Month: December 2013

Unusual Art

A great inspiration

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Matthew Pope
Past photos courtesy of Jamie Truitt

Perhaps it’s the honk of a car horn accompanied by a neighborly wave and a smiling face behind the wheel. Perhaps it’s a stranger’s knock at the door to say, “Thank you.” Or the note tucked inside the ear of a bunny rabbit fashioned from hay, spray paint and water noodles.

Whatever the motivation, the seasonal work of art using a hay bale as the canvas on U.S. 231 South in Cropwell has become a source of inspiration — not only for those passing by, but for the artist herself.

The tradition began three years ago, when Jamie Truitt’s mother moved into her Cropwell home with husband Don. The wide-open field out front, facing the heavily traveled U.S. 231, seemed the perfect spot for a decorated hay bale, traditionally a fall custom.

“I always wanted a hay bale decorated,” said Ann Arnett. She asked her artistic daughter if she could decorate it. “She took off with that.”

The first was at Halloween, and it was not planned beyond that. But the reaction from people was so great, it continued. Christmas, Easter, back to school, Jamie’s daughter Katie-Ann’s birthday and, of course, the holiday that started it all — Halloween — all find thousands of passersby turning their heads toward the open field. And their smiles aren’t far behind.

The creativity behind it starts with a simple pencil sketch. By the end, water noodles become ears for an Easter bunny or birthday candles on a cupcake. Landscaping fabric turns into the wings of a giant bat. Chicken wire and mesh become the tools of her work.

Pumpkins, a spider, a Christmas present, a clown and countless other ideas go from paper to straw courtesy of imagination, artistic ability and a generous gift of the hay bale itself from Jacob Mitchell.

“Tons of spray paint” transform her hay bale canvas into whimsical works of art and a gift to strangers and neighbors passing by each day.

“People have stopped,” Jamie said. “They get out of their car and walk over. They say it makes them smile. It brightens up their dreary ride going to work.”

Two little boys whose mother is a friend of Jamie’s were overheard betting on what the next hay bale would include. One predicted a smiley face. Imagine the excitement of those little boys on their ride to school when that smiley face actually appeared.

Stories of that hay bale and its impact abound. One passerby left a note saying they were very thankful for her doing it. “They were going through a rough situation, passed by (and spotted the Easter bunny), and it elevated their mood.”

People have left donations, had their photo made there or pulled up just to say thank you.

“I’ve seen parents and kids pictures with it on Facebook,” Jamie said. One person even offered her a job doing a portrait.

But when times grew tough for Jamie, who was hospitalized for eight weeks, the familiar source of inspiration faded, much to the disappointment of her growing community of followers. Suddenly, it appeared decorated one day as a rainbow with a sign and a simple message, “Praying for Ms. Jamie.”

It was the handiwork of neighbors Jeannette and Anthony Harmon.

“I just cried over that one,” Arnett said. They took a picture of it, made a copy and taped it up in Jamie’s hospital room.

It became a symbol of inspiration to her, brightening what had become an especially bad day for her. And the inspiration to get better continued. As she moved from hospital to hospital, the constant was that picture and the sentiment behind it.

After her recovery, when people met her and realized she was the source of the hay bale and the prayers, they would tell her, “You’re the Ms. Jamie we’ve been praying for!” Or, “Because of that hay bale, you’re on our prayer list.”

For Jamie, the hay bale is a reciprocal gift.

“It is good to have a reason to do the hay bale. It’s more our pleasure of doing it. Being sick, it gives me an area to focus on other than my health problems. In the way it brightens their day, their comments brighten my day back.”

And the smiles it inevitably evokes simply add to the magic of the gift.

Just ask Katie-Ann: “It’s all good.”

Lofty Tales

Alabama’s ‘First Lady’ of flight

Story by Jerry Smith
Submitted photos

In 1929, a 9-year-old Birmingham girl named Nancy Batson had a special Christmas wish. She wanted a flight suit, pilot helmet and goggles. The eventual fulfillment of this young lady’s dream of becoming a pilot set a pattern for a lifetime of excitement and service to country, starting during an era when women were expected to have vastly different aspirations.

Born in 1920 to an affluent family in the old Norwood district of Birmingham, Nancy fell in love with aviation at an age when most little girls were still playing with dolls. As a 7-year-old, her parents took her to watch Charles Lindbergh as he walked from a car into Boutwell Auditorium. Nancy was enthralled.

According to Sarah Byrn Rickman in her book, Nancy Batson Crews—Alabama’s First Lady of Flight, Nancy loved to pretend her bicycle was a biplane, imagining it to have wings. Her favorite clothes were jodhpurs, jacket, boots, and a white silk scarf, as worn by all serious aviators of that day. Clearly, Nancy Batson was born to fly, and everyone knew it, including her parents.

