There’s not a day that Beryl Mankins isn’t reminded of the deep chasm of darkness she lived in for 8 years. She was filled with anger and grief. She picked fights with everybody. She yelled, cried, and rebelled. Sometimes she revisits that lonely place.

Beryl still misses her son, Jonathon. But her love for him has brought her new purpose and a vision for a better world. This vision is so big, it almost overwhelms her with the momentum it is gathering.

In 2006 Beryl began collecting and distributing books in the memory of her son. Beryl knew that books have the power to heal, inspire and educate. She named her project “Jonathan’s Legacy: Connections of Hope.”

Beryl  wanted to reach people who struggle as she had with their own feelings of despair.

She decided to explore the prison system. It didn’t take but a visit or two before Beryl realized that self-help and personal development books were needed. Sometimes the prison library is limited to a cart.

“How can a person turn himself around?”: she asked. “If you can’t put new thoughts into your mind, all you have are the old ones! And those are the ones that got you into prison in the first place! For people who feel like losers, books can bring hope.”

Beryl  refers to the prison initiative as  “Readings for Re-Entry.”

Soon, Beryl began speaking in the prisons. The reception she experienced from the inmates was overwhelming. Beryl knew that this was her calling.

Then Beryl felt inspired by another idea. Her 8 year old grandson, Cameron, wanted to have a legacy, too. “Cameron, is polite, outgoing, and intelligent,’ says Beryl. “He reads with a voracious appetite. He’s an ambitious learner.”

Under his grandmother’s tutelage, Cameron became a program director of “The Children’s Book Legacy.” Beryl  quoted one of her favorite teachers, Dr. Suess, to Cameron: “The more that you read, the more things you will know.  The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

“Every child should own a book,” said Beryl. “Even if they color in it, or get it dirty, it’s THEIR book!”

Together, Beryl and Cameron began collecting books. Cameron collected books for children, youth, and teens, while Beryl collected books for the incarcerated.

The tireless duo were unstoppable. They collected books. And more books. And more books. They shared their project with people in churches and service groups. They made appearances in schools, at the Industries for the Blind, and recreation centers. Beryl was unstoppable. Then the radio called. Beryl took her message to the airwaves.

Soon, Beryl’s porch was flooded with books. She needed space.

“You can use the spare room in our rec center,” the recreation center director offered. The project quickly outgrew the rec center. Beryl still needed space.

As the foundation grows, so does its needs. Book donations are flooding in. Agencies requests for books are flooding in. There is no space …yet Beryl is unstoppable.

Beryl wanted her project to become a non-profit, charitable organization. She wanted book donations to become tax deductions. After much research, she succeeded in obtaining a 501 C3 tax exempt number and recruited a board.

If only she had a decent space to store the books. And a car that is dependable. Beryl’s 95 Buick LeSabre  has windows that don’t work. Sometimes the engine starts and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the engine refuses to quit running after the ignition is turned off. Yet, inspite of frustrations around the lack of space and an undependable car, Beryl is unstoppable.

Sometimes the process seems unclear. Both Beryl and her board need training and mentoring.

When the project becomes overwhelming, Beryl thinks of Jonathon. Beryl knows she is honoring Jonathon now. She looks up to the sky and asks, “How am I doing, Jonathon?

And he answers, “You’re doing great, Mom!”

With that, Beryl refuels her unstoppable spirit.

To contribute to  Jonathan’s Legacy: Connections of Hope, or to contact Beryl for a speaking engagement,  call 336-777-1068 or contact her at  JLReadbooks@yahoo.com

Michele May

In 2003, Michele May wanted something of her own. She was 54 years old and her husband was retiring from his high profile Senior Executive government job as administrator of a busy Veterans Administration Medical Center. Michele had enjoyed the demanding role as a government official’s wife…the entertaining and public appearances had been glamorous and fun. She had the skills and wardrobe as a first rate hostess. But this was her time to leverage her interests and resources into her own business venture.

