A 'second life' for Habitat ReStore worker

Photo by Kelly Lambert


Jennifer L. Johnson | news@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 12:20 am on 10/29/2009

A chair with a broken seat, another missing a leg and a cradle with splintered wood held together by metal clamps take up most of the space on Lee Green's work bench.

He pushes aside sandpaper, a can of varnish, nails and bits of broken molding to reach the wood glue he needs to fix the latest project he's working on.

It's Green's own little slice of heaven.

"I wake up just to come here in the morning," said Green, 56. "This is an awesome job, because it's right down my alley."

Green began working at ReStore, the Athens Area Habitat for Humanity's thrift store, three months ago thanks to an Athens Community Council on Aging program that places older people at nonprofits and government agencies to be trained for new jobs.

The program is open to citizens 55 and older, though its funding stipulates that the program give first consideration to veterans and the disabled.

Green had a stroke in 2006.

"It all fit together perfectly," said Michelle Brinson, the director of the Senior Community Service Employment Program. Because the program aims to place older workers in "green" jobs that match a client's work history, skills and interests, Brinson thought Habitat's ReStore was the perfect place for Green.

Green uses building materials like scrap wood to fix broken pieces of furniture that will sell at up to 90 percent of their retail value.

"I normally try not to spend too much time on one piece," Green said. "I only work four hours a day. If it's real bad, I just say, 'Hey, I'll use this piece to fix something else.' "

The thrift store kept 150 tons of reusable material out of landfills last year, according to Spencer Frye, Athens Area Habitat for Humanity executive director.

ReStore accepts a variety of donations, from books and clothes to furniture and building materials.

"It's a place where the community can donate lots of things and also buy items that might otherwise be in a landfill," Frye said. "A lot of our customers are low-income clientele, so it kind of provides a dual service to the community that we're trying to help."

ReStore is good for two reasons - it helps keep useable items out of the landfill, while making money for Habitat - and Green's work helps both of those goals.

Green's work allows ReStore to accept more items - things that are used to the point that they need a little work to be valuable again - and make already useful items more attractive for sale at the 12,000-square-foot warehouse on Barber Street, according to Frye.

Green moved to Athens at 20, when the Job Corps sent him here to help build the University of Georgia's library. He later worked installing custom cabinets at Athens Lumber Co. He now uses those skills every day.

"Mr. Green - even though he's elderly - has got a lot to give to the community," Frye said. "He has transformed the way that store operates."

Each of the pieces of furniture that Green has worked on sport a bright green tag that lets people know the furniture has been repaired. They even bear his name.

"With the tags, we can show the board of directors how much Mr. Green saved from the landfills and how much money he generated for Habitat projects," Frye said.

Green is hoping those numbers will help him secure a permanent place at ReStore.

"I love it here," he said. "I'm tickled to death every day that I get to give things a second life like I have."

ReStore is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. To learn more about the Senior Community Service Employment Program, visit the Web site www.accaging.org.



This story was published with a wonderful photo slide-show narrated by Mr. Green. Watch it at: http://multimedia.onlineathens.com/flash/2009/102909_MrLeeGreen/

Pumpkins all around at church sale

Garrett Smith, 1, looks over a pumpkin at the Winterville United Methodist Church pumpkin patch on Sunday. Photograph by Richard Hamm


by Jennifer L. Johnson

It normally takes about five months for a pumpkin to grow to maturity, but the front lawn of Winterville United Methodist Church turned orange overnight.

Nearly 800 pumpkins have arrived on the lawn facing Main Street in the Winterville city square for the church's second annual Pumpkin Patch, a sale benefiting the church's ministries.

"This year the pumpkins are bigger and better looking," said JoAnn Snow, Winterville UMC outreach and mission chairwoman and Pumpkin Patch coordinator. "They're much better than last year's delivery."

The pumpkins come from an Indian reservation in New Mexico, and last year before the church received the delivery, a three-day freeze damaged or destroyed many of the 500 pumpkins that made their way to Winterville.

"We threw out more than we sold," Snow said.

After all of their expenses last year, the Pumpkin Patch only made $141.

"Despite that, we felt that the camaraderie of the volunteers and our impact on the community was worth the cost of continuing this year," Snow said. "Last year was a very enjoyable experience for everyone."

The Pumpkin Patch quickly became popular with local day care groups and pre-school classes. At $1 a child, groups brought children to see the pumpkins, have story time, take a hay ride, play in the church's playground and shoot a group picture in the patch's fall-themed photo center.

The photo center was such a big hit last year that program leaders decided to leave it up until Thanksgiving, according to Snow.

"I remember driving down the street in the evening well into November and seeing families taking pictures of their kids on the bench," Snow said.

About 50 church volunteers - nearly a third of the church's membership - will be taking shifts at the Pumpkin Patch before the end of the month.

The Pumpkin Patch has mini-pumpkins for table decorations, huge carvers for the front stoop, and all the sizes in between, as well as gourds like swan and star gourds. Prices range from tiny pumpkins for $1 to huge pumpkins at $40.

