Tuscaloosa Magazine Fall 2015

ALSO INSIDE: LUCY JORDAN BAND OF BROTHERS TUSCALOOSA BARNYARD POST OFFICE PIES 6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE + MUCH MORE!

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESIDENT

Stuart BELL

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Publisher James W. Rainey

editor’s letter

Editor Robert Sutton Design Editor Janet Sudnik Director of Photography Robert Sutton Photographers Michelle Lepianka Carter Erin Nelson Lauren DeSeno Copy Editors Amy Robinson Ken Roberts Operations Director Paul Hass Advertising Director Lynnie Guzman Marketing Director Sam Kirkwood Prepress Manager Chuck Jones Published by The Tuscaloosa News 315 28th Avenue Tuscaloosa, AL 35401 Executive Editor Michael James Controller Steve Hopper Magazine 205-722-0234 To advertise 205-722-0173 To subscribe 205-722-0102

ABOVE: Photographer Robert Sutton gets in front of the camera with models from our fall fashion shoot (Page 56).

From left, Madelyn Link, Lilly Aldridge and Caroline Evans.

TOP RIGHT: Photographer Michelle Lepianka Carter lathers up her husband, David, who is being a good sport for a fashion photo.

S

ABOVE: Lauren DeSeno shoots game-day recipes (Page 16).

RIGHT: Model Madelyn Link, hairstylist Madison Shepherd, model Lilly Aldridge and Michelle’s son, Jackson Carter, hang out on the fashion set.

omething most people don’t know about me is that I was a member of the University of Alabama’s Million Dollar Band in the fall semester of 1989. Most people would never guess this, because I don’t have a shred of musical talent. My beautiful and talented wife, however, was quite the clarinetist in her day.

She tried out and made the cut, and I signed on as a percussion manager. Basically, I had to help load equipment on and off the buses and onto the field during pregame and halftime shows. It was a great student gig, and it allowed us to share the experience. I even got drafted to march in one of the halftime shows, carrying a banner from sideline to sideline. I was so bad, apparently, that they replaced me for the Iron Bowl.

Each year, hundreds of students more suited to the task march with the Million Dollar Band led by Dr. Ken Ozello. We got the opportunity to visit with “Dr. O” and talk about his career (Page 80).

We also talked with Dr. Stuart Bell (Page 52), Alabama’s new president. Dr. Bell, a former instructor at the Capstone, joins us from Louisiana State University, where he served as provost and executive vice president.

I hope you’re hungry (and thirsty) — Tuscaloosa has a host of new options on the way, including Nothing but Noodles (Page 27), Post Office Pies (Page 22), Band of Brothers brewery (Page 8), and the recently opened Fresh Market (Page 12). If you plan to tailgate for the games this fall, Kelly Pridgen has some great recipes to share with us (Page 16).

We also have features on local luthier Wayne Stanton (Page 84), Eat My Beats (Page 88), Black Warrior Studio and Gallery (Page 76), local legend Lucy Jordan (Page 68), our 6 Intriguing People (Page 93), and of course, the best parties from this summer (Page 106).

We hope you enjoy this issue of Tuscaloosa.

Reach Robert Sutton at Robert.Sutton@ tuscaloosanews. com.

Follow us online on Facebook and Twitter!

Halifa M E D I A

G R O U P

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FALL 2015

VOLUME 13, NO. 3

CONTENTS

72

22

08 08 SPIRITS

22 DINING OUT

36 OUTDOORS

12 NEW IN TOWN

27 NEW IN TOWN

40 AT HOME

16 DINING IN

28 FOODIE NEWS

44 AT HOME

Love of craft beers leads to new brewery, Band of Brothers.

Specialty food grocer Fresh Market opens in Tuscaloosa.

Football fans will cheer for this spirited menu of tailgate fare.

Post Office Pies has a national rep for its handcrafted pizzas.

Nothing but Noodles offers pasta in a fast-casual atmosphere.

The latest in local food, trends, recipes and epicurean events.

NorthRiver Yacht Club tennis pro cut his teeth at Wimbledon.

Dana and Butch Camp turn their game-day escape into home.

Re-decorator Elizabeth Cobb brightens up a living room.

ON THE COVER

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New University of Alabama President Stuart Bell has traded in his purple and gold for the Tide’s crimson and white. Before the school year started, we sat down with Bama’s new boss to talk about his career path, family life and what he hopes the future will hold at the Capstone.

Photo by: Robert Sutton See story: Page 52

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BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

80 MUSIC

Local master luthier Wayne Stanton creates musical works of art with his handcrafted string instruments.

Page 84.

Sound of drums lead one man to his Million Dollar Dream.

48 FEELING GOOD

68 PERSONALITY

88 MUSIC

52 COVER STORY

72 ROADS LESS TRAVELED

93 6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE

56 FASHION

76 ART

106 ON THE SCENE

76

16

56

Brenda Branch shares her approach to healthier living.

UA rings in a new administration with President Stuart Bell.

Tuscaloosa’s fall fashions are on the cutting edge of style.

Local legend Lucy Jordan looks back on decades of doing good.

The Combs family shares its barnyard fun with the community.

Black Warrior Studio and Gallery lets woodworkers get creative.

Former disc jockey makes a sound music business.

Meet six folks who are making a difference in our community.

The best bashes, parties and charity events of the season.

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SPIRITS

Band of Brothers Brewing Co. owners, from left, Jeremiah Donald, Quinton Brown and Jeremy Donald.

‘BREW’-MANCE

LOVE OF CRAFT BEERS LEADS TO NEW T-TOWN BREWERY BAND OF BROTHERS

BY DONNA CORNELIUS | PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

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SPIRITS

T

he three guys behind Tuscaloosa’s third craft beer brewery are fun to hang out with.

A few weeks before Band of Brothers Brewing Co. opened, its head honchos, brothers Jeremy and Jeremiah Donald and their friend, Quintin Brown, sat down to talk about their love affair with craft beer.

“We like coming up with the recipes,” said Jeremiah Donald, the company’s chief operating officer and brewmaster. “We choose beers we enjoy.”

That gives them a lot of leeway, Brown said.

“There’s not many beers that Jeremiah doesn’t like,” he said, laughing.

“I’m more into malts and less hoppy beers. I’m more finicky.”

But while all three are having fun with their new business, set to open in mid-September at 1605 23rd Ave., they’re serious about what they’re doing.

“You can’t just be, ‘Oh, wow, we’re making our own beer,’” Jeremiah said. “You’ve got to do your due diligence.”

Jeremy Donald, the company’s chief executive officer, said the idea to open a craft brewery goes back to 2009, when Alabama passed the Gourmet Beer Bill, raising the limit on alcohol by volume from 6 percent to 13.9 percent.

“Back Forty (Brewing Co.) was up, and so was Good People (Brewing Co.),” he said “We were tinkering with this idea.”

Tuscaloosa got its first craft beer breweries when Druid City Brewing Co. opened in 2012 followed by Black Warrior Brewing Co. in 2013.

“We said, ‘It’s time,’” Jeremy said. “We started putting together the plan and really going after this. A lot of this is strategic thinking — and a lot is by pure faith.”

The Donald brothers grew up in Clarke County in southeastern

LEFT: A sign advertises the Band of Brothers brewery on 23rd Avenue, which is set to open in mid-September.

TOP: Shiny new taps are installed in the taproom.

Alabama. The sale of alcohol there was illegal during their childhood, although three of the county’s largest towns are now wet. But like many Alabamians in dry counties, their grandfather made his own wine and beer.

“He mostly made wines using any fruit you can imagine, but he made beer — ‘home brew’ — too,” Jeremiah said.

“He made stuff that made you happy,” Jeremy added.

Brown said the Donalds approached him about two years ago with a business plan for a brewery.

“It was about 150 pages long,” said Brown, the company’s chief financial officer and a Tuscaloosa native. “I took it home and studied it. Then I sat down with them and told them what I liked and didn’t like about it.

And then I told them, ‘By the way — I’m in.’”

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SPIRITS LEFT: Spool tables and chairs are set up in the taproom.

BELOW: Kegs stamped with the brewery’s name sit in the taproom.

Band of Brothers will have a brown ale, a Saison, an IPA and a Session ale when it opens.

Band of Brothers’ home, just across from the newly renovated Drish House, is large enough to accommodate the massive brewing equipment, a walk-in cooler and a taproom with plenty of seating.

“This building was a food bank a while back and most recently was Game Day Tents,” Jeremy said.

Brown said the three tried to use Tuscaloosa-area companies for the renovation work. Anderson Flooring and Paint put in the handsome black floor in the taproom and the wood ceiling in the vestibule.

A long bar at the back of the taproom will have 12 different beers and craft sodas like root beer, cream soda and ginger ale. Bench seats will offer conveniences to those who need to use their smartphones, iPads and laptops.

“We’ll have gizmos for those devices at the benches and free Wi-Fi,” Jeremy said.

Customers will be able to see the brewing area from the taproom.

“We can make any style of beer,” Brown said. “It’s all about the recipes. What we fancy are Belgian-style ales, but we can do others.”

To succeed, craft breweries have to bring something different to the table — or in this case, to the bar, Jeremy said.

“Basically, all our tanks put together allow us to make any type of beer,” he said.

“If a carpenter only has a square and a ruler, he’s going to be limited as to what he can make. You have to have the tools. You have to create something that brings value and uniqueness. Sometimes you have to do edgy things.”

He compared craft beer drinkers’ desire for good selections to that of a fashion-conscious woman shopping for clothes.

“You don’t want to go into a store and be able to get just blue sun-

dresses,” he said. “You might want yellow trousers or a white blouse.”

Band of Brothers has brown ale, a Saison, an IPA — India Pale Ale — and its own version of a Session ale with a 5 percent alcohol content, lower than many other craft beers. They’ve dubbed their brews VooDoo Mild, Station 1 Saison, Gatekeeper IPA and Chief’s Pale Ale. The company’s name comes from two sources, Jeremy said.

“Well, of course, Jeremiah and I are brothers, and Quintin is our honorary brother,” he said. “But also, the company is majority-owned by disabled veterans.”

Brown said the brewery hopes not only to attract beer lovers but also to show non-beer drinkers the beauty of their products.

“You hear people say, ‘I’m not so sure I really like beer,’ but it’s probably because they’ve only been introduced to the same old beers,” he said. “There’s a beer we can match you up to without shocking your palate.”

Band of Brothers is planning special events with both beer aficionados and those curious about craft beer in mind.

“We’re working on having beer dinners,” Jeremy said. “We’ll partner with local restaurants on an ongoing basis.”

One of Jeremiah’s goals for the dinners is to “have wine drinkers come in here and try beer,” he said. “I think it’s a better pairing with food than wine. You have so many styles of beer to pair food with.”

Music will be a regular fixture in the taproom, Brown said.

“I’m a big fan of jazz and blues,” he said. “We’ll mostly stick with that format. For sporting events, we’ll have TVs. You can come watch the game. It’s a great venue for adults.”

All three said they plan to keep researching beer styles and adjusting their selections.

“You have to understand the market — it’s artwork we’re creating,” Jeremiah said.

Jeremy used a Tuscaloosa-centric example of Band of Brothers’ approach to the craft beer business.

“If you hope to be a good craft brewery, it’s like trying to play a good SEC football game,” he said “You have to know what the other teams’ defenses are bringing against your offense. You have to be that craft brewery that can address the market.”

BAND OF BROTHERS IS AT 1605 23RD AVE., TUSCALOOSA. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT THE COMPANY’S FACEBOOK PAGE. 11

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NEW IN TOWN

getting

fresh in t-town SPECIALTY FOOD STORE CRACKS THE TUSCALOOSA MARKET

BY DONNA CORNELIUS PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

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NEW IN TOWN

I

f you didn’t already know that The Fresh Market does things a little differently than most grocery stores, you just had to be at its Aug. 12 grand opening to find out.

The specialty food store didn’t have a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony but instead cracked open an 80-plus-pound wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

That’s a tradition for the store, said Ken Towery, the company’s South Zone Operations vice president.

“The Fresh Market started as an Old World, European-style market, so this is a nod to those beginnings,” Towery said.

Charles Sanders is manager of the Tuscaloosa store, which is one of the anchors at the Shoppes at Legacy Park off McFarland Boulevard and 13th Street. The property was among others in the Tuscaloosa area devastated by the April 2011 tornado.

Towery said the extent of the storm damage was brought home to him during a visit to Tuscaloosa.

“I pulled off the interstate here, and the place I’d plugged into my GPS wasn’t even there anymore,” he said. “We like being part of the area’s resurgence and helping to rebuild parts of Tuscaloosa after the tornado.”

Towery said company officials thought the time was right to open a store in Tuscaloosa.

“We look for areas where we feel a market is underserved,” he said. “The demographics here met our criteria.”

LEFT: Chris Carmony, produce manager at a Fresh Market in Montgomery, puts out fresh berries at The Fresh Market in the Shoppes at Legacy Park.

BELOW: More than 200 domestic and imported cheeses are available at the Fresh Market. The store also staffs the department with dedicated specialists to answer questions and provide samples.

BOTTOM: Fresh roses are among the many varieties of flowers for sale in the floral and gifts department.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Bright red bell peppers are stacked in the produce department.

The store’s proximity to the University of Alabama campus was a plus, Towery said, as was the makeup of other stores at the new shopping center.

“We are very pleased with their cotenants,” he said. “We do very well in that type of environment.”

Towery said he thinks The Fresh Market will appeal to shoppers for its convenience, food quality and service.

“We’re not as large as conventional supermarkets,” he said. “You can get in and out easily. We don’t have as many products, but what we do have are high-quality, greattasting items.”

The Fresh Market’s grand opening included chef demonstrations, food samples and free shopping bags.

“We have special events throughout the year,” Towery said. “We have things like a Taste of Summer and a Taste of the Holidays. On Valentine’s Day, we do a promotion where you can get a dozen chocolatedipped strawberries and a dozen roses for an attractive price.”

Food-focused events include a peach festival and a recent one spotlighting the seasonal arrival of Hatch chiles, a Southwestern chile greatly prized by chefs and home cooks.

“These kinds of events are fun for both our customers and our employees,” Towery said.

One of the store’s goals is to make grocery shopping not just a chore but an

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M A K I NG YOU R

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NEW IN TOWN experience, he said.

“We want you to experience the food — the sights, the smells,” he said. “At The Fresh Market, all your senses are stimulated.”

FRESH MARKET FINDS

TOP: Fresh vegetables make a colorful display in the produce department.

CENTER: You can grind your own butter using peanuts, almonds and other nuts.

ABOVE: The ready-to-eat section offers everything from pizza to sushi to salad.

If you’re a Fresh Market newbie, here are a few things to know: n The Tuscaloosa store’s gelato-coffee-smoothie bar is the company’s first in Alabama, said Logan Holcomb, field marketing manager for new stores. n You can grind your own butters using plain or honeyroasted peanuts or almonds — or buy the butters already packaged. n Signs throughout the store have helpful product information such as “new,” “whole grain” and “gluten-free.”

In the produce department, fruits and veggies marked “local” come from within 100 miles of the store. n Speaking of produce, you’ll find lots of organic options and weirdly wonderful seasonal choices like black cherry tomatoes and Easter egg radishes. n Fresh Market’s Little Big Meals give you all the ingredients for a meal aimed at feeding a family of four.

Available only on Thursdays, the meals are $20 and come with recipe cards. Busy folks also can get prepared foods like butternut squash and apple soup, boneless pork loins, white wine and herb-roasted chickens, Greek pizza and spinach-feta flatbread, and sushi. n The store has more than 100 types of coffee, locally produced and from all over the world. Look for seasonal offerings; Holcomb said The Fresh Market’s pumpkin spice and Christmas blends are among its most popular. n More than 200 varieties of domestic and imported cheese include familiar and hard-to-find flavors. Specialists can help you find a new favorite and advise you on which cheese pairs well with what food or wine. n An olive bar encourages you to branch out and try a mix of these salty treats. Just so you and your teeth know, some of the olives still have their pits. n At the bakery, look for breads like luscious brioche and rustic olive loaves as well as pastries and the store’s signature Crispie Cookies. n Treats are plentiful in the candy department, from Jelly Bellies and Gummi Bears to posh Godiva and Boca Bons chocolates. In addition to large bins of sweets, look for a special candy display near the front of the store. It may feature retro confections like Boston Baked Beans and Chuckles or holiday selections. n At The Fresh Market’s seafood department, you’ll find shellfish like Prince Edward Island mussels and clams and oysters from the Chesapeake Bay. The only downside to the seafood salad bar is trying to choose between goodies like shrimp salads, crab dip and the wild Alaskan salmon salad. n Visit a large European city and you’ll likely see shoppers hurrying along the sidewalks carrying groceries in one hand and a bouquet of fresh flowers in the other.

If you want to pretty up your own dining table — and be a bit cosmopolitan, too — the floral department has fresh blooms that you can buy individually or in bunches.

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DINING IN

game-day

GRUB FOOTBALL FANS WILL CHEER FOR THIS SPIRITED MENU

BY DONNA CORNELIUS | PHOTOS BY LAUREN DESENO

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DINING IN

F

or diehard football fans, there’s plenty to worry about on game days without fretting about food.

But those of us who live in Tuscaloosa have gotten used to the fact that when the University of Alabama has a home game, our houses may turn into party centrals for out-of-town friends and family members, or in-town folks looking for fun and free food.

Kelly Pridgen, who in previous Tuscaloosa magazine issues has shared great recipes for Christmas and for brunches, has come up with a menu that will please fans of all tastes. She’s put her tasteful touch on some crowd-pleasing dishes, like baked beans and potato salad, and added some neat treats that are easily transportable for a tailgate on the Quad.

And, in a stab at parity, she’s included instructions for cookies that can be decorated in different team colors, which we will call “A Tray Divided.”

CALIFORNIA CAVIAR (pictured opposite page) Maybe we should rechristen this “Crimson Tide Caviar,” but whatever you call it, this salsa is fresh and fabulous. The recipe is from “Folks in the Kitchen.”

Ingredients: 4-ounce can chopped green chiles, drained 1 can (3¾-ounce) sliced black olives, drained 4 green onions, chopped 1 tomato, chopped 1 package (4-ounce) crumbled feta cheese, plain or tomato-basil flavored ½ cup Italian dressing ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped Directions: Blend all ingredients. Serve with corn chips.

COLE SLAW Pridgen adapted this recipe from one by Food Network’s muscular chef, Robert Irvine. If your guests don’t love it, tell them to take it up with him.

Ingredients: 6 cups shredded cabbage 1 cup shredded carrot 1 cup mayonnaise ¼ cup white wine vinegar 1 teaspoon celery seed 2 tablespoons sugar Salt and pepper Directions: In a large bowl, combine cabbage and carrot. In a smaller bowl, mix the remaining ingredients. (You can adjust the sugar and vinegar amounts depending on if you like a sweeter or more acidic dressing.) Chill cabbage and dressing, and combine just before serving.

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DINING IN

ERIN’S POTATO SALAD Kelly Pridgen and Erin Tucker both live in Tuscaloosa, however, they met and became friends in Guam when their husbands, Dr. Skip Pridgen and Dr. Curtis Tucker, were stationed there while the two men were in the U.S. Navy. Erin first shared this recipe with Kelly more than 20 years ago.

Ingredients: 4 medium-sized red potatoes, unpeeled 1 hard-cooked egg, finely chopped ¼ cup mayonnaise 3 tablespoons sour cream 1 tablespoon chopped green onion 1 tablespoon Italian salad dressing ½ teaspoon honey mustard ¼ teaspoon salt 1 ⁄8 teaspoon pepper 2 slices bacon Directions: Cook potatoes in boiling water to cover, 20-25 minutes or until tender. Drain and cool slightly. Peel and cut potatoes into ¾-inch cubes. Combine with the next 8 ingredients in a medium bowl, tossing mixture gently.

Cook bacon until crisp; drain well. Crumble and sprinkle bacon on top of salad.

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DINING IN VANILLA BEAN SABLÉ COOKIES

Kelly Pridgen rolls the cookie dough in sanding sugar before baking.

You can customize the cookies with your favorite team’s colors.

Pridgen livened up these French shortbread cookies with sanding sugar, available at craft shops such as Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. Sanding sugar comes in a rainbow of colors, so you can easily tailor your cookies to appeal to visiting fans. This season, with LSU and Ole Miss coming to town, be a good sport and offer them cookies edged with their school colors. Pridgen adapted this recipe from one by James Beard awardwinning chef Dorie Greenspan.

