Story by Ray Westbrook/Photos by John A. Bowersmith

In the realm of adventure, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn would have nothing to boast about in the presence of Sue Ellen Haning and Jenny Cudd.

The mother-daughter travelers - one 56 and the other 21 - each stuffed a 20-pound backpack with all the belongings they would need for three months of hiking in Italy, and took along only a moderate amount of cash with no credit cards.

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"I understand hardship a little bit more now, because every day of that trip I had no idea where I was going to be sleeping that night," Sue Ellen recalls.

Story by Julia Childs / Photo by Pamra Culp

“On December 11, 2007, at the age of 29, I became the first woman in my family to ever be diagnosed with breast cancer.  I was also 8 ½ months pregnant with my second child.” 

This is the way Christie Devitt begins her introduction when she speaks to groups about her family’s healing journey and as member of the sisterhood of breast cancer survivors.

She is the chairwoman for Komen’s Speaker’s Bureau and volunteers for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In addition, Christie is involved with Aldersgate Church and co-captain for Legacy Makers 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk Team and district manager for Junior Achievement of West Texas.

By Julia Childs

“I have enjoyed photography since I was a little girl,” says Pamra Culp.   “I used to get teased about carrying my camera with me everywhere I went.” In 2003, Pamra decided to turn her lifelong passion into a career and started her own business, Rolls of Fun Photography. “I have been very blessed, not only with a successful business but also in being able to help my clients preserve lifetime memories.”   Pamra has never considered her profession as job; it has been more like a calling and one she shares through her lens.

This same drive and determination carries over into her work with Children’s Miracle Network, cancer research and the March of Dimes. Pamra says she has been touched by CMN and the devastating effects of cancer.

 “Anything we can do to give back to the courageous men, women and children that fight the brave fight daily deserves our utmost attention.” As Pamra smiles, she adds, “I guess it is obvious what I’m passionate about.”

Valerie Hlavaty has always loved fashion and drawing, and she has taken on the task of teaching that love to Texas Tech students in the nutrition, hospitality and retailing department of the College of Human Sciences.

“When I was in high school, I had a student teacher that was majoring in fashion design, and I decided that’s what I was going to do,” Hlavaty said.

As a Tech student, Hlavaty interned at Hemphill Wells, a department store that used to exist in downtown Lubbock. At first, she drew ads for the newspaper, but eventually her internship turned into a full-time job, and she worked her way to becoming fashion coordinator and advertising artist.

After starting her family, Hlavaty went to work part time as the special-event coordinator at Skibell’s, a women’s clothier, and freelanced fashion shows for Skibell’s and South Plains Mall.

“I had said in college, ‘I will never marry a farmer and stay in Lubbock.’ I let God lead me and I stayed in Lubbock and married a very handsome farmer. Never say ‘never!’ I was very blessed to marry Doug Hlavaty and stay in this awesome city.”

Hlavaty is the mother of three grown children.

Paulette is my Shero because she creates a supportive, even loving, atmosphere for patients at the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, many of whom lack health insurance. After sending a nurse to "hold my hand" during my IUD placement, she distracted my boyfriend (who’d paled two shades in the waiting room) with a guided tour.  
~Nominated by Joia Wood, Charlottesville , Va.
 
Spurred by the growing need for women’s health services, Paulette launched a $4.6 million campaign for VLPP’s new facility, opened last month at 201 N. Hamilton. “Access to affordable family planning often means, quite literally, the difference between a woman finishing college or not,” Paulette, VLPP’s President and CEO, notes.  On weekends she hits the Goochland countryside with her horse, Splash.

 

Taylor Waltmon is the No. 1 salesperson in the history of mARK, a division of Avon that markets fashions and cosmetics to 18- to 24-year-olds.

No. 1 at age 21 – and while she’s a college student, too. She plans to graduate from Texas Tech in December with an advertising degree.

For the past two and a half years, Waltmon has been using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to drive people to her e-boutique, creating clients and networks around the country. She has even sold a complete look, from dresses to makeup and accessories, to her entire sorority – a $9,900 sale that took her to the top sales spot in the 6-year-old brand.

Because of her sales success, Taylor got to do an internship with mARK in New York City, and she’s one of eight sales reps who will appear in national TV ads for mARK beginning this month.

Remember Shelby Knox? She led Lubbock’s Youth Commission as it pushed for comprehensive sex education in the Lubbock Independent School District a few years ago. In 2005, the documentary “The Education of Shelby Knox” won a Sundance Film Festival Award.

