group decided to focus on the Greater Shelby County Education Foundation and how to keep it growing.

“It was near to my heart, and it meant a lot to me that (my group members) bought in,” Carol said.

After Carol graduated from Leadership Shelby County, she got involved with the Youth Leadership Shelby County program, enabling her to continue working with the adult program through Ellen Corbett, the Leadership Shelby County coordinator at the time.

Eventually, Corbett decided to retire, and Carol applied for the job.

For a couple of years, Carol was both the Education Foundation coordinator and the Leadership Shelby County coordinator.

In 2008, Carol knew it was time for a change. Leading both programs was too much, and she had to make a choice. She chose Leadership Shelby County.

“I knew I couldn’t do both because I couldn’t do it well,” she said.

Carol wears many hats in her role at the University of Montevallo.

Besides her work with Leadership Shelby County, she works with the Career Development Center to help Montevallo students find internships and to help employees post job openings.

She also works as an assistant with the Falcon Scholars in Action program. Falcon Scholars in Action is a partnership between the Shelby County Commission and the University of Montevallo, involving 25 Falcon Scholars every year who work with different organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club.

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She loves everything she does for the university, but it’s apparent that Leadership is her passion. And it’s no surprise — the program helped her get through one of the toughest times of her life.

knowing you can get sick and nothing skips a beat. You start noticing how well-prepared the ones you love are to continue on and use what you’ve given them.”

However, Carol’s treatment left her frustrated. She had to take two drugs to help fight the cancer, in addition to chemotherapy and radiation.

“I used to take the drugs they gave me for all that mess, and I used to read about them, and it would say, ‘This drug caused cancer in a lab rat,’” Carol said. “And I would say, ‘Well, thank God I’m not a lab rat!”

The woman so used to taking care of everyone had the tables turned.

“I didn’t have time to be sick. I’m a caregiver, not a care-taker,” Carol said.

“I was naïve because I didn’t know anything about it because nobody in my life had gone through it.”

Her experience with cancer did strengthen her spirituality, however.

“For the first time in my life, I felt the power of prayer. I felt people praying for me,” she said.

Carol chose to do a lumpectomy, a surgery in which only the tumor and some surrounding tissue is removed, rather than a double mastectomy.

She has had no traces of cancer since 2010, but is rechecked every three months to be sure there are no more signs of the disease.

Others involved in Leadership Shelby County — such as Shelby County Probate Judge Jim Fuhrmeister — saw Carol as a beacon of strength during that time, even if Carol herself didn’t feel that way.

“During my year as a class member, Carol was struggling with cancer treatment. Because of this, she was

“THANK GOD I’M NOT A LAB RAT” In summer 2009, Carol kept feeling a sharp pain at the bottom of her breast.

People kept telling her, whatever it was, it couldn’t be cancer because cancer is typically pain-free.

She went in for a check-up in July 2009 and had a cyst removed. Her doctor told her it likely wasn’t cancer.

When she went back to get the test results, the doctor was just as shocked as she was about the results: Stage 2 breast cancer.

Carol said a small percentage of breast cancer patients get cancer at the bottom of the breasts. She pointed to the top of her breast — “Up here, most common.” Then she pointed to the bottom — “Down here, least common. Like everything else in my life, the least common.”

Beginning in September 2009, Carol went through six months of chemotherapy and then three months of radiation. She was in no shape to run Leadership Shelby County the way she typically did. However, it was fine. The Leadership Shelby County board and chairpersons all pitched in to be sure Leadership would continue without a hitch.

“That was a horrible experience, but it was a wonderful experience.

Everybody just stepped in,” Carol said. “The best feeling in the world is

not able to take care of the details like she normally does and could not attend all class days,” Fuhrmeister said. “She was going through a very tough time, yet on the days she could be with us, she always had a smile and a positive, even cheerful attitude. Leaders inspire others through their attitudes, and Carol inspired our class.”

NO STOPPING HER NOW Carol said she loves Leadership in large part because of the people she meets through the program.

“To meet so many wonderful people, I don’t feel like I’m a stranger anywhere. Everywhere I go, I know people,” she said. “I love people. I love people. It’s wonderful to meet so many people that you don’t have anything in common with — but then you sit and talk with them, and you do.”

She said Leadership Shelby County is continuing to flourish, as the program’s leaders yearly receive large pools of applicants from which to choose 35 class members.

“I feel success in the fact the program is successful. I couldn’t imagine doing this job if we had to go find people,” she said. “We have new leaders coming into the county constantly, so our thing is just identifying who we want to ask.”

Carol said she and Bobo recently went to a Leadership Alabama meeting, where they shared best practices among the state’s community leadership program.

“Other programs were talking about their new ideas and practices, and David and I just looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve done that,’”

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Carol said.

Bobo said Carol is a major reason for the program’s position above the pack.

“Leadership Shelby County is one of the most distinguished Leadership programs in our state and beyond.

Carol’s vision and guidance have been the driving force for this success,” Bobo said. “Because of her effort, Leadership Shelby County will continue to be a premier program in the Southeast.”

Leadership Shelby County board member Donna Francavilla agreed, saying she enjoys time with Carol as much as she admires her.

“Carol brings us donuts and coffee at every meeting,” Francavilla said.

“How can you not love a woman who looks after you with such care?”

Carol cares just as much about Youth Leadership Shelby County, which is steadily growing. The youth program accepts 40 class members per year, and routinely gets twice that number in applicants.

“The youth program is awesome.

They’re so much more expressive,” said Carol, who said, unlike adults, the youth always let her know exactly how they feel. “They have the biggest hearts. They all want to do something.

They blow my mind. I didn’t think like that in high school. If someone had told me to go feed the hungry, I would have said, ‘I’m hungry.’”

Carol said retirement is the furthest thing from her mind.

“I don’t even think about retirement.

I enjoy this too much. My three children are doing wonderful. They’re living their lives,” she said. “Working at UM keeps me young, keeps me grounded. I’ve got my family. I’ve got it all together — why would I stop?” 

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A minor setback

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PAGE 10 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Chris Goodwin worked with the trumpet section duringShelby County High School’s band camp. Chris Goodwin prepares to go in the ocean, using a prosthetic specially made for the water. Chris plays in a game of pick-up basketball at the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham. Chris Goodwin sits with a friend during band camp. ABOVE: Chris worked with the band members at Shelby County High School’s band camp before school started in fall 2012.

By AMY JONES Images by JON GOERING and CONTRIBUTED

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hen Angel Goodwin drove down the hill on Shelby County 55 the morning of Feb. 29, 2012, she immediately knew she could be witnessing the last moments of her son’s life.

The accident was still fresh — it was only a few minutes before that she had gotten the phone call from the police, letting her know Chris, then 17, had been in a “horrific” wreck. He had hit a slick spot in the road and skidded off, crashing directly into a tree. The damage pinned Chris in the vehicle and cut off all blood flow to his legs.

“I knew for the police department to call and use the word ‘horrific,’ I knew it was a bad accident. But I had no idea how bad,” Angel said in an August 2012 interview, months after the accident. “Chris saw me and he said, ‘Mama, all we can do is pray.’”

Chris was still stuck in the vehicle, and the Fourmile Volunteer Fire Department — the first rescue personnel on the scene — did not

have the extrication equipment needed to get him out. They called for help. Meanwhile, Chris and Angel sang “Jesus Loves Me” and prayed for God’s help.

Because of the way the vehicle had been damaged, rescuers finally had to call two wreckers to put chains on the truck and pull it apart before Chris could be freed.

“It took one hour and 20 minutes to get him out of the truck,” Angel said. “He said, ‘Mama, my leg.’ I said, ‘I know, baby, but God doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle.’”

Chris’ father, Keith, stayed with his wife and son during the extraction, assisting rescuers by holding the IV bags medics were using for Chris.

Once Chris was out of the vehicle, medics realized that the lack of blood flow to his legs was actually a gift from God. “Now we know that was a blessing, because he would have bled to death (otherwise),” Angel said.

An ambulance took Chris and Angel directly to the trauma unit at UAB Hospital. The scene when they arrived was straight out of the TV show “ER,” as medical personnel rushed Chris to be prepped for surgery.

Yet, through the chaos, Angel felt a serenity.

“There was a peace that God had given me, because I knew he was going to make it,” she said.

THE NEXT THREE DAYS While Chris certainly did make it, the next three days were a dangerous time.

The initial X-ray taken on Wednesday, Feb. 29 — the day of the accident — revealed that both of Chris’ legs were broken in multiple places. The left leg in particular was horribly shattered — “like pieces of peppermints or pretzels,” Angel said.

As Chris was taken into surgery after the accident, the possibility of amputating his left leg hung in the air.

Angel turned to Keith and asked, “How are we going to tell our 17-year-old son we made the decision to amputate his leg, if we need to amputate?” Keith simply replied, “We’ve got to give it to God.” God’s decision came soon. A specialist came to speak to them to let them know amputation of the left leg below the knee — which doctors referred to as a “crown amputation” — was necessary.

“He said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. How he didn’t bleed to death, I don’t know,’” Angel said.

The next day, Chris again had to be rushed into surgery to save his right leg after developing compartment syndrome, which involves increased pressure in a muscle compartment, in that leg.

The Goodwins’ greatest challenge came on Friday, however. That day, Chris developed a fatty embolism, a blood clot capable of flowing into his lungs. Angel said doctors told her most patients do not survive developing a fatty embolism. His doctors had to do another life-saving procedure.

“We were living hour by hour. It wasn’t day by day, it was hour by hour,” Angel said. “And then that Friday, it was minute by minute.”

However, true to his nature, Chris survived. His body needed time to recover, though, and because of his extreme pain, Chris was in a medically induced coma for 25 days after his Feb. 29 surgery.

While he was asleep, he was still changing lives. Angel heard from a classmate of Chris’ at Shelby County High School, who told her that students at the school were

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praying together and accepting Jesus because of Chris.

“God was using Christopher — and he was silent — to change lives,” Angel said. “We knew it was worth it.”

TAKING THE NEXT STEP

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Chris works to climb stairs during his rehab. After Chris woke up from a medically induced coma, he was able to go quickly from the hospital into a rehab facility. Chris’s right leg still bears the scars of emergency surgery to save that leg. Chris stands with his wrecked truck.

Chris woke up on March 24 without his left leg below the knee and without the ability to talk, due to the tracheal tube down his throat.

Nails had been placed in the bones of both legs to help straighten his legs and hold his bones together.

He had been through a harrowing journey that involved near death.

But he was awake, and that was enough for Keith and Angel. Before they could begin to move on, though, they had to share a hard truth.

“We told him they were not able to save his leg, but God was going to give him a new leg,” Angel said.

Keith also had a message for his son — but this one was a message of hope.

“Keith said, ‘Chris, you have been marked for Christ. Son, you have three nails and a crown, and the third day after the accident, God brought you back,’” Angel said.

From then on, the family looked to the future. Chris quickly moved from the hospital to a rehab facility and was able to go home after 45 days.

Life changed totally — Chris wasn’t able to get into the family home in his wheelchair, so friends and family helped to build a wheelchair ramp and widen the doorways.

“God provided so we could come home to our home,” Angel said.

“My thing is, normal is nothing but a setting on a washing machine. This was a new normal.”

At every turn, Chris confounded expectations.

“They said he might be in the hospital for six months to a year.

He was out in 45 days,” Angel said.

“They said he might be able to watch graduation. He said, ‘I’m walking in my graduation.’ And he did.”

Chris said the recovery itself wasn’t as difficult as it could have been, especially once he decided that moving forward was preferable to looking back.

“I wasn’t really ever worried or scared or anything,” he said. “That’s just how (life) works. I’m not going to sit around and whine about anything.”

Now, Chris is 18 and has adjusted to his new life, which in many ways is remarkably similar to his old life.

He’s driving, and with the help of a special prosthetic made for the water, he can hunt, fish, swim and take a shower standing up. He also plays basketball, albeit in a wheelchair.

He said life is just life — nothing more and nothing less. “(Life) is almost the same as it would have been,” he said. “It’s just a minor setback. There’s nothing I won’t be able to do.”

And, in fact, there may be more he’s able to do now.

ROLLING INTO THE FUTURE During Chris’ recovery, he started playing in pickup wheelchair basketball games at the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham.

His athleticism and talent wowed the regulars there, especially after they realized how recently he’d been

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hurt.

“They were amazed that his accident was so recent and he was doing this stuff,” Angel said.

When Chris was there one night, the conversation turned to his college plans. He said he’d likely be going to Jacksonville State University or perhaps another college closer to home, but his love for the University of Alabama was well-known, and his friends said he should consider going to Alabama to play wheelchair basketball.

One man Chris played with actually knew Miles Thompson, the wheelchair basketball coach at Alabama, and — at 8:45 at night — pulled out his phone and proceeded to call Coach Thompson.

The Goodwins chatted with Thompson and decided to set up a wheelchair basketball scrimmage for that weekend at the Lakeshore Foundation in order for Thompson to meet Chris.

That weekend, Angel was nervous. In the scrimmage, her son was going up against a member of the U.S. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball team, two members of Alabama’s men’s wheelchair basketball team and a former member of the U.S. Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team.

But Chris wasn’t fazed.

“I would have been intimidated, but he was not. He just wheeled out onto the floor,” Angel said.

After the scrimmage, Thompson was sold.

“Miles said, ‘He can play basketball. Is this something y’all are interested in?’” Angel said. “We said, ‘Yes sir!’”

Chris enrolled at Alabama in January. He gets 100 percent of his tuition and room and board through vocational rehabilitation.

Chris said he’s not surprised that great blessings have come out of a horrific situation.

“It’s just how it works. It happened for a reason,” he said. “I guess it’s almost what I deserve — my reward from God.” Chris said he can now impact people’s lives with his story.

“It just opens the door to more people for me to try to help. It’s a great opportunity,” he said.

“Somebody that’s been there, that knows, can make even more of a difference.”

Angel is convinced that Chris was designed to meet this challenge, that God has been preparing her son from the beginning. Chris was born three months premature — from his first moments on earth, he’s been a survivor.

The night before the accident, Chris tweeted a short message — only three words. “Challenge accepted. #sogonnaWIN” Even he doesn’t know why he sent that message out into the world.

“I don’t even know. It was nothing important,” he said. “Me and my friends are always saying stuff like that. It wasn’t important, but now it’s important.”

Angel has a different view.

“Nobody knew what that meant, but God knew. God was preparing him,” she said.

“We’ve always known God has a plan for him. He shouldn’t have been here to begin with. To survive what he’s survived, you look at him and know without a shadow of a doubt that there is a God.” 

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By NEAL WAGNER Images by JON GOERING

H

al Woodman’s daily journey begins a little before 3 p.m. almost every weekday. After taking a shower and getting dressed, Woodman walks to the school bus stop to greet his daughter, Kylie, as she ends her day at Pelham High School.

Woodman then spends time with Kylie while she starts tackling her homework. The next step in his routine typically leads Woodman to a laptop or desktop computer to check his email, search the web pages of local news outlets, check his Twitter feed and scour his Facebook page — all while gathering any kind of information related to Helena.

After gathering the day’s Helenarelated news, Woodman, whose online handle, “Hewy,” is his childhood nickname, compiles the information in order of importance, inserts pictures where appropriate and drafts the day’s blog post before looking over it one last time.

After eating his first meal of the day, Woodman pastes the post onto his Blogspot website and sets the post to go live in the wee hours of the morning before setting off to work from 11:45 p.m.-8 a.m. maintaining computer systems at a large insurance company in Hoover.

“I try to write the post before I go into work, but it doesn’t go live until later that night. I don’t want people to think I am sitting around doing the blog while I am at work,” Woodman said with a laugh.

Woodman takes his “lunch break” at about 4 a.m. and returns home a little after 8 a.m. to get a good day’s sleep. The hours give Woodman access to great parking wherever he goes, allow him to travel opposite traffic going and coming from work and play in perfectly to what has become one of his biggest passions.