Ingredients: 2 soft, plump vanilla beans (may substitute 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and add with the egg yolk) 1 ⁄3 cup granulated sugar 8 ounces unsalted butter, softened (preferably highfat European style) ½ teaspoon salt 11⁄3 ounce (1⁄3 cup) confectioner’s sugar, sifted 2 large egg yolks 9 ounces (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon almond flavoring (optional) Sanding sugar in color(s) of your choice Directions: Split the vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape seeds into a small bowl; add the granulated sugar. Using your fingers, rub them together until blended. In a stand mixer, mix the butter on low speed until smooth and creamy. (You do not want it to get light and fluffy.) Mix in the salt. Add the vanilla sugar and confectioner’s sugar and mix until smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape the bowl as needed. Add 1 egg yolk and almond flavoring, if desired, and mix for 1 minute. With the mixer still on low speed, mix in the flour just until blended. The dough will be soft.

Turn the dough out on the counter and knead a few times. Divide in half and roll each half into a 9-inch log.

Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Sprinkle sanding sugar onto a piece of waxed paper. Whisk the remaining egg yolk with a splash of water in a small bowl. Brush each log with the egg wash and roll in the sanding sugar.

Using a knife, slice the dough into 1⁄2-inch rounds.

Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake 18-22 minutes or until brown around the edges and golden on the bottom. Let cool on the sheets 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely before serving so the texture will set properly. Store in airtight container.

Make-ahead tip: Freeze the unbaked logs of dough, wrapped in plastic, for up to 2 months. Let sit at room temperature about 10 minutes before rolling in sugar, cutting and baking. There’s no need to fully defrost the dough.

Cooking tip: Used paper towel rolls come in handy when you’re making these cookies. Slit the tubes lengthwise. Wrap the logs of cookie dough in wax paper and insert into the rolls before you put the logs in the fridge. This keeps your pretty cookies from having flat edges, Pridgen said.

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DINING IN

CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE This keeping-it-simple cake starts with a mix, which eliminates the need for all that messy combining of flour, sugar and other white powdery stuff that gets all over your kitchen counter. The results are as good as if you’d made the whole thing from scratch.

Ingredients: 1 box butter recipe cake mix (Pridgen uses Duncan Hines) 1 box instant chocolate pudding 1 6-ounce package chocolate chips 1 8-ounce container of sour cream ½ cup water ½ cup canola oil 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients.

Pour into well-greased fluted cake pan or tube pan.

Cook 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean. It’s even better with vanilla ice cream and fudge sauce.

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DINING IN EASY BAKED BEANS Pridgen has been a believer in these beans ever since she sent them to a staff meal at The Catbird Seat, the highly regarded Nashville, Tenn., restaurant where her son, Jonathan Pridgen, is a chef.

“Jonathan told me these are the only beans the chefs there make anymore for their own cookouts,” Pridgen said. “I guess you could say these beans are chef-approved.”

Ingredients: ½ cup ketchup

1 teaspoon dry mustard ¾ cup brown sugar 2 cans (16-ounce) pork and beans (Pridgen uses Campbell’s) 6 slices bacon, halved Directions: Mix ketchup, mustard and brown sugar. Layer as follows in a twoquart casserole: beans, half the mixture, beans, remaining mixture.

Cover the top with bacon. Bake at 325 degrees for 2½ hours.

Note: If you want to double this recipe, Pridgen said she still uses just six slices of bacon.

Kelly Pridgen grills pork tenderloin, perfect for a Tide-vs.-Arkansas game-day gathering.

THE KING’S GRILLED TENDERS According to “Heart and Soul,” a cookbook from the Junior League of Memphis, Tenn. (Pridgen’s hometown), this recipe gets its name because “Many feel that tenders are the royalty of pork cuts.” This would be the perfect dish to serve for a “Beat Arkansas” party.

Ingredients: 1½ cups cooking oil 3 ⁄4 cup soy sauce ½ cup red wine vinegar 1 ⁄3 cup fresh lemon juice ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons dry mustard 2 tablespoons snipped parsley 1 tablespoon pepper 2 cloves garlic, minced 3 pork tenderloins, 1 pound each Directions: For marinade, mix oil, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, parsley, pepper and garlic. Put tenderloins in plastic bag set into a shallow dish. Pour marinade over meat. Close bag. Marinate in refrigerator overnight, turning bag occasionally to distribute marinade. Drain tenderloins.

Put tenderloins on cooking grid. Grill, covered, directly over medium coals for 14 to 20 minutes or until no pink remains.

Slice to serve. Serves 10 to 12.

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8/25/2015 8:34:49 PM

ANY WAY YOU

Slice it BIRMINGHAM PIZZA FAVE POST OFFICE PIES COMING TO TUSCALOOSA JUST IN TIME FOR FOOTBALL

BY DONNA CORNELIUS PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER John Hall, owner of Post Office Pies in Birmingham, wlll soon be bringing his successful pizza restaurant to T-Town.

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8/25/2015 8:35:47 PM

c

DINING OUT

hef John Hall has worked for some of the world’s brightest culinary stars.

He’s also biked along the streets of New York City to deliver pizzas in the dark of night.

He and his Birmingham restaurant, Post Office Pies, have gotten national buzz and developed a cult of rabidly loyal fans.

You’d think opening a second restaurant, this one in Tuscaloosa, would be a piece of cake — or pie — for the 33-year-old. But he said the thought of keeping hungry fans fed on University of Alabama game days has him “excited but nervous.”

That’s because Johnson & Wales University, where Hall earned degrees in culinary arts and hospitality management, isn’t exactly a college football hotbed.

“We didn’t have a football team or a stadium, so I’m not sure what to expect in Tuscaloosa,” said Hall, laughing. “I’m trying to wrap my mind around it.”

The chef said he expects Post Office Pies to open in midSeptember. The restaurant’s home in Tuscaloosa is at 1920 Sixth Ave. behind Innisfree Irish Pub. Hall, who’s from Birmingham, and his partners, Mike Wilson and Brandon Cain of Saw’s Soul Kitchen, opened Post Office Pies in Birmingham’s Avondale neighborhood in March 2014. The restaurant, which cooks its pizzas in a wood-fired brick oven, already has made food and travel website Thrillist’s list of the Top 33 best pizza restaurants in the United States.

Hall has been written about in Grub Street, a New York Magazine food and restaurant blog, and in Garden & Gun magazine and The New York Times.

What makes Post Office Pies such an attention-worthy eatery?

“There’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors with our food,” Hall said. “We don’t do any crazy toppings.”

Hall’s first venture into professional pizza-making started when he was living and working in New York. He and his then-girlfriend started their own pizza business from his Brooklyn home.

“I’d get home from work, and we’d start making pizzas,” Hall said. “We’d start taking orders at midnight. We’d tie the pizza boxes to my girlfriend’s bike with cords and start delivering at 3 or 4 a.m.”

Hall said New Yorkers want their pizzas to be “easy to recognize,” a philosophy he follows at Post Office Pies.

“We don’t hide behind anything,” he said. “We make our own pizza sauce and dough. We make our own sausage, ricotta and mozzarella in-house.”

The restaurant’s Swine Pie has tomato sauce, sausage and pepperoni plus bacon that’s hand-cut from a slab of pork belly. Its White Pizza has garlic and three cheeses — pecorino romano, mozzarella and ricotta. There are also build-your-own-pie options.

Restaurant regulars look forward to seeing what seasonal

TOP: Basil tops a pizza fresh from the wood-burning brick oven at Post Office Pies.

CENTER: The Birmingham location is in the growing Avondale neighborhood.

LEFT: Owner John Hall places fresh toppings on a pie about to head into the oven.

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DINING OUT

TOP: Post Office Pies in Avondale is in an area that is already home to a brewery and a handful of other restaurants and bars.

RIGHT: Folks grab a slice in the cozy interior of the restaurant.

BELOW: Brian Gosdin feeds a slice of sausage pizza to his daughter, Olivia, 2, as his son, Ben, 10, looks on.

salads are on offer for the day. Summer might bring a fresh combination of watermelon, radishes and pancetta or a Caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes and mozzarella. One of the restaurant’s most popular coldweather salads is a kale and roasted Brussels sprouts mix, Hall said.

“Salads can be a throwaway item on your menu, but they should be interesting,” he said.

Hall said he learned to “cook with the seasons” when he worked at New York’s high-profile Gramercy Tavern for executive chef Michael Anthony. He also worked in New York at Thomas Keller’s Per Se and was sous chef at David Chang’s Ssäm Bar, part of the Momofuku restaurant group. Before that, he worked at a Luxembourg restaurant owned by Lea Linster, the only woman to win a gold medal at the Bocuse d’Or, a prestigious international cooking competition.

Hall returned to Birmingham to help support his mother, Marion Hall, he said.

“My grandparents were getting older, and when I’d talk to my mom, I’d hear the stress in her voice,” Hall said. “Also, my uncle had been in a terrible accident. I knew that even moving home I’d be busy, but I thought, ‘If I’m close, it will give her some ease and reassurance.’”

With Post Office Pies off and running in Birmingham, the three partners felt the time was right to open a second store, Hall said.

“We did some research, and a lot of restaurants that expand successfully start close to home,” he said. “We felt Tuscaloosa would be a good place to start.”

Wilson is a UA graduate and football season ticket holder, Hall said.

Caitlin Justice, business manager for Post Office Pies and Saw’s Soul Kitchen, is an Alabama graduate, too.

“We were getting a lot of social media feedback from people saying, ‘Please come to Tuscaloosa,’” Justice said. “We have good friends and connections there and have established relationships there.”

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8/25/2015 8:39:15 PM

DINING OUT

ABOVE: Kyle Frantz, front house manager, slices into a pizza.

LEFT: A King’s Spring Cocktail featuring blueberries, fresh lemonade, basil and peach saison.

If you go ...

WHERE: 209 41ST ST. S., BIRMINGHAM (TUSCALOOSA LOCATION TO OPEN IN SEPTEMBER AT 1920 6TH AVENUE) CALL: 205.599.9900 WEB: WWW.POSTOFFICEPIES.COM; OR CHECK THEM OUT ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER.

NAAC58094

Hall and Justice said they would live in Tuscaloosa.

“You can say you want to be part of the community, but you need to actually do it,” Hall said. “I want people to come into the restaurant and see me and say, ‘Hey, John!’ We want it to have a neighborhood feel.”

Post Office Pies really rolls out the welcome mat for a special group of people.

“One day a lady came up to our counter and asked us to turn down the music because it was bothering her daughter, who had autism,” he said. “We looked over, and this little girl was sitting there with her hands over her ears. Of course, we cut the music down.”

That encounter led Hall and his partners to get involved with KultureCity, a Birmingham-based organization that promotes acceptance of and understanding for people with autism and their families.

“We have sensory boxes for children with autism at the Avondale restaurant,” he said. “We plan to have them in Tuscaloosa, too. We want to make these children and their families feel welcome and wanted.”

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8/31/15 4:53 PM

PROTECT THIS LAND O u r Com mu n ity. O u r Env i ronment .

RUMSEY ENVIRONMENTAL

5 4 0 0 K A U L O O S A AV E N U E , T U S C A L O O S A , A L 3 5 4 0 5 205.248.0002 TM_091115_026.indd 26

8/31/15 5:00 PM

NEW IN TOWN

USING THEIR

noodles NEW RESTAURANT’S OWNERS BRINGING POPULAR “FAST-CASUAL” PASTA RESTAURANT

BY DONNA CORNELIUS

V

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY NOTHING BUT NOODLES

Nothing But Noodles offers an extensive menu of pasta dishes, including Italian, Asian, American and Cajun options. In addition to pasta, it offers a range of salads, soups, desserts and appetizers.

eteran Alabama restaurateurs Alan Renfroe and Dana Price had been looking for a while for the right opportunity to break into the Tuscaloosa market.

They found it, Renfroe said, with a restaurant that dishes up a familiar, family-friendly food.

“I met the guy who owns the Nothing but Noodles franchise in Huntsville and fell in love with the brand,” Renfroe said. “There’s nothing like this in Tuscaloosa. And if you can fill a void, you can’t help but be successful.”

The first Nothing but Noodles opened in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2002. In Alabama, there are two Huntsville stores and one in Mountain Brook.

Tuscaloosa’s Nothing but Noodles will be at the new Shoppes at Legacy Park retail center on McFarland Boulevard. Renfroe said he hopes the restaurant will open on or close to Oct. 15, its original target date.

The eatery should attract diners of all ages and tastes, he said.

“Noodles appeal to a broad audience,” Renfroe said. “Our price point crosses almost all demographics. It’s affordable.”

As one might expect, diners can choose from a long list of pasta concoctions.

“You can have noodle dishes from around the world,” Renfroe said. “You can get add-ins, too. You can order fettuccine, for example, and add fish, chicken or beef.”

On the menu are specialty pastas like Shrimp Scampi, Lobster Ravioli, and Thai Curry Beef and Vegetables. American pastas include Three-cheese Macaroni, Spicy Cajun, and Beef Stroganoff.

A few of the Asian choices are Pad Thai Noodles, Spicy Japanese Noodles, and Sesame Lo Mein. Italian options include Capellini Primavera, Pomodoro Pasta and, for the purist, Spaghetti and Meatballs.

While oodles of noodles are front and center, pasta isn’t the only food on the menu.

For starters, you can get Thai Lettuce Wraps or Potstickers and soups like Green Chile Maize and Thai Curry. Salads include the Pear

and Balsamic Spinach Salad, Spicy Cucumber Salad, Greek Salad and the descriptively named Hunk of Lettuce.

An unexpected treat on the dessert list is cotton candy, which seems to delight adults as well as children, Renfroe said. Other sweets are tiramisu, cannoli, mango pie, and glutenfree Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie. Also available will be domestic and imported beer and wine by the glass.

“Everything is fresh here,” Renfroe said.

“There won’t be a microwave in the building.

Our sauces and gravies are all made fresh.

Everything is wok-seared on the spot when you order it.”

Nothing but Noodles also does catering.

“This product holds really well,” Renfroe said. “It comes out of the wok and goes into the catering pans.”

Owning a Nothing but Noodles franchise appealed to Renfroe and Price not only because of its food but also because of its concept, Renfroe said.

“The restaurant business has changed,” he said. “Now, fast-casual is dominating the industry. Couples with kids want to come in and order at the counter, sit down, get a great product quickly — and not have to pay a tip.

“Our other restaurants are full-service. This is our first venture into fast-casual, but it will be our model moving forward.”

The Nothing but Noodles corporation recently created new graphics and upgraded the furniture in its franchises, Renfroe said.

“Ours will be the first store to have the new look,” he said. “This is the company’s launch concept.”

Finding the right location also was a deciding factor in opening Nothing but Noodles in Tuscaloosa, Renfroe said.

“We’re able to be in a new shopping center that, with places like Fresh Market, Dick’s Sporting Goods and PetSmart, will become a go-to destination,” he said. “It checked all the boxes.”

There’s one more reason the partners are happy to be in Tuscaloosa: “Dana and I both bleed crimson,” Renfroe said.

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8/25/2015 8:41:09 PM

FOODIE NEWS

BY DONNA CORNELIUS, THE SNOOTY FOODIE | PHOTOS BY ROBERT SUTTON

I

COOKBOOK CLUB

recently read an article about the decline of cookbooks. It was depressing.

The article, which appeared in June in the U.K. newspaper The Telegraph, said cookbook sales declined by 11 percent in 2014. Also cited was a new study that found almost half of all women over age 55 don’t use cookbooks at all anymore.

Maybe I shouldn’t point fingers, because I admit to finding most of my recipes on Pinterest, Twitter and other websites or in magazines. But I still love my cookbooks. I’m just using them in a different way.

The best cookbooks are more than just collections of recipes. They tell stories — not tales as gripping as Harry Potter and maybe not in traditional storytelling form. But for those who love food, these cookbooks are as readable as good novels.

My older son gave me Mario Batali’s “America — Farm to Table,” with essays about farmers who provided the food used in the recipes. The “Momofuku Milk Bar” cookbook, a gift from my younger son, details chef Christina Tosi’s journey to culinary stardom. (If you haven’t tried Tosi’s cereal milk, you haven’t lived.) When my friend Louise vacationed on St. George Island, she brought me a cookbook that included a little history of the Florida barrier island and artwork by an artist who lives there.

Some cookbooks tell subtler stories.

My mom and I were talking about a chicken concoction that used to be one of her go-to main dishes. We remembered that it involved marinating the chicken overnight in some sort of sour cream mixture and then coating it with bread crumbs and baking it. We also remembered that the recipe had been in an old Pickens Academy PTO cookbook.

I came home, dug through my cookbooks and found what I was looking for. I can’t tell you the name of the book, because the cover was gone.

But I did find that the P.A. PTO ladies published the book in 1975.

I thumbed through the pages — some splattered with cooking oil or dried flour (I am not a very neat cook) — and looked at the names of the women who contributed recipes. I found quite a few recipes from Bettye Baumhauer, a very skilled cook who now lives in Tuscaloosa right across the street from my parents. I love the little preface she’d written for her recipe for tipsy pudding: “This is one of the best desserts I have ever made.

I put it in my pretty cut glass bowl, cover with whipped cream and decorate with stem cherries and almonds.”

I saw instructions for something called Salmonettes Heloise from Margie Bennett, another of my mother’s good friends. Oddly enough, there’s no salmon in this recipe. It calls for a can of tuna. My mom assures me this dish is actually very tasty. I think I’ll just take her word for it.

Peggy Gentry, who lived in Aliceville, submitted simple instructions for a quick, easy beef and peppers dish. “Miss Peggy” probably had a great many of these types of recipes, because she had six children. Her son, Aliceville pharmacist David Gentry, was my classmate and remains a dear friend. Her husband, Dr. James Gentry, taught Spanish at Pickens Academy for many years, never accepting a penny for his time and efforts.

I have cookbooks — and other recipe sources, too — that I use far more often than this tattered little volume produced by people I know, some whom I still see from time to time and others who live in my memory. But this is one cookbook I’ll never throw away. As long as there are PTOs and Junior Leagues and churchwomen’s guilds, I suspect that most of us will still buy cookbooks — no matter what the statistics say.

- Donna

TASTY CHICKEN BREASTS I love the generic name of the recipe, probably a wise choice because I don’t think folks would be likely to try one called “Not-so-tasty Chicken Breasts.”

This recipe uses bone-in chicken breasts, mainly because boneless ones weren’t readily available in 1975 at Reform Mercantile, where my mom bought groceries. If you use boneless breasts, you’ll need to cut back on the cooking time a bit.

Ingredients: 2 cups sour cream ¼ cup lemon juice 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 4 teaspoons celery salt 2 teaspoons paprika 2 teaspoons garlic salt 4 teaspoons salt ½ teaspoon black pepper 12 halved chicken breasts (6 whole) 2 cups seasoned bread crumbs 1 cup butter Directions: Wipe chicken with damp paper towel.

In large bowl, combine sour cream with lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, celery salt, paprika, garlic salt, salt and pepper. Add chicken to this mixture. Let marinate in refrigerator overnight.

Next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove chicken from marinade and roll in bread crumbs evenly. Arrange in shallow pan, melt butter, and pour half of the butter over chicken. Bake, uncovered, 45 minutes. Spoon remaining butter over chicken and bake 20 minutes longer.

Delicious with side dish of wild rice.

Serves 12.

— Mrs. Andrew Wade

Follow Donna Cornelius @blonde ravenous on Twitter and Instagram, where she’s “promoting Alabama food, because how else will we have the strength to follow college football?”

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8/25/2015 12:03:56 AM

FOODIE NEWS

EPICUREAN EVENTS a new village, Cocina Latina, where patrons can sample food from 12 restaurants featuring Hispanic and Latino cooking styles. FIESTA raises money for scholarships for Hispanics students throughout Alabama. For more information, visit www.fiestabirmingham.com.

OCT. 3

SMOKE ON THE WATER GUNTERSVILLE This backyard barbecue competition includes family entertainment, a petting zoo, wood carvers, food, drink, and merchandise vendors. Admission is free. The event is at the Lake Guntersville Civitan Park.

For more information, visit the Smoke on the Water Facebook page.