Michele was not a newcomer to challenges and risk-taking. Growing up in Vietnam, she loved to learn and excel in whatever she pursued. Her mother, a beauty trained to teach piano, instructed her on everything from core values, customs important  to the Vietnamese culture, and daily practices to take care of Michele’s beautiful skin. Her father taught her photography. At the age of  6, she was sent to a French school, where she was immersed in the French language and culture, and taught English at the same time.

Michele caught on fast. So fast, that when she graduated from school, she was hired by the U.S. Military Intelligence community as an interpreter and photographer for the U.S. Consulate. She traveled with General Westmoreland, Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu during the Vietnam war, and despite her young age was trusted with the top security level.

Michele knew that when the war was over, she would return home to her mother.  She expected to be her mother’s care-taker in her old age, being the only daughter and second oldest.  However, plans changed when Michele met Tim, the handsome American who worked in Military Intelligence who  swept her off her feet, and wooed her for 2 years until she said yes to his proposal.

Coming to America brought extreme change and challenge to Michele’s life. Regardless of the difficulty, she loved it. Tim’s life in the intelligence community and later with the Veterans Administration involved frequent moves.   Michele, a fast learner, obtained jobs at each new location and enrolled in computer courses. Gradually, she even won over Tim’s parents, who at first considered their son’s marriage to a Vietnamese girl “a mixed marriage.” They couldn’t help but love the beautiful girl who had won their son’s heart.

Michele’s next big goal was to sponsor her family, left behind in the Communist occupation of Vietnam. Communication was laborious and frustrating. Sending medicine to her ailing mother was often impossible. Filling out applications for sponsorship was a grueling, tedious chore. Michele was turned down year after year. Yet, year after year she persisted, filling out paperwork and waiting patiently for a response.

Five years passed, then ten. Finally after 13 years of filling out paperwork and waiting, Michele’s family was granted permission to come to the United States. Only by now, Michele’s mother had died, and the four brothers had taken wives and had children. The family had grown!

You can imagine the challenges of relocating 14 Vietnamese people from age 2 to 60 in America. Everyone had to have a place to sleep and learn English. Adults needed jobs and kids needed schools. Together, Michele and Tim who lived in San Francisco at the time, helped the family settle into an American lifestyle. Eventually, three of the brothers settled with their families in Winston-Salem, while Michele and Tim relocated there upon Tim’s retirement. Michele first obtained a license as a nail technician to help two of her brothers who owned nail salons. Once she stepped into the beauty industry, however, Michele was hooked.

Now, at 54, Michele was ready to set her own star high in the sky. She remembered her mother’s advice, “Pay careful attention to your skin. A woman’s beauty requires good care.”

Michele enrolled in a local community college, and obtained another license to be an aesthetician. One of her brothers created  a special room in his salon for Michele to give facials and specialized skin treatments. Michele was in business.

The world of beauty is a world of technical expertise. New procedures, new equipment, new products and new trends…all requiring new certifications and licenses. Michele took them all on, one after another.Within a year, Michele needed bigger space for equipment, products, and customers. She wanted her own place.

With her husband’s support and encouragement, Michele found an ideal location….a space that required a dramatic transformation to become the beautiful environment Michele envisioned for pampering women. She called on her family. Just as Michele tirelessly pursued their sponsorship, the family tirelessly worked to bring Michele’s dream to reality.

Everyone pitched in, putting up drywall and wall paper, installing sinks and tubs, recovering furniture. Finally, the spa was completed including two elegant suites with specialized treatment areas. Michele began to decorate, bringing from home some of her designer Barbie dolls, items collected from her world travels, and elegant reminders of the glamorous balls she had attended in her own fairytale life.  Her husband hung her framed certificates representing her endless training that proclaimed her duly earned right as a beauty expert.

Spray tan? Michele bought the equipment and learned how.