She attended Norwood Elementary, spent her summers at St. Clair’s Camp Winnataska and graduated from Ramsay High School in 1937. Afterward, she attended the University of Alabama, where, in her own words, she “…majored in Southern Belle.” George C. Wallace was a classmate and dance partner. While at UA, she also met Paul Crews, the man whom she would marry several years later.

At the university, she became involved in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Nancy soloed on March 20, 1940, got her private pilot’s license about three months later and began an aviation career that would earn her a place among the Greatest Generation.

Her father bought her a used Piper J-4 Cub Coupe for about $1,200, instead of another, cheaper J-3 they had looked at which was in really poor condition. In Nancy’s words, “I didn’t ask for that plane. … Daddy decided that that was the airplane he was going to buy me. … I’m 20 years old and a senior in college. Other girls had automobiles. I had an airplane.”

After graduation, Nancy spent a lot of time around Birmingham Airport and joined the newly-formed Civil Air Patrol in 1941. All the while she was flying at every opportunity, building up logbook hours for the future. She got her commercial license in 1942 and began charging people a dollar apiece for rides in her J-4.

After being refused an instructor’s job in a local flight school because she was a woman, Nancy went to Miami and took a job as an airport control tower operator, but quickly became bored with it. She then got an instructor job at Miami’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute, where she trained Army Air Corps flying cadets. But Nancy wanted to do bigger things with her life.

She heard that a new wartime ferrying operation was being formed that had a women’s squadron. They flew brand-new airplanes from factories all over the country to seaports to be loaded onto ships for the war overseas.

In true Nancy-Batson fashion, she didn’t even wait for a confirmation. She just boarded a train for the group’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, and presented herself to Nancy Love, the squadron’s leader. In Rickman’s words, “Nancy Love watched as a tall, very attractive blonde — dressed in a stylish brown herringbone suit, small matching hat, and brown leather, high-heel pumps — entered her office.”

Within minutes, Love had gotten Nancy accepted and set her up for a physical and flight test the next morning. She easily aced both tests and became a member of WAFS, Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Since WAFS was not officially a part of the U.S. military, Love had her girls fitted for uniforms she’d designed herself, although each had to pay for her own.

At first, they ferried PT19 primary trainers and Piper Cubs to training bases. Eventually, the WAFS transitioned to more sophisticated combat aircraft, flying everything from bombers to the mighty P-51 Mustang, the most fearsome fighter plane ever built. There was a name change, too. WAFS became part of WASP, Women Air Force Service Pilots, complete with new blue uniforms.

Most warplanes were designed around male pilots, but the WASP ladies substituted determination for brute strength and made any adjustments necessary to complete their missions. One really petite WASP had a set of wooden blocks made so her feet could reach the rudder pedals.

Several WASPs were lost to training and ferrying accidents, and many more had close calls, including Nancy. She once spent a chilling two hours trying to force a balky nosewheel down on a Lockheed P-38 Lightning that also had engine trouble.

Most planes flown by WASPs were brand new from the factory, their first flight test being the ferry journey itself. These valiant ladies had to deal with really scary, sometimes life-threatening problems on a regular basis.

According to Rickman, there was no such thing as a schedule. They flew whatever needed flying to wherever it needed to go, often coast-to-coast. There was a war on, and thousands of planes were being built very quickly. Nancy learned and mastered more than 22 military aircraft types, many of them high-performance fighters with more than 2,000 horsepower. One of her advanced instructors was a future U.S. senator, Barry Goldwater.

In spite of all they had done for the war effort, the government still insisted WAFS/WASP was not military and refused any and all benefits, such as insurance, death benefits, hospitalization, pensions, etc. In fact, they were not even accorded an American flag for their casket if they died while serving. Many a bitter Congressional battle was fought over these issues, but WASP remained disenfranchised for the duration of the war. When all was said and done, they were simply told to go home, as if their valiant service had never existed.

Just after a farewell party on their final night on the base, the Officers Club caught fire. They had spent many off-duty hours there during their 27 months of service to WASP. Rickman tells what happened next: “Nancy Batson watched the building go down in flames. She wondered if she was watching her future burn with it. Her passion — her need to fly those hot airplanes — would have to be channeled elsewhere. … A modern-day Scarlett O’Hara, a heroine of a different war and a different time in history, Nancy would think about her future later — when she got home to Alabama.” “Let it burn,” she hollered, and added a rebel yell. “Let it burn!”

Once home, Nancy languished in relatively tame pursuits for a while, not even wanting to fly. She became particularly desolate when a close friend who was serving in China was killed in action while flying his four-engine transport over the “Hump” in Burma (now known as Myanmar).