SEPT. 26

TASTE OF THE BAYOU BAYOU LA BATRE This seafood cooking competition and tasting event is from 5-8 p.m. at the Bayou La Batre Community Center. It features 30-plus booths with dishes prepared by local and professional chefs. Tickets are $20. For more information, visit www.tasteofthebayou.org.

SEPT. 27

BIRMINGHAM ORIGINALS BREAKIN’ BREAD This festival at Sloss Furnaces celebrates all things local. Those who go will taste signature dishes from Birmingham restaurants. Local brews, imported and domestic beers, wines and soft drink selections also will be available. Farmers will be showcased in a small market offering seasonal produce and homemade goodies. General admission tickets are $34.50 for ages 21 and older, $20 for ages 12-20, and free for children under 12. VIP tickets are $99.50. Visit www.birminghamoriginals.org for more information.

OCT. 5

GARDEN PARTY TUSCALOOSA Druid City Garden Project’s annual fundraiser showcases Tuscaloosa area farmers, breweries and restaurants. This year, the featured menu is from one of the city’s newest eateries, The Side by Side. Guests can sample food and brews; there’s a silent auction and music, too. The event is from 5-8 p.m. at Smith Hall at the University of Alabama. For more information, visit www.druidcitygardenproject.org or follow the event on Facebook.

OKTOBERFEST

OCT. 7-11 OCT. 3

FIESTA BIRMINGHAM This Hispanic culture festival returns for its 13th year with a focus on Latin food from around the world. The event at Linn Park has added

CULLMAN

This four-day festival celebrates German heritage, Southern style.

Activities include authentic German food, music, a biergarten, a car show featuring classic German cars, a bratwurst-eating contest and more. It’s at the Cullman County Museum and Festhalle Market Platz. For more information, visit www.cullmanoktoberfest.com.

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8/25/2015 12:19:32 AM

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9/3/15 12:23 PM

FOODIE NEWS

In for a pound COUPLE TAKES CAKE MAKING FROM FUNDRAISER TO BUSINESS

A

STAFF PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

pril and Lacy McClung started making pound cakes to raise money to send their two sons on educational adventures abroad. Less than two years later, they’re on their own exciting journey.

The Pelham couple has managed to turn Emily’s Heirloom Pound Cakes from a temporary project into a thriving business.

In 2013, the McClungs decided they wanted their boys to travel with People to People, a student ambassador program. And they needed a way to pay for the trips.

“We went to a People to People informational meeting at Samford University and thought, ‘There’s no way for us to afford $7,200 each for them to go,’” April McClung said. “Lacy said to sign them up, that God was going to provide. The four of us stood in our hallway and held hands and prayed. At the end, the Spirit said, ‘What about the pound cakes?’”

The cakes were family favorites made by Lacy’s grandmother, Emily Magnolia McClung.

“My husband taught us how to make the cakes,” April said.

“I’d never even baked a cake.”

The McClungs took cake samples to their jobs and their sons’ school. They expanded their venture by selling at Birminghamarea farmers markets and by creating a Facebook page.

“We started this in October 2013,” April said. “By February 2014, we’d raised $6,000. We had made $14,000 by the end of June 2014.”

The cakes proved so popular that the couple decided to turn their fundraiser into a business. They have a website with an online store and ship the cakes all over the United States. In addition to selling at Birmingham farmers markets, they’re now regular fixtures at the Tuscaloosa Farmers Market.

Their older son, Lacy McClung III, who’s called Tre, is a freshman at the University of Alabama. John Alexander, or “J.,” their younger son, is a sophomore at Briarwood Christian School in Birmingham.

“Tre usually works here in Tuscaloosa with us,” April said. “It’s been a way for him to earn some extra money.”

At the Emily’s Heirloom Pound Cakes stand, you’ll find cakes made from Lacy’s grandmother’s original recipe plus chocolate pound cake and a lemon, blueberry and buttermilk version. They have full round cakes, full loaves, half-loaves, minis and slices — and they’re happy to give out samples.

The couple can also do special orders, such as strawberry and skillet caramel. April has created a show-stopping wedding pound cake, too.

While the McClungs are pleased with the success of their business, Lacy said he’s also glad his grandmother’s special recipe has been preserved. He also has a prized piece of equipment from her kitchen.

“When my grandmother died, my oldest aunt said, ‘Would you like her mixer?’” he said. “I remembered going with her to Sears to buy it, and that’s the mixer we always used to make the cakes.”

TOP: From left, Lacy McClung Jr., Lacy “Tre” McClung III, “J.” Alexander McClung, and April McClung of Emily’s Heirloom Pound Cakes.

ABOVE AND LEFT: The pound cakes come in a variety of flavors and sizes. The company also takes special requests for different flavors.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW. EMILYSHEIRLOOMPOUNDCAKES.COM. 31

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8/26/2015 8:56:02 PM

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9/1/15 11:05 AM

FOODIE NEWS

M^E^A^L^ P^L^A^N^

HERE’S A DAY’S WORTH OF HEALTHY DISHES FROM NUTRITIONAL CONSULTANT BRENDA MONTRELLA BRANCH, WHO ADVISES HER CLIENTS TO PRACTICE GOOD NUTRITION. SHE MAKES SURE HER FAMILY EATS HEALTHY, TOO. BRANCH SAID THESE RECIPES REPRESENT A TYPICAL MENU AT HER HOUSE, FROM A SHAKE FOR BREAKFAST TO A MEAT-AND-VEGGIES DINNER.

BERRY GOOD SHAKE “This delicious smoothie is a great way to start your day and is a great breakfast option for people on the go,” Branch said. “My family loves it. It’s high in antioxidants and is one of my favorite smoothie recipes using coconut oil. The fats in coconut oil increase nutrient absorption, so all of the vitamins and antioxidants in the berries are used faster and more efficiently in your body.”

The smoothie also tastes great and has a pretty pink color, Branch said.

Ingredients: 1 tablespoon organic unrefined coconut oil 1 cup strawberries or a mix of strawberries and raspberries or blueberries 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, vanilla flavor 5 ice cubes 1 scoop of Love and Peas, a pea protein powder Directions: Blend all ingredients and serve.

Note: Love and Peas is available at The Natural Pharma’s store and website.

KALE-AND-COLLARDS SALAD Ingredients: 1 bunch fresh collard greens (about 8 oz.)

1 bunch Tuscan kale (about 8 oz.)

3 ⁄4 cup sweetened dried cranberries 3 Bartlett pears, sliced 2 avocados, peeled and diced 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 small head radicchio, shredded 3 ⁄4 cup toasted pecans, chopped 6 cooked bacon slices, crumbled Directions: Trim and discard tough stalks from centers of collard and kale leaves; stack leaves and roll up, starting at one long side. Cut into ¼-inch-thick slices. Toss collards and kale with cranberries and Lemon Dressing in a large bowl. Cover and chill 1 hour.

Toss together pears, avocados and lemon juice just before serving. Toss pear mixture, radicchio, pecans and bacon with collard mixture. Serve immediately.

LEMON DRESSING Ingredients: 1 ⁄4 cup fresh lemon juice 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon kosher salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper ½ cup olive oil Directions: Whisk together lemon juice, minced garlic, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper in a small bowl; add olive oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until smooth.

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8/26/2015 8:56:41 PM

FOODIE NEWS

BAKED ACORN SQUASH SLICES Ingredients: 2 medium acorn squash ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon pepper ¼ cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons olive oil Directions: Cut squash in half lengthwise; remove and discard seeds and membrane. Cut each half widthwise into ½-inch slices. Discard ends.

Place slices on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and brown sugar; drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Makes 6 servings.

ZESTY CHICKEN OREGANO Ingredients: 6 chicken breasts ½ cup olive oil ¼ cup lemon juice 2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon pepper 1 clove garlic, chopped Lemon slices Directions: Place chicken in ungreased 9x13 pan. Mix remaining ingredients except lemon slices; pour over chicken. Let marinate for 15 minutes. Cook, uncovered, in a 375-degree oven, spooning oil mixture over chicken occasionally, for 30 minutes, or grill the chicken. Garnish with lemon slices.

Makes 6 servings

Brenda Branch prepares acorn squash slices with salt, pepper, brown sugar and olive oil before baking them as a healthy side dish.

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8/26/2015 8:57:59 PM

OUTDOORS

the RACQUETEER NORTHRIVER YACHT CLUB’S DIRECTOR OF TENNIS GARY HENDERSON HAS BEEN ON THE COURT ALL HIS LIFE, AS A SPECTATOR, PLAYER AND COACH

BY BECKY HOPF PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

I

t is likely the most famous venue in the sport, the dream destination for generations of tennis players the world over.

Among those who made that dream a reality is Gary Henderson.

NorthRiver Yacht Club’s director of tennis has not only lived the dream of competing at Wimbledon, but also experienced it from five different vantage points.

As a child growing up in England, his first exposure to Wimbledon was watching the matches on television.

At 19, he was working as a coach in

London and scored tickets.

In 1995, he bettered that view, winning his way into Wimbledon’s main draw in both singles and doubles.

Ten years later, playing days over, he experienced Wimbledon again, this time as coach of a player in the championships.

And, in the ultimate tennis fantasycome-true, in 2011, he accepted a rare invitation to become a member of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

“Back in the day, we only had four TV channels,” said Henderson, who first took

>>

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“THE FIRST WEEK OF WIMBLEDON I ENJOY THE MOST BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF MATCHES. I’D STAY DOWN IN WIMBLEDON WITH A FRIEND. I’D GO EVERY DAY AND WATCH THE MATCHES AND HANG OUT WITH THE MEMBERS.” LEFT AND BELOW: Gary Henderson hits a few balls with his son, Harry.

up a racquet at age 11 and was competing by age 13. “Wimbledon would come on, and my family would sit down from the moment it started and watch it. I’d watch it and be thinking I wanted to play there myself. So my earliest memories are sitting in our house with the TV on for the whole coverage, from start to finish each day.”

Originally from California, Henderson, 45, moved with his family to Northampton, England, when he was 4. In 1983, around age 14, he returned to California to live with relatives, attending high school in Irvine and honing his tennis skills. Among his West Coast practice partners was Michael Chang, who would go on to win the 1989 French Open.

Henderson returned to England a year later. Back home, success on the court found him ranking as high as No. 9 in Great Britain’s 18-andunders and earning a tennis scholarship to Mississippi State University.

A freshman in the fall of 1991, Henderson won the 1992 Southeastern Conference indoor doubles championship. He entered his sophomore season ranked No. 32 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s

— GARY HENDERSON

preseason rankings but remained in England that fall. He returned to Starkville in January but, leery of acquiring debt from the expense of living overseas, he returned home to England late that spring.

The right-hander turned pro in 1992 and, in 1994, at age 24, he won Great Britain’s national doubles championship.

He catapulted to a No. 5 national singles ranking in 1995 and became part of Great Britain’s Davis Cup squad where his teammates included Tim Henman, namesake of Wimbledon’s Henman Hill. Henderson played in the qualifiers at the French Open, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open. His opponents included some of the world’s greatest players, among them three-time French Open champion and a world No. 1, Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil.

It was 20 years ago, June of 1995, when Henderson played Wimbledon, finding himself on the other side of the net against the world’s No. 16-ranked singles player, Guy Forget.

“I got a wildcard into singles because I was ranked No. 5 in Britain. I got into doubles that same year, by qualifying,” said Henderson, who played 32 professional tournaments in 36 weeks and was ranked as high as No. 237 in the world in singles. “Unfortunately, I got the 16th seed in singles and the 16th seed in doubles.

There I was, about 250 in the world playing No. 16 in singles.”

Forget won, 6-1, 6-3, 7-6.

“I remember walking on the court. That was an experience. Back then, courts 13 and 14 were the two bigger ones with the stands, and I was on Court 14. So walking out there to the size of the crowd there supporting me as a British player was awesome. Fond memories. Ten years later, I was working with a player, David Sherwood, who also played Wimbledon. So, for me, I was not only able to play Wimbledon but be a coach of a player there.”

Tennis has been a star at the All England Club since it held its first championships in July 1877. Club membership is limited, hovering around 565. The breakdown is said to be 375 full members and 120, like Henderson, temporary members who, upon invitation, may move into 37

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Gary Henderson hits a few practice balls to his son, Harry, at NorthRiver Yacht Club.

a full slot should one come open. An additional 70 are honorary members, which includes Wimbledon champions and even the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Catherine.

That he was selected to become a club member came as a complete surprise.

“I was ecstatic. You have no idea it’s coming.

There’s no warning. You get a phone call out of the blue. I was at home in England when I got the call, probably just watching TV. Of course I said yes. You don’t turn those sort of opportunities down. To be part of an institution like Wimbledon? You don’t turn that down.”

Membership allowed him to play tennis at the club, adhering to the strictly enforced dress whites code. He played there whenever he could.

The club offers the best of all tennis surfaces, with grass courts, clay courts, hard courts and, for London’s frequent rainy days, indoor courts.

“The courts are superior to anything I’ve ever played on. They’re absolutely beautiful,” Henderson said. “If you get to play on the grass, you’re more likely to get to play on the practice

courts, which are still incredibly good courts.

Certain times of the year, you’d be invited by a committee member or whoever to play on the normal courts, but the Centre Courts, the No. 1 courts, those are things you just don’t get to get on.”

During the championships, membership allowed him entry and access to the grounds but, alas, no Centre Court seats. He watched matches from the clubhouse, which is called the Members Enclosure.

“The first week of Wimbledon I enjoy the most because there are a lot of matches. I’d stay down in Wimbledon with a friend. I’d go every day and watch the matches and hang out with the members.”

Temporary members must reside in Great Britain, a caveat that tugged at Henderson’s heart when, after living 12 years in Bingley, England, he made a career decision to move to the United States in August of 2012 to take a job at a club in Georgia.

“It was a really hard decision leaving the

UK because I knew I was in that position, as a temporary, that you have to relinquish your membership.”

Though he has no plans to return to England, if he ever does, there is a chance the board might extend another invitation. Meanwhile, when he returns for visits, he knows the other members, his friends, will invite him to play at the club or to attend the championships.

“I miss Wimbledon. I do miss that. I miss the food. I certainly don’t miss the weather. And, of course, you miss your friends and your family,” said Henderson, who lives in Tuscaloosa with his wife, Lois, and sons Adam, Harry and Rory.

“Tennis has offered me so many opportunities: to travel, to experience other cultures. Tennis is my life, really,” Henderson said. “I’m not deluded. In no way was I a great tennis player.

I will say I was a good player. When I sit down and talk to other players who have won Grand Slam events and done things far greater than me, I can relate to them, but I still recognize my place.”

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AT HOME

HOMECOMING

DANA AND BUTCH CAMP MAKE GAME-DAY ESCAPE THEIR PERMANENT HOME

BY DONNA CORNELIUS PHOTOS BY MICHELLE CARTER ROBERT SUTTON

T

ABOVE: Butch and Dana Camp made the decision to move to Tuscaloosa and make their gameday home into a permanent residence after years of traveling back and forth.

TOP: The pub room features a large bar and roomy seating, and was an addition to the original house plans.

welve years ago, Dana and Butch Camp were living and working in the Atlanta area when they decided to buy a house in Tuscaloosa. The University of Alabama graduates said they wanted a home base for short trips to the city where they’d met as students.

“We bought this house in 2003 for our game-day house and for our son, Harrison, to live in when he was a student here,” Dana said.

“My family is in Birmingham, so when it was our turn to host Christmas or Easter, we’d do it here because it was more convenient.”

The Camps chose a one-story bungalow in The Downs.

“We thought the neighborhood looked like something out of a picture book with all the

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ABOVE: The Camp home had to be rebuilt after the 2011 tornado all but destroyed it.

TOP RIGHT: In the master bathroom, the outside of a claw-foot tub is painted red. During the tornado, a tree came through the roof and landed in the center of the previous tub.

cottages and the canopy of trees,” Dana said.

The tornado that struck Tuscaloosa on April 27, 2011, took down not just most of the trees but also the house itself. The Camps had been in Tuscaloosa for Easter that year and planned to stay for a while. But they decided to return to Atlanta — which may have been a lifesaving decision.

“A tree that was 18 inches in diameter went through the roof and landed right in the center of the cast-iron tub in the bathroom, where we probably would have been if we’d been here when the tornado hit,” Butch said.

The couple drove to Tuscaloosa the day after the storm.

“I can’t even describe what we found,” Dana said. “There were so many trees on the house that it looked like it was in a giant cocoon.”

The house was beyond saving, the Camps said. They waited a year before rebuilding.

“We felt like people who lived here and whose houses had been destroyed needed to come first,” Butch said. “We were fortunate enough to have a house in Atlanta to go back to.”

In planning their new house, Dana worked with her friend and sorority sister Teresa Suttle, an interior designer from Centreville.

“Teresa recommended a builder from Centreville named Anthony Wolfe,” Dana said. “She helped me with the house — decorating, colors, the floor plan. We pretty much shopped for it for a year. We repainted, distressed and repurposed.”

Suttle took a Southern Living house plan and made modifications, including the addition of a pub room and patio, Butch said.

The house was completed in August 2012, just in time for football season.

The couple said they intended to use their new house much as they’d used the old one — for game-day and holiday gatherings.

“But in the early spring of 2014, we said, you know, it’s a shame to have that house in Tuscaloosa just sitting there,” Dana said.

She had retired from her job as a physical education and health coach at McIntosh High School in Peachtree City, Ga., and Butch had retired from AT&T. Their son, who’s now 32, was living in Atlanta, where

>>

ABOVE: Though the house is now a permanent residence, the game-day decorations remain year round for this Tide-loving couple.

CENTER: The master bedroom features turtle-shell motifs on the bedside lamps as a nod to the mascot of Dana’s sorority, Delta Zeta.

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ABOVE AND TOP RIGHT: The spacious kitchen features subtle houndstooth wallpaper and an elephant head looking over the stove, a favorite of guests.

RIGHT: The pub room was added as a gathering place for game days and features touches of Tide decoration.

BOTTOM: Rings and mementos rest in a shadowbox.

he works for the Federal Reserve Bank.

“We had a five-bedroom, five-bath, 5,000-square-foot home in Fayetteville at Whitewater Creek Country Club,” Dana said. “We’d been there for 17 years and in the Atlanta area for 27 years. We loved living there. But many of our neighbors were moving and changing their lifestyles, too.”

The Camps made their house in The Downs their permanent home last year.

The house has a fun, spirited vibe with plenty of reminders that guests are in Crimson Tide country.

“We have a lot of Alabama memorabilia because this was our gameday house,” Dana said. “But we’ve tried to tone it down a little.”

Bama fans, however, will appreciate the carved wooden elephant head mounted on the kitchen’s range hood, the understated taupe and charcoal houndstooth wallpaper in the kitchen, and a 1926 circus poster prominently featuring pachyderms that Dana framed for Harrison’s bathroom.

The center of activity at parties is likely to be the house’s pub room.

With a large bar and roomy seating area, it can accommodate a crowd of friends.

Dana discovered the bar that takes up most of one wall of the room sitting in the dirt, upside down and with dirt dauber nests still attached, at Scott Antique Market in Atlanta, she said.

“It was painted yellow, blue, green and cream,” she said. “I had it repainted and distressed it. We raised the cabinets from the base and separated the two parts by a mirror.”

The living room’s sofas and red club chair recliners provide more seating for company, as does a built-in banquette in one window.

Displayed on shelves along with UA mementos are family photos, including one of Dana’s mother, Carole White Harris, when she was Miss Sylacauga.

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AT HOME

In the kitchen, Dana turned an old sideboard into a coffee bar, with a Keurig machine and a drawer full of coffee pods ready for guests to use.

Four-footed friends also are encouraged to make themselves at home. In almost every room are cushy beds for Bama Belle, the Camps’ German shorthaired pointer, and her brother, Bryant Champion, who visits with his owner, Harrison.

Since the pub room wasn’t part of the original house plan, French doors in the master bedroom were meant to open to the outside.

“We kept the French doors, but because they now open to the pub room, we put up double-sided draperies,” Dana said.

Turtle-shell motifs on the bedside lamps are a nod to the mascot of Dana’s sorority, Delta Zeta. A vintage wing chair covered in burlap has a tiny chocolate-brown elephant stitched on it.

In the master bathroom, the outside of a claw-foot tub — which replaced the one crushed by the tree — is painted red.

An office on the upstairs landing was designed for Butch and Dana to use.

“But it could also be a great place for kids to study or do crafts,” Dana said.

