by Kat Friedmann

 

 

When Linda Karr graduated from the nursing program at DeKalb College in 1971, she began the life she had long planned.

 

 

“I’d always wanted to be a nurse. I guess I never thought beyond that I’d be a nurse,” says Karr. Her childhood plan for a career in nursing had grown even stronger when she volunteered as a “candy striper” at the age of 14. “Going to nursing school was the ideal thing for me.”

 

 

After graduating from DeKalb College (the forerunner of Georgia Perimeter College), Karr carried out her dream, working as a nurse for more than three decades. She started out at DeKalb Medical Center and also volunteered at the American Cancer Society (ACS) when she could, helping educate the public and patients on different initiatives. Her familiarity and volunteerism eventually led her to full-time work at the cancer society. In the mid-‘90s, that job, in turn, grew into a position consulting for hospitals and cancer programs in the Greater Atlanta area, a role she filled for more than 10 years.

 

 

 Then Karr decided she wanted to pursue something new.

 

 

“Nursing has changed a lot,” she says. “From when I went in and spent lots of time with patients, to where there was more paper. You’re spending so much more time away from the patient.

 

 

“I was happy in it for a long time, [but] it was time … to do other things,” Karr says.

 

 

Karr completed a Master Gardener class in 2005 and contributed more than 50 hours of volunteer gardening work. She then changed the course of her life, deciding to open her own business, The Garden Enthusiast—an idea she had been considering since the early 1990s.

 

 

“The hardest part about the initial entry was just making the decision,” Karr says. “It’s a huge commitment. I guess I didn’t think about it that much—going from consulting to retail. [Going from] where you had your own hours and could kind of do what you wanted to, to retail where you’re working seven days a week at all hours to keep the store open. It was a huge change to do that.”

 

 

Karr started The Garden Enthusiast in 2008 as an online retail shop selling gardening tools and bird seed. In April 2011, she had enough money to open a brick-and-mortar shop on Main Street in downtown Tucker.

 

 

“People have been very receptive,” Karr says. “We’ve had people coming not only from Tucker but Stone Mountain, Decatur, Lilburn, even some from Lawrenceville. People will bring their family and friends from out of town. It’s a lot of word of mouth that brings people in.”

 

 

Only a few months after the grand opening of The Garden Enthusiast, Karr found herself reaching out to people again, this time to help improve their businesses. Karr rallied the local businesses of Main Street Tucker by going door to door and encouraging the merchants to come together for the common good of promoting commerce in the area. The result was the establishment of the Old Town Tucker Merchants Association (OTTMA), an organization dedicated to growing the area’s businesses and providing events to attract visitors.

 

 

Since OTTMA’s establishment in 2012, the association has hosted the Tucker Chili Cook-Off, Christmas on Main, concerts and the weekly farmer’s market, Green Market on Main. For the past year, Karr served as the volunteer president of the association.

 

 

“I’ve volunteered with the Gwinnett Habitat [for Humanity] at one point; I’ve volunteered with community associations. I was a volunteer with ACS before I worked with them. Volunteerism has been a big part of my life, she says.”

 

 

Karr has kept that trend going. She spent the past year as the volunteer president of the Georgia Perimeter College Alumni Association.

 

 

“[Volunteering] makes me feel good,” she says. “I always have felt like I was helping somebody … like I was providing something for somebody.”