DEBBIE LOVE

Debbie Love did not set out to become a Karate instructor or a martial artist out of sheer interest, it was out of necessity; she was compelled to learn everything she could about the subject because of a personal family tragedy that had a profound effect and would eventually change the course of her life.  

Her close cousin Julie Love, near identical in size, was the victim of a violent crime in Atlanta in the summer of 1988 which was the subject of headline news. It took over a year for Julie’s remains to be found after her disappearance. Once the facts came out of what happened to Julie, it was clear she lost her life because of a simple mistake, she ran out of gas. And, even though it happened in Atlanta’s wealthiest neighborhood, it was a fatal mistake.  

Debbie knew if it could happen to Julie, it could happen to her.  So she began a quest to learn self-defense but nothing seemed to work.  Knowing there had to be a better way, she enrolled in martial arts to learn from the ground up. That was almost 20 years ago.  

After earning her first Black Belt, Debbie began sharing basic self-defense and escape techniques to family and friends, and quite frankly, to anyone who would listen. As her experience and skills increased so did her audience. In 2009, while working in downtown San Diego, Debbie convinced management to put on a series of six 1-one hour lunch and learn classes for the female employees working in the building.  It was a success and a huge confidence boost for those women who commute to and from work everyday.

In December 2015, Debbie returned to Atlanta where her cousin was murdered to teach a special class for family and friends.

Since then, Debbie left her 40 year career as a paralegal to devote herself full time to educating women about their safety and continues to find innovative ways to provide valuable self-defense information and instruction to women of all ages, from young girls to seniors citizens, high school and college bound girls and women who work outside the home. Each class and workshop is distinctively tailored to the audience. 

Today, after almost 20 years of training, Debbie is a 4th Degree Black Belt and Certified Instructor in Karate and an advocate for women’s safety.  At under 5’ and barely 100 pounds, don’t let her small size fool you; she can stop a larger opponent with relative ease. 

As a frequent speaker and self-defense instructor, Debbie wants women to know that  self-defense is much more than simply learning techniques. Self-defense is not about being strong, it’s about being smart!

Whether you’re drawn to her soulful, powerhouse vocals, raw, heartfelt lyrics, or infectious grooves, one thing is for sure—Alex Nester is an artist you will remember. You can’t help but be drawn to her when she sings from such a deep and genuine place. Her music doesn’t just reach your ears, it reaches your heart. Channeling the retro artists of the 60’s and 70’s, Alex blends soul, funk, and r&b and delivers her songs with honesty and meaning.

Alex believes in the great power and beauty of music, and she felt it firsthand through her battle with cancer at 16 years-old. Along with excellent treatment, the love of family and friends, and the grace of God, Alex credits music with helping save her life.

With a grateful heart she went on to release two critically acclaimed solo albums, and opened as a solo artist for such acts as Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, Rachel Platten, Evelyn “Champagne” King, and Dave Mason. Through the years she has also worked with Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Fifth Dimension, Tito Jackson (of Jackson 5 fame), and Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, most recently touring as a guest artist with Carlos Santana.

Alex has made a promise to her listeners that her music will always be sincere and real. She believes that music-making is an art, and will always give her songs the time, attention, and love they need to be something special.

Alex’s third full-length solo album, “Someone Better,” will be released Spring 2020.

Alex Shumaker was born May 16, 2006, he resides in Punxsutawney, PA.

Alex was interested in Classic Rock bands such as Journey, Foreigner, Reo Speed Wagon and Styx since age 4.

While most 5 years were headed to the Toy section at Walmart Alex would ask to go to “look” at the CD’s. On February 10, 2012 while browsing the CD’s Alex found a DVD of the band Journey with their new lead singer Arnel. Alex became fixated on drummer Deen Castronovo, he went and got an exercise ball and put it in front of the TV and grabbed some kitchen utensils for his make shift drum set. He watched the video over and over again and broke every kitchen utensil his parents had so when his dad came home from work he cut a pair of plastic coat hangers for him to use.

That evening Alex’s mom posted a picture of his drum “kit” on Facebook with the heading “you gotta do what you gotta do when your parents won’t buy you a drum set!” The phone soon rang and it was Alex’s Nana wanting to speak with him. His parents weren’t all that thrilled when he started screaming “Nana and Papa are buying me a real drum set on Saturday”. Alex received that little drum kit and played it for hours on end, at least 3-4 hours a day watching the Journey DVD over and over trying copy Deen’s every move.

Every time Alex went to Walmart he got a CD. One day another DVD appeared, this time it was the band Foreigner with then drummer Brian Tichy. Alex became obsessed with Tichy’s theatrics of stick throwing/bouncing.

