Author: Chris Shaw

Tying a knot around a loose tooth can now help feed the homeless.

When 7-year-old Henning Washington saw the same homeless man begging for food every day on the way to school in East Memphis, he asked his mom Carina if they could start bringing him breakfast.

But while Carina and Henning had the best intentions in mind, the morning rush often led to them forgetting the food. After passing by the man without food one too many times, they devised a plan.

“Henning decided he wanted to raise $20,000 to help feed the homeless,” Carina said. “I asked him how he planned to get that kind of money, and he said he would start donating the money the tooth fairy gave him.”

The Tooth Fairy Project was born. Henning’s peers at Shady Grove Presbyterian Church and the Campus Elementary School donated their tooth-fairy money.

Eventually, the project was incorporated into one of the many charities championed by the Hospitality Hub.

Kelcey Johnson, associate director of the Hospitality Hub, said this is the first time the Hub has worked with a charity started by someone so young.

“Of course, this is the first time we’ve worked with a charity sponsored by a child, but Henning isn’t your average 7-year-old,” Johnson said. “His dad is a professor at the University of Memphis, so Henning is exposed to a lot of different things most 7-year-olds aren’t.”

Still, Carina said she is amazed at her son’s willingness to donate his money.

“This is the first money Henning has ever earned. He doesn’t get an allowance or money for his birthday or Christmas. I think we can learn a lot from his sacrifice,” Carina said.

While linking the Tooth Fairy Project with the Hospitality Hub will gain attention from the greater community, it won’t immediately get food to the homeless. The Hospitality Hub does not provide food directly but rather works on helping their clients out of homelessness for good.

“When someone calls and asks if they can donate food to us, I say, ‘No, but I’ve got a group of guys who need a job unloading your food truck,'” Johnson said. “On Thanksgiving, there are 10 different places where you can go and get turkey and dressing, but after that, you still have no place to sleep. Our goal is to wrap people up in resources so they can be off the street and on their feet.”

When asked if he thought the tooth fairy minds that he’s giving her money away, Henning quickly replied with a smile: “I don’t think the tooth fairy minds. Maybe she can tell the tooth fairy that visits the homeless people about it too.”

Those interested in donating to the Tooth Fairy Project don’t have to wait for their teeth to fall out. To participate, visit thetoothfairyproject.org for more information.

Name a soul or R&B artist from the past 30-plus years, and photographer Jerome Ewing probably has a photo of them in his collection.

Ewing recently opened a new photo gallery on South Main, appropriately named the Ewing Entertainment Museum, to showcase his numerous celebrity photographs. The venue also features a photography studio and movie rental business.

A native of Chicago, Ewing moved to Memphis in 1977 to play baseball at LeMoyne-Owen College. It was there he decided to enroll in a photography class.

“I was on my way to school, and I heard on the radio that Prince was in concert at the Coliseum. Something just snapped in me,” Ewing said. “I turned my car around and drove to the Coliseum. I took my camera and walked in with the people setting up the stage.”

After taking photos of Prince backstage, Ewing met concert promoter Odell Tidwell and convinced him to supply backstage passes to local concerts. During that time, Ewing shot the likes of the Commodores, the Bar-Kays, and Curtis Blow.

In 1985, Ewing moved to Atlanta, where he was a FedEx delivery driver by day and a freelance photographer at night. Ewing recalled reluctantly taking an overtime shift that led to a major career change.

“One day I decided to pick up a shift, and I noticed one of the packages I had to deliver was to Motown [Records’ Atlanta office],” Ewing said. “I delivered that package last and told the lady at the front desk I took pictures of performers in Memphis. She said she wanted to see them, so I went home and got my pictures. She offered me a job taking photos of Smokey Robinson the following week.”

At Motown, Ewing’s career took off. He took photos of superstars like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Bobby Brown. Although Ewing was taking photos of some of the biggest musical acts in the country, he seldom got to choose which photos were published or even keep his photos. Ewing said it was common practice for magazines like Ebony and Jet to make their photographers sign over the rights to photos before they were developed, often giving no credit to the photographer.

“A lot of the time I had no say in what was being published, so I decided to start sneaking in a personal second camera. A lot of my photos for the museum come from there,” Ewing said.

With over 2,000 photos in his portfolio, Ewing said it’s been a long process deciding which photographs to feature in his gallery, because each one tells a different story.

“I need to tell this story because nobody knows it like me. There are thousands of pictures with thousands of stories to tell,” Ewing said.

The Ewing Entertainment Museum, 304 S. Main, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Patrons can peruse Ewing’s work or rent classic movies on VHS and DVD. The museum space is also available to book for special events, such as weddings or receptions.

There will be no spilled milk in the upcoming demolition of the former Midwest Dairy plant on South Bellevue.

