by Donna Reames Rich
USA

Dec. 19 - In this season of giving, it seems appropriate to run an article we published earlier this year about a woman who chose to give in a very personal way. Because of who she is, when Donna Rich moved to a small Southern town that was clearly dying of neglect, she became determined to make a difference. - Ed.

•The dilapidated pizza parlor that might one day be the site of a Youth Club. Photograph by Lynda Rockel •

Turn right onto Pecan Street, and you’re greeted by the old pizza parlor - but there’s nothing appetizing about it now. Low-slung, graying, with graffiti wildly blaring from the side facing the road, the building is as forlorn as the rest of this once-exclusive neighborhood. Metal rods and broken appliance parts jut out from windows that have no panes. Somebody’s pale blue recliner sits out front, the footrest permanently extended, victim to rusty innards that won’t permit retreat. Ease off Pecan onto Birch Circle - only locals know that it’s Birch. Some kid spray-painted the “r” and replaced it with a lopsided “t”. You get the picture.

This place is a forgotten orphan, with no one to care enough to keep it up, keep it nice, keep it clean.