Tag: Features

Help Is On the Way

When Disaster Strikes

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Wallace
Bromberg Jr.
Submitted photos by
Ben Chandler
and Ellen Tanner

“Jesus is the hope that calms life’s storms.”

The marquee message at Friendship Baptist Church in Odenville one March evening seemed quite appropriate because, inside the building, a large group of people was learning how to help others recover from natural disasters.

Nina Funderburg of Talladega, who sat beside Pell City friend, Sandy Gafnea, excitedly looked forward to being part of faith-based disaster relief. “If Jesus is in it, I want to do it.”

Early the next morning, Funderburg would have to demonstrate safety and skill with a chainsaw by felling a tree.

Mary Parsons of Moody was completing her disaster relief retraining to do what she finds fulfilling. “I just like helping people,” she said.

After finishing hours of training and passing a background check, the men and women in the group would receive the Homeland Security clearance necessary for entering a disaster area.

With those credentials in hand, it would be official: each had earned the privilege of wearing the yellow shirt and hat of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

Some of the attendees had traveled from as far away as Athens and Rainsville. After the weekend of training, they would return to their part of the state to attach to a unit in their locale. The individuals who attend a Southern Baptist church in St. Clair would become part of the St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief team.

Members of that team are ambassadors who dispatch on short notice to a storm-damaged area, bringing with them chainsaws, comforting words … and prayer.

Sometimes, they are the first and only contact people in crisis ever have with St. Clair County, Alabama.

“We’re kind of one of the best-kept secrets in St. Clair County,” said Glenn Pender of Steele, coordinator of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief.

In the beginning
In 2003, efforts to organize the team began and, the next year, the first volunteers completed training. Pender said it was also in 2004 when they embarked on their first mission — a rebuilding project in Flomaton after Hurricane Ivan.

Currently, 115 men and women — from ages 25 to 85 and from 22 Southern Baptist churches in St. Clair County – make up the unit. Nearly 30 of the members are chaplains, said Pender and Ben Chandler, director of missions for St. Clair Baptist Association.

Depending on the field of service they have chosen, the members might operate chainsaws, a Bobcat skid steer, bucket truck or shower trailer; give assistance with mud-out, cleanup and recovery, or provide administrative services, explained Chandler and Pender.

Some on the St. Clair volunteers have trained to care for children or to work in mass feeding. Both of those services are provided through the state-level organization, Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief.

Mel Johnson, disaster relief and construction coordinator for Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions in Montgomery, said members of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief number among the state’s 7,000 Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers.

These volunteers are included under the even larger umbrella of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“We are actually volunteer missionaries with the North American Mission Board,” Pender said.

In the United States, 65,000 Southern Baptists are trained disaster relief volunteers, said Beth Bootz, disaster relief communications coordinator for NAMB. That makes Southern Baptists “one of the three largest mobilizers of trained disaster relief volunteers in the United States.” The other top mobilizers are the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Ellen Tanner, director of St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, pointed out that St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief has a crucial role in emergency response in the county. The team provides “vital” services, such as “debris removal on private property, which the county and cities cannot do.” Plus, the unit bears the responsibility of registering and directing volunteers and serving as coordinators in the Emergency Operation Center.

Tanner said the team members “are committed to serving God by serving others. Their actions and the love they show for people is often the act of unselfish kindness that can turn a person’s life around.”

During its 11 years, the disaster relief team has ministered in a long list of places, helping fellow Alabamians after floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. Just last year, the group spent three weeks working in Bessemer after a tornado.

In addition, the unit has assisted after natural disasters in Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and New York, according to James Dendy, a team chaplain from Cropwell.

When leadership of Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief is asked to help after a crisis in another state, “St. Clair is usually one of the first to mobilize,” Johnson said.

Ron Warren of Steele, a member of St. Clair’s unit, said its volunteers worked a total of eight weeks in damaged areas after Hurricane Katrina, 11 days following Hurricane Rita and two weeks on Staten Island, N.Y., after Hurricane Sandy.

At times, they have been in areas of martial law with no electrical service for a 100-mile radius. A mob would gather at the arrival of a vehicle loaded with food and supplies. People were so hungry that the situation was dangerous, said Warren, who is also state chainsaw coordinator for Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief.

“It is a stressful ministry” on many different levels, Dendy said. Seeing the despair of the suffering people and magnitude of destruction “gets to you. It can overwhelm you, especially for the new guys. It’s one thing to see it on the news. It’s another thing to see it on the ground.”

Their hearts ache, and they weep for the people in crisis, Pender said. “It’s not an easy task.”

