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![COVER STORY
MARCH 2008
Michelle Robinson McKissack
Still Newsworthy After TV News
By Ginger Porter
A Memphis reporter and anchor from 1995-2002, Michelle Robinson McKissack was about to make a move Chicago in early 2003 to take a reporting job she had accepted after a reorganization at a local ABC affiliate had left her jobless.
“God had other plans for me,” she said. “I stayed here to help my Mom with Dad.” Her father, Charles, had been battling health problems for a year. He died later in 2003.
“Family is everything. Nothing is more important. It is the same thread for me and my husband John,” she said.
The McKissacks have been married 13 years and have John John, 9, James, 5, and Peter, 4. They met when they were both studying at Northwestern University. It was on to graduate school, a wedding and then her first job in Peoria, Illinois.
McKissack, a hometown girl, later became a constant fixture in Memphis news, reporting at WREG News Channel 3 (CBS) and then anchoring at WPTY 24/WLMT 30, the ABC affiliate. She and her four siblings all graduated from White Station High School. Their family life was stable and comforting, she said.
“If all was not right with the world, we didn’t know about it,” said McKissack. “My friends would tease me that we were the real life Cosby family. We just learned to count the little blessings and celebrate the everyday.”
All of the brothers and sisters are successful professionals including a journalist, a doctor, a minister, a computer specialist and president of the Chicago Urban League. McKissack said that not getting along with each other was not an option.
“It was always ‘all for one and one for all’ with our family,” she said.
McKissack counts her mother, Earnestine Rodgers Robinson, 70, as her best role model.
“Without question, in my book, my mom did it all right. She proved you can have it all—just maybe not all at the same time. I grew up with her at home and then her career began budding in music,” she said.
For McKissack, “having it all” meant a conscious decision to leave full time reporting and begin a freelance career she could more easily manage with her family.
“Our generation is redefining what ‘stay at home’ means. The most important thing I have ever done is making the choice to stay at home with my children,” she said. “I don’t miss TV news. It’s [being at home] so rewarding. I try to soak up every little day. I went walking hand in hand with my four-year-old to the store the other day, thinking I won’t have this when he is in Kindergarten.”
Remaining busy with freelance assignments, McKissack works through a local talent agency doing voiceovers, infomercials, corporate training films, commercials and some acting. It was her first foray into acting several years ago that started her freelance work. Part of the film The People vs. Larry Flynt was being shot in town when director Michael Housman spotted McKissack anchoring the news. He went through Colors Talent Agency and contacted her about a spot in the film as a news anchor.
“They flew me first class to Washington, D.C. with a 6 a.m. call time the next morning. My trailer was two trailers down from Woody Harrelson’s. I went through makeup, hair and wardrobe and then they gave me my lines,” she said. “I had no time to learn them. I asked for a reporter’s notebook to put in front of me and I wrote my lines in the notebook.”
McKissack must have done a good job, as she was also chosen to play a news anchor in the movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks.
Her talents also extend behind the camera. She has produced two independent films: Hidden Treasure(1 hour) and Sounds of a Miracle (24 minutes), both about her mother’s unique talent as a composer of classical music. Not formally trained in music, for the last 30 years, she has been creating oratorios through her own methodology. Others score the music for her. Both films have been screened at film festivals, such as the Hoboken International Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival and L.A. Shorts Fest. Sounds of a Miracle has been designated an official selection in the Palm Beach International Film Festival this April. McKissack also hosted and co-produced a PBS-broadcast documentary on her mother called A Woman and Her Music. She has also done dramatic narrations as part of her mother’s oratorios, performed at Carnegie Hall and in Prague with the Czech National Symphony.
One of her most recent assignments is a correspondent’s job in Chicago, working on a pre-taped lifestyle and business program called NEXTTV, scheduled to launch next year. She commutes every few weeks to shoot segments for the show.
She also was selected Mrs. West Tennessee and went on to compete in Mrs. Tennessee. McKissack made it to the top ten.
“I did it on a whim. I had never done a pageant before. I was a little cynical going in, but it was a wonderful experience,” she said.
