A key decision in any wedding plan is capturing those special moments on the big day. After all, these memories last a lifetime.
In an interview with Mackenzie Neely of Neely Creative and Lara Wilkerson of Laura Wilkerson Art, here’s some advice from those who know – the photographers who make it happen.
Would you guys mind telling me one piece of advice you would have for a couple in preparing for their wedding day?
Makenzie:
“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself or your family. Try to let your vendors take on the things that need to be done day of so you all can be in the moment. Everything falls into place when you just enjoy the day!”
Lara:
Laura Wilkerson
“One piece of advice I would tell a bride and groom is to make their wedding day genuinely, and wholly about each other. You and your future spouse are unique. Make your wedding reflect yourselves. I feel we often get consumed with friends’ and family’s opinions and compromising what we want to make others happy. Your wedding day is YOUR day to celebrate each other as a couple. Celebrate it however you want.”
What is something you wish more couples would do or incorporate into their big day?
Makenzie:
“I wish couples would do things that are more their personality than a trend. Trends fade. You will never regret making your wedding unique and you at the end of the day. “
What are your favorite photos to take at weddings?
Laura:
“Some of my favorite photos I have ever taken during a wedding is when the couple can just be themselves. This often happens when they get a moment alone together to take the day in. Wedding days can often be a blur. If you’re planning your wedding day, plan at least 30 minutes of alone time with your spouse (and photog *wink*). This “alone” time can be during a first look or after the ceremony during bride and groom portraits. Slow down and breathe for a moment. During this time is usually when I capture the most candid, raw and genuine emotions of the bride and groom.”
Is there anything you’d like to see more of at weddings?
Mackenzie Neely
Makenzie:
“Couples making the day for more their personality than trends.”
This could be in a separate info box:
Makenzie Neely
Neely Creatvie Photo Co.
www.neelycreativephoto.com
Real Wedding for Saint Clair County couple Zach + Gracie Walker
Story by Joe Whitten Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Submitted Photos
The name Cool Springs calls to mind a wooded bower where weary wanderers of long ago found peace and rest in the springs’ restorative waters.
And when a church is named Cool Springs Missionary Baptist, it is lovelier still, for it speaks of refreshing the soul and spirit. Psalm 104:10 reads, “He sends springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.” This was the motto verse for the church’s 150th Anniversary in 2019.
The man who would establish this church, Alexander Clark Ramsey, was born in 1812 in Jackson County, Georgia, to John and Sarah Anderson Ramsey, according to Ramsey family history provided by Beth Jones and Judith Abernathy.
Their research also shows that “Sarah Anderson Ramsey was ¾ Cherokee and Creek Indian. She moved to St. Clair County, Alabama, with her children after her husband died in Rhea County, Tennessee, in 1829. The family believes that Alexander Clark also came to St. Clair County c1829 as well.”
Records show that at age 22, Alexander “entered land at Cool Springs with the government” in 1834, and by that same year, he had married Nancy Ann Ross, born in 1803 in South Carolina.
Alexander and Nancy Ann built a home in Cool Springs and reared a family of three sons. Two died during the Civil War: The first, recovering from wounds was returning home by train; however, the train crashed, and he died in the wreck. The second son died of measles.
The third son, John Washington Ramsey, returned home and lived his life in Cool Springs. Oral history states that when he returned from the war, John Washington could not embrace his family until his clothes were boiled and he had rid himself of lice.
The nearest church, Ashville Baptist, lay five miles northeast of Cool Springs. To attend this church, worshipers traveled these miles, by walking, by wagon, or by horseback. Inclement weather made this journey tedious.
We know the Ramsey family worshiped there from Mattie Lou Teague Crow’s history, Ashville Baptist Church and Its Beginnings. In her research, she discovered among Col. John Washington Inzer’s notes about the church a paper dated 1858, which listed those who pledged money toward constructing the second Ashville Baptist sanctuary. The listed names included “Clark Ramsey,” who pledged $10.00 – not a meager sum in those days.
Realizing the advantages of a local church for the Cool Springs families, Alexander Clark Ramsey and his son, John Washington, with other Baptists, organized Cool Springs Missionary Baptist Church in 1869. We do not have the names of the Charter Members other than John W. Ramsey, for the church’s earliest existing record book dates to 1883, 14 years after the organizing date.
The original church bell still in attic today
These were Reconstruction years and money was scarce. The men of the church and community felled trees, notched logs and constructed a log sanctuary which stood on the same property as today’s building and near the springs’ refreshing waters. Winter heat came from a log burning fireplace.
The 1883 minutes book lists 37 male members and Rev. J.S.E. Robinson as pastor. Rev. Robinson (1849-1924) pastored St. Clair County Baptist churches for over 50 years and preached revivals almost every year. A brief history of Friendship Baptist gives an account of a revival Rev. Robinson preached there. “He was asked if it were true that he had converted 60 souls during the revival. His answer rang out, ‘I never done it. God done it!’”
