“Even in a good economy if it’s low income we all know that it’s hard to go out and get those gifts and those in terms for folks but especially now when their have been so many people laid off or have lost their job for whatever reason they need some help,” says Chance Hallmark with the credit union.

If you would like to donate you can go to any Americas First Federal Credit union and donate money or a toy. The money will be pooled together and used to purchase visa gift cards for teens or fulfill any shortfalls.

“It’s so hard to buy a teen something they want. You can get the wrong size. With a gift card its easy, they can go get what they want,” says Hallmark.

Donations can also be made at any Little Caesars, Academy Sports, and the DYS office through December 13^th.

"I was tired. I didn't know what to do."

Seeing Wes Parkhurst working today, you wouldn't know that seven years ago he was homeless.

"I started using drugs at a young age.  It destroyed my career i worked in the engineering field as an inspector."

In 2003, Parkhurst went to the Jimmie Hale Mission where he got meals, shelter, counseling, and a new lease on life. 

"This is where God changed my life. This is where I learned how to live."

Today he's the program director here - now helping others learn how to live.

The 500 meals that are served each day is just one aspect of the mission.

Last year, it put 160 people back to work, while most importantly, says Executive Director Tony Cooper, sharing the Christian message.

    "...that Jesus Christ can change your heart and therefore change your life."

Cooper says right now is their most critical time of the year.

"We'll receive more than 40 percent of our budget this time of year."

This year presents challenges as they're seeing an increase of people to serve while food donations are down.

But the compassion is still there.

"We've seen an increase in giving, but the dollar amount has been less."

Cooper says for those who give, it's a positive return on their investment because it's an investment in people and the community.

"That's what we're working toward to put them in a position where they can not only get a job, but keep a job."

And with every meal served - help people back on their feet...so like Wes Parkhurst, they can help someone else.

"It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me."

ANNISTON, Ala. (AP) — Before he could say "mama" or "daddy," both of his were gone.

His father went to prison for murder. His mother just left.

A decade later, bullies hit him and took his money at school.

He'd miss the bus on purpose, trying in vain to escape.

At 12, Tre'Juan Figures hanged himself in his bedroom.

Fingers are pointing all over Anniston three weeks later, as people try to figure out this tragedy, try to figure out who failed Tre'Juan.

Clearly, they say, somebody did.

Tre'Juan, who went by Trey, couldn't always build forts or ride bikes or play basketball in his west Anniston neighborhood on Saturdays.

At least one weekend a month until he was 11, Trey and his grandmother, Essie Figures, went to prison.

"I made sure Trey knew his daddy," said Trey's grandmother, who raised him. "Trey could go in and see Johnny, and he'd hold him and play with him. He loved it."

Trey's father, Johnny Figures, spent 10 years behind bars in different Alabama prisons. He pleaded guilty in 1997 to fatally shooting a Gadsden man in 1995.

He doesn't like talking about the killing, but Johnny says he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that he pleaded guilty only to receive a lesser sentence. Prosecutors were trying to put him away for life, he said.

"I may have gotten locked up, but I saw Trey grow up," Johnny said. "I was always in his life."

Photos of Trey and Johnny over the years show the father in prison garb, a number stamped on the chest of his uniform. The grinning son grows from an infant to a young man in photos snapped between thick walls and razor wire.

Trey knew why his father couldn't go back home with him after the visits. He knew his dad sat in prison for killing a man, Johnny said. But he doesn't think those facts hurt Trey. His son understood, Johnny said.

"It don't matter where I lived," he said. "Trey knew I loved him."

Trey mailed his father all kinds of things while he was behind bars cards with childish writing, colorful drawings of himself and letters. One reads, "I got a new suit for Easter. I will ask my mommy to take some pictures for you."

But by "mommy," Trey meant his grandmother, not his biological mother, Veronica McGee.

"I'm the only mama he knew," said Essie Figures, who earns a living caring for an elderly woman. "When Johnny got in trouble, Veronica left Trey with me. She said she'd come back, but she never did."

So Essie raised Trey, relying sometimes on friends and her church family to help out with diapers, Christmas presents or back-to-school shoes.

McGee said she left Trey with her mother-in-law because she had four other children to care for. Their fathers weren't around, either, she said.

"His grandmamma did keep Trey, but he was still my baby," McGee said. "I saw him whenever I wanted to."

Only that wasn't very often, Essie said. She said McGee didn't acknowledge Trey's birthdays; she didn't celebrate Christmas with him; she didn't pay child support.

And she was dealing with her own legal problems. Records show that McGee has been in and out of court for writing bad checks, mostly to restaurants and grocery stores.

She's also taken two men before a judge for paternity testing and child support.

Trey's suicide has driven a wedge between McGee and the Figures family. McGee blames Trey's father for the death and says Trey's grandmother didn't raise him right.

"I told my son at his funeral that I will get revenge," McGee said. "I will get justice for my son."

