Street Talk
Annual charity ‘initiation’ for St. Jude draws in NBA rookies
Memphis Business Journal
NBA rookies are annually put through a gauntlet of initiation pranks and trials, but no first-year tradition may be as important as the Rookie Relief fundraising auction for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The annual event takes merchandise signed by highly touted NBA rookies and auctions the items on eBay to benefit St. Jude.
This year, former University of Memphis standout and current Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, Memphis Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love and other NBA stars signed items for the charity auction.
“As rookies, we are blessed to make it to the NBA and play a game we love as a job. It’s our duty to give back,” Love said in a statement.
As of presstime, Rose, Mayo and Love’s jerseys had raised more than $1,000 for St. Jude. Love also volunteered to match the amount bid for his jersey up to $12,500. The auctions closed Nov. 21.
New book on Beale examines struggles
There are probably few people more qualified to write about the revitalization of Beale Street than John A. Elkington.
As CEO of Performa Entertainment Real Estate, Inc., he has been working to bring the entertainment district back to life since 1981.
Now, 27 years later, he has written Beale Street: Resurrecting the Home of the Blues, as a history and blueprint of the grand street’s rebirth. Elkington spent two years working on the book and wrote it, he says, because there are too many revisionist historians when it comes to the topic of Beale Street.
“They forgot how hard it was to get off the ground,” Elkington says. “No one ever gave us and the merchants a chance, so I wanted to write about the struggles that people went through to be successful.”
Or, as Roberta Church, granddaughter of Robert Church Sr. and daughter of Robert Church Jr., two prominent Memphis businessmen, told Elkington: “They never got it straight.”
The 126-page book has plenty of maps and photographs to go with its history, mapping Beale Street’s growth from dilapidation to one of the most visited tourist sites in the state.
While in college, Elkington actually wanted to be a journalist and worked two summers at the Stanford Advocate in Connecticut and the Fort Lauderdale News in Florida.
“Then I found out what they made and it kind of discouraged me,” he says with a laugh. “But really, it was a great experience.”
Elkington is now researching his second book. It will be about his freshman year in college during the stormy Vietnam War era.
Dental equipment showroom now at Appling
In the market for a cavitron or a prophy jet? Looking for a deal on an amalgamator or an autoclave? Maybe you just need a good old air abrasion system.
If you’re not, it’s likely that you’re not a dentist. But if you are or you’ve ever wondered where dentists get the tools that make some of us cringe, you can now walk into BuyDentalEquipment.com’s new showroom at 2564 Appling Road.
The showroom is BuyDentalEquipment.com’s first sales office outside of its Wichita Falls, Texas, headquarters. Memphis native and dental industry veteran Bill Barnett will run the shop as vice president of sales for Memphis and its surrounding regions. Barnett worked for 30 years selling dental supplies for the Schein, Island and Benco companies.
BuyDentalEquipment.com is an online and catalog distributor of new and refurbished dental equipment and custom dental cabinetry. It also handles office planning and design, equipment repairs and service, and buying used dental equipment.
“Memphis is the perfect location for our company to provide a tangible ‘try it before you buy it’ sales experience to a large population of practicing dentists across eight different states,” says Joe Kern, the company’s vice president of business development.
From staff reports
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