The walls of the log church resounded with Gospel preaching for 22 years, until the congregation needed a more commodious sanctuary. In a transcribed talk presented by Bessie Whitfield Burttram at the church’s Centennial Anniversary, she stated that in the January1891 business meeting, “Bro. W. Johnson was endorsed to have a bill of lumber cut for the new church building.” Then in March, “… a committee of five members was appointed to ascertain the indebtedness of the new building and to assign to each male member his portion of the cost.” The dates of completion of the building and the first service are unrecorded.
The 1891 building had two front doors – one for men and boys and other for women and girls. Judith Abernathy recalls her Aunt Roberta Ramsey Ensey telling how her “best beau” would walk her to the women’s door and then he entered by the men’s door.
Although remodeled and updated over the years, that building still serves the congregation today. The two front doors are gone, and all enter to worship through the same double doors.
In January 1913, a motion was made and approved “…to sell the timber on the church lot.” The timber sale resulted in $13.58, and they “purchased new seats for the church.”
Cool Springs has always had a concern for the spiritual and physical needs of its congregation and others. Church records show that in 1925, Mr. A.L. Galbreath, a farmer, told the membership that he had planted a five-acre plot “for the Lord.” When that was harvested and sold, “He brought the money received to the church to be divided between the pastor and the orphan’s home.” In those days, pastors were often paid with farm produce. Cash would have been a Godsend in 1925.
Today, Baptist churches conduct Sunday school classes for all ages. This wasn’t always the case. Sunday schools originated outside of established churches and were interdenominational.
In a Jan. 6, 2012, online article titled, “Sunday School an Evolving Institution,” it says that denominations moved slowly in organizing Sunday school classes. The same article states that “The Southern Baptist formed its Sunday School Board, now Lifeway Resources, in 1891.” Therefore, it’s not surprising that in April 1895 a motion to organize Sunday school at Cool Spring didn’t carry. They later approved Sunday school classes, but church minutes seem not to have recorded the date.
Membership increased, and church minutes show that in1936 the congregation approved remodeling and adding Sunday school classrooms, and Alabama Power installed electricity that summer.
For classrooms, the church decided to dig a basement under the 1891 structure. In a recent interview, Beth and Ross Jones and Judith Abernathy, told the basement’s history. “In 1936, teenage boys with a short mule named Bell, a slip scrape, shovels and picks dug the basement under the supervision of the older men. Church members picked up rocks to make the basement foundation to the addition. One of the men hauled them over here on his Studebaker truck.”
The US economy had improved by 1936, but in 1937, it took a dive which lasted until late in 1938. This unexpected decline involved the church members’ finances, so, completing the remodeling and basement rooms progressed at a tortoise pace.
In speaking of this, Judith told that in a business meeting someone suggested that the ladies of the church might give their Sunday eggs to help pay off the indebtedness. “The women sold eggs gathered on Sunday and put that money in the collection.”
It took from 1936 until 1938 to complete the remodeling, “However,” Beth Jones observed, “we have a full set of Sunday School rooms still in use today under the sanctuary built 132 years ago.”
A significant 1938 event occurred when Dr. Jacob Gartenhaus, director of the Southern Baptist Home Missions Board, accepted an invitation from the Cool Springs WMU (Women’s Missionary Union) to come speak to their group. Cool Springs’ WMU invited all churches to attend his presentation but as reported in The Southern Aegis of Feb. 3, 1938, due to inclement weather, only Cool Springs folk attended. “However,” the article continued, “Dr. Gartenhaus expressed a desire and determination to visit again.”
Dr. Gartenhaus, a Jew, was born in Bukowsko, Poland, in 1896. As a young adult, he came to New York City where he converted to Christianity. He attended Moody Bible Institute and the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He served 27 years with the Southern Baptist Home Missions and was known as the “Southern Baptist Jew.”
Eighty-five-year-old June Smith, WMU member, recently told of WMU women quilting for the public. “We put the money in the WMU treasury,” she reminisced, “and that money went to missions. We’ve always been big on missions – and still are.” Cool Springs’ heart for mission continues strong today.
What would a Baptist worship service be without instruments to accompany the singing? However, beginning with the Reformation, protestants congregations sang acapella, for the organ represented the religion they protested. And 350 years later, most rural churches in the United States still sang without instruments.
Hymnbooks came with lyrics only. Instruments were also expensive, but the invention of the pump organ made that instrument affordable, but churches still resisted purchasing them.
We see that at Cool Springs in 1901, the motion to purchase a pump organ did not pass. Opinions changed by 1902, and the congregation approved buying an organ, and Myrtie Whitfield was organist for many years. One can only imagine the harmonious blend of voices and music the first Sunday it was played.
Today Leah Attaway plays the piano for the church. She studied piano for 10 years with Electa Stevenson, the well-respected piano teacher in Odenville, then continued music studies at Samford University. Leah’s first cousin, Kerry Montgomery, serves as song leader.