"Fruits of the Vine," a cookbook of pumpkin recipes from the church, is free with any purchase of $20 or more.

While this year's crop is a treat, Snow told volunteers on opening day about the trick that she'd just discovered: A misprint in the cookbooks means some pages are upside down.

"So if anyone should make mention of it," Snow said, "Just tell them that it's the trick of trick or treat."

Winterville's family-friendly Halloween celebration will be the church's Fall Festival on Oct. 24 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The event is open to the public and will have free hot dogs and drinks while supplies last. In addition to the pumpkins and gourds still for sale, there will be games for the kids, face-painting and hay rides.

Volunteer Bob Liedberg can't wait.

"What was great about the Fall Festival was it was everybody coming together-not just the congregation but the community, too," Liedberg said. "Things like this really bring a place together."

The Pumpkin Patch is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.


Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday, October 19, 2009

NASA visit aims to inspire young minds

Photograph by Kelly Lambert

by Jennifer L. Johnson

Drew Brantley called the Kennedy Space Center in August trying to find a space suit from an old shuttle mission to show his science class. Instead, NASA lent him a couple of rocks - from the moon.

Along with the lunar rocks came Lester Morales, an educational outreach specialist with NASA's Aerospace Education Services Project. Morales came to Athens Academy this week to tell students and teachers about upcoming NASA missions, discovering planets with Earth-like atmospheres and lethal lunar soil - all to inspire kids to learn and consider working for NASA.

"Getting this program to come to the school was great because they have all of these great resources for pre-K to college students," Brantley said. "And this entire week's worth of stuff is not costing the school a dime."

Morales sent 150 imaginations soaring into our atmosphere when he visited third-grade, sixth-grade and high-school science classes to share information NASA scientists learned in the last 50 years. Students and their families got a chance to gaze at lunar rock samples from the 1969 to 1971 Apollo missions at a Family Night presentation about NASA careers Wednesday.

Sixth-grader Grace Trimpe, 12, was over the moon at Morales' visit.

"I'm really learning a lot, and it's been really fun," Grace said. "I am really inspired by it."

Morales used videos and a math equation to challenge Grace's class to compare the diameters of the Earth and the moon. The prize for the correct answer was a laminated bookmark containing a piece of cloth that had been in space.

"It's a fun class," she said. "I love astronomy and I hope to become an astronomer and a meteorologist."

NASA is looking for students like her.

Within 10 years, 40 percent of NASA's current workers will leave - either for other jobs or retirement - leaving opportunities for bright young minds, according to Morales.

"Every single student sitting in the audience - you are the next generation of explorers," said Morales. "NASA definitely wants all of you out there to partake in this adventure."

And kids don't have to wait until they're grown, Morales said. Through programs like Inspire, which gives high school students all sorts of opportunities including an eight-week paid internship, students can work side-by-side with scientists on projects or make inventions that may be used in space.

When Morales was an instructor with the program two years ago, one of his high school-age students designed a new type of lock that NASA will begin using on future shuttles.

"He had a new idea that was better than what the scientists had been using, and NASA recognized that," Morales told students.

Younger kids can contribute, too.

Middle-school students have that opportunity in a contest that challenges them to design a recycling mechanism that will be used in space.

"I've always been interested in recycling, but doing it in space is really cool," said 11-year-old Sean Murphy. "We don't want to leave our waste on someone else's planet."

NASA even is involving elementary school students with two ongoing competitions that piqued the interest of Athens Academy students.

NASA recently teamed up with Disney Parks to send the Pixar "Toy Story" space ranger, Buzz Lightyear, into orbit for 150 days. Kids can design Buzz's patch, a unique emblem that astronauts wear to designate the trip's purpose, in the Mission Patch Design Challenge.

Elementary school science classes also can design and perform an experiment with everyday classroom objects in the Kids in Micro-g competition. If NASA scientists pick a class' idea for an experiment, astronauts at the International Space Station will perform the experiment and broadcast it around the world.

NASA will host an event at the winning school, complete with a visit from an astronaut and the lunar rocks. Morales encouraged Athens Academy students to compete.

"I want to come back to this school for that big event," Morales said. "That is my challenge to you."

After nearly a week of learning from Morales, Athens Academy students were gazing skyward and thinking about making their own marks in the Milky Way.

"I hope to do some of the competitions he talked about," Grace said.

Brantley, the teacher who helped bring NASA to Athens Academy, will try to keep the spirit of exploration alive and may try some of the experiments in his class.

Sean wasn't really into astronomy before he began learning about space in Brantley's class.

"I'd always thought that marine biology was cool," he said. "But now, I'm learning that there's a lot of really interesting stuff going on below our feet and above our heads."

Morales spoke to science teachers about engaging students like Sean during the school's faculty development day Monday. He also conducted Lunar Rock Certification sessions with teachers that will enable them to handle and request some of the samples of lunar and meteor rocks that NASA loans to schools across the country.