Because it is such an emotional ministry, Warren said chaplains are embedded in every team the St. Clair unit sends into a storm-damaged area.

The chaplains are present to attend to the volunteers, who hurt deeply for the people they are trying to help, Warren said. The chaplains minister, as well, to those affected by the storms – talking to them, addressing their needs, praying with them and, most importantly, telling them about Jesus.

Often, when the disaster relief team arrives and goes to work, property owners ask how much the services will cost. When the owners hear that it is free of charge, the answer almost always is met with surprise, Dendy said. The people find it difficult to believe that individuals will travel such a long distance to help strangers … for free.

As volunteers, the disaster relief members receive no pay. They cover the costs related to their training, as well as the expenses of traveling to an area of need. Often, they take time off work to assist in affected communities.

“If you ask why these volunteers travel such long distances, spend their own money to get to these locations and put themselves in harm’s way to help those suffering through the horrible circumstances brought on by disaster, they will respond, ‘God loves you; so do we. And that is why we are here to help,’” said Johnson.

“Our main goal is to carry the word of Christ – to let others see Christ in us,” said team member Jimmy Pollard of Riverside.

“The greatest pay is when we see someone come to know Jesus Christ (as Savior),” Pender said.

It is about “helping folks and being there when they need us,” said Ron Culberson of Springville, coordinator of St. Clair’s chainsaw-cleanup-recovery crew.

“This,” said team member Jim Thomas of Clay, “is what God wants me to do.”

Prepared and ready
Because of the financial support it receives from churches within St. Clair Baptist Association and from individuals, the disaster relief team has become one of the best equipped in the state.

Of the 54 cleanup-recovery-chainsaw units manned by Southern Baptists in Alabama, “St. Clair is one of the larger, well-organized teams,” said Johnson. “St. Clair has invested in equipment that allows them to serve in difficult areas with heavy equipment, such as a bucket truck, skid steer and shower unit.”

Warren said St. Clair was the first unit in the state to have a Bobcat skid steer and is the only one with a bucket truck.

As for the shower trailer, it is a “Cadillac” unit, Chandler said. It was the first of three built by the St. Clair team. The other two now belong to Southern Baptist disaster relief groups elsewhere in the state.

Designed by Pender and Warren, the trailer features six shower stalls, each with a locking door. One stall is handicap accessible. A laundry room boasts two pair of commercial washers and dryers.

Generally, the shower unit and laundry facilities are for volunteers to use. However, they also are made available to people in affected areas.

Like the team’s equipment, the capabilities and willingness of the members have garnered a positive reputation.

“The skills and abilities of the St. Clair unit are a testament to their ongoing training and commitment to respond for crisis mitigation,” Johnson said.

Even though the team’s focus is on ministering during a disaster, it stays busy throughout the year with community service projects.

The chainsaw crew frequently cuts trees that are deemed unsafe or are threatening nearby structures.

Also, during the summer months, the shower unit is in great demand as mission teams, such as World Changers and Mission Serve, come into the area to work.

Mission hits home
April 27, 2011 …

That 24-hour span was filled with sadness from beginning to end.

When early morning straight-line winds ripped through Moody, Pell City and Riverside, two lives were lost.

St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief quickly went to work in the Moody area, cutting trees and moving debris.

Hour after hour, tornados cut paths all over the state. More than 60 of them crisscrossed Alabama, leaving hundreds dead.

Then, just before nightfall, an EF-4 tornado tore through the Shoal Creek community of St. Clair County.

Under normal circumstances, the disaster relief volunteers — who had just gotten home from working all day in Moody — would have been sent into Shoal Creek at first light the next morning.

This time, however, the situation was dire. It could not wait.

Damage was so widespread and debris so thick that team members were sent immediately.

Through the night and well into the next morning, they cut a path for first responders to get into the valley to free the trapped, treat the injured and locate the missing.

Around 3:30 a.m. April 28, the chainsaw crew finally reached the end of the storm’s track.

Eleven residents had perished in the tornado. Two more – including a preborn baby – died in the next few days, said Carl Brownfield, chief of Shoal Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

Broken were the hearts of the residents.

Broken, as well, were the hearts of the disaster relief team members. All the past crises in which they had worked could not have prepared them for one so tragic. This time, team members were helping their very own. These were St. Clair people who were hurting; they were “family.”

Pender grows emotional talking about that night and the days that followed.

He chokes back tears and says there are some images from that time he just cannot allow to come into his mind because they are too painful.

“We don’t like to relive that,” Pender said of himself and other disaster relief volunteers who witnessed the death, distress and devastation the tornado left in its wake. “It was difficult for all of us.”

