Good news: Architect's passion for building goes beyond property to character, lives

Good News feature profile for The Commercial Appeal

March 16, 2010

Michael Walker builds houses and office buildings. He has built characters as an actor on stage and backdrops for those characters to move around. And he's helping build self-esteem and future success for a handful of young men at Manassas High School, both on and off the football field, as a volunteer coach and mentor.

Walker is the owner of Walkerarch LLC. Even as a child, the drawing, designing and creativity of his craft piqued his interest.

"We lived in a lot of new neighborhoods because of the moving (when his father was transferred for work), so I was always around construction and loved seeing things being built," he said. "As a kid, I was always building stuff or always had a project going of some sort, whether it was building a fort or models."

Born in Barrington, Ill., Walker attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. On a break from school, his father, knowing his son's interests and creativity, took him to meet an architect friend.

"My father literally walked me to his office and I said, 'Yeah, I love that, the detail of a section and how you make it look like stone or wood or insulation.' " ... (read more)

Memphian's valentines spread love to people who don't otherwise get any

Profile/human interest story for The Commercial Appeal

February 14, 2010

Dixie Brown is not your typical cupid. She has no wings, no bow and arrow, and cherubic may have been an adjective used to describe her more than five decades ago when she married and moved south from Brookline, Mass.

Yet every year since 1979, Brown has helped to put a smile on people's faces by sending out hundreds of "penny cards" to the elderly, who normally may not receive anything on Valentine's Day.

The cards started as an extension of her work with Sacred Heart Church here and her visitations with shut-ins.

"I met a retired first-grade teacher, and the good Lord whispered in my ear that I could send her a valentine," Brown said, "and that year she got 25 of them and it tickled her."... (read more)

Philanthropy instilled at an early age, Pat Carter still giving back at 71

Good News feature for The Commercial Appeal

January 19, 2010

Though he has sat on the boards of organizations, been inducted into halls of fame across the country and is deacon with Whitehaven's Middle Baptist Church, Pat Carter is a man who avoids committees when it comes to getting real work done.

Case in point: Carter and a handful of friends have been feeding the homeless Downtown in Confederate Park every Labor Day for 25 years with little more than his own barbecue grill and the determination that has kept this self-made man going for most of his 71 years.

"I think we can do more (ourselves), rather than depending on an organization," Carter said. "For years no one knew I was cooking for the homeless because I never told anyone. I do it every year because no one wants to cook for the homeless on Labor Day."

It's this taking of the reins that has guided Carter's life from the age of 12, when he set up a Kool-Aid stand in the front yard of his Raleigh home, catering to the church down the street whose members would filter down for refreshment after service.

"People were laughing at me, they thought it was funny, but I had $1,200 in my savings account when I was 12," he said ... (read more)