When Woodman’s day is coming to an end, thousands of Helena residents — both past and present — begin their days by pulling up Woodman’s “No Sleep in Helena” blog at Helenaalabama.blogspot.com.

Today, the blog, which is updated every weekday, is chock full of every kind of Helena news imaginable.

Whether it’s links to local news sources, pictures from community events or announcements for Helena happenings, Woodman’s blog has become a staple in this city of nearly 17,000 residents.

FROM FAMILY TO LOST SLEEP

The No Sleep in Helena blog’s genesis differs greatly from its current form.

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When Woodman moved from Montgomery to Helena in 1999, he had already been dabbling with virtual bulletin board programs for several years.

Virtual bulletin boards paved the way for modern-day message forums and social media sites, and helped large groups of people to stay in touch before cell phones gained popularity.

Building off his previous net knowledge, Woodman started a blog primarily to stay in touch with his family and keep track of events in his new Helena home.

“I would post about events just so I could remember them,” Woodman said with a laugh.

As more people learned about Woodman’s blog, its popularity exploded.

“Everybody would get on there and post about their family. I started getting a lot of feedback,” Woodman said. “I decided to start posting about events and news, and it kind of took on a life of its own.

“It seems like everyone moved to Helena at the same time. A lot of people moved to Helena when the blog started becoming popular, and the word started traveling fast,” Woodman added.

When Woodman began keeping stats in 2005, he logged about 25 page views per day on the blog. In 2012, the number had grown to 1,000 on an average weekday. As his blog began picking up momentum, Woodman decided to stay anonymous by using the “Hewy Nosleep” moniker.

The nickname protected Woodman’s privacy, but it may have had a negative impact during his first bid for political office in Helena.

“For a long time, nobody knew who Hewy Nosleep was,” said Helena mayor’s assistant Joy Childers, who has been living in Helena for more than 40 years. “Four years ago, he ran for a spot on the council, and I don’t think anyone knew who he was.

After that election, his name started to come out a little bit.”

In 2012, Woodman’s council campaign signs read “’Hewy’ Woodman Council Place 5.” His council spot was the only uncontested seat during Helena’s 2012 elections.

Woodman is adamant about keeping his blog as a community resource, and said he does not want to use it to campaign or promote his personal goals. During the election season, the blog advertised every Helena campaign event, Woodman’s or otherwise.

“Everybody keeps telling me that I won’t be able to do the blog after I get on the City Council, but I want to post about my experiences. I want to do it like a continuing-the-journey

Hal Woodman’s “No Sleep in Helena” blog has grown from a way for him to keep up with family members to a popular information source for Helena residents.

kind of thing,” Woodman said. “I think people would be interested in reading about what it’s really like.”

BLOGGING AN EXAMPLE Attend an event with any kind of Helena connection, and you are likely to see Woodman helping to set up tents, park cars or anything else pivotal to the event’s success.

Woodman’s dedication to Helena doesn’t end at the keyboard, prompting many to take his blog’s name seriously.

“We truly believe that Hal doesn’t sleep,” Childers said. “I think that only young people can go like that. I would be a zombie if I worked all night and then went to as many things as he does.”

Woodman said he does everything in his power to ensure Helena events are as successful as they can be.

“I think that there are a lot of cool events that happen, but they fail because nobody shows up,” Woodman said. “There is nothing worse than having something great that nobody shows up to.”

The blog, a nocturnal work schedule and his community involvement do not keep Woodman from his family. If anything, the community gives the family a better chance to be together.

Woodman’s daughter, Kylie, a sophomore at Pelham High School, has learned some valuable life lessons

from her father’s blog. Kylie has tagged along with her father to events ranging from council meetings to the Buck Creek Festival, and sometimes helps Woodman collect information and take pictures for the blog.

Through her work with the blog, Kylie said she has learned it is easy to get involved in her city’s happenings.

“I think it sort of shows that it doesn’t take that much effort to get involved in your community. You just have to know where the events are happening,” Kylie said. “Before my dad’s blog, I probably wouldn’t have volunteered for those things.”

Woodman’s family — which includes wife, Kyra, and children Kylie, Haley and Alex — has grown accustomed to meeting Woodman’s fans while out and about, especially since he won a spot on the City Council.

“Last year, I was a freshman at Pelham, and all my teachers saw my name and asked me if my dad did the No Sleep in Helena blog,” Kylie said with a laugh. “Everybody asks me about it.”

Woodman said he uses his online pastime to help instill future lessons to his three children.

“Another good thing about it is that you get to volunteer and meet people,” Woodman said. “I hope in some way that this will encourage my kids to be involved in their communities wherever they go in the future.” 

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Woodman, whose fascination with gnomes is well known, shows off the workstation he uses to update the blog.

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Answering the call

Columbiana residents serve Shelby County inmates for two decades

By KATIE MCDOWELL Images by JON GOERING

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or Leslie and Teresa Whiting, community service is both a way of life and way to serve God. For 20 years, the Columbiana residents have made regular trips to the Shelby County Jail.

Leslie is the chaplain of the jail, and the couple makes regular visits there to minister to the inmates. They collect and distribute Bibles, organize holiday fundraisers or simply lend a sympathetic ear. Leslie also oversees the volunteer program — recruiting, performing background checks and managing those who donate their time to the inmates.

The Whitings are reluctant to talk about their service, which they said they are called by God to do.

Sheriff Chris Curry, however, is quick to praise the couple.

“It is my belief, that their presence, their message is a contributing factor to us being able to maintain the jail as peaceful as it is,” he said.

The Whitings both have full-time jobs outside the jail ministry. Leslie is a U.S. Postal Service worker and a newly elected member of the Columbiana City Council, while Teresa is a teacher at the Shelby County Juvenile Detention Center. They are also co-preachers at The Church at Columbiana.

Leslie said God has called the couple to serve their community, and they simply do their best to follow his will.

“You don’t always know what his plans are,” Leslie said. “You just want to walk where he wants you to walk.”

FROM VOLUNTEER TO CHAPLAIN In 1992, Leslie received a phone call from a friend asking if he would go into the jail to preach. He originally ignored the request, but the friend was persistent and gave Leslie a phone number.

Leslie called the number and got the former chaplain of the Shelby County Jail, who invited him to volunteer. After eight months, Leslie received another call — this time from former Sheriff James Jones, who asked if he would be interested in serving as chaplain.

“I told him I had to pray about it and talk to my wife about it,” Leslie said.

For Teresa, the decision was easy.

She struggled with a debilitating illness — severe dysautonomia, a disease of the automatic nervous system, and major depression — in the early 90s.

“I just want to impart what I have, what I have been given,” she said. “I was disabled and sick for four years and I know the power of God and his word.

I just want to share hope with others.”

While Leslie oversees the entire volunteer program, as well as serving as chaplain of Shelby County’s juvenile detention center, Teresa has played a large role in ministering to the female

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Leslie Whiting serves as the chaplain for the Shelby County Jail and the Shelby County Regional Juvenile Detention Facility.

inmates.

The Whitings have been married for 33 years and have three grown children and six grandchildren.

They met while students at Alabama State University. He is originally from Pensacola, Fla., while Teresa is a Shelby County native originally from Shelby.

The couple found they have similar interests and outlooks on life.

“One of the things my dad always said was be involved with the community, be involved in the place where you live,” Leslie said.

SHARING THE GOSPEL That attitude has shown through in their work at the jail, according to Curry, who described the Whitings as having “servants’ hearts.”

Leslie has been the only person to serve as chaplain during Curry’s tenure as sheriff. Curry said Leslie oversees the entire jail ministry and brings anywhere between five and 25 volunteers with him on each visit.

If an inmate experiences a family death, Leslie is usually the one who

bears the news. Or, if an inmate is simply struggling with incarceration, Leslie lends an ear.

Curry said when tensions are high in the jail, Leslie acts as a calming influence.

“Leslie and his wife are both very respected in the jail. I say that because they both approach it with a giving spirit. They’re not there to make a moral judgment,” he said.

Teresa said the couple truly cares about the inmates. They offer their friendship and support to the inmates even after they are released from the

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jail. Some inmates take them up on the offer, and the Whitings have maintained contact through phone calls and letters.

The Whitings see their work in the jail as a way to bring people closer to God, but Teresa said that doesn’t happen until they’ve gained the inmates’ trust.

“One of the things that (Leslie) says that rings to be so true — and we’ve seen this manifest in so many ways — is that people don’t want to know what you know until they know that you care,” Teresa said.

“THE NEED IS MET”

ABOVE: Teresa Whiting is a teacher at the Shelby County Juvenile Detention Center and volunteers at the Shelby County Jail. TOP RIGHT: The Whitings are very involved in the local community. Leslie is a member of the Columbiana City Council, while Teresa is a member of the Shelby County Arts Council’s Board of Directors.

Ministering to Shelby County’s inmates, which can number up to 512 but is typically in the 300s, is not an easy job. The Whitings say it would be impossible without the help of volunteers and donations from the public.

“The need is always met,” Teresa said. “That’s been the miracle for us.”

After the new jail was opened in 2004 the Whitings worried because it was much larger than the old jail — and it was soon filled with inmates.

The Whitings found they had enough volunteers to serve during visits to the jail, but they were still concerned about donations, especially during the annual Christmas celebration. Each year,

however, the community has responded with more than enough donations.

During Christmas, the Whitings and the volunteers give each inmate a bag full of donated sweets in mid-December.

Leslie said the food is meaningful to the inmates because some don’t receive gifts because of financial issues, or they are estranged from their families.

With Sheriff Curry, they also serve Christmas meals to the inmates and offer milk, tea and orange juice, which aren’t available during the year.

The inmates’ response makes the effort worth it. Teresa said the women often write and perform plays when the volunteers visit for the holidays.

They also make Christmas cards for the volunteers —using Skittles for to make color.

“It’s just amazing some of the innovative ideas they come up with to show their gratitude,” she said.

Teresa said she encourages the inmates and her students at the juvenile detention center not to allow their situation to dictate the rest of their lives.

But, she said it’s the actions of the volunteers, as well as their constant presence at the jail, that makes it possible for them to connect with the inmates.

“That caring and that love opens the door for the gospel,” she said. “Truly, without love we have nothing.” 

Celebrating 90 Years 1923 - 2013

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Beating the Odds

By JAN GRIFFEY Images by JON GOERING Sara Shirley sees a light at the end of the tunnel, and after almost a decade of involvement as either a volunteer or an employee with the Shelby Humane Society, she is confident that light doesn’t belong to an oncoming train.

Shirley, executive director of the Shelby Humane Society and its shelter operation at 381 McDow Road in Columbiana, has seen intake of unwanted pets decrease by thousands since she began as a volunteer at the shelter about 10 years ago. She is confident Shelby Humane and its staff and volunteers are making a positive difference in the lives of innocent animals.

Her cluttered office has the look of that of any hands-on manager, except for the big, sleek black cat, Percy, curled up on a box by a window, and Willie, a three-legged, shaggy mixed breed, also asleep on the floor by Shirley’s chair.

Both were dumped at the shelter years ago and now call it home.

“The state of the animal population in Shelby County is better than it has been. When I got involved years ago, I believe our intake was hovering around 8,700 animals a year. The last two years, our intake has been right at about 5,000. There is a direct correlation between the emphasis on spay and neuter and the decrease in intake. Five thousand is still a huge number, and we don’t get them all. Particularly with cats, we have a lot of cat-friendly people who do so much and they never come here,” Shirley said.

A lifelong resident of Shelby County, Shirley and her husband of 28 years, Kenneth, are the parents of two dogs,

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Shirley, Humane Society staff beat odds to save county’s innocent, unwanted animals which they consider like children.

Maggie, a Labrador, is 12 years old.

Pearl, a bulldog mix, was taken in as a foster puppy. “She is my foster failure. I raised her on a bottle, and she loves her Maggie. They are a very bonded pair.”

Shirley has thousands of other “babies,” those she helps care for every day at the Shelby Humane Society.

FOLLOWING HER DREAM Shirley was a 23-year employee of EBSCO when she felt a yearning for something more in her life.

“It felt like someone was speaking to me. The best way I can explain it was like an empty feeling. I often would find myself at work at EBSCO thinking, ‘I’ve got to find something that gives me meaning, gives me purpose.’ I decided I was going to volunteer, and ran into some people I knew who were working here and I started volunteering.

“I started cleaning in the puppy rooms and I would do outside adoptions at Petsmart on 280. I would come in on Saturday morning and get the animals ready, spend the day there adopting the ones we could and bring back those that didn’t get adopted,” she said.

Soon after, the position of volunteer coordinator opened up and Shirley was offered the job.

“I have the most wonderful family.

I recently lost my dad and that was extremely difficult. The one thing he always told me was to go for my dreams. I’ll never forget that. My mom, she is so supportive. I have two sisters and she has always encouraged us girls to pursue our dreams, and to always do the best we can do at whatever we do.

“It was scary to think about doing something different. Mom had the more logical response. She said, ‘OK, you’ve been there 23 years, making good money, great benefits in a secure job…’ So, I kind of went along with what Daddy said! And I have not had one regret.”

After working as volunteer coordinator, Shirley was promoted to director of operations, a position she held until May 2012, when she was named executive director of Shelby Humane Society.

“I have now held every position here, which makes for a well-rounded understanding of what works and what doesn’t work and what may not work today, but is worth trying again tomorrow,” she said.

Shirley has always been an animal lover and was known to bring home strays as a child. She and her family lived on a small farm in the U.S 280 area between Chelsea and Inverness.

“I think people knew they could

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dump them at our place and we would take care of them. But we couldn’t keep them all. Some of them we had to take to the Birmingham animal shelter. I don’t even know if there was a Shelby animal shelter back then,” she said. “Those that we did keep were spayed and neutered, even back then. Other relatives of ours didn’t understand that sometimes, but Mama always knew that needed to happen.”

TRYING TO SAVE EVERY LIFE “We are still reaching for that goal of no kill,” Shirley said. “And, I think no kill is a strong term. The reason I say that is this: Can there every really be a no kill shelter? There are always going to be animals that do not need to be in the community. If you can’t safely handle an animal, it doesn’t need to be in the community.

“People can have negative thoughts about an organization that does euthanize, but there will never be an open admissions shelter that will be no kill. We are open admissions. That means we must take anything that comes to our door, whether we are at capacity or not.

“Ideally, the no kill phrase really means no adoptable animal is euthanized.

That’s our goal. And we are pretty much there with canines,” Shirley said.

“I have not used the reason for space to euthanize a dog in three years. There is an excuse now when we euthanize and that excuse is medical or behavior.

Some medical things we euthanize for that, with unlimited resources, we could correct. But we have to make a decision such as, do we spend $3,000 on this one dog, or spend it on taking care of 100 dogs? Cats? Oh, dear Lord, that’s a different story.”

In early fall, the Shelby Humane Society was caring for more than 100 cats.

How do Shelby Humane officials decide when to euthanize an animal?

“We don’t have a time structure. We do not go by that. For cats, they do not handle shelter life well. If they are here for any length of time, they are going to get sick. Usually, it’s something that is easily treated, but there’s that excuse that we use. It helps our heart and our soul a little bit to have that excuse,” she said Shirley and her staff and volunteers at Shelby Humane are working hard to find other ways to save the lives of cats.

“We have started something new with our feral cats. We are asking them if we get this cat spayed or neutered and rabies vaccinated, will you return it to the area you picked it up from and let it live out its natural life. And we’ve had

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PAGE 18, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Sara Shirley, executive director of the Shelby Humane Society, holds Abigail Lilygirl, a shelter kitten. The Society’s friends on Facebook named the kitten as part of a contest. She was quickly adopted. This collage of stickers and buttons are evidence of the many animal lovers at the Shelby Humane Society.

