February 14, 2024
WEDNESDAY
SPORTS: Check out which local football players made commitments on National Signing Day
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Saving the Monarch Madison Visionary Partners or MVP is coordinating an effort to bolster the population of Monarch butterflies that migrate through Madison. Page 3A
By MARIA RAKOCZY maria@themadisonrecord.com
Alexandra Ramsey spends her free time painting local businesses, schools and the occasional portrait and then simply gives them away. Photo by Andrew Noles
Alabama’s Baptist leadership has come out in opposition to the proposed gambling legislation currently being considered by Alabama lawmakers. Page 4A
Love is alive and well in the heart of this special artist By ERIN COGGINS news@themadisonrecord.com
Sweet & Sour Salmon Salmon is a hearty, flavorful and heart-healthy protein. When glazed in an easy sauce, this “Sweet-and-Sour Baked Salmon” will be the star of mealtime. Page 5A
MADISON - Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, is synonymous with the word love. And love is more than romance. Love is patient, love is kind. Love is alive and well in the heart of Alexandra Ramsey. And she enjoys nothing more than spreading that love. Alexandra, a quiet 22-yearold who loves plaid, Twix candy bars, stuffed animals and the Netflix series “Wednesday”, spends her free time painting local businesses, schools and the occasional portrait and then simply gives them away. “Giving them away gives me joy,” Alexandra said. “I do it to spread kindness. I like painting. It’s one of my favorite hobbies.” When Alexandra first
came up with the idea, her mother, Kelly, was on board 100 percent. She says after taking a painting class while a junior at James Clemens High School, Alexandra got on a roll. “She came to me and said, ‘Mom, I just wanna do this for people,” Kelly said. “And she does it out of the goodness of her heart and because she enjoys it.” Culver’s, Wendy’s, McDonalds are all beneficiaries of Alexandra’s work. Since her first painting captured the beauty of a banana split sundae, ice cream became an object of her artwork. A subject that did not surprise Kelly. “When she was a toddler, she kind of got her start playing with ice cream,” Kelly said. “She would sometimes put it on the window of the car and was like designing
The City of Madison will hold ReadyFest, its annual preparedness event, on Feb. 24 at Discovery Middle School. Page 6A
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By GREGG PARKER gregg@themadisonrecord.com MADISON – Three students in Madison City Schools or MCS earned awards at the national level in the 2024 National PTA Reflections fine arts contest. Annually, 300,000-plus students nationwide in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade create original works following a student-defined theme. Winners can advance from their individual schools to their district, state and national competitions. Competition categories are Dance Choreography, Film Pro-
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duction, Literature, Music Composition, Photography and Visual Arts. Following the theme, “Show Your Voice!,” 34 MCS students placed at the Alabama State level. Fourteen students received first place in the state contest and advanced to the National level. Three MCS students placed at judging for Nationals from more than 900 entries and 300,000-plus submissions from across the country, according to Madison City PTA Reflections Co-Chairs Beth Green and Ricki Schwartz. See REFLECTIONS Page 8A
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Three Madison City Schools students won at the national level of PTA Reflections fine arts contest. Harshtha Chander (above), from Liberty Middle School won in the Dance Choreography with “Our Voices Inspire.”
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with her fingers–even when she was three years old. I had a feeling that she would be creative. She liked to work with her hands and make little shapes with Play-Doh.” Alexandra painted a canvas of her alma mater but also captured Sparkman High School in acrylic, her favorite medium. She says the school’s interior is pretty and she wanted to paint it. She gifted the large painting to the school’s front office, leaving it in the hands of bookkeeper, Heidi Fowler. “When she presented us with the artwork, she was so quiet, but you could see that she was happy,” Fowler said. “She told us she thought our building was pretty. It was during the summer, but she had a small audience. We have fought over who gets it, See ALEXANDRA Page 8B
MADISON - The first Safe Haven Baby Box in the state of Alabama opened in Madison on Jan. 10. The box was the result of combined efforts between Safe Haven, the City of Madison, Madison Fire and Rescue, and Kids to Love, a licensed private adoption and child placing agency in Alabama. Kids to Love’s initial work to expand the Safe Haven law, allowing women another place to safely surrender their babies besides the hospital while remaining anonymous and expanding the time for surrendering from 72 hours to 45 days, paved the way for the baby boxes to be installed at fire stations throughout the state. Kids to Love worked with south Alabama representative Donna Givens to unanimously pass the law in the state legislature and later have the bill signed into law by Governor Ivey in June of last year. Founder and CEO of Kids to Love, Lee Marshall, explained the thought that went into the new law, “Alabama was the first state to have the Safe Haven law many, many years ago, and so the Safe Haven law was in effect, where women could surrender their babies at the hospital 72 hours after birth. So, we felt like two things needed to happen that they needed to have another place to do that where they could keep their anonymity, but also we felt like women might need a little more time than 72 hours.” Marshall said they saw the work Safe Haven Baby Boxes were doing in neighboring states and identified Knoxville, TN as a city comparable to the Huntsville-Madison area where the boxes were proving effective. “We saw Knoxville and we kind of felt like Knoxville was probably
Three local students win national awards in PTA Reflections
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