Newspaper Page Text
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LOCAL
The Champion, Thursday, Feb. 19 - 25, 2015
GEORGE ADAMS
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George Adams of Stone Moun
tain enjoys giving back to those in
need.
He has been a part of the Hill-
crest Church of Christ Food Pantry
ministry and Community Outreach
Team for nearly 10 years.
“It’s a ministry that was needed
at the congregation where I wor
ship, and some of the senior ladies
wanted to do a food pantry and they
asked me to help them,” he said. “Af
ter that, I pretty much took it over.
We enhanced it and got quite a few
food baskets given out every month
and during the holidays.”
Four years ago, Adams was in
troduced to, Katheleen Lawrence,
who was visiting the church. Law
rence fed homeless people out of the
back of her trunk on Wesley Chapel
Road in Decatur. To protect her, Ad
ams and another man assisted her
with serving food and handing out
clothing and blankets.
“Later on, she moved to Colum
bus and we continued it,” Adams
said. “We continued to feed the
homeless, give out clothes and blan
kets.”
The church’s Men of Valor
ministry combined with the Food
Pantry ministry—led by Adams—to
form the street ministry. Every Tues
day, the street ministry goes out,
feeds the homeless and hands out
clothing and blankets.
The street ministry expanded to
the Candler Road and 1-20 corridor
to reach more people.
Along with his involvement in
the food pantry ministry, Adams
also teaches bible classes and vaca
tion Bible school. Adams said giv
ing back is part of giving “God the
glory.”
“We feel like this is one way we
can show our love for God by do
ing things for our neighbors” he
said. “We also just have a passion for
helping people and the community.
We pass by and we see people who
have no shoes, and it’s cold and they
have no blankets. Some of the little
children come down and have very
little clothes on and we give them
socks, coats and more. It just makes
our eyes glow just to see them feel
good and get a warm meal.”
If you would like to nominate someone to be considered as a future Champion of the Week, please contact Andrew Cauthen
at andrew@dekalbchamp.com or at (404) 373-7779, ext. 117.
4ever Sisters invites females
to find their inner princess
by Kathy Mitchell
Christopher Miller,
founder of 4ever Sisters, said
comments made by his then
3- and 5-year-old daughters
as he was driving them along
Covington Highway had a
profound effect. “They saw a
billboard with cartoon prin
cesses and said, ‘Oh, we want
to be like them.’ They were
beautiful, but I wasn’t sure
that my daughters could fully
relate to them.” recalled Miller,
who said he wished the image
had included Black princesses.
“When I was growing up,
my heroes were Superman,
Batman and the Fonz. That
was well and good, but I feel it
damaged my self-esteem that
I had no Black role models,”
continued Miller, who grew up
the Bahamas and came to the
United States to study archi
tecture at Tuskegee University.
“I started researching
what was out there for girls,
and I wasn’t fully satisfied with
what I found so I decided to
create my own characters with
their own story,” he said.
While his goal is to “build
self-esteem and confidence
in all sisters of the world no
matter what color, heritage,
language, culture, size, age or
height,” he decided to start
with his own ethnic heritage.
He created three Black girls—
one with dark skin, one with
light skin and one a medium
brown color—who meet at a
summer camp in Atlanta and
vow to build one another’s
self-image and support one
another’s dreams. Their
friendship, they decide, is so
strong that they see them
selves as sisters.
Through the voices of his
fictional girls— Iyana, Alexis
and Ebony—he says on the
4ever Sisters website, “We re
alized that if we work together
and build each other’s self
esteem and self-confidence
that we can do anything, even
change the world.. .by using
our strengths and learning
from our weakness.” Miller
said 4ever Sisters is also de
signed to build character and
promotes such values as re
spect and honesty.
As he developed his or
ganization, Miller decided to
broaden his focus. “At first
I was only thinking of girls
like my daughters. I want my
daughters, and other young
ladies, to see themselves as
beautiful in every way. Then I
realized that girls and women
of all ages need to focus on
recognizing and building self
esteem, confidence and char
acter. That’s when I decided to
call it 4ever Sisters, an orga
nization for girls and women
zero to 100,” he said.
Miller’s daughters are now
10 and 12 and he is spread
ing awareness of 4ever Sisters
in anticipation of developing
books, dolls, games and other
products. On Feb. 7, he hosted
a four-hour motivational
seminar at Stonecrest Library,
I Am Beautiful, designed to
help girls and women of all
ages “celebrate their inner
beauty.”
The seminar featured a
presentation by psychologist
Tamara Brown Payne, an as
sistant professor at fort. Val
ley State College, who talked
about building self-esteem
from both a professional and
personal perspective. She said
her personal journey included
seeing her mother die of
AIDS, contracted from Payne’s
drug-addicted stepfather.
“When we’ve gone through
difficult things, we may end
up not feeling good about our
selves, but we all need to feel
intelligent, loved and beauti
ful. We have to find positive
images to relate to,” she said,
noting that there are many
degrading images of women in
some entertainment media.
Girls attending the event
were invited to come dressed
as princesses and several wore
sparkling long dresses acces
sorized with tiaras and other
jewelry. They were invited on
stage for a “princess parade”
during which Miller inter
viewed them as though they
were beauty pageant contes
tants and invited them to give
a twirl before leaving the stage.
“These are the kinds of
community programs we hope
to have at our libraries,” said
Teresa Totten, the DeKalb
County Library System’s pro
gram services coordinator.
“I was delighted when Chris
approached me about holding
his seminar here.”