Essie believes Trey had everything he needed, from food to love. All the negativity is weighing on her, as she tries to deal with the suicide of a little boy she raised, who loved nothing more than a hug and a snack.

"People going around and saying a lot of lies just makes you feel bad," she said. "I'm just trying to get over this."

The Anniston school system has so far taken the brunt of the blame for Trey's death.

Immediately following the sixth-grader's suicide, his family spoke out, saying that bullies and gang members at Anniston Middle School drove Trey to take his own life.

Superintendent Joan Frazier is investigating the bullying claims and what school officials did about complaints family members say they made.

Frazier said Friday she's received hundreds of pages of documentation from school teachers and administrators. She's going through them, and has finished with August, September and October of 2008. That's the first year Trey attended Anniston Middle School.

"In that timeframe, I have not been able to find anything that documents any form of bullying or teasing," she said.

Frazier said she'll continue looking through the remaining year of papers and hopes to finish her investigation in the next week or so.

Trey's grandmother said she knows children at school were mean to the boy.

"They'd punch him and push him around," she said. "Call him mean names."

Trey stayed in trouble at school, too, she said. He took medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, she said, but he still was suspended fairly often and ended up failing the sixth grade because he was out of the classroom so much.

He spent time in the alternative school, too, she said.

"He liked it there," she said. "There was more supervision. They keep the kids in line and nobody messed with him."

Trey liked some things about school, she said, especially reading. Piled up on a table in his small bedroom are several ragged, well-read Harry Potter books.

"He'd read them over and over," Johnny Figures said. "I asked him why he did that, and he told me that he found out something new, got something new from it, every time he read them."

Trey was usually a happy boy, his grandmother said. He loved playing basketball in the yard, riding his bike around their Walnut Avenue neighborhood, playing with his best friend a tiny black dog named Diego. That's why she can't understand why he'd kill himself.

So, she thinks, it had to be the school.

Experts say children and adolescents rarely have just one reason for committing suicide.

Trey had several suicide risk factors in his life, said Dr. Virginia Scott, director of the University of Alabama's psychology clinic.

Bullying, lack of family involvement and hopelessness are all major red flags for suicide risk, Scott said.

"Those things make a child feel abandoned and like there's something wrong with them," she said. "There's a lot of self-blame that goes along with it."

University of Alabama psychology professor Dr. John Lochman said familiarity with violence also is a suicide risk factor. He pointed to being around other children who are violent, or having violent family members as examples.

More Calhoun County children are arrested for violent crimes than in most parts of the state. The county ranks 58th of 67 counties, according to data collected by VOICES for Alabama's Children. That group documents the conditions of children throughout the state.

Some of those arrests could have happened at Anniston Middle School. The school reported 15 assaults, nine drug-related offenses and four weapons-related problems in 2007-2008, the year before Trey began attending classes there and the latest year for which statistics are available from the Alabama Department of Education.

"When a child is used to seeing or hearing about violence, it makes it much easier for him to be violent as well, toward himself or toward others," Lochman said.

Superintendent Frazier said she sees the effects of children's overexposure to violence and other societal ills. She said in-school behavior is influenced when children see and hear things they don't have the experience or wisdom to handle.

The effect can be overt, she said, and result in fighting. Or it can be introverted and cause a child to be depressed, withdrawn and sad.

Trey's grandmother isn't sure what she'll do with his things.

His basketball sits alone. His bike is where he left it.

Diego's in the yard, barking at passersby.

The evidence of a boy's youth is scattered throughout the house trophies, small Nike sneakers, Spiderman curtains.

"I keep forgetting he isn't coming back," Essie said.

She wishes for one more day with Trey, to ask why he felt so hopeless, to fix it if she could.

She knew him better than anybody. She kissed his bruises and made him brush his teeth. She taught him to say his prayers.

Not even she has the answer.

©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Tuscaloosa city officials have asked a Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court for a preliminary injunction to stop the state from dismantling or moving Bryce Hospital until the city's lawsuit is heard.

The city is seeking a permanent injunction against relocating or privatizing Bryce and wants the court to declare that only the Legislature has the power to close or relocate it.

The suit came after Gov. Bob Riley discussed relocating the state psychiatric hospital to the empty Carraway Medical Center building in Birmingham.

City officials complained that the state dismantled the Alice M. Kidd Nursing Home Facility earlier this year before the city could move to halt the action. They expressed concerns when the city filed suit in October that the state might do the same with other Bryce programs.

©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BOAZ, Ala. (AP) — The Etowah County Sheriff's Office says searchers have found a body they believe to be a Boaz man who disappeared two weeks ago.

The Gadsden Times reports the sheriff's office says the body found Thursday is that of 58-year-old Michael Winford Williams, who was last seen Nov. 7. A family member reported him missing Nov. 10.

