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Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Shawn Wilson was happy in his job, until Moment a mentor took him personally to enroll in college

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Long before Shawn Wilson began traveling the world as head of the New Look Foundation of renowned Atlanta musician Usher, meeting celebrities and establishing a successful youth leadership program, he was dodging his college application and working at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin YMCA.

Instead of filling out college applications when he was graduating from high school, Shawn began working as the Aquatic Coordinator at the YMCA. At 19 years old, he liked being in charge of the pool and making good money. Yet, despite how hard he tried to justify his decision to put it off applying to college, he eventually decided to – thanks to a Moment forced on him by a YMCA member in one of his water aerobics classes.

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta Braves honor sports and Civil Rights legends at Heritage event

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By Maria Saporta

Another great Atlanta tradition is born.

The Atlanta Braves on Friday launched the beginning of the team’s first-ever Heritage Weekend (May 31 to June 2) as a way to pay tribute to its home city’s Civil Rights legacy.

And the opening luncheon did not disappoint with the presence of legends who broke racial barriers in the world of sports and society in general.

In 2011 and 2012, the Atlanta Braves hosted the Civil Rights Game. But this year, Braves decided to expand the idea into an annual Heritage Weekend and to pay tribute to the team’s own icon — Hank Aaron — with the Hank Aaron Champion for Justice Award.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Bill Bolling’s soup kitchen Moment led him to found the Food Bank, which today serves more than 100,000 families monthly

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In 1975, Bill Bolling was looking for a way to serve his fellow veterans of the Vietnam War – many of whom were homeless and unemployed. Bill’s own return from the war had been challenging, though he had “come through a time where I wasn’t exactly homeless but I did live in my van for three years. I felt very fortunate that I had come out on the other end.”

He walked into the community kitchen at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Peachtree Street and volunteered to make soup.

“I knew at the end of that day, I had found my life’s purpose,” Bill recalled in our accompanying Moments HD video.

Posted inLatest News

Coca-Cola’s Neville Isdell and wife, Pamela, give $3 million to homeland

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By Maria Saporta

Former Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Neville Isdell and his wife Pamela Isdell have donated $3 million to the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy to support conservation in Zambia and Namibia.

“We were brought up in Zambia, and we have lived more of our lives in Africa than anywhere else,” Neville Isdell said in a telephone interview late Tuesday evening. “We really wanted to give back to Zambia.”

Isdell also said his family wanted to support the efforts of the Fund and the Nature Conservancy to “bring about reform” in the areas of conservation and game management in Africa.

Posted inLatest News

President Obama becomes a Morehouse Man during soggy commencement ceremony

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By Maria Saporta

A rain-soaked crowd of thousands had been waiting hours when Morehouse College President John Wilson and U.S. President Barack Obama emerged from a side door of a building to enter onto Century Campus for the 129th Commencement of one of the nation’s most prestigious black colleges.

An enthusiastic cheer greeted the two presidents and the official start of the graduation ceremonies as they tried to ignore the return of the dark clouds and the rain. The thousands of people in attendance heard inspirational stories about the Salutatorian Ernest James Nelson from Albany, Ga. who will be going to the Medical College Georgia at Georgia Regent University; and Emmanuel Denyo Yao Adanu, a dual-degree graduate from Morehouse and Georgia Tech with a 4.0 GPA.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Marine later found herself jobless and homeless – until Nobis Works put her back on productive path

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Tracey Jackson was a Marine with dreams of a career in medicine until she had an anaphylactic reaction that left her disabled, unable to work, and ultimately homeless. Tracey’s Moment with Atlanta nonprofit Nobis Works not only got her off the streets, it set her life on a new path of success.

Prior to her Moment, Tracey served in the United States Marine Corps, was scheduled to serve in the Gulf War and received a series of medical injections in preparation. Ultimately, she did not get shipped overseas, so she planned to go to medical school and, in anticipation of that, began studying nursing.

