Paws for a cause

If a dog is truly man’s best friend, then Paul Magoni has one in Aimée.

The 4-year-old PAWS pup goes with him everywhere — to Lowe’s, Home Depot, long walks at Lakebottom Park. On March 13, Aimée will be with him once again for the 23rd annual Open Door Walk Classic, which this year — for the first time — is incorporating a dog contest.

“Many people bring their canines with them anyway,” said Becky Ivey, a longtime volunteer for the walk.

Dogs will be divided into two groups: under 50 pounds and 51 and over. They’ll be judged mainly on how they interact with other dogs and humans. Five dollars will get your dog registered in the contest.

The name of it is PAW: Precious, Adorable and Well-behaved.

With that comes a dog bandana. And this year, for the 75th anniversary of Open Door, Ivey’s thinking of getting some jewelry to attach to the bandanas.

“Hopefully they’ll be blinging in the sun, not the snow,” she said, referring to the walk several years ago when a light dusting greeted participants.

75 years of Open Door

Open Door Community House on Second Avenue serves the community’s needy through social service programs for all ages. It offers, among other services, a clothing bank, after-school programs, showers and breakfast for the homeless; temporary housing for women and children; and a recent addition is a culinary arts school for those interested in cooking for a career.

Open Door is affiliated with the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, as well as the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley.

The center’s beginnings were humble: Two women — Addie Greeley, a Methodist deaconess, and Lizzie Evans — came to Columbus in 1924 and began doing children’s programming in the basement of Hamp Stevens Methodist Church in Bibb City. (The church is now closed.) They believed the community needed a way to respond to the suffering during the Depression years after one of the largest mills operating in the area closed and people were in need.

Through the years, Open Door has been on the forefront of battling injustice. In the early ’80s, then-director Sybil Dodson said the racial unrest around the Ku Klux Klan during her tenure at Open Door helped raise Open Door’s credibility in the community.

Dodson learned that the police chief had denied a marching permit for the KKK. Before the denial, the main opposition against the march consisted of black Columbus residents. Dodson, who is white, personally delivered a letter to city council that said she and Open Door workers supported the police chief. It was risky because few white residents were speaking against the march.

“I rushed forward and had the letter in hand. I simply read the letter,” she said.

That led to a citywide unity campaign which, among other things, raised college scholarship money for one black student and one white student. Open Door helped sell buttons for $1. There was also a racially mixed unity march at the Government Center.

“One of my board members said, ‘Sybil, we have seen a revival,’ ” Dodson said of the integrated march. “That was a high point.”

In 1955, the gym was dedicated by Georgia Bishop Arthur Moore as the “Weeta Watts Mathews Memorial Gymnasium.”

At the dedication ceremony of the gymnasium, Bishop Moore said, “A door is a lovely thing. Jesus said, ‘I am the Door.’ The door is so wide that all who need the Savior’s care can come in, so narrow that it will shut out all sin.”

In 1994, the Board of Directors kicked off a $3.2 million capital drive for a new building. The current facility was the result.

Everyone’s welcome

The Open Door Walk Classic is a major fundraiser for the center.

Anyone can participate. The 4-mile route heads south from Open Door, catches parts of the Riverwalk, and circles back.

Dog bowls are interspersed along the route. Food and live music are provided at the end.

Open Door executive director the Rev. Kim Jenkins is usually quite busy the day of the walk and thus leaves her two dogs at home.

One’s an 11-year-old Shitszu and one’s a 6-year-old mixed breed.

“They’re cute and sweet and I probably need to get someone to bring them,” she said.

Participants raise money before and can also donate the day of the walk. T-shirts are provided.

Paul Magoni gives his Open Door shirt to Aimée.

“I get the T-shirt for her, not for me,” Magoni said. “I tie it up so she doesn’t trip on it.”

Allison Kennedy, reporter, can be reached at 706-576-6237