Martin Luther King Day of Service in Tucker

Volunteers needed on MLK Day at Tucker Nature Preserve.

Several events are happening in Tucker on Monday, Jan. 21, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The first of these is a project of Friends of Tucker Nature Preserve, which is collaborating with Trees Atlanta to plant 150 new saplings along the Lawrenceville Highway corridor to help block noise pollution. Volunteers are asked to bring shovels, pitchforks, work gloves, tarps, and wheel barrows in order to plant small flowering trees, shrubs, and native hardwoods along the street. There will also be mulching, and the plan is to work from 9:30 a.m. until noon. Northlake's Panera Bread is supplying bagels and cream cheese, and there will be coffee and water available as well. Please park at WalMart across the street and cross at the …

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Johns' Homestead 'Give-An-Hour' on Saturday

Volunteers are needed for this workday, beginning at 9 a.m.

This Saturday, Nov. 17, from 9 a.m. until noon, there will be a 'Give-An-Hour' workday at Johns' Homestead Nature Preserve Park to help revitalize the home and surrounding property. The address is 3071 Lawrenceville Highway in Tucker, near the Rehoboth Baptist Church, where parking is available. This clean-up is a joint venture between Friends of Johns' Homestead, DeKalb County, Tucker Civic Association, and the Tucker Historical Society. This will be the first of many workdays to help restore the 50-acre nature preserve area and the homestead itself. Bring your hammers, work gloves and prybars to work on the house, and your shovels, rakes and hedge shears for landscaping. Please wear closed-toed shoes, long-sleeves and pants. Bottled …

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Tucker Volunteers Help Sandy Victims

Locals gather to send food, generators, and chainsaws to New Jersey.

In an urgent push to help victims of Hurricane Sandy, more than 100 people worked Thursday night at a storehouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tucker to fill humanitarian relief boxes headed to frontline responders in New Jersey. Volunteers, a group that included local teenagers, teachers and members of the Church, worked quickly to fill more than 1200 boxes of food. This, in addition to an earlier shipment Thursday morning, filled with food, generators, and chainsaws headed for Emerson, New Jersey, is just part of a large effort on behalf of the Church to bring aid to the region hit so hard by Hurricane Sandy. The Tucker location is one of 129 church-owned storehouses in and out of the United States that is used to…

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Viewfinder: Cleaning Up After Hurricane Isaac

Locals church members went to Louisiana to help with Hurricane Isaac clean-up.

Members from congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, including Tucker, traveled to LaPlace, Louisiana over the weekend to assist with Hurricane Isaac clean-up as part of the church’s Helping Hands program. The program was established in 1998 to help people whose lives have been affected by natural disasters and other emergencies. Volunteers traveled to the area with chain saws, hammers, crowbars, utility knives, brooms and rakes as well as their own food, water, work clothes, sleeping bags and tents. They were instructed to report to the LaPlace church to help with flood-damaged houses in nearby St. John the Baptist’s Parish. Members from Atlanta began arriving late Friday and by 8 a.m. Saturday morning were …

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Volunteers Needed at PetSmart

Local store seeking animal lovers to help out with cats.

The PetSmart on LaVista Road in Tucker is looking for volunteers who are aged 16 and older to socialize with cats and clean their cages. Duties include providing fresh food and water, and cleaning litter boxes, as well as speaking with the public about Furkids and the cats at the store. Hours are flexible. This is a great family event that will provide hours of fun, according to the Volunteer Match website. More details are available here.  

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Talking Tucker

Great American Clean Up, Tucker Style

It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a plan, energetic volunteers, and some wheel barrows.

The day flowed like a winding creek familiar with its own twists and turns. We’re old pros now, all in our work gloves, long pants, and sun screen. Over fifty volunteers, shovels and pitch forks in hand, marched down the newly blazed walking trail at the Tucker Nature Preserve. Our mission? Clear the outdoor classroom area, cut a fallen log into seats for the kids, and remove invasive plants. Tucker Civic Association has sponsored the Great American Clean Up for the past two years, hoping to make it an annual tradition. “The toughest job is definitely the invasive plant removal,” explains Beth White, co-chair of Tucker Civic Association’s Parks and Green Space committee. “Many native trees at the Preserve are covered in English Ivy and …

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Last Chance: Register for Great DeKalb Cleanup

The event happens on April 28, but you need to register for it by Friday afternoon.

Registration runs out tomorrow, Friday, April 6 at 4 p.m. to take part in the latest Great DeKalb Cleanup. "Volunteers can help beautify DeKalb County by cleaning up streets, waterways, school yards, and other public spaces. On Saturday, April 28th, 2012, from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., groups are asked to host community clean ups and beautification projects around the county. If weather is inclement, participants may reschedule their events at their discretions," says the website of Keep DeKalb Beautiful. Forms are available here KDB will provide garbage and refuse bags, plastic gloves, pick-up sticks, safety vests, and t-shirts.   Last year, the organization removed 24,000 pounds of litter from 123 miles of DeKalb County roadways, with the help of…

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Tucker Youth Feed 60,000 Children in Five Days

TFUMC's VBS children worked with Stop Hunger Now for their summer mission project.

Last week, during their summer Vacation Bible School program at Tucker First United Methodist Church, a group of 200 pre-K through 6th graders accomplished quite a feat. They, along with over 90 youth and adult helpers, packaged 10,000 meals for Stop Hunger Now. Each meal feeds six people, so in the course of five summer mornings, they provided food for 60,000 people in third-world countries.  The food packages, which consist of soy protein, dehydrated vegetables, rice, and a vitamin/mineral supplement, were made assembly-line fashion. Groups of five or six children with a helper gathered around a funnel with food bags and bulk bins of the ingredients. Hairnets were donned and hands were sanitized, and then bags were packed. While the goal…

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Lisa Kuebler

12:24 am on Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I need to make a quick correction. I misunderstood the actual number of meals the children packaged. They actually packaged 1,667 bags, which fed 10,000 people. Still amazing, and I'm sorry for the confusion!   more ›

Tucker Youth Fixing Houses for Those in Need

TIME is a nonprofit home repair outreach mission run by local youth and adults.

Summer is a time for many youth to spend lazy days poolside or in the company of friends, or perhaps for the teen crowd, a summer job keeps them busy. But many kids take advantage of the time off from school to dedicate their time and talents into helping others. TIME (The Tucker Interfaith Mission Experience) is one such group. Since 2007, this youth-driven project, organized by Tucker First United Methodist Church, has been helping qualifying Tucker area residents to re-roof their homes. Last week, between June 17 and 22, 55 youth plus many adult volunteers worked together to put new roofs on four houses in the Tucker community.  TIME is a nonprofit home repair outreach mission run by local youth and adults.  Every summer, they give a …

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AARP Tax Aide Service Continues, Free of Charge

A chat with Helen Lowenthal, district coordinator of AARP Tax Aide.

The AARP Tax Aide volunteering effort is in full swing. I had a chance to write about this service to Tucker residents in an earlier article. These intrepid volunteer tax preparers can be found at the Northlake Branch of the DeKalb Public Library every Monday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. until April 18th. Helen Lowenthal, Tax Aide district coordinator for DeKalb County advises people to not wait that long – March is the least busy month with the shortest wait. Today, I have a chance to document a conversation with Lowenthal as she delves further into the process and recommends folks to take advantage of the March lull to get their finances in order. Lowenthal and other volunteers hope that revisiting this story might motivate people…

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