One Book, One Waco Program Features CenTex Author, March 30
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Central Texas author Lisa Wingate will visit the Baylor campus to discuss her book and the spring 2010 choice of One Book, One Waco, Summer Kitchen, on March 30 in Waco Hall.
Co-sponsored by the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, Baylor and Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, the One Book, One Waco reading program is a communitywide program that promotes reading and thoughtful discussion with activities and events focused on encouraging community participation.
Wingate wrote Summer Kitchen based on the Gospel Café, 825 S. 10th St, which was founded 13 years ago by Sherry Castello, Marsha Martie and Susan Cowley. The three women were able to turn a former place of drugs into a restaurant that serves the community of Waco regardless of people's ability to pay.
"In the novel, the main character, SandraKaye, doesn't begin her café with such a grand sense of purpose. She is merely compelled to deliver a bag of sandwiches when she sees kids digging for food in a dumpster at a nearby apartment complex," Wingate said. "She begins to create something that, much like the real Gospel Café, takes on a life and a mission of its own."
Summer Kitchen is not set in Waco but was chosen for its themes of poverty, hunger and being homeless and the people, who live and struggle with poverty. Wingate researched the café by volunteering and visiting at the Gospel Café and says that the cross-section of community at Gospel Café was essential in building Summer Kitchen. Wingate will be available to meet on the Baylor campus for Dr Pepper Hour at 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 30, in the Barfield Drawing Room of the Bill Daniel Student Center, 1311 Fifth St., Waco.
"I hope that the book will inspire community members of all types to look for opportunities to be involved in building a better community. When you get right down to it, stories are our one opportunity to live within the mind and heart and body and soul of another person," Wingate said.
Baylor is the presenting sponsor this year and will host Wingate at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 30, at Waco Hall for a community discussion and book signing. Waco Hall is located at 624 Speight Ave.
"My ultimate goal in writing has always been to build understanding by allowing one person to walk in another's shoes. When you've experienced something, whether it be poverty, hunger, sickness or loss, even through the pages of a book, you have empathy for others going through that experience. Empathy breaks down barriers."
Wingate lives in central Texas and authored the Tending Roses series and Lisa's Texas Hill Country series.
Admission to the community discussion is free and open to the public but audience members are asked to donate one canned food item upon arrival.
For more information, contact director of community development, Alexis Weaver, at (254) 757-5630 or Jana Hixson, director of community relations, at (254) 710-1421.
by Colton Wright, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805