10 • Thursday, October 17, 2013
A Worthy Goal
People
OVER THE MOUNTAIN Journal
Lovelady Center Project Is Tribute to Volunteer Steve Wald
By Keysha Drexel
A
Journal editor
project started by an Over the Mountain resident to help children living at the Lovelady Center in Birmingham came to fruition last month when a new basketball goal was dedicated in his honor. Before he passed away unexpectedly in March, Steve Wald, a former teacher and coach, was raising money for new basketball goals for the children at the Lovelady Center. In lieu of flowers at Wald’s funeral, his wife, Cathy, asked that donations be made
Steve Wald
to the Lovelady Center Kidzone in his memory. The Lovelady Center, located on Second Avenue South in Birmingham in the former East End Memorial Hospital, is a faith-based nondenominational residential and recovery facility for women who have recently been released from prison and their chil-
dren. Most of the moms at the center are recovering from addictions, and Lovelady is one of the few recovery centers in the state that allows residents to bring their children with them as they go through the program. About 350 women and children currently live at the center. The Lovelady Center was founded in 2003 by Brenda Lovelady Spahn as Freedom Rain Ministries, which operated out of her home and ministered to women at Julia Tutwiler Prison during and after their incarceration. She later renamed the center in honor of her father, James Lovelady. Wald and his wife volunteered at the Lovelady Center and worked with the kids there. “Steve would play basketball with the kids, and the time he spent with them meant a lot because many of the children don’t have father figures in their lives,” said Jeannie Carreker, the center’s director of development. “We need more volunteers like Steve.” After Wald’s untimely death, Dan McGettigan, a former teacher and coach at Pinson Valley High School who had worked with Wald when he taught at Pinson, sprang into action. McGettigan said he was determined to see Wald’s project to give the kids at the center a new place to play become a reality. McGettigan recruited a group of friends he calls “The Legends” to put together the money to buy the basketball goal so that the donations sent in Wald’s honor could be used for other programs at the Lovelady Center Kidzone. “Steve desperately wanted a new
Cathy Wald and Brenda Lovelady Spahn, above, at the dedication ceremony to honor volunteer Steve Wald. Mike Vest, right, executive director of the Governor’s Commission on Physical Fitness, speaks at the dedication ceremony at the Lovelady Center. Journal photos by Maury Wald
goal and basketballs for the kids at the center, and so I contacted a few people so that we could make that happen to honor all that Steve did to help the kids,” McGettigan said. McGettigan contacted Henry Williford, a professor at Auburn University at Montgomery and member of the Governor’s Commission on Physical Fitness who used to coach and teach with Wald at Pinson Valley High. “Steve had a lot of influence on me, whether he knew it or not. He did good all his life and was just a great guy. I know he would have been thrilled that the kids at the center now have a new basketball goal,” Williford said. Next, Shelby County Commissioner Mike Vest of Inverness, who is also the executive director of the Governor’s Commission on Physical Fitness, got on board with the project, along with Scott Myers, executive director of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and Alex
Sokol and Chris Nix, co-founders of Alabama Forever. Alabama Forever was founded in response to the April 27, 2011 tornadoes that ravaged the state. The group’s goal, according to its website, is to help Alabama communities in need by offering viable solutions to maintain the best possible life for the state’s residents for generations to come. The group paid for a basketball goal to be erected on the Kidzone playground along with a plaque dedicating the new space to Wald. Since the dedication ceremony in September, McGettigan said others have joined together to expand the basketball area at the Lovelady Center. Wald’s longtime friend Terry Brasseale has arranged for a concrete pad to be poured at the memorial playground. Billy Vann, another friend of Wald’s, is paying for the concrete, and Brasseale is paying for it to be installed,
McGettigan said. Vest, who grew up in poverty in Birmingham, spoke at the dedication ceremony and said it is people like Wald who made a difference in his own life. Vest said one year, his mother went to Toys for Tots because she couldn’t afford to buy her children Christmas presents. One of the presents Vest received that year from Toys for Tots was a small, plastic football. “That one little bitty football--I still have no idea who gave it to me through Toys for Tots--it changed my life forever,” the former quarterback at Samford University said. “I know these basketballs and the goal Steve wanted so badly for the children here will change lives, too.” Spahn thanked Wald’s wife for sharing him with the children at the Lovelady Center and said Wald had a tremendously positive influence on the kids there. “We are so honored for the time Steve spent here. We don’t take anything anyone does to help lightly, and we appreciate everything that Steve did here,” Spahn said. For more information on how to volunteer at the Lovelady Center, visit www.loveladycenter.org. ❖
People Notes Hoover Resident Awarded Mountain Brook Resident by Civil Rights Institute Studying Abroad A Hoover resident has been recognized for mentoring children in Alabama’s Black Belt. Kasey Rumbarger, a recent graduate of John Carroll Catholic High School, was recognized at a symposium at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Rumbarger received an honorable Kasey Rumbarger mention award for traveling to the Vrendenburgh community for two summers to help cheerleaders there. Realizing the girls in the community had limited resources, Rumbarger shared her love of cheerleading with them by putting on cheerleading clinics. She was nominated for the honor by Mike Bouton, a teacher at John Carroll. Rumbarger is attendiing Auburn University to study in the Department of Kinesiology. She is the daughter of Beth and Daniel (Toby) Rumbarger.
A Mountain Brook resident is studying in Italy this fall. Lelia Elizabeth Smith, the daughter of John and Catherine Smith of Mountain Brook, is studying in Rome for the fall semester. Smith is a junior at Wofford College, an independent liberal arts college of 1,600 students in Spartanburg, N.C.
Furr Honored for 20 Years of Service to Church The pastor at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church was recently honored for his 20 years of service. The congregation honored Dr. Gary A. Furr during the Aug. 25 morning worship service. The church also hosted a reception the same day in the church’s Fellowship Hall. Leaders, family members and friends gathered to celebrate Furr’s milestone. The speaker for the event was Dr. Fisher Humphreys, professor of divinity, emeritus, of Samford University and a friend of the Furr family. Humphreys delivered a sermon at Furr’s installation at the church in 1993. Since his installation, Furr has seen a member increase of almost 1,000, an
11 percent increase in resident member families, a 188 percent increase in budgeted missions giving and a 130 percent increase in budgeted receipts. He has overseen the establishment of the church website and Facebook page and started WVSU-FM, an on-air ministry. Furr also has organized volunteer efforts in 25 foreign countries and made extensive additions to the church for educational Gary A. Furr and ministerial purposes. Before he moved to Birmingham, Furr was the pastor of churches in Texas and Georgia. He earned a bachelor’s degree in religion from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn. He also received a master’s degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and a doctorate in religion from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In addition to pastoring the Vestavia Hills Baptist Church, Furr is on the Coordinating Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.