Some team members worked nine days straight, breaking only to eat, shower and sleep.

The unit continued its cleanup-and-recovery efforts for another four weeks after that. While some of the team remained engaged in those endeavors, other members moved into the rebuilding phase.

That June, the volunteers worked another three weeks.

“We had people rebuilding in there up until a year or so ago,” Warren said.

Giving back
After the tornado, Brownfield exited what was left of his house and entered a “nightmare.” He and volunteer firefighter Mike Blanton looked for survivors and cut through trees while trying to reach the rescuers they knew were working to get into the valley.

Several times in the weeks after the tornado, members of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief visited Brownfield. They talked to him; they prayed with him.

Those simple acts “lifted me back up and got my faith going again,” Brownfield said.

Time and again during those weeks, he encountered different team members and found them all to be “wonderful” people.

“I had seen how much they were doing in our community,” Brownfield said.

Although he had heard of the team previously, he had not realized the size of it or the scope of its ministry.

Two years ago, he joined the unit, starting out on the chainsaw crew and then learning to operate the skid steer.

This past spring, Brownfield completed training to become a disaster relief chaplain. He wants to comfort others in crisis.

Within a year after the tornado, Shoal Creek resident David Smith joined the disaster relief team.

For Smith, a volunteer firefighter as well, being involved in St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief is his way to give to others in return for all that his community received.

Features

Handing Over the Reins

Croyle children inherit
legacy of love

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

The house buzzed with the afternoon’s activities of five school-age girls.

Karen was learning to tune her guitar, and Rosa giggled as photos were snapped of her. Emmalee showed off her newly organized closet. Lorenza discussed her plans to build a Hobbit hole in Tennessee and work for Lifeway Christian Resources. With a big, thick book to read, Gail curled up in a comfy chair. Although time was drawing near for the group to leave for church, Tony and Rhona Osborne remained unruffled. They gently urged the girls toward the goal of getting to the Wednesday-night service on time.

The Osbornes have much experience in raising children. They have, after all, parented more than 52 children in the last 25 years.

“My wife and I feel like this is what we’re called to do — be parents,” said Tony. They have been houseparents with Big Oak Ranch for 25 years and have the same passion for it as when they first started.

The reason is “them,” Rhona said, pointing to the five young ladies growing up happy and healthy. Rhona has seen healing taking place in the girls’ lives, and it touches the mother’s heart within her.

“They, way too often, minister to me,” Rhona said.

The Osbornes are just one of the houseparent couples at Big Oak Girls’ Ranch near Springville. Theirs is one of eight homes at the ranch, situated on 325 acres of rolling hills, woodlands and pasturelands along U.S. 11.

Another house will be completed this summer, said Brodie Croyle, associate executive director of Big Oak Ranch that 64 children call home.

“We are never full,” said Reagan Phillips, Brodie’s sister and director of Big Oak Ranch’s childcare team. Big Oak will always make room for more children — always.

The Osbornes’ longevity is not unusual for Big Oak Ranch. Brodie said the Osbornes’ commitment is the kind of calling for which the administration looks when selecting houseparent couples.

Houseparents are the frontline warriors of the ranch, he said. They are with the children each and every day. These “moms” and “dads” exemplify what God intended for a husband and wife to be and the children see this consistently.

The houseparents show what “family” truly means and lovingly incorporate others into it, said Brodie and his dad, John Croyle, who is founder and executive director of Big Oak Ranch.

The family units live, work, play and worship together. They laugh together. They cry together.

The houseparents model the four promises on which Big Oak has functioned since its inception:

“I love you.”
“I’ll never lie to you.”
“I’ll stick with you until you’re grown.”
“There are boundaries; don’t cross them.”

Being in an environment where these promises are kept on a daily basis creates a sense of love, security and permanence for any child, but especially for a young person from a background of abuse, neglect or abandonment.

As further demonstration to the youths that the commitment is real and long term, Big Oak seeks custody whenever possible. This lets the children know that no one is going to send them away or walk out on them, explained John.

“They’re not bad kids,” he said. “They come from bad circumstances.”

When a need emerges, fill it

Years ago, John met a blonde-haired, green-eyed girl at a Department of Human Resources office.

Her name was Shelley, and she was 12 years old.

She was dirty and thin.

Her father had physically and sexually abused her while her mother held her down. Shelley had to undergo surgery to repair damage from the abuse.

John begged a judge to allow him and his wife, “Tee,” to adopt Shelley. The judge denied the request because Shelley would have had to live at Big Oak Boys’ Ranch, which was the only ranch in the Big Oak ministry at that time.