In 1946, Nancy’s college friend, Paul Crews came home from the war, and they were quietly married in the Batson home. Paul and Nancy lived in several places over the next 15 years. When the Korean War started, Paul, a reservist, went back into service in Gen. Hap Arnold’s brand-new U.S. Air Force. They lived at Warner Robbins airbase in Georgia, then Washington D.C., and finally settled in Anaheim, California, near Disneyland. The Crews also started their family — two sons and a daughter.

Not long after arriving in California, Paul quit the Air Force and joined his former general at Northrop Aviation. Nancy, meanwhile, had not flown a plane in more than 10 years, but after attending a WASP reunion, she found a renewed interest in flying. Finally, after taking a joy ride at Palm Springs Airport, she was reborn as a pilot.

Quoting Rickman: “Though she was a typical 1950s stay-at-home mom when the boys were young, by 1960 that homemaker mantle no longer sat well on her shoulders. Inside, she was still a pursuit pilot. … Her temporarily dormant inner drive was returning. … Nancy knew she was cut out for something more than a domestic life and prowess on the golf course.”

Flying high … again

Once restarted, she pursued her new flying career with a passion. Nancy already had 1,224 hours in her logbook from ferrying military aircraft. She quickly re-earned her elapsed private pilot’s license at a local airport. While building airtime toward advanced ratings, she also flew as copilot in the Powder Puff Derby, a cross-country air race for female pilots. By the end of 1965, she had updated her commercial and certified-flight-instructor ratings. While working as an instructor at Hawthorne Airport, she gave her 14-year-old son Radford his first flying lessons. After returning home later from Vietnam, Rad went on to become a successful commercial pilot.

Paul’s health began to fail during these years, so he took a lesser job at Northrop and began helping Nancy further her own flying career. In 1969, Nancy and Paul bought a new Piper Super-Cub, and she began using it to tow gliders into the air, often as many as 60 a day. “It worked out great,” Nancy said. “I was back in a tail dragger (aircraft with tail wheel instead of nose wheel), and I was in hog heaven.” She flew this plane solo in the 1969 Powder Puff Derby, which ended in Washington D.C. The flyers were invited to the White House to meet the Nixons. While in California, she also mastered glider-flying in her new Schweizer sailplane, often being towed into the air by her own Super Cub.

In 1977, Paul succumbed to complications of diabetes. By 1981, due to a bewildering chain of events and heartaches much too complex to delineate here, Nancy found herself back home in Alabama. Rickman relates, “For Nancy, the move meant starting over. … She was sixty-one years old. … The Alabama she returned to was nothing like the Alabama she had left in 1950. Nancy began to rebuild her life.”

Rebuilding life in Odenville

The Batson family owned a huge tract of farmland near Odenville that had lain idle for many years. Nancy had driven her RV back home to Alabama, crammed with everything she wanted to keep from California. She lived in the RV next to the farmhouse where she and Paul had first lived as a couple, while trying to figure out the best usage of their land.

Nancy joined a real estate firm and got her license. A few of their land holdings were sold to local people so Nancy could concentrate on a huge 80-acre tract that was the main part of their estate left by the death of her parents. She sold her beloved Super Cub to raise enough money to buy out the other heirs, then bought a partly-finished garage structure in foreclosure, right at the edge of the estate property. She moved her RV there while this building was being finished.

After moving into her new home, Nancy sold the RV and began a period of hot-plate and microwave austerity as she worked on what would become her crowning achievement, Lake Country Estates. Using local laborers and craftsmen, she developed one lot at a time. By 1992, Lake Country Estates was thriving.

She dabbled a bit in aviation, hung out with pilot friends and the Birmingham Aero Club and served on the St. Clair Airport Authority. She loved to hangar-bum, and occasionally visited the Four Seasons ultralight flying field at Cool Springs, where this writer first met her. (To my shame, I was still a kid at age 40, and wasted too much valuable time flying my plane rather than chatting with this remarkable lady. And now, some 30 years later, I find myself trying hard to compose a fitting story that could have been mine for the asking back then).

Pilot Ed Stringfellow tells of the time Nancy visited his hangar at Pell City Airport. She had used building materials from Ed’s Mid-South Lumber Company for some of her Estate houses. Shortly after dark, he invited her to go flying with him in his AT-6 trainer, a big, beefy tandem-seater with a powerful radial engine. Ed said, “Here she was, in her late 60s, and hadn’t flown a T-6 since the 1940s, yet she flew loops and other precision maneuvers, in moonlight no less, like she had just done it the day before.” Stringfellow also related a story from the old days, when a future premier Alabama aviator named Joe Shannon was stationed with the Army Air Corps at Key Field in Meridian, Miss.

