December 2009 What is Hope? Keeping Lost Art Alive Shock the World Dreaming BIG DREAMS At Home With John and Laura Sanders WAXDec09Covers.inx 51 11/22/09 1:47:34 AM WAXDec09Covers.inx 52 11/23/09 10:55:48 AM 1 www.nowmagazines.com WaxahachieNOW December 2009 WAXDec09p1-5Contents.inx 1 11/19/09 9:11:15 PM 2 www.nowmagazines.com WaxahachieNOW December 2009 WAXDec09p1-5Contents.inx 2 11/19/09 9:15:40 PM Publisher, Connie Poirier Contents General Manager, Rick Hensley December 2009 Volume 6, Issue 12 Editorial Managing Editor, Becky Walker Waxahachie Editor, Sandra Skoda Contributing Writers, Faith Browning . Nancy Fenton Amanda Madden Pitt . Adam Rope Jaime Ruark . Betty Tryon Contributing Editors/Proofreaders, Pat Anthony . Angel Jenkins Morris Melissa Rawlins . Jaime Ruark . Beverly Shay Advertising Art Art Director, Chris McCalla Ad Artists, Julie Carpenter . Allee Brand Cherie Chapman . April Gann Marshall Hinsley . Arlene Honza Editorial Art Creative Director, Jami Navarro Production Artists, Brande Morgan Pamela Parisi . Jennifer Wylie Old-fashioned Christmas charm is found at the home of John and Laura Sanders. Photography Photo Director, Jill Odle 8 What is Hope? 40 EducationNOW Photographers, Natalie Busch Shock the World Terri Ozymy . Ivey Photography 16 A History of Holidays Advertising 42 Who’s CookingNOW At Home With John and Laura Sanders District Sales Manager, Carolyn Mixon Advertising Representatives, 26 Around TownNOW Linda Roberson . Rick Ausmus 44 FinanceNOW Linda Dean . Will Epps Linda Moffett . Steve Randle 30 ArtsNOW Shane Smith . Terri Yates Keep ing Lost Art Alive 46 HealthNOW Billing Billing Manager, Lauren De Los Santos 34 SportsNOW Office Manager, Angela Mixon 48 Dreaming Big Dreams OutdoorsNOW WaxahachieNOW is a Now Magazines, L.L.C. publication. Copyright © 2009. All rights reserved. WaxahachieNOW is published monthly and 38 BusinessNOW individually mailed free of charge to homes and 50 What’s HappeningNOW businesses in the Waxahachie ZIP codes. Exercise — the Best Medicine Subscriptions are available at the rate of $35 per year or $3.50 per issue. Subscriptions should be On the Cover sent to: NOW Magazines, P.O. Box 1071, Waxahachie, TX 75168. For advertising rates or editorial correspondence, call (972) 937-8447 or visit www.nowmagazines.com. The Sanders are ready to serve their Christmas guests with elegance. Photo by Natalie Busch. 3 www.nowmagazines.com WaxahachieNOW December 2009 WAXDec09p1-5Contents.inx 3 11/23/09 2:56:30 PM Editor’s Note Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I have always been a “shaker” when it comes to Christmas presents. I vividly remember unwrapping the gifts hidden under my parents’ bed as a youngster, only to re-wrap and return them exactly as hidden. I know I took the element of surprise out of Christmas morning. I should have learned a lesson, but to this day I still love to shake. I guess the child in me will never grow up. Although gift giving and receiving is wonderful, this year I find myself focusing on something much bigger than the Christmas tree and all the beautifully wrapped presents displayed underneath. I find myself looking forward to Bethlehem Revisited, a live re-enactment of the journey of Joseph and Mary and the birth of Jesus Christ, held behind Central Presbyterian Church on the weekends of December 4th and December 11th. Come experience firsthand the “reason for the season.” Sandra Skoda WaxahachieNOW Editor 4 www.nowmagazines.com WaxahachieNOW December 2009 WAXDec09p1-5Contents.inx 4 11/23/09 8:54:44 PM 5 www.nowmagazines.com WaxahachieNOW December 2009 WAXDec09p1-5Contents.inx 5 11/21/09 5:16:11 PM 6 www.nowmagazines.com WaxahachieNOW December 2009 WAXDec09p1-5Contents.inx 6 11/21/09 5:16:42 PM 7 www.nowmagazines.com WaxahachieNOW December 2009 WAXDec09p1-5Contents.inx 7 11/24/09 2:15:58 PM ? What is Hope — By Sandra Skoda WWhat is hope? To many it is looking forward to something with great expectations, anticipating, trusting and aspiring to make a dream come to fruition. For Dr. Mackie Owens, and others just like her, hope came in the form of a clinic. “I’m only one of many founders,” Mackie humbly stated, as she gave the history of how Hope Clinic first began. “The process of raising funds and making plans started in 1999. We didn’t start seeing patients until January of 2000.” Prior to seeing their first patient, Mackie and a large number of other concerned citizens worked diligently for months to compose a mission statement and meet with area doctors and county officials. “We even went so far as to do a needs assessment within the county,” Mackie said. “It was the assessment that prompted the need for a clinic like Hope Clinic.” The group became known as the Ellis County “It was a God thing Coalition for Health Options (ECCHO). “We started small, but no fewer than 150 got on board,” Mackie remembered, where we were in “and they will always be looked at as the original founders of the clinic. It was, and still is, a grassroots organization.” the right place at As Mackie remembers how it all began, her emotions the right time.” come just as easily as they did nearly 10 years ago. At the time, Mackie was overseeing a program with the Waxahachie Housing Authority. She was meeting people where they WAXDec09p8-15Main.inx 8 11/23/09 11:01:09 AM