Singing schools that were held in churches became popular in the 19th Century and continued until into mid-20th Century. An announcement for one at Cool Springs appeared in the July 7, 1915, The Southern Aegis: “The Eureka Normal School of Music will hold an eighteen-day service under the direction of Homer E. Morris of Oneonta at Cool Springs five miles southwest of Ashville beginning July 12, 1915.”
The cost for 19 days’ study was $1.50, and for those coming from a distance, boarding for the duration was “very reasonable.”
All Day Singings occurred once a month in many St. Clair County churches, and singers from all over the county attended. In the Dec. 6, 1928, issue of The Southern Aegis, “Cool Springs News,” we read, “Cool Springs Singing Society attended the singing at Poplar Springs and report a good time.” Another in the April 1931 issue announced that at the All-Day Singing at Cool Springs there would be quartets from “Leeds, Acmar, and Odenville. …We are expecting a grand day. Bring well-filled baskets (of food).”
The St Clair News-Aegis of April 16, 1959, announced that “Lee Smith and the Master Workers Quartet from Akin, South Carolina, and Rick Mays and the Jubilaires Quartet of Birmingham” would be at Cool Springs, and that Ray Wyatt was the program chairman.
Beth Jones recalled that once when she was a child, she had the mumps and couldn’t attend. “Our family lived about 3/10 of a mile from the church, and that day, cars were parked all the way to our barn. I was on our front porch, and with the church windows open, I could hear the singing. We used to have big singings.”
Cool Springs Cemetery
Vacation Bible School (VBS) began at Cool Springs in 1947 under the ministry of Bro. Oscar Mitchell, and it has continued every year since then. Bro. Mitchell’s wife, Nellie, directed that first year.
Later, Peggy Jarrett directed many VBS weeks and is remembered for her concern for children. “I never will forget,” a church member said, “how when she always prayed, ‘Bless the children.’ She worried about children.”
Other VBS directors from bygone days include Margaret Sellers and Mary Ramsey.
June Smith’s family joined the church in c1950 when she was 12 years old, and she remembers well VBS time. One of her teachers, Gladys Smith, became her mother-in-law when June and Ralph Smith married.
Recently, she told how Lena Morris and Ruby Kirkland prepared cookies and juice each day for the children. “Mrs. Morris would squeeze oranges and make fresh juice for us.”
Today, Regina Ash directs VBS, and the entire church participates. Each year, between 50 and 60 children attend – Peggy Jarrett’s prayers answered. The purpose of VBS is teaching children about the Bible and God’s gift of salvation. Each year, children come to faith in Jesus Christ through this church ministry. These new converts wait until after the yearly revival to be baptized.
Until recent years, most churches held revivals every summer. Through the 1950s, the evangelist preached a morning service, had lunch with a church family, made visits in the afternoon, and preached at night services.
Churches announced revivals, as in this Aug. 8, 1917, ad in The Southern Aegis: “A series of revival services is being held at Cool Springs Church by Rev. E.P. Moore, who has many old friends in this community.”
Cool Springs scheduled revival week at the end of July. If the first week proved especially effective with many converts, a revival could continue for two or three weeks. Extended revivals were called “protracted meetings.”
The Ramsey sisters reminisced about revivals. “Ladies of the church took turns cooking for the evangelist and had the meal ready after the morning service,” Judith recalled.
Rev. Pearl Tinker was their favorite evangelist, for he brought his family and stayed with the Ramseys. “Judith was friends with the older daughter of the pastor, and I was friends with the younger daughter. We went to all the dinners!” “But,” Judith added, “we girls waited until the grownups had eaten.”
When revival ended, “Baptizing Sunday” came soon afterwards. This service occurred at the “Baptizing Hole” on Canoe Creek until the installation of the indoor baptistry in the 1980s.
Ross Jones recently reminisced, “The baptizing hole was originally a ford, so it was a rather shallow place with some areas deep enough for baptizing.” Beth joined in, “On Saturday before baptizing, some of the deacons would build steps going down from the bank into the water.
“Then on Sunday morning before the baptizing, John Ramsey, one of the deacons, would carry a long rod and go down the steps and check to make sure no holes had washed out during the night that could cause someone to fall. Then before baptizing started, a deacon would precede the pastor into the water to scare off the snakes.”
When the church added the baptistry inside the church in the 1980s, Pat Massey thought a painting of the Baptizing Hole would be a good background scene, showing “the olden days.” He commissioned Karl Scott, St. Clair Springs artist, to paint the scene, and the church paid the cost.
The most recent update to the sanctuary occurred in 2016. For 10 years the congregation had saved money to install a cupola for the original church bell. Several carpenters assessed the structure and determined the bell was too big and heavy for a cupola. Since the old Cool Springs School bell would fit, it hangs in the cupola today. The historic church bell remains in the attic and is rung on Memorial Day.
