Statesboro Magazine September/October 2014

2014 Haunted Forest at The Clubhouse

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Win $35,000 Georgia Forestry Foundation Contest

This Halloween, the Boys & Girls Club of Bulloch County is proud to bring back the Haunted Forest, October 24-25 & 27-31, 2014, from 8:00 P.M. until midnight, for another year of spooky fun. Since the resurrection of the Haunted Forest in 2009, the spooktacular tradition brings fun for the whole community.

The Haunted Forest will feature five “Scare Stations” along the trail including clowns, zombies, and an insane asylum. Other creepy surprises will be lurking in the forest, ready to terrify the passersby; those brave enough should prepare to be scared.

Cost of admission is $5 per person. The Haunted Forest has a new home this year and will be held in the woods near the Clubhouse. Free parking is available at the Clubhouse. More information can be found online at the Haunted Forest Facebook page. For information regarding the Haunted Forest or sponsorship opportunities, please contact Mike Jones at 912.489-4334.

Eric Riggs, a rising 10th-grade student at Southeast Bulloch High School, was selected as the winner of the Georgia Forestry Foundation’s 2014 “Forestry: A Foundation for Our Future” artwork and slogan contest in the ninth–12th grade category. GFF awarded Riggs and SEBHS a prize package valued at $35,000.

More than 1,000 students statewide participated, and Riggs’ artwork was selected from 56 entries that were chosen to be judged.

Representatives from the GFF, including foundation Chairwoman Jody Strickland, contest committee Chairwoman Wanda Barrs, and several local and state leaders in the state’s forestry House industry, hosted a reception in Statesboro to honor Riggs and SEBHS faculty prior Speaker to the Bulloch County Board of EducaAppoints Wilson to Study tion’s meeting on June 12. During the Committee meeting Barrs presented Riggs a ceremonial check for the prize package’s total House Speaker David amount, which includes $2,500 for Riggs Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) has and $15,000 for SEBHS. announced the appointment The remaining prizes include a forof Bulloch County Superintenestry camp scholarship for Riggs, Project dent of Schools Charles Wilson Wilson asks a question of State School Superintendent Learning Tree environmental profesto the Georgia House of RepJohn Barge during the Committee meeting. sional development opportunities for up resentatives’ Study Committee on the Role of the Federal Government in Education (Committee). Wilson is one of to 20 SEBHS teachers, an invitation to attend the Georgia Teacher Conservation three superintendent’s serving on the 16-member committee.

The first of the Committee’s three scheduled meetings occurred on July 30, in Workshop for two teachers, a field trip for the Coverdell Legislative Office Building in Atlanta. All meetings will be streamed students in Riggs’ grade level, imprinted live on the Georgia House of Representatives website, and a video of last Wednes- materials featuring Riggs’ winning artday’s meeting is archived on the site at http://www.house.ga.gov/Committees/enUS/ work and slogan, and other educational Government’sRoleInEducation.aspx. Speaker Ralston may schedule additional meetings prizes.

“We are very proud of Eric and his art if necessary.

House Resolution 550, which was passed on March 20, authorized the creation of teacher, Rachel Jackson, for bringing this the Committee. In addition to Speaker Ralston, the Committee is being co-chaired honor to Southeast Bulloch,” Principal by the Chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, Carl Rogers, and the Donna Clifton said. “All of the school’s $ 15,000 will be going to the art program.”

Chairman of the House Education Committee, Brooks Coleman.

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Georgia Southern University’s Garden of the Coastal Plain will host their annual fall fundraiser Rhythm & Brews on Thursday, October 9th from 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. at the Garden Pavilion. Musical entertainment will be provided by the Missionary Blues Band. A barbeque dinner will be catered by the Beaver House. For ticket information contact the Garden at 912.871.1149 or visitacademics.georgiasouthern.edu/garden/.

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While Maria has always had a penchant for fashion, she hasn’t always worked in the industry. Born and reared in Tennessee, Maria met husband, Reggie while at the University of Tennessee. After graduating, they moved to Florida, following Reggie’s career in the cardiovascular field. Maria worked in medical administration.

“We spent thirteen years in Tallahassee, then Reggie opted to work with St. Joe in Atlanta and we moved there in 2000,” she said. “Reggie was working at St. Joe with Dr. Christopher Leggett, when Dr. Leggett was recruited by East Georgia Regional Medical Center to start an Interventional Cardiology practice here. Reggie came here with Leggett. He was here for two years before I came.”

In 2004, Maria’s mother became ill and she left her medical career to help care for her. That same year she met successful Atlanta area funeral director Gregory B. Levett. Levett was getting ready to open the third of five funeral homes, and asked Maria to come to work for him. “I love working with people and I realized I could help people cope with making final arrangements for their loved ones. I wanted to be a part of that,” she stated.