Lipo massage? Michele bought the equipment and took advanced training.

Vascular blemish treatment? Permanent cosmetics? Swedish miracle body wraps? Michele owns the equipment and knows all the procedures, with licenses and framed certificates to prove it.

“Customers are very smart,” Michele says. “They read up on the trends, watch what the movie stars are doing…they want the best and the latest. There’s always something new and I don’t want to get behind.”

Her most requested services? Swedish Body Wraps and eyelash extensions. At least for the moment. Michele works hard with or without an assistant. Where do you find her on holidays? Entertaining what she values most, her family. Only the four brothers  now have grandchildren, the original children have college degrees, and the family continues to support each other.

Michele is an expert in beautiful skin. She values her Vietnamese culture, and loves her family. Her mother would be happy and proud.

When our son John, now 18, was just 7, he had immaculate phone manners. He impressed everyone with his  polite,  “Hello, this is John speaking. How may I help you?”

One day John and my husband, Robert, answered a call simultaneously (remember extension phones?)

A male voice said, “May I speak to the man of the house?”

“Go ahead, John,” urged my mischievous husband. “You take it.”

John felt a sense of importance as he continued with his polite response. Meanwhile, Robert exited to the kitchen where I prepared supper.

A few minutes later, little John later joined us with a puzzled look on his face.

“What’s a mortgage?” he asked.

Robert attempted an answer while I stifled my laughter.

Still confused, John asked, “Why did he hang up on me?”

Oh, those rude telemarketers.

We trained our son to answer the phone politely. When he was just 8, he would say “Hello, this is John speaking. How may I help you?”

One day John and my husband Robert happened to answer a phone and an extension phone at the same time. (So they both answered one phone line simultaneously.)

A male voice said, “May I speak to the man of the house?”

“Go ahead, John,” said Robert. “You take it.”

John felt a sense of importance as he politely listened to the caller. Meanwhile, Robert and I sat in the kitchen stuffing our mouths with napkins so as not to laugh.

A few minutes later, little John later came upstairs with a puzzled look on his face.

“What’s a mortgage?”

We died laughing…poor John. He couldn’t understand  why anyone would be so rude as to suddenly hang up.

Whenever I find myself upset and frustrated with a project, business, or situation that just isn’t going anywhere…and I can’t “fix it,” I’m reminded of a major life lesson I experienced at the beginning of my career. 

At that time, I was living in a new city and had taken a temporary job while getting my business on it’s feet. The market had not yet been developed for the service that I was selling. The business owners were stressed and depressed, demanding unrealistic results. I eeked by each month, hating the way my employers treated me.

 Suddenly, I was diagnosed with a large tumor requiring immediate surgery. The only problem was that I didn’t trust the doctor! Or the second opinion doctor, for that matter. I felt alone in a strange city, with few friends, no money, a horrible job, now this. 

I decided to go on a juice fast instead…and test the alternative health approach to wellness. I knew of a woman who worked with fasting….she recommended a procedure. Then I called my minister and asked him if he would support me.  

He replied, “I will only if you make this a spiritual fast first.” 

Without hesitation that even surprised myself, I agreed. 

This would become the key faith journey that I would take over and over for traumatic life experiences, adding new tools and resources as I went. No one ever forgets that initial faith journey….it becomes one of surrender, relating with people on a different wave length, and listening to one’s inner voice: divine guidance. 

Within a month of this special “fast,“ I experienced many unusual events. I called them miracles. People I didn’t know called me from other states to see how I was doing, a friend called (in the middle of a meditation) to offer payment of my rent, talented artists came to see me. The meditations became powerful events, guided meditations by the minister were shared with other friends. I found myself letting go of anxieties and being totally present with people, and my own inner experience of God. 

