Author: Shea O'Rourke

Last year, the Food Bank spent National Hunger Awareness Day serving ice cream to its member agencies, volunteers, and community leaders. This year, organizers wanted to try something a little bit different: an interfaith service at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church.

“We have just about every faith or denomination that you can think of [here], and everyone’s been so kind,” said Alisha Tillery, the Food Bank’s communication manager. “This is an event that we’ve always wanted to do. On top of that, a lot of our agencies are ministries or faith-based organizations.”

About 126,000 adults and 51,000 children in Tennessee live with pervasive hunger, including more than 16 percent of the people in Shelby County. The Food Bank coordinates food collection and distribution for its volunteer agencies, providing about 20,000 people in 32 counties around the Mid-South with food each week. Eighty-three percent of food pantries, 66 percent of soup kitchens, and 41 percent of shelters in the Mid-South are run by faith-based agencies.

The church service, which featured community faith leaders as speakers, was also a forum for the results of the Food Bank’s new four-year study on hunger in the Mid-South. According to the findings, about 74,000 individuals a year receive food through one of the Food Bank’s member agencies, and 12,400 people each week depend on the organization for their next meal. About 32 percent of the households served include children, and about 70 percent are African American.

“Hopefully, after they get the survey results and get some information, people will be encouraged to help, whether it’s volunteering or donating money or having their own food drive,” said Tillery. “This is to let people know that we do more than give out food. There’s a real purpose and a real cause behind it.”

When items are donated to the Food Bank, the organization’s workers inspect it, sort it into two warehouses, and deliver it to member agencies.

“While it’s a wonderful thing that at Thanksgiving and Christmas we’re bombarded with food donations, hunger is an everyday thing,” said Tillery. “Hunger is not a cause but a symptom of a lot of things, such as homelessness or job loss or illness. You never know when those things will come your way. We want to keep our agencies supplied.”

Memphis rocker Arthur Lee has something new to sing about. Two weeks ago Lee, 61, became the first adult in Tennessee to receive a bone-marrow transplant using stem cells extracted from an umbilical cord.

After being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, Lee was treated with three rounds of chemotherapy. When that didn’t work, his doctors began looking for an adult stem-cell donor, who is most often a sibling. But Lee is an only child, and no one in the registry of volunteer donors was a close enough match.

Instead, doctors found a suitable stem-cell match in an umbilical-cord blood bank. Prior to Lee’s surgery, the only cord-cell transplants in Tennessee had been done in children. The Flyer talked with Lee’s doctor, Rajneesh Nath, to find out why.

— By Shea O’Rourke

Flyer: Why hasn’t this type of surgery been performed on an adult?

Nath: Cord-cell transplants have been done for quite a while in children. Generally, you need a specific number of cells to do this kind of transplant. With cord blood, what is stored is stored. You have to take what there is, in contrast to a volunteer donor where you can go and collect as many cells as you want over a few days’ period.

Children need fewer cells compared to adults. Because of this, there was a lot of reluctance in the past to do the procedure in an adult, but now it has been seen to work in adults sometimes. If we reach a target number of cells, cord blood can be used as an alternative to a volunteer donor. It’s an advantage that you can get them whenever you need them.

What’s Lee’s prognosis?

Because of his disease, at the most he has about a 20 percent chance of a cure, versus no chance without the transplant. There are two aspects: number one, whether the transplant has been successful or not, and we’ll know within 45 days or so. The second aspect is whether we’re able to eradicate the cancer or not. We would need to follow him for about two years to know that.

What’s the difference between umbilical- cord stem cells and the more controversial embryonic stem cells?

The general feeling is that [umbilical-cord stem cells are] not going to be as useful or as advantageous as embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells have a lot of potential, like making totally different, new organs, whether it’s liver or the cord or whatever. Cord-blood stem cells have been used for — and are known only to produce — bone-marrow cells.

Is there any controversy surrounding umbilical stem cells?

No. The reason they are not controversial is that we are not using an embryo — that’s where the controversy is. Basically, when you cut the umbilical cord, the portion that is away from the baby is attached to the placenta, and whatever blood is available in that cord is generally otherwise thrown [away]. That blood is used for the transplant.

What’s the future of umbilical-cord cell transplants?

I think these transplants are going to be increasing over time, because we do not need that stringent degree of a match, and more and more cord-blood stem cells are being stored. Currently, only a few hundred thousand are being stored, while we have about 10 million volunteer donors worldwide. As the number of cord-blood donors increases, I think we will have a donor for everyone who needs a transplant.