The post dearest to McKissack is her involvement in the Downtown School, where she serves as PTA president. Personal involvement in public education was her platform for Mrs. West Tennessee. Her other civic involvement includes board membership at the Brooks Museum of Art, ArtsMemphis (formerly Memphis Arts Council), Grace-St. Luke’s PDO Advisory Board, and Memphis City Schools Telecommunications Advisory Board.
Her volunteer life, her freelance life and her family life keep McKissack sharp.
“My future is to keep an open mind and be receptive to new challenges,” she said. “I never would have seen myself doing what I do now—being a correspondent or producing a film. I go where opportunity leads me.”
FEATURE STORY
March 2008
Network of Memphis Celebrates 30 Years
By Linda Marks
Imagine that it is 1977. You are a hard-working and successful stockbroker, and you are committed to playing an active role as Memphis moves beyond the turbulence of the ‘60’s to become a vital, progressive Southern city. There are numerous organizations where members of the business and professional community gather to socialize and strategize, but they are not open to women.
From the vantage point of 2008, when a woman is running for President, it may be odd to remember that there was a time when women could be barred from anything in which they wished to participate. But during this Women’s History Month the founding and sustaining sisters of Network of Memphis are being honored. At a time when women could still be legally excluded from the networking mainstream, these women met exclusion with creativity, passion, and joie de vivre.
Sally Ordway and Mary Robinson, stockbrokers, and Betsey King, a banker, were the prime movers in the formation of this group, whose purpose was to celebrate the struggles and opportunities in their lives, and to do it with flair. Meeting for the first time on December 8, 1977, at the Petroleum Club, these early members were clear about their desire in getting together: to be a “good ole girls club,” as Mary Robinson put it.
Though the term “glass ceiling” was not coined until a few years later, these women were experiencing the invisible, but still very powerful, barriers to recognition of their full potential in the business and professional community. They wanted to support each other in these struggles, but they wanted to do it in their own way, and they wanted to have fun.
The fact that Network was “one of the first and only” such organizations, according to Donna Sue Shannon, a founding sister, created energy, synergy, and creativity in its early years. The women of Network were making history as they rose to prominence in business, finance, politics, medicine, and other professional fields. However, between the pressures of work and the demands, for many, of home and family, they responded avidly to the opportunity to kick back and celebrate, discuss issues, and support each other. Because Network was meeting such a strong and specific need for these women, its numbers swelled to 200 in the late 70s and early 80s. Shannon says that all the women in politics, even those running against each other, flocked to the monthly Network dinner meetings. Happy Jones, another founder, recounts that a newspaper reporter called to ask her if Network was a political organization. When she said no, he asked, “Well, then, why do all the women in politics come to these meetings?” “I suppose it’s because they all want to be where all the other exciting women are,” Jones replied.
From the beginning, the spirit of Network was feisty, in the positive sense of rejoicing in the individual talents and personalities of the members. The first issue of their newsletter, Network Doings, came out in March of 1978 and began with these words: “For this edition of the newsletter, at least, we are to be known as the ‘Network.’ Our erstwhile attempts at naming the group have included the words ‘professional women.’ That somehow brings to mind massive clubwomen in navy blue serge or ladies of the evening! Whosoever feels creative is welcome to christen us.” Just as the group resisted a conventional name, it also resisted a traditional organizational structure. In their professional lives these women had demonstrated their mastery of organization, and they reveled in the opportunity to enjoy each other’s company without a scaffolding of rules. Happy Jones gleefully describes the organization at this time as “a smoothly functioning anarchy.” Sally Ordway’s picture is similar: “a coalition of people with rare and special talents who need no structure or organizational plan to express what we feel or get what we have to do done,” Likewise, there was no need for lofty mission statements, and founding sister Helen Denton said, “We were our own cause: supporting ourselves and each other was our only cause.”
In 1984, Network took a bold step that has contributed to the recognition of women’s accomplishments ever since. “Men of the Year” were routinely honored in prominent venues and in the media, but women were still honored quietly by the organizations they served. At the request of Network member Deborah Clubb, the organization provided $1000 in seed money to support a major program to recognize and honor outstanding Memphis women. This was the birth of Women of Achievement, which continues annually to pay tribute to 7 women exemplifying Initiative, Determination, Courage, Heroism, Vision, Steadfastness, and Heritage, and which Network continues to support.