Maria started in an apprenticeship with the goal of becoming a licensed funeral director. She stayed with Gregory B. Levett & Sons until Reggie asked her to join him in Statesboro.

“I quit the funeral business and came here,” she said. “It was another career change, and I had no idea what I was going to do when I left. I still have ‘funeral director’ in the back of my mind for 2016. There is a program right here at Ogeechee Tech.”

In the meantime, Maria struggled with finding a career in Statesboro. “God has a divine way of closing a door and opening a window,” she said. “He takes care of the back end and the front end.”

As was her custom, Maria began to shop area thrift stores and consignment shops. “I went to Cherrie’s and Goodwill,

but I wasn’t finding the kind of clothes I could find in Atlanta consignment shops.”

“I checked out Label Stalkers when it opened up, and I asked Casey at Dèjá Vu if she needed any help, but she wasn’t hiring,” Maria said. “One year in college I worked in a consignment shop before I started nursing.” She noted her short lived early stint in the consignment business may have been foreshadowing.

By October of 2011, Maria had done much soul searching about her future. She had attended silent retreats and meditated on her next move.

She recalls, “One day at the post office I had the world on my shoulders. An older lady said, ‘Are you okay?’ Then I started crying. The lady said to ask God, ‘Now what?’”

“The first of November I told my girlfriend about my struggles and she said, ‘Sitting around the house ain’t cutting it.’” Maria started journaling in a notebook about the things God had shown her. One day she wrote – Consignment Shop January 2012.

“I decided to start with what I had, so I shopped my closet.

I pulled out gently used nice clothes I no longer wanted and started calling girlfriends over to go through the selection and purchase items at a discounted rate,” she said. Before long the girls started bringing their own clothes to add to Maria’s inventory. She said, “I started getting clothes before I had a location!”

Wanting to locate in downtown, Maria contacted Elena McClendon at Statesboro’s Main Street office about leasing a store. “Elena was great. She was my biggest champion. She walked all the vacant buildings to find me a spot.” One day when Maria was looking, she spotted Donna Harville’s phone number on the building at 5 North Main Street. “When she showed me the building, I felt God’s presence and I said, ‘This is the place.’”

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Eager to get started in her new business, Maria said, “Reggie wasn’t so sure. He said this was a slow economy and that people were not starting businesses. I told him this is what God wants me to do.”

Maria took the money from her 401K and invested in the renovations and fixtures of her new store. She opened for business on April 4, 2012. “It’s been thriving since I opened,” she said.

Designer labels are now her currency. Proctor employs her bargaining skills to consign the finest quality clothing items and accessories available. Ladies who start as customers quickly become clients as they work with Proctor, the fashion professional, to update their wardrobes while cleaning-out their closets of gently used high end brands.

Inside the shop the stacked rows of designer dresses, tops, skirts, and pants line the walls in neat rows of complementary and contrasting colors. Designer jewelry and sunglasses decorate the tops of glass cases filled with chic leather handbags and clutches. It feels more like a high end boutique than a consignment store. Most of her marketing has been word-of-mouth from satisfied customers.

Her main customers at Madame Couture are females ranging in age from middle school to grandmothers – mostly working women in the 30 to 60 range. From December to April, Maria noticed a specialty set of shoppers looking for prom dresses. When the building next door became available for lease, Maria expanded her selections to include new formal dresses for prom and special occasions. “In 2012 we sold 99 dresses and in 2013 we sold 235,” she said. She also expanded her lines to offer smaller boutiques within the second store including an area for larger customers – Real Women, and a line for children – Teeny Tiny Trendy.

Serious about growing her business, Maria went to a consignment convention in St. Louis in 2013 and attended seminars on the latest trends in the business. It was there she met Tierra Destiny Reid, a consignment specialist from the Atlanta area.

Tierra works with small businesses like Maria’s and has helped her develop on-line marketing. As a result she has started a Retail Campus on-line for school girls. This fall she will be further developing the local college market by opening a second location – Southern Glamour – in the Market District between Shane’s Rib Shack and La Berry’s Yogurt.

Maria attributes much of her success to great customer service and to knowing her clients and her labels. “I don’t take just anything on consignment,” she said. “The items are no more than two years old, freshly laundered or dry cleaned on hangers, and designer only. I don’t take big box store brands and most department store brands, I pass on.” The consigner gets 60% of the purchase price and the store retains 40%.

She carries Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Prada labels. “If I am not able to sell an item in the store,” she said, “I will sell it on-line.” Maria uses eBay, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. She also links to the 48 • STATESBORO MAGAZINE ›› Southern Hospitality

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