Shirley plays with some of the dogs awaiting a forever home. ABOVE: A puppy, one of many, awaits a forever home at the Shelby Humane Society’s shelter in Columbiana. some pretty decent response to that.

We are trying to think about anything we can do other than trap them and bring them in and kill them,” Shirley said MAKING THAT DIFFICULT DECISION Shelby Humane Society uses a sodium phenobarbital injection to euthanize animals. Only those certified by the Alabama Veterinarian Board can perform the deadly procedure.

“My first few weeks and months here, I had a curiosity about it. I wanted to know what happened in that room, and I was allowed to observe. Once I saw it, it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, and it wasn’t easy.

Observing it isn’t easy, but it’s not like doing it.”

She said her first experience with euthanizing an animal produced much the same emotions as one goes through when losing a loved one.

“There’s shock and anger and you look for someone to blame. I’m going to tell you, there is a lot of soul searching and a lot of praying. We are God’s stewards and here I am killing animals, and at that time, it was just for space.

There was nothing wrong with these babies. You think, why are we having to do this? It was like losing a loved one.

“The most difficult part of that is being the one to hold that animal and feel the life leave it. And I’m going to say this and I say it every chance I get.

Those of us here who do euthanasia — no one does it any better than we do.

Those animals, if they will allow it, are

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loved and held and they know the touch of a kind hand and a good heart when they take their last breath. And that may be the only time they’ve ever felt it, but they felt it then,” Shirley said.

Animals are euthanized “every day” at the Shelby Humane Society, Shirley said. However, while one animal may be euthanized each day, that’s a big drop in the number euthanized daily before the shelter’s program of transporting dogs to the New England area in 2006.

“While we may euthanize one today, before our transport program, before we began spay and neuter, I literally spent hours of my day walking through the kennels saying, ‘OK, you have to go today, you have to go today, you have to go today.’ Now, with the program, we get to walk through and say, ‘Hey, you get to go to New Hampshire. You get to go to New Hampshire. You get to go to Maine. And with cats, I get to say, ‘You get to go up for adoption.’ It’s totally different.”

Since the shelter transport program began, Shelby Humane has sent about 6,000 dogs to the northeastern United States. The shelter tries to send three vanloads of dogs to that area each month, “but that really depends on the shelters there and how their intake has been. Right now, the program is going strong.”

The thought of the program ending, “scares me to death. I do not know that my soul could take going backwards.

That’s what scared me so much about this spay and neuter stuff,” Shirley said, referring to the recent threat by the Alabama Veterinarian Board, which

proposed a measure that would have effectively ended the low-cost spay and neuter program in Alabama. That measure failed.

“If we regress, now that I’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel, I just don’t think I could do it. And I do see a light and it’s bigger than it was. When I started, couldn’t even see a light, then it got to be a pinpoint. And today it’s a little bit bigger. It is so much better than it was nine years ago. I could not do this if progress was not being made and I think by seeing where we’ve come from, that progress is huge.

“I try to share that with all new employees. Some of them think, ‘Oh, this is horrible.’ And I tell them, ‘Oh, no.

You don’t have a clue what horrible is,” Shirley said.

THE RISK INVOLVED “There are many things I’ve seen here I will never forget. One is this lady who came in and you could tell she was down on her luck. She had two small mixed-breed long-haired dogs that were seniors. She had lost her home and was living in her car. We had zero space and because the way the law is, we have to keep strays for seven days. And you’ve got 30 animals that you know you can’t adopt. They are either not healthy or are a danger to the community. But because of the law, you must hold them for seven days. And you’ve got this homeless person who is bawling her eyes out because she is having to give up her animals so they can eat. You have to tell her that we are full and we may

have to euthanize her animals. We tell everyone there is that risk.

“That is the most horrible, gutwrenching thing to have to do. At the same time, you promise them you will do the very best you can. In that case, which was seven or eight years ago, we were able to save those dogs. We don’t have that problem now with dogs often, but we still tell people there is that risk,” Shirley said.

MIRACLE OF BIRTH? Shelby Humane Society operates on a budget of about $1.4 million a year.

About 25 percent of that comes from the Society’s contract with Shelby County for the animal control portion of its mission.

“Any stray animal that comes in must be held for seven days. From day eight on, all that falls under the Shelby Humane umbrella, from grant money and donations we are able to secure,” Shirley said.

Shelby County owns the facility in which Shelby Humane is located “and thank them for letting us use it,” she said.

The Humane Society contracts with Dr. Rhonda Ellison for veterinarian services.

“She handles all of our rabies vaccines and is in house typically once a week.

There is a lot of animal medicine that must be done by a licensed vet and even with our transport animals, we have her come in and do a thorough exam on every one of them because we don’t want to take any chance on missing

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something. We can’t lose that program so we make sure those babies are in good shape. Calera Animal Hospital does all of our spaying and neutering.

We take animals over Monday through Thursday,” Shirley said.

Alabama state law requires that all pets adopted from an animal welfare organization be spayed and neutered.

Even so, some people are still resistant.

“People come in often and say ‘I’ll take that one if you don’t cut him,’ and we say, ‘I’m sorry, you won’t be taking him,’ ” Shirley said. “The biggest problem is men — the older generation and the younger generation. We’ve gotten to where we can pretty much tag them when they walk in the door: what kind of dog they want and whether they are going to argue about getting them spayed or neutered.”

Shirley said she receives calls from time to time from people who want to bring their children in to see a mother animal give birth.

“They want them to see the miracle of birth. You know what I see when I hear that phrase, ‘miracle of birth?’ I think of a photo I saw on the internet of a 55-gallon drum slap full of deceased puppies and kittens. That’s the miracle of birth. The miracle of birth in the unwanted animal population is no miracle. It’s a tragedy. With affordable spay and neuter from local veterinarians and from our programs, there is no reason that any animal in Shelby County is not spayed or neutered. No reason,” Shirley said.

WATCH OUT FOR SHELBY HUMANE Thanks to volunteers and dedicated staff, Shirley said the future for animals in Shelby County is improving.

“We have some amazing volunteers.

We can send a plea out today that we need X-Y-Z and people will work hard to help us get it,” she said.

Shirley told as one example of volunteer generosity the story of a Shelby County couple who heard Shelby Humane was in need of a fan to help the dogs and staff cope with oppressive summer heat.

“It was triple digits, and where our dogs stay in back is not air-conditioned.

The dogs go into temporary holding kennels for about 40 minutes a day while we sanitize that area. The heat was just

unbearable for them and for staff. In mean, if you are back there for even a few minutes, you are just dripping.

“Mark and Dena Yearwood brought a big, huge black floor fan to circulate the air on the dogs outside. They brought in misting hoses and put them all around the top of the runs. They just walked in and surprised us with them. They got it all hooked up. The dogs enjoyed that and the staff enjoyed it, too.”

The shelter is in constant need of cat litter and canned cat and dog food, as well as cleaning supplies and towels and in the winter, blankets and bedding.

“We use the canned food for a lot of different things, including giving the animals medicine. Sometimes you can’t get them to take a pill, but they will eat it if it’s hidden in a meatball. And the canned food is used for those animals

who need a little push to eat,” she said.

Any donation, no matter the size, is a big help to the animals at Shelby Humane.

“Anything that someone uses in their home to clean, we can use it here. If you buy a bottle of Dawn, buy two and send us one. There is a misconception, too, that donations need to be big ones. If all you can do is bring in a bottle of Dawn or give $5, that can go so far. Every single item donated goes a lot farther than people think and it’s so appreciated,” she said.

“I am optimistic. I have my days, trust me, but I just know, I just have that feeling, things are going good and something is telling me, watch out for Shelby Humane!”

For inquiries, visit ShelbyHumane.org or call 669-3916.

IT’S EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY The mission of the Shelby Humane Society is to improve the lives of all animals in Shelby County.

“We want to be able to help every person who needs help with their animals,” Shirley said. “If you are going to surrender your dog or cat, we’re going to ask you, ‘What can we do to help you keep this animal? Can we give you some resources so you can re-home this animal so it never comes in here?’

We want to try to give people the tools they need.

“Whether you are a pet lover or not, the unwanted, stray animal population effects you. The animal control portion of this facility is funded through your tax dollars. Every citizen has a vested interest in Shelby Humane. Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t need these tax dollars to house these animals for seven days and that money could be used to fund a children’s or a senior citizens’ program?

“So many of these animals have been stray for so long, we can’t adopt them.

It’s a wasted life that didn’t have to happen,” she said.

Shirley said in the years of her involvement with the Shelby Humane Society, she knows of only three truly feral dogs brought to the facility.

“The rest of the dogs that come in here are strays who were owned by a human at some point. And they’ve been dumped on the streets. Don’t dump them. Bring them here. What is worse?

Even if they are humanely euthanized, isn’t that better than living on the street where they could be attacked by other animals or hit by a car or shot? We had one yesterday who came in here who was shot. The person who shot him didn’t have good aim, so he survived,” she said. “Every person in this county is responsible in some form or fashion.

Don’t dump them. Bring them to us.”

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23

Being

Elijah A Chelsea family stands the test of childhood cancer

By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT

A

s soon as his father let go of his hand, 5-year-old Elijah Seritt ran toward the Chelsea playground on unsteady legs, dark brown curls bouncing.

His little sister, 3-year-old Dimitra, ran straight toward a mud puddle on tiny feet, ready to plunge in on a chilly January morning.

Elijah took an extra wobbly step, and then pitched forward. Elijah’s father immediately sprinted to his son, arms outstretched.

“I’m OK,” Elijah told his concerned parents as he pushed himself to his feet. “I’m OK.”

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Images by JON GOERING and CONTRIBUTED MORE THAN A STOMACH BUG Elijah’s parents, Gary and Vasiliki Seritt, have good reason to be concerned every time he takes a spill, because a little more than four years ago, Elijah was diagnosed with childhood cancer when he was only 18 months old.

Gary and Vasiliki began to worry when their 18-month-old hadn’t started walking and began to vomit regularly in September 2008.

“We had switched doctors, and they thought it was just a bug,” Vasiliki said, who was six months pregnant at the time. “The doctors

thought we were ‘over the top’ parents.”

Elijah then lost five pounds in four weeks and became lethargic and dehydrated. The Seritts took their son to the emergency room two or three times a week to get rehydrated.

“I was really aggravated,” Gary said. “I told (the emergency room doctors), ‘No, we’re not going home.

You’re going to have to figure out what’s going on.’”

When the doctors located a mass on Elijah’s brain, he was immediately air lifted from Sylacauga to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.

Vasiliki and Gary jumped in the car and arrived in time to watch the

hospital staff wheel their toddler into the pediatric intensive care unit.

“I remember how intimidating it was,” Vasiliki said. “The surgeon said a week to 10 days, and that could have been (the end of Elijah’s life).”

During the nine-and-a-half-hour surgery, Elijah lost his blood volume, or the blood in his circulatory system, three times, Gary said, and was given a 20 percent chance to live.

“It was the longest nine-and-ahalf-hours of my life,” Gary said. “It’s a really invasive surgery. The tumor had already caused damage, and they had to cause some damage to get the tumor out.”

Elijah came out of the surgery

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PAGE 24: Elijah Seritt, 5, gleefully, but carefully hustles toward a Chelsea playground on a chilly January morning. ABOVE: Elijah was only about 18-months old when he was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a form of brain cancer. worse for the wear. Due to postoperative cerebellum mutism syndrome, Elijah’s face froze in a single expression for a month and a half. He was also completely mute, and the left side of his body was partially paralyzed.

He stayed in the pediatric intensive care unit for three days, then on the neurosurgery floor for three weeks.

“Elijah quit breathing at night,” Gary said, remembering the long nights in the hospital. “The resident (doctor) sat there all night.

We couldn’t sleep. We were all exhausted, but I knew she was in the room in case something happened.

“For 10 to 15 seconds, he would stop breathing until you shook him,” Gary added.

Elijah was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, which is a fastgrowing form of brain cancer. Gary described the tumor as having “fingers wrapped around Elijah’s spinal cord.”

After undergoing a second surgery, Gary described Elijah’s third surgery as one that “scared me more.” Surgeons performed a ventriculostomy, which involves penetrating the skull to drain the cerebral ventricle, a portion of the brain.

“I wondered, ‘Is my son going to be a vegetable after this?’” Gary said.

LIFE OUTSIDE THE HOSPITAL With Elijah’s medical saga continuing, the family struggled to maintain life outside the hospital walls.

Gary, who was employed as a motorcycle mechanic, lost his job during the economy’s downturn.

Vasiliki was employed until Elijah’s health problems began, then “all of us were living in the hospital,” she said.

The Seritts owned a home in Childersburg, where the couple was married when Vasiliki moved from California. According to Gary, confusion with a social worker and a missing house payment created a scenario in which the family had to sell the house.

“It was hard to focus on the outside world because our son was laying in front of us, fighting for his

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life,” Gary said. “It was the worstcase scenario every time.”

A lawyer visited Elijah’s hospital room with papers for the home’s short sale.

“I just thought, ‘Can’t we do this somewhere else?’ He didn’t even ask how Elijah was,” Gary said. “I can’t describe the feeling we had. There was no relief with that.”

“We were married on the property and brought Elijah home to that house,” Vasiliki said. “It was not just a property; it was a home.”

During this time, Vasiliki was in the third trimester of her pregnancy.

According to Gary, Vasiliki’s doctors and Elijah’s oncologists sat around a conference table to plan Elijah’s next treatments and Vasiliki’s labor schedule.

Dimitra was born Jan. 23, 2009 after Vasiliki was induced.

“Fifteen minutes later, I had to get back to the hospital. Elijah needed an MRI,” Gary said. “I cut the cord, kissed Mom and went back to Children’s.”

LIFE IN THE HOSPITAL Weeks in the hospital became the family’s norm as Elijah underwent six months of chemotherapy. Elijah spent a total of two to three weeks outside the hospital during the sixmonth duration.

One bright spot was the Children’s Hospital staff, including “Elijah’s favorite nurse,” Cie Washburn, who was working in the oncology unit.

“As a nurse, I try not to establish relationships with parents and families because you have to separate yourself, but we had a bond,” Washburn said. “He’s an amazing child. He spoke to my heart. They’re such a close-knit family. They kept their faith through the whole ordeal.

They really touched me.”

Elijah’s chemotherapy was paired with stem-cell treatments.

“They give a deadly dose of chemo, and they reintroduce the stem cells back to you. It takes 10 days for the cells to (take effect),” Gary said.

“The right way would have been to treat Elijah through radiation, but he was too young.”

To collect Elijah’s stem cells, doctors used an apheresis machine to extract Elijah’s blood, separate out

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the stem cells and return the blood to Elijah’s body. During the process, Elijah coded and was revived with the crash cart.

“The doctors had to get the stem cells at a certain time,” Gary said.

“There was a higher chance of the chemo damaging the stem cells, but you have to stay on top of chemo so the tumor doesn’t grow.”

Elijah coded a second time while he was hooked up to the apheresis machine.

“The look on the doctor’s face scared me to death,” Gary said. “He looks me straight in the face and says, ‘Get over here and talk to him.’

He also said to start calling people because they didn’t think he was going to make it through the night.”

Stem cells were reintroduced to Elijah’s body through a line protruding from his chest.

“The stem cells started leaking down his chest. I thought, ‘That’s his life running down his chest,’” Gary said.

“After chemo, he didn’t have platelets; the blood cells were gone.

For 10 days, we watched him laying lifeless on the bed,” Gary said. “It was the roughest 10 days of my whole life, and I expected the worst.”

“On his birthday, February 25,

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2009, the cells started working,” he added.

Two weeks before Easter 2009, the Seritts got to go home.

FINDING NEW FOOTING “Home” for the Seritt family quickly became wherever they were together.

After losing their Childersburg home, the Seritts moved in with friends for six months before settling in with Gary’s mother in Chelsea.