As Network’s membership and treasury grew, its preference for eschewing structure was challenged by the need to avoid tax liabilities on the money that supported its non-profit activities. When it finally became a 501C (3) corporation, 10 years after its birth, Happy Jones, despite her preference for “anarchy,” became the first President. This paradox in itself suggests one of Network’s strengths: the transcendence of stereotypes and the ability of members to use their unique talents for the good of all. It was a point of honor for the founding sisters not to take themselves too seriously. Possibly echoing the sentiments of women’s historian and Harvard Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich---“Well-behaved women seldom make history”---they insisted on being themselves. But because of who they were, they were, indeed destined to make history, individually and as a group. Besides having officers since 1987, the organization has perpetuated other traditions: donating money to charities which benefit women, providing stimulating and educational programs at the monthly dinner meetings, informing women of opportunities for involvement in the community, publishing a monthly newsletter, and maintaining a website.
Like all organizations, Network has had rhythms of waxing and waning in numbers. In a 1991 newsletter, President Dottie Jones wrote an article called “Is Network Dying?” But the energy that has kept Network going for more than 30 years is reflected in a program the year after President Jones’ message of concern. In that program Network celebrated Women’s History Month by inviting its members to tell their own stories of barriers, victories, mentors, and turning points in their lives and careers.
As the efforts of the trailblazing professional women of the 70s led the way to shattering the “glass ceiling,” Network women were able to tell more and more stories of success. But succeeding years have brought new challenges, and increasingly Network has become a valuable support for women who, after establishing a place for themselves, face transition. Network is committed to attracting an increasingly diverse group of women, and dues have always been affordable. Many newcomers to the Memphis area have found that Network sets the tone for a positive and hopeful view of the City and of their potential roles in the community. As Network celebrated its 30th anniversary with a gala party in December of last year, the Board identified new directions for the future: continually challenging members to reassess who they are and who they need to be; celebrating their uniqueness among women’s organizations: increasing membership; enhancing support for those in job transition, while maintaining the interest of those who are not in transition; inviting other women’s groups to join Network from time to time for meetings and programs; honoring Network's roots and mentors while being open to innovation; providing more social opportunities together; and engaging women of all ages.
Imagine that it is 1977, and it will be 10 years before Women’s History Month is a reality. You don't need to imagine that Network has blossomed, for it continues to bloom over 30 years later. Imagine yourself a part of it!
Network meets the second Monday of every month at a variety of locations at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner and a program. Dinner is $28 for members and $30 for guests. Reservations need to be made by the preceding Friday at noon by e-mailing Lucy Barnhart, at Lucy7606@aol.com or online at www.networkmemphis.org.
Linda Marks is publicity chair for Network of Memphis where she has been a member for 3 years. She works in the long-term care Ombudsman Program at MIFA.
FEATURE STORY
February 2008
Memphis Woman Magazine
First Annual Bachelors of Memphis
Memphis Woman magazine readers were asked for some suggestions for this special bachelor section of the magazine this month. This is our fist time to do this and thought it would be a fun addition for Valentine’s Day.
There are a variety of men shown here with a variety of ages and careers. Don’t call us to get these gentlemen’s phone numbers – we won’t give them out. Maybe in the future, we can work with a charity fundraiser on a bachelor auction.
Reinaldo Alfonso, 28 Years Young
Chef de Cuisine at Chez Philippe at The Peabody Memphis
Favorite Activity: Fishing and Scuba Diving.
Born & Raised: I’m of Cuban descent, but was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, and raised in Miami.
Inspiration: When you bite into something that is unbelievably good, all it does is make me want to do it and make it even better. Trying to achieve perfection in every aspect, but knowing that it is never reached. There is always a way to make it better.
Goals: Just to be able to continue having fun in the kitchen and making people happy. Eventually, I’d like to retire in the Florida Keys and buy a boat so I could go scuba diving every day.
Qualities in a Relationship: Fun, easy going, as stress free as possible outside of work, going out for good dinners, and someone who loves cheese.
Community Service: I give what I know best, which is food and cooking, so I participate in various charity events through my role in Chez Philippe. We do annual events at the Ronald McDonald House and with the National Kidney Foundation. I’m also doing an event with our other Peabody Chefs for the James Beard Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving America’s culinary heritage.