Now here’s the interesting part:a little side business I operated from my home skyrocketed in sales. My entertainment business received the biggest contract ever, and at the end of the month, I met the love of my life to whom I’m currently married! All of this after a month of “doing” nothing…no marketing, no sales calls, no appointments. Just letting go. Surrendering to a spiritual path. Listening to that inner voice.

 In the end, I had surgery. It didn’t matter, however, as I had already experienced “miracles.” I’m reminded now, amidst this time of turbulent change with so many friends unemployed, clients unable to hire my services, and setbacks at every corner, that this is a perfect time for surrendering to a faith journey with inner guidance. And to listen.

Here’s a quote that inspired me today: “A dream is an ideal involving a sense of possibilities rather than probabilities, of potential rather than limits.  A dream is the wellspring of passion, giving us direction and pointing us to lofty heights.  IT is an expression of optimism, hope, and values lofty enough to capture the imagination and engage the spirit.  Dreams grab us and move us.  They are capable of lifting us to new heights and overcoming self-imposed limitations. ” Robert Kriegel, Business consultant

Like many young women, Renae went to college at age 19, but got “distracted” by romance. Marriage and family interrupted her education, leaving her a stay-at-home mom in a small country town who waited tables to boost her husband’s income as an assembler for freight line trucks. But Renae is a dreamer who bores easily.

Renae thought of Libby, a successful direct sales consultant with a home interiors and accessories company. Libby had sold home accessories at a home party for Renae’s mother, unaware that she was making an impression on the teenage girl observing the process. How glamorous Libby seemed, making her own income in a way that was fun. Renae picked up the phone and dialed the number of the direct sales consultant she had carefully saved.

Renae drove to the Libby’s home for her first training. Feeling overwhelmed, she founded herself apologizing. “I can’t do this,” she smiled weakly at the consultant.

“Renae, Look in in your starter kit. There’s a book just for you.” Libby nodded her head reassuringly.

Renae read the title. “You Can, Too.”

Taking the book home, she read it cover to cover, then read it again. Fear dissipated with every page. Renae’s mom, always the encourager, became a first customer. Renae’s older sister loaned her the money for a starter kit, then gave a party in which her friends bought a lot of accessories,giving Renae a glorious beginning for a new business.

After fear, Renae’s 2^nd obstacle was her two-year-old son, Tyler, full of two-year-old noise. How would she ever make phone calls for appointments?

“I sat him on the counter,” Renae reminisces,”and made my phone ring. I put my finger to my lips and said, “when you hear the phone ring, you go shhh.” He got it. Renae’s career in sales was launched.

5 years went quickly. Renae was top producer from the beginning. She personally produced $150,000 a year on $30 retail items. Soon she began recruiting a team. Renae caught on fast to sales, management and training procedures. She decided to pursue the national training position with the company.

But life has a way of forcing us to change our course. A knock at her door at 2 AM changed Renae’s world forever. A state trooper with bad news.

“I need to drive you to the hospital, ma’am. Your husband has been in an accident. Is there anyone who can look after your son?” She shook her head. Her sister was out of town. She had no one to call at this late hour.

As Renae and the sleepy seven year old rode silently in the back seat of the trooper’s car, the trooper communicated with his dispatcher. He spoke in letters and numbers. It didn’t make sense. Then it hit her. He was speaking in code so she wouldn’t know what he was talking about. In fact, the trooper was preparing the hospital for Renae’s imminent arrival. The doctors were waiting for her.

“We must tell you that your husband is brain dead.” 27 year-old Renae wasn’t prepared for the news that required maturity beyond her years.

“We will continue to test for activity….and do all we can. But it doesn’t look promising. There’s no surgery that will help.”

Renae was taken to the chapel to gather her thoughts, and find some emotional strength. The chaplain and another nurse met with her. Unbeknownst to Renae, the nurse was also the donor representative. Hours passed in a blur. Renae’s husband was put on life support while testing continued. “Extreme trauma” was written on his chart.