On the landing’s walls are plaques holding the gavels that Butch and Harrison wielded during their terms as president of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, a photo made when Harrison was inducted into the Jasons Honor Society at UA, and diplomas earned by all three family members.

Harrison’s room has nightstands that were a dentist’s filing cabinets in their previous incarnations. Dana took photos of the Delta Zeta and Lambda Chi Alpha houses, Bidgood Hall, the President’s Mansion and other familiar campus buildings and had the photos printed in sepia tones and framed for the wall.

The guest room has a queen-sized bed and another single bed that survived the tornado. It’s one of the few things that made it through the storm; another is a table in the pub room that was Dana’s parents’ first dining room table, Butch said.

When the Camps host a game-day gathering, there’s always a theme,

ABOVE: A guest room features an elephant painting and repurposed antique finds.

TOP: The colorful back yard is the perfect spot to entertain friends.

Dana said.

“When we play Arkansas, we have barbecue,” she said. “If we’re playing Auburn, we have fried chicken. If it’s LSU, we have Cajun food like shrimp and grits or jambalaya. We have a special drink, too.”

Pregame parties usually draw family members, friends and neighbors — and sometimes celebrities. One Saturday, former UA Student Government Association president Katie Boyd, whose sister lives in The Downs, and her husband, Wesley Britt, who played football for the Tide, came by with a surprise guest: actress and Bama fan Melissa Joan Hart.

Hart left with some goodies, Dana said — Alabama-themed cookies that the Camps always get for their parties from Mary’s Cakes and Pastries in Northport.

“We never know who’s going to show up,” Dana said. “But we love to have a crowd.”

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bright

IDEAS

RE-DECORATOR ELIZABETH COBB LIGHTENS UP GWENN AND RICK MCKENZIE’S LIVING ROOM

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BY DONNA CORNELIUS PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

G

wenn McKenzie knew she didn’t like the living room of her Tuscaloosa home. She just wasn’t sure how to make her family’s most-used room more lovable — and livable.

The expansive room has a high, beamed ceiling and windows across the back wall. But its cherrystained mahogany paneling makes the space too dark, McKenzie said.

She’d enlisted the help of a decorator but wasn’t happy with the results. The rest of her family felt the same way, she said.

“This room is where our family lives, and it has to have functionality,” McKenzie said. “The decorator put in a tufted ottoman instead of a coffee table, and my children were horrified when they saw it.

They wanted to know where they were going to play Monopoly.”

McKenzie sent an SOS to Elizabeth Cobb, who approaches design from a different angle.

“I’m a re-decorator,” Cobb said. “I come in and show you new ways to use what you have.”

The two women knew each other from the days when both had children at Tuscaloosa Academy.

“I kind of knew what I wanted but wasn’t sure how to get there,” McKenzie said. “I knew Elizabeth had a passion for color, which this room needed. I also like that she doesn’t sell items. She helps people re-create and use what they have.”

Cobb’s company, which she started last summer, is called Redecorating Chez Vous.

“It’s redecorating your place in a day,” Cobb said.

Since McKenzie decided to order some new furniture, her project took a little longer. But many of the pieces in the revamped room are things the McKenzies already owned.

McKenzie had some misgivings, however, about one of Cobb’s first let’s-use-this-here-and-not-there suggestions.

“She said, ‘That dining room rug needs to be put in the living room,’ and I thought, ‘You’re crazy,’” McKenzie said, laughing. “Two days later, I called her and said, ‘You’re right.’ The brown rug we’d had in the living room was just too dark.”

Other items in the room also got the boot.

Draperies across the windows that open onto the backyard were leftovers from a previous homeowner, McKenzie said.

“I recommended taking down the draperies, because they made the room darker and really weren’t needed,” Cobb said.

Instead, a large stained-glass piece already

TOP: Elizabeth Cobb, left, and homeowner Gwenn McKenzie in the re-decorated living room.

ABOVE: The McKenzies’ Old Watermelon Road home has a stately exterior, but the living room was too dark for Gwenn’s taste.

mounted on the windows was lowered.

“Before, it was hidden by the window mullions,” Cobb said. “Now you can really see it.”

Two recliners were replaced with a handsome tufted velvet chair that had been skulking in a corner and a new and more attractive recliner in leather. A

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AT HOME

tall table between the chairs held a towering lamp, which made conversation difficult for those seated in the chairs, McKenzie said. Cobb imported a smaller table from the study and moved the lamp to a less obtrusive spot.

The McKenzies’ art collection gave Cobb plenty of options, she said.

“Gwenn has paintings, handmade baskets, wooden vases — she has an eye for beautiful, natural things,” Cobb said.

However, shelves in a built-in cabinet that stretches across one living room wall were too crowded and needed some editing, she said.

Now, striking pieces like carved birds by artist Larry Fanning can be seen and appreciated along with wood and clay pieces by Mark Rademacher. McKenzie found these and other artful creations at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, held annually in Northport.

“I’m a big fan of Kentuck,” McKenzie said.

Other treasures are from the family’s travels. Several paintings in the room are landscapes by Russian Impressionist Nikolai Efimovich Timkov.

“We go on ski trips out west, and in about 1996 or so, we discovered this Russian artist who had died in 1993,” McKenzie said. “The paintings were affordable, so when there was a show with his work or we found it at a gallery, we’d buy it. We probably have 12 pieces.”

While Cobb said she never pressures clients into making new purchases, she’s happy to make recommendations. McKenzie wasn’t fond of her existing sofas and wanted advice about buying ones she’d like better.

“Because this room was so dark, I wanted her to get light, linen-look sofas,” Cobb said. “The previous ones were in a dark pattern, and they were too small for this big room.”

The McKenzies moved to Tuscaloosa 20 years ago and have lived in

ABOVE: Removing drapes that were left by the previous owner instantly brightened up the living area and allowed a piece of stained glass that had been hidden to shine.

LEFT: New seating in lighter colors stands out from the dark walls instead of blending in with them.

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AT HOME their Old Watermelon Road house for 16 years. Gwenn McKenzie is a retired obstetrician/gynecologist, and her husband, Rick, is a neurosurgeon.

The couple has three children. Cora, 21, is a Rice University senior.

Anna, 19, is a student at the University of Georgia. Seventeen-yearold Jack attends Tuscaloosa Academy.

Cobb is a Tuscaloosa native and University of Alabama graduate. She became a nurse but said she has always had an interest in interior design.

“After college, I worked in Atlanta for an interior design architectural firm,” she said. “And I’ve always enjoyed working on my own houses and helping friends and family members.”

While the McKenzies’ project was an extensive one, many of Cobb’s clients are looking for quick, budget-friendly fixes, Cobb said.

“I work with a lot of people who are downsizing,” she said. “I go to their new home, if possible, and measure the space. Then I measure the furniture they already have and advise them on what to keep and what not to keep. I draw up a design plan for their new home. And on moving day, I’m there to help place furniture and unpack, if I need to.”

Helping with the unpacking chores can be a plus for elderly clients who may not have family members nearby, Cobb said.

“Basically, I become their daughter for a day,” she said, smiling.

Cobb said she also stages houses that are for sale and for parties and other special events.

Following her heart and changing careers wasn’t an easy decision.

“I’m in my 50s and thought, I’m going to give this a shot,” she said.

“I feel like this is what I was meant to do, like it’s God’s gift to me.

“In nursing, I liked to make people feel better. I’m doing the same thing now — just in a different way.”

LEFT: Artwork and furniture from other rooms was repurposed to add color and light to the living room.

BELOW: The rug from the dining room is bettersuited for the living room, adding a swath of bright cream to the dark floors.

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FEELING GOOD

Nutritional consultant Brenda Branch in her kitchen, where she prepares most of her meals.

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FEELING GOOD

Hooked on

healthy living NUTRITIONAL CONSULTANT BRENDA BRANCH PRACTICES WHAT SHE PREACHES

BY DONNA CORNELIUS | PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

B

renda Montrella Branch has a straightforward approach to healthy living.

The 47-year-old nutritional consultant, who opened The Natural Pharma in Tuscaloosa about two years ago, said forming healthy habits like drinking plenty of water, getting enough rest, and eating your veggies is “really super simple.”

“I have a passion for making a difference,” Branch said.

That passion started during her childhood in Hollidaysburg, Pa., she said.

“My parents were health advocates,” Branch said. “We didn’t have sugar, we didn’t have soda.

We’d eat what we grew, and my dad would go hunting for deer and turkey and would fish. That’s always been a part of me.”

If you’re picturing a plain Jane with a stalk of celery in one hand and a bottle of vitamins in the other, think again. Branch is very much a modern businesswoman who’s promoted and expanded the business she started 20 years ago in Altoona, Pa. The naturopath — a health practitioner who applies natural therapies — uses modern marketing techniques to spread her message and boost her business.

Last summer, for example, she wanted to hype an event called Be Fit for Life Night in Tuscaloosa.

The event was to introduce a 13-week wellness and weight loss program called IN.FORM, which Branch helped develop for Nature’s Sunshine.

“In Tuscaloosa, I wanted to transform lives through IN.FORM,” she said. “I thought, parents can’t always get their children to do things like this, and children can’t do it if their parents aren’t on board. So I thought, the perfect person to transform is a sorority girl.”

Branch visited University of Alabama sorority houses to talk about the event — and she brought along a graphic visual.

“I got a 5-pound fat replica and told the girls, we’re gonna fight the ‘freshman 15’ pounds, and I asked them to imagine three of these on their bodies,” she said. “We had 540 girls come to the first event last August.”

When Branch started college, she intended to become a pharmacist, she said.

“I was accepted into the pharmacy program at the University of Pittsburgh, but I found out that wasn’t for me,” she said.

After graduating from the Pennsylvania State University, she obtained a doctor of naturopathy degree from Trinity College of Natural Health.

She opened Everything Natural, a store that specializes in holistic health needs, in Altoona in June 1986. A personal crisis confirmed her career decision, she said.

“My first husband was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer,” she said. “I saw how this type of approach to health works and how it can make a difference.

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FEELING GOOD

Brenda Branch prepares a fresh fruit shake including Love and Peas protein, coconut oil, almond milk and fresh fruit in her kitchen. Get the recipe for this shake and others in Foodie News, starting on Page 28.

“The doctors had started radiation treatments on his colon. They had decided to let his liver go because 50 percent of it was involved. But when he had surgery related to his colon, they found out there was no detectable cancer to his liver. “We decided not to do chemotherapy — just nutrition.

Year after year, we got good reports. “He’s been cancer-free for about 19 years.�

She and her former husband remain close friends, she said.

Remarriage brought Branch to Tuscaloosa. She met her husband, Bill Branch, during a vacation in St. Thomas. She’d planned the trip with some other people, but as it turned out, none of them were able to go, she said. “So I went by myself — and I never do things like that,�

Branch said. “Bill and his friends saw me eating alone and asked, ‘Would you like to join us?’ We hung out and went boating. I went back to Pennsylvania. A couple of months later, Bill called and asked me to come to Tuscaloosa for a football game. That’s really when we hit it off.�

The couple’s long-distance relationship lasted four years, Branch said. “Bill said he thought, ‘There’s no way she’d be interested in moving here. She has her business and her children,’� she said. Branch has two daughters, 21-year-old Olivia and 18-year-old Mya. “Then my older daughter decided to go to UA,� Branch said. “Bill and I got engaged in St. Thomas and got married there in June 2012.�

Once in Tuscaloosa, Branch opened The Natural Pharma at 523 Queen City Ave. The store has natural products, and

O L’ CO LO N Y G O LF Play the Course of Champions

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Design a PARA property

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FEELING GOOD

Branch prepares a salad dressing using freshly squeezed lemon. Get the recipe and others in Foodie News, Page 28.

Branch also offers classes and consulting. The building was recently renovated and has a new name: University Chiropractic and Wellness Center. Chiropractor Dr. Matt Hitchner has moved his practice there.

Unlike some busy medical professionals, Branch makes it a priority to spend time with her clients, she said.

“I have time to sit down to teach wellness and prevention,” she said. “I think people have lost the how-to manual on those things. Branch said she often works with doctors to help patients improve their health.

“It’s not an either/or thing — I’m not in conflict with medicine,” she said. “It’s in conjunction. A lot of professionals will send people to me. You get better outcomes with good nutrition.”

She still owns her store in Altoona.

“I have such a huge following in Pennsylvania that it was hard to leave,” Branch said. “Now, I Skype with my clients. I have a virtual waiting room and can review their health from a distance. It’s like I never left.

I ‘see’ my staff and my clients almost every day.”

Branch also taught health and wellness classes at Penn State.

“I had a weekly radio show in Pennsylvania, taught weekly classes and spoke to big groups,” she said. “I helped transform the community.”

She’s hoping to bring the same message of good health to Tuscaloosa, she said — even if she has to tote around models of fat to do it.

For a few of Branch’s healthy-tasty recipes, check out this issue’s Foodie News section.

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COVER STORY

B MA BOSS STUART BELL RINGS IN A NEW ERA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA

BY DONNA CORNELIUS | PHOTOS BY ROBERT SUTTON

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COVER STORY

STAFF PHOTO | MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

STAFF PHOTO | ERIN NELSON

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he University of Alabama’s new president has had some help dressing for success.

When Stuart Bell was appointed to the top spot at UA on July 15, some early media photos showed him wearing purple and gold — the colors of Louisiana State University, where he was executive vice president and provost. Friends decided he needed a more Bama-friendly wardrobe, he said.

“I got three red ties the day my appointment here was announced,” Bell said. “One friend even FedExed a red tie to me.”

Although it’s been a while, Bell has worn Crimson Tide colors before. After he earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University, his first job was at UA. Bell, 58, also has a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M. His career path has climbed steadily upward. He came to Alabama in 1986 as an assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department. Nine years later, he was department head.

His next stop was the University of Kansas.

There, he was dean of the School of Engineering for 10 years before going to LSU. His success isn’t due to lucky breaks, said Todd Tillman, one of Bell’s former students.

“I’m really happy for Dr. Bell,” said Tillman, who’s now analytical team lead for Dynetics, a Huntsville-based engineering, applied science and information technology company. “I know how hard he works. You can track his progress; he’s gone straight up the whole time.”

Tillman said his own career path was changed by Bell.

“I came to Alabama in the fall of 1994 to attend graduate school and worked for him during a two-year period,” Tillman said. “He was my main adviser. I was a typical undergraduate — not as serious as I should have been — and under his tutelage and seeing his work ethic, he showed me how to be a professional engineer.”

UA’s new president grew up in Abilene, Texas, where he attended public elementary, junior high and high schools. He has two older siblings.

“When my brother and I got to school, all my teachers had expectations, because my sister had set the bar high. My brother and I

did our best to expel those expectations,” he said, laughing.

Those early school years set the path for Bell to go into STEM classes, he said. STEM is an acronym for the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“I had a great science teacher in elementary school, where we had a science-based curriculum,” he said. “I had a great physics teacher in high school. I have a real fondness for K-12 teachers, who often are underrated and undervalued for their impact on students.”

Bell didn’t get into education right away.

ABOVE: University of Alabama President Stuart Bell shakes hands with David A. Allen as he crosses the stage during the 2015 summer commencement at Coleman Coliseum.

LEFT: Stuart Bell talks to members of the media after a specially called meeting of the University of Alabama board of trustees at the Bryant Conference Center on June 18, where the board unanimously voted to name Bell as the president of the University of Alabama.

“After I got my master’s degree, I worked for the Mobil Research and Development Corp.,” he said. “I did a lot of design work and feasibility studies. At that time, I knew I wanted to get back on a college campus. You miss that level of energy.”

Bell returned to Texas A&M and earned a doctorate.

“As I began looking for an academic position, my field was engines research, which is a fairly small niche area,” he said. “Alabama had a couple of faculty members who worked in that area, and one had retired, so I joined the

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COVER STORY

STAFF PHOTO | D. KAYLIN BOWEN

Stuart Bell greets freshman students participating in Bama Bound 2015.

faculty here.”

The first thing that impressed him about Tuscaloosa wasn’t Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“I thought, ‘Look at all those trees!’ In west Texas, there are so few trees that you don’t need radar — you can see a storm coming from a long way away,” he said.

His family put down deep roots in Tuscaloosa, Bell said.

“Our kids were all born at the Northport Medical Center and went to Englewood Elementary School,” Bell said. “We moved to Kansas just before our oldest child started high school.”

Bell and his wife, Susan, lived in the Springhill Lake and Lynn Haven neighborhoods before building a house in Woodbank, he said.

Now, their home is the UA President’s Mansion.

“It’s such a wonderful facility,” Bell said.

“The top floor, where we live, is very comfortable, with three bedrooms and a kitchenette.

The middle floor is more historical.”

The mansion also is convenient because it’s near Bell’s office at the Rose Administration Building.

“I get to work early in the morning so I can leave late at night,” said Bell, smiling.

But he’s not joking about his lengthy work hours, Todd Tillman said.

“When I was in graduate school, we were at the old small engines lab in Hardaway Hall,” Tillman said. “I’d get there early, and Dr. Bell’s truck would be in the parking lot. I’d go home late, and his truck would still be there.”

Another former student, Allen Loper, is a research engineer who oversees UA’s Engines and Combustion Lab. “Dr. Bell was my adviser in graduate school, and I had him in some classes when I was an undergraduate,” Loper said. “He was very organized. He made it easy to comprehend the material.

“He’s one reason I chose to go to graduate

school. I was tinkering with the idea, and he offered me an opportunity to study under him in graduate school.”

Both Loper and Tillman said they have good memories of getting to know Bell on an informal basis.

“He always had his home open to graduate students and had us over for cookouts,” Loper said. “He made you feel like you were a part of his life.”

Bell said he and his wife “love being around young people.”

“We consider students as part of our family,” he said.

His own children each chose fields similar to their father’s. The Bells’ older son, Stuart, is a chemical engineer. Daughter Stacy Bell Watford was a biological science major at UA. She and her husband, Michael, a civil engineer, are expecting their first child in October. The Bells’ younger son, Stephen, is a mechanical engineer.

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COVER STORY “After we got our doctorates, I remember talking to Stuart in front of the engineering building,” Whitaker said. “He was going to Alabama, and my wife and I were going to New Mexico, where I had a job. We wondered if we’d see each other again.

“Six months later, the University of Alabama contacted me about a faculty position in the engineering program. I called Stuart, and he said it was a good program. I stayed with him while I interviewed. My wife and I moved here in 1987.”

Whitaker said Bell is an “incredibly thoughtful person.”

“I mean that in all different ways — in dealing with people, in analyzing a problem, in the way he responds to somebody,” Whitaker said.

“He has tremendous vision and energy.”

Last November, Whitaker was in Baton Rouge for a UA recruiting event and stopped by to see his old friend at Bell’s office at LSU. “We chatted and caught up,” Whitaker said.

“Dr. (Joe) Benson was retiring as provost here, and the search here was under way. I asked Stuart if he was going to apply.

“He said no, since he was the provost at LSU, and then said, ‘If the president’s position opens up, let me know.’ We chuckled, because of course that was before Judy Bonner stepped down.”

Since the Bells lived in Tuscaloosa for 16 years, “I think this is like coming home for them,” Whitaker said.

BELL SAID HE LOOKS FORWARD TO HELPING AN ALREADY-STRONG UNIVERSITY KEEP REACHING FOR THE HEIGHTS.

“

IT’S NOT THAT THINGS ARE BROKEN HERE,” HE SAID. “IT’S HOW DO YOU REMAIN AT THE TOP OF THE CLASS?

”

STAFF PHOTO | ERIN NELSON

STAFF PHOTO | MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

The number of students at the University of Alabama in 2002, when Bell left for Kansas, was about 20,000. UA started the 2014-15 school year with more than 36,000 students.

That growth is likely to continue under Bell’s watch.

“I’m a believer that if you’re not growing, you’re dying,” he said. “Growth should focus on quality. We’ll do it right.”

Bell has a special interest in expanding the university’s graduate programs, which have not grown in proportion to other UA programs, he said. He also wants to see the university increase its global opportunities and presence.

“As a world, we’ve become very small,” he said. “Our students need international experiences, and we’ll provide those opportunities.

“We have a lot of students from outside Alabama. We want to give them a rich educational experience. We want diversity — not just numbers.”

Bell said he looks forward to helping an already-strong university keep reaching for the heights.

“It’s not that things are broken here,” he said. “It’s how do you remain at the top of the class?”