Favorite Quote: “No matter how bad some things may get, remember to always have good friends and family to be around, send everything to hell, and enjoy a good drink with them.” Reinaldo Alfonso, Sr.
Dave Cera, 35 Years Young
Sports Anchor/Reporter at WMC TV-5
Favorite Activity: Golf
Born & Raised: Naperville, Illinois
Person Who Inspires: Jesus Christ
Goals In Life: To raise a happy family and help others who are less fortunate.
Qualities in a Relationship: Honesty, trustworthiness, consistency, humor
Community Service: MC and participate in various charity events such as: Diocese of Memphis, National Reading Day, Little League Banquet, YMCA, Walton Payton Memorial Weekend, St. Mary's Service Group. (I'm planning a charity golf tournament this summer. Please email me if you are interested in participating - dcera@wmctv.com.)
Favorite Quote: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." -Henry David Thoreau
Omari Fleming, 34 Years Young
Anchor/Reporter WREG News Channel 3
Favorite Activity: Snowboarding & Trading Stocks
Born & Raised: Los Angeles, CA
Inspiration: Personal Growth and the late Peter Jennings (ABC News Anchor)
Goals: To leave the world better informed.
Qualities in a Relationship? Someone who's cerebral, compassionate, open to new adventures and enjoys being spontaneous. And of course, what every man wants... a woman with a big heart and a big trust fund.
Community Service: I have a soft spot for kids and donate time to area schools.
Favorite Quote: "To whom much is given, much is expected"
George Hampton, 45 Years Young
President and Co-Owner of (3) Construction/Manufacturing Companies: Standard Builders, Inc., Standard Maintenance Company, LLC & Standard Sheet Metal Works, LLC
Favorite Activity: Avid duck hunter & golfer. Enjoying flying as well.
Born & Raised: Born outside of Chicago in Gary, Indiana; raised in Dyersburg, Tennessee; and been in Memphis since the mid 80’s.
Inspiration: My parents. We didn’t always have what we wanted but they made sure we got what we needed. They always wanted us kids to have a better life than they had. Their sacrifices for my sisters and myself drives me today.
Goals: Hopefully retire early, but foremost to make sure my family (Mom & 2 Sisters) is taken care of. I would like to be remembered for my integrity. I would also like to have a family of my own, certainly a son to carry on my name.
Qualities in a Relationship: Honesty # 1. I would like to find the woman that can finish my sentences and answer a question before I even ask it. I have always been responsible and focused… it would be nice to find someone that appreciates it. A good snuggler is a plus.
Community Service: Our companies donate to numerous charities and charitable events. Honestly haven’t had much time to participate on a personal level. I am very touched by “Make-A-Wish” and hope to grant a wish sometime soon.
Favorite Quote: Not really a quote but I do believe in it: “Two Eyes, Two Ears, One Mouth”…Look And Listen Twice As Much As You Talk.
Anthony McVay, 30 Years Young
Assistant Manager at Pat O’Brien’s, Memphis
Favorite Activity: Hang out and take care of my 4-year-old daughter.
Born & Raised: Memphis
Inspiration: I would have to say my father. He’s my biggest role model. I hope to be the man he is one day.
Goals: To see my children grow and become good people, without them, I wouldn’t be here doing the things I love today.
Qualities in a Relationship: Honesty and loyalty
Community Service: No organizations, but I help out where I can, when asked.
Favorite Quote: Live life 100%, it is too short.
CJ Passmore, 23 Years Young
Manager for Midas Auto Service
Favorite Activity: Cooking, Entertaining Friends, Golf, & Weight Lifting
Born & Raised: Born in Omaha, Nebraska; Raised in Denver, CO and Collierville, TN
Inspiration: My parents who taught me good work ethics and the value of family and friendship.
Goals: To own my own automotive shop and have a family
Qualities in a Relationship: Honesty, loyalty & fun
Community Service: Dream Factory of Memphis & Make A Wish Foundation
Favorite Quote: “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” By E.E. Cummins
J. Seth Waddell, 30 Years Young
Attorney, Waddell Law Firm/Covenant Escrow Services handling real estate and business transactions
Favorite Activity: I enjoy spending my free time with my two Great Danes, Elvis and Mercy.
Born & Raised: I was born in Covington, KY, but raised in Memphis.