After a few months of playing Alex’s parents enrolled him in drum lessons once a week with teacher Brian Rowan with whom he is still under the instruction of.

To date along with Castronovo and Tichy the most influential drummers for Alex have been: Todd Sucherman of Styx, Brian Hitt of Reo Speedwagon, Chris Fraizer of Foreigner, Peter Criss of Kiss, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Neil Peart of Rush, Sean Fuller of Florida Georgia Line and Rich Redmond of Jason Aldean, Lucky Lerner of the Circle Jerks, Glen Sobel of Alice Cooper, and Troy Luccketta of Tesla to mention a few.

Ami was born January 8, 1969 at 7:05 am, in Burbank California. Her parents brought her home the next day. Micky's mother, Janelle Scott, was there to help the new parents.

When Ami was five months old, Samantha took her to England. Samantha was still a British subject - but Ami was an American citizen, so she had her own passport. Samantha and Ami stayed in England for nearly a month, then returned to California. Ami's grandparents, Lesley and Phyllis Slater, returned with them.

Ami was an active baby. She crawled at seven months, and was running by ten months. Samantha had to put bells on her shoes, so she could find her!

Ami's grandparents adored her, and were a great help to her parents. Lesley and Micky were always building something. Phyllis help Samantha with her shop "One of a Kind." They had planned to buy a house, but Micky insisted they stay with them.

Ami lived with her parents and grandparents in their converted mountain lodge home in Laurel Canyon until 1975. Ami's parents separated at that time, and Ami moved to a large town house with her mother and grandparents. They lived there for a year, then moved to Acapulco, Mexico, where they lived for four years. Ami's grandfather passed away while they were living in Mexico. She was 12 at the time. Micky was visiting them when it happened, so he was able to comfort his daughter during this sad time.

In 1980, Ami, her mother and grandmother moved back to their townhouse. Ami attended a private school nearby, and made lots of friends, many of them remain her friends today.

Ami visited her dad each summer in England, where he was living with his second wife and their babies. ( Ami has three younger sisters: Charlotte, Emily, and Georgia). Ami usually brought a friend with her. Micky arranged his work schedule around Ami's visits, so they could spend as much time together as possible.

When Ami was 15, she told her parents she needed to have a lunch date - all three of them together - because she had something very important to discuss with them. They didn't know what to expect!

During lunch, Ami announced that she had decided to become an actress. Her parents were not thrilled. It can be a very hard life, with lots of rejection. Micky told Ami that she would have to do it on her own. Her parents agreed that if she could get an agent, she could give it a try.

Her parents arranged for Ami to talk about acting with a friend of theirs, who was in the business. The friend spent two hours with Ami, talking to her about how difficult it is to get an agent, how hard it is just to get an appointment, and how many she would have to see, with no guarantee she would be signed-up by anyone. Ami left with a list of agents to contact.

She prepared her monologue, She had been working on this in her acting classes at school. She called the first agent on the list, and was granted an interview.

Samantha took Ami to the appointment, thinking this would probably be the end of it. Ami went in to meet the agent, and preformed her monologue. She came out five minutes later, saying, "He needs to talk to you, Mom. He wants me!". From that moment on, Ami's life would never be the same.

Ami's agent taped her performing her monologue, and submitted it to "Junior Star Search." There were over 1,000 tapes submitted, and Ami's was one of the very few accepted for the competition. Ami won the competition, and went on to win in the junior actress division for the year. This helped launch her career.

Ami's early acting days were spent as a guest star on many sitcoms, such as: Growing pains, saved by the bell, and Murder She Wrote. She had a feature role on General Hospital when she was only 17. At that time she made a decision she now regrets - she dropped out of high school. She wanted to focus on her career, and there are many pages of dialog to memorize for a soap character. (She is now working with a tutor to complete her high school education. She recommends staying in school rather than finishing up later, it is much easier to do it while you are there!). It was like she was on General Hospital that she landed her first major role - "She's Out of Control."

She was also a co-star in many other films, including: "Can't buy me love", "Faith", Rescue Me", and several horror films, such as: "Children of the night", Ticks", Witchboard II", and Pumpkinhead II". On the lighter side, is "Stepmonster", a very cute movie about a kid that is sure his stepmother is a monster.

"Miracle Beach" is the movie most often mentioned by her fans as their favorite. She still has the genie costume from the movie.

Patrick Neville is an American politician and a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from the 45th District, which includes much of Douglas County. A Republican, Neville currently serves as the Minority Leader of the House, having been elected to this position at the beginning of his second term in January 2017.