Just came across this article from 2008 about the Just The Right Attitude Food Bank.  It is one of my favorites so I thought I would share it.  Here is an excerpt from the article that is available in the Nola.com’s archives…

Woman’s bad times help others

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Sheila Stroup

Just the Right Attitude is more than a food bank in eastern New Orleans.

“Debra South gives out everything from hot meals to hugs,” Ray Reggie said. “She has a personal rapport with everyone. She understands what it means to need help.”

Ray Reggie (now Chairman of the Board of JTRA), managing partner with Premier Promotions, serves on the board of Just the Right Attitude along with Troy Duhon, president of Premier Automotive Group.

In 2002, when the men heard about the little food pantry Debra was operating out of her garage, they decided to offer her a space on the second floor of a car dealership. And Just the Right Attitude began to grow.

“We love her cause,” Ray Reggie said. “Everybody wanted to help.”

— Growing out of need —

The idea for the community resource began a decade ago with a trip Debra made to the food stamp office. She was a mother in her 30s fighting ovarian and thyroid cancer, and she’d had to retire from her accounting job. Her first husband had taken off, and she was surviving on disability checks and help from family and friends.

She didn’t make enough money to feed her son and daughter, but she was rudely told she made too much to qualify for food stamps.

“I felt so humiliated,” she said.

She promised God that if she got better she would find a way to help people who were hungry and struggling.

From that promise, and a few shelves of canned goods, grew a United Way agency that doles out hope and 2.5 million pounds of food a year.

When Ray Reggie asked a man what he’d do without Debra’s food bank, he answered, “I would be hungry.”

— Place to get a hand —

In April, Just the Right Attitude, with the help of Ray Reggie, moved into two buildings next to Toyota of New Orleans on the I-10 Service Road. And since then, Debra has been giving out lots of hot meals, boxes of staples and hugs….

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I think it is good to remind myself why the work I do with JTRA is so important and this does. Have a Blessed day.

–Ray Reggie–

Scrapbook Page 4

One of my favorite things that I have seen of C. C. Beck’s is his personal scrapbook.  It is fun to look through all the pages and see the famous people he knew and read the newspaper articles about him.  A small bit of insight to the actual man, I guess.  Anyways, I have scanned the scrapbook into my computer but since I have a small scanner it is going to take some time and a little help from photoshop to piece it all together.  I will be posting some images from the scrapbook as I go.  Hopefully, you enjoy.

Moseying around the internet I found this nice compilation of interviews with C. C. Beck on Hogan’s Alley.  The interviews were conducted at various times in the 80’s and done by mail and phone.  Interesting to read if you have a minute!  Read more here.

Many people know who C. C. Beck was.  Even more know Captain Marvel and Shazam.  A few might even recognize Fat Man, The Human Flying Saucer.

But what many don’t know is the long list of other creative talents expressed over the years by C. C. Beck.  For example, he was a writer…he was a painter…he built replicas of antique weapons…he built hand-detailed, working dollhouses for his granddaughters…he built a Star Ship Enterprise replica with tiny, working lights.