By 5 PM the next day, Renae and Tyler found themselves surrounded by family members and pastors. Tension hung in the air until the doctors approached her with the final decree. “We’re sorry, Mrs. Reed, but your husband is legally dead.”

Tyler, wise for his seven years, spoke up for his mom. “ Thank you,” he said graciously. “I believe you did everything you could do.” Renae was not the only adult who was speechless.

The nurse donor representative spoke now. “Do you want to donate?”

Renae was determined something good would come out of this…but it was not totally her decision. She took her small son aside and explained what it meant to share in the biggest sense of the word. “We have to decide,” she said.

Her small charge nodded his head with understanding. “We’ll share, Mama.”

The entire body was donated. Skin went to burn victims, cornea to someone visually impaired, and 5 major organs saved 5 lives.

Renae didn’t know how to grieve. Left with a ‘fuzzy brain,” she quit her direct sales job and tried to restore life as before. The little country community was supportive of the young widow, and her lively child became her gift of grace. He kept her going.

“Grief is like a dragon fire,”says Renae. “it can burn you up or you can let the heat of it push you out.”

Renae returned to work as a server waiting tables. She enjoyed the relationships with restaurant patrons, and the fact that she could leave her job at the end of the day to be with her son. Suffering on the inside, she felt herself becoming malnourished, craving stimulating role models, and another dream. She threw herself into gardening and books, searching for spiritual salve and finding a peaceful balance between being and doing. Life’s wisdom comes when we seek it.

Tyler grew into an adolescent, then entered high school needing his mother less and less. As typical for a boy, his interests turned to other things, leaving Renae restless.

“Why don’t you come with me to Toastmasters?” Renae’s sister, Valerie, was also an achiever. Renae accompanied her to the small club of people who practiced their speaking skills. Soon, she was giving speeches, embracing the motivation of her peers, ambitious goal-setters developing leadership and confidence with their speeches. “I love being around people smarter than me,”Renae beams.

Renae found her way to my entrepreneurial women’s group. As the group of 7 women shared, met in pairs, and offered each other resources and feedback, Renae began to transform. After listening to other business owners share frustrations about customers, Renae offered training bits from her past sales experience. The group sat up and paid attention.

“The trauma had left me powerless,” Renae relates, “then suddenly women are telling me I have skills and abilities that are valuable!” She began to process their input.

Then an idea developed for a new business. With her organizing skills, administrative abilities, and uncanny sense of systems, Renae knew she could solve business administration problems.
Assessing an office disaster, Renae created a plan, then implemented the solution. Her first customer had just moved to a bigger office space, overwhelming her with chaos. Renae took charge, thrilling her client. In no time, the word was out. Soon another customer, overwhelmed with piles of papers and other mess, called for help. Then another. Renae developed systems and handled daily office procedures such as billing issues and marketing spreadsheets.

Soon she began marketing a client as well. Within 2 months, she developed four full time clients and several “as needed” part time clients. As if awakened from a long sleep, Renae’s brain began to generate ideas. What about training a fleet of office managers to work for small businesses? Or training small business owners to take care of paper work…and customer service issues? Ideas began evolving as Renae thought about how she could coach small business owners to be more successful. Today, those ideas are flowing at a furious speed as Renae develops her service.

Where she’ll end up, she isn’t sure. But she is absolutely clear about her purpose: “I want to help people develop beautiful lives…..with income, order, balance, and a sense of fulfillment.”

Renae is taking the reins of her life, and facing herself. She smiles in the mirror now, and repeats the famous line from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movies: “I’ll be back!”

The phoenix is rising.

Lida began to research. In the 80’s, the construction industry was booming…and paint had a feminine “in,” more so than other aspects of construction. Lida began to research the industry. She asked questions, searched the internet, made appointments at the small business facility at Winston Salem State University, and the city of Winston-Salem. Timing was right for women, minorities, and veterans to go into business. There would be a place for her company.