During her rigorous nursing classes, Tracey experienced an anaphylactic reaction that sent her into seizures. The unanticipated and severe reaction changed the rest of her life.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Fran Tarkenton ran onto the field in his first college game, launched a long drive and a legendary career

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The Georgia Bulldogs were losing 7-0 in the fourth quarter in their season opener in Austin, Texas, when they fielded a punt on the five yard line. The University of Texas, then the #11 team in the country, seemingly had the game well in hand on that humid Saturday night, September 20, 1958. Eighteen-year-old Sophomore Fran Tarkenton was not only a third-string quarterback on the Bulldogs, his coach was planning to frustrate the ambitious athlete further by postponing his football career another year by designating him a “red-shirt” player.

As the offensive players ran onto the field, Fran looked over and saw his team’s star quarterback sitting on the bench. In a move that today would no doubt be played over and over on ESPN Sports Center highlights, Fran strapped on his helmet and ran onto the field and knelt down in the huddle and called the next play.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Two churches are key to final Atlanta Falcons stadium site decision

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By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, May 10, 2013

Now that the new Atlanta Falcons stadium has been given a green light from the various governmental entities and now that an architect has been selected, the next step is finalizing the site.

Active discussions are underway to get that issue settled as soon as possible, so work can start on the $1 billion retractable-roof stadium.

According to official agreements, there’s an Aug. 1 deadline to determine if the preferred stadium location known as the “South site,” which is the land that sits between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and the Georgia Dome, is feasible for the project.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Chick-fil-A Foundation spreading its wings

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By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, May 3, 2013

A new corporate foundation is solidifying its place on Atlanta’s landscape.

In the past couple of years, the Chick-fil-A Foundation has a hired a new director, adopted a new name, and most recently, appointed an impressive advisory board to help it support youth and education in the community.

Rodney Bullard, who became executive director of the foundation in 2011, said he has been studying other corporate foundations in Atlanta to adopt best practices and be as effective as possible.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

After basketball star Drey Mingo lost her hearing, she started nonprofit for hearing-impaired children

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As the captain of the Purdue Boilermakers women’s basketball team for a third straight year, Andrea ‘Drey’ Mingo is no stranger to hard work. The 6-foot-2 forward was a McDonald’s All-American at Atlanta’s Marist high school, an AP honorable mention All-American in college and has dreams of one day being a pediatric cardiologist. But no amount of physical or mental training could have prepared her for the trials and tribulations she faced starting in her junior season at Purdue.

Drey went to her trainer to say she wasn’t feeling well. She was prescribed some over-the-counter antibiotics and sent home. A day later, she was found unconscious on her bedroom floor. She had contracted bacterial meningitis. She lost her hearing five days later.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

A brain injury, a bike and the Ryan Boyle comeback story

by Michelle Hiskey

After Ryan Boyle, 9, got hit by a speeding pickup truck driver hit while riding a Big Wheel,  his brain was so severely injured that he wasn’t supposed to stand or talk or walk, much less ride a bike — his favorite thing. He had to re-learn how to breathe, swallow and eat.

On a recent evening, Boyle showed up at the Emory University Barnes & Noble bookstore recently to sign copies of his autobiography, “When the Lights Go Out: A Boy Given a Second Chance” (Westbow Press). Today he is a graduate of Blessed Trinity High School in Roswell, a freshman at Berry College, a motivational speaker, cyclist and aspiring Paralympian.

His long struggle to climb back on a bicycle led him to the Shepherd Center and ultimately saved him.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Atlanta LINK delegation headed to Houston for economic success tips

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At first glance, one might question why 110 leaders from metro Atlanta would pick Houston, Texas as the city to study for its 17th annual LINK trip from May 15 to May 18.

But consider the following facts.

Forbes has named Houston, Texas as the “coolest” city to live in the United States. Atlanta didn’t make the top 20 list.

Between 2007 and 2012, Houston gained nearly 175,000 new jobs while Atlanta lost 178,000 during that same period.

Houston is the fifth largest metro area in the United States compared to metro Atlanta, which is ninth.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: YWCA of Atlanta names Emily Ellison new CEO

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By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, April 26, 2013

The YWCA of Greater Atlanta has tapped longtime civic leader Emily Ellison to serve as its new president and CEO.

Ellison is one of the founders of the Atlanta Girls School; she currently serves as its director of advancement. She plans to join the YWCA on July 15.