Nancy had landed there in a twin-engine A-20 bomber she was ferrying to Savannah that needed a few essential repairs. Both Shannon and a mechanic were dazzled when a beautiful, long-haired blonde climbed down from the cockpit. After checking out her plane, Shannon asked the mechanic how long repairs would take. “Depends,“ he replied, “how long do you want her to stay here?”
A lasting legacy

Jim Griffin, director of Southern Museum of Flight, first met Nancy at Pell City Airport.

He had noticed a landing light way off in the distance, heading straight for the airport. This was unusual because the weather was practically unflyable due to high, gusting winds that had grounded everyone else. As the plane got closer, he watched as treacherous gusts threw it all over the sky, its pilot struggling to maintain control.

Despite vicious crosswinds, the Super Cub touched down perfectly, first on one main wheel, then both, exactly as one should land a tail dragger in such conditions. He was amazed when a 60-something lady pilot climbed out of the cockpit. When he praised her great landing under such awful conditions, she replied, “Aw, it wasn’t all that bad.”

Former Pell City Mayor and Judge Bill Hereford remembers Nancy as highly intelligent, yet easy to talk with and full of determination in everything she did. “One of the first things you noticed about Nancy Crews was her steely-gray eyes. They looked right at you and understood everything they saw, and yet she was never intimidating — just an honest, dynamic lady who always knew exactly what she wanted to accomplish.”

Christine Beal-Kaplan, herself a veteran pilot and aircraft mechanic, was one of Nancy’s best friends in St. Clair County. She once drove through Lake Country Estates while telling of some of their adventures while she was helping Nancy put that project together. Although 79 years old, Nancy flew more than 80 hours as co-pilot with Chris on some of her charter runs in a Beechcraft King-Air.

Sadly, Chris passed away recently, taking with her a vast store of anecdotes and memories of Nancy.

On January 14, 2000, Nancy Batson Crews fell into a coma after months of battling cancer and slipped peacefully away at age 80. In Mrs. Rickman’s book, son Paul Crews Jr. said, “She wanted to die in her sleep, and be worth a million dollars. …By the time she died — in her own bed — she was worth more than a million when you figure the land value.” She had indeed fulfilled her own prophecy.

Stringfellow recalls that he and some other pilots were supposed to perform a low, missing-man fly-over pass in Piper Cubs as Nancy was being laid to rest at Elmwood Cemetery, but the fog was almost to ground level, making the flight impossible. However, a huge airliner passed overhead at precisely the right time, making her graveside service complete.

Nancy was inducted into the prestigious Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame in 2004. Birmingham’s Southern Museum of Flight has a display case full of her belongings and memorabilia. Museum director Jim Griffin is particularly proud of that memorial, having known her personally. Nancy had accumulated more than 4,000 hours of flight time in her logbook, which is on display at the museum.

But, perhaps most fitting, wherever vintage pilots or Odenville folks gather to reminisce, sooner or later Nancy Batson Crews’ name will be spoken.

For lots more photos of this amazing woman and her flying career, check out the Discover 2013-January 2014 print and digital edition of Discover St. Clair Magazine.

Phoenix Energy

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Leading the Way in emerging industry

By Carol Pappas
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Give Matt Hyde a few minutes, and he’ll likely convert you to the positives of alternative energy as easily as his company converts cars and trucks into using natural gas.

It’s not just a job to him. It’s his passion. “It makes it easier when you love what you do,” he said, just days after Phoenix Energy cut the ribbon on its new home in Pell City. An Alabama leader in converting vehicles to run on compressed natural gas, the company moved its headquarters and 13 employees from Jefferson County to St. Clair with an eye toward the future.

St. Clair Economic Development Council officials “were there from step one. They really wanted us to come. They were a great liaison,” he said.

“Phoenix Energy, as a leader in the alternative fuel industry, is a company with great growth potential,” according to Jason Roberts, Project Manager for the EDC. “We are happy to have them as part of St. Clair County’s industrial community.”

Now settled into its 14,400-square-foot building on Lewis Lake Road, Phoenix Energy is moving toward that growth potential. As Hyde, the company’s operations director, points out, at $2 a gallon, “every time you fill up, it’s a return on your investment.”

Phoenix Energy was created in 2004, and it has come a long way in a short time. Hyde’s father, Ken, became majority owner of the company after he retired from Alabama Gas Co. It was a natural fit. He had been working with Alabama Gas’ fleet of natural gas vehicles since 1978.

Today, Phoenix has grown from two employees to 13 and works with customers throughout the Southeast, converting vehicles to compressed natural gas usage.

The up-front cost to convert a vehicle is between $6,000 and $12,000, depending on driving habits. Over a 10-year period, he estimated the savings in gasoline and oil changes alone can amount to $40,000. On top of savings, it is cleaner energy, so the vehicle lasts longer, and the resale value is better, he said.

