280 Living
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April 62013 April 2013 | Volume | Issue 8
neighborly news & entertainment
Spring Home Guide Special page 22
Outdoor
excitement
Pam’s purpose A mother’s journey from patient to proponent ›› Relay for Life: Chelsea May 3, Oak Mountain April 26 By MEGAN SMITH
Don’t miss spring’s big runs, walks and events in the area. Learn about the Italian Food Festival, Stadium Fest, Mt Laurel Spring Festival, Walk Me Home and Celebrate Hoover Day inside.
Community pages 5-7
Trending now See styles hot as the summer sun, and stay fashionable this season without ever leaving 280!
Special page 9
INSIDE Sponsors ...... 2 280 News ..... 4 Community .. 5 Business ....... 10 Food .............. 11
School House ... 14 Sports ............... 19 Music ................. 27 Opinion ............. 28 Calendar ........... 30
Pam Sciara sat quietly as her son Austin cut her hair into a Mohawk. Moments before, the 10-year-old had shaved his father’s head. Sciara’s husband, Samuel, was showing moral support and trying to ease their 8-year-old son Vincent into the family’s new look. After the Mohawk, Austin gave Sciara a new style she called “G.I. Pam.” There was brief moment of ensuing laughter. Vincent, though, was hidden in his room. He failed to see the humor in the situation. After all, his mom had cancer. A mammogram performed in July 2010 during Sciara’s annual checkup had shown abnormal results. She
Pam Sciara, left, and son Austin wore pink wigs to their first Race for a Cure in 2011. Sciara, a breast cancer survivor, believes her purpose is to share her story, which she intends to continue doing at this year’s Relay for Life in Chelsea. Photo courtesy of Pam Sciara.
wasn’t worried until her second test yielded abnormal results, as well. A month prior, on her sister’s birthday, Sciara and her husband received the news: she had Stage 2B lobular carcinoma, a form of invasive breast cancer. Less than two weeks later, doctors performed
a double mastectomy and learned cancerous cells were in 15 lymph nodes. She was prescribed 12 rounds of chemotherapy and 35 rounds of radiation therapy. In order to keep family and friends updated on her treatment, she started a journal with caringbridge.org. In it,
she mentioned the first four weeks were the worst, nicknamed “the red devil” and retold she got a “Halle Berry cut” to prepare herself for chemo’s side effects. Less than two weeks after starting
See PAM | page 16
Time’s up: U.S. 280 plan to be bid this month ›› Project details online at 280living.com
Pre-Sort Standard U.S. Postage PAID Birmingham, AL Permit #656
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By JEFF THOMPSON Official word from the Alabama Department of Transportation is that the revised U.S. 280 intersection improvement plans are final and will be bid in April, but some local business owners are hoping there’s still time for change. ALDOT presented its final versions during a public involvement meeting in February at the Church of Brook Hills. There, Cahaba Plaza owners Scott
Buzbee and Cathy Galbreath Buzbee poured over the overhead image of the Resource Center Parkway. ALDOT plans to remove the signal on U.S. 280 at the intersection and prohibit left turns from the highway into their center, which houses among other businesses Absco Fireplace and Patio, Macarena Grocery, and Courtyard Bar and Grill. Their primary concern isn’t the
See ALDOT | page 28
Cathy Galbreath Buzbee and Scott Buzbee, left, discuss the Resource Center Parkway and U.S. 280 intersection with Darrell Skipper, right, project consultant and president of Skipper Consulting. Photo by Jeff Thompson.