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The People Who Made 2002
BYLINE: AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
December 31, 2002
Many of the people we wrote about in these features pages this year kept their interesting lives in motion as 2002 drew to a close. From athletic challenges, to success with why-didn't-I-think-of-that businesses, to matters of love, music, art and peace, Central Texans endeavored to make their marks and inspire others.
A return to the water for Paul Ellis
Paul Ellis is back at Barton Springs, gliding across the spring-fed pool as he trains for a second attempt at swimming the Yucatan Channel.
Swift currents and high winds thwarted Ellis' first attempt in July to cross the channel between Cancun, Quintana Roo, and the island of Cozumel. The president of Austin Business College tried to swim the 33-mile length of Cozumel instead, but abandoned that effort 10 1/2 hours later.
The new attempt will take place in April or May. This time, Ellis will try to swim the 33 miles from Punta Norta, just off the northern tip of Cozumel, to Punta Nizuc, south of Cancun.
A documentary crew followed Ellis' first swim, an effort he made to draw attention to the deteriorating health of coral reefs worldwide. "Swim for the Reef" should be finished by late 2003, according to producers Mita Gosdin and Julia Hilder.
With the second swim at least four months off, Ellis has been logging two miles at a time in the water. He'll soon up that distance. "The secret for me is getting a lot of five-mile-a-day experiences, so it builds up my endurance and mental capacity," he said.
Ellis, who will turn 60 on Sunday, says he learned a lot from his first swim.
"l learned that I was in really good shape and really prepared, but like mountain climbing, you don't always get to attempt what you set out to do,"
he said. "And I learned you don't beat a low-pressure area that sits out over Yucatan."
-- Pamela LeBlanc
When it rains, entrepreneur Richard Heinichen pours more water Rainwater, rainwater everywhere -- and now more drops to drink.
The only man in America bottling rainwater for commercial sale has seen a spike in business since an Austin American-Statesman story in July about his so-called fresh-squeezed cloud juice.
Whole Foods got it. 7-Eleven wants it. Albertson's is considering it. And a number of small restaurants and coffee shops now carry the bottles labeled "Rain Water."
Richard Heinichen, who operates a rainwater collection business in Dripping Springs called Tank Town, is selling more government-approved, purified rainwater in drinking bottles than ever. Rainwater is pouring out his doors.
"Finally, you can get water like it's supposed to be," he said.
In January, his Rain Water should be on the shelves in the 50 7-Eleven stores in its Austin market, which includes Travis, Williamson, Bell, Coryell, Bastrop, Llano and Burnet counties.
It's nearly impossible to make Heinichen's Rain Water any more authentic.
But he recently added one last touch to his water storeroom. He rigged a CD to play continuous sounds of thunder and rain.
"This way, the water will stay perky," he said.
-- Denise Gamino
Robert Casillas now plays ball and the accordion The boy who makes people smile with his accordion is happy to be a starter on his school basketball team. While continuing to impress on the conjunto music scene, 11-year-old Robert Casillas also is eager to talk about sports and his position as guard for St. Cecelia Catholic School in San Antonio.
"And I just finished soccer. And it was swimming and baseball before that. Yeah, I've been a little busy," he says.
"He made the All-Star team in the Catholic Youth Organization League as a pitcher, first baseman and shortstop," adds his grandfather. Robert is being raised by his grandparents, Rene and Gloria Saavedra.
Between sports and school -- where he earned A's and one B his first semester -- and being a kid, Robert always has time for the accordion. And lately, the guitar, too. But it's the accordion that brings him attention. Because he doesn't have his own band, musicians in San Antonio still invite him on stage to give him experience. He's been to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, with bajo player Rudy Lopez, who's also taken him to elder hostels to play for a different audience. He's entertained in Austin, most recently at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.
"I don't mean to brag but I'm getting there," Robert says of his musical career.
His straw cowboy hat has been replaced by a black felt hat, just like George Strait. The hat was a gift from a fan.
Wherever Robert goes, his protective grandparents are close by. "They're my biggest fans," says the boy.