“It’s not easy having your own household, and now it’s two households in one small house,” Vasiliki said.

“There’s no order, and both Elijah and Dimitra require order and structure,” Gary added, as Dimitra was diagnosed with midrange autism in late 2012.

“It’s hard for us to comprehend being the parents of two special needs children,” the Seritts wrote Dec. 6, 2012 on the Pray4elijah. com blog. “As with Elijah’s diagnosis, there was the initial feeling of anger, but soon after relief. There’s relief because we now have a name for this situation, and we can now formulate a plan to combat it.”

In early 2013, Motus Motorcycles

in Birmingham hired Gary, and Vasiliki took a part-time job at Starbucks to make ends meet.

“We’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Vasiliki said.

A bright light for the family was lit when the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s men’s basketball team adopted Elijah through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation.

The adoption ceremony was held

in mid-December 2012, and Elijah got to visit the team’s locker room after the game.

“They definitely treat him like he’s part of the UAB family,” Gary said. “He calls them his basketball brothers. They used to be his ‘buddies,’ but now they’re his brothers. It seems like it’s giving him some confidence.”

Elijah still returns to Children’s

TOP: Vasiliki and Gary Seritt hold their children, 3-year-old Dimitra, and 5-year-old Elijah. ABOVE: Elijah used needed to constantly use a small walker to maneuver, but he can now manage on his own two feet.

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Hospital for a yearly MRI, but continues to grow and develop like any other child.

“He’s just a little fireball and doesn’t let anything get him down,” said Washburn, who keeps in touch with the family via Facebook. “When he was diagnosed, he was just a baby.

Now here he is walking around, and that’s something they never dreamed of.”

Vasiliki said Elijah’s biggest issues are behavior related.

“He’s dealing with things he can’t do that he sees other kids doing.

He’s so sweet, but when he gets frustrated, it’s like fighting a grown person. He’s so strong,” Vasiliki said while watching her husband play with Elijah on the Chelsea playground.

As a result of his brain tumor,

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surgeons removed a portion of Elijah’s cerebellum, which affects his with balance and fine motor skills.

His left eye’s depth of field was also affected by his surgeries.

“He hasn’t cried since his first brain surgery,” Gary said, keeping an eye on his children as they traversed the slide. “Even with laughter, he mimics it. It will probably sound almost robotic because it’s a learnedtype thing. It’s not involuntary. You can tell when he’s happy. My biggest fear is for when he gets older people won’t think he’s sensitive.”

Vasiliki said her son is “as smart as they come.”

“I wonder, ‘When will be the time to explain to him what he’s been through?’ We just want to let him be a kid,” she said. 

Today, Elijah needs an annual MRI, but has been cancer-free for more than three years.

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Driving the

economic engine

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Greater Shelby Chamber of Commerce President Kirk Mancer, left, speaks with Alabaster City Administrator George Henry, center, and former Alabaster Mayor David Frings, right, during a 2012 GSCC chamber luncheon. Mancer has been leading the Greater Shelby Chamber of Commerce since May 2012. Mancer unveils the chamber’s Shelby One campaign during a 2012 GSCC luncheon at the Pelham Civic Complex.

By NEAL WAGNER

F

or the first several months of his tenure at the helm of Shelby County’s economic development engine, sounds from Kirk Mancer’s alarm clock started filling his bedroom before the sun’s first light.

Like hundreds of thousands of people who work in the Birmingham metropolitan area, Mancer got out of bed, got ready for his day at work and then hopped in his vehicle to commute

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Images by JON GOERING to his office. But while most in central Alabama only commute across the county line or into downtown Birmingham, Mancer’s commute was a bit more extreme.

“It’s really not as bad as you would think,” Mancer said modestly of the nearly 140-mile round trip journey he made from Cullman to Pelham and back every weekday for months. “It only takes me a little over an hour to get here from Cullman.”

For months after Mancer became the new president at the Greater Shelby Chamber of commerce, he and his wife were working to sell their house in Cullman and move to Shelby County.

For Mancer and his family, working to quickly sell a house in today’s down real estate market gave the family a firsthand look at one of the problems Mancer and his staff at the GSCC work to combat every

day. By providing resources aimed at strengthening Shelby County businesses, Chamber staff members strive daily to strengthen the county’s economy, which in turn benefits everything from the real estate market to city sales tax collections.

“The process of working at a chamber, it’s never the same thing every day,” Mancer said. “Each day brings an opportunity to help a business, which in turn helps

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strengthen the whole community.”

When he began his professional career, the thought of working with a chamber of commerce never crossed his mind. Mancer moved to the Birmingham area in 1989 to take a job with the Republican Party and then later became involved in the former Birmingham Fire team with the World League of American Football.

Through his work with the Birmingham Fire, he became familiar with the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce and eventually accepted a position as the chamber’s vice president.

“I knew there was a chamber, but I didn’t think it was something I wanted to do. I don’t think anyone goes to school and thinks, ‘I’m going to work at a chamber of commerce one day,’” Mancer said.

AN UNEXPECTED MOVE When Mancer first heard of the GSCC president seat’s opening, it was a much different setting than a job interview for the position would have been.

Since 2004, Mancer had been serving as the director of the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and, at the time, was serving as the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama.

His time with the state chamber of commerce association led him to a chance meeting with members of the GSCC board of directors. In January 2012, former GSCC President Jennifer Whisenant stepped down to become the executive director of the Birmingham Auto Dealers Association, launching the Greater Shelby Chamber’s search for a new leader.

GSCC officials initially approached Mancer and the state chamber of commerce association to request help with setting the salary for Whisenant’s successor.

“We knew that Kirk had just completed a salary study during his time at the state chamber of commerce association, and we wanted to see if he would share that study,” said GSCC Board of Directors Chairman David Nolen, who is a vice president at M&F Bank. “One of our board members had contact with him while he was still serving in Birmingham, and we were impressed with his experience.

“We felt he brought a lot to the table,” Nolen said. “He knew central Alabama, and he had that chamber leadership that we look for.”

Mancer said he was not expecting, at least initially, to apply for the spot with the GSCC until he was approached by a member of the chamber’s board of directors.

“One of the individuals (with the GSCC board) said ‘Why don’t y’all talk to Kirk?” Mancer said. “I interviewed for the position and I said ‘If y’all think my skill set would be worthwhile, I would be honored.’”

Mancer edged out 34 other applicants — some from as far away as Massachusetts — for the GSCC leadership position, and had his first day on the job on July 1, 2012.

The GSCC post marks Mancer’s latest in Alabama, where he moved in 1989 after growing up in Philadelphia.

When Mancer, now a father of twins who recently started college, returns home, his friends and family members point out his acquired Southern

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dialect and frequent use of the word “Y’all,” he said.

Mancer, an alumnus of Washington and Lee University, has also adopted one of the South’s favorite pastimes.

“We try to keep it a secret around here that Kirk is a Tennessee fan,” Nolen said with a laugh.

Though he may be a Volunteer fan, a good portion of Mancer’s paychecks are sent to the University of Alabama and the University of Mississippi, where his daughter and son are enrolled, respectively.

STRIKING A BALANCE Each day in the GSCC’s office behind the Pelham driver’s license office, you are just as likely to hear the chamber staff laughing as you are to hear them speaking with business owners and making plans for future events.

One of Mancer’s former coworkers and current executive director of the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce, April Stone, quickly coined a term to describe Mancer’s mixture of professionalism and humor.

“I call him professionally approachable,” Stone said with a laugh. “Sometimes he will say something and you can see the mischievousness in his eye. It kind of reminds me of my son, actually.”

Although Mancer is quick with a joke, he can switch into business mode at the drop of a hat, Stone said.

“We can all cut up and laugh one minute and then go straight back to taking care of business the next minute,” Stone said. “My first impression of Kirk was that he was genuine, and that has proven to be true.”

Mancer is also working to strike a balance between business development and quality-of-life issues in Shelby County through the chamber’s Shelby One campaign, which kicked off in late summer 2012.

Through Shelby One, Mancer and the chamber are working to raise $1.7 million between now and 2016 to help bolster not only economic development, but other issues such as transportation and education.

“The strategic planning committee met for almost a year about the goals and what we wanted to accomplish with Shelby One,” Nolen said. “After (Whisenant) left, it behooved us to try to find a good individual to lead that effort.”

Mancer said ensuring Shelby One’s success will be one of his primary focuses over the next several years. The purpose of the program is to focus on business support and development, community development, government relations and marketing and communications.

“I am tasked with producing measurable, tangible results in those four areas (outlined in the program),” Mancer said. Although he has been on the job for less than a year, Mancer has already garnered a good reputation with the Shelby County business community.

As a businessman, Nolen said he has a vested interest in Mancer’s success.

“I see him as someone who will continue to make Shelby County a great place to work, live and own a business,” Nolen said. “Everyone who has had contact with him has related very positively with Kirk.” 

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Learning to be a dad

By MICKEL PONTHIEUX Images by JON GOERING

C

hris George was 8 years old when he first realized his family was different. He noticed his mother slept at odd times of the day, disappeared for periods of time and was unable to hold down a steady job.

Chris later learned his mother struggled with substance abuse, although he never learned the details of her problems.

Chris and his mother, Joanne Mathes, lived with her mother, Barbara Higgins, who provided structure throughout Chris’ childhood years.

“If she’s taught me anything, it’s that you don’t give up on your kids,” he said. “If you are a parent, you are a parent until the day you die.”

Today, Chris still uses the childhood lessons of discipline and compassion he learned from his grandmother.

He’s a deputy with the Shelby County Sheriff ’s Office and an assistant scout master of a Chelsea

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cub scout pack. More importantly, he’s a husband and father to three boys.

LIVING WITH NANNY Barbara took Chris and his mother, Joanne, in after they came home from the hospital in September 1973.

Not too long after Chris’ birth, his father left the family.

“I used to be angry with him because he left us at such a young age,” he said. “When I had my oldest son, I could remember thinking, ‘How could he leave something so small and precious and feeble and dependent?’

I started to realize that whatever his decision was 40 years ago, it has taught me the understanding of being a dad.”

After the anger of not having a father faded away, Chris realized his father taught him the best lesson of all — how important the role of a father is.

“There was a point where I was mad at my dad because he was not there for me and wasn’t there to teach me how to fish, build things and ride a bike,” Chris said. “There was a point when I got older that I realized that his absence was his lesson. That’s what has helped me be a better father. His (absence) was the best lesson he could have ever taught me.”

With his father’s absence and his mother’s irregular presence, Chris depended on Barbara for daily love and support. She held Chris accountable even though he was a “hard-headed, stubborn little boy.”

“I wasn’t an angel and I got into trouble,” he said. “She was a strong disciplinarian.”

Barbara disciplined Chris whenever he misbehaved at school or when neighbors, who helped keep an eye on him, had to scold him for doing something wrong.

“It took me a long time to appreciate

that and understand that. She was really good at doing that,” he said of his grandmother’s strict parenting style. “I went through probably what every teenage kid goes through at some time in your life when you are rebellious and defiant. It took me a while to grow out of that.”

CALL TO SERVE In August 1991, shortly after Chris graduated from high school but before he turned 18, he left home to join the U.S. Marines. Chris had known he was interested in the Marines since he was a preteen.

With a grandfather, two great uncles and uncle in the Marines, he said it was “a calling.”

Chris set off for boot camp, but he soon learned that just because he was legally an adult didn’t mean his grandmother was done raising him.

“Nanny’s rules were Nanny’s rules,” Chris said. “When I came

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back from boot camp — 18 years old and a Marine — I came back that first night at 12 or 1 in the morning and I hit one of those places in the floors that creaked and she was already in bed.

She hollered out, ‘Hey, boy, what are you doing here so late? You still follow the same rules in this house no matter how old you are.’

“I remember shaking my head thinking, ‘Here I am, just out of Marine Corps boot camp.’ She never gave up trying to straighten me up,” he added.

Chris was later stationed in Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he went on two “on-float” deployments and spent time in Somalia.

Chris said the Marines gave him a great appreciation for everything his country has to offer.

“The four years I served in the Marines made me have a better understanding and a better appreciation for what we have as a nation and what I have as well,” he said. “Part of that service in the military you are serving your country.

That gives you great pride in wearing that uniform and being a part of something much better than (I was) the previous 17 years.”

CAREER AND FAMILY

PAGE 30: Chris George, a deputy for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, has taken the lessons learned from his grandmother to raise his own three boys. ABOVE: Chris before deputies brought out a suspect on trial on May 11.

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Chris wanted to continue wearing the uniform of a public servant after his commitment to the Marines was over. He wanted to go into law enforcement or fire fighting. When a job with the Shelby County Sheriff ’s Office opened up, he jumped at the chance.

He joined the sheriff ’s office in

1996 and is now the investigations division commander and a 16-year veteran of the force.

A few months after starting at the sheriff ’s office, Chris started a family when he married his high school sweetheart, Lisa, in December 1996.

Chris and Lisa live in Chelsea and have three boys, ages 8, 5 and 4.

After being an only child, Chris said it’s a learning experience bringing up three boys.

“Right now I’m in uncharted bounds here,” he said. “I have three boys and I don’t know what it’s like.

I didn’t have any siblings growing up.

I’m having to learn this whole thing about sharing. I’m having to teach them how to share and I (didn’t) have to share.”

Chris sums up everything that he learned from his grandmother as “staying positive.”

“I don’t know how Nanny could have made it raising her own four children and then raise me,” he said.

“She could have kicked me to the curb and put me in a boys’ home, but she didn’t. She looked at me faced with all this adversity and overcame it. She produced five good kids, me being included.”

Chris said he puts his grandmother’s lessons into practice every day. He said his own childhood has affected how he looks at his children and he values the chance to give his children the father figure he never had.

That fact hit home for him one day when he was scolding one of his boys for misbehaving at school.

“I was face-to-face talking to him,” Chris said. “And it was like looking into a mirror cause he’s just like me.” 

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Putting hope first

By NEAL WAGNER Images by JON GOERING and CONTRIBUTED

C

indy Hawkins lifts the framed, faded 1999 Shelby County Reporter article off its hook in her office in what used to be a bedroom in a public housing development in Alabaster’s Simmsville community.

“This is where it all began,” Hawkins said as a smile stretched across her face.

The small article and photo, titled “Neighborhood gathers for anti-drug party,” details the first event Hawkins and her husband, Oscar, helped organize for children facing obstacles ranging from drug use to academic challenges.

The block party, which featured a cookout, several churches and involvement from the Alabaster Police Department, marked the first step in a journey aimed at giving a community the resources to build hope and opportunity.

“A lot of the kids didn’t have the resources they needed to better themselves,” Hawkins said. “We wanted to do something to help. We wanted to show the kids that if you work hard and do the right things, everything else will fall into place.

“It’s not a black thing or a white thing. It’s a people thing. We want to help people,” Hawkins added.

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The Hawkinses, who moved here from Atlanta in 1997 after visiting Oscar Hawkins’ family in Alabaster, said they started hosting the block parties after noticing many of the area’s children were falling behind in school and had few resources to help them realize their potential.

Seeing the community come together during the September 1999 block party to promote the importance of staying off drugs and staying in school ignited a fire for Cindy Hawkins — the flames of which still burn more than 13 years later.

Hawkins’ block parties in Abbey Wooley Park grew every year. As her involvement in the community began to have a positive impact on the city’s children, other groups took notice.

After three years of block parties, The Columbiana Housing Authority, which operates the public housing development on what is now Mt. Olive/Martin Luther King Jr. Road, approached Hawkins with an offer.

“They called and asked me if I wanted a unit,” Hawkins said.

On July 20, 2002, the Kids First Awareness Community Learning Center opened, sharing space with the Alabaster Police Department’s precinct unit. After two years in the precinct unit, Kids First moved a block away to

TOP LEFT: Cindy Hawkins and her husband, Oscar, founded Kids First Awareness Community Center in Alabaster more than 10 years ago. ABOVE: Cindy Hawkins, right, celebrates with visitors during the launch of the center’s HOPE adult program in 2012.

its current location in what used to be a SafeHouse building, Hawkins said.