"There are a finite number of samples that have been brought back from the moon that can go visit schools," said Pat Cuneo, curriculum and instruction director at Athens Academy. "This is an exciting program for our students and teachers."

Students, parents and teachers can find information about NASA's contests and programs at www.nasa.gov.
Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, October 16, 2009

Hearing planned on project for disabled

by Jennifer L. Johnson


WINTERVILLE - The Winterville Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing next month about a new zoning class proposed by a nonprofit working to build a community for developmentally disabled people.

Sycamore Ridge supporters are working to build a community in Winterville where disabled people could live and work meaningful jobs.

After trying to rezone an 87-acre tract of land on Parkview Drive - and failing because the existing zoning classes don't include a use like Sycamore Ridge - the nonprofit proposed its own "assisted residential district."

"Unfortunately, your existing zoning regulations didn't have a place for us to fit," land planner Jon Williams of Williams and Associates told planning commission members Monday night, when he presented the three-page document.

The new zoning class would allow assisted-living communities for people with physical or developmental disabilities.

The commission is required to conduct a public hearing, which will be held at the November planning meeting.

Meanwhile, Winterville planning officials are reviewing the proposal.

"We have (the text amendment wording) out to legal authorities and the Georgia Municipal Association," said planning commission Chairman David Dreesen. "This would be a major change to the city to incorporate a new zoning district."

The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 2, likely in the Winterville Depot or the Winterville Elementary School because of the large turnout at a public meeting about Sycamore Ridge in August.

While planning commissioners are open to public comments.

"At that time, it would be our intention to vote to recommend or not recommend the new district to the mayor and the city council,” Dreesen said.

While planners are considering only whether to add a zoning class, Sycamore Ridge supporters expect to hold another round of public hearings before city leaders decide whether to rezone any specific tract of land.

"We think everything is on track," said Nicholas Harris, executive director of Sycamore Ridge. "This works in our favor because now we have more time to fund-raise more dollars."

Citizens should put their comments into writing for the commission to consider before the hearing, which doesn't yet have a set location, Dreesen said.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story contained an incomplete quote from Winterville planning commission Chairman David Dreesen.

Blueprint: Growth Fund gives boost to small businesses

Photographs by Kelly Lambert


by Jennifer L. Johnson

When Brian Molloy was a kid, he used to hang around the bike section of a Connecticut sporting goods store so often that its employees eventually thrust a broom at him.

"They had me sweep in the back room and break down cardboard boxes for a while before they let me tinker with the bikes," Molloy said.

Today, Molloy has his own shop, where he tinkers with bikes, sells them and maintains them.

The Hub Bicycles, 1245 S. Milledge Ave., was born in 2001, when Molloy and a former business partner got a loan from the Athens-Clarke Human and Economic Development Department to open shop.

The Athens-Clarke County Growth Fund is a five-year loan available to small businesses to create jobs for low-wage workers residing in the county. Loans generally are awarded to companies that can't get full funding from a bank.

"That's where the Growth Fund comes in," said Catherine Hogue, the community economic development coordinator at the HED. "Really, businesses might not get started without this injection of funds."

The loan requires businesses to create at least one full-time job for every $35,000 borrowed, with more than half of those filled by individuals at or below moderate income levels.

The Hub was given a $25,000 loan, which the partners paid back about 18 months early. The company had no problem meeting the loan's requirements, said Molloy, now the sole proprietor. The Hub now employs four people, including 24-year-old Mark Schroeder.

"Athens is a great place for bikes and has a good cycling community," Schroeder said. "But without the loan, they couldn't have opened."

More than a dozen Growth Fund loans have been made to the Athens-Clarke business community, mostly to local and family-owned restaurants.

"Providing jobs is what we're expecting companies to do," Hogue said.

Creating those jobs wasn't hard, Molloy said.

The Hub outfits seasoned cyclists to inexperienced riders, and most customers come into the store with questions.

"You literally have to help every single customer who comes in," said Schroeder, who has worked there for four years. Most customers come into the store three or four times before they purchase a bike, according to Schroeder.

"We really, really take a lot of pride in taking care of our customers," Molloy said. "My guys are great. They make everyone feel really comfortable."

Providing jobs to Athens residents has become increasingly important to Human and Economic Development.

"We're not seeing any job creation right now," Hogue said. "Right now, we're all about job retention."

Molloy has seen some friends move out of Athens to find good work.

"No one wants to leave Athens. They leave because they have to," Molloy said. "Unless you're your own businessman, it's hard to stay here."

The Hub is here to stay, Molloy says. Despite a tanking economy, last year was a good year for the bike shop because rising gas prices got people out of their cars and onto two wheels. Sales increased by about 20 percent, according to Molloy. By January, when gas prices returned to normal, so did their business.

"We're doing well," Molloy said. "We're selling fun."

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday, October 05, 2009