Inspiration: Freedom and the sacrifices people have made to obtain and protect it.
Goals: To continue a successful law practice helping clients achieve their goals.
Qualities in a Relationship: Someone who is confident, intelligent and independent.
Favorite Quote: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Paul D. Winter, 49 Years Young
Senior Vice President, CB Richard Ellis- Commercial Real Estate
Civil Engineer by Education
Favorite Activity: Attending Sports Events, Exercise, Travel, Reading, and Social activities.
Born & Rasied: Houston, Texas
Inspiration: My Grandfather- who served as County and District Engineer for Galveston, Texas, and Chairman and Commissioner of the Galveston County Port Authority and Navigation District. While he was still living the Galveston Island Causeway Bridge was renamed after him in his honor. He was a very inspirational and motivating role model in my life.
Goals: To enjoy God’s incredible gift of life and good health, and to help others along the way.
Qualities in a Relationship: Honesty, sincerity, and a fun, outgoing personality.
Community Service: Leadership Memphis Alumni/Board of Directors; Past Board Chairman-Memphis Partners, Inc.; Past President- Memphis Area Chapter of Building Owners and Managers Association; Memphi/Carnival Member, Dixon Member; Silver Chapter Member Pi Kappa Alpha Alumni Association MIFA, Make-a-Wish and Boy Scouts of America volunteer
Favorite Quote: “Have Passion for the things you do in Life” and “The Purpose of Life is a Life of Purpose.”
FEATURE STORY
February 2008
Minister on a Mission
By Kathy K. Martin
“I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other centered men can build up.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Rev. Birgitte T. French, affectionately called Pastor Bee, shares the audacity that Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about in these quotes. As an ordained Methodist minister and the executive director of FirstWorks, Inc. in downtown Memphis, she feeds, clothes and educates about 2,600 hungry, homeless and displaced children in need and their families. At the conclusion of every children’s program on Tuesday and Thursday evening, these quotes are spoken in unison by everyone who attends, followed by singing the song, “I Believe I Can Fly.”
“By taking these words to heart, I believe that children can look beyond their present situations and see that the bigger their dreams, the higher they fly. This is what drives us at FirstWorks.”
The 501 C3 nonprofit organization, which was previously known as Final Net, was housed at First United Methodist Church in order to offer a clothes closet, food pantry and programs for children. Even the recent fire that destroyed their space at First United Methodist couldn’t deter French and her mission. Calvary Street Ministries opened their doors for the clothes closet and food pantry and with the help of friends and supporters; French was able to set up the ministries in just one month. The children’s programs resumed the week after the fire at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
These children’s programs for first through twelfth graders, which run from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, are now offered at Union Avenue United Methodist Church at 2117 Union Avenue, where the Rev. Linda Gabriel serves as pastor. Various church groups serve as volunteers and cook and serve the meals to the children. After eating together, four teachers, three from the Office of Homeless Education at Memphis City Schools and another hired by FirstWorks, help the children with homework and focus on reading, writing and math. Motivational speakers also talk with the middle and high school students to help them envision possibilities beyond their present conditions. “We help give them dreams and then help them reach them,” explains French, who remains involved in all aspects of the program from eating with the children to riding the bus with them.
Born and raised in Denmark, French still has a faint Danish accent that colors her words as she passionately and candidly shares her mission to serve others. She grew up in a family of Methodist ministers with both of her parents serving as outreach ministers. Of the 30 Methodist pastors in Denmark, eight were her family members. “I kept running from it and basically made a deal with God that I would have nothing to do with the Methodist church or even marry a Methodist minister.” She and her sister ate most of their hot meals at the soup kitchen where her parents served as they were growing up every October through May, so she says that those fond memories have flavored both of them into adulthood mission work. Naturally, when she became a Christian at age 20 and had her degree in pharmacy, she headed to the Congo in 1983. While running a 102-bed hospital with no electricity or running water, she traveled in the bush and ministered to villagers. She met her husband, Niels, who had lived in Africa his whole life, and they married in 1987. “I discovered how much I really needed all of my Girl Scout training while we were living there,” she remarks with a chuckle. Her teenage children, Fletcher, 18, and Hanna, 14, both students at White Station High School, were born during their missionary work there.
