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In Decatur, a peek into the mind of Temple Grandin

by Michelle Hiskey

Autistic author and professor of animal science Temple Grandin, the hero of the eponymous Emmy award-winning HBO movie, wowed a recent crowd of more than 800 who packed into the pews, the balcony, the choir seats behind the pulpit and even snuck in guarded doors at First Baptist Church of Decatur.

They flocked to this famous face of high-functioning autism, drawn to her gift of describing and communicating her inner life and her willingness to advocate for those with learning disabilities. Appearing in customary western wear—a turquoise cowgirl shirt with floral yoke and cuffs and neck scarf tied bandanna style—Grandin spoke for more than 75 minutes, and resourcefulness was a big part of her message.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Alwyn Fredericks’ Moment was one not many experience – he discovered he had ‘the widow maker’

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Alwyn Fredericks had his Moment a few months ago on a night that at first seemed much like any other. Then it got a bit more serious. After drifting off to sleep for a few hours, Alwyn woke up abruptly at 4 a.m. feeling tightness in his chest. His wife and children were all in a deep sleep.

Following the protocol he followed for a decade as a successful personal injury law partner, Alwyn resumed his familiar role of investigating pain and injury – though this time, he was researching on his own behalf. He walked over to the computer and Googled the symptoms he was experiencing.

“It said if you’re on the computer researching chest achiness and tightness, you need to get up and go to the hospital,” he recalled in our accompanying HD Moments video.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

A bartender’s faith and the death of Robert Berry

by Michelle Hiskey

How do you love a friend who won’t stop self-destructing? How do you offer hope? And how does witnessing that change you?

Ask Kimberly “Berly” Logan.

Her friendship with Robert Berry began a decade ago at Houston’s Peachtree, a restaurant bar where she served him bottles of Amstel Light and he always questioned God’s existence and asked, “Why?”

It ended last month in a hospice where she held the 55-year-old Berry’s jaundiced hand as he waited to die from liver failure and complications from diabetes. Berry, an eccentric, flamboyant writer who once wrote features for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, passed away May 24 at age 55.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

George McKerrow’s Y2K Mt. Kilimanjaro Moment led him to quit job, start Ted’s Montana Grill

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George McKerrow, co-founder of Ted’s Montana Grill, had a Y2K self-discovery Moment 19,365 feet above sea level that transformed his life, lifting him to both business success and personal fulfillment.

As a restaurant executive with RARE Hospitality, George was immersed in corporate success, developing beneficial Wall Street connections and helping build the publicly traded company. Near the end of 1999, as the world was bracing for projected computer breakdowns on “Y2K” — January 1, 2000 — George and his wife, Ginair, decided to escape the madness and take a trip to the remote east African country of Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Looking out on the mountains and valleys below, George began to reflect upon his career and his early business challenges and successes with his entrepreneurial neighborhood restaurant. At that Moment, he realized what had been missing during his successful steps up the corporate ladder.
Please watch our HD Moments video.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

On a run, Wright Mitchell discovered a forgotten cemetery, founded Buckhead Heritage Society to preserve other historic treasures

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When Wright Mitchell was on a run with his two dogs one day, he inexplicably turned up Chatham Road in Buckhead, a street not on his normal route. As he neared the top of the hill at West Paces Ferry, he looked to his left and saw a strange stone obelisk sticking out of the trees and bushes on an abandoned lot.

“It seemed completely out of place so I went in to investigate and discovered that one of Buckhead’s most historically significant cemeteries had been right there on the corner and had become completely overgrown and neglected,” Wright told us in our accompanying Moments HD video.

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 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 inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Mormons, African-Americans reconcile to seek family roots

by Michelle Hiskey

Sarah Jackson of Duluth was among hundreds of African-Americans who attended Atlanta’s Family History Conference, which emphasized African-American research, held May 18 at the Atlanta History Center. The event represented an ongoing reconciliation between African-Americans and the Church of Latter Day Saints through a common ground valued by both: family research.

Throughout much of the church’s history, Mormons considered African-Americans inferior to whites. In the mid-19th century Mormon leader Brigham Young said black people were marked by the “Curse of Cain.” It wasn’t until 1978—the year after Jackson’s visit—that the church reversed bans on African-Americans taking part in temple ceremonies and black men entering the Mormon priesthood.

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 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 inMoments, Moments Season 2

Attorney Andy Cash, incoming JDRF Georgia board president, had his Moment when his sons were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes

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As a personal and catastrophic injury attorney, Andy Cash had grown accustomed to hearing sudden, life-changing events from his clients. His law firm represents individuals and families who have experienced devastating injuries in accidents. Despite his well-developed professional empathy, the news he learned in July 2004 about his own three-year old son, Gavin, was very difficult to bear.

Then, in October 2011, at age eight, Andy’s youngest son, Liam, was diagnosed with T1D – just as his brother had been seven years before. The news was once again shocking and life-altering for the entire family.

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 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 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.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Bill Clarkson’s Moment, battling a patient in a mental ward, propelled his career leading Atlanta’s Westminster

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Bill Clarkson, who recently announced plans to retire after 23 years as President of The Westminster Schools, remembers the Moment that prompted and propelled his career as a chaplain, educator and administrator. It wasn’t in the hallway of a school or a church – it was in the hallway of a psychiatric ward.

Bill was an 18-year-old freshman at Duke University and, as a financial aid student, needed a part-time job to help pay for his ungraduate degree. He found the job at the University psychiatric hospital – a line of work that seemed to align nicely with his interest in pursuing a psychology major. He worked four-hour shifts as a psychiatric attendant three days a week.

“You got to wear a white coat and look pretty official, but basically you were there to aid the doctors and assistants,” Bill recalled in our accompanying Moments HD video.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

With guts and WordPress, Judi Knight reinvents herself and others

by Michelle Hiskey

Judi Knight saw it coming.

Atlanta property owners were falling into quick defaults over what she saw as “crazy loans.” Her loft conversions stopped “flying off the shelves.” She had to get out of the real estate business before the bubble burst.

On top of that, she’d gotten a divorce and had even let her license to practice psychology in the state of Georgia lapse, something her friends had urged her to maintain for job security. “I knew I wanted a different life,” Knight said. “It was like Cortez burning the ships. I didn’t want something to fall back on but I didn’t know what I wanted.”

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Alicia Philipp’s Moment demonstrated how a mentor helps many others stand up – literally

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By Chris Schroder

Alicia Philipp, president of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, had her Moment 16 years ago when she spontaneously asked a question to a crowd of people and was surprised when nearly all of them stood up. That Moment taught her a lot about the value of mentorship and the special nature of her own mentor, Dan Sweat.

“I asked everybody in the audience who had been mentored by Dan to stand – not really knowing what the response would be,” she said.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Dennis Creech’s Moment sparked a career that helped Atlanta’s brand as a green building leader

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Dennis Creech, who today is the executive director and co-founder of Southface Energy Institute, was in graduate school training to be a systems ecologist when he had his Moment. Throughout his education in the 1970s, his focus had been aimed at improving environmental conditions, but it wasn’t until that day at Emory University that a, well, light bulb went off that pointed him in a unexpected direction.

As he was studying smog, acid rain, and even the water crisis of Atlanta, it dawned on Dennis that there was a common denominator to many of the threats to the environment’s health and sustainability – the consumption of energy.

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