John told the judge that Shelley would surely be dead in six months if she were returned to her parents.

“I was wrong,” John told Discover Magazine. “It was three (months.)”

Shelley’s life story weighed on John’s heart. Then, in 1988, he was able to establish a ranch for girls needing a family and a home. It is dedicated in memory of Shelley.

Like its counterpart for boys, the girls’ ranch has multilevel homes in a secure community setting that includes a lake, pool and gym, as well as a barn for horses. Each ranch also has a “transition” home, where residents who are attending college or have entered the workforce learn to become independent.

In addition, the girls’ ranch is where Big Oak’s administrative offices are located.

The girls’ ranch is the second of three ministries for Big Oak Ranch and has been home to more than 600 girls thus far. The other two facets of Big Oak Ranch are in Etowah County – Big Oak Boys’ Ranch near Southside and Westbrook Christian School in Rainbow City.

All three grew from the calling John felt on his life as a 19-year-old.

That summer as a camp counselor, John met a boy whose job was to be “banker” and “timekeeper” for his mother, a prostitute. The boy listened intently to what John taught him and ultimately asked Jesus to come into his heart to be his Savior.

Through that experience, John sensed God leading him to open “a Christian home for children needing a chance.”

In college at the University of Alabama, John played defensive end under the coaching of Paul “Bear” Bryant. During John’s time at the Capstone, the football team won three Southeastern Conference championships and the 1973 National Championship. John was named to Second Team All-American.

Then, the NFL came calling.

John’s plan was to play in the NFL to earn the money needed to start a ranch.

When John told Bear Bryant his intention, the coach explained that a man does not “play” for the NFL; he “marries” it. Bryant advised John to forget the NFL and go build the home for children.

Just before the NFL draft was to take place, John was in a hallway where he was to be weighed and measured. It was there that he made his decision and told officials of an NFL team to use their draft pick on someone other than him.

People who believed in John’s mission – Bryant being one of them – gave financial assistance and, in late summer of 1974, Big Oak Boys’ Ranch was established.

Its name comes from the Bible verse Isaiah 61:3: “And they shall be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified.”

John and five boys moved into a farmhouse on 120 acres near Southside.

Tee joined the family seven months later when she and John married.

During the 41 years that have followed, “2,000 children have had a chance at life that might not have had a chance,” said Brodie.

“Our first kid’s 58 now,” John added.

The boys’ ranch has since grown to nine homes. Currently, 55 children live there.

Together, the girls’ ranch and the boys’ ranch can accommodate a total of 144 children, plus 24 transitioning residents. The two ranches are supported exclusively through private donations. According to Big Oak information, about $12,000 is required to provide support for one child for one year.

In 1990, the ranch system added its third ministry – a school. For the price of $1, Big Oak purchased Westminster Christian School, renaming it Westbrook Christian School.

Approximately 700 students from 3-year-old kindergarten through 12th grade go to Westbrook. All Big Oak children attend Westbrook and account for 20 percent of the student body. Other pupils come from Marshall, Jefferson, St. Clair, Cherokee and Etowah counties. More than 500 students pay tuition to attend this private school, John said.

Tee, an educator for more than 30 years, teaches calculus there.

Westbrook has a 98-percent graduation rate, John said. Last year, the senior class garnered $2.2 million in scholarship offers.

As for Big Oak Ranch, “we’ve got 20 in college right now,” John said.

All in the family

When Brodie and Reagan came home from the hospital as newborns, they had 60 big brothers, Brodie said.

And the family progressively got bigger through the years.

“We had the perfect childhood, we think,” Reagan said.

Year after year, she and Brodie watched their parents live out their faith in Jesus and selflessly show love to hundreds of young people.

Reagan and Brodie also witnessed time and again the brokenness that had occurred in the lives of many children.

Brodie tells of a particular scene that happened when he was 5 years old.

A vehicle with a man and three boys inside pulled up at the ranch. The man explained that his girlfriend had given him an ultimatum – it was either her or his children.

The man said he was choosing his girlfriend.

The oldest of the three boys quickly decided that living at Big Oak sounded pretty good to him. The middle child bolted from the vehicle and ran away. It took ranch staff members three hours to find him.

The youngest child – a 6-year-old – clung desperately to the man. The child begged his father not to leave him like the boy’s mother had done.

Years later, Brodie would come to understand that what he saw that day as a kindergartner significantly influenced the mission he would have as an adult.

After high school, both Brodie and Reagan went to the University of Alabama on athletic scholarships. Reagan played basketball until a back injury ended her career. From 2002-2005, Brodie was starting quarterback for the Crimson Tide.