During her work as a missionary, French found that she couldn’t deny her calling to ministry any longer. “I finally had to accept my call, which I probably had all along,” she recalls. The family moved to Atlanta, Ga., where she received her master’s of divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University while serving a church and working in inner-city missions that included managing a food pantry and clothes closet, much like her work at FirstWorks today. When she refers to graduating from seminary, she says “we” instead of “me.” She explains, “English is my second language, so my husband really helped me by reading through my papers and helping me with my grammar and spelling.”
She recalled that during her time in Africa with the Hutu and Tutu refugees it became extremely clear to her that evil and hate is such a powerful force in the world. “I realized that for change to take place for the poor and less fortunate in the world, the change had to be in people’s hearts. I found that in Scripture through Jesus’ words that we are to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” She also recognized that often the only possible way to love some people was with the love of God and dying to self. “We are all created in the image of God and it is that image we must look for in each other,” explains French.
After graduating from seminary, the bishop of the Methodist church appointed French to an Atlanta suburban church in the wealthiest zip code in the Southeast. She said that the appointment was a big change and a challenge from her mission experience serving the poorest of the poor. “In some ways it’s easier to hand someone a sandwich than to try to minister to someone who has no material needs. Yet, I’m called to serve the least and the lost and even those who are wealthy can be spiritually lost.”
About two and half years ago, her husband was transferred to Methodist Hospital in Memphis to continue work through the Inter Faith Health Program started by Gary Gunderson at the Carter Center in Atlanta. This time she was placed as associate pastor at First United Methodist while serving as chaplain for the University of Tennessee Medical Center and as executive director of FirstWorks.
French hopes that one day the children’s programs through FirstWorks can be offered five days a week with pick up right after school to help get children off the streets and out of trouble. She also hopes to recruit more volunteers and donors for FirstWorks, which she calls the final stop for many families on the fringes of society.
She says that it’s a plus that’s she’s a woman in this role in the community. “Sometimes I feel like I’m a mom for a bunch of people and my job is to make sure they have food and clothes and do their homework.” Better yet, she gives children and their families hope that they can dream big dreams like Martin Luther King Jr. Although the family situations often look very hopeless, she has a passion for the work since it’s totally anchored by God. “All people can do great work, but as Christians we succeed because we do the work to serve God.”
COVER STORY
January 2008
Molly Mednikow
From Memphis to the Amazon
By Devin Greaney
After ten days she seems to be fighting a lost cause. Molly Mednikow’s dog, Mo, ran from the veterinarian’s office and has not been seen since. We climb over a bent cyclone fence behind a house into a field just north of Memorial Park Cemetery. A woman told her the field is popular for dogs so we check. She calls; I whistle. Neither of us have any luck.
Mednikow’s voice cracks as she talks about Mo. Some of it is from emotion and some from hoarseness due to calling out the dog’s name that by this time had been missing for ten days. An insatiable passion for helping animals has saved the lives of countless canines, but you can see the passion is hurting her as she cries out calling for him. It is a passion she has been putting to use since June of 2004 living in the jungles of Peru and opening the first animal rescue center in the area. Mo is one of those rescued dogs and she brought him up to live with her parents and their other dog, Annie. One quickly notices a stick-to-it-ness about her that she is not one to surrender when others sense hopelessness.
Another thing you quickly notice is her appearance does not fit with her life. She looks more like the type who would be living in a condo on the Mississippi rather than a house on the Amazon. She speaks with clear diction and a sense of class that you would expect from someone at a jewelry store showing off a two-carat engagement ring to a business executive or an emerald bracelet to a woman from River Oaks. A visit to her childhood home near Yates and Walnut Grove in East Memphis looks like the place where someone like Mednikow would grow up. It is a beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright-ish home that molds into the hilly (by Memphis standards) surroundings. It is certainly a far cry from her current home.
“I am living in poverty by American standards,” Mednikow says. But she is quite happy with her life.
After graduating from St. Mary’s High School in 1986 she went to Atlanta then received her Bachelors degree at the University of Georgia. After graduation it was off to Washington DC, then back to Georgia for her MBA at Georgia State. Mednikow opened the Atlanta version of Mednikow Jewelers that was founded in Memphis by her great uncle in 1891.
