Podcast No. 112: Dr. Allison Shipp of Give Back Jack
Giving Tuesday is coming up in just three weeks, and today on our podcast, Kevin Adelsberger introduces us to a way you can get involved in giving back your time, finances, and resources right here in Jackson. Dr. Allison Shipp shares about her movement, Give Back Jack, and how it’s changing the 731 community one project at a time.
Giving Tuesday is coming up on Tuesday, November 27. To learn about how you can get involved in Give Back Jack, visit their Facebook page.
Kevin Adelsberger and his wife Renae moved to Jackson for college (proud Union alumni) and have stayed ever since. Jackson has since taken hold of Kevin’s heart, and he looks forward to continuing to grow with the city. Kevin opened Adelsberger Marketing in 2014 and saw working with Our Jackson Home as a way that he could serve the city he loves. Kevin and Renae are members of First Baptist Church and volunteer with the youth group there and with Madison County CASA.
Production, editing, and photography by Kevin Adelsberger.
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Anybody else out there who can’t believe it’s already November? Don’t worry—you’ve still got a few weeks to prepare yourself for Christmas, but thankfully some holiday cheer is just around the corner, from decking the halls and wrapping gifts to spending time with family enjoying a play, race, or service event. Check out what’s coming up here in Jackson!
It’s a muggy June evening, and a small crowd of about thirty gathers outside the J. R. Hyde Science Building at the University of Memphis at Lambuth. The crowd represents all portraits of life in Jackson: families with multiple small children, retirees, and a small group of teens looking to break the monotony of their typical summer drudgery by doing something singularly unique.
It’s the woman at the bus stop holding a toddler’s hand. It’s the woman using food stamps in front of you at the grocery store. It’s the woman at the soup kitchen who can sing like no one else. These women and their families eat, sleep, and live a few blocks away but their stories are too gruesome to share, and it makes us a little uncomfortable to talk about them, much less look at them, eat with them, or live with them.
We gathered in a living room of earthen walls painted mint green with a dirt floor covered by tarp. Our hostess sat aside from the group on a bench lining one of the walls so that we could all have a seat in a circle of sunk-in couches and ottomans. Alemaz Bola is a mother of five and an entrepreneur. She wore a head wrap striped with the green, yellow, and red of the Ethiopian flag and sat meekly aside as if to stay out of the way, despite the fact that we came to hear her story.
Eggs. Flour. Milk. Sugar. Your basic ingredients for a cupcake. But so much more than that goes into the cupcakes at HaliHannigan’s Café & Cakery. Five years ago a cozy little space in the Columns bedecked in pink and black opened its doors—and its heart—to the Jackson community. Neill and Christi Bartlett, the husband and wife team that co-own HaliHannigan’s (whose name is derived from various parts of the names of their three daughters), were ready for a change.
“We help any person with any disability realize their potential.” Star Center President Dave Bratcher’s summary of the non-profit is simple, but a tour of the facility will quickly show just how far it reaches into the community. Since their start in 1988, they have grown into a thriving center serving a wide range of clientele by listening to the needs of the community.
Two hands carefully hold the wet clay as it spins around and around. They shape it and form it to be beautiful, throwing the clay with force onto the wheel. The clay becomes centered as the hands see that it spins perfectly and smoothly. They begin to open the top—carefully, though, because they know if it isn't done correctly, they will have to start the process over again. From there they form the base, they thin and raise the walls, they go through each step with love.
What’s better than finding an amazing deal on the perfect pair of jeans? Knowing that the money is going to a wonderful cause. That’s what you get at the RIFA Thrift Store! RIFA has had a presence in Jackson since 1976, when a group of local churches and community leaders decided to do something about the growing poverty levels in the city. The Thrift Store is one of the many ways that RIFA helps the people of Jackson, and it is open to the general public.
Christmas was a big deal at my house. Throughout December, every radio (one in each room) was tuned to the same station, promising no escape from that beautiful—though maddening, for some—collection of classic standards and contemporary holiday tunes. That little kid, still roaming the corridors of my psyche, remembers Dad sitting next to the radio, waiting patiently to hear each of his perennial favorites, while Mom baked cookies destined to be set upon festive red and green trays.
HaliHannigan’s Cupcakery opened in November 2010 and has quickly become a Jackson staple. I still remember when it opened on Vann Drive, and I even remember the first cupcake I tried there. It was a Strawberry Pucker, and it was absolutely fantastic! Now they have even more flavors and a variety of bakery items sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.
Jackson non-profit Area Relief Ministries (ARM) hosted their annual Salt & Light Banquet Thursday evening (August 20th) at the Civic Center. Members of the Hub Club choir kicked off the event, and then ARM helped educate the audience to display the wide variety of ministries they oversee including Room in the Inn, freshSTART, and Hub Club. These ministries have goals such as giving youth alternatives to the gang lifestyle and creating jobs for those who may not easily find one elsewhere