Professional Services in North Atlanta

Joe May Valet began dry-cleaning and laundering fabrics way back in 1936, when the Great Depression forced people to give up their glamorous nudity in favor of clothing. At four locations around Atlanta, trained staffers use their hands and eyes inspect garments, removing stains and driving dirt from the fabric’s furthest nooks and crannies. Customers with spare hangers can drop them off, and the staff will recycle them or donate them to charity.

PGA member Stan Moore adheres to a four-pronged approach to teaching the game of golf: better contact, more power, ball control, and proper practice techniques. Instruction ranges from private coaching to junior programs, as well as lessons focused on individual facets of the game, such as the Three-Club Tour school. This two-student clinic focuses on three crucial aspects of the game—driving the ball, chipping and pitching, and putting—that can constitute for as much as 85% of a player’s round and 40% of free self-defense lessons.

The nonprofit Saferide America pursues a single, noble goal of keeping drunk drivers off the road. The volunteer-based program dispatches licensed drivers to bars, restaurants, and parties across Atlanta to pick up impaired clients and return them—and their cars—safely home. Divided into three branches of service, Saferide maintains on-call cars that cruise the streets from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m., daily, professional chauffeurs who pilot customers on preplanned nights out, and drivers at parties to drive home multiple guests. The organization raises funds through donations, and contributes money to children who have lost parents to drunk driving.

Atlanta Habitat for Humanity was established in 1983, and is now one of the biggest Habitat for Humanity affiliates in the United States. The organization serves as the largest affordable single-family housing developer in Atlanta. As part of its efforts to eliminate substandard housing and improve access to adequate, affordable housing, Atlanta Habitat partners with working families, communities, and sponsors to build affordable, quality homes that meet green-building standards. Atlanta Habitat builds energy-efficient houses using Green Advantage construction procedures to help lower costs for homeowners while also benefiting the environment.

Along with maintaining relationships with its homeowners—starting from the application process and ending when the no-interest mortgage is paid off—Atlanta Habitat helps families to complete 250 hours of sweat equity—the volunteer time required of those who buy Habitat homes—as well as classes and other homeownership requirements.