The barriers to growth of this emerging industry are convenience — there are only seven natural gas fueling stations in Alabama, for instance — and getting companies comfortable with the idea. Frito Lay and Waste Management are two of the more recognizable names who are not only comfortable with the concept of using compressed natural gas as their fuel source, they have embraced it.

This past summer, Frito Lay opened its first compressed natural gas refueling station in Wisconsin and is expected to build seven others across the country. In a statement from the company about the fleet conversion, Frito Lay officials said its 208 compressed natural gas vehicles will translate into the elimination of 7,863 metric tons of carbon emissions, which is equal to 1,125 cars annually. It is a viable alternative for other fleets of large companies, municipalities and school districts. But refueling stations are needed along major corridors so that they can have access to natural gas, Hyde said.

Phoenix will have its own refueling station open to the public within the next year, Hyde said. “It’s a logical fuel source for America right now. It’s abundant, and it’s cheap.”

America imports $1.7 billion a day worth of petroleum. By his figures, America could have paid off the national debt in seven years by converting to natural gas as an alternative fuel.

The natural gas cylinder can be mounted in the bed of a pick-up truck, under its rear frame or in the trunk of a car. A “brain box” is located in the engine that tells which fuel is in the fuel tank — gas or natural gas — and it can switch between fuels without interruption.

Personal compressor units are available at an investment of $4,900 to $7,100, so the user can refuel at home as well.

When he sits in traffic, his own truck converted to natural gas, “I feel like I’m doing my part — doing something good for my country. I have the power to do something good for this country, and it’s natural gas,” he said.

“It functions like gas. It’s 85 percent cleaner for the environment, and you’re saving money. It’s a win-win.”

While it will take time for universal acceptance, Hyde likens it to another automobile visionary. “Henry Ford didn’t build the first car based on gas stations.”

Walters Farms

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A beautiful place for the Big Day

Walters-Farms-Wedding — Katie and Bryce Hunt/J. Messer Photography

Story by Tina Tidmore and Carol Pappas
Photos by Mike Callahan and Jessica Messer, J. Messer Photography

Weddings and farms may seem like an unlikely union, but Joe and Deloma Walters hope brides and grooms-to-be will find them their perfect match.

On their 400-acre, second-generation family farm just outside Ragland, couples are now saying, “I do” against the backdrop of a picturesque green hayfield and arbor overlooking the gently flowing waters of the Coosa River. And a huge, rustic barn — all built just for them — has become the ideal place for weddings large and small.

The drive from the main road meanders around the farm’s pastures. Black cows wander about in the openness, unfazed, as if they don’t mind sharing the scenery. Pass by the old barn, through the woods, and there it is — the wedding barn. “Guests say the drive in is like an adventure,” Deloma shared.

It has been quite a journey for Joe and Deloma, too. Walters Farms opened as a wedding venue in April, breathing new life into their family farm where cotton once reigned.

They needed a way to supplement the farm’s income to be able to maintain the sprawling acreage. Transforming it into a wedding-event venue was an idea inspired by a caterer friend of Deloma’s.

It was Deloma’s idea to build a wedding barn, and in time, her husband came to see how wedding bells, beautiful country scenery and mooing cows might make a successful combination.

“We hope that will be the drawing card — the novelty of it,” said Deloma.

So, with their savings, a loan and an entrepreneurial spirit, the Walters built a wedding and events barn that is drawing couples from near and far. “Our goal was to build a true barn,” said Deloma, explaining why she is allowing it to weather naturally. They started with 19th-century styles and emerged with exactly what she had imagined. With 2,880 square feet of floor space and 29-foot ceilings, festive celebrations past and future are easy to imagine.

“We can accommodate 1,000 people here, easy,” she said, pointing to a 10-acre field below situated along the Walters’ impressive one mile of Coosa River waterfront.

It seems fitting that the first wedding to be held at the family farm bought in 1945 by Joe’s parents, J.B. and Catherine Walters, and his uncle, Clyde Green, was family. The wedding of son Scotty and fiancé Nicole was the inaugural ceremony and celebration.

They chose April 27 as their wedding date, which stemmed from how the couple met. Scotty had bought a home in Pell City that was damaged by one of the deadly tornadoes that ripped through the historic district on April 27, 2011. And the restoration of it played a key role in bringing the couple together.

It was the prospect of that wedding that hastened the Walters’ timeline for their new venture. “It was coincidental that our son had recently gotten engaged and shared that he wanted to get married on the farm,” Deloma recalled. “Originally, they were considering a tent, but after we decided to go forward with building the barn, we did it with a vengeance when we realized that we would be able to have it finished or very close to finished in time for their wedding. Once we told them, then we really had to push.”

