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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
I met some beautiful people Wednesday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vino Wong/AJC
AJC Gwinnett News columnist Rick Badie reports from the road. His inaugural stop was the Snellville Recycling Center on Wednesday, Oct. 18. Resident Joan Auld, with daughter Mary Grace, spoke with Badie about multi-racial adoption and home schooling. • Photos
It pays to be humble, to expect nothing.
This way, when something does come your way, the dividends feel better, the rewards taste sweeter.
The unexpected can be most anything. A batch of home-made cookies. A cooing baby. A firm handshake, smile, nod or pat on the back.
Even the most modest of columnists want to be acknowledged for their work. It’s a sign that, even though readers don’t always agree (who does?), they appreciate the writer’s conviction and stand taken.
I got a taste of that appreciation Wednesday at the Snellville Recycling Center. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Of all the places to visit, I chose the seven-acre, $1.8 million facility behind the Elizabeth Williams Library. It opened Feb. 2005, replacing a complex that had been located in the corner of the park.
On Tuesday, I announced plans to get off the phone and out of the office, to press flesh and converse with folk who define Gwinnett. It’s called the Badie Tour, and it takes place on Wednesdays.
So there I was Wednesday, hanging out with Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer, who, along with Gaye Johnson, the town’s director of Public Works, gave me a tour of the facility. There I was, too, wondering if anybody would show up to shake my hand or give me a piece of their mind.
By lunchtime, though, one thing was obvious: When people sense you’re doing your best, that you’re in it for the greater good, they respond with gratitude. It doesn’t matter if it’s a recycling center or a 600-word column.
I met some beautiful people Wednesday. Joan Auld dropped by the office of the recycling center with her precocious 22-month-old daughter, Mary Grace. Jill Cunico of Snellville brought her 80-year-old mother, Shirley Jones, of Norcross, to say hello.
And James Magill, stopped by to pitch an idea for educating teens about drunk driving. His son, Chris Magill, a Gwinnett police officer, was killed by a drunk driver in 1993.
Other kind-hearted AJC Gwinnett News readers took time out of their day to stick their heads in and say hello, even if they didn’t stay.
One woman, whose name I didn’t get, dropped off a batch of cookies. They lasted about five minutes after I returned to the AJC Gwinnett News office in Norcross. So it pays to do something right, and in the end, I realized the Snellville Recycling Center was as good of a place as any to start the Badie tour. It’s where the people of Snellville and the county meet for the same reason.
It’s a state-of-the-art facility, right down to the office. There, the carpet is made of recycled milk bottles and other plastics. The walls are insulated with newspapers and phone books. Even the dry-wall has been recycled.
Officials from other states have visited the center, which last year took in 3,447 tons of recyclables. And it’s a finalist for the 2007 Trendsetter Award, a service award given by the Georgia Municipal Association.
What’s important, though, is what the residents think, and based on e-mails and comments I got from residents making drop-offs Wednesday, they’re pleased.
“Excellent choice for your first out of office visit in Gwinnett,” wrote Floyd Akridge in an e-mail. “The recycling center is a great example of how to do it right. “It’s hard to believe that government did it.”
See, it pays to do things properly. Folk respond.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875. Or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
