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Whatever happened to ...

By STEPHANIE HAYES and SHERYL KAY
Published December 31, 2006

Like a fine wine, one couple's charity project is getting better with age.

So far, Mark and Sherry Held's effort to sell used wine corks on eBay has yielded more than $600 for the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund.

The chief executive of wine retailer Cork & Olive has started saving corks for the cause, and so has the manager at Carrabba's Italian Grill on Sheldon Road.

Through eBay's MissionFish charity program, buyers pay $10 to $15 for 100 corks, which are great for arts and crafts.

The Helds recently moved from Westchase to North Carolina, where Sherry Held is a nutrition director for a school district. Before leaving, they passed on the project to neighbor Linda Walker.

It hasn't skipped a beat.

"As quick as I can get one sold and shipped, I throw another one up online," Walker said of the cork packs. "We definitely have enough to keep this going for a while."

Will the Helds start a similar project in their new state?

"We might, but it's a little different up here, being it's more dry counties," said Mark Held. "It's harder to get corks."

The couple are glad to see their work carried on in Westchase.

"It's just nice to help people out," Mark Held said. "I'd like to see something done about breast cancer once and for all."

Was an old-fashioned medical house call business ahead of its time?

Dr. Maria Ortiz-Tweed thinks so. One to One Pediatrics, launched by Ortiz-Tweed and fellow pediatrician Dr. Yim Lam in the spring, failed to take off, and the women have shut down the business.

"People loved the concept, and obviously we had patients, but people just didn't want to pay extra," said Ortiz-Tweed, who had targeted Westchase and similarly affluent communities. "We know that the concept works, but I think we were ahead of our time. Maybe in five years, maybe in 10 years, this will work."

The concept was simple: The doctors went to patients' homes to give specialized, intimate care. But that attention cost $1,500 a year, plus $60 a visit.

The doctors tried lowering fees and finding insurance companies that would work with them.

But it didn't work.

Knowing the risks, they were careful to build relationships in the medical community.

"We're working because of the contacts that we made," Ortiz-Tweed said. "The personal growth was tremendous, and businesswise, there was a lot of learning that we got from it."

Ortiz-Tweed is now working part time at a doctor's office, and Lam is working at St. Joseph's Hospital.

"We went for it," Ortiz-Tweed said. "I just didn't want to look back and think, 'What if I would have done that?' Not a lot of people have the guts to do it."

No sooner had she put her pen down from writing her autobiography than American Indian healer Mechi Garza was back at the tablet.

Having published The Gaia Connection early this year, Grandmother Mechi, as she is known to all, turned her energy to finishing a book she had been working on for four years.

The 554-page work of fiction, Atlantis, describes the sinking of an island over 30 years. As the inhabitants confront a dying civilization, they face the inevitable with courage. The final copy was sent to the editors this month.

It's not grim, Garza said. "It's really a happy book filled with humor, teaching us that no matter what comes down the pike, you go on and live your life day by day, each day at a time."

Now Garza wonders what she'll do for an encore. She has a book titled With Him in the works, about the last 40 days of Jesus' life, and in April she'll venture to Louisiana to film meditation videos based on the American Indian approach to spirituality.

At 82 she walks a bit slowly, but she keeps trucking. "I have no plans on retiring any time soon, but ask me when I'm 92."

Donate corks at Linda Walker's house, 11839 Lancashire Drive, or e-mail Walker at lindajwalker@yahoo.com.

[Last modified December 30, 2006, 21:08:34]