EARLY STRUGGLES Through the center, Hawkins and several volunteers sought to provide a safe, constructive learning environment for kids in Alabaster who may not otherwise have one after school and in the summer.

In the center’s early days, a handful of children came to Kids First after they got off the school bus. There, the kids were given a snack, school tutoring as needed and a safe place to play with their friends.

Although the center has grown to a daily attendance of 40 or 50 kids, there was a period when the center’s operators didn’t know if they would be able to operate the center one more day.

“I’ll be honest with you, the first three years I didn’t think we were going to make it,” Hawkins said. “For a while, I would empty a bunch of ramen noodles into a bowl, cut them up and pour them into Styrofoam cups as snacks for the kids.”

The center quickly caught the attention of Joe Raines, who at the time was the pastor of Alabaster’s First United Methodist Church. Since attending one of the initial Kids First board of directors meetings, Raines has been “involved ever since.”

“The center was really running on

shoestrings and prayers back then,” Raines said. “We had no funding other than what came out of the board members’ own pockets.”

Raines’ involvement with Kids First drew the attention of Alabaster’s church community, which eventually led to more monetary and volunteer support flowing in.

“The church people started getting involved, and things gradually started to get better,” Raines said. “Eventually, we started to get funding from the city, county and state, and that’s when things really started to take off.

“For a while, we were struggling from month to month. But Cindy refused to give up,” Raines said.

Hawkins said it sometimes was tough to keep fighting through the center’s early struggles, but said overcoming them helped the center prove its determination to the community.

“It was so hard. I was literally begging for money back then,” Hawkins said.

“I actually gave up at one point, but I didn’t give out.

“I woke up one day and said ‘I don’t know if I can keep doing this,’ but my husband said ‘Just give it one more day,’” she said. “One more day turned into 10 years.”

FROM HARDSHIP TO SUCCESS After Hawkins and her volunteers overcame the center’s early struggles,

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blessings started raining down on Kids First.

After gaining local, county and state attention and support, Kids First was able to add a playground, a new basketball court, purchase new computers, place a mobile classroom behind the building, purchase a bus to transport kids when necessary and much more.

With the help of more volunteers, the center has been able to raise kids’ grades, help them cut down on school disciplinary problems and learn the importance of giving back to their communities.

Because Kids First initially only served children younger than 18, the center in late 2012 teamed with the city of Alabaster to launch the HOPE program. The HOPE program offers free classes for adults ranging in topics from nutrition and exercise to computer skills.

“Our hope is that our high school kids will graduate right into that adult program after they turn 19,” Hawkins said. “It’s like it’s come full-circle now.”

Another person looking to come fullcircle after growing up in the Kids First program is Alabaster native Tashira Harris. Now in her freshman year at Miles College, Harris said Hawkins and the Kids First volunteers have had a tremendous impact on her life.

“I would not be in college right now if it weren’t for Kids First,” Harris said during a break between classes in

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fall 2012.

After her mother signed her up for the program, Harris began spending time at Kids First when she was 8 years old. As she got older, Harris took on a leadership role at the center and started tutoring and mentoring Kids First’s younger members.

Her experience in the program played a major role when she was selecting her course of study at Miles College.

“I am majoring in business administration, and I would like to get a minor in childhood development,” Harris said. “I would like to open my own daycare and help people the way Miss Cindy helped me.

“Kids First taught me not to get involved with the wrong crowd, and it helped me to raise my ACT score so I could go to college,” Harris added.

Hawkins said she takes great pride seeing kids succeed and move on to the next steps in their lives. Over the past 10 years, the center has served more than 500 kids, and has helped several of them go on to college.

“We want to teach you how to stand on your own feet without any kind of assistance. If you do well now, it benefits this generation, and the next and the next and the next,” Hawkins said. “Eventually, you build a better community.

“At the end of the day, we want them to have a better life than they did before they came here,” she added. 

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35

Seeking Championships

By GRAHAM CARR Images by JON GOERING and MATTHEW ORTON

L

ast season, Danny Young did something no men’s college basketball coach has ever done at Auburn or Alabama. Young guided the University of Montevallo Falcons to the national championship game.

The Falcons fell just short of winning a ring, falling 72-65 to Western Washington University in the Division II Championship.

“We could never really get it going,” Young said. “I don’t know if we were tired or what.”

Despite the loss, the Falcons tied the school record for most wins in a season with 29. Young said the Falcons were aided by the return of senior point guard Antoine Davis late

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in the season from a broken leg. The Falcons won 14 of their last 16 games, winning the Peach Belt Conference Western Division title and the Peach Belt Conference Tournament along the way.

Hired in 2003, Young passed former Falcons coach Bill Elder as the winningest coach in Montevallo history midway through last season.

Before the start of the 2012 season, Young had compiled a 206-87 record at Montevallo and had led seven of his nine Falcons teams to the NCAA tournament — three of which advanced to at least the Elite Eight.

Senior forward Marvin Fitzgerald believes Young is not only a great coach, but a man of great character.

TOP: Coach Danny Young led the Montevallo Falcons to the 2012 NCAA Division II National Championship. ABOVE: Young talks with a referee during the 2012 NCAA Division II National Championship game March 24 at The Bank of Kentucky Center in Highland Heights, Ky.

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“One thing, I can say about coach Young is he is a fair man,” Fitzgerald said. “Most coaches just tell you something, and then it will be a whole different thing when you get there.

He is an honest man and a man of his words.”

Growing up, the Arizona native was a star basketball player getting noticed by one of the top high school all−star games.

“I got nominated to be in the McDonald’s All−American game — didn’t play in it,” Young said.

His high school success catapulted him into a college career at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix under Coach Paul Westphal. Westphal became known later for leading the Phoenix Suns to the 1993 NBA Finals, before losing to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

After receiving his degree in physical education in 1990, Young played professionally for two years.

Young then returned to his alma mater, Grand Canyon, for his first assistant coaching job. He had assistant coaching stints at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia and the University of Nebraska− Omaha, before ending up at Salem International University in West Virginia.

It was as an assistant at SIU when Young worked under the person who shaped him into the coach he is today.

“I learned a lot from Mike Carey,” Young said. “He was the head coach at Salem when I was there. He was an outstanding coach.”

After Carey took the job as head women’s basketball coach at West Virginia University, Young was promoted to his first head coaching job. In his two seasons in command at SIU, he posted a 51-11 record, while also winning the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship his final season.

In Young’s first season at Montevallo, he led the Falcons to their biggest turnaround in school history by winning 23 games, which was 19 more wins than the Falcons had the previous season. Young has sustained that success by winning an average of almost 23 games a year and keeping a winning percentage of more than 70 percent.

The disappointment of falling just short of a championship last season still hurts deeply in the hearts of the Falcons, but they are using it as motivation for the current season.

“I don’t know if they realize how hard it is to get back,” Young said

Young is interviewed by CBS Sports anchor Dan Bonner at the 2012 NCAA Division II Elite Eight at The Bank of Kentucky Center in Highland Heights, Ky. with a laugh. “Everything has to go right for you to make it that far. There is a little bit of luck with this game.

I think the leadership is there. The older guys have stepped up and are always demanding the performance I expect.”

He said it helps that the Falcons have seven returning players, five of which started at least a game last season, to fuel the Montevallo attack.

Building Montevallo into a successful program has not been easy for Young, especially, when recruiting against the bigger in-state schools for the same players.

“It makes it harder because these kids are all ‘Division I, Division I, Division I’ in their minds,” Young said.

“All it takes is one letter from a bigger school and these kids think they are going to play for Alabama.”

Fitzgerald was one player that went against this trend. After going to junior college, Fitzgerald went to North Carolina Central University, but decided to transfer after one season at NCCU. He said Young was one of the main reasons he considered transferring to a Division II school before last season.

“I was going to go to back to Division I, but I didn’t want to sit out a year,” Fitzgerald said. “I just wanted to straight play. I heard they had some

nice pieces and just needed a few more pieces to have a great team. I gave it a chance and came here.”

He said he has not regretted his decision and being able to play under Young has been great experience.

“I see him as one of the best coaches I have played for,” Fitzgerald said.

As his coaching career has progressed, Young’s goals have changed.

“I used to think that everyone will move and take the big Division I job,” he said. “But that just doesn’t happen.

I probably have not been that great of a self-promoter. I do not go out and search for the big jobs.”

Working at Montevallo has been a joy for Young.

“This has been a really great place for my family,” Young said. “When I first came here, I used to tell people that Montevallo is the best kept secret in Alabama.”

When he is not trying to win national titles, he spends time with his wife, Sabrina and children, Caleb, Sophia and Cole.

“I don’t do much,” Young said. “I usually go home and do something with the kids.”

Young attributed his past success to several people in his life.

“I think you would have to give

all the credit to everyone because everyone has to come together and buy into the same thing,” Young said.

“I have done the same thing for years, and I will probably not change because it has worked for us for years.”

Young would like to keep coaching for as long as Montevallo will have him, but he said the key to sustaining his success is continually getting players who share similar beliefs.

“It is kind of recruiting to the system and guys that can play in it and getting them to believe that it works,” Young said. “It is a combination of everything, and the big thing is getting a good group of guys and getting them to buy in."

Young is a tough-love coach, but he cares about the well-being of his players, Fitzgerald said.

“He doesn’t sugarcoat anything,” Fitzgerald said. “He doesn’t tell you something you want to hear, but he tells you the truth. He doesn’t tell players ‘You can be this, or you can be that,’ but he says, ‘If you don’t do this, you will turn out to be this way.’ As a player, if you play hard for him, then everything else will work itself out.”

Despite his success, Young stays motivated because he has yet to mark off his ultimate objective.

“Your goal is always to win a national championship,” he said. 

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37

Growing family business into the

By NEAL WAGNER Images by JON GOERING

M

yers Plants and Pottery owner Stewart Myers doesn’t subscribe to a marketing plan or customer surveys. After 40-plus years of business, however, the once-antique store has morphed into a Pelham business with staying power.

THE EARLY YEARS In 1971, U.S. 31 in Pelham wasn’t filled with the stop-and-go traffic of today. There was no Interstate 65, so the four-lane road was the main thoroughfare. Urban sprawl hadn’t reached as far as Pelham, and the city sported a single stoplight between Alabaster and the Riverchase area, Stewart said.

Myers Plants and Pottery found its footing off the busy highway when Stewart’s father, Chuck, saw a business opportunity in an antique store off U.S. 31. He bought out the business and began scouring the state for unique finds.

Stewart and his mother, Ruby, tended to the store while Chuck drove a Greyhound bus route from Birmingham to Mobile.

“I was made to come to work. At

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first, I didn’t like it, but it grew on me,” Stewart said.

Chuck kept an eye out for antiques as he drove. What he found, though, was the key to a successful family business that is celebrating more than 40 years.

“After a year or so, my father realized there was no cash flow in the antique store,” Stewart said. “Antiques you have to go and find, and it only serves a small percentage of the population.”

When Chuck spent those long hours driving his bus route, he discovered a pottery company in Brent that made hand-thrown pottery out of Alabama clay. Chuck began selling pottery and found success, Stewart said. After a few months, he began selling plants to accompany his pottery business.

“We sold out on the first weekend,” Stewart said, and Myers Plants and Pottery found its lasting identity.

MYERS GROWS INTO ITS OWN The family business runs on one basic principle — “If something doesn’t work, move on,” Stewart said.

“We just decide something and go,” he said. “Marketing plan? No, we just

try it.”

Myers Plants and Pottery steadily expanded, and Stewart’s brother, Cliff, began working in the store in 1980.

Stewart took a brief hiatus from the family business when he joined the U.S. Army in 1977; he returned to help with the Pelham store in 1988. Chuck passed away in 1982, and his wife and sons continued the legacy.

“My brother, Cliff, burnt out on the retail side. Now he works with a grower in Shelby County, so he’s still in the business. A lot of our stuff is locally grown,” Stewart said.

About 70 percent of the store’s flowering plants are grown in Shelby County or central Alabama, Stewart said.

Myers Plants and Pottery has stood up to chain gardening stores through the years, as Kmart and Sears were “big guys” in the industry.

“We used to order five different shrubs. Now, you’ve got to come in and show 25 kinds of hostas (plants) and ferns,” Stewart said. “(Customers) don’t realize how easy (they) have it now.

“We’re willing to change,” he added.

“A lot of people in the business are wanting to stay the same.”

Darlene Webb, who has worked at Myers for 14 years, said the business succeeds because it isn’t a “cookie cutter place.”

“People come by weekly peddling whatever craft they make, and Stewart will buy a few of them and see how it goes,” Webb said.

BECOMING SOMETHING NEW The business’ products have always been a study in trying new trends, and in the early `90s, Myers branched out to selling ornamental fish. As he spoke of the fish, Stewart reached into the rock koi pond on display in the back of the store and let the koi nibble on his fingers. He said he feeds the fish with a baby bottle.

“People were seeing it, but there was nothing in the Birmingham area.

It’s been very successful,” Stewart said.

Another big seller resulted from Stewart taking a risk. Eight to 10 years ago, Stewart was approached to sell Talavera ceramic pumpkins. The handmade, clay pumpkins first came from Myers’ original pottery supplier in Brent, Miller Pottery. Today, the

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MISSION STATEMENT

Local Service Statewide

Strength Argos USA is proud to be a part of the Shelby County community.

TOP: Myers Plants and Pottery sits off U.S. 31 in Pelham. ABOVE: Stewart Myers, the owner of Myers Plants and Pottery, grew up in the business, as his parents opened the store 40 years ago.

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www.argos-us.com

Roberta Cement Plant in Calera, AL

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pumpkins come from a city in Mexico.

“I thought it’d be neat to take our holiday (Halloween) and the way they paint and mix the two,” Stewart said of the pumpkins decorated in a Hispanic tradition.

“The first year, I thought, ‘Do I order 200 pieces? 300? 50? It’s either going to go or not going to go. There’s no marketing plan or strategy,” he said.

The store has shipped clay pumpkins to 47 states, the Middle East and the United Kingdom, Stewart said.

Additionally, Southern Living magazine featured the pumpkins as its product “pick of the month” in 2009.

“We’ve had people change their vacation routes to swing through Alabama to pick up pumpkins. Retailers in other states ask if they can buy them because they saw them in someone else’s yard,” Stewart said.

Myers Plants and Pottery also holds a secret envious competitors would love to know.

The store’s ever-popular bottle trees are made of rebar or steel bars and colorful glass bottles. The trees are made by a “good country boy that can make anything at a reasonable price” from lower Alabama, Stewart said.

“It has a big following. Dealers in other states are begging for our source.”

According to Stewart, bottle trees originated in the days of slavery, where slaves believed the bottles would catch evil spirits or “haints.” As part of the superstition, African slaves would place the bottle trees in front of their homes to draw the spirits toward the bottles and away from their houses.

After catching a spirit, “they would cork the bottle and toss it in the river to throw your troubles away,”

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Stewart said.

MAKING AN IMPRESSION During its 40-plus years of business, Myers Plants and Pottery has seen a lot of changes.

“People have been driving by for 20 years and never stopped. They didn’t know there was this much here. We hear this every week,” Stewart said.

Webb, who has lived in Pelham for 32 years, said the store hasn’t changed much over the years.

“This little place on 31 hasn’t changed a great deal,” Webb said.

“This is our home on 31, and everyone knows it. People come from all over.”

Charlotte Hendricks first purchased plants from Myers was during the store’s Labor Day sale in 1992.

“I had birthday money, and wanted to buy a Japanese maple. I was so pleased, not only because he had them, but because they were half price,” Hendricks said.

The cost of plants at Myers is matched by the quality, Hendricks said.

