Doing Good on Donald Street
It took just a few blocks on Donald Street to turn a tough afternoon around.
At the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepard, Louis Payne gives out hotdogs and bottles of water every Monday and today he went over 19,000 (19,075) hotdogs served. He will give away 20,000 by his 5th anniversary on Aug. 6 when he will serve chili with the dogs and give out cupcakes made by a supporter.
A tennis instructor who gives free lessons and also waits tables at Five, Payne feeds neighbors, policemen, garbagemen, road crews, the mailman and anyone else who stops by on Payne’s day off.
"When the weather is good, the community knows to find me here. We just sit under the trees and talk. A free hotdog matters to a lot of people."
Down the street, students make one of their last walks home before LeFlore High School gets out for the summer. They pass houses with political signs, rose bushes and a prickly pear cactus with yellow blooms. Sidewalks curve around oak trees and Church of the Redeemer church with "He is Risen" painted over the door. Younger kids pedal a purple big wheel in a driveway and hold a basketball and a stuffed pink unicorn while talking and kicking rocks at the corner.
Michael A. Figures Community Center is at the heart of the neighborhood with a pool, tennis courts and baseball fields. Mr. Woody, a student mentor, helps run the center and offered to buy me a Coke and candy bar when I walked in.
It is also where Joanna Gomes is fulfilling her calling to teach math classes that provide academic help for "Adults Learning New Math" so tutors can teach kids. After receiving many no's for a location, a community center said yes, and she is now teaching in three centers. This summer she will also teach a class that makes reading, math, and science fun for kids.
A stay-at-home mother of four who has a master’s degree in adult education, Gomes is the kind of mama who fills every day of summer with something fun and educational and includes friends and neighbors. She tears up saying she wants to do something "real with her life and make someone else's life better." Her dream is to help Alabama rise above 49th place, "even if it is just to 48th."
"We can all talk about how Mobile can be better, but we can't be all talk and no action," she says. "There is so much potential in these community centers. It is an easy place for non-profits to get involved."
"I don't think we appreciate what we have with our community centers. Did you know we have 12 of them? I want to encourage other do-gooders to get involved at a center, even if it is just for an hour a week. These kids need people to love, teach, and spoil them a little bit."
Around the corner from the Figures Center, a church marquee says "Live Like Someone Loves you."
On Donald Street, people are living like they love someone.
This kind of love should be happening on every street in Mobile.