In the era of American Idol and other TV talent competitions like America’s Next Top Model and Top Chef, dreams of becoming a pop-culture icon — or just being on television — have become much more tangible.

To fulfill those dreams, an increasing number of people — especially young people — have started taking voice lessons in hopes of being the next Taylor Hicks, this year’s American Idol winner.

“When I get calls, they are 90 percent of the time related to American Idol,” says Charlotte Wilson, a voice coach who has taught in Memphis for 30 years. “American Idol has given a dream to a lot of people to expand their talents and to actually want to be a star. … That show has been the impetus for that.”

Like Wilson, vocal coach Bob Westbrook has recently had many students who want to audition for Idol.

“There is a greater interest from shower singers and those who have never had solo lessons before wanting to work on their voices to audition for American Idol,” says Westbrook, a Memphian who has been teaching people to belt like Aretha since 1967. “That’s a fact.”

Westbrook has a strong track record. In addition to molding several Miss America contestants, he trained former ‘N Sync-ers Lance Bass and Justin Timberlake, as well as Britney Spears. Since Idol began, Westbrook has noticed a shift in the type of material that his students want to sing.

“The desire to learn the pop and the retro … has increased since American Idol started,” Westbrook says.

Wilson has seen the same trend. “A lot of times in the past you’d get people that want to do Broadway and theater, and now they want to sing things that are marketable. And everybody wants to make their own CD.”

While there’s no way to prove that the increase in people seeking voice lessons is a direct result of the Simon Cowell scowl, there’s no denying the impact of the show.

“On any given day, it’s totally just in the hands of who’s judging or how they feel that day. It doesn’t diminish their talent,” says Wilson, adding that some kids are more suited to the Idol dream than others. “It’s good in that it gives people a reason to work hard. It’s bad if they’re not being realistic about it.

“I’m very honest with people when they come to me, in a real sweet, tactful way,” she continues. “But I never squelch a dream, because I’ve seen people transform incredibly.”

Rarely do pyromaniacal tendencies turn into something productive. But when Margaret Zinser (shown right) started blowing glass beads in 2001, she was instantly hooked.

“As is often the case, a hobby turned into a complete and total obsession,” says Zinser, a vendor at this month’s three-day Bead Fest at the Cook Convention Center.

Yes, Bead Fest: “A weekend full of bead classes, bead-making, and shopping for bead supplies and equipment.”

Since 2002, Bead Fest has traveled to Atlanta, Philadelphia, and now Memphis. Though this is the event’s first year here, Bead Fest saw a turnout of about 600 people, each of whom paid $8 for admission and about 50 cents to $20 per bead.

“We sell a lot of beads and wire and jewelry and sparkly things,” says Karen Keegan, who produced the event on behalf of www.stepbystepbeads.com and Lapidary Journal magazine. “We’ve seen everything from beginning beaders to advanced beaders.”

At Bead Fest, the kid-in-the-candy-store factor soon kicks in.

“You can see that they look at something and go ‘Wow!’ because they get an idea,” vendor Dianne Upshaw says of her shoppers.

Beads of all shapes and sizes, both handcrafted and mass-produced, in silver, wire, glass, and wood, were displayed at more than 50 booths. And if that didn’t suffice, there were also 53 classes on various aspects of beadmaking.

According to Joseph Breck, Lapidary Journal‘s publisher, there are currently about 2,200 bead shops and 750,000 beaders in the United States. Most beaders are suburban, Caucasian women around age 55 who simply want a hobby, Breck says.

They make something pretty, explains Breck. They like it, and then their friends like it too.

“They all say, ‘Ooh, make me one!'” says Breck.

For many beaders, the hobby soon explodes into an all-out business — the more they sell, the more they invest. Typically, beaders spend $400 to $1,000 a year on the craft. But beading doesn’t have to be expensive, and for Zinser, that’s the beauty of it.

“It’s art that becomes affordable — it becomes accessible, it becomes portable,” says Zinser, who abandoned her pending master’s degree in entomology to make the beads she loves, including ones shaped like scarab beetles. Now the Arizona resident travels to shows across the country about 20 times a year.

Bead Fest organizers plan to return to Memphis next year, and that’s good news for people like Holly Covett, event manager of the downtown Marriott. While checking out the event, Covett was quickly captivated. An hour later, she was sitting at a table with 12 pairs of earrings-in-progress.

“I think that this is an excellent hobby,” says Covett. “It’s something you can easily pick up, and it’s so instantly gratifying. It’s like shopping for shoes — it always fits!”