But she loved traveling and the forests and waters of the Amazon area of Peru drew her to this hidden part of the world. She first visited Iquitos in 1995, the largest Peruvian Amazon city with a population of about 430,000. It is accessible only by boat and plane due to its remote jungle location so cars are rare. Here a peddle rickshaw is a preferred for transportation. “It is hard to visualize being in a rickshaw heading down a bumpy street, your teeth chattering as you hold on for dear life!” Mednikow says. The weather is in two seasons - wet and dry- “There is about a 95% of humidity but you get used to it,” she says. “Every year I would take my vacation in the Amazon. Soon I began organizing volunteer trips.”
“I have swum in the Amazon,” she says and no, there were no piranha attacks, but she has seen an anaconda and a jaguar in the wild! “I came back on a natural high appreciating all the blessings we have as Americans.” Places she visited like Cabo Lopez – a 45 minute drive from Iquitos during the dry season or a 30 minute boat ride at other times - had no indoor plumbing, electricity or clean water. “The poor in the US do not experience the poverty of these people,” she adds.
But they did have dogs. Yes, the people loved their pets but it was different from the way pets were treated in Memphis or Atlanta. Very few were vaccinated. There were no veterinarians so if a pet became sick it was often abandoned. She had grown up around dogs and such a scene was depressing. She also saw the joy pets brought into the lives of children even when they had very little else in terms of possessions. It was frustrating to her to see the sick and malnourished dogs roaming the streets but there were so many, what could one do?
She learned much about the people of the area during her visits. “They are protective of toilet paper. They believe foreigners use too much,” she says. Many people do not have air conditioning because they fear it will cause colds. But they like cold showers and warm showers are hard to find. “They think all gringos are rich and by gringos they mean anyone who is not Peruvian be they white, black, Chinese or whatever,” she says. Petty theft is common and while in the U.S. people think little about things like laying down a ballpoint pen. There you do not take it for granted because another pen will be hard to find. She sees few Americans there “except for a few retirees smoking cigars at the Yellow Rose of Texas bar while their much younger Peruvian wives are at home,” she says.
One trip changed everything and in June 2004. She was staying in a hotel in Iquitos when two dogs followed her and slept out in front of her door. She snuck them into her room to sleep inside which was against the rules. That was her turning point. She saw a need to help these stray, hungry and sick dogs so the “trip” turned into something more. “Before I knew it I was renting space for an animal rescue,” she says.
She sold her store and at that time she became “a corporate dropout,” Mednikow says. But she did not turn into a slacker. She founded her group, Amazon Cares, to help the dogs and dog owners of the area. “So much goes into working in a shelter. I am working harder now then I ever have before,” she says. She spent “18-20 hour days,” she says during a recent trip to Memphis getting mailers out for the shelter. Peruvian law forbids people who work at or run charities from being paid so the sale of her store is the source of her personal income and the shelter is funded by contributions and assisted by volunteers from across the globe.
She bought a house in Iquitos and turned it into a veterinary clinic and recruited veterinarians from outside the city. The rescue facility in Cabo Lopez is where she spends most of her time. Electricity comes from a generator to run electronics, but here Internet and satellite TV can be unreliable.
Someone in Iquitos gave up on one lost cause, she remembers, but Mednikow and her group did not. “The dog had no fur; it was covered in sores and had long nails. It had been left on the street to die,” she remembers. “After a couple months of love and attention it turned into a beautiful dog now with full white fur,” she says. After all that the dog is now ready for adoption. There are special needs dogs too, that are cared for life at the rescue shelter.
She says euthanasia of the dogs is “always depressing but extremely rare.” She focuses on the animals that have been helped and can be helped rather than these cases.
“I am so animated and so passionate about what we do,” Mednikow says. Photos on her website of rescued dogs look like creatures many would be afraid to touch. Most people seeing these animals in the street may look away and say a little prayer that death may come soon and end their suffering, but Mednikow does not give up that easily. The “after” photos show that a hopeless case from a few weeks earlier is now ready for adoption.
It is hard for her to say how many dogs her group has helped. “It is still a drop in the bucket,” she says compared the dogs roaming the streets of the South American city. Some are rescued from the streets. Some are spayed and neutered and others had their lives saved from a parvo or distemper vaccine. Last August the volunteers had to head even further south.