Dr. Kevin Whitaker, UA’s interim provost, first met Bell when both were graduate students at Texas A&M. As graduate teaching assistants, they shared an office and became good friends, Whitaker said.

ABOVE: Newly elected University of Alabama president Stuart Bell talks to board member Paul W. Bryant Jr. after a meeting of the University of Alabama board of trustees on June 18.

LEFT: Bell speaks at the 2015 summer commencement ceremony at Coleman Coliseum.

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Beaded wrap bracelet, $24.95; Christy’s Boutique.

Gold bar necklace, $15; Perfect Touch. Gold drop earrings, $12.95; Christy’s Boutique. Black romper with lace cap sleeves by Jessica Simpson, $79; Belk.

FALL FASHION WITH AN ATTITUDE STYLED BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER PHOTOS BY ROBERT SUTTON

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FASHION

on the

Cutting Edge 57

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FASHION

Crimson fringe top by Jessica Simpson, $69; Belk. Sequined shorts by Ark & Co., $72.95; Christy’s Boutique.

Gold metallic fringe earrings

by Shalla Wista, $84; The Gypsy Spur.

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FASHION

Gold hoops with bar detail, $14; Perfect Touch. Sheer panel dress by GF Collection, $89; Lucca.

Gold spike earrings by Shalla Wista, $74; The Gypsy Spur.

Melissa stripe jersey dress

by Sugarhill, $65; Vintage Vibe. White purse by J, $68; Perfect Touch.

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FASHION

Gold with black tassel necklace, $68; Perfect Touch. Piped scuba flare dress by Cynthia Rowley, $119; Belk.

Gold hoops with black pieces, $26; Perfect Touch.

Leather jacket with fringe

by Chaser, $596; The Gypsy Spur.

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FASHION

Red dress by Amanda Uprichard, $168; Perfect Touch.

Black felt hat, $45; Lucca. Gold jewel earrings, $12.95; Christy’s Boutique. Handcrafted gold chain bracelet by Shalla Wista Designs, $350; The Gypsy Spur.

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FASHION

Layered necklace, $29.95; Christy’s Boutique. Black top by BB Dakota, $62; Perfect Touch.

Cream faux snakeskin shorts by Blush Noir, $25; red and pink cateye sunglasses by Wildfox, $170; The Gypsy Spur.

Red jacket by EsleyCollection, $74; Perfect Touch.

Pewter statement earrings, $17.95; Christy’s Boutique.

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FASHION

LEFT: Hot pink cutout dress by Karlie, $78; gold earrings, $14; Perfect Touch.

FAR LEFT: Black cutout dress by Karlie, $78; gold earrings, $12; Perfect Touch.

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FASHION

Red strapless romper

by Pixi, $45; Perfect Touch.

Sterling silver bracelet by Avant Garde, $125; black sunglasses with Swarovski crystals by Monte, $40; The Gypsy Spur.

Black cuff with rhinestone detail, $21.95; Christy’s boutique. Blue shirt with zipper by Tribal, $62; Vintage Vibe. Black shorts by Jack, $45; Perfect Touch.

Sterling silver necklace by Shalla Wista, $150; The Gypsy Spur.

Black and white dress by Mink Pink, $79; turquoise and gold earrings by Betsy Pittard Designs, $36; Lucca. Black faux leather jacket by BB Dakota, $82; Perfect Touch.

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FASHION

Silver circle hoop earrings, $16; blue high-waist shorts by C. Luce, $44; Perfect Touch. Black crop top with lace border by Jessica Simpson, $54; Belk. Black jacket by You & I By Together, $62; The Gypsy Spur.

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FASHION

Hot pink gown by Amanda Uprichard, $269; Perfect Touch.

Silver earrings, $16; Perfect Touch. Blue jeans by 7 For All Mankind, $198; Belk.

Black and wine coat by Cleobella, $164; The Gypsy Spur.

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FASHION

CREDITS: HAIRSTYLIST:

Laura Beth Banks Tera Lane Salon

MAKEUP ARTIST: Madison Shepherd Tera Lane Salon RETAILERS: Belk Christy’s Gypsy Spur Lucca Perfect Touch Vintage Vibe SPECIAL THANKS to Jim Crowe, Jim Burt and the staff of the Northport Barber Shop.

MODELS:

Madelyn Link

MODEL: CAROLINE EVANS Nina gold hoop earrings by Sylvia Benson, $68; black dress with gold zipper by Amanda Uprichard, $176; Perfect Touch. Handcrafted gold chain bracelet by Shalla Wista Designs, $350; The Gypsy Spur.

Jaycee Kalb

Lilly Aldridge 67

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PERSONALITY

TUSCALOOSA s

Lucy

BY LYDIA SEABOL AVANT PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

LUCY JORDAN IS BELOVED FOR HER COMMITMENT TO TUSCALOOSA’S MEDICAL COMMUNITY, HER TIRELESS VOLUNTEERING AND HER GENEROUS PERSONALITY

L

ucy Jordan, 95, is known for her community involvement in Tuscaloosa over the past five decades. She’s especially known for her commitment to the DCH Health System, where she’s helped raise millions of dollars over the years, and for the annual ball that carries her name.

But for those who know her best, she’s simply “Mama Lucy.”

As Jordan thumbed through a thick stack of news clippings, awards and declarations in her honor at her home recently, she reflected on her years of service.

“I never thought I’d live this long,” Jordan said.

“But that may be the secret, to stay busy and keep involved.”

>>

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SUBMITTED BY DCH FOUNDATION

PERSONALITY

SUBMITTED BY DCH FOUNDATION

LEFT: Lucy with her husband, the late Dr. Loy Jordan, dressed for the first DCH ball in 1978.

ABOVE: A newspaper clipping shows Lucy Jordan, left, prepping for the third ball in 1980.

A Lamar County native, Jordan first came to Tuscaloosa in 1952 with her husband, the late Dr. Loy Jordan, and their infant daughter, Mitzi. The family had been living in Mexico for four years where Dr. Jordan worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, fighting hoof and mouth disease in animals. After their arrival in Tuscaloosa, Dr. Jordan set up his veterinary practice on 10th Street — now known as Paul W. Bryant Drive. Lucy Jordan got to know Tuscaloosa through the people who brought in their pets for treatment. Their son, Michael, was born in 1954.

The Jordans became active in Eastern Star and the Rotary Club. Lucy Jordan worked with the Business and Professional Women’s League, organizing the first Miss Tuscaloosa pageant and Alabama Girls State, an organization that teaches girls leadership skills.

Lucy Jordan also volunteered at Hale Memorial Hospital, Partlow State School and the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She also volunteered at DCH, where she visited with patients through her church, Central Church of Christ.

It was because of her involvement in the community and her volunteering that DCH administrators took notice. In 1971, she was hired to head the hospital’s new community relations department. As part of the job, she attended city functions on behalf of DCH and helped organize hospital volunteers. She was also a founder of the DCH Foundation, which raises money for the DCH Health System.

“I was lucky at DCH because they wanted me to be involved,” Jordan said. “I guess I earned my keep, but I enjoyed it and was honored to do so.”

During her 22 years working at DCH, she was fundamental in community relations, said DCH spokesman Brad Fisher, who worked under Lucy.

“She visited lots and lots of people in the hospital,” Fisher said. “A lot of people didn’t consider it a visit to the hospital if they didn’t see Lucy.”

Jordan also helped start the DCH Regional Hospital’s gift shop, which to this day is still staffed by volunteers. She also started the DCH ball, which is now in its 38th year. In 2007, the event was named the Lucy Jordan Ball in her honor.

“The foundation started with nickels and dimes and quarters,” Jordan said.

But much of the success with the DCH Foundation is because of the success of the ball, which now raises about $100,000 a year or more. The success also comes from the commitment of the community, Jordan said.

“We’ve been able to furnish so much state-of-the-art equipment, and a very grateful community supported it because they wanted to keep the hospital great,” she said.

Since the ball’s inception in 1978, more than $3.5 million has been raised for the DCH Health System, according to the DCH Foundation.

The money has been spent on several projects, including a new surgical complex in the late 1970s, the new diabetes center in 1993, the renovation of the pediatric unit in 1994, an intensive care unit in 2000, and wound care center in 2006.

“The ball started because we wanted to make money for the hospital and also put the hospital out there for the community to realize how important it is for our area,” said Josephine Davis, who was a chair of the ball in 1979.

Davis added that the ball has continued to be one of the most elegant and important charity events in Tuscaloosa, and that’s largely because of Jordan.

“Lucy is the ball,” Davis said. “She has lived it and promoted it and talked people into coming and into chairing. You can’t say no to Lucy.

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PERSONALITY

Give our kids every chance to get better.

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE THE MIRACLES ARE.

SUBMITTED BY DCH FOUNDATION

JENNIFER LOPEZ ACTRESS, MUSICIAN, TV PERSONALITY, MOM

SUBMITTED BY DCH FOUNDATION

RIGHT: A program from the 2007 DCH Ball featured the title script of the “I Love Lucy” television show, a theme that is fitting for how the community feels about Jordan.

BELOW: An ice sculpture from the ball also features the theme.

Like all moms, I’m always concerned about my children’s well-being. But sometimes they get sick. Sometimes they get hurt. That’s why I’m so grateful we have children’s hospitals. If any child needs a miracle, they’ll do everything in their power to make one happen. Please join me in giving sick and injured children every chance to get better. Put Your Money Where the Miracles Are. Give to your Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals® raises funds and awareness for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. Donations stay local, fundiing critical treatments, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. Find out why children’s hospitals need community support and find your member hospital at CMNHospitals.org and facebook.com/CMNHospitals.

NAAC58046

She’s irresistible and very inspirational.”

Dee Davis, who served as co-chair of the second ball, agreed. Jordan’s hard work has made DCH a better place, she said.

“Lucy has given so many hours and so much of her time and life in working for the hospital,” Dee Davis said. “She loves it with all her heart.”

Susan Cork, who has also chaired one of the DCH balls, said she has known Jordan as long as she can remember.

“I really got to know her one summer when I was a candy striper (a young volunteer nurse),” said Cork, who refers to Jordan as “Mama Lucy.”

“She is so generous and such a wonderful person and is truly an asset to Tuscaloosa, but especially DCH,” Cork said.

Alabama Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey first got to know Jordan through the Girls State program in 1962. One reason Jordan is known as “Mama Lucy” is that she is a naturally inspiring person who people enjoy being around, Ivey said.

“Lucy is an encourager by nature,” Ivey said. “She encourages everybody she is with to get involved and work to make something successful. She is a joy to be around, and people enjoy being around happy people.”

Jordan retired from DCH in 1993, but even at 95 she continues to serve the hospital as executive secretary of the DCH Foundation Board and as the ball coordinator.

“As all successes stand on the shoulders of the giants who went before them, today’s DCH Foundation truly stands on Mama Lucy’s,” said Molly Ingram, vice president of development for the DCH Foundation.

“Had it not been for her tireless, dedicated and passionate work since 70

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“As all successes stand on the shoulders of the giants who went before them, today’s DCH Foundation truly stands on Mama Lucy’s,” said Molly Ingram, vice president of development for the DCH Foundation. “Had it not been for her tireless, dedicated and passionate work since the early ’70s, health care philanthropy would not be where it is today in West Alabama.”

SUBMITTED BY DCH FOUNDATION

SUBMITTED BY DCH FOUNDATION

PERSONALITY

the early ’70s, health care philanthropy would not be where it is today in West Alabama.”

DCH has come far because of Jordan, said Bryan Kindred, president and CEO of the DCH Health System.

“When Lucy Jordan came to work for what was then Druid City Hospital, DCH was a 240-bed community hospital,” Kindred said. “By the time she retired, DCH was a regional health care system of three hospitals of almost 1,000 beds. This dramatic growth was due in part to the support and goodwill that Lucy generated in the community as director of community relations and director of the DCH Foundation. DCH and this community are in her debt.”

Jordan said she’ll volunteer as long as she is able.

“I don’t do much physical volunteering anymore, but I help out with the planning,” Jordan said, adding that she still attends luncheons and DCH Foundation board meetings. “It’s certainly nice they keep me included. The foundation is like my children. It’s been a labor of love.”

In her spare time, Jordan has also been involved in the United Way, the American Heart Association, the Alabama Cancer Society, American Legion Auxiliary, Alabama Girls State, Tuscaloosa International Friends and the Girl Scouts, among other organizations. In 1973, she was named Alabama Mother of the Year and was runner-up for the national award.

Jordan has two children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

TOP LEFT AND LEFT: Newspaper clippings from 1981 show Lucy Jordan and others preparing for the third DCH ball, a fundraising event that continues today.

TOP RIGHT: Jordan continues to volunteer and find time to be involved in a number of community organizations.

ABOVE: Jordan with family at the DCH ball in 2007.

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AROUND TOWN

raised in a

Barn

FAMILY OWNED TUSCALOOSA BARNYARD LETS VISITORS GET UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH ANIMALS FOR EDUCATION, OR JUST FOR FUN

BY KELCEY SEXTON PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

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A

chorus of bleating greets visitors as they set foot in the Tuscaloosa Barnyard.

Goats climb high on a ramp in their pen to catch a glimpse of the newcomers. Guests’ faces shine with excitement as they walk toward the barn to pick up buckets of feed to give to the farm animals. The goats abandon the ramp and inch closer to the edge of their enclosure, standing on their hind legs to peek over the wooden fence with wide eyes.

“You ready to feed some animals?”

Kami Combs asks the group with a smile.

The answer is a resounding and enthusiastic “yes” as each member of the group from the Arc of Tuscaloosa gathers a feed bucket.

The Tuscaloosa Barnyard is family owned and operated by Kami Combs and her husband, Daniel, with the help of their three children and other volunteers. The farm is nestled on 15 acres of land at the end of a winding red-dirt road and offers hands-on experiences with a variety of farm animals, some more familiar to visitors than others. “(We) have a lot of people who’ve never been to a farm,” said Kami Combs, 43.

“Maybe they’ve seen animals in books or heard the noises they make. Once they come to the farm, it can be a bit overwhelming, and they may get scared. But before it’s over with, before they’ve left for the day, they’re laughing and having a good time.”

The Tuscaloosa Barnyard, at 11453 Turner Bridge Road, is open to the public Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Organizations and schools can schedule visits, and it’s also a venue for birthday parties. Initially, Combs said, they only planned to host birthday parties when the barnyard opened in 2007, but it expanded from there when a teacher from Gordo Elementary inquired about field trips.

Guests now can spend a day feeding and petting farm animals, fishing or taking a small boat out on the lake next to the farm. Other options include a playground as well as pony and horse rides, and all activities are done in rotations so everyone has something to do. Visitors have traveled from as far as Hong Kong and Germany to spend time at the barnyard, Combs said.

April Mills, program manager of the Arc of Tuscaloosa, which works with intellectually disabled adults 21 and older, said the Arc’s clients enjoy visiting the Tuscaloosa Barnyard.

TOP: Kami Combs, owner of The Tuscaloosa Barnyard, with a chick, a bunny named Chocolate, and a lamb named Cuddles.

ABOVE: Jelly, a 3-month-old piglet, looks out from a pen at Barnyard Camp at The Tuscaloosa Barnyard.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Summer, a baby goat, helps herself to some food at The Tuscaloosa Barnyard.

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AROUND TOWN

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“(Feeding and petting the animals) is therapeutic for our consumers, and not just for our consumers, but for any other person or people. It’s enjoyable and relaxing.”

Most of the animals on the farm come from markets, auctions or bartering and trading with neighbors who live and raise livestock in the area, Combs said. In fact, the animals that started the farm were a mail-ordered batch of chickens, and a pig named Maybelle.

“It was like Christmas morning when (the chickens Daniel ordered) came in,” Combs said, “just to see the reactions of the kids. Then we added the pig, then we added (a) goat, and just to see the birthing of everything was just amazing, so we decided we needed to build a barn, have parties and share that. From there, it just grew from having birthday parties to field trips, to mobile events and just expanding.”

While the barnyard is home to animals one would typically see on a farm, such as sheep and pigs, it also features a few creatures that might surprise visitors. Among wandering ducks, they may spy a mother peacock and her chicks, and near the cow enclosure, waits the farm’s llama. Children can also pet and hold chicks, rabbits and rats, the latter of which are quickly becoming a crowd favorite.

“I know people think, ‘Oh my gosh, a rat!’ ” Combs said. “But they’re very sociable. They’re very friendly, and they’re very clean and lots of fun. They’re no different from a hamster. They just have the long tails.” They tend to be nicer with the little ones than bunnies, she added.

In all, Combs estimated their barnyard is home to an average of 100-200 animals. It is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and a veterinarian comes in and vaccinates the animals yearly.

The Combs children — Nathaniel, 15; Anna Katherine, 13; and Brianna, 12 — help with daily chores on the farm, such as “haying” the animals and cleaning the pens. It not only gives her children a chance to form a good work ethic at a young age but also allows them to earn money while learning to spend it wisely, Kami Combs said.

Though running the barnyard is now part of the Combs family’s everyday routine, it hasn’t always been so. Before starting up the farm, Kami Combs had a store in Tuscaloosa for six years called Scrapbooking Corner.

“I am a city girl by heart and a transplanted country girl, I should say. But I love it,” she said. “With this particular business, not only can my husband and I work together — some people might think, ‘Oh that’s way too much time together’ — but we love it,” Combs said. “Even though we’re together, we’re not doing the same thing. He may be doing maintenance, and I may be doing bookwork or something, but we’re together.”

That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a challenge, though. Combs said she was

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AROUND TOWN

impatient when they started building the barn and anxious to see if it would go over well.

Trying to set up the business was difficult, she said, but worth it not only because she loves what she does, but because she loves seeing the reactions of guests young and old.

Even though she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy in August of last year, Combs said the Tuscaloosa Barnyard kept her going.

“Going through my cancer, if I hadn’t had this farm to wake up to every morning and have to be out here … I could’ve easily sat on the couch and had a pity party,” she said. “But I didn’t have time for that, and I wanted to be down here with the kids and smiling faces to see everything, and going through treatment, even my (chemotherapy) doctor was absolutely amazed at how well I did.”

Combs finished chemotherapy in January and is in the breast reconstruction phase of her treatment. Her best friend and right-hand woman at the Tuscaloosa Barnyard, Carla Benson, calls Combs a fighter and said she comes out on top, whether it’s dealing with her breast cancer or day-to-day tasks on the farm.

“Nothing ever gets her down or puts her down, so she’s always got a smile on her face,” said Benson, who has worked at the farm for five years. “What’s the saying? ‘You take a lickin’, and you keep on tickin’ ’? That’s Kami.”

Combs said God has been faithful through her treatment. Her husband, their children and volunteers as well as Benson and her daughters pitched in and kept the barnyard bustling while she recuperated from cancer treatment. But it wasn’t long before she was back out with the animals and the farm visitors.

“Just the experiences that I get to have with the people and the kids on the

TOP: From left, Neil Remmert, 4; his brother, Jude, 5; Elizabeth Kohn, 10; Cate Osucha, 4; and her brother, Jake, 6; watch as Charlie Strozier, 3, rides a pony.

ABOVE: Kami Combs helps Mallory Mergenthal, 6, paint with a chick while her sister, Madison, 7, watches.

farm keep me going,” Combs said. “Every time you get to hear that middleaged kid say, ‘You remember when I had my party here? You remember when I came here?’ and it may have been three or four years ago!”

The Tuscaloosa Barnyard is open to the public Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. year-round, and also on Sundays from 1-4 p.m. in September, October and November for pumpkin season. Admission is $13 per person and includes all activities. Call 205-248-0773 or visit www.tuscaloosabarnyard. com.

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ART

WOOD SHOP BLACK WARRIOR STUDIO AND GALLERY OFFERS MEMBERS CREATIVE OUTLET ... WITHOUT TAKING UP SPACE IN THEIR GARAGE

BY ANGEL COKER | PHOTOS BY ROBERT SUTTON

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ART

T

hroughout his high school years, Frank Evans worked in the cabinet shop of a lumber company during the summer.

He said he has always liked working with wood but, living in apartments or small homes, he has never had room to store the large power tools that woodworking requires.

To satisfy his need to create small woodworks like pencil holders, trinket boxes and candlesticks, Evans became a member of the Black Warrior Studio and Gallery about five years ago and has crafted about 50 pieces during his time there.

“I think it’s a fantastic outlet,” he said.