The Cool Springs School stood across the road from the church and to the left of the cemetery. Organized toward the end of the 19th Century, classes first met in the church, it seems, for church records of July 1899 state, “Permission was granted for the church building to be used as a school.” Sometime after that, the community constructed a school on land donated by the Ramseys. It stayed in use until the 1940s when Cool Springs students were sent to Ashville school.
After building a home in the area in 2010, Chuck and Regina Ash wanted to worship in a local church, and after visiting other churches, they joined Cool Springs, and they both participate in church ministries. Chuck had grown up in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, so when he and Regina chose Cool Springs Missionary Baptist, Chuck was baptized by emersion as required by Baptist. “I had to learn how Baptist do things,” he said.
Chuck learned well, for on March 20, 2022, he was ordained as a deacon along with David Murphree, Steve Ray and Jacob George. These four serve in fellowship with the other deacons: Ross Jones, Jim Montgomery, John Ray and John McWaters Sr.
Jacob commented on how the church had influenced his life, for he had grown up being taught the Bible and the things of God. “The church family itself has played a big part in me learning how important family and good friends and fellowship are,” he said. “At Cool Springs, most of our members are older, so, for me as a young man, it’s good to be around their wisdom.”
Brother Curry Harris has pastored Cool Springs since 1989. He also refers to the congregation as family. “In my 34 years, we have laughed, wept, celebrated and mourned. We celebrate marriages and births and watch children grow up. They feel like my own children.”
Of church members’ funerals, he said, “We weep and mourn for the family and our church family, but we celebrate that because of Jesus, they are with Him and we will be together again one day.”
Of the camaraderie and fellowship of his congregation, he recalled a September 17, 2023, picnic at Camp Sumatanga. “We prayed for each other’s needs, worshiped the Lord, enjoyed His beautiful nature and studied God’s Word. We ate together – Yes, fried chicken and banana pudding because we’re Baptist! Afterwards, some played horseshoes, children rode bikes, and others enjoyed walking or just talking and fellowshipping.”
Brother Harris’ plans for Cool Springs include to continue reaching out to the community and to continue fighting the good fight.
The ministries of this church are founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ who said, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14, NIV Translation)
Composer John Peterson used this verse when he penned the chorus of his gospel song, “Springs of Living Water.”
Drinking at the springs of living water,
Happy now am I, my soul is satisfied.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
Oh, wonderful and bountiful supply.
Cool Springs Missionary Baptist Church, a refreshing oasis in a chaotic world, invites you to come.
Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve kicks off education program
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Mackenzie Free
Wattle, caruncle, snood! Characters in a Dr. Seuss book? Though quite amusing to say, and quite like the nonsensical words used in the works of children’s author Theodore Geisel, these are real words that describe features of a gobbler, a tom, or a hen or simply a turkey.
The wattle is that flap of skin under the turkey’s chin, while the caruncle are fleshy bumps on the turkey’s head and throat. The snood is the fleshy flap that hangs just above the turkey’s beak.
Fun facts about turkeys kept the attention of dozens of young people and their parents at the Youth Turkey Call Expo, held at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville to kick off its education program. The Preserve opened in March, and the education component will be a key focus.
Traci Ingleright helps a child practice using a turkey call
The goal was to get kids outdoors and learning about the sport of wild turkey hunting, an activity they can do now with adults and continue to enjoy into adulthood. They learned about turkey behavior, their habitats, turkey calling and about habitat management.
If you’re wandering around the woods and find a turkey feather, don’t worry, that bird has quite a few more…about 6,000 more. And if you want to find that turkey, you’re going to want a locator call. There are basically three types of turkey calls – locator, diaphragm (or mouth) and friction.
Locators help to find where the turkeys are. Diaphragm-type calls are those that are held in the mouth, and sound is made by forcing air through them. Friction calls use a rubbing motion to make sound and include push-button, box and slate calls. Which type a hunter uses depends on his or her need at the time and their skills and preference.
“My favorite is a slate call,” said Miller Gauntt, already a seasoned hunter at 12 years old. His dad, Trey Gauntt, took him on his first hunt six years ago. “He didn’t even want to take a gun,” says Trey. “But I killed a turkey that day, and he changed his mind.” Miller says what he likes most is hearing them gobble. “100 percent it’s hearing them gobble … and being outside.”
Male turkeys are called gobblers or toms. Females are hens, and young turkeys are called poults.
As three children from one family head home, they excitedly reflect on their favorite lessons of the day. Five-year-old Noah and his 10-year-old brother, Caleb, were particularly impressed with their newfound knowledge on identifying turkey droppings. “Boy turkey poop is shaped like a hockey stick,” says Noah. Caleb completes the lesson by adding that the female’s skat can be identified by its more artistic spiral shape. Macy, their 9-year-old cousin, now knows that turkeys have three toes, a lesson learned this day through pushing a metal impression of a turkey’s foot into a bit of modeling clay.