Since the first Walters Farms wedding, they have been marketing the business through a website, a Facebook page and a booth at the Southern Bridal Show. But Deloma said most of their bookings come from references from satisfied customers.

In October, UAB School of Medicine students Katie Marchiony and Bryce Hunt had their wedding at Walters Farms. Katie had two prerequisites for her wedding venue, according to her mother, Mazie Marchiony. She wanted a pretty, outdoor setting, and, she wanted to get married within four months.

Her criteria considerably narrowed the options in central Alabama. But someone at the hospital had attended a previous wedding at Walters Farms and told Hunt about it.

“She’s bent over backwards to assist and offer suggestions,” the busy mother-of-the bride said about Deloma, just days before the wedding. “It is so well done — spared no detail — and everything is landscaped.”

Marchiony said the contract was very thorough, so she knew exactly what she was getting.

Another advantage to Walters Farms, compared to another outdoor venue the Marchionys considered, is that the barn provides protection in case it rains on that all-important day.

For Katie and Bryce, the weather on Oct. 19 was as perfect as the venue they chose. Framed by an enormous arbor made of bent twigs and vines, they exchanged vows in the field atop the river bank overlooking the water. Guests filled white chairs lining each side of the natural, green-grass aisle and the hint of a seasonal change in color came from the towering trees all around them.

At dusk, the barn illuminated the nighttime sky with miniature lights strung inside and out. Round tables draped with white tablecloths and an eye-pleasing buffet welcomed guests to an experience they won’t soon forget.

Deloma said weddings at Walters Farms already have run the gamut of styles. From short pants to black tie, from cowboy boots to flip flops, the barn’s comfortable and relaxed atmosphere lends itself to any type of fashion and affair.

“We love the farm anyway, but we feel a special sense of joy each time the barn doors open to reveal a new bride as she walks down the rock steps toward the arbor overlooking the river,” Deloma said. “It is a special place for us, and to be able to share it with others on such an important day is extremely rewarding.”

It has become a new day for this farming relic. The older generation gradually passed away. Catherine Walters died in 1996, followed by Joe’s father in 2011. In the early 2000s, the farm had gone into disrepair with weeds and broken fences, but in 2003, Joe set his sights on bringing it back to a functioning farm.

It may not be what he envisioned back then, nor what Catherine and J.B. might have had in mind when they bought it just after World War II. But the new memories he and Deloma are helping couples create are as special as the place itself. “I think we have created the most unique wedding venue in all of central Alabama,” Deloma said, “and it is just going to get better as we add amenities.”

She calls Walters Farms a labor of love — “just as it was for Catherine and J.B.”

Special thanks to Jessica Messer and
J. Messer Photography, jessicamesser.com

Features

CEFA: Learning to Earn

Program aims at training people, filling job needs

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Wallace Bromberg

In a classroom turned board room on the eastern edge of Birmingham, a dozen or so construction-industry executives from around the state gathered on a Tuesday morning to discuss their future.

It is a future that looks a bit bleak for them right now, but bright for prospective employees — if they only knew, understood and embraced what could lie ahead for them.

That’s the mission of Construction Education Foundation of Alabama — to not only raise awareness about rewarding careers in fields like electrical, HVAC, carpentry, plumbing, pipefitting and welding, but to provide the training to get students into those careers.

It was with that idea in mind that Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama, Alabama Associated General Contractors and the Alabama Concrete Industries Association, the state’s three largest construction trade organizations, came together to found CEFA to offer nationally certified education opportunities to reverse the trend of a dwindling trained workforce.

It is a chronic problem faced by companies across Alabama, including that of CEFA board Chairman John Garrison, president and CEO of Pell City-based Garrison Steel. He knows the problem firsthand. He sees it every day in a pool of applicants — or lack of them — at his own company.

The CEFA board of directors gathered around him on this particular day to share his concern. They see it as a growing threat to the future of their industries, and they are finding ways to turn this harmful trend around.

They see CEFA as a viable bridge between a potential workforce and a good-paying career through intensive training, using nationally accredited curriculum. “When a student gets out of it, he knows what he’s doing,” Garrison said. The plus is that the certification is mobile. He can take that certification earned in Alabama and put it to work for him in the marketplace anywhere in the country.

Byron McCain, president of CEFA, explained that for too long, education in Alabama had a mantra: “College, college, college. Now, they’re saying college and careers.”

He uses charts and graphs to illustrate, but the net result over decades has been a workforce gap where too many students headed down a path toward a four-year college when the majority of jobs simply require advanced training.

In 1950, 20 percent of the jobs required a four-year degree. In 2000, a four-year degree requirement was still at 20 percent. In that same time frame, though, the need for skilled labor more than tripled from 20 percent to 65 percent.

