Katrell Christie opened a tea shop in Candler Park with a kooky name — Dr. Bombay's Underwater Tea Party — not knowing that she would one day visit the region in India that