“I think events like this are crucial to getting people out here,” says David Hopper, senior conservation officer and wildlife biologist for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “Being a turkey hunter myself, I think it’s imperative to teach kids about the traditional ways of turkey hunting. We want to teach them to be safe and to respect the bird.”
He explains that respecting the turkey includes only killing what you plan to eat. And, if pictures are posted to social media, making sure the bird is cleaned up. “Make sure he’s shown respectfully,” says Hopper. “They’re beautiful creatures.”
Hopper grew up hunting and credits his grandfather as his outdoor mentor. “Turkeys and hunting, period, kind of shaped my career path, down to both degrees I ended up getting,” he says.
“As much as the outdoors and hunting has given to me, it became natural to give back. And the way we give back is to manage these resources so that my kids and their kids and everyone else have these natural resources for the future.”
He was four when his grandfather took him hunting for the first time. It’s a tradition he is planning to carry on with his own children.
Three generations of one family are enjoying the event and learning about the sport. Kyle Mavin, from Springville, has brought his son, Jake, and 5-year-old grandson Rowan to introduce the youngster to the family pastime. “I introduced Jake to hunting when he was a young boy,” says Kyle. “Now we’re introducing Rowan to it together. We wanted to get him outside, away from technology. Today’s been a great day to do that.”
Traci Ingleright leans in to help a child practice using a turkey call. She’s a teacher by day and volunteers with educational events for the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). Having grown up turkey hunting with her dad, she is helping to educate future hunters as a tribute to him.
Her dad, Ben Knight, was a two-time world slam turkey hunter. A world slam turkey hunter is one who has harvested one of each of the North American subspecies of wild turkey in a given year.
Another grand slam turkey hunter is helping with another presentation today. Preston York got his single season grand slam in the spring of 2021. A family friend took him turkey hunting when York was 18 years old. “It spurred my love of the outdoors,” he says. “It got me in the woods every day of the season.”
Preston York (left) talks turkey with Trey Gauntt and his son, Miller
Now he’s in the woods a lot as owner of FloMotion Trail Builders, the company that built most of the trails at the Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve and another 200 miles of trails in 40 locations in five states.
The VanWagner family loves coming out to the Preserve. “It’s a huge resource for us,” he says. “I do a lot of hiking and landscape photography, and this is a great place for that.” He has brought his two girls out for the day to enjoy time outdoors and to participate in the turkey call expo.
Eight-year-old Emma can hardly contain her excitement as she talks about her love of these “fuzzy and cute” creatures. She says she’s always wanted to use a turkey call, but that her dad won’t get her one.
Thanks to the vendors who donated prizes for the day, the VanWagner family has a very happy daughter. Emma won her very own turkey call. She’s sure to summon a gobbler soon, complete with wattle, caruncle and snood.
Maybe one day, she’ll be a grand slam turkey hunter, too.
Freedom’s Finds uses thrifting to help survivors of human trafficking
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Richard Rybka
Gabby Martin knows human trafficking is not just a big city problem, a fact she has heard repeated in a number of training events aimed at helping victims. It can happen anywhere at any time.
A recent report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation defines the potential area of vulnerability to human trafficking as “any U.S. community – cities, suburbs, and rural areas.”
Martin and two close friends, having been stirred by viewing the movie, Sound of Freedom, started a not-for-profit mission in Pell City that hopes to help victims of human trafficking. Named Freedom’s Harbor, the mission gives a nod to the movie’s name and its mission in helping women who have escaped from or been rescued from traffickers. They are raising money to build a home for those who have survived this unspeakably painful horror.
One of the avenues they are using to reach that goal is through the opening of a new resale store called Freedom’s Finds. Located in downtown Pell City, the 2,900-square-foot store features a variety of previously owned, but well-maintained merchandise at thrift store prices.
A21’s Kimberly Thompson (left) visits with Ann and Gabby to offer advice on the mission’s direction
“We started the store to build revenue for the house itself and to pay the bills for running the home,” said Martin. “The plan further down the road is for the ladies who will be living in the home to work in the store if they want to. We want the store to support the mission of giving these ladies a safe harbor to begin the healing process.”
Seven years ago, The WellHouse opened in St. Clair County for women who have been victims of human trafficking. Carolyn Potter, The WellHouse’s chief executive officer, has met with Martin and welcomes any help for these victims. “There are times when we are full and we could always use help with a place for a lady to stay until we have a place for her,” says Potter.
Martin plans to position Freedom’s Harbor as a stabilization home for short-term living while waiting for a placement in a facility like The WellHouse, which offers long-term transitional care and counseling.
Why St. Clair? The very busy Interstate 20, the thoroughfare that bisects the southern part of the county and connects Atlanta to Birmingham, is commonly referred to as the superhighway of human trafficking, because it connects Atlanta to Dallas and is close to Interstate 65 for northbound and southbound travel.