An August 15 earthquake hit just off the coast of Peru some 800 miles from Iquitos. Government sources say 519 people were killed and 1844 injured. Amazon Cares came to help the four-legged victims with veterinary assistance.
Amazon Cares takes donations and provides photos of rescued dogs at its website, www.amazoncares.org. $25 will feed a dog in the shelter from one to two months and $45 is enough to spay or neuter a stray in the city that has many stray dogs roaming the streets.
Her stick-to-it–ness, has made the shelter successful, saved countless dogs and it can make other things happen too. After plastering the Poplar/Yates area with lost dog posters, starting a website and even making a TV appearance, Mo was found alive and well at Memorial Park Cemetery. Don’t try to tell Molly Mednikow about lost causes.
FEATURE STORY
January 2008
Dr. Valerie Arnold Wears Many Hats, Juggles Many Jobs
By Kathy K. Martin
Is it possible to graduate from medical school and complete a residency and fellowship while having three children? Ask Dr. Valerie Arnold, the interim chief of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, a principal investigator for CNS Healthcare of Memphis and the president of the Memphis Medical Society. She did it and became the first female medical student who had a baby and still graduated on time.
Dr. Arnold admits that this seemingly impossible feat wasn’t void of hard work and compromise. Yet, she says that what seemed impossible was possible when she changed her attitude. “I’m not Superwoman; no one is. I just believe in doing the best I can.” She prefers to look for solutions to problems instead of focusing on the problems. That’s ultimately how she managed to study while changing diapers and handling midnight feedings. She also packed away perfectionist problems and determined that making Bs was acceptable in her situation and that she could survive without manicured fingernails.
Born and raised in Memphis, Dr. Arnold earned her undergraduate degree at Tulane University in New Orleans, La., and her medical degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Ala. Her love of children propelled her toward pediatrics or psychiatry. “I found that I liked talking to children better than sticking them with a needle,” she explains, adding that whatever guilt she might have had about being a working mother was resolved when she had her first two children during medical school. She completed her residency in psychiatry and her fellowship in child psychiatry at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. Her constant support during all of her decisions, she says, was her husband, Dr. Thomas Arnold, a neurologist, who still helps her with carpool and scheduling family activities and their children’s ballet and violin lessons. “I believe in letting some things go and staying on the same page as my husband. We’ve had to make some cutbacks with the children’s lessons because they seem to have a lot of demand placed on them and we believe that they also need to have a break and have some fun too.”
Board certified in psychiatry and child psychiatry, Dr. Arnold has many published articles to her credit which focus on schizophrenia, pediatric depression and anxiety and ADHD. Research is one of her favorite aspects of work as she has led and assisted on more than 70 clinical trials. For the past seven years, she has participated in trials and gathered data that includes the large African American community. “African Americans are underrepresented in research, so we’re able to help and see how medicine might affect them differently.”
As if all of these distinctions and credentials weren’t enough, Dr. Arnold also plans to oversee a new in-patient unit for adolescent sex offenders at St. Francis Hospital, a continuation of her five years working with adolescent sex offenders at Parkwood Hospital, as well as to serve as child psychiatrist for a new telemedicine program through the University of Tennessee. She has also been nominated to serve on the Tennessee Medical Association and has been involved in re-establishing the child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the University of Tennessee. One of her personal goals, she says, is to meet with state legislators in January to offer support from the medical community. She believes that more preventative care for patients can help address and treat depression and other major problems before becoming crisis situations. ”More than 20% of people in the country suffer from depression and many don’t recognize that their aches and pains may be from stress and depression. In my dream world, everyone will take a mental health day to prevent health problems from escalating.”
In order to juggle all of these varied responsibilities, she relies on her cell phone to move smoothly from one job to another at various locations around the city and she maintains a master schedule in her home that also schedules in fun activities with family and regular visits with her friends from high school. When she isn’t working, Dr. Arnold, who is also a certified master gardener, spends time in her garden and enjoys sharing shady perennials with her friends. She is also training her dog, Lolly, to be a pet therapy dog that visits nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals, helping improve the mental health of patients.
Whether at work or play, Dr. Arnold sees the world through solutions, not problems.](Current%20Features_files/shapeimage_4.png)
