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March 10 - 16, 2016 » Page 4A
Weed
Rochelle Callender
said she started volunteer
ing as a child.
“Whether it was knock
ing on doors to get NAACP
memberships, working with
the Urban League, United
Way, YMCA—all along, as
a part of my life...came a
heightened awareness to
volunteer,” Callender said.
Callender is president
of Hartwood Estates Home-
owners’Association, chair
woman of the Recreation,
Parks and Cultural Affairs
Citizens Advisory Board for
District 7, and is on leave
with the National Coalition of
100 Black Women.
She attends Spirit of
Truth Sanctuary in Decatur,
where she is a founding
member of the prayer shawl
ministry.
“We make lap blankets
and shawls and baby
christening blankets,” she
said. The lap blankets and
shawls are for people who
are going through some
type of challenges—whether
it’s cancer, dementia, some
type of medical or emotional
or physical challenge. We
pray over the items that are
given away.”
Additionally, Callender
is president of the Friends
of Flat Shoals Park, a com
munity park she helped de
velop.
For 25 years she played
at a tennis center which is
on the site of the current
park. During that time she
began to push for the resur
facing of the tennis courts
and for the lights to turned
on.
“I woke up one day
and said, ‘It’s not about the
tennis players. It’s about
the community. What [we]
should really be doing is
focusing on getting a park in
this community,”’ Callender
said.
Now Flat Shoals Park
has a chess/checker sta
tion, tennis courts, half-mile
fitness walking trail with
outdoor exercise stations,
two playgrounds, pavilion,
gazebo, clubhouse and pic
nic tables.
“It took us a couple of
years but I really think that
if you’re able to partner with
those that have the power
and get the community in
volved in what they really
want to see in some type of
master plan, you can make
it happen,” Callender said.
“And that’s what happened.”
Callender said she of
volunteering, “It’s a lifestyle
for me. I really feel as though
we should be giving back,
especially those that have
unique talents from the cor
porate world.” Callender re
tired from IBM after 38 years.
Rochelle Callender
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AM Foley, left, and Joe Penn, right, of the Bright Star Touring Theatre company.
Students from Glenwood, E.L. Miller and Cedar Grove elementary schools attended
the two-person production. Photos by R. Scott Belzer
History Center brings education to life
by R. Scott Belzer
sbelzer@dekalbchamp.com
F or more than an hour on
March 2, hundreds of stu
dents from three elemen
tary schools saw history
brought to life.
Second-, third- and fourth-grad
ers from Glenwood, E.L. Miller and
Cedar Grove elementary schools
attended the two-person produc
tion Struggle for Freedom: The Life
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., host
ed at the DeKalb History Center in
downtown Decatur.
Actors Joe Penn and AM Foley
of the Bright Star Touring The
atre company took students on a
journey through the life of Martin
Luther King, Jr. in honor of Black
History Month. Penn and Foley
were able to educate the students
on one of American history’s most
memorable figures in approximate
ly 45 minutes before answering
questions.
Though the play dealt with
such subjects as racism, segrega
tion, civil rights, peaceful protests
and assassination, programs and
preservation coordinator Jenny
Goldemund said Bright Star tin
kers its subject matter to be age
appropriate.
“[Bright Star] develops stories
and makes it so you can use it in
side the classroom,” Goldemund
said.
Penn and Foley navigated
several characters throughout the
production, going from playing a
humorously nagging couple one
second to portraying the titular
character and a racist store owner
the next. The variety had students
both laughing and paying strict at
tention.
“Imagine living in a world where
people told you that you couldn’t
sit somewhere or do certain things
based on the color of your skin,”
Penn said to the audience.
Penn and Foley also brought to
light such famous historical scenes
as Rosa Parks’ 1955 bus boycott,
in which 42,000 people were able
to refuse public transit service for
381 days, as well as lunch counter
sit-ins, Birmingham’s Freedom Rid
ers from 1963 and King’s famous
“I Have a Dream” speech in Wash
ington, D.C.
Though the production did
touch on King’s assassination, the
actors insisted the play was a cel
ebration of the historical figure’s
life and accomplishments when
questioned further by students.
“We’re trying not to focus too
much on [King’s] death today,”
Foley said. “We’re trying to focus
on what he was able to do during
his life.”
The duo responded to ques
tions such as why King wanted to
devote his life to knowledge. The
actors, seemingly familiar to deal
ing with elementary school chil
dren, answered the questions with
ease.
“The more you know about the
world around you, the more you
know how to change it,” Penn an
swered.
“With greater knowledge comes
greater change,” Foley said.
For more information on the
DeKalb History Center’s programs
for schools, contact Goldemund
at goldemund@dekalbhistory.org.
or visit www.dekalbhistory.org.
For more information on Bright
Star Touring Theatre, visit www.
brightstartheatre.com or call (336)
558-7360.