From there, Reagan became a model in Europe and Brodie an NFL player with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2006-2012.

Afterward, Brodie and wife Kelli returned to Tuscaloosa, where Brodie worked in real estate for a time.

Concluding that the “catwalk” was not the life she was called to lead, Reagan went back to Tuscaloosa to earn a master’s degree in counseling.

Brodie and Reagan grew to realize that all their earlier experiences — how they grew up, what they saw happen in the lives of broken children, how their parents cared so deeply – were molding, shaping and preparing them for a purpose.

Their parents’ ardent devotion to protecting and helping children had become Brodie and Reagan’s devotion as well.

As a result, Reagan – wife of John David Phillips and mother of three boys – came back to the ranch. She is now leading the childcare team, which is the ministry arm of the ranch.

Understanding that his heart was at Big Oak, Brodie returned there as well and assumed the leadership role of day-to-day operations of the ranch.

Brodie and Reagan say they are completely committed to carrying on the work their parents began.

“This is not a job to us,” said Brodie, father of two boys. “… We’re going to continue to do what God called our family to do 40 years ago. We will continue to be faithful.”

For more information about Big Oak Ranch, as well as the books John Croyle has authored, visit www.bigoak.org.

Features

Wild Game Dinner

Event attracts
more than 350 men

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Jim Smothers

The menu could have come from a Montana hunting lodge: smoked venison; bacon-wrapped quail; venison cube steak; venison meatballs; elk spaghetti; wild game gumbo; brunswick stew made with moose, squirrel and wild turkey. But the Wild Game Dinner actually took place at the First Baptist Church of Ashville thanks to the contributions of several hunters from St. Clair County.

“It was a way to bring in guys in a friendly, fun atmosphere,” said Pastor Dr. Jay Stewart. “Sometimes people are not interested in going to church because of preconceived ideas, fair or unfair, but something like this, guys relate to it because of the outdoor nature of whole thing.”

The church sold 357 tickets at $10 each for the Feb. 21 evening event, which was far more than its Fellowship Hall could seat. Diners had to eat in shifts in order to accommodate the crowd. Each person got a sampler plate that included as many of the dishes as they wanted to try, plus baked beans, potato salad and pie.

Church and community volunteers began cooking at 7 that Saturday morning. By the time the event started at 6 p.m., outdoor writer and chef Mike Bolton had smoked 450 quail, and Marty Crews of Big Boyz Barbecue had cooked 500-600 pounds of venison.

“This was the brainchild of one of our members, Tom Watson, who came to me with the idea,” said Stewart, who has been at FBCA since July 2014. “We felt like men would have a chance to come with buddies, sit around and talk, swap hunting stories, laugh, eat some things we don’t ordinarily eat. We have lots of events for women, and we wanted to do something for the men in the community.”

Watson served as song leader, minister of music or associate pastor at seven Southern Baptist churches from Alaska to Alabama over a 42-year career. Recently retired and a relatively new member at FBCA, Watson said the dinner was designed to attract men who wouldn’t come to a Sunday church service but would come to dinner and experience wild game and try for a prize.

“We had a lot of big-time speakers, guys who had outdoor television shows, Christian guys who came in and gave their testimonies,” said Watson of the past events he organized.

Hank Hough of Texas-based Kingdom Dog Ministries was the featured speaker for the event. He used his dog, Preacher, to illustrate how God’s children should show obedience to Him.

“Our church guys didn’t know what to expect, being the first year,” said Watson. “I challenged them to make a donation, and 12 to 15 of them came through, so we had some money to buy nice prizes with. Some of the smaller prizes were donated, but we bought the four guns we gave away.” They also gave away an Auburn football helmet autographed by Pat Sullivan, a deer tree stand, deer feeder and a quail hunting trip.

“Alan Clayton, the baseball coach at St. Clair High School and an avid bird hunter, guides hunts in northeast Alabama at the Stick Lake Hunting Preserve near Fort Payne,” Watson said. Scott Duel, owner of the preserve and the physical therapist at Back in Motion in Springville, donated that hunt, according to Clayton, who will personally guide the winner with his own dogs.

Other sponsors, including businesses such as Central Seed & Supply and the St. Clair County Co-Op in Ashville, donated buck jam, deer cain, salt licks, deer sauce, T-shirts, turkey calls, a 50-pound bag of milo for deer feed plots, caps, Mike Bolton game cookbooks, BBs and targets.

Most of the men there either saw the notice about the dinner on the church’s marquee or were invited by a friend. Clint Vickery of Albertville, who attends Flow of the Spirit Church, saw the sign on the marquee. “You don’t often get to try elk,” he commented.