The YWCA of Greater Atlanta has been led by Sharmen Gowens, who has been its interim CEO since August, following the departure of Justine Boyd. Gowens will be returning to her role as a YWCA board member in August.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Seeing the convergence of global health and development in Atlanta

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Atlanta’s potential as a fountain for global health and development has bubbled up again with advancements in clean water and sanitation.

Whether it be from the academic and civic sectors or whether it be from the corporate and entrepreneurial sectors, innovative solutions are being explored and implemented by Atlanta-based institutions and leaders.

Take the Coca-Cola Co’s 2013 Annual Meeting held on April 23 at the Cobb Galleria.

Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent spent a good portion of the annual meeting introducing a new partnership between the company and inventor Dean Kamen to establish EkoCenters that can provide 1,000 liters of sterile drinking water in impoverished communities.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Disturbing story sparked minister Fred Northup’s Moment to start group promoting sportsmanship

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After serving 25 years as a minister in the Episcopal Church, Fred Northup opened up his newspaper’s sports section to find something more troubling than usual in December 1997. As he read a story on NBA basketball player Latrell Sprewell angrily walking up to his Golden State Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo and choking him during a practice, he sensed the future of sports was in deep trouble. He wondered if he could help.

Living in Seattle at the time, Fred and his wife were preparing to move to Atlanta and he was looking forward to a lunch meeting with a friend to discuss his options in Atlanta. But their lunch conversation focused on the Sprewell incident. Fred tried to change the subject.

“He said, ‘Well, Fred, you can do a lot of things, but if you could get these athletes to grow up and behave then the world would love it.’ ”

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta BeltLine Inc. releases names of the five finalists for next CEO

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By Maria Saporta

Five candidates have been named as finalists to become president and CEO of the Atlanta BeltLine Inc. (ABI) — three from Atlanta and two from outside the state.

The Atlanta BeltLine executive committee selected the five finalists on April 10 in a closed session, but the names were not made public until eight days later because they had to make sure to touch all the bases, according to people involved in the search. The Korn/Ferry International firm assisted in the search on a pro bono basis.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Cancer diagnosis led Atlanta INtown owner Wendy Binns, husband to adopt son from the Congo

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In September of 2011 at age 36, Wendy Binns was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma – breast cancer. At that Moment, the owner and publisher of Atlanta INtown newspaper joined the ranks of more than 200,000 other women – including Wendy’s mother – who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.

Wendy had seen the toll the diagnosis had taken on her mother and her family and she knew the difficulty of undergoing treatments. But she also knew had her mother not been diagnosed, Wendy might not have been as vigilant and discovered her own diagnosis so early. The mother and daughter saw that as a gift.

“The most excruciating part of getting the diagnosis was having to pick up the phone and call her and tell her that her baby girl was diagnosed with breast cancer too,” Wendy told us in our accompanying Moments HD video.

Posted inTom Baxter

For simple and fair, state income tax tops the alternatives

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Taxes should be simple and fair. You hear that mantra a lot these days, and it has a special power around this time of year. The more I meditate on it, the more my mind is drawn toward the raging irony that the simplest and fairest tax my household pays, the state income tax, is the very one which some seem hell-bent on getting rid of.

Start with simple. Like thousands of Georgians, I use a computer tax preparation program to file our federal and state taxes every year. The federal taxes are a pain, especially since I pay self-employment tax and have to send Uncle Sam a check for estimated taxes four times a year.

But our state income taxes are literally as simple as pushing a button. It takes less than a minute for the program to compute my state tax after the drudgery of calculating the federal income tax is finished. And it’s a pleasant interlude, because this year, like last year and several years before that, we’ve had to write the federal government a check for more money while we’ve received a refund from the state.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Ann Curry’s Moment was served with a surprising offer at lunch two decades ago

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President and Owner of Coxe Curry & Associates Ann Curry had her Moment during a business lunch more than 20 years ago – presenting her with an opportunity that surprisingly summoned core values instilled in her decades earlier by her grandmother.

Ann’s Moment was during the summer of 1991 while she was chair of the board for Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Foundation. The library had formed a foundation to raise private money for the library system and had been working with a fundraising consulting firm, Coxe & Associates.

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