Adding to the county’s vulnerability is the proximity to Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, which has been identified as the second busiest airport for human trafficking in the country by the Polaris Project, which operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, in the 17 years since its inception, it has received over 10,000 cases, with more than 16,000 victims, and those numbers are rising.
In 2021, they issued a report by state, and Alabama’s hotline received 80 cases with 216 victims involved. It is difficult to quantify the exact number of victims of human trafficking because of the complex nature of the crime and mental health impacts it leaves on its victims.
Countless victims never come forward due to the physical and psychological abuse from their traffickers.
In a move to bolster resources and to better focus on ways to help, Martin has reached out to several agencies who have firsthand knowledge of the human trafficking crisis.
She has gone through training from a number of those resources, including from A21, an anti-human trafficking group whose name stands for Abolishing Injustice in the 21st Century. A21 operates on six continents and in 21 countries with their mission to “abolish slavery everywhere forever,” a daunting task, considering the International Labor Organization’s estimate of 49.6 million victims of human trafficking worldwide.
They consider education to be an important part of their focus, including providing information for those, like Martin, wanting to offer services to victims, and offering programs to educate first responders on how to help victims.
“We also have a school curriculum that is available, designed for ages from kindergarten through high school,” said Kim Thompson, A21’s chief development officer. “Educating children and youth on what to look out for is an important step in the prevention of human trafficking.”
Thompson tells about launching the pilot program for education in a junior high school and having several students come forward as potential victims of grooming, trafficking and exploitation.
“One of these students was planning to meet with someone she had connected with online, and because of what the student learned through A21’s curriculum, she shared with her teacher what was happening. Her teacher alerted law enforcement officers, who were able to identify the individual and keep the student from a potentially dangerous situation.”
Thompson has had a heart for victims all her life. Her first exposure to human trafficking was early in her career when she was working as a summer camp director and had one of her campers become inconsolable.
“We were not able to get her to tell what the problem was at first,” said Thompson. “But eventually she told us her father was raping her and letting others in their apartment complex do the same. She desperately didn’t want to go home with him. I was heartbroken. I didn’t even know what trafficking was at the time.”
The camp staff contacted the sheriff’s department, who got the FBI involved. “In the end, the father was arrested, and the girl was removed from the home,” Thompson added. “Oh, and she was just 12 years old.”
Even the term, “human trafficking,” is often misunderstood. People tend to focus on the perceived “movement” part of the words. “Movement is not what makes a situation human trafficking,” explains Thompson. “People who are smuggled are not necessarily being trafficked. They’re vulnerable to human trafficking, though, because of their loss of control. Force, fraud or coercion is what defines human trafficking.”
Human trafficking includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Victims of both are lured by the prospects of a better job, better future, other fraudulent promises or are forced into trafficking by a family member.
They never receive the job, promised future or compensation but, often, stay with their trafficker in response to threats by their captor, which often include threats against the victim’s family.
“The vast majority of people know their trafficker,” says Thompson. “They are recruited or groomed by people they know or think they know. Our children are especially vulnerable because of their online activity.”
While the number of cases of trafficking in Alabama remains lower than surrounding states, neighboring states Georgia and Florida are among the list of top 10 states for human trafficking cases, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Gabby Martin knows trafficking knows no community size. “Anywhere people feel trapped or stuck, desperate or abused,” says Martin, “that’s where people are vulnerable.”
Having been in an abusive relationship over a decade ago, she knows what desperation feels like. She feels lucky to have escaped that situation and to have found a room at a YWCA domestic violence shelter in Eden, a home which has since closed. “We want to be that beacon of light for women who have escaped a trafficking situation, to help them with a place to shelter, to receive life skills, counseling and to help them become self-sufficient.”
Editor’s Note:For more information or to donate – www.freedomsharbor.com. Freedom’s Finds is open Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Coming in August – A deeper look into the hope and help provided by another organization that supports and provides help to survivors of human trafficking in St. Clair County.
BJ’s Diner and McWatering Hole add flavor to Ashville’s food and beverage mix
Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Graham Hadley and submitted
Two women returning to their rural roots now run businesses in Ashville, one serving coffee and sweet treats, the other full Southern meals. Bonita Johnson and Ashley McWaters are part of the growing list of female-owned businesses now thriving in the city.
Johnson opened BJ’s Diner in Ashville Plaza on U.S. 231 in January. It was the brainchild of her husband, Darrin, who saw it as a way to repay her for all she did for him during a lengthy illness a few years ago.
“My husband has been a chef for 30 years,” Johnson says. “He was at Flemming’s, Perry’s and other upscale places around Birmingham. Chef Dee is his professional name, and I met him when he worked at Whole Foods on Highway 280. At Whole Foods, you picked your own foods from the grocery section, and he prepared it for you. I would not eat there when he wasn’t cooking. He stopped working there in 2017.”