That’s because the South Memphis Alliance, which is redeveloping the site, will donate the enormous milk bottle that sits atop the dairy to the Children’s Museum of Memphis (CMOM).

The abandoned dairy plant, which has gone through many ownership changes since it opened in 1930, will be demolished under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 3, a grant-funded program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The program aims to reverse disinvestment in communities most impacted by foreclosure. In addition to the South Memphis Soulsville neighborhood where the dairy plant is located, Frayser, Binghampton, Vance Avenue Choice Neighborhood, and Glenview/Orange Mound are also being targeted by the Neighborhood Stabilization Program for future demolition and community development.

Dick Hackett, CEO of CMOM, first noticed the giant milk bottle as a child when making trips to visit family in the Soulsville area. Standing over three stories tall and weighing more than five tons, the structure is one of 22 in existence in the United States and currently the largest milk bottle in the world. As plans to demolish the historic dairy plant circulated, Hackett’s interest in the milk bottle grew.

“I’ve kept an eye on it over the past five years, knowing that at some point that building had to be renovated or removed,” Hackett said.

“I got a call from the [South Memphis Alliance], and we jumped at the opportunity to have the world’s largest milk bottle at our museum. To us, it represents a large part of the American dream. A lot of immigrants came to the United States and had the dairy industry as part of their livelihood. Turner Dairy also bought the plant at one point and is still located in Memphis, so that’s another tie.”

South Memphis Alliance’s development manager, Shelley Thomas, said she is excited to work with Hackett and the museum.

“I love how CMOM incorporates things that are relevant to the area, and obviously milk is very important to the health of a child,” Thomas said.

After the dairy plant is demolished, the South Memphis Alliance will build a children’s center with programs aimed at helping foster children and local families. Fund-raising for the children’s center has yet to begin.

While Hackett estimates that it will take a few weeks to renovate the milk bottle, plans for incorporating it into the museum are already under way. One plan includes building a barn-like outdoor classroom with the milk jug serving as a centerpiece as well as a functioning space for exhibits.

“There’s a little bit of clean-up that needs to be done to the exterior, and then we will bring it to the site and set it up,” Hackett said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to add concrete walls and have some sort of door or entrance from an outdoor classroom into the bottle. We’re also hoping to have space for some kind of exhibit unique to the milk bottle.”

In an effort to reduce high euthanasia rates at area animal shelters, the Humane Society of Memphis & Shelby County is raising money for a mobile spay and neuter clinic capable of fast and efficient sterilization at little to no cost for the pet owner. 

Approximately 17,000 animals are euthanized annually in Memphis and Shelby County, a number that Alexis Amorose, the executive director of the local Humane Society, hopes will decrease when the mobile clinic is up and running.

“By reducing the obstacles and the reasons why people don’t spay and neuter their pets, the more inclined people will be to participate,” Amorose said.

The mobile spay and neuter unit will primarily target low-income areas of the city, where obstacles such as lack of transportation and financial hardship prevent pet owners from sterilizing their animals. The cost of services is yet to be determined, but Amorose anticipates it will fall somewhere between $20 and $30.

While mobile sterilization units operate in other cities, this will be the first vehicle of its kind in Tennessee. After receiving a $150,000 start-up donation from Humane Society board member Allen Iskiwitz and his wife Kay, Amorose kicked off a fund-raising campaign for a mobile clinic.

The goal of $1 million will cover the purchase and maintenance of the unit, as well as all costs to operate the vehicle for five years. The mobile spay and neuter clinic will cost approximately $1,000 a day to run.

“You have to figure that a generator for the unit will be running all day. Then there are costs for the oxygen and the anesthesia gas,” Amorose said. “We also have to pay the veterinarians, the assistants, the gas costs, and all other supplies.”

Ideally, the mobile clinic will be at a given location for four days at a time, 10 hours a day. It would operate 40 weeks a year, performing around 5,000 sterilizations annually. Amorose said it’s possible for an unsterilized dog to be responsible for 5,000 puppies in a five-year period, assuming that her puppies also remained unsterilized and have offspring of their own.

In July, the Humane Society rescued Lady, a Beale Street stray, and her nine puppies. Lady had escaped capture for months, but Humane Society volunteers noticed that she was often pregnant.

“Lady the Beale Street Dog had 30 puppies in a year, and we have no idea how many babies her babies produced,” Amorose said. “If she kept up that pattern, she would have 150 dogs in a five-year period, and that’s just one dog.”

Kerry Sneed, the Humane Society’s community outreach and humane education manager, said she sees the mobile spay and neuter clinic as a potential break for local taxpayers.

“It’s tax dollars that euthanized those 17,000 animals last year,” Sneed said. “It was tax dollars that helped pick them up, house them, and feed them for 72 hours while we were waiting on their owners to pick them up. Even if you’re not all about animal welfare, you can certainly see the benefit for the taxpayer of having fewer animals on the street.”