Ashville resident Jeremy Gidley brought his 7-year-old son, Isaac, whose favorite dish was the elk spaghetti. Mark Coupland of Odenville also saw the marquee notice. “I had deer at an Auburn game several years ago and wanted to try some more,” he said. Another Odenville resident, Jeremy Byers, was invited by a friend who attends FBCA. “I’ve been deer hunting since I was 10 years of age in Sumter County,” Byers said, but he liked the other wild offerings, too.

FBCA member Patsy Fouts, Ashville, was conspicuous as one of the few women present. Three others were in the kitchen, and one was shooting photos for the church directory. Fouts brought her two grandsons, Brett, 12, and Brady, 10.

As the diners finished their meal, they made their way to the church sanctuary, where singer and pianist Tim Lett of Chandler Mountain Baptist Church entertained with gospel songs. The sanctuary was almost packed with men of all ages, their arms around their sons, grandsons or nephews. Many were dressed in camo coats and hats. Ashville Mayor Robert McKay was there, and so was a Jefferson County game warden, Kerry Bradford, who took a lot of good-natured ribbing about the legality of the kills that furnished the meat for the menu.

After everyone was seated in the sanctuary, 13 youngsters took to the stage to participate in a coyote-call contest. Two young winners received brand new BB guns, and all contestants received hunting caps.

The dinner may become an annual event, according to Stewart, who said plans are already under way for next year. 

Features

Forever Preserved

Big Canoe Creek & Chandler Mountain Orchard

Story by Carol Pappas
Submitted Photos

It’s more than just a job for Wendy Jackson, executive director of the Freshwater Land Trust. When a piece of land, a creek or a stream can be preserved, it’s about the future.

It’s about her grandchildren and their grandchildren. It’s about partnerships, where public and private entities come together to preserve the past for the future. And it’s about sharing those protected treasures for generations to come.

Few know that better than Doug Morrison, who heads up the Friends of Big Canoe Creek in Springville. Since 2009, he and his group have been working with Freshwater Land Trust, St. Clair County Commission and City of Springville to protect this pristine area as a nature preserve in the state’s Forever Wild program.

Atop Chandler Mountain, Jerry and Janice Lanning know the value of the work, too. Their acreage is being preserved as an orchard growing a blight-resistant American Chestnut Tree, one of only two such orchards in Alabama and the state’s base of operations.

“It looks like a go,” Jackson said of the Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve, which is nearing an expected real estate closing in coming months. Forever Wild, a state program that buys land to protect and preserve it, has made an offer, and the landowner has accepted.

“Mayor (William “Butch”) Isley and the City Council of Springville, the St. Clair County Commission and the Friends of Big Canoe Creek really stepped up to the plate and did what others around the state have been trying to do,” Jackson said. Their success will mean 327 acres of land fronting Big Canoe Creek near Homestead Hollow can be preserved for the future and shared for the public to enjoy.

“We are so excited. It really is testament to a lot of leadership in St. Clair County. A lot of other counties haven’t seen this success,” she said. In addition to the obvious win on the environmental side, Jackson called it a “huge win on the economic front” because it is expected to lure tourism dollars to the county.

“This is a great example of how we work,” she said. “We’re not an advocacy group. We don’t file lawsuits. We believe hunters and anglers are some of the greatest conservationists, helping to preserve places that matter.”

Based in Birmingham, FWLT does its work in an eight-county area through public and private partnerships and a tool called a conservation easement. “It helps keep family lands in family hands,” she explained. Landowners can continue to farm or manage a forest while preserving it for the future. They can protect the land from future development and “preserve a way of life they care about.”

There are estate planning tools through conservation easements that can reduce estate taxes, but many people don’t know of their existence because the act that created it was not passed until 1996.

“We want to make sure farms stay farms,” she said. “In 50 years, we will need to feed two times the people we feed now. The average age of a farmer today is 60, and we’re losing farms every year.”

And they want to ensure that lands rich in biodiversity like Big Canoe Creek are protected and preserved. “Doug Morrison has really been a hero in this along with the city and county. He has really been a champion and stayed on it.”

“We are thrilled that this project is moving forward,” Morrison said. “The Friends of Big Canoe Creek originally nominated this parcel in July 2009. We were later approached by an adjoining land owner and nominated a second tract in April 2010. In May of 2010, we partnered with the Freshwater Land Trust and conducted a Bioblitz on the nominated parcels.

The Bioblitz was an intense 24-hour biological survey in an attempt to record all the living species in the area, land and water.