“Over the years, I’ve found that not only are his plants and things so well cared for and the great stock he gets from the nurseries and growers, but his prices are comparable and lower than the discount places. You think you’re going to a nursery and it’s going to cost more, but it doesn’t,” she said.

Stewart said his customers range from 8 to 88 years old.

“Forty-one years is not really a long time,” he said. “I’ve seen from where parents are walking their children by the hand, and now those kids are parents leading their children by the hand.” 

Myers Plants and Pottery offers everything from Talavera ceramic pumpkins, which have been shipped to 47 states, to locally grown plants.

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Reminders of the Past

Shelby County’s graves — some forgotten, others well-kept— tell stories of love & loss Photo essay by JON GOERING

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The corner of an unidentifiable grave marker pokes out from underneath piles of twigs at the Columbiana Cemetery. After fleeing Vicksburg, Miss., because of Civil War destruction to the town, a soldier’s home and hospital was established at this Shelby County site in 1863 and many sick and wounded confederate soldiers were brought in by train. The hospital was a part of the Confederate States of America’s Camp Winn Training Site, according to the site’s historical marker. A Bible and a few fake flowers were placed inside an old building beside Allen Cemetery off of Alabama 119 in Indian Springs. At one of the newer grave sites in the Garden of Memories in Harpersville, a pair of crosses rest above a husband and wife.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The Old Quinn Burying Ground in Chelsea was established June 2, 1849, by Loftin Quinn, a veteran of the war of 1812, according to the historical marker near the gravesite on Highway 47. The rising sun hits the headstones at the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo. Morning sun illuminates the headstones at the King family’s cemetery on the campus of the University of Montevallo. A grave marker of an unknown soldier of the Confederate States of America stands among many similar markers at the Shelby Springs Confederate Cemetery in Shelby County. Fallen leaves rest alongside the grave marker for James Burke in Allen Cemetery off of Highway 119 in Indian Springs.

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Field of Angels: Creating an even playing field

By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT Images by JON GOERING

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cheer from the crowd rose to a peak as Rick Karle, sports director at Fox 6 News, used his best announcer voice to holler each child’s name into the microphone in late August.

The baseball field, full of kids sporting their teams’ colors of orange, green, purple, red, blue and yellow, responded with enthusiasm as their parents and fans yelled from the stands during the opening ceremonies.

The all-American scene is a familiar one for families across the country, but the league that plays at Oliver Park in Calera for a month-and-a-half each fall has a special purpose. The kids who pick up the bats and run the bases didn’t have the opportunity to play America’s favorite pastime three years ago. Field of Angels, however,

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gives them a chance to have a sport all their own.

Field of Angels, a special-needs baseball league, began with a former college baseball player wanting to share his love of the game with his firstborn son.

FORMING FIELD OF ANGELS When Chris Bunn found out his wife was pregnant with a boy, he was ecstatic.

“When he was born, I was excited to have a baseball player,” said Chris, who played at Jefferson State Community College.

Chris’ son, Noah, now 12, was born with cerebral palsy and cerebral visual impairment, which means that his brain causes vision issues, Chris said.

“When I learned he’d never be able

to play, it gets you down,” Chris said.

The idea for a special-needs baseball league grew in Chris’ mind for years before the idea came to fruition.

“The good Lord laid it on my heart to form a league so kids like him could play baseball,” Chris said.

Chris said he internally wrestled with the idea until, on a plane ride from Texas in mid-2008, he began writing “every single vision I had for the Field of Angels,” and met with the league’s future board members.

“We decided to start from scratch,” Chris said, and within a year, the league was an incorporated 501 (c)3 nonprofit with bylaws.

In 2010, the first year of Field of Angels, 36 players were on four teams. The next year, the league grew to 58 players, and 62 kids donned the colorful team shirts of the league’s six

teams in 2012.

To play in the nonprofit league, kids ages 5 to 21 with a mental or physical disability can go up to bat and run the bases for their teams.

The six-game season kicks off in mid-August, even though baseball is traditionally played in the spring.

Chris said two of the teams are more “competitive,” while the other teams are all about having fun. The league doesn’t keep score because, for some of the kids, losing is a trigger for negative reactions, Chris said.

In addition to parents, community members fill the stands to support the players.

“The community has supported it from day one,” Chris said. “Some people are there for nothing more than to cheer them on.”

The community also steps up

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financially, as Field of Angels is funded through sponsorships and donations.

“A vision we had was for it to be minimum cost,” Chris said. “Thus far, we’ve been successful in that area.

It’s been the least of our worries.”

Families pay $25 for the kids to play ball, and the league will accept as many players that apply.

Shelby County offers other specialneeds baseball leagues, but the Calera league offers something unique.

“What makes us different is that we try to get different people to come,” Chris said.

The 2012 season saw Jim Dunnaway, sports anchor for CBS 42, and Karle announcing players’ names before the games. The University of Alabama baseball team and softball team, who are reigning national champions, hustled around

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the bases and manned the field with the players during different Saturday mornings. The Thorsby High School cheerleaders and the University of Montevallo baseball team also came out to play in early September.

“Whatever we can do to make it special, we do,” Chris said, noting the players enjoy seeing local celebrities they’ve seen on television.

Chris’ youngest son, 9-year-old Nick, also inherited the baseball gene from his dad. Chris said Noah is his brother’s “biggest fan” during baseball season in the spring, but during Field of Angels in the fall, Noah “knows it’s his baseball season,” Chris said.

THE BUDDY SYSTEM Many of the players are matched with one of the almost 80 “buddies”

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who volunteer each week with Field of Angels.

Chris said the league has a onenight “buddy-coach training” for the buddies to learn how to interact with players and assist in the league. League officials conduct background checks on those participating in the league.

After the training, the buddies meet the players.

“If there’s anything about a child that has specific needs, we try to match them with a buddy. If they want to play, they can play,” said Alice Fox, who is on the Field of Angels board of directors.

Denise Eddleman, a member of the board of directors, said many local teenagers come out on Saturday mornings to help with the league.

“We involved a lot of our teenagers, and they come for community service hours,” Eddleman said. “A lot of times, after that first time, they call us and ask to help again.”

Calera residents John and Judy Mooney watched from the stands as their daughters, Calera High School junior Bethany and freshman Jordan, ran the bases as buddies for the players.

“They’ve been buddies since the beginning,” Judy said. “They do it to give back to the community and these precious children.”

After helping 9-year-old Dawson Danzer bat, Bethany hustled to push Dawson’s wheelchair around all three bases and into home plate.

“I do it because I love helping specialneeds kids, and here they’re part of something,” Bethany said. “They’ll get excited over little things, and they’re really funny and fun to talk to.”

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AN EVEN PLAYING FIELD Dawson played on the orange team with his older brother, 14-year-old Payton. The family has been a part of Field of Angels since the league’s inception three years ago.

“They have so much fun, and it gives them something to go back to school and talk about,” said the boys’ mother, Maggie. “A lot of these kids are with typical kids at school and hear them talk about playing football and baseball.

“It’s either school or baseball, that’s all they talk about,” Maggie added, laughing.

Dawson, who attends Montevallo Elementary, and Payton, at Montevallo Middle, were both born with hydrocephalus, also known as “water in the brain” in which there is an excess of cerebrospinal fluid, and cerebral palsy, which can cause physical disability.

“We’re not the only family with two special needs kids,” Maggie Danzer said. “It’s the only thing we know.

To us, they’re normal; to us, they’re typical.”

Mimi Birk, whose husband, Paul ,coaches the orange team, has watched her two children, Taylor Morris and Rebekah Birk, from the stands for three years.

“They live for Saturdays,” Mimi said. “They’re up at 6 in the morning.”

Taylor, a 12-year-old at Calera Intermediate with Cri du chat syndrome, a genetic disorder, and 6-year-old Calera Elementary student Rebekah, who was born with autism, play on what their mother called an “even playing field.”

“It’s very empowering because you see you’re not alone,” Mimi said.

Page 46: Orange team player Dawson Danzer high fives red team member Ben Sandy while Nick Sandy, left, and Davey Lawrence look on. CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: Buddy Anna Beth Chadwick, right, high fives an orange team member. Jaycob Cacciatore slides into home as Jorean Henderson waits for his turn at bat. Ellie Meeks hurries to first base with the help of her buddy, Wesley Posey. Buddy Connor Bush and player Simeon Cockrell sprint around the bases during a Field of Angels game.

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Chris said the community support has been “amazing.”

“I think a lot of parents are appreciative,” Chris said. “The feedback I get is that they enjoy coming down here and appreciate the effort we put in.

The six-week season concludes with a closing ceremony and team

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parties.

“We try to make it a World Series game every time they come out,” Chris said. “It’s great to have somebody cheer for them, as that wouldn’t normally happen.

“The reason I keep doing it is seeing the happiness these kids have,” he added. 

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The 15th

President John Stewart looks back on his first two years at the University of Montevallo

By KATIE MCDOWELL

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Images by MATTHEW ORTON

ore than two years have passed since Dr. John W. Stewart III took the helm as president of the University of Montevallo, but he’s still brimming with enthusiasm about his role.

He’s quick to share stories about students’ successes or a faculty member’s new project. He’s a regular presence on campus – cheering on the Falcons at basketball games, lighting the anagama pottery kiln and greeting visitors at Christmas parties at Flowerhill, the president’s mansion.

Stewart’s enthusiasm is not misplaced. UM had a banner year in 2011-2012. The school jumped four

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spots in the U.S. News and World Report’s best public colleges in the South ranking. Enrollment increased, and the Falcons made it to the Division II NCAA Championship in basketball.

The current school year is also shaping up to be a winner with enrollment and alumni giving rates on the rise.

The biggest news is the university’s partnership with the City of Montevallo and Shelby County, which is intended to revitalize both the school and the city.

Stewart said he knew UM was a great college when he took over as president.

He has focused his energy on sharing that fact with others and ensuring the university receives support to improve in the future.

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Page 50-TOP: Stewart joined the University of Montevallo in August 2010. PAGE 50-BOTTOM: Stewart fist bumps a freshman UM student following an awards banquet. ABOVE: Stewart speaks to the graduating class of 2012 during a commencement ceremony on the lawn of Flowerhill. BELOW: Stewart celebrates with former Falcons guard D.J. Rivera following the Falcons’ win over Anderson University in the NCAA Southeastern Regional Championship.

“I think our marching orders as an administration are to go out and tell our story so that more people know,” he said. “The enterprise of teaching and learning is what we’re all about. We’ve been doing that right for a long, long time, and now we need to tell the world about it.”

FROM BUSINESS TO ACADEMIA Stewart joined UM as its 15th president in August 2010.

The Delaware native brought with him a mix of both professional and educational experience.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Wake Forest University, master’s degree in English from Washington College and a doctorate in English from the University of Southern Mississippi.

He spent about 15 years working for an industrial contracting company in Delaware before he joined the world of academia full-time in 1997.

In addition to teaching, Stewart found success in fundraising and held development positions at the University of Southern Mississippi, Swarthmore College and William Carey University.

He found working in administration to be a fulfilling way to merge his professional and academic experience.

“I felt like going into administration would be a way I could leave an impact on the direction of a university and execute on a vision. That was very exciting to me,” he said.

His final stop before coming to UM was Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla., where he served as the vice president for institutional advancement and raised $30 million in three years.

His arrival at UM was not ideal – many students and faculty were upset at the departure of previous president Philip Williams – but Stewart said the transition was fairly smooth.

“I wasn’t nervous after I met my colleagues,” he said.

Stewart said his administration has

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focused on making progress on UM’s five-year strategic plan, which was developed under Williams’ tenure.

The 2009-2014 plan sets goals in five areas: compensation, athletics, diverse workforce, capital campaign and physical infrastructure.

Michelle Johnston, senior vice president of administrative affairs, said the administration and trustees appreciated Stewart’s support of the strategic plan. She also said Stewart has succeeded in “really putting Montevallo on the map in terms of awareness.”

“I think he’s seemed very much up for the challenge,” she said.

GROWTH AND PARTNERSHIPS Stewart has set his sights on growing enrollment and re-energizing UM’s marketing efforts.

Stewart said the school wants to grow its undergraduate enrollment from 2,500 to 3,000 students.

“As of the first day of school (in fall 2012), the freshman class was 32 percent larger than it was two years ago,” he said. “The quality of our student has remained strong. We have not sacrificed our standards.”

To grow enrollment, the college has looked outside its traditional recruitment zone. In 2010, about 85 percent of UM’s students came from within 100 miles of the college. Now, the school attracts students from across the state, especially Mobile and the northern part of the state. Last fall, UM even recruited out of state.

Stewart said the new students give the university a “richer geographic diversity” and bring dollars from outside the county to Montevallo.

In increasing the college’s marketing efforts, Stewart said the public relations department has done a great job developing relationships with local media outlets. In addition, UM has allocated more money for advertising, increased its speaking engagements and contracted with a public relations firm for branding and marketing advice,

which included launching a new logo in September 2011.

Johnston said the college’s fundraising efforts – alumni giving rates have risen significantly – and its partnership with the city and county have been Stewart’s biggest successes.

“I think that’s where Dr. Stewart has really flourished here,” she said. “I think the city and county partnership is a real feather in his cap.”

The partnership was announced in June 2012 and is intended to revitalize both the university and Montevallo’s downtown. Projects include promenades from UM’s campus to downtown and Montevallo on Main, which will create a UM presence in a building downtown.

UM also partnered with Barnes and

Noble as its campus bookstore, and the store will offer a wider range of items when it moves downtown from campus.

“That will put many, many students on Main Street, spending money and making a more vibrant downtown, an economically viable downtown,” Stewart said.

Stewart is quick to praise others for UM’s progress – faculty, administration and the board of trustees, as well as city and county leaders for the partnership.

“I don’t take a lot of credit for the good things that have happened,” he said. “I have a really, really strong senior administrative team … I’ve worked at good schools, and I would put the faculty here up against just about anywhere I’ve been.”

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THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Stewart’s own education has provided insight into UM’s operations.

A product of both public and private colleges, he said UM is unique in the way it operates.

“A school like Montevallo is the best of both worlds,” he said. “You’re small enough to be nimble and creative in your management of the institution, but you have the strength and the solidity of support from the state.”

Even with increased enrollment, UM maintains small class sizes, while tuition, room and board cost about $13,000 a year. The individual attention and affordable price is one of UM’s biggest selling points, according to Suzanne Ozment, provost and vice president for

academic affairs.

“This is a campus that is very, very student-focused,” she said. “This is not a place where a person who wants to get lost in the crowd will go.”

Offering affordable, quality education is a passion for Stewart.

While UM is ranked 38th among Southern universities by U.S. News and World Report, Stewart is more proud of another ranking from the same group.

“Of all the regional universities in the South, we’re ranked fourth at graduating students with the lowest amount of student loan debt. That’s a story in itself,” he said.

UM graduates finish college with about half the student loan debt as the national average.

Over the last few years, UM has also developed programs to prepare

graduates for the job market. Two years ago, the school didn’t have a full-time career planning effort. Now, the school has a career placement center, a center for professional practice and two fulltime and two part-time career planning employees.

Through the career planning programs, students learn to write resumes, interviewing skills and proper etiquette for business dinners and lunches. The program also assists students identify and apply for internships.

While UM, which is one of about 28 public liberal arts universities in the country, is best known for its arts graduates, Stewart said students in other majors, including business and health, have done well too.

“We’re certainly well known for our

fine arts and performing arts, but we’ve also produced graduates who went on to lead in areas of social work, education (and) speech pathology,” he said. “We do a wonderful job putting kids in really rock star graduate schools.”

The college’s main focus is teaching students skills – critical thinking, writing – that will serve them no matter their profession.

With momentum building at UM, Stewart is looking forward to seeing the results of his administration’s efforts.

More than anything, he hopes others also will acknowledge those results.