The Black Warrior Studio and Gallery is a nonprofit, co-op woodshop where members pay a fee to use the facility and tools there to create woodworks. The yearly fee is $500, which gives unlimited time in the shop, but semiannual, monthly, weekly and per-project memberships are available along with classes.

Memberships provide full access to the studio and equipment.

Shop owner and craftsman Ed Allen, who turned his fiberglass shop into a woodshop after retiring from the fire service in 2002, said he co-ops the shop because he has always enjoyed working with wood as a hobby and wanted to give others that opportunity.

He said the shop’s mission is to promote knowledge and encourage appreciation and the creation of wood art. This is done by offering classes, providing information about sources for materials and equipment, and providing a location for woodworkers.

“I co-op the shop, so interested woodworkers who don’t have a place to work can come in here and do their work on my equipment in my building,” Allen said. “A lot of people just come here and work because they can’t afford to have all the (tools) lying around.”

About 4,000 square feet, the facility — once a fiberglass shop called Allen Marine Repair — is equipped with stationary equipment, powered and nonpowered hand tools, accessories, supplies and materials.

Multiple types of saws, a painting station, jointers, planers, wide-belt sanders, clamps, routers, lathes and hundreds of other tools, big and small, are at a woodworker’s fingertips.

Members can turn bowls, urns, vases, platters and more. They can burn images into wood, like the plaques in Allen’s office, that depict silhouettes of animals like elk. Building furniture and painting or stripping and refinishing are also among the many wood-crafting opportunities.

The building, which was built in 1985, has a large studio area filled with equipment and inspiration.

TOP: Ed Allen, owner of Black Warrior Studio and Gallery, uses a lathe to polish a bowl.

ABOVE: Classic woodworking tools and birdhouses hang on the wall at the workshop, which offers 4,000 square feet of space and a variety of professional equipment.

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ART

Little toy trucks made with blonde-colored wood, a rocking chair in progress and a green Christmas tree trimmed with everything wood, from the ornaments to the lights dusted in metal flake for a sparkly effect, are surrounded by sawdust-covered floors and the scent of wood.

About 50 kinds of wood are stacked from floor to ceiling and wall to wall in a storage room. Each type — cedar, pine, walnut, ash, hickory, mahogany, maple, Brazilian cherry, purpleheart from South America, cottonwood from the studio owner’s property in North Dakota and more — has a specific place.

“I’ve got wood everywhere,” Allen said. “Wood is readily available, and you can do so much with it. You can make most anything you want out of it, and each piece is very unique. You do the same thing twice and it’s going to be different.”

Members can use his lumber for projects for an extra fee or bring their own. They can also store their equipment at the shop, but only if they give permission for everyone to use it. One member stores a lathe in the shop’s wood-turning studio, where classes take place.

Woodturning classes are available for adults of any skill level. They will create one to two projects per six-hour class, which includes introduction to the lathe and designing and turning bowls.

Woodworking classes focus on safe use of equipment, project design,

NA5756487

Jill Kramer uses a lathe to polish a bowl she turned during a class at Black Warrior Studio and Gallery.

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ART

TOP LEFT: Jim Burt works on the neck of a lunchbox guitar he is making at the workshop.

ABOVE: David Patterson polishes a bowl he turned during an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute class.

LEFT: Owner Ed Allen uses a lathe and a scraper to turn a bowl.

materials selection, joinery techniques and strategies for assembly and finishing.

Evans said he has seen people start out making small projects like picture boxes and develop skills enough to make larger pieces like TV stands. He said Allen is a great teacher and that the studio fosters a love and appreciation for woodworking in a non-competitive environment with no strict schedules.

“You can work on anything you want to,” Evans said. “He has got a wealth of tools there and a wealth of knowledge.”

Members can display finished products in the gallery. Gallery hours are by appointment. A few of Allen’s pieces — a chair, a cabinet, some ornaments, a piece of carved bark and a table shaped like an elephant’s head with the two front legs being its tusks — are on display in the gallery, and he sets up at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts every year. But he said he gives away most of his

work.

“I don’t try to make money.

Primarily, I enjoy it myself. Basically, I’m fulfilling a dream — do what I want to do and create what I want to create,” he said. “Sometimes I sell some, but most of the time I give it away.”

His wife gets first pick of his work, then his daughter, he said.

Each of his grandchildren’s teachers receives a wooden pen. The grandchildren get model cars and “rocking Harleys,” which are like rocking horses but in the shape of a motorcycle.

If someone he knows is getting married, they are gifted with a turned bowl or platter. A swinging bassinet crafted to look like a paddleboat or canoe is given to friends welcoming babies. He also makes pieces to give to charities for auction.

These are just a few things he can teach members to make, he said.

Allen said learning to craft wood is a great creative outlet to share with friends, family and the community.

Evans said it’s a way for him to relax and gives him something to do during retirement from his job as a mining inspector for the Alabama Surface Mining Commission.

“I have fun making it. It’s enjoyable. It feels good to make something, complete something,” Evans said. “It’s relaxing. It’s learning. It’s creativity.”

For more information about memberships or classes, call 205-758-8472.

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MUSIC

LEADER OF THE

BAND THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA’S KEN OZZELLO IS THE MAN BEHIND THE MILLION DOLLAR BAND

BY ROOTS WOODRUFF | PHOTOS BY MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

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Million Dollar Band Director Ken Ozzello, pictured in the band’s practice studio at the University of Alabama, has been leading the band since 2002.

E

ven today, when every newspaper, Facebook page, Twitter account and digital billboard blares the ticking away of summer in weekly, daily and even hourly countdowns, it is still, for so many, the beat of the drums that serves as the harbinger of a new season. In Tuscaloosa, it is that crisp beat coming rat-atat-tat over the hot, heavy air of August — pulsating out from the scarce shade available near the Moody Music Building on the Alabama campus — that announces the last days of summer and that the annual renewal of the school year, and of course Crimson Tide football, is very nearly upon us.

It was a similar siren’s call of drums floating on the air that first drew Ken Ozzello toward the music, toward the band, and eventually led him to Tuscaloosa in 1989 and to be named director of the Crimson Tide’s legendary Million Dollar Band in 2002.

“My house was right next to a high school football stadium, and on Friday night you could hear the drums going,” Ozzello said. “I couldn’t wait to go over there and see what was going on. I actually fell in love with both the band and football at the same time. It was the allure of the sounds and all the people by that high school football stadium.”

Though he said he would have been just as happy playing football as playing in the band, there was someone with a definite opinion about the direction

he should take.

“My mother thought it was a much safer activity to do marching band,” Ozzello said with a laugh. “Eventually I started taking lessons, and then I was the drum major of my high school band and drum major of my college band.”

After graduating with his bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University, Ozzello returned to Jeannette High School just outside of Pittsburgh, teaching and directing the band. It was there, on the band field, that he met his wife, Susie, who was directing the majorettes. Eventually he returned to West Virginia, earning a master’s degree while teaching and helping direct the band he once served as drum major for. Then he started looking for a tenure track position, which led him to Alabama. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Ozzello, who earned a doctorate in education soon after arriving at Alabama, is a professor in the UA School of Music, teaching conducting as well as overseeing the university’s bands. He also conducts the prestigious Alabama Wind Ensemble.

All this keeps him hopping.

“There is an incredible amount of logistics involved when it comes to managing 400 people, whether it’s travel or drill or any of it,” Ozzello said.

“Once the students get here (in August) it’s almost a relief to actually perform again. It’s really a yearlong

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MUSIC The band is reflected in Ken Ozzello’s sunglasses as they practice formations and drills in the summer heat.

process to keep the machine going.”

By the time the drums begin to sound in early August, the Million Dollar Band’s shows for the season have already been mapped out.

The music was selected in late spring. After the score and arrangements have been written, they are sent to Ozzello, who then comes up with the drill design, which he has done ever since his arrival at the Capstone.

“In the old days, I had giant sheets of paper and I was basically doing animation,” Ozzello said. “The really time-consuming part of it was you have to label every person out there, and I was doing that by hand.

You had to label ‘trumpet #1’, ‘trumpet #2’ — that was one page — and then you had to go to the next page, and you know how slow animation is. The computer-based drill design really changed my life; it really gave me more time to do things.”

That extra time was quickly gobbled up.

After the marching season, there is recruiting for the next season, then auditions for the next year — and everyone has to audition every year, whether it’s a longtime veteran or a rookie just out of high school.

“The process of getting everyone auditioned for the next season is quite timeconsuming,” Ozzello said. “We try to get that set by the beginning of summer so the people doing the creative parts of the show have the numbers that they need.”

In addition to teaching, conducting and working with the bands, Ozzello and his staff go out weekend after weekend in the offseason, giving clinics and conferences as well as conducting honor bands — nurturing music throughout the South, planting the seeds for generations of bands to come.

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MUSIC

An avid cyclist, he spends what little spare time he has on the road — including events such as the Tuscaloosa Hot 100 — or playing racquetball or really anything that keeps him physically active.

“I’m one of those weird musicians who really likes both sports and music,” Ozzello said. “Usually they are incongruent with each other, but I really enjoy both.”

Items celebrating various Crimson Tide teams, along with his beloved Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers, fill the shelves of his office, surrounding the Sudler Trophy.

The only national award given to collegiate marching bands, the Sudler, awarded to the Million Dollar Band in 2003, honors sustained excellence in collegiate band activities.

“I’m such a sports nut, it’s the perfect combination because I get to do my music and it gets me close to the sporting end of it, too,” Ozzello said. “It’s a great combination for me.”

With the rest of the band joining the drumline for their preseason camp, the music comes together on the newly refurbished Butler Field, creating the sound that will carry through another season.

And as the driving melody pulsates over Bryant Dive and mingles with the booming clash of pads coming from the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields, the man from Pennsylvania, who has been with the Million Dollar Band for more than a quarter of its 103-year history, never loses sight of what it all means to him.

“It’s quite an honor to be one of the stewards of one of the great traditions,” Ozzello said. “I’m a big college football fan, and to be part of it at this level is really a dream come true.”

“I’M SUCH A SPORTS NUT, IT’S THE PERFECT COMBINATION BECAUSE I GET TO DO MY MUSIC AND IT GETS ME CLOSE TO THE SPORTING END OF IT, TOO,” OZZELLO SAID. “IT’S A GREAT COMBINATION FOR ME.”

Ken Ozzello looks out over the Million Dollar Band during practice at Butler Field in August.

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beautifulMusic MUSIC

EXPERT MASTER LUTHIER WAYNE STANTON HAS CRAFTED

STRINGED INSTRUMENTS BY HAND FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS

BY KIM EATON | PHOTOS BY ROBERT SUTTON

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h

e stands over the band saw, carefully cutting a piece of spruce to the exact shape he envisions in his mind’s eye. Classical music plays in the background while the 76-year-old luthier concentrates on the task at hand.

“Each piece of wood has to be treated differently,” he said. “They’re like people, I suppose. You have wood that’s more dense than others. You can’t just say it has to be this thick or that thick. You have to measure it, listen for it. There’s no one way that works for every piece.”

For nearly 50 years, expert master luthier Wayne Stanton has handcrafted beautiful stringed instruments, as well as the accompanying bows, for a variety of clients — from young beginners to symphony concert masters.

The Peterman native began studying the violin as a young boy, but he soon realized that his talent did not lie in playing the instrument.

“I was just fascinated with (the instrument),” Stanton said. “It is one of the most perfectly constructed things that we have. They’ll last hundreds of years, as long as they are being serviced and adjustments are made. You see instruments that are 300 years old and still playable.”

He studied with several master violin makers, including Dudley Reed in Florida. That was the traditional way of doing things, he said. A child would apprentice with a violin maker at the age of 12, and the father would pay money for this training. The child would apprentice until about the age of 18 and then go on to make his own instruments or open his

ABOVE: Wayne Stanton works on repairing a violin at his shop.

OPPOSITE PAGE, CENTER: Stanton inspects one of his finished violins.

OPPOSITE PAGE, BOTTOM LEFT: Unfinished violin tops are stacked in Stanton’s workshop.

OPPOSITE PAGE, BOTTOM RIGHT: Stanton shows the head of a violin next to the piece of wood he cut it from.

own shop.

“That was the old way of doing things,” Stanton said. “But violin making has been around 400, 500 years, and things have changed. It doesn’t work like that anymore. We have a lot of Internet experts now.”

Stanton continued honing his violin-making techniques in Europe before setting up his own shop in the Forest Lake area of Tuscaloosa in 1971, where he sold violins, violas, cellos, basses and bows. In addition to making the stringed instruments, he offered repair and reconstruction work.

“It was without a doubt the ugliest, nastiest building on the face of the earth, but the way I worked, if I wanted a tool to be convenient, I would just drive a nail in the wall and hang it up,” he said, laughing.

“There were things hanging all over the ceiling and floor, just everywhere, but I knew where it was, and I worked alone.”

While there are slight differences in the creation of each instrument, the overall concept is the same.

Stanton uses spruce for the instrument’s top and maple for the back. Once the top piece is carved, he uses a graduating plane to achieve the right thickness and density.

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TOP: Wayne Stanton carves his trademark reverse curve on the shoulder of a violin.

CENTER: The scroll of the violin involves some math to perfect.

RIGHT: Stanton measures each piece with precision.

“Some people think the wood is bent, but it’s not,” he said. “It’s a solid piece of wood, but then you get in there and use the graduating plane to change the thickness. It’s generally thicker toward the middle.”

The instrument’s sides are bent and very thin. Those are added to the top and back piece. The entire process is one that requires knowledge of physics and mathematics, he said. Even while studying with multiple master violin makers, Stanton was still apprehensive when it came time for him to make his first instrument. Mainly worried about the sound, he read numerous books, and everything he read said to place some parts at a slight angle.

“That was too vague for me,” he said. “So, I spent quite a lot of time working out a mathematical formula to figure out exactly how the parts should be placed. That formula had to be calculated for each instrument because they are all different. But it works. I’ve never had a dud.

As with all instruments, some are definitely better than others.”

The old standard time to make a violin was about six days; the fastest Stanton ever created one was eight days. His typical production is about one a month.

“It seems odd that it takes longer today than it did then, but we’ve got a lot more distractions now,” he said. “I’m sure (Antonio) Stradivari didn’t have to stop and answer the telephone.”

Stanton also makes bows, and he said people often comment that his bows are better than his violins.

“Bows are important,” he said. “It is said that a violinist would buy a good violin and search for a bow the rest of his life. That may be true.”

The key to a good bow is balance, not weight, Stanton said. The bow has to play evenly from end to end, and it has to bounce at the correct frequency.

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LEFT: A stack of bows to be repaired at the shop.

BELOW: Wayne and his wife, Amy, admire one of his finished violins.

BOTTOM: Stanton shows off a tool that he created in 1966 to help with neck alignment.

“I can’t tell you exactly how you to do it,” he said. “You just have a feel for it.”

Over the years, his work has taken him to numerous states and countries — New York, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Germany and Switzerland, to name just a few — but Alabama has always been his favorite.

He has served as resident violin maker for several state contests, coauthored a book on violins in the 1980s, and was a guest speaker for the Music Educators National Conference. He was even named Alabama’s Official State Luthier, what he jokingly called “Luthier Laureate.”

While he still stays fairly busy with bow making, he has eased back on making the instruments. His primary focus now is on restoration and repair work, which he loves. Violin making can be lonely and repetitive, he said, but repair work is something different every time.

A self-proclaimed tool man, Stanton has created numerous tools over the years that have helped him in both the making and repairing of instruments. Some of these tools he sold to wholesalers, while others he has hidden away and kept secret.

“What might normally take two days to repair, I can do in an hour,” he said. “It saves people money, it results in better work and it’s less intrusive. That’s the kind of thing I set out to do when I invent these tools. I would get on a job and think, ‘If I just had something different, it would be easier,’ and then I would create what I needed to make it easier.”

The last few years have brought about many changes for Stanton and his violin making business. The tornado that tore through Tuscaloosa in 2011 destroyed his shop, forcing him to make a decision on where his business was headed. Rather than opening a new standalone shop, Stanton found a home large enough to both live and work. The walls of his garage are now lined with machines, drawers full of tools and gadgets, shelves of wood and tables piled high with broken instruments waiting for his magic touch. While he said he is definitely nearing the age of retirement — “I’m nearly 80; it’s about time I retire” — he couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his life.

“I love the success of it, and the fact that I’ve helped so many people,” he said. “I like to help people. I like to fix things that can’t be fixed and I like to see the surprise on someone’s face when they see the finished product.”

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MUSIC

NEVER MISS A

BEAT

BY MARK HUGHES COBB PHOTOS BY ERIN NELSON AND MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

A

s a former disc jockey, Matt Ray collected a cornucopia of records that threatened to overrun his house. His wife, Nikki, perhaps anticipating space needed for their family — which now includes three young children — finally issued an ultimatum: The discs have gotta go.

“So he said, ‘OK, I’m going to open a record store.’ I thought it was the craziest idea,” she said. Both Rays are accountants; he worked for Jack Marshall Foods for many years. Just two years back, he felt comfortable giving up

WHAT STARTED AS A RECORD STORE HAS BECOME A MUSICAL COMMUNITY FOR NURTURING YOUNG TALENT

that full-time job to expand that crazy little idea, now a 10-employee multiple-function music business called Eat My Beats, into its 10,000-square foot digs.

In the first 900-square-foot Five Points (Cottondale) location, opened about 2002, the Rays’ business began as 90 percent records, with a little bit of sound equipment. The store doubled in size when a nearby company moved out, and the Rays took it over. With an increasing traffic in sound equipment rentals, however, they knew Eat My Beats needed a closer-to-the-University of Alabama location.

That meant moving to 1020 15th St., in a now-defunct shopping center, which again doubled the business’s available space. Rentals

continued, and Eat My Beats picked up more guitars and other instruments for sale. All this time the Rays continued to put the profits back into the business; she ran the store during daytime, and he’d come over after work at Jack Marshall.

Then two years ago in August, a new apartment building announcement forced them into relocation.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” she said. Having built strong customer relations over the years, the Rays felt central location wasn’t as crucial, so they opted instead for a warehousesized spot at 4755 Jug Factory Road, southwest of Walmart and clustered behind other Skyland Boulevard retail.

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MUSIC EAT MY BEATS EXTENDS BEYOND THE WALLS, WITH ITS EFFORTS REACHING OUT INTO THE COMMUNITY. THE RAYS HAVE COLLABORATED WITH THE CITY OF TUSCALOOSA ON THE LIVE AT THE PLAZA CONCERTS IN GOVERNMENT PLAZA, PROVIDING SOUND, STAGE, LIGHTS AND MORE.

“It was the only thing in Tuscaloosa we could find that was affordable, but big enough for what we had in mind,” Nikki Ray said.

The new Eat My Beats not only has the equipment rentals with storage room to spare, but also a larger retail equipment room, spaces for lessons and crucially, a high-ceilinged event space/party room about the size of half a basketball court, which is being rented for parties and other performances.

“We’ve gotten to where we’re hosting birthday parties every weekend,” often for children, with stages, lights, DJ service, and microphones for kids to sing along with the music, sort of like junior karaoke.

“A little kids’ nightclub is pretty much what it is,” she said.

Eat My Beats has also been home to a summer-long rock camp for kids; lessons in guitar, drums, piano, voice and saxophone; a dinner theater show and a concert or two (though with limited parking, and seating for only about 100, the Rays haven’t focused on that aspect of the party room).

But Eat My Beats extends beyond the walls, with its efforts reaching out into the community. The Rays have collaborated with the city of Tuscaloosa on the Live at the Plaza concerts in Government Plaza, providing sound, stage, lights and more, and recently worked the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater for its August Lance Hocutt Teacher Appreciation show.

“Production is crazy busy in here, this

>>

LEFT: Nikki and Matt Ray, owners of Eat My Beats in Tuscaloosa.

ABOVE: Holden Hughes, 13, learns to play “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from Travis Bostic during Rock Camp at Eat My Beats in July.

TOP: Eric Blevins, production manager with Eat My Beats, sets up sound equipment for a band before a night of entertainment at Government Plaza for Live at the Plaza in downtown Tuscaloosa.

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Students perform at the seventh annual Eat My Beats Rock Camp concert, following a weeklong camp held at the Eat My Beats production studio.

PATTERNED TIGHTS

FRINGE

TRENDS TO

SKINNY SCARVES

SPARKLE & SHINE

BELK WOMEN, BELK MEN, KIDS AND HOME, JCPENNEY, SEARS, CAFÉ COURT AND MORE!