“We had groups of scientists, biologists, naturalists and volunteers participating. Some of the groups attending were professors and students from Birmingham Southern and Samford, a biologist from the Nature Conservancy, folks from Alabama Rivers Alliance, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, photographers from the Conservation Photographers of Alabama, and of course, many volunteers from the Friends of Big Canoe Creek. After the first tract is acquired we are hopeful the second tract can be added.”

When the property gets its official designation, it will become a nature preserve. Its nomination letter describes it as “hilly, forested terrain and aquatic and riparian habitat in and near Big Canoe Creek, including the drainage of a significant tributary of the creek.”

It has “abundant creek-side scenery and wildlife habitat. High points on the property afford views of the uppermost section of the Big Canoe Creek watershed, including beautiful rural Canoe Creek valley and the opposing ridges of Pine and Blount Mountains. The site is suitable for hiking, bird watching, paddling, mountain biking, horseback riding and a variety of other outdoor activities.”

“This endeavor is truly a community driven project,” Morrison said.

American Chestnut making comeback

Meanwhile, another environmental project is taking root in St. Clair County on Chandler Mountain, where the Lannings have donated land for an orchard to regenerate a blight-resistant American Chestnut Tree.

Originally known as the Redwoods of the East, these enormous trees — once found in Alabama and St. Clair County — became extinct because of a Japanese blight accidentally introduced in the United States in the early 1900s.

Once the blight spread, there was no stopping it. It wiped out these majestic trees, completely changing the landscape of the Eastern United States. “My mother remembered seeing them as a child,” Jackson said. After that, they were gone.

Working with the American Chestnut Foundation, timber companies and other groups, FWLT is involved in the St. Clair project, which is predicted to take decades to reach its goal of a blight-resistant tree.

“It’s a long-term proposition,” Jackson said. The tree is planted and at a certain age, the blight is introduced. If it survives, that tree is propagated. “It’s a multigenerational thing that will take decades for complete regeneration.”

And just as partnerships have worked well in the Big Canoe project, partnerships are playing a key role in this one, too, she said. Timber companies are helping with seedlings. A whole team of work volunteers from Honda Manufacturing of Alabama laid pipe for an irrigation system and planted another tier of trees to expand the orchard.

What is happening on top of that mountain is a valiant effort to bring back trees that the country’s founding fathers used to build furniture and split rail fences. They were trees that provided food to support an abundance of wildlife. It’s about the ecosystem, and it’s about timber for wood products — all interested parties working together to make something good happen.

But it’s more than that, Jackson said, adding a personal view of it. She knows it can’t come to fruition in her lifetime. “My goal is for my granddaughter to one day be able to walk under the shade of a Chestnut tree” — a simple pleasure she wants for her grandchildren and the generations that follow after.

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Revisiting the Lovejoy Slinghsot Hunt

Annual event continues to draw attention

Words and Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Legend and tradition meet each year in Ashville when Lyman Lovejoy hosts the Lovejoy Slingshot Hunt in honor of his father, Sim Lovejoy. Breakfast and lunch, cooked over an open pit is always a treat, and the Lovejoys supply flips and ½ inch ball bearings for ammunition.

Today, the flips are produced by Don Hulsey. Don has succeeded in carrying on Sim’s design tradition.

Sim’s ability with the flip was legendary. As young as seven, he was known for killing running rabbits as well as squirrels running through the branches of trees. His accuracy has not been matched by his progeny, and they will not try to tell you otherwise.

His generosity in crafting flips for children was legendary, too. And there is no shortage of children at the Lovejoys each year. They are as much a part of the hunt as flips and squirrels.

Participants, young and old, practice with their flips and take to the woods for the grand hunt after breakfast in wagons pulled by tractors. Trees are shaken, dogs bark, and comparisons are made to previous years. Another spot is always better, so the hunting party wanders through the woods with heads tilted back, searching feverishly for any sign of a squirrel.

An occasional ball is hurled toward a bundle of leaves stuck in the high branches of a tree, in hopes that the elusive prey will be rousted from the suspected nest. Squirrels, wily as they are, either pretend well to not be there, or are not there at all.

Once one is spotted, the chase is on. Shouts of “Get ahead of him!” ring through the woods as men, old men, bound through the brush like youngsters. A fuselage of steel balls fly through the air as the squirrel dances from limb to limb, searching for shelter. “Get around him!” “There he goes!” “Knock him down!” “He’s comin’ back this way!”

Most escape. It is not easy to hit a squirrel with a slingshot.

Once a squirrel is bagged, adolescent boys will give sincere testimony that it was their ball that brought it down. If there is a dispute, the compromise is, “Well, I hit him right when you did,” which is acceptable, and ends any conflict.