“I honestly believe than in five, six, seven years that the University of Montevallo is going to be known across the country as the model for affordability and quality in higher education,” he said. 

VINTAGE

Interiors

www.facebook.com/VintageInteriors.com

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shelbycountyreporter.com

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LL YOUR ROOFING NEED FOR A S

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A place for children Owens House celebrates 20th anniversary

By KATIE MCDOWELL Images by JON GOERING

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LEFT: The top painting reads, “It’s a big leap — sometimes a scary one — but arriving on the other side clearly positions the jumper in a new realm of possibility, opportunity, clarity and competitive advantage.” The second sign reads, “A hundred years from now ... it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the kind of car I drove ... but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.” TOP LEFT: Owens House helps children prepare for trial with “Kids Kort,” a program that acquaints children with the court process and legal vocabulary. A minature courtroom is used to demonstrate how the process will take place.

TOP RIGHT: Cindy Greer is the executive director of Owens House. ABOVE RIGHT: Child abuse victims and sometimes their family members leave handprints on a mural of a tree downstairs when they complete their time at Owens House — a sign to future visitors that others have walked in their shoes. ABOVE LEFT: Art created by victims and counselors hangs on the walls throughout Owens House.

“I

f I had kept my mouth shut, it would have been easier.”

Those are the words a young abuse victim said to Shelby County District Attorney Robby Owens decades ago.

At the time, Owens was serving as the assistant district attorney in Jefferson County’s Bessemer office.

The child’s sentiment was not unusual.

In the 1980s, child abuse victims typically had to sit through up to 15 interviews with investigators, law enforcement officials and counselors as their cases were investigated.

“Before we would treat them pretty much the same as an adult,” Owens said. “What we found was we really were re-abusing children.”

Bud Kramer, who was Huntsville’s district attorney at the time, was the

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first to come up with the idea of a child advocacy center in Alabama. The idea quickly caught on, and Owens was tasked with developing a similar center for Jefferson County.

When Owens took office as Shelby County’s district attorney in 1992, he knew he wanted to start a similar program here. Owens House Children’s Advocacy Center opened the following year.

In the 20 years that have passed since its founding, the center has served thousands of children and families through therapy, forensic interviews, abuse prevention programs, support groups and more. In 2011 alone, the center conducted 200 forensic interviews, 1,108 counseling sessions, 30 parenting class sessions and taught body safety training to 5,136

schoolchildren.

CROSSING ALL BOUNDARIES The majority of the cases Owens House sees involve sexual abuse.

In the years Owens has spent prosecuting sexual abuse – and finding ways to prevent it – he has never seen a pattern in the victims.

“It crosses all age boundaries. It crosses all financial boundaries. It crosses all race boundaries,” he said.

Owens House Executive Director Cindy Greer also has seen first-hand that abuse isn’t discriminatory.

“We see a huge range from every area of the county, from poor to very wealthy families,” she said.

Greer said approximately one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually

abused before they turn 18.

The organization does see more girls than boys and more white families than black or Hispanic families, but Greer hopes the recent addition of a Spanishspeaking counselor will make Owens House more accessible.

Greer has been with Owens House since its founding. She was part of the original team Owens consulted, back when she was with the county’s Department of Human Resources.

She’s seen some changes in abuse.

Technology has made it much easier for predators to have access to and “groom” children. She also thinks television and technology have desensitized children to sex and violence to some extent.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the relationship between victims and their abusers.

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“The thing that the public doesn’t seem to get is that in 90 percent of the cases the perpetrators are people they know and trust,” she said.

Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Jill Lee, who also serves on the Owens House board, said that’s what makes child abuse difficult compared to other cases.

“This is the one case, at least in my observation, where there aren’t any witnesses,” Lee said.

CREATING OWENS HOUSE While working in Bessemer, Owens noticed a connection between child sexual abuse and criminal activities down the road. He said many of the defendants in his office admitted to

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being sexually abused as children.

“It was fairly constant,” he said.

Prosecuting the cases was also expensive.

“It’s extremely expensive on society,” he said. “They became a drain on society rather than a productive person.”

It took Owens a little over a year to get Owens House off the ground.

Lee saw firsthand how Shelby County’s approach to child abuse changed and how the new method is better for victims’ long-term recovery.

Lee, who began her career as a clerk in 1991, left the Shelby County court system and returned in 1995 as an attorney.

“When I returned, we did things differently. We did things better,” she

said. “(Owens) is the one that put the team together,” Greer said. “It involved the sheriff ’s department and DHR and a couple of law enforcement agencies and the Shelby County Board of Education.”

Owens first approached the Shelby County Board of Education, which allowed the center to rent a building in Columbiana for $1 a month. He also began a fundraising campaign to remodel the building and pay utilities.

The first year, Owens House employed a single person, and the organization scheduled 121 forensic interviews, which were conducted by the Department of Human Resources.

Owens House moved into its current building in 1997 with the help

of a building campaign and a grant.

With the expanded building, Owens House also increased its staff. Today, the center employs four full-time staffers. In addition to Greer, Owens House has two counselors and a family advocate, and it conducts its own forensic interviews.

The DA’s office also appointed a single prosecutor to handle child abuse cases in 1998. Owens said that prosecutor now sees about 10-12 cases each month.

GIVING CHILDREN A VOICE Today, a case typically begins when the child confides in someone — a teacher or parent.

“You have certain people who are

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children often will reveal more about their abuse over time.

“What we’ve found is disclosure is a process,” she said. “Kids will usually tell you a little bit more.”

MOVING FORWARD

FROM FAR LEFT: Dolls are used to comfort younger children or to help them explain how they were abused. The downstairs of Owens House is dedicated to play areas. A felt game allows children to identify and share emotions with others. Shelby County District Attorny Robert “Robby” Owens founded Owens House in the early 1990s. required to make reports if a claim is made — a school teacher, for example,” Owens said.

Reports are typically made to DHR or law enforcement, but Owens House is involved early in the process. If the child is in the home with the alleged abuser, case workers will intervene immediately. Otherwise, the family will set up an interview at Owens House.

The victim sits down with a case worker for a forensic interview — when the interviewer gathers information about the alleged abuse.

The case worker gets to know the child and assesses his or her ability to

communicate before they discuss the abuse.

“A lot of kids, given the opportunity, will tell what happened,” Greer said.

The interviews take place at Owens House in one of two small rooms, which are filled with dolls that are used to help younger children with the process.

A camera provides a live feed of the interview, which a detective and representatives from DHR and the district attorney’s office watch in another room. The officials may request that the case worker ask follow-up questions.

The interview is also recorded.

“Probably 75-90 percent of these cases settle because of that tape,” Owens said.

For the cases that don’t settle, Owens House remains an important part of a victim’s preparation for trial, which typically happens a year or more after disclosure. Counselors will discuss how the process works with the victim, and Owens House even has a miniature Shelby County courtroom to use as a demonstration.

All children have their mental and emotional health assessed and are offered free counseling. Greer said

In addition to individual counseling, Owens House also offers family sessions and group therapy for children and teenagers.

The center has placed an emphasis on educating children and the public about child abuse and good parenting practices. The center offers night parenting classes in a 10-week program.

The prevention program grew significantly in the last year. Owens House counselors visit schools across the county to discuss body safety for students in kindergarten-third grade and conflict resolution for fourth and fifth graders.

“Last year, we went from seeing about 5,000 kids to seeing 7,000,” Greer said. “We do think that’s a way to stop child abuse before it starts.”

Occasionally, former child abuse victims will return to Owens House, either to volunteer or even receive more counseling. Victims who were abused at a young age are likely to come back when they hit their teens.

Owens, however, is happy that he rarely sees child abuse victims once their cases are closed. He said the number of former child abuse victims who later end up in his office as criminal defendants has decreased — a sign, to him, that Owens House is doing its job.

“When you treat (child abuse) properly,” Owens said, “you recover from it.” 

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From player to coach Andrew Zow helps Montevallo High students on and off the field

By CLAYTON HURDLE

TIME WITH THE TIDE

Images by JON GOERING

A native of Lake Butler, Fla., Zow came to Alabama after then-head coach Mike DuBose offered him a scholarship.

Redshirting his freshman year in 1997, Zow took over the starting role from senior captain John David Phillips early in the 1998 season.

In his second season with the Tide, Zow was the primary starter at quarterback and led Alabama to its first SEC title in seven seasons. After a disappointing 3-8 season in 2000, Alabama — with Zow as a senior captain — began

H

e’s a player’s coach — been there, done that, with an SEC championship ring to prove it. It comes as no surprise, then, that first-year Montevallo High School head coach Andrew Zow makes it a point to build relationships with his players.

“You can say ‘I love you,’ but love is an action word,” Zow said. “We do things with the kids, like feed them dinner every Thursday night. We’ve worked hard so that they understand that we love them.”

Zow took over for the Bulldogs after a stint at Oak Mountain as quarterbacks’ coach. Now 11 years removed from his last year with the Crimson Tide, he takes many of his lessons from Alabama into his coaching philosophy.

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2001 3-2 before dropping three in a row.

“We used to pray together as a team, but that had stopped,” Zow said. “When we started praying together again we got closer together as one team and it showed.”

Zow led the Tide to a threegame win streak to end the regular season.

In Alabama’s victory over Iowa in the Independence Zow — Gary Minnick Bowl, led the Tide in his final game, scoring one touchdown on the ground and another on a 27-yard pass in the game’s waning moments.

“He wants to make

a difference in people’s lives, and he’s always willing to go into the community to connect with people.”

TWO HOMES After graduating from Alabama, Zow returned to Florida where he coached at his alma mater, first as a quarterbacks’ coach and later as a head coach at Union County High School.

“It was a blessing to be back home,” Zow said. “The kids I coached already knew me because I grew up with their parents or older siblings.

They saw it as someone who went off and had success coming home to give back to the community.”

During his first stint at Union County, Zow had the opportunity to mentor C.J. Spiller, who has gone on to success as a running back at Clemson and as a member of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Zow considers Spiller to be like his “little brother,” and said that Spiller sees him as an older brother figure as well.

While Florida is where his roots are, Zow and his wife — also a Lake

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LEFT: Andrew Zow supervises his team during pregame warm-ups prior to the Bulldogs’ game against Tarrant Sept. 21, 2012.

ABOVE: Zow motivates his team as his Bulldogs take on Tarrant on Sept. 21, 2012. Zow, in his first season as Montevallo head footbal coach, led Alabama to the SEC championship in 1999.

2008, including a playoff win. After a one-year coaching hiatus in 2010 to once again focus on his business, Zow served at Oak Mountain for a year before being called upon to replace Jamie Williams at Montevallo.

CONNECTING WITH HIS KIDS

Butler native — owned a house in Birmingham. They returned to the Birmingham area in 2003 when he began Andrew Zow and Associates, a corporation that represents manufacturers in utilities and automotives.

While focusing his energies in the field of business management, Zow still found time for football. He ran or participated in youth camps before deciding to go back into coaching full-time in 2007.

In three seasons as head coach back at Union County, Zow led his team to a four-game improvement in

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Zow has been married for 12 years to his high school sweetheart, the former Amebriss Small, and has three sons: A.J., Avry and Ashton.

Carrying his strong family values onto the football field, Zow has always treated the players under his charge with respect and caring.

“When you take over a kid for more than a few hours, his parents are trusting you to mold him into a good man,” Zow explained. “You have to care for the kids for them to respect you. In turn, they respect other authority figures, like their parents and teachers.”

One of the biggest personalities on the Montevallo sideline, Zow is constantly encouraging his players to get better. The key to encouragement, he said, is being positive.

“You can’t demean them by using foul language,” he said. “The Lord has given you the ability, so use it by

being a role model.”

Off the field, Zow is possibly an even bigger mentor than he is on the field. He provides dinner for his players every Thursday night and meets other needs for those who need it.

“I’ve seen several examples of guys who are having a tough time that reach out to Coach Zow,” Montevallo athletic director Brenton McCaleb said. “He takes the time to sit down with them and talk to them. He genuinely cares about them, and they see that. They trust that he’s going to guide them and that he understands where they’re coming from.”

REACHING DEEPLY INTO THE COMMUNITY Zow is overseeing a reshaping of Montevallo football, starting with facilities upgrades and continuing by reaching out into the community.

“I got a parent to loan her artistic talents to paint the building blue,” Zow said. “It was a dull gray. The blue livens it up and helps with the attitude.”

Other adornments or the Montevallo stadium and field have helped the football team gain a sense of pride. Within the community,

Zow has started a “Fifth Quarter” program at a local church after Montevallo home games. The “Fifth Quarter” is designed to provide a safe, fun environment for Montevallo High students. Zow gets a speaker to come in to talk at each event and has even spoken himself.

“Andrew’s done a great job of reaching out into the community,” McCaleb said. “His own son plays on the city youth team. He’s embracing the community, and the community is embracing him.”

Montevallo principal Gary Minnick has been pleased with Zow’s community involvement.

“From Andrew’s standpoint, it’s not just a PR endeavor,” Minnick said. “It’s who he is. He wants to make a difference in people’s lives, and he’s always willing to go into the community to connect with people.”

Though the 2012 campaign ended with a disappointing 2-8 record, there are high expectations throughout the Montevallo community for where the coach can take the team in the future.

“This season is not anything that you’d want it to be, but they’ve laid a foundation and are poised to grow,” Minnick said. “Andrew’s a fantastic young man, and I hope he’ll stick around for a long time.”

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Heroes of the deep

By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT Images are CONTRIBUTED

R

eal-life superheroes don’t wear capes, and heaven forbid the mention of Spandex. They quietly protect citizens from behind a police badge or under a fire helmet and humbly shake their heads when the word “hero” is mentioned.

The members of the Calera Dive Team are no exception. There’s a sense of waiting, of anticipation, as they work as police officers, firefighters and in supporting day jobs.

They don’t know when the call will come, but they’re ready and waiting to respond. They don’t get bonuses for recovering drowning victims or evidence from murky ponds.

They simply return to their jobs of protecting citizens on land and wait for the call that may ask them to pull on wetsuits and dive into what most would describe as a nightmare.

SETTING THE STAGE

Leaning back in his office chair at the Calera Police Department, Dive Team Commander Clint Barnett described a scene that most only experience through viewing horror movies. Whether diving for drowning or murder victims or hunting for evidence, the Calera divers take time away from their day jobs to submerge themselves into the watery depths.

“You’re down there; you’re going by feel. You’re not floating like you see on Discovery Channel where everybody is kicking through the beautiful water,” Barnett said. “We basically go to the bottom for the most part, and we run the mud. We take the rope and do our hand searches.”

The divers rarely use lights, as lighting could hinder their vision even further.

“It’s just easier if you go ahead and close your eyes. Sometimes you see things that are not there if you’re straining to see things,” Barnett said.

CALERA DIVE TEAMS BEGINS The Calera Dive Team was formed after a truck operator backed an 85ton truck off a quarry wall in Calera in 1999. The truck slid about 20 feet down a slope before free falling 15 feet and landing upside down in 130 feet of water in the quarry. The fall killed the driver, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Authorities contacted Barnett, a recreational diver and law enforcement officer, and now-Police Chief Sean Lemley as part of the team to work the accident.

“Of course, we didn’t know what we were really doing. At that point, we realized (the dive team) may only be needed one time, and it could be another time, but I’d like to know what I’m doing the next time. We started realizing we need to form something because there really wasn’t anything around,” Barnett said.

Today, the 14-member dive team responds to about five calls a year, though 2012 was a busy year for the

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team.

“I’m really glad it’s slowed down a lot, because it was really wearing us out with so much at once,” Barnett said during a September interview.

“That’s how it comes. You won’t get anything, and then it’s back to back.

We really got hammered this year.”