With odds like those, it should be easy to envision that the quickest way to a $50,000 salary just might run through CEFA.

Recognizing the needs and the rewards, public education is beginning to move in the same direction. In its Plan 2020, the focus is “Every Child a Graduate — Every Graduate Prepared for College/Work/Adulthood in the 21st Century.”

And McCain sees that as a good sign for the industries he represents. “There are unbelievable careers that don’t come with college debt,” McCain said. “It is critical we get to the counselors. We’re losing a lot of people at 18 starting down a college path. The industry isn’t as generational as it used to be.”

The aim is to help give people “meaningful employment,” said Garrison. Through its training program, CEFA can put them on the path to that goal with good-paying careers awaiting them when they finish. Scholarships are available, as is assistance with job placement. They can even go to work early if they have the potential. “If they have the right desire, if they’re the real deal and are serious about getting through the program,” Garrison said companies can go ahead and hire them while going through the program. They can earn their way toward a career.

For example, McCain said, “There are opportunities for a 50-year-old to get a job and train at the same time.” And companies are looking for young people out of high school in whom they can invest for the long term.

Twenty weeks of training are required before CEFA can refer them to a company. The full training is 58 weeks.

“We’re at 70 percent capacity,” said Evans Dunn of Dunn Construction, who does asphalt paving. “We’ve got to get demand there. We struggle to get good people.”

“It’s a struggle every day,” said John Payne of Brasfield & Gorrie. “We’re suffering a labor shortage.”

But a good wage rate and benefits equals opportunity, he said.

“Consistent growth allows us to invest in a kid,” added Allen McCain of Bright Future Electric.

And that’s why these industry leaders are coming together and getting involved in getting the message out about initiatives like Go Build Alabama and using CEFA as a site for craft and apprenticeship training.

They know the benefits. Journeyman electricians can earn between $42,000 and $72,000 annually. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning, HVAC, professionals in an entry-level apprentice or technician position start out at $10 to $12 per hour and advance with their skill sets. An experienced professional can earn more than $65,000 per year. A welder can make $40,000 to $60,000 a year with the right knowledge and experience.

Average annual wage for an experienced carpenter is more than $45,000. An experienced plumber can earn $47,750 plus.

The higher the training and experience, the higher the salary can go, which is a win-win for all involved, these leaders say. And they’re not the only ones. “When you get serious about supporting yourself and your family,” said student Chris Rodgers, “CEFA offers the fastest way I know to learn how to earn.”

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St. Clair teen finds life in rodeo

[Show as slideshow]

Story by Graham Hadley
Photos by Graham Hadley
and Dr. Shawn Stubbs

For one St. Clair teen, the rodeo is worth giving up football and baseball for.

It’s worth giving up weekends, afternoons and most free time in between.

In fact, John-Cody Dale Stubbs’ Xbox has been broken for several years now … and he doesn’t miss it a bit.

Instead, the 15-year-old freshman at Briarwood Christian has a whole host of things he would rather be doing — bull riding, chute dogging (steer wrestling), goat tying and, his absolute favorite, team calf roping, among other rodeo events.

Cody looks like a natural on the back of his horse as he practices in the ring his father built on their property by their house in St. Clair County, and that innate talent and hard work are already paying off. He has been bringing in awards at competitions at both the state and national levels in calf roping and other events and sees no end in sight.

Row after row of winning buckles lined the dining-room table in front of Cody as he pointed to his favorite — a sportsmanship award — one of the few buckles he does not wear to keep it pristine.

His father, Dale, who is a retired firefighter and contractor, is quick to clarify that the sportsmanship award is not a “participation” award, but one of the top recognitions that is carefully considered by the judges.

“When he first won it, I thought it was a consolation prize, but they told me it was a big deal — that the vote for Cody had been unanimous,” he said.

Dale said he was not surprised that Cody had won it, but the behavior necessary to acquire the much-prized award is a common thread in the rodeo community.

“That’s the way rodeo kids are. They are really good kids who have spent a lot of time with their family and are well raised,” he said.

Cody has also won several saddles and some money from his competitions. Though he is very competitive and doing well now, he hopes to one day get a bigger piece of the winnings, which he says can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Dedication to the sport

Dale was not exaggerating when he said rodeo kids spend a lot of time with their families. In addition to normal family time, they spend most weekends and parts of the week traveling to various competitions, some just down the road, some in places like New Mexico and Oklahoma.

In fact, Cody and his Dad were gearing up to leave for another trip the day after his interview for Discover — they had been in Oklahoma the weekend before.

And where many traveling competitive athletes can fly to their destinations, Cody usually rides his own horses at each event, so those trips, both near and far, are on the road with the horses and all their support gear along for the ride.