Lida found a subcontractor, bid on a job painting lightpoles, then found insurance. “This isn’t hard,” she thought as she waved at her painter from her car.  She continued to teach school.

Encouraged, she tackled a HUD project: 44 low income houses needed painting. “If I could paint one, I could paint 44,” she thought.

With the 2^nd contract, she stopped teaching. Hiring and managing employees was harder than she thought. Most of the employees had criminal records.

But they wanted to get ahead. Drawing from her school teacher experience as a strict disciplinarian, she laid out the rules.

“I let them know that I was going to be fair, and I expected them to be fair to me, but I was a tough old broad,” she says with a laugh.

‘By year three, Lida had 25 employees but no office. She sat on the floor in the HUD apartments and taught her herself how to do payroll.

When Lida bought her employees white uniforms, they reacted in an amazing way. They took care better care of themselves! Lida noticed they began washing their hair, cleaning their shoes, and cutting their fingernails. They knew she cared so they began caring about themselves.

Growth and progress didn’t come fast, but in small baby steps. Lida had to negotiate with contractors in their trailers plastered with pictures of naked women. This was a good ole boy world and she was an imposer. But business somehow came natural to Lida, as sports come natural to an athlete.

“My dad taught me if you count your pennies, you don’t have to count your dollars,” said Lida, fondly remembering her dad, a general supervisor for Reynolds Tobacco. “And Mom was a leader. If she was in an organization, she became president. There were no restrictions to being a female in our house.”

Growing a painting business required lots of risks and a road paved with frustration. Nobody wanted to give Lida credit. She had no experience (“I’d never done a hospital!”)

One job Lida especially wanted was to get the painting contract for Reynolds Tobacco, a hard core bid. She went up against male contractors and surprised everyone when she actually got the bid! People were even more surprised when she kept it for 20 years!

One of the biggest satisfactions that Lida experienced as a business owner was having people work for her, then seeing them prosper. One man literally lived in a cardboard box…then moved to a real house!

Lida took an interest in her employees’ children. She took little girls to dance classes, and made sure her company set aside money for summer camp. Her company sent as many as 10 employee children to the YWCA camp summer after summer. The YWCA just named a camp scholarship after her.

Two years after starting her business, Lida married her son’s soccer coach. They have 5 kids, combined, and today, Lida enjoys the fact that one of her sons is in business with her. Her second son is moving back to the area with his family as well.

Lida’s business is expanding inspite of the recession. Last year was a banner year and this year she is opening another office at Camp Lejuene. But life is not smooth sailing. Her mother, recently widowed after 53 years of marriage lives in deep grief and fragile health. Lida drives and hour and a half from Camp Lejuene to spend the night caring for her mom, then leaves before sunrise to get back to work. They speak on the phone throughout the day. As other daughters of older moms understand, the mother occupies a big portion of her daughter’s mind.

What is a key value behind Lida’s leadership? “I try not to judge someone if I haven’t walked their path, she says. “Love, happiness, shelter- we all want the same things. It doesn’t matter what gender you are, what race you are, or how a person has sex.”

Lida determined that other people’s opinions don’t matter. “I’ve never been a follower. I walk my own path. People give me advice and tell me what I should do. But at the end of the day, I have to pilot my own ship.”

The result of working hard, caring for employees, and listening to her own inner voice, is that Lida models leadership with heart for all of us.

http://sandlpaintinginc.com/

(About 6 years ago, Lida took the time to sit down with me and review my business plan. We connected around values in a way I never would have guessed. I will never, ever forget that for the rest of my life!)

In her 20’s, Margo was a virus researcher at Yale then a medical technologist in a hospital lab. After getting married and having 2 babies, she became a stay-at-home mom. That is, until her husband left her. With 2 boys, now 8 and 4, Margo went back to work for International Biotechnologies, Inc. There she set up product testing to exact standards, testing the enzymes used to splice the DNA and other items for genetic engineering products. Margo excels at exactness.