+ UNIVERSITY-MALL.COM

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NATURAL PALETTE

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ABOVE: Austin Evans, 11, plays drums at the seventh Annual Eat My Beats Rock Camp concert, following a weeklong camp held at the Eat My Beats production studio.

LEFT: Peyton Ray, 12, follows the beat on tambourine at the concert.

time of year, with the college kids coming back,” she said, noting that “production” can cover lighting, video, staging, sound or other aspects of concerts, up to and providing DJ service, though not performers. Eat My Beats also installs sound and video systems in schools, churches and other facilities.

Aside from the Rays, who can obviously do their own books, the other Eat My Beats employees generally handle multiple duties: a guitar teacher probably also works in the retail space.

“It’s hard to keep somebody on just to do 10 or 20 lessons a week,” Nikki Ray said. “We have several people who DJ, but can also do things in the store.”

Having just made the big move a few years back, the Rays see the Jug Factory building as home for now.

“But we’re still a young company, so I don’t know, 10 years down the road, we might build,” she said. “We would love to be able to own our own facilities.”

The kids, thus far, are not interested in carrying forward the legacy.

“We have hopes for the one who’s just 10,” Nikki Ray said, laughing. “The rest have said negative, no way. I think they’ve had their fill.”

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GEAR, SERVICES, AND CAPABILITIES OF THE BUSINESS, VISIT WWW.EATMYBEATS.COM, OR CALL 205-7589119.

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You are welcome here.

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6 123456 MEET THE FOLKS WHO

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

IN OUR COMMUNITIES

intriguing people

MARTIN HOUSTON Pastor, Harvest Church; former UA football fullback

LOO WHITFIELD

Director of Education, Chamber of Commerce, and Director of AdoptA-School

BRUCE BURROWS

Military and commercial pilot; history teacher at UA College of Continuing Education Studies

MADONNA THOMPSON

Women’s Basketball Coach, Shelton State Community College

RICHARD CANEZ

Sniper Team Leader for Special Response Team, Tuscaloosa Police Department

JORDAN PLASTER

Organizer, Rotary Club Honor Flights for veterans

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE

NO.1

Martin Houston

PASTOR, HARVEST CHURCH; FORMER UA FOOTBALL FULLBACK

BY JAMON SMITH PHOTO BY ROBERT SUTTON

M

ost people probably know Martin Houston as the fullback on the University of Alabama’s 1992 national championship-winning football team.

But to those close to him, it’s not his football career that defines him. It’s his faith.

“It was when I got to UA and Dave Kemp began to disciple me that I got saved,” he said. “David had been meeting with me. Then I went home one weekend because I had been red-shirted and I went to church — Macedonia Baptist Church — and it was so different this time. It was different but I didn’t respond (to the call for salvation in church).

“So I’m driving to come back to Tuscaloosa listening to a sermon on the radio, and I began to weep. I turned around and went back home, and a pastor friend came by and led me through the sinner’s prayer. Then I turned around and drove back to Tuscaloosa, and my life has never been

the same. I had always loved church but didn’t have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”

That decision radically changed Houston’s life, perspective and his goals.

“I went from no longer seeing myself as a black American that was born a sinner that became a Christian,” he said. “I became a Christian who God allowed to be born black and a sinner. Everything in my life was redefined as being a Christian first. That’s hard for some people to hear and to accept. My opinion really doesn’t matter unless I’m going to the Bible to get my opinion.”

Several years after he converted to Christianity, he was ordained as a pastor. In 1999, he planted his first church on the Strip, where the restaurant Surin of Thailand is now located.

For five years, he led the church. It wasn’t a campus ministry, but nearly all of the church’s members were students.

As the church grew and more nonstudents joined, he realized the ministry wasn’t equipped to meet the needs of nonstudents, so he closed the church and joined Daystar Church as its lead evangelist and college pastor.

A few years later, Houston left Daystar and opened Catalyst Community Church in the old Wood Square Shopping Center on McFarland Boulevard on Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011. It was the first and only service the church ever had.

“We had that one service, and then the church was gone,” Houston said. “It was leveled the Wednesday after the opening service by the April 27, 2011, tornado.”

Houston said he knew God called him to be a pastor and was confident that God had led him to open a second church, but as people doubted and questioned him, he went into a deep period of prayer, searching for answers that he didn’t have.

“People asked me, did I feel that I had missed what God had said? I said no, because there was growth in the kingdom (of God). We had a couple people get saved even though we weren’t there that long. Then a pastor told me, ‘What if that was the life of that church and that’s what God had told you to do in that season?’ I didn’t want to hear that because the wound was fresh, but after praying for months, we realized that was the case.”

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE NAME: Martin Houston AGE: 45 PERSONAL: Wife, Cassandra; children, Xavier, 24; Precious, 21; Morgan, 14; and Simeon, 12.

HOMETOWN: Centre, Ala. WHY I DO WHAT I DO: I have a personal mission statement that says if I meet someone, or if someone meets me, their life is better off having met me than their life would have been otherwise. I believe the greatest gift out there is my faith, and that’s the greatest gift I have for others.

SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME: I think this would probably shock most people, but at a very early age I had some speech challenges,

PROUDLY SERVING

Tuscaloosa

and I had a very country accent. When I first came to Alabama, the players made fun of me so much because of the way I talked that I said one day I’m going to make my living with my mouth.

MY PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT: Outside of my faith and my family, winning the national championship in 1992.

THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE INFLUENCED MY LIFE: My mom, Nellie Barnett, was my first and greatest influence in terms of the work ethic. And then the next major influencer is my first Little League coach, Billy Wayne Kisor. Also, Dave Kemp, who worked for Athletes in Action campus-based Christian ministry. He taught me the importance of accountability and discipline in my Christian walk.

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Houston and many of Catalyst’s members joined First Wesleyan Church. He stayed for a few years and took a job working for Christian and sports radio shows. He wasn’t happy. He said the loss of Catalyst rocked his world.

“I felt like I had always been truly blessed with so much,” he said. “I felt like if I was not doing something big, I was not honoring God. Not out of arrogance, but I just felt like I had been blessed with so much.”

After about three years of staying low-key, Houston decided with some urging from his wife that he still wanted to achieve his dreams of owning his own business and being a senior pastor again.

In July 2014, he took a job with Alfa Insurance and started guest preaching. On Aug. 1 this year, he opened his own business, The Martin Houston Agency, as an independent contractor with Farmers Insurance.

In December, Houston became interim pastor of Harvest Church. In July, he was made lead pastor. The church is predominantly white, and he’s the first black pastor to serve in that role. He said he’s glad the church was open enough to choose a black pastor.

“In today’s culture, that is itself a testimony with all the racial stuff going on,” he said. “If you were to come right now, the youth pastor is black and I’m black. When we started, it was a white church and now we’re starting to get more diverse. Harvest will transition into a church that looks like heaven.”

Houston said he’s amazed at how God works. Through all his attempts at success, God let him fail. But when he gave up, God let him succeed.

“God made a claim to me by saying: ‘You honor me by being faithful wherever I put you,’ ” he said. “The very things I had spent so much of my adult life trying to make happen for 44 years, just started happening when I began to honor God where I was at. He made both of those things — business ownership and being a senior pastor — come to pass when I stopped trying.”

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE

NO.2

Loo Whitfield

DIR. OF EDUCATION, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, AND DIR. OF ADOPT-A-SCHOOL

BY ELAYNE SMITH PHOTO BY ROBERT SUTTON

L

oo Whitfield remembers a time her hands were dusty with chalk from the boards in her classroom and the heat waves of a Southern summer flowed into the school gymnasium undisturbed because of the lack of air conditioning. About 40 years later, after a short-lived retirement and with a determination to make a difference before her next retirement, Whitfield is still trying to make positive changes to continue the growth of education.

Whitfield is the director of education for the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama and the director of the Adopt-A-School program for the Tuscaloosa city and county school systems. This program connects local businesses with schools to provide services for which schools may not otherwise have the resources.

There are 58 schools with about 100 busi-

ness partners. Whitfield said each partnership is unique in its contributions for the school.

From career education to sponsorships to school projects, she said these relationships deepen students’ learning.

“It’s to enhance and enrich our schools, to provide things they can’t provide,” Whitfield said. “We give them new ideas, we train them and help them be a better partner, whether it’s a business or a school.”

Before working for the Chamber of Commerce, she developed a passion for education as a teacher. Whitfield’s teaching career started when she was in eighth grade. There weren’t enough lifeguards that year at her local pool, so she became an assistant lifeguard and taught swimming lessons. As she told kids how to kick their feet and move their arms, she was struck with pride as they developed the ability to swim, all because of her. From that point on, she knew she wanted to be a teacher.

“I’m really proud to be a part of helping someone be successful,” Whitfield said.

For 28 years, she taught in various high schools around Tuscaloosa, serving as the athletic director for Northridge High School in her last years. She retired in 2004, wanting to end her teaching career on a high mark.

Retirement didn’t last for Whitfield as she said she had only 11 blissful months of retirement before her high-energy spirit took her on a new path.

“I felt like there was something else for me to do,” Whitfield said. “I want in some way to try to make our community a better place.”

Each day is different in Whitfield’s office, offering her different challenges and responsibilities. Her biggest challenge is dealing with the constant change. As management shifts in businesses and administration alters in schools, Whitfield said she can struggle to keep up. In an ever-changing city, she tries to maintain and strengthen partnerships between schools and businesses.

“I think education is the one thing that no one can take away from you,” Whitfield said.

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE NAME: Loo Whitfield AGE: 60 PERSONAL: Husband, Gaius Whitfield V; sons, Gaius “Whit” Whitfield VI, 33, and Hunter Whitfield, 36; and granddaughter, Elizabeth Whitfield, 2.

HOMETOWN: Pell City, but I’ve lived in Tuscaloosa almost all my life.

THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE INFLUENCED MY LIFE: My mom both professionally and personally. She was a strong Christian lady. I modeled my teaching after her. She taught me the value in people and education. Both my parents gave me roots and wings. My husband is my rock and biggest cheerleader.

MY PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT: When I was hired to be the athletic director of Central High School in 2001, there were very few females who served in a role as high school athletic director in the state of Alabama. It was a pretty male-dominated position, and Central was one of the largest high schools in the state.

I often found myself in meetings and confer-

ences in a room full of men who were high school athletic directors. I worked very hard to be successful in that role and to earn the respect of my peers and coaches. Now, 14 years later, there are many females who serve in the role as high school athletic directors. I hope that my actions in some way helped pave the way for other females.

SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME: I’m pretty much an open book. I think my favorite sport and hobby is snow skiing, and if I had learned at age 20, not 40, my life would’ve been very different.

WHY I DO WHAT I DO: I want to some way try to make our community a better place, whatever I can do to make the future a better place. One of my mom’s favorite quotes was: “I am but one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.” And I feel like that’s probably why I feel driven to do what I do. Plus, Tuscaloosa is a great community, and I really believe in this program. I am passionate about improving our education system and I’m passionate about improving our community, and this seems to be where I was put to do that.

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“It is the key to being a successful person, which in turn makes us a successful community.”

A key aspect Whitfield focuses on is career readiness. She said she thinks it is so important because the students need as much exposure as possible to get different tastes of life.

“In teaching, we’re all different,” Whitfield said. “We all have different things to offer, different strengths and weaknesses.”

June marked Whitfield’s 10year anniversary as the director of education. In October, for the second time in her life, she will be retiring. She said there are various factors that led her to the decision, but she ultimately felt that it was time to let someone else bring their ideas. She said she hopes the program continues to grow.

“I’m ready to get up in the morning and do what I want to do,” Whitfield said. “Since turning 60, I’m in the fourth quarter and the fourth quarter is mine.”

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE

NO.3

Bruce Burrows MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL PILOT; HISTORY TEACHER, COLLEGE OF CONTINUING STUDIES

BY ROBERT DEWITT PHOTO BY ROBERT SUTTON

T

hese days, Bruce Burrows spends a good bit of his time teaching people about wars. He’s taught courses on World War I, World War II in Europe, World War II in the Pacific, Korea, Vietnam, the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte in addition to courses on modern China and the history of Russia.

But he also has firsthand experience. Burrows fought in Vietnam both on the ground and in the air.

“I flew 377 combat missions,” Burrows said.

On the ground, there isn’t a lot of glory or romance.

“People get killed,” he said. “You eat cold food all the time. You sleep in a hole. It‘s hotter

than hell. It rains all the time. You don’t have time to be scared. Everybody smells bad.”

In addition to flying during war, Burrows also flew during peace as an airline pilot.

He helped develop procedures that allowed airlines to use twin-engine jets instead of four-engine jets while crossing oceans. And he worked on a team that developed a procedure that taught pilots how to deal with wind shear — a phenomenon that caused a deadly Pan Am airlines crash in New Orleans in 1982.

“It saved a ton of lives,” Burrows said of the wind shear procedure.

Born in Boston and raised in New York, Burrows graduated from The Citadel in 1963 and went to U.S. Marine Platoon Leader School.

He finished first out of 545 men in his class and became an aviator and flew F-8 Crusader fighters.

But when he was sent to Vietnam, Burrows

was shifted to the Bird Dog, a Cessna 177 that directed naval gunfire and artillery fire.

“We were usually on the radio calling in artillery fire,” Burrows said. “We flew most of the time at 500 feet. It was the most fascinating flying I’ve ever done.”

Small and slow, the Bird Dog might not look like much. But Burrows’ command could unleash the full fury of the USS Missouri’s broadside of nine 16-inch guns. Not only did he direct their fire, but the ship’s guns were also under his control.

As close as 500 feet above the ground is to the action, Burrows would get even closer.

He was transferred to an infantry battalion in 1966.

“Every infantry battalion has two aviators assigned,” Burrows said. “One is a forward air controller and the other is the helicopter operations officer. I was the forward air controller.”

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE “THE THING I’M MOST PROUD OF IS THAT I GOT A MASTER’S DEGREE IN HISTORY,” BURROWS SAID. “I’VE BEEN TEACHING HISTORY FOR THE LAST NINE YEARS AT THE BRYANT CONFERENCE CENTER.” He wound up in Tuscaloosa because his wife has family in the area. Being near the University of Alabama opened up an opportunity for another career.

“The thing I’m most proud of is that I got a master’s degree in history,” Burrows said. “I’ve been teaching history for the last nine years at the Bryant Conference Center.”

The Osher Lifelong Learning Center has 1,100 students. Burrows had 110 people in his World War I class. He said they are all interested in learning, so he doesn’t have any problems with unmotivated students.

In 2009, he was awarded the College of Continuing Studies excellence in teaching award.

He considers it a high honor equal to the Distinguished Flying Cross, the 16 Air Medals and Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry he received during the war.

Burrows, his wife, their children and grandchildren all have college degrees, and all but one have advance degrees.

“I now value academic achievement over everything,” Burrows said.

AGE: 74 PERSONAL: Wife, Gay Marie Burrows; daughters, Katherine Hitchcock and Emily Burrows; grandchildren, Sarah Marie Hitchcock and James Bruce Hitchcock.

THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE INFLUENCED MY LIFE: My wife.

I’m adopted. She’s got six brothers and sisters. She knows how to work around other people. She taught me how to be receptive to other points of view.

SOMETHING PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME: My military awards. The Distinguished Flying Cross; the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross; 16 Air Medals.

MY PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT: Being named a manager of flight standards for United Airlines.

Rated as pilot in command in 11 transport aircraft.

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His job was to direct air cover for the ground troops. The Vietnam War was still in its building phase, and Burrows’ unit operated in the area from Hue, north to Dong Ha and west to the Laotian border. The area included the famous Khe Sanh fire base.

“We were out looking for guys,” he said.

“You patrol day and night.”

They operated in jungle so thick soldiers couldn’t see the sky. A pale green light filtered through the trees, and combat was in close quarters.

“If you’re in Vietnam for any length of time, you start carrying grenades, five or 10 of them,” Burrows said. “If you fire a rifle, they know where you are. If you throw a grenade, they don’t.”

Burrows wanted to fly again, and when his six-year obligation to the Marine Corps was complete, he resigned his commission to become a commercial airline pilot. He had a rare combination of managerial and flight instruction experience that allowed him to become a manager of flight standards for United Airlines.

NAME: Bruce Burrows

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE

NO.4

Madonna Thompson WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACH, SHELTON STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

BY JOEY CHANDLER PHOTO BY ROBERT SUTTON

W

alk into the office of Shelton State Community College women’s basketball coach Madonna Thompson, and you’ll see the portraits of her success.

Every Buccaneers team from the past 17 seasons is framed and hanging from a wall. They represent 17 years of hard work and of trial and error. Each team contributed to Thompson’s 447121 record and .787 winning percentage, which includes 10 conference championships and three runner-up finishes.

The former University of Alabama player can’t tell you the exact date she reached a certain coaching career milestone — although most of the occasions were marked by cake — but she can

look at every team picture and tell you what many of the players have gone on to accomplish since leaving Shelton State.

Thompson has coached teachers, coaches, military members, bankers, physical therapists and even a gastroenterologist. Her players have gone on to compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, NCAA Division I and Division II programs all across the nation. Before they leave Shelton State, Thompson teaches her players about the importance of hard work on and off of the court. She influences them to become winners, and to keep winning long after their playing days are over.

It was her own college coach, former Crimson Tide skipper Rick Moody, who helped Thompson land at Shelton State all those years ago, and she’s been paying it forward ever since.

“I keep in touch and I tell them a lot, when you come here you better use and abuse me

and (assistant coach) Chris Sanford. Leave an impression, because you are going to need people to help you get to where you want to be in this life,” Thompson said. “Just like coach Moody helped me get there, you’ve got to have help and people behind you that are saying good things about you and promoting you to get the good jobs and get into the good programs. I tell them you’ve got to start building bridges now, relationships, get out and meet and greet. Don’t stay in your bedroom. Go to class and get out and network, so down the line you are in the place you want to be.”

Winning has always been a big part of Thompson’s basketball career, starting at a young age. In 1988, she was a freshman on the Collinwood, Tenn. High School’s Class 1A state championship team. In the summer of 1990, she played on the Amateur Athletic Union 16 and under national

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE

HELLO FUTURE

NAME: Madonna Thompson AGE: 42 HOMETOWN: Collinwood, Tenn.

THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE INFLUENCED MY LIFE: I think several people have. Definitely my parents.

They’ve been my biggest fan base my entire life. My grandmother, who passed away recently, was another huge fan of mine, coming to ball games throughout my whole life no matter what I was doing. Some of the coaches that I have had. I’ve had several. I had four different high school coaches, and then of course I had coach (Rick) Moody at Alabama, so obviously I’ve taken a lot from all of them as I’ve chosen coaching as a profession.

Those have definitely had the biggest influence on me.

SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME: I have a little bit of a side of me that likes living on the edge, like riding dirt bikes, riding ATVs or Waverunners. I have a need to go fast. I love speed and I love being outside, kayaking and doing all of those other things I said or just being outside. I’ve always been an outdoors type.

MY PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT: Academically, the fact I got a master’s degree and athletically, that I played on a Final Four team and played at the University of Alabama.

WHY I DO WHAT I DO: It comes natural. I absolutely love basketball. I love the game and I love trying to figure out how to get the most out of the players that are playing for me. I love trying to figure out how to beat a team, and finding out their strengths and weaknesses. championship team with a squad from Alabama, which is where she was recruited by coach Moody. During her time with the Crimson Tide, Thompson played in the NCAA tournament all four years, and advanced to the Final Four as a junior.

Thompson graduated with a degree in speech pathology, but after being away from basketball for a couple of years, she was ready to get back to the game. She contacted Moody, who helped set her up with a few coaching opportunities, one of which was Shelton State.

Churning out winning teams year after year at the junior college level isn’t easy, and Thompson has looked forward to the challenge each year for the past 17 seasons. She has built up a program of success and consistency, and is happy to be at home on the court where she belongs.

“Coaching basketball and putting teams together year after year, especially at this level, because your teams look so different from year to year, is like constantly putting together a puzzle,” Thompson said. “It’s like constantly trying to put the pieces together, and it’s year after year and it never gets boring to me. I love the fact that we can win, and do win here. That’s obviously big, because some programs just cannot win for whatever reasons, but winning is big and we win a lot of games here, and that makes it fun.”