The little girl, whose shot barely left the flip, is encouraged by her father saying, “Well honey, you didn’t hit him, but you sure scared him.”

Sim Green Lovejoy died one day after his 92nd birthday, on Oct. 14, 2006. Buried in his overalls with a flip in the front pocket, his fishing pole by his side, Sim was wearing his favorite cap.

That is not a bad way to go, and the annual hunt is not a bad way to be remembered.

Editor’s Note: This year, the hunt captured the attention of Fred Hunter and will be aired on Fox 6’s Absolutely Alabama Feb. 20.

Sim Lovejoy Squirrel Hunt

282 photos

Features

Laster Sundries

Memory-filled soda fountain reopens in Springville

Story by Tina Tidmore
Photos by Mike Callahan

On a 48-degree Friday afternoon in December, eight-year-old Clara Hughes sits at a small round table at Laster Sundries. Despite the temperature outside, Clara enjoys licking her multi-colored sherbet. In doing so, she is following the tradition of her mother and grandfather, going back to the 1960s.

Many in Springville fondly remember after-school walks down Springville’s Main Street to the combination soda fountain/gift shop. Yet, for at least a year and a half, Laster Sundries was closed. It reopened in December under new ownership.

“I came here when I was 12 years old,” said Sandra Tucker, a former owner of the business and current chairman of the St. Clair County Historical Development Commission. “That was the place to go for ice cream, candy, school books and school supplies.” Now that it has reopened, Tucker said she hopes local people will remember it’s there and support it.

“Everyone in Springville has a story to tell of the place,” said new owner Amy Harris. “I wanted to bring back a place for families to make memories. It tugs at my heart strings.”

The long-time Springville resident quit her 19-year nursing career in October to revive the landmark business. Even though her son Taylor questioned whether she’s going through a midlife crisis in making such a drastic career change, Harris is receiving much support from her husband, mother, son, brother and nephews. Usually, one or more family members can be found serving customers in the shop, including a young man wearing a period-style white plaid shirt with a red bowtie.

Harris’ mother, Dean Franklin, can be found there regularly. She is retired and also has lived in Springville for many years. As any good mother would, she’s helping her daughter’s dream come true and is a co-owner.

“I always loved cooking and baking,” Harris said. “I always dreamed of owning a business like this.” After the previous owners closed it, Harris said she just kept looking at the building, and the desire to act continued to build. “I loved the history,” she said of the building and the business.

Much of that “history” is in the mahogany, floor-to-ceiling display cases, along with a marble counter purchased in 1930 and a soda fountain purchased many decades ago from Pennsylvania. The building itself is included in the Springville Historic District, which is on the U.S. National Park Service list of historic sites. Harris did some painting and wiring work in the building and is keeping the dark green and white, checkerboard-style floor.

While reviving history, Harris is also looking forward to the future, hoping to create a viable business by making the right choices and offering food and gifts that her customers want. On top of the Laster Sundries ice cream case are bananas, just waiting to be sliced and put in a bowl with mint chocolate chip, butter pecan or one of the other cold and creamy delights.

In addition to the Blue Bell ice cream and cherry or vanilla cokes, the menu includes made-from-scratch soups and sandwiches. “I’ve been overwhelmed with how busy it’s been,” Harris said just two months after it reopened. “Most of the business has been the food.”

It’s no wonder. Their Facebook page has soup-of-the-day announcements that include hearty winter flavors, such as potato soup, tomato basil soup and wild rice soup. The sandwiches include Mama’s Favorite Chicken Salad, Triple Grill Cheese and traditional choices. The menu offers a Brown Cow, Black Cow, Purple Cow and Orange Cow; all float flavors.

One holdover from the previous owners is the Egg Cream Soda. Harris said she’s not sure why it’s called that because it doesn’t have any egg in it.

Harris is considering adding free Wi-Fi service to attract students to do their studying at the shop. The gifts, said her husband Brian Harris, will be trendy and for showers or birthdays. They plan to make the building available for after-hours events by appointment. As the temperatures warm up, customers can look for the shop to offer picnic lunches that can be taken to the neighboring public park. They have also been approached to do some catering for weddings.

This is not the first time the business has been resurrected. According to an excerpt from Heritage of St. Clair County, the Lasters started the business in 1927. It remained in the Laster family for years. But at one point, it stopped operating and the building ended up in disrepair. Then Gerald and Sandra Tucker, along with Lillian and Frank Buckner, did the repairs and opened it back up, still as Laster Sundries. Amy Harris said the Tuckers and Buckners owned it for 16 years.

At this time, Harris is using a Facebook page, Laster Sundries on Main, to communicate with the community.

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