Six months into her new job, Margo got sick. Twisted ovarian cysts. The delay in diagnosis resulted in surgery…which led to blood clots. (The complications from these blood clots continue to  irritate Margo 26 years later. ) This was the beginning of Margo’s frustrations with the medical world.

Margo raised her boys alone, managing ensuing medical complications by herself, which  never seemed to end. Finally, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. You can imagine how strong Margo has become, having raised children alone, working in stressful jobs where precision was of utmost importance, constantly battling medical problems, including cervical cancer!

12 years after her first husband left and 2 months after her cancer surgery, Margo met her current husband at a church sponsored singles outing. He stared at her all night….the chemistry sparked! They moved to Kingsport, Tennessee, where Margo went to work for Eastman Chemical Company as a total quality consultant.

Layoffs followed. With money given for retraining., Margo enrolled at East Tennessee State U, the only university in the US that offered a masters in story telling! With the objective of using storytelling for business, Margo pursued the degree. At this point, her new husband got sick. Again, medical mistreatment resulted in near kidney failure.

For 2 years, Margo was in and out of the hospital with her husband and an elderly neighbor, creating forms to monitor their care, asking questions, and confronting doctors when the answers didn’t match up. Soon  other people wanted the forms.  Margo’s book was born.

Sometimes one’s life purpose comes together, tying life experiences, job training and accidental mishaps. The years of adversity add up to equal a strong backbone for taking on a massive project. A degree in storytelling for business becomes a tool for telling a patient’s story in a vital handbook. Margo, a triumphant survivor, is now a revered teacher and advocate.

www.savvypatienttoolkit.com/

I call her the Speeding Bullet, not because of how she drives her new Prius. Petite, she is constantly on the go and packs a wallop with her intent. Gayle Tuch never takes her eye off the target: environmental rescue. Gayle is my lawyer and inspiration. She is smart, educated, and passionate. She laughs a lot and is dedicated to her friends.

Gayle is married to Steve Tuch, a warm, funny, affable guy. Steve owns Signs Now in Winston-Salem. One night, he let Gayle and her environmental buddies take over the store, making beautiful, professional signs for their Climate Change Rally. Steve endeared himself to me when he did that.

Steve and Gayle are extraordinary as a couple. They adopted 2 beautiful babies, now 7 and 8 years old, from Georgia (the country, not the state.) They ride bicycles and camp as a family and enjoy nature when they can.  Gayle rides a bicycle with the same fierce determination she displays when she fights a case.

Gayle was mentored by her dad, her first law partner. Although her parents are no longer living, Gayle still experiences her dad’s wisdom…a quiet voice in her head. Gayle’s hero is the lawyer who represented Karen Silkwood, Gerry Spence.  Someday, I’m sure I will read about Gayle  in the national news media site for having defended another activist blowing the whistle on an environmental atrocity. In the meantime, Gayle through her work with the Yadkin Riverkeeper,  is excited about bringing Erin Brockovich to Winston-Salem.

Gayle and her loyal friends, Cynthia Silver and Sally Hirsh, organize a monthly “environmental movie night” in Winston-Salem at the local synagogue. At first, only a handful of people came to watch movies on energy efficiency, the American obsession with watered lawns, and the gas-guzzling automobile industry. When  their viewing room became too small, and they moved to the larger Fellowship Hall. Now, crowds numbering 70 and 100 flock to the movies sometimes featuring speakers.  People pour over the information tables, chat with farmers from small, organic and sustainable farms, and discuss the options to living without plastic.

Gayle keeps me busy reading environmental books and loans me movies from her personal collection. Because of her, I fell in love with the No Impact Man and his wonderful wife (www.colinbeavan.com).

Because of her, I joined the Piedmont Environmental Alliance (www.peanc.org) and because of her, my 86 year old mother defiantly confronts retailers regarding their use of plastic bags. Thank you, Speeding Bullet!