When they met, she told him she would be rich one day and would hire him to cook for her. “He said he would cook for me for free,” she points out. They married in 2017, and within three or four days of their wedding, Darrin went into kidney failure. Bonita nursed him back to health.
The couple lived in Birmingham during the first few years they were married but wanted to get back to their rural roots. “I’m from Boligee, and he’s from Greenville,” she says. “We live in Oneonta now.”
Their hallmark is Southern foods made from scratch using as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. “Our recipes are from watching our grandmothers cook and tweaking their recipes,” Johnson says. “We buy fresh foods as much as possible, and our goal is to serve no canned foods at all. Our salmon croquettes are from canned salmon, but the croquettes are made by hand. We are connected with local growers on Sand Mountain, in Blount County, and at area farmers’ markets.”
Their entrees and veggies change daily, except for one particular dish. “The only thing that does not change is the ‘liquid gold,’ which is our mac-and-cheese,” Johnson says. “We always have some kind of greens and some kind of beans, too.”
Other dishes include meatloaf, beef stew, fried or blackened catfish filets, fried or blackened Gulf shrimp, catfish nuggets, grilled or fried pork chops and D’s Crack Fried Chicken. They serve traditional sides such as potato salad, corn or onion hushpuppies, garlic mashed potatoes and several types of greens, plus their own Hawaiian coleslaw, which has pineapples in it. Desserts include peach cobbler and banana pudding. They’ll soon be adding homemade ice cream to that mix.
They start prepping as early as 8 a.m. “This isn’t fast food,” Johnson says. “It takes time to hand-cut fries. It takes four hours to make our chicken and dumplings because we roll out our own dough. We also make chicken and dressing. Our veggie menu changes depending on which fresh ones we can get that day. We do have to import some due to seasonality.”
She says Darrin does not season vegetables with meat but has his own special seasonings. He prepares purple potatoes when they can get them out of Pennsylvania.
BJ’s is decorated like an old-timey diner, too, from vintage tin signs advertising RC Cola, Dr. Pepper, Shoney’s Big Boy and various old service stations. She has a juke box on order. The diner seats 75 people and has truck parking available. A big sign is slated to go up next to the road soon.
The printing on BJ’s door says, “Open 7 days a week,” but in truth, it isn’t open every Sunday. “We’re here one Sunday per month,” Johnson says. “We put a sign on the door and post on our Facebook page which Sunday.”
Employees are part-timers who the Johnsons consider family. They also like to bring their customers into the family fold. “It’s not about the dollar, it’s about family,” Johnson says. “We want to know not just how they like our burgers, but did they get that job or raise and, ‘How are your babies?’”
Sometimes customers will give them money to pay for other peoples’ meals when those folks cannot afford to eat. “Sometimes people come in to use the restroom or get a glass of water, for example, and we feed them.” She has dubbed this the Mathew 25:35 Initiative because that passage of Scripture reads, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
The Johnsons don’t want anyone to leave their diner hungry or thirsty.
BJ’s is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m.; Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. The one-Sunday-per-month hours will be posted on their Facebook page and on their front door.
The McWatering Hole a local favorite
More than a coffee shop
Ashley McWaters worked as a dispatcher in the St. Clair County Sheriff’s office in Pell City for 13 years. Born, raised and residing in Ashville, every time she passed by the old Canoe Creek Coffee location on U.S. 231 South in Ashville, she would mutter to herself, “That place really needs to re-open.” One day, she decided she would make that happen. And that’s how the McWatering Hole was born.
“I love this town, and I wanted to be back (working) in Ashville,” she says. “I love to cook, and I like to love people with food. Coming home, seeing people I know and went to school with, keeps me smiling all the time.”
Although not a barista, Ashley has learned through experimentation over the two years she has been open. Her Hot Mama, for example, is an espresso named in honor of her mom, Misty Pruitt, because the latter never drank coffee until a few years ago and would not drink espresso at all because it sounded too bitter. “This one contains Americano coffee with caramel sauce and cheesecake syrup, and a dash of heavy cream,” Ashley explains. She uses only Red Diamond Coffee because it’s local. (The plant is in Moody.)
She offers a Red Bull Refresher for people who don’t like coffee. It contains coconut water and Red Bull in flavors such as Dessert Pear and Blue Raspberry. “It’s a caffeine kick, but you are hydrating as well,” she says.
Blueberry muffins, sweet and savory scones, sausage balls and mini-quiches top her list of edibles to go along with the 20-40 cups of coffee she sells per day. She uses local blueberries for her muffins and features seasonal flavors such as pumpkin scones in the fall. Right now, her seasonal feature is lemonade poppyseed muffins.
“Our sausage balls sell out every day,” she says. “They are about the size of a meatball, and one serving is seven or eight balls, depending on their size that day.” The size varies because she and her mom eyeball everything during preparation. “We don’t use a scoop,” she says. “We stop when our ancestors tell us to stop.”
