People to Watch

A brewer, entrepreneur, and playwright, among others, are helping shape the city.

Nancy Strebe cared about the people of St. Charles long before she became part-time director of We Love St. Charles: She volunteered with the organization from its beginnings, as part of a local church, five years ago. The organization mentors at-risk families, individuals, and youth through family support, homelessness prevention, and job training. “We challenge people who are sitting pretty to serve others who have less,” she says. “We don’t expect change to happen overnight,” Strebe says. One of the group’s many programs, Walking With a Family, pairs trained volunteers with participants who need assistance. The volunteers mentor their partners as needed and foster independence along the way. “We have an organic fluidity, so we can help in different ways,” she says. “Seeing someone once in poverty thrive, watching a person leave an abusive situation, providing mobility for a disabled son by building a wheelchair ramp—these are real success stories.”

When Side Project Brewing completes construction of its new brewery, on Manchester near Big Bend, “Maplewood will be bookended by breweries: Schlafly and Side Project,” Cory King wryly observes. King and his wife, Karen King, opened Side Project Cellar in late 2014. The building they found happened to be in Maplewood. “We were lucky,” Cory says. “The city did everything possible to accommodate us from day one.” City manager Marty Corcoran conveyed his vision to make the community a great place to do business, and business director Rachelle L’Ecuyer helped with small-business district incentives and promotions. “When it came time to build the brewery, Maplewood was the only place we considered,” says King. In addition to new jobs and investment, King brought international attention to Maplewood this year. At the 2015 RateBeer Best Awards, presented in January, Side Project was named the eighth-best brewer in the world and picked up six medals for beers. And in mid-February, the James Beard Foundation announced Side Project Cellar as a semifinalist in the Outstanding Bar Program. Although the cellar offers a well-curated selection of whiskeys and wines, craft beers are the star there, making the nomination especially noteworthy.

Travis and Gina Sheridan moved here from California in 2012. When they decided to buy a home, after first renting downtown, they decided on Old North. “The community was just that: a community,” he says. “There was a lot of diversity, be it in race, socioeconomic status, or profession. There was just this nice mix of people who wanted to do things.”  Travis is no stranger to that impulse. The executive director of Venture Café (a tech/startup incubator that emphasizes inclusion and diversity), he sees himself as a community designer. “I like to orchestrate little things and design systems that bring people together,” he says. The couple hosts Boozestorming, cocktail-driven community discussions, at their home. Travis also serves as treasurer of the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group and heads up its marketing committee. “The more we can get people to experience the neighborhood,” he says, “the more we will be able to grow it.”

Charmaine Savage graduated from Lincoln High School, attended college, and married her high school sweetheart, Lorenzo. The couple traveled the world during her career as a U.S. Navy officer. “But when we left home in 1989, we didn’t leave with the intention of staying gone,” she says. During return visits to St. Louis, she couldn’t resist posting “Home sweet home!” on Facebook. So after retiring, the Savages moved back to East St. Louis. In January, Charmaine founded I AM EStL, a publication that, she says, tells “real stories about real people.” The first issue featured interviews with such East St. Louis natives as U.N. ambassador Donald McHenry, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, and Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks, as well as Remy Joh, a young woman with a disability who’s launched her own holistic business; artist Reginald Petty; and Billie Miller, owner of Billie’s Pastries, a community gathering spot. With the March issue, Savage launched a column to showcase talents of the city’s natives. “They are all around the planet, representing us well,” she says. She’s also gathering a list of East St. Louis natives with Ph.D.s for a forthcoming education issue. “We are still graduating geniuses from School District 189,” she says. And in early July, Savage plans to celebrate the arts issue with an event at the Katherine Dunham Museum.

Though Nancy Bell is a transplant from L.A., she probably knows more about St. Louis’ neighborhoods than most natives. The playwright in residence for Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, she pens the scripts for Shakespeare in the Streets, a program that each year presents a production fusing a Shakespeare play with a different neighborhood’s story, often casting folks from the community. So far, the roster includes Cherokee, The Grove, Clayton, and Old North. This fall, Maplewood will host a production.  To prepare, Bell and her team interview dozens of residents before she begins to write the script. She’ll read transcripts and listen to interviews again, looking for patterns. “What is the story I am hearing from the community?” she’ll ask herself. That process has made a dramatic impact on the transplant’s feelings about St. Louis. “When I moved here, I didn’t know anybody, and I was really homesick,” Bell says. “This has been a way for me to fall in love with this city.”

Cordell Lewis speaks with enthusiasm about Starbucks’ coming to Ferguson, describing the hope and economic opportunities the store represents. Opening this spring at West Florissant and Somerset, the new location is part of the chain’s nationwide initiative to open 15 stores in low- to medium-income urban communities. The Ferguson Starbucks will employ approximately 50 people from the community. The 37-year-old Lewis, a resident of the area, once managed a video game store in Ferguson that built community through music and poetry readings. “It’s common practice for stores to hold events,” he says. “I went a little bigger with it.” At press time, Lewis had hired five people and was recruiting at area high schools, UMSL, and St. Louis Community College in Florissant. “The amount of people with great character who want to work is one of the community’s strengths,” he says. “We want to deliver a great experience in a place people can be proud of.”

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