-- Ricardo Gandara
Marnie Paul and Steven Smith still love to hold hands The romance between Marnie Paul and Steven Smith, who were diagnosed shortly after birth with cerebral palsy, continues.
Marnie still lives at home with her parents, and Steven still lives in a group home with two other men with disabilities. But the two see each other often -- at music class at the Marnie Paul Arts Academy, on short shopping excursions, trips to the movie theater or just to visit. Steven spent the Christmas holiday with the Paul family.
"Oh gosh, the saga goes on," said Barbara Paul, Marnie's mother. "Steven still wants to do the whole marriage thing. And I'm very much in favor of them living together and being together."
In both Marnie, 31, and Steven, 23, the part of their brains that controls motor movement is damaged. They use wheelchairs to get around, and communicate with nods, gestures and the help of computers. Others help them eat, dress, move and go about their daily lives.
The couple have no immediate plans to move in together, but Barbara Paul said she recently met with Steven's grandmother and a nurse to discuss options. "I'm trying to get things in place so, if this ever happens, we'll have backup support," she said.
Steven also has been painting -- for Valentine's Day he painted a red rose for Marnie. More recently he did an abstract painting with swirls of black and red and a dot of green that he called "Marnie."
-- Pamela LeBlanc
Austin Museum of Art's one to watch: Dana Friis-Hansen
From granting 22 emerging Austin artists their first museum exhibit to
hosting circus elephants, Dana Friis-Hansen, executive director of the Austin Museum of Art, says that after 10 months in his new job, he still loves it.
It's not an easy time to be an arts administrator anywhere. And with budget reductions, staff layoffs and groundbreaking on the new museum still not set, it's not an easy time to be the director of the Austin Museum of Art.
Friis-Hansen, 41, took over the post in February, six months after the previous director, Elizabeth Ferrer, abruptly resigned. And that was just as the economy tanked and the momentum for the museum's $43 million proposed building stalled. Still, Friis-Hansen's optimism and enthusiasm haven't waned.
Year-end highlights for him? The "22 to Watch: New Art in Austin" exhibit -- and the accompanying catalog. The catalog "gets the information out to a wider audience and documents this moment in Austin for posterity," says Friis-Hansen.
And then there was the circus. Says Friis-Hansen: "Especially gratifying was the response to the exhibition 'The Circus in Twentieth Century Art' and the 'Circus on Congress' event with a ringmaster, elephants, clowns and a contortionist performing in front of the museum for a crowd of more than 3,000. And then inviting them all in for children's art activities and tours of the show."
Looking ahead, he says the $12 million revitalization of the museum's historic Laguna Gloria facility is on time and on budget, with a grand public reopening planned for September. Also, Friis-Hansen reports, the museum's finances are in much better health than when he first took the helm. "When all is tallied up at the end of the year, it looks like we'll have the books balanced," he says.
Now that's quite an art.
-- Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Activist Charlie Jackson takes his fight for peace to Iraq When we met longtime Austin peace activist Charlie Jackson in November, he had packed his bags and was preparing to fly to Baghdad -- to make a social statement, a peace statement, against a pre-emptive strike against the people of Iraq.
After almost two months of delays and visa problems, Jackson is at last on his way. He left Dec. 26 -- one day after spending Christmas with his two sons.
"The plan is for everybody -- peace activists from all over the world -- to stay together at a Baghdad hotel, because the Iraqis want to keep an eye on us," says Jackson, who intends to remain in Iraq until Jan. 9. "Then, during the day, we'll travel in small groups." At mosques, hospitals and orphanages, they will gather in the name of peace.
Jackson does not express fear for his own safety. After all, he says, he's done this kind of thing before. Jackson traveled to the former Yugoslavia, twice, in the 1990s, when war raged throughout the Balkans.
At the same time, he shrugs off remarks by some friends and colleagues that his gesture is somehow . . . un-American.
"Working for peace in the world is as patriotic a thing as any American can do," says Jackson. "I honestly believe in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, where we declare that all people are created equal -- not just Americans."
Copyright 2002 The Austin American Statesman Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
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