Four years later, her activism continues. She’s graduated from college and travels the country speaking about sex education, gay rights and feminism. She’s based in New York … and guess which other New Yorker she looks up to, which icon of feminism she’ll join in Lubbock this week … You got it: Gloria Steinem!

Rachel Gibson has her own line of jewelry. Each piece is handmade, one bead or charm at a time, strung patiently with care. She also makes clay crosses. Her line is called Kay-G Jewelry because Kay is her middle name. It’s all for sale at Atchison’s Jewelry in Levelland.

Levelland is also home to 17-year-old Rachel, who donates 10 percent of her profits to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The foundation once sent Rachel and her family to Disneyland. That was before her third surgery, when she wasn’t expected to live.

Actually, she wasn’t expected to live through her first surgery, either, when she was 5 days old. She was born without an aortic arch in her heart, so doctors had to make a bypass. Then, when she was 1½, another surgery closed a hole in her heart. At 8, she had a 10½ -hour surgery to build a new aortic arch out of her own tissue since she had outgrown the first one. Her heart is healthy now, but this summer, she’ll have surgery for scoliosis.

Story by Ray Westbrook

Mitzi Ziegner heard her career calling her name when she was asked to take a job as a practicum teacher in a classroom at Texas Tech’s Child Development Research Center in 2001.

At the time, she was teaching second grade at Nat Williams Elementary for Lubbock Independent School District.

Now, at Tech, she is teaching three undergraduate courses in the College of Human Sciences plus a capstone course for student teachers in the College of Education.

She also works as an independent trainer, speaker and consultant for these entities: the Texas Tech Early Head Start Program; Christine DeVitt and Helen DeVitt Jones Child Development Research Center; Lubbock-Cooper Independent School District; and Frenship Independent School District.

In another segment of her time, she has served the Junior League of Lubbock as publicity chairwoman of the Holiday Happening committee, special events coordinator for the cookbook committee, and is an elected member of the nominating committee.

Because she is so organized and thinks so rapidly on her feet, there is the illusion that she can be in more than one place at the same time. But her level of accomplishment may best be traced to the year when she was a fourth-grader and was struggling to learn to read the right way.

Megan Comiskey feels like a rock star. When she enters the room, her audience erupts with the joy of seeing her. Her fans’ faces light up, and they jump up and run to hug her.

They are her special ed students, kindergartners and prekindergartners at Iles Elementary School. And Megan is as delighted to be with them as they are to be with her.

“I have always been drawn to things that are different and people who maybe have a unique perspective on the world,” Megan says. “I enjoy their perspective. They don’t view the world same way as everyone else, and I like that. They do things differently.”

The children’s loving natures are the best part of her job, and the most challenging part is the constant motion. She’s always on her feet, chasing and grabbing and redirecting, a lot like parenting, she says.

Not that being on her feet is bad. She prefers life that way, so much so that she also teaches Jazzercise at Bodyworks. Her love of dancing led her to begin taking the fitness class in 1998.

Laura Berry’s hard work enables other young, talented people to continue their hard work.

As executive director of Ballet Lubbock, Berry organizes fundraisers and member programs, plans events, designs contracts, handles public relations and oh so much more.

The payoff: “I get to see students perform, watch how their talent and dedication has developed. I get to watch as they grow and change from year to year. They’re very impressive and inspiring.”

Berry’s undergraduate degree is in harp performance, so she knows the dedication required to make performing a major part of your life, as Ballet Lubbock’s students do.

Thousands of people will join her in admiring the students’ talents this week during “The Nutcracker.”

Biker chick. Junior Leaguer. List keeper. Organizer. Helper.

Ami Hill-Rendon is eclectic, passionate and giving. She runs her own business, working as an occupational therapist. She’s the one who helps people relearn how to brush their teeth, tie their shoes or anything else they need to do in order to live a normal life after an accident or health problem has taken away those abilities.

But she has another job that’s just as important: organizing the annual Blue Ribbon Rally, a daylong fundraiser in April that benefits Family Guidance and Outreach Center. The center’s mission is to prevent child abuse by strengthening families. Ami is so focused on helping others she even uses her birthday party to collect gifts for a family associated with the center.

She believes her giving heart is a gift from God. And God is one of the reasons she’s a biker – along with the freedom from her otherwise structured life. She loves to ride her 2002 Harley-Davidson Road King on long trips.

“I really feel like it’s my quiet time,” Ami says. “It’s when I feel closest to God because there are no other distractions. I’m alone with God’s creation.”