In addition to competition road trips, Cody’s school is almost an hour from where he practices. A normal weekday afternoon sees Dale picking up Cody from Briarwood, driving to get something to eat, then he practices roping until around 9 p.m. every day. When he gets home, he has to take care of his horses and gear and many days, help get the RV packed and ready to hit the road to another show.

If he has any free time from all of that, Cody also has to train a new colt for riding.

“He ropes almost all weekends, so it is a six-day-a-week job,” said his mother, Dr. Shawn Stubbs.

And though he has missed some school for competitions, Cody also has his sights set on being a veterinarian one day, so his education is very important, too. He gets his homework done sitting in the truck on the way to practice. They plan on returning from an upcoming trip early in the morning and heading straight from the airport to get the aspiring animal doctor to school on time.

“You have to love it to do it,” Cody said.

From bull-riding to team roping

For all his dedication and the growing stack of awards — 18 buckles and several saddles — Cody has only been competing for a relatively short time.

“I have been doing this two and a half to three years,” he said. “I grew up around horses and animals. One day we went to Tractor Supply in Moody. There was a flier for a youth rodeo. I wanted to try bull riding. I also signed up for chute dogging.”

The first event was a win for Cody, just not the way he expected.

“I did pretty good at steer wrestling, but got bucked off bull riding.

“That was at Dusty Bottoms Rodeo in Sterrett. I noticed they gave away saddles for the most points. I realized I would have to do roping and horse events to win and started training in roping,” he said.

His mother was in the process of purchasing a horse from Wil and Rodney Sanders in Ardmore, and Dale said he was impressed by their operation.

“They were so nice. We asked about roping lessons for Cody.”

Then Cody “stole” his mother’s new horse to use for roping and riding, Dale joked.

Cody was working hard and competing and doing well, but he was not winning the events like he wanted to, so the Stubbs turned to Kenny Ellison from Calera.

“He has been helping me lately with my roping and riding,” Cody said.

Dale said he cold-called Ellison. “He is a very good guy. He took Cody in. Cody was roping really well but not winning. I called Kenny out of the blue. He did not know us.”

He has made a big difference for Cody in the arena.

“That’s just the way people in this sport are. The will help a kid out,” Dale said.

Gaining ground

Cody has been doing so well at a variety of events that he is starting to find sponsors — one of which is flying him out to Las Vegas and paying all his expenses there so he can do some product promotion and exhibition riding and roping.

RopeSmart has not only given Cody some much-needed equipment like practice steers and special wraps for the saddle horn, Cody got to rope with the owner at the national finals.

Standard Process does not do direct sponsorships for Cody, but they do help by providing some of the feed and other supplies for the horses.

Locally, he gets a lot of support from Jodie’s Harness & Tack. Dale said he could not say enough about the help and advice they get from the local business, located in the famous stacked-rock building on the outskirts of Odenville.

But the winning and everything that goes with it did not happen all at once. Many of the events Cody attends just focus on team calf roping, where he is usually the header, or steer wrestling. There are many levels and many different events to master for rodeo competition.

It was a lot to learn.

In team calf roping, as header “I catch the head of the steer (with a rope from horseback) and turn it for my heeler, who catches the back two feet,” Cody said.

“I also heel, where I catch the back two feet and get a dally and stretch the steer out.”

Aside from just liking roping, Cody said it is also his favorite sport because you can do it all your life — he sees ropers in their 80s at some events.

Other rodeo events — particularly bull riding — are more physical and more dangerous.

For bull riding “you draw your bull. They load him into a bucking chute. You have a bull rope. I wear a helmet, vest, chaps, a special leather glove to hold the rope and big spurs to get a better grip with,” he said.

The goal is to stay on for eight seconds

“I have gotten a lot better. I cover the ride — eight seconds — most of the time now,” he said.

Chute dogging — also called steer wrestling — is another sport Cody excels at but also takes its physical toll. Cody once had a gate not open right and ended up with a knee injury that day.

“Rodeo officials load the steer into a bucking chute. I get in there with it, get my arm around the steer’s neck and give a nod — the gate opens. You can’t touch the steer’s horns until you cross a line 8 feet from the chute. Then you grab the horns and use a certain technique to get the steer on the ground as fast as you can,” Cody said.

That event is the one that drew Cody to the state championship and is part of a national organization.

“That is what I went to New Mexico for,” Cody said.

His broad talent has opened many doors for him competitively. And once he started winning, Cody turned all his attention to roping and other rodeo events.

“He used to play baseball and football. He gave them up for this. He said, ‘Dad, I want to rope,’” Dale said.

For Cody, he sees two things in his future — “I would really like to get better. Go professional after (his parents emphatically agreed with this), after I graduate from vet school.”

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