She developed her menu through trial and error, not knowing what would sell until she tried it. Most of her recipes came from her own home, and many had been in her family for two or three generations. “Momma cried the first time she remembered making some of these recipes with her grandmother,” Ashley says of her primary employee. “I remember making some with my own grandmother, too.”
Her best-selling sweets are the banana pudding cookies, which require an early-rising customer to sample because they’re gone by 9:30. “Mom and I had been saying if we ever opened a shop, we would sell these,” she says.
She used to serve sandwiches, making the chicken salad filling from her mom’s recipe. But they didn’t sell as well as the sweets, and she frequently had too many left over at the end of the day. “We sold sandwiches for the first six months, then went back to the basics,” she says. “That has worked.”
The newest additions to the menu are the mini-quiches. She makes them in a muffin tin on alternate days than her sausage balls, so she always has something savory on the menu.
As for decor, several tables made by the owner of Canoe Creek Coffee remain, because Ashley didn’t want to erase their imprint from the shop. She has added a vintage record player that is awaiting a new needle and felt pad before it can play those vinyls again. “It’s a 1948 model,” she says. “That’s the year my Maw-Maw was born.”
Weekday clientele consists of locals, while on weekends she gets more interstate traffic. That was boosted when she got the shop listed on Yelp!, Google Maps and I-Exit. “People look up ‘coffee shop near me,’ and we pop up,” she says.Employees besides Ashley and her mom are Meghan Frondorf and on some weekends when Ashley needs a day off, her niece, 16-year-old Kiki Walker. “We’re a family-run business,” Ashley says.
In addition to drinks and treats, she sells logo tees, crystal jewelry by local resident Cody Syler, who owns Unicorn Man Crystals; hair bows by Ashley Mills of Beauty from Ashes; and potted cacti from Terri Goolsby. “Terri is doing a project to catch, spay and neuter stray cats,” Ashley says of Goolsby, another local vendor. “Her proceeds go to her Shoal Creek Community Cat Project.”
She keeps crayons and games to occupy children who come in with their parents or grandparents. During the school year, her own two kids can be seen coloring or studying, because she home schools them and takes them to work with her. “My kids get to see me doing something I love and to see my dream become a reality,” she says. “It lets them know they can do whatever they want in life.”
The McWatering Hole, 36245 U.S. 231, is open Tuesday – Saturday, 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.
It has not even been a year yet since Pell City Square opened and already, predictions and promises are right on target.
Two new eating places are about to call Pell City home – one a national brand sit-down restaurant and the other a national fast-food chain.
Whataburger is already under construction on an outparcel near the south end of Pell City Square and is expected to open in a few months. Outback Steakhouse is clearing ground to make way for its arrival in late 2024 or early 2025 on an outparcel next to it.
Whataburger was founded in 1950 in Corpus Christi, Texas. As its history of its name goes, the aim was to serve a hamburger so big it would take two hands to hold it and after a single bite, the customer would say, “What a burger!”
From that single stand the chain grew to more than 890 locations across the country.
Construction on Pell City’s newest addition to the dining scene began about three months ago, according to Pell City Manager Brian Muenger. “They’re moving at a pretty good pace,” he said, noting that the storefront is already in. Company officials projected opening would be in the third or fourth quarter of 2024. “They’re definitely on pace to hit that.”
Meanwhile, excavation work has begun on Outback in preparation for the company’s general contractor to begin the build. Projections call for opening in the fourth quarter of 2024 or first quarter of 2025.
The Outback project has been much anticipated. The city, in its agreement to lease the property, required location of a national sit-down family restaurant, preferably a steakhouse. “Outback is a very established brand,” said Muenger. “This is a new type of restaurant for the city. We don’t have a name brand out there.”
Outback’s location of a 187-seat restaurant in Pell City should serve as a signal to other corporate restaurants to follow suit.
The Australian-themed restaurant began in 1988 in Tampa and is owned by Bloomin Brands, which operates Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Flemings Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar.
It is the latest economic boost in what officials had envisioned for the city when it assumed ownership of the old St. Clair County Hospital property.
But while the focus has been on the Pell City Square and surrounding property of late, retail and restaurant development in other areas has not stopped in areas like Vaughn Drive and Hazelwood Drive, Muenger said. Interest is growing, and “feedback from prospects has been very strong. Looking forward, people will see a lot more of sit down dining. We’re a viable location. We’re actually working through the development process.”
It’s all part of an ongoing quest by the city, Muenger said, to grow its retail and restaurant community and “provide shopping closer to home so we can keep dollars closer to home in Pell City.”
St. Clair Economic Development Executive Director Don Smith agreed. “The city and county officials have done a great job working with everyone to bring retailers into the Pell City Square that draw from the region, and not just locally. This has opened up more potential customers coming into the city, which then grows the market so more retailers are attracted to invest in the community.”