Officials say the body was found off the road in a wooded area after the sheriff?s office widened its search for the missing man.

Sheriff Todd Entrekin said the body was about a quarter of a mile from Williams? vehicle, which was parked in a hay field.

Officials say the body has been sent to the Department of Forensic Sciences in Huntsville for positive identification and to determine the cause of death.

©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ADAMSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The Adamsville City Council has promised to follow Alabama's Open Meetings Act, and a case brought by Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls has been dismissed.

A lawsuit contended the council discussed issues June 25 at a closed meeting not allowed under the open meetings law and that it failed to give proper notice for a July 6 meeting.

The Birmingham News reports that council members and Falls agreed that the city will close meetings in accordance with the law and will give proper notice.

James S. Ward, an attorney for the city, says he's pleased that the case has been dismissed with no finding of wrongdoing.

Dennis Bailey, general counsel for the Alabama Press Association, says it remains to be seen what impact the settlement will have on future meetings.

___

©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

"We're so nervous about race that people will describe someone across the room as the guy in the khaki slacks and the blue jacket and the bow tie, and I'll look and say, you mean the black guy?!" said Gwen Ifill Thursday night, speaking to a group at Birmingham Southern College.

Ifill is fascinated by the often controversial topic of race in politics, and spoke on issues that are highlighted in her new book titled: The Breakthrough, Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

"I've had many audiences in which people have stood up and said, why can't we just get past race, do we have to mention that he's black, and my response is this, why wouldn't we, unless we see race as a negative." Ifill said.

Her book even discusses U.S. Representative Artur Davis' bid to become Alabama's next governor.

But, she says people shouldn't only focus on the fact that Davis would be Alabama's first African-American governor.

"There's a temptation no matter how this election turns out to cast it solely in terms of 'he's the first', but, we can start thinking now that it could be a much broader impact than that, whether he wins or whether he loses." said Iffil.

Watch our complete story to the right of your screen.

“The judge will allow us to sell it at the price this particular buyer has offered and if that turns out to be an unfair price then Mr. Scrushy can get credit for a higher amount,” says John Haley, Wade Tuckers attorney.

Scrushy’s attorneys, who refused an interview, claim the boat is worth more than what Haley wants to sell it for. Haley says he has no problem giving Scrushy credit for what ever the boat is appraised for regardless of the selling price.

“We’d be willing to give him credit for 10-million dollars or 50-million dollars because he’s never going to pay the three billion dollars that the judge ordered so whatever we give him credit for that will still be good in the collection effort,” say Haley.

The reason Haley is so eager to sell the yacht is because it is costing them 13 hundred dollars a day and more than 41 thousand a month. To store it the boat is also out of water so damage could be occurring, they want to get it back in the water and tested to check if it is sea worthy.

The next hearing for the Scrushy saga is December 3^rd.

Attorneys have also begun to turn on each other in the process of collecting Scrushy’s money. To see some of the problems, click on the video link.

“It shows that this school is the heartbeat of the community and it shows the support and loyalty they all have. It was also a good civil lesson for the kids,” says Alabama State Representative Ken Guin.

Just days before Thanksgiving the school system had a lot to be thankful for, as they turned dirt and broke ground on their new building, forever insuring the future of Oakman Elementary School.

“When you see bulldozers come out here and start moving dirt around you really get excited because it’s like a load is lifted off your shoulders,” says Dennis Willingham the principal of Oakman Elementary School.

“I taught here for 28 years and its very important to us its very important to the children its very important to the families to keep our community alive to have a new school and its literally coming out of the rubble,” says Pam Little.

And while many are sad to see the old historic facility gone, they are thrilled at what the future holds and the technologically advanced school their children will now have.

“You hate to see the history of it disappear a new building update facility will really benefit the children,” says Joey Phifer a parent.

“It will be top notch technology, both in equipment and as far as it looks,” says Willingham.

The school will cost around 9 million dollars to build it will be completed by December 1, 2010 and will hold grades kindergarten through 8^th. That’s about 700 student’s total.

"Every two weeks I go to the University, give them the DVR of the video of the bus, they review it, capture it and study the data from that," says Brad Hartsfield, the route supervisor for the Tuscaloosa County schools.  He says the study has been a good opportunity and even learning process. 

"I've enjoyed the seat belt bus; I hope they keep it,” says one of the supporters of the seat belt bus, Brenda Fuller. She says compared to a bus without the restraints, it offers more control.

"It keeps the kids seated, they're not jumping all over the place, hanging out the windows, it does help, it does help," says Fuller.

School officials say that the children who ride on the seat belt bus and their parents, have all responded very well to this study.

"Kids are really excited to have seat belts on the bus and the parents really want to be a part of the study and I think most would like to keep the seat belts on the bus," adds Hartsfield.

Whether or not these seat belts will stay on board is up to the findings of the study, which is in its third year.  The results of the study are expected to be released in October 2010.