The Homewood Star Volume 5 | Issue 12 | March 2016
neighborly news & entertainment for Homewood
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Taking Action
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Blue Line Combatives, a weekly self-defense class, is arming the community with knowledge.
See page A20
On the Mat
Macy Squires and Max had an instant connection when they met, and he’s been by her side almost constantly for over a year. Photo by Sydney Cromwell.
Service dog accompanies Homewood student to school, work By SYDNEY CROMWELL Homewood High School freshman Darcy Gibbs is challenging herself on the wrestling mat.
See page B14
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back and forth to Macy’s mother until she realized something was wrong with her daughter. “That’s when we knew he would do good as a service dog,” Macy said. After a few months of training at Roverchase in Pelham, Max earned the purple vest that marks him as a service animal. He’s trained to lie across Macy’s legs if she’s about to have a seizure or lick her arms to indicate that her blood sugar is low. His early warnings give her enough time to get to a safe place or take insulin. “They told me when we started it was going to be a trust thing, and I was either going to be
See MAX | page A30
Developers eye new Edgewood retail space By SYDNEY CROMWELL
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Along with her backpack and books, Homewood High sophomore Macy Squires brings something extra to school each day: Max, her service dog. Max spends most of the school day lying quietly next to Macy’s desk, unless he recognizes the signs, imperceptible to humans, that Macy is about to have a seizure or her blood sugar has dropped dangerously low. “He’s probably saved my life a couple of times,” Macy said. Macy’s seizures began in eighth grade, and she was homebound for part of the year. After a seizure caused her to fall and hit the back of her
head, forming a hematoma, Macy said her family began looking for “outside of the box options.” That’s when they learned about the possibility of a service dog, trained to detect scent changes that precede seizures and hypoglycemia. The only problem: Macy was allergic to dogs. The Squires couldn’t get just any service dog. Fortunately, Max is a poodle, a hypoallergenic breed, and both of his parents were therapy animals. When they first met Max, Macy said it immediately felt right. “My mom cried. It was just kind of like an instant bond, you couldn’t break it,” she said. He almost immediately proved his worth. About a week after bringing Max home, Macy passed out due to a blood sugar drop. Max ran
The Edgewood Service Center is the subject of a proposed renovation project to become a retail and office space. Photo by Frank Couch.
When Homewood resident Michael Murray is walking or driving through his city, he said he’s always looking out for interesting properties to own or develop. It’s a side effect of his job as an associate broker at Shannon Waltchack Commercial Real Estate. In more than 20 years living in Homewood, Murray said one of those properties is the Edgewood Service Center at 1017 Oxmoor Road. The building itself, as well as its location, makes the service center a prime
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candidate for what Murray called “adaptive reuse” — fitting an existing building to a new purpose rather than constructing something new. “This is one that I’ve had my eye on for literally years,” Murray said. Murray said the service center has operated in Edgewood for nearly 40 years, but within a few months it could be the site of shops and offices. Shannon Waltchack is in discussions with the owner of Edgewood Service
See EDGEWOOD | page A31
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