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NO.5

Richard Canez

SNIPER TEAM LEADER FOR SPECIAL RESPONSE TEAM, TUSCALOOSA POLICE DEPARTMENT

BY KARLEY FERNANDEZ PHOTO BY ROBERT SUTTON

H

e may not be named Chris Kyle, but Lt. Richard Canez is an American sniper all the same. With his military background and ability to lead and influence others, Canez embraces the many hats he wears for the Tuscaloosa Police Department, one hat reading Sniper Team Leader for the Special Response Team.

Canez has been a member of the SRT for about 15 years, and he holds more than 20 certificates, including NRA & FBI Firearms Instructor and Hazardous Material Technician.

He said he enjoys being in law enforcement, even though he once imagined he would be a businessman.

Canez joined the military as a member of

the Air Force Security Police. Sixteen years later, he retired and became a law enforcement officer.

“I enjoy my work,” Canez said. “I enjoy teaching other officers what to do and how to do it. I take it personally, you know. If I don’t train them right, they are likely to get hurt on the street.”

To those who did not know TPD has snipers, Canez reassures that his job is rarely worstcase scenario. Call-outs for the sniper team almost never involve making difficult decisions, such as aiming the gun’s crosshairs on a target. He said he recalls only one instance, about 15 years ago, when a sniper for the TPD had to take a shot.

As shots from the TPD firing range sounded, Canez recounted how he became a sniper.

While on a call-out as a member of the SRT,

the sniper team leader at that time asked him if he wanted to try out for a sniper position.

“Well, first you have to be good on the SRT team,” Canez explained. “You can’t just slough and then say, “Hey, I want to be a sniper.’ ” The sniper team consists of five TPD officers and one University of Alabama police officer who vote, and then team commanders decide whom they want to send to FBI sniper school. Canez was chosen in 2003.

Now, every other Thursday at SRT and sniper team training, Canez prepares officers for a variety of scenarios. He sets up different-sized targets and a variety of colored wires with numbers to aim at, and he puts the snipers at varying altitudes and distances where they are forced to make quick shots.

The longest shot made by a sniper on

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE CANEZ HOLDS MORE THAN 20 CERTIFICATES, INCLUDING NRA & FBI FIREARMS INSTRUCTOR AND HAZARDOUS MATERIAL TECHNICIAN. NAME: Richard Canez AGE: 55 PERSONAL: Wife, Debbie Canez, and children, Christina Canez Hamner, 23, and Dustin Canez, 29.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE INFLUENCED MY LIFE: My dad taught me hard work and diligence, but my mom showed me patience.

She was really patient and loving, and my dad was pretty strict, so they balanced each other out. Col. Bond was my commander in South Dakota when I was stationed there for four years. He taught me how to deal with subordinates in the best way. As an officer, he treated the enlisted with respect, which I respected.

Ken Swindle, who retired as chief of the Tuscaloosa

Police Department in 2008, was a great influence on me in terms of leadership. He knew I was a hard worker, and he put me in positions where I could succeed. My wife made me realize family always comes first. She made me a better husband and father.

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SOMETHING PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME: Nothing. I’m pretty much an open book.

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT: My proudest achievement is probably moving up in the department.

WHY I DO WHAT I DO: Well, I love to work hard. I am a very hard worker, and I want to serve the community. I want to change the negative outlook on law enforcement.

Canez’s team was 568 yards at a 12-by-20-inch target. Canez said he has had officers perform bus assaults and train in simulated high-stress environments. He instructs his trainees that they may face adversity in the media for making certain choices.

“I have to teach a use-of-force class, and I say, ‘Hey, you may have to make a decision one day where you will get criticized,” Canez said. “Are you prepared to do that?’ ” With police brutality accusations making headlines across the nation, Canez said it is critical to assure the community that the majority of law enforcement officers are doing their job. He said the use of cameras is important, because it allows for only accurate accounts of what a specific law enforcement officer is doing.

“Video is good,” Canez said. “It saves a lot of officers, even if sometimes it shows officers doing something wrong.”

He said that while he does not necessarily think all officers in certain high-profile cases were doing the right thing, he does believe most law enforcers follow the rules and make good decisions. He stressed the importance of the community’s knowledge that the TPD is on its side, to help in any situation.

Canez has grown to love his team and his role. Other team members’ teasing comments and Canez’s infectious grin give the impression of a great relationship among the officers and their lieutenant.

“I do a lot of paperwork,” Canez said. “Working for the police department is not a glorious job. But I just see this as a stepping stone to becoming captain.”

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NO.6

Jordan Plaster ORGANIZER, ROTARY CLUB HONOR FLIGHTS FOR VETERANS

BY ED ENOCH PHOTO BY ROBERT SUTTON

F

inancial adviser Jordan Plaster will tell you he is not a storyteller, but he has been witness to hundreds of stories during the past five years as he and fellow Tuscaloosa Rotarians have shepherded aging veterans to Washington, D.C., and the memorials dedicated to their service.

The day trips from Tuscaloosa to the U.S. capital have been the stage for reunions of friends and comrades and other poignant moments. One veteran took his first anxious flight aboard a plane since his war years, when his job was shooting them down. A World War II veteran was able to see for the first time in person his son’s name on the panels of the Vietnam memorial.

“There are so many stories. It wouldn’t do it justice to tell two or three,” Plaster said.

But it is important to Plaster that the veterans’ stories of service are preserved, retold and remembered. The marathon trips to Washington become moments of reflection but also chances for the veterans to share their stories with the people they meet.

“We can’t forget the sacrifices they made in that time. The World War II generation, they not only saved us; they saved the world,” he said.

Plaster insists he is merely the logistics man, part of the local team that made the Honor Flights in West Alabama possible.

Plaster’s involvement with the flights began in 2009 on a May afternoon as he watched a jet arrive at the Montgomery Regional Airport before a waiting crowd. Plaster’s father was among a group of veterans returning from an Honor Flight.

Plaster returned to Tuscaloosa captivated by the idea of organizing an Honor Flight in West Alabama. He was beginning his term as president of the Rotary Club of Tuscaloosa and was looking for a project.

“After I got home, my wife told me to hush, I was talking about it so much,” Plaster said.

He talked about it for two weeks.

“It was something I felt a real calling to do,” Plaster said.

The spectacle of the homecoming reception resonated with Plaster. Family members and well-wishers gather at the airport to welcome the veterans back. The veterans are exhausted after a 15-hour day of travel, but Plaster said they perk up as they arrive to a crowd waiting for them with a color guard, music and flags.

“They sit up out of those wheelchairs and march down those steps,” he said.

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6 INTRIGUING PEOPLE

“WE CAN’T FORGET THE SACRIFICES THEY MADE IN THAT TIME. THE WORLD WAR II GENERATION, THEY NOT ONLY SAVED US; THEY SAVED THE WORLD,�

PLASTER SAID. AGE: 59 PERSONAL: Wife, Jenny; daughter-in-law and son, Elizabeth and Harry Shumaker; and grandson Harry, 1.

HOMETOWN: Autaugaville and Tuscaloosa THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE INFLUENCED MY LIFE: My parents, grandmothers and various teachers and coaches throughout high school, college and my professional career. My wife, Jenny, has been a steady influence in keeping me balanced between work, home and all the extra activities.

SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME: That I grew up on a farm and learned how to operate heavy machinery at an early age. The farm work taught me about work ethic and responsibility. We were

always repairing equipment, which challenged us to solve problems quickly. I even drove a school bus route part time during my last two years of high school!

MY PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT: Settling down in Tuscaloosa with a good career, a fine family and being involved in leadership roles in various community activities.

WHY I DO WHAT I DO: I like helping people and being involved in community activities. Particularly, I like working with other people to find solutions and make things happen. I am very competitive with an inner drive to obtain the best results in anything that I try. My professional work enables me to help clients achieve their financial goals. Community activities allow me to work with a large variety of people to reach a common goal.

Plaster has bundles of thank-you letters from veterans and their families.

It’s their appreciation for the trip that Plaster enjoys most. “Why did I not quit? Because of those letters ... those people who deserve those trips,� Plaster said.

The club’s first flight took place in 2010 after a year of training and planning. Its most recent was in May. The Rotary Club is considering its seventh flight for sometime in 2016, Plaster said. The group must raise money to cover the debt from the 2015 flight and the funds needed for the 2016 flight. “I get three calls a week to get the opportunity to fly on the Honor Flight,�

Plaster said.

Sitting in his Tuscaloosa office behind a desk covered with mementos from past flights, Plaster said he continues to plan the flights because there are still veterans who have not made the trip and deserve the chance. “There are so many people who haven’t had the opportunity to go and want to. They might not be here next year,� he said.

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9/1/15 11:17 AM

ON THE SCENE

YMCA’S

I BELIEVE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN LUNCHEON

JUNE 2, 2015 EMBASSY SUITES HOTEL PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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Al Cabaniss and Karis Lamb Wilson Jen Bagley and Gina McClanahan Walt Larisey and Jim Harrison Jr. Wes York and Tim Parker Jim Page, Matt Feller and Donny Jones Sheila Myrick, Lakeda Smith, Barett Amato and Ashley Waid Lucinda Coulter, Robert Archibald and Susan Page Ralph Quarles and Jerry Ramey Jim Sokol, Carleton Sokol, Bruce Sokol and Connor Breslin Glenn Baxter, Jack Evans and Scott McClanahan Andrew Jackson and Mike Reilly Jennifer Hayes, Ashley Olive and Jessie Jones Jackie Wuska, Nikki Richardson and Tut Wilson

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ON THE SCENE

ALABAMA WRITERS HALL OF FAME JUNE 8, 2015 BRYANT CONFERENCE CENTER PHOTOS | MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

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1. Anna Harris McCarthy, Diane Naylor and Trudier Harris 2. Barney March III, Barney March Jr. and Katherine March 3. Karen Gardiner, Michael Martone and Patti White 4. Nancy Grisham Anderson and Donna Estill 5. Louis Pitschmann and Mungu Sanchez 6. Jeannie Thompson, Rick Bragg and Sonia Sanchez 7. Jeanette VanderMeer and Sara Barger 8. Paul Fields and Loretta Fields 9. Katie Jackson and Jennifer Horne 10. Bert Hitchcock and Mary Lou Meaher 11. Donna Russell and Bob Russell 12. Patrick Coryell and Alina Stefanescu

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ON THE SCENE

PILLARS OF WEST ALABAMA JUNE 25, 2015 INDIAN HILLS COUNTRY CLUB PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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John Paluzzi, Mary Bess Paluzzi, Libby Shaw and Bob Shaw Beth Allaway, Katie Allaway and Barbie Cleino Glenn Taylor and Larry O’Neal David Fitts and Thomas Humber Sandy Witt and Nanci Stewart Walter Gary, Betsy Gary and Paul Bryant Paul Bryant, Chip Burkes and Mistie Burkes Bobby Ingram, Verta Barr Meherg and James Meherg Voncile Pearce, Scott Bridges and Mary Jo Modica Josephine Lawley, William Lawley and Frankie Burton Michael Warr, Hugh Stegall and Marlin Moore Karen Ivy and Scott Darling

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1

ON THE SCENE

MR. PIG GOES TO MARKET JULY 17, 2015 TUSCALOOSA RIVER MARKET

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PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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Emma Grace Sims and Hayden Welborn Marty Sullivan and Marilyn Sullivan Jack DiBenedetto, Helen Carden and Grif Carden Madden North, Jim North and Catherine North Nick Selman and Lisa Selman Wendi Welborn, Brenda Welborn and Jay Welborn Wendi Welborn and Lynn Irby Tina Murphy and Ron Murphy McKayla Sanders, Tonya Sanders and Holly Bannerman Mary Jane Anderson and Mark Anderson Jean Channell and Harvey Rosen Heather Deason and Brian Deason

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ON THE SCENE

GLAM SOIREE

BENEFITTING THE TUSCALOOSA BACKPACK COALITION

AUGUST 21, 2015 HOME OF JESSICA & MARIO CRISTOBAL PHOTOS | ERIN ENLSON

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1. Betsy McAusland, Carlley Beeker, Mary Glynn Colgrove and Julie Purinton 2. Jessica Cristobal and Kasey Weatherly 3. Ashlee Thompson and Joylyn Boggs 4. Kaylee Dickens and Sauphia Lanning 5. Anna Kay Springer and Jeanne Dillman 6. Pilar Walker and Julie Purinton 7. Meredith Hocutt Wright, Eric Ellis and Barbie Perry 8. Brandi Bronold and Kasey Weatherly

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MINOR-SEARCY-OWENS OPEN HOUSE JUNE 2, 2015 MINOR-SEARCY-OWNES HOUSE

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PHOTOS | MIKE MCCRACKEN

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3 4 1. Ivey Gilmore and Susie Carver 2. Appie Millsaps, Michael Ford, Mickey Turner and Mike Turner 3. Bill Donald and John Owens 4. Staff members of Owens & Millsaps, LLP 5. Courtney Robertson and Denitha Robertson 6. Jim Owens, Lynne Owens and Jim Davidson

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COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION AUGUST 27, 2015 CYPRESS INN PAVILION

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PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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8 1. Milton Chancellor, Kirk Patterson, Derek Cassels, Charlie Bailey and Patrick Hamner 2. Sherri Gendreau, Michael Gendreau, Gina Chancellor and Milton Chancellor 3. Megan Galaviz and Clint York 4. Kris Hall and Stephen Hall 5. Blakely Ellis, Ray Cole, Johanna Gould and Cindy Stephenson 6. David Reynolds and Chas Haun 7. Dana Rester and Tommy Rester 8. Stacey Standeffer and King Curry 9. Gwen Reynolds and Dough Reynolds 10. Tom Meriwether and Libby Cochrane 11. Rickie Harp, Amanda Chandler and Greg Howell 12. Mike Steinberg and Barbara Schlichtman

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ON THE SCENE

GULF COAST JUBILEE

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ON THE SCENE

NORTHPORT FIRE RESCUE DEDICATION OF FIRE STATION NO. 2

JUNE 18 , 2015 FIRE STATION NO. 2

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PHOTOS | LAUREN DESENO & LAYTON DUDLEY

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1. Cameron Shipley and Jason Norris 2. Jimmie Davis and Jay Logan 3. Caleb Blazer, Brooke Blazer and Julia Blazer 4. Keith Scott, Lance Wyatt and Tim Harrison 5. James Jones and Matt Parker 6. June Hubbard, Paul Hubbard, John Hinton and Lucien Lewis 7. Todd Payne, Thomas Waters and Donny Carruth

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MULLET TOSS BENEFITING ARTS ‘N AUTISM

AUGUST 8, 2015 INNISFREE IRISH PUB PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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4 1. (Back row) Ali Bruce, Austin Piazza, Alexa Argianas, Kevin Combs and Victoria Roberts, (front row) Amanda Askew Kearney, Mary Jane Moore, Kristin Blakeney, Sarah Halliday, Kait Glass and Brian Hamilton 2. Sarah Nelle Lasseter and Kristin Blakeney 3. Quentin Poole and Chris Osberry 4. Kait Glass, Amanda Askew Kearney, Kristin Blakeney, Mary Jane Moore and Sarah Halliday 5. Ashley Perry and Voni Wyatt 6. Justin Mixon and Taylor Kerekes

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ON THE SCENE

PULLIN’ FOR THE ARC JULY 18, 2015 UNIVERSITY MALL PARKING LOT PHOTOS | MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

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11 1. Amber Watson, Ashley Midgette, Claire Henderson and Kathleen Reeves 2. Morgan McKinney, Sarah Clifton, Amanda Morel, Valerie Brazzolotto and Shayna Groh 3. Mary Bryan, Lottie Bryan, Ella Bryan and Rebecca Brooks 4. Wes Pate, Anna Junkin, Kristie Pate and Wyatt Pate 5. Erica Eatmon and Jordyn Eatmon 6. Betsy Hope and Delaine Stricklin 7. Tess Tarrillion, Hart Hoeffner, Alisha Henderson, Maggie McCabe and Mattie Hulett 8. Barbara Kucharski and Marcia Hay-McCutcheon 9. Emma Jordan and Karla Jordan 10. P. J. Dickey, Kelly Dickey and Emma Kate Dickey 11. Troy Nicholson, Kendrick Smith and K.J. Smith 12. Alyssa Libbert, Tate Fuller, Elizabeth Ezzo, Rachel Dean, Valeria Swartz-Diaz and Alvetta Jones 13. Lacie Nail, Amanda Lyons, Bryson Sharp, Lanna Johnson and Candace Sharp

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ON THE SCENE

RECEPTION FOR UA PRESIDENT STUART BELL JULY 28, 2015 EMBASSY SUITES PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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1. Peter Millet, Stuart Bell, Andrea Mayfield and Ken Tucker 2. Libby Shaw, Debbie Reich and Philip Reich 3. Jonathan Koh, Matt Calderone and Jonathan Hood 4. Roger Sayers, Kellee Reinhart and Claude Edwards 5. Ronald Range, Byron Abston, Lisa Waldrop and Cooper Shattuck 6. Donny Jones, Carl Pinkert and Roger Sayers 7. Samory Pruitt, Jim Page and Dan Blakeley 8. Byron Abston, Dr. Andrea Mayfield and Shannon Chandler 9. Susan Bell, Stuart Bell and Carl Jamison 10. Sam Faucett, Kristi Acker and Stan Acker 11. Bob Shaw, Emory Cox, David Grady and John Merrill 12. Roy Moorer and Cassandra Moorer

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ON THE SCENE

SHRIMPFEST AND BBQ BENEFITTING EAGLES’ WINGS

AUGUST 1, 2015 DOWNTOWN NORTHPORT PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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ON THE SCENE

UNITED WAY KICK OFF LUNCHEON

AUGUST 11, 2015 BRYANT CONFERENCE CENTER PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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Walt Larisey, Barett Amato and Ashley Waid Anda Allen, Carol Woodard and Matt Arnold Laura Chism, Leif Hampton and Joanne Jannik Joseph Sewell and Monique Montgomery Sabrina Thomas and Jeanene McCaa Poodgie Poole, Jimmy Warren and Mark Sullivan Mary Ann Hall and Judy Brown Byron Abston and Jordan Plaster Ruth Gaddis and Mary Jolly Lynsey Dill and Caroline Williams

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THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA

AUGUST 13, 2015 THE ZONE AT BRYANT-DENNY STADIUM

ON THE SCENE

TUSCALOOSA COUNTY ALUMNI CHAPTER PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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ON THE SCENE

“PUTTING THE PUB IN PUBLIC RADIO” BENEFITTING ALABAMA PUBLIC RADIO

AUGUST 22, 2015 DRUID CITY BREWING COMPANY

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PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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AUGUST 24, 2015 WVUA DIGITAL MEDIA CENTER AT BRYANT-DENNY STADIUM

1

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ON THE SCENE

WVUA PREMIER PARTY PHOTOS | MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER

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1. David DuBose, Ben Ellis, Rick Dowling and Dave Baughn 2. Jan Simpson and Donnie Simpson 3. Margaret Williams and Cecil Williams 4. Barbara Dowdle and Shayne Dowdle 5. Ricky Mink and Jeannie Mink 6. Regina Lewis, Jay Waters and Teri Henley 7. Danny Salter and Bobby Herndon 8. Keith Carpenter, Chris Stewart, Carrie Baker and Shane Spiller 9. Antoine Bell, Guillaume Slama and Kristen Walker 10. Willie A Jemison and Ola Cephus 11. Ethel Taylor, Lovell Taylor Jr. and Rodney Pelt 12. Tate Espey, Ford Espey and Mel Espey 13. Kevin Corcoran and Vikki Vandiver

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ON THE SCENE

LINCOLN - REAGAN DINNER AUGUST 25, 2015 THE ZONE AT BRYANT-DENNY STADIUM PHOTOS | ERIN NELSON

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1. Chip Grinkmeyer, Christina Grinkmeyer and Jackson Ulmer 2. Judith Brown and Greta Greene 3. Lynn White and Drew White 4. Rodney Connell and Morgan Connell 5. George Hodgson, Nancy Cobb and Richard Cobb 6. Johnny Dyer, Richard Stevens and Jim Massengale 7. Kim Reddoch, Teresa Beeker and Leslie Abernathy 8. Bill Noble and B.J. Guenther 9. David Spencer and Greg Waldrop 10. Dalton Dismukes, Katy Hart and Jim Gentry 11. Richard Hastings and Jordan Hastings 12. Rebekah Beal and Brent Beal

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