The team responded to three drownings and the high-profile murder of Carrie Elaine Gentry, whose body was discovered in her vehicle submerged a water-filled Leeds quarry. “(The Gentry case was) one of our most intense — just the whole ordeal and everything that was at stake with it. That was pretty intense,” Barnett said. “We were very cautious with how we worked that.”

JOINING THE TEAM To join the team, members must be full-time employees of the city of

Calera. Employees then apply for a dive team position. The team is made up of certified divers, boat operators and evidence technicians.

“We feel out how the individuals work as a team and how their mindset is. This is not a self-promoting thing.

It’s go out and help the community and be a team-oriented unit,” Barnett said. “We try to stay away from anybody who wants to do it to get recognition.”

LaTresa Kelley, communications supervisor with Calera Police, has been with the dive team since the beginning. Kelley is the voice on the line when anyone calls the Calera Police Department, and when she mans ground support for a diver, her voice carries through the communication system headset to reassure her diver.

The divers communicate with both the communications system and line signals, which involves tugging on a rope to convey needs to those on the

ground or in the boat.

“Most of the time, they’re in black water, so we tug on the line and tell them to change position,” Kelley said.

“You tug a certain amount of times to have them resurface. We can’t rely on technology all the time, because the com system can go out.”

Many of the team members on land support are also trained divers, and can fill in wherever needed, although Kelley stays on land.

“I respect the water enough to know I don’t want to do it,” she said.

For years, Kelley, mother of three, grandmother to two, was the only woman on the team.

“I had to hide when they changed out of their wet suits and pretend I didn’t see anything,” she said, laughing. “It’s a small department, a close-knit department anyway.”

Now, the team has two women, Kelley and Calera jailer Kristi Sterling, a no-nonsense Alabaster woman with

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“You’re down there; you’re going by feel. You’re not floating like you see on Discovery Channel where everybody is kicking through the beautiful water.”

— Clint Barnett long blonde hair who has worked for the Calera Police Department for 15 years. Sterling joined the team three years ago.

“We’re outnumbered. It’s a man’s world, but I love it,” Sterling said, laughing.

Sterling has trained as a diver, but mainly stays on land for diver support.

When on land support, Sterling keeps up with her diver’s air pressure and how long the diver has been under the water. She also sets up diving equipment to keep the diver from tiring.

Deven Heathcock, a stoic dayshift patrol sergeant with years of law enforcement experience, joined the team in 2003. While he is a certified diver, he mainly runs land support as opposed to diving these days, which gives other divers the opportunity to

LEFT: The team tows a vehicle from a body of water. ABOVE: The dive team utilizes Zodiac inflatable boats to allow divers to search away from the shore, as well as to use sonar equipment to map out the bottom of the body of water. Ross Mixon, center, mans the communication system. be in the water.

“It’s specialized training on land and water. We tend to put our strongest assets to fill different tasks,” Heathcock said. “It’s a necessary relationship. The diver needs the security of land operations. They need to be in sync with each other.”

THE DANGERS OF THE JOB When the team began 14 years ago, divers used personal diving equipment on calls. Team members worked off equipment donations in the early days, but after being awarded a number of grants, the team transitioned from

personal equipment to purchased equipment.

The dive team toolbox contains everything from lift bags for lifting submerged vehicles to a rover, a self-propelled video camera. Divers utilize wet suits and dry suits, which are air tight in the case of HAZMAT situations.

As the dive team has a mutual aid agreement with local law enforcement agencies, as well as across the state, the team may not be familiar with the water at the scene of the call.

“You really don’t know what you’re getting into, which is why we have the dry suits. They can’t protect from

snake bites, but they can protect from bacteria,” Heathcock said.

Divers sometimes deal with oil and gas leaking from a submerged vehicle, which can burn and cause irritation.

Bodily fluids from drowning victims also require the team to don dry suits.

“People don’t realize the contaminants in the water. There’s a lot of waters that may seem clean.

It may be fine, and you and your kids may go swimming in this water, and it’s clear to you, but we get down there and stir up the sediment,” Barnett said.

The team uses sonar around the target area to obtain a visual of what’s

Behind the mask Images by JON GOERING

Jailer Kristi Sterling

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Sgt. Deven Heathcock

Dive Team Commander Clint Barnett

Communciations Supervisor LaTresa Kelley

Calera Firefighter Ross Mixon

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ABOVE LEFT: Calera Firefighter Ross Mixon. ABOVE RIGHT: The team performs a land-based operation to locate evidence. RIGHT: The dive team trains for HAZMAT situations at Oak Mountain State Park. below the water.

“With recreational diving, you’re going to pick when you dive, where you dive and how long you dive.

We don’t pick that. We end up in water sometimes where we can’t see, period. It’s called black water,” Barnett said.

Underwater hazards include trees and stumps, which can entangle a diver, as well as currents, temperature and depth of the water. When working to lift a submerged car, the car potentially could shift and fall during the process.

“We try to stay as safe as we can.

It’s kind of like out here on the street.

You try to stay safe, but if you get shot at, you get shot at. There’s only so much you can do to train and try to react to it,” Barnett said.

Each diver makes the personal decision to dive or cover land support during a call.

“You have to make sure they’re comfortable with it. They can be nervous, and it’s to be expected,” Barnett added. “Looking for a victim, it’s already got your adrenaline rushing. It’s OK to be that way; we’re all right with that. It’s when you get to the point that you can’t function or can’t operate; they have to make the decision because we don’t always

know that. We don’t know what’s going on in their minds.”

DEALING WITH CALLS When a Montevallo man drowned in May 2012, the dive team responded to recover the body. Kelley, a Montevallo resident, grew up with the man and knew the family.

“I felt like I was helping the family.

I let them know the process, what we were doing, step by step, and why it was taking so long,” Kelley said. “To the family, it took a very long time.

In 10-15 minutes, we got him up, but to them, it took a lifetime. That was

more personal for me.”

After being in the Marine Corps and working in the police department, Kelley said she has developed “that morbid sense of humor” to cope with her profession.

“When (the victim is) an adult, you can process better, but with a child, even those with the most morbid sense of humor (are affected),” she said. “They’re always affected by child recovery because most of them have children.”

Diver Ross Mixon, a firefighter with both Calera and Chelsea fire departments, is the father of four children under the age of 12. Wearing

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his black-and-pink Chelsea Fire “Blacks Out Breast Cancer” shirt, Mixon’s eyes grew glassy as he talked about June 7, 2011, when the dive team recovered a 2-year-old girl who drowned in a Mt Laurel lake.

“A lot of times, we’ll talk about it.

Others go hunting, fishing and shoot,” Mixon said. “You’ve got to remember you didn’t put them in this situation.

You’re there to help, but it stays with you.”

Each team member agreed that recovering a child’s body is one of the hardest parts of being on the dive team.

“When a body comes out, I don’t

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“To the family, it took a very long time. In 10 to 15 minutes, we got him up, but to them, it took a lifetime. That was more personal for me.”

— LaTresa Kelley look. I focus on my diver to make sure he’s OK,” Sterling said. “With the kid in Mt Laurel, when they brought the body out, I went into diver mode and focused on my diver when they

zipped the bag.”

Barnett, who fills the role of a strong leader with his shaved head and cleft chin, said he has to be careful with the team members, because they won’t

always say they need to talk through recovering victims.

“Really and truly, with the things I’ve been through, most of the ‘macho’ personalities really don’t last in this,” Barnett said. “There is that aspect of ‘macho,’ but most realize ‘macho’ only goes so far, and it really doesn’t help you anymore. The quicker you learn that, the quicker you get better or realize these things and are able to handle things a little better.”

The experience of recovering a drowning victim differs greatly from that of recovering a victim on land, Barnett said.

“When you see victims (on land), you can kind of step back and get an overview and see what you’re dealing with. In the water, you can’t see anything at all hardly or a few inches,” he added. “You don’t know what you’re coming across. It is a different emotion.

“And then dealing with children, it’s a whole different ballgame there.

In a sense, you’re hoping you can find them because you want to get the child out, even if it’s two days later.

At the same time, you’re not wanting to be the one because you don’t know what to expect,” Barnett said.

When recovering a victim, Barnett said he feels mixed emotions.

“The mixed feeling to me is you feel good about locating the victim, but at the same time you feel guilty about feeling good about it,” Barnett said. “The way I’ve worked it out in my head is that you should feel good about doing something. You just gave this family closure. You shouldn’t feel guilty about feeling like you did something good.” 

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Working

By AMY JONES FILE PHOTOS

A

s Joe Ray wheeled around, showing off the property at Adaptive Aquatics in Wilsonville, he paused for a moment and looked out over the glittering expanse of Lay Lake.

“This is my office,” he said, arm stretched toward the lake. “People are blown away when they come out here.”

Thirty years ago, Joe couldn’t have anticipated how a twist of fate would direct him to Wilsonville and Adaptive Aquatics. Four years after losing the use of his legs at age 20 in a car accident in 1978, Joe attended a session at Camp ASCCA, Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults. Phil Martin, the founder of Adaptive Aquatics, was at the camp and altered Joe’s life forever by teaching him how to ski.

“It was really in the late ‘70s and

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early ‘80s that adaptive skiing really came about,” Joe said. “At first, I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I’m in a wheelchair.

I can’t swim.’That’s the same argument I hear from people who come out here now, so it’s kind of funny.”

Before Joe took up adaptive skiing, he had never really been an active person, but his first experience on the water changed everything.

“You leave your wheelchair on the dock. You’re out there gliding across the water, doing what you want to do,” Joe said. “That made me realize I’m not bound to a set of wheels. It kind of frees you from the confines of everyday life.”

After his Camp ASCCA experience, Joe decided he wanted to get involved with Adaptive Aquatics, which helps kids and adults with disabilities experience fun on the water. He moved to Birmingham after his accident, then to Alabaster. About 20 years ago, he was so involved with Adaptive Aquatics and loved the water so much

that he decided to move to Wilsonville.

“There’s always some opportunity for anything. People can experience the freedom of the water,” Joe said on why he’s loved Adaptive Aquatics since the beginning. “We say they leave their wheels on the dock. It just kind of opens up the door to all kinds of opportunities.”

In the early 1990s, Phil chose to leave Wilsonville and move back to his native state of Georgia, taking Adaptive Aquatics with him. Joe ran his own adaptive program, which was very similar to Adaptive Aquatics, for about five years until Phil got back in touch with some shocking news: his own diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Phil would no longer be able to handle operating Adaptive Aquatics, so Joe took the program over, moving it back to Wilsonville.

“I went from a guy in a wheelchair to a camper, to a skier, to an instructor, to the director of a nonprofit,” Joe recalled. “What we do is about

changing your perspective of what you can do.”

ADAPTING FOR TODAY AND THE FUTURE Today, the Adaptive Aquatics property in Wilsonville includes boats, jet skis, a kayaking area, a main dock, a pavilion, adaptive equipment and a building to hold the equipment with restrooms custom-made for people in wheelchairs.

It took 10 years for Joe to raise enough money to get the property into the condition it is now, and he did it a little at a time. Adaptive Aquatics is totally funded through private donors such as churches, civic groups and private individuals, which meant Joe needed to get really good at public speaking really fast.

“It was a lot of angels. It was going out and talking to anybody that would listen to me,” Joe said.

Joe himself is one of those angels.

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LEFT: Adaptive Aquatics participants enjoy a day on Lay Lake. TOP: An Adaptive Aquatics boat, piloted by Joe Ray, pulls a tube with happy participants behind. ABOVE RIGHT: Matthew and Brent Anderson water ski at Adaptive Aquatics in Wilsonville. ABOVE LEFT: Joe smiles as he pilots a boat, giving a family a happy memory.

on the water Adaptive Aquatics does not charge the people who use the program, and it’s totally volunteer-based.

Even Joe, who has dedicated his life to the program, does not take a salary.

He retired from Blue Cross Blue Shield in 2009, and lives off his disability benefits.

“You just learn how to live simple,” he said. “When you see a 5-year-old kid that’s disabled ski, that’s worth more than any amount in the world.”

Joe knows how important his work is, and he’s working to make sure it can be continued after he moves on. He said he sees himself working with Adaptive Aquatics for at least another 10-15 years, and currently has two assistant executive directors he’s training.

“Once you create something, you have to kind of look to the future, and decide what the long-term sustainability of this organization can be,” he said. “I’ve tried very hard to build this organization so that it can

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“That made me realize I’m not bound to a set of wheels. It kind of frees you from the confines of everyday life.”

— Joe Ray continue on when I’m not around.”

THE TURNING POINT Children as young as 3 and adults as old as 86 have participated in Adaptive Aquatics, and Joe serves people that are developmentally and physically disabled, as well as children with special needs.

Joe sees that skiing helps these people build confidence, which leads them to figure out how to live life on their own terms.

“It’s an opportunity to see what’s inside yourself. Sometimes they are

surprised and amazed they can do that,” Joe said.

Joe said he’s worked with military veterans as well, including a man named Alonzo, who was a survivor of the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting that killed 13 people. Alonzo was shot in the head and suffered brain injuries, but eventually became an advocate for the disabled.

Joe gained a greater understanding of how important Adaptive Aquatics can be for military veterans when Alonzo told him, “You don’t realize it, but a lot of times, this saves these guys’ lives. Because they’re searching for

something.”

Joe also serves those who are able — the family members who are there to help and support. Those families witness their loved ones conquering a new experience, and they become even more confident.

Alabaster resident Nancy Owen, whose son, Connor, is 17 and severely autistic, said the opportunity to ski has changed Connor’s life.

“Connor is limited in the activities he can participate in because of his disability,” Nancy said. “This is one he can participate in pretty independently.

It helps his self-esteem. You can see a big smile on his face. It’s fun for him.”

Nancy, Connor and his sister Sarah, 14, recently spent a Saturday enjoying the lake. Connor zoomed behind Joe’s boat on skis, smiling wide. Earlier that day, however, it looked like the fun would have to be postponed when a storm blew through.

“Today, we didn’t know if we could do it because of the storms. (Joe)

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LEFT: Adaptive Aquatics owner Joe Ray talks with Linda Nolen Learning Center students before taking to the water. RIGHT: Shelby Hendrix water skis during an Adaptive Aquatics event. said, ‘Come out, we’ll do it if we have the window of opportunity,’” Nancy said. ‘Most places would have just shut down. He said, ‘If there’s a window of opportunity, we’ll do it.’ That’s very unselfish.”

Nancy said Joe shows a true love of what he’s doing at all times.

“Joe is one of the most kind-hearted people. He is so willing to be with the kids and adults,” she said.

“When you ride with him, you can just feel the passion he has for this program.”

Joe is constantly finding ways to provide happy memories. He has a small waterproof video camera that he mounts on the adaptive skis so he can share video memories with families.

“He’s an amazing man,” Nancy said.

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Calera residents Howard and Vicki Hendrix were on Lay Lake the same Saturday with their daughter, Shelby, who is also autistic and nonverbal.

Howard said Shelby loves the water and loves anything fast, such as roller coasters, horses and skiing.

The family spent some time in Colorado, and within months, Shelby was an intermediate-level skier.

“She just loves to go fast. She doesn’t have a lot of fear,” Howard said.

Vicki said Joe serves as an inspiration.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity that Joe’s giving these kids. A lot of them have never experienced water,” she said. “And it’s an inspiration what he’s done too.”

She was talking about what Joe’s made of himself — the leader of a successful nonprofit foundation

that continually betters lives. But she was also talking about what Joe’s accomplished as a skier. He owns 11 world championships and has seven world records associated with disabled water skiing.

“Who would have thought, learning how to ski, that I would be a world champion?” Joe said.

Joe mentors young skiers who want to take it from a hobby to something more, giving them chances to follow in his wake. He knows from experience how the freedom of the water can change a life’s path — especially for the disabled.

“If they want to do something bad enough, they’ll figure out a way to do it. They learn how to adapt,” he said. “Sometimes that gives them their ‘ah-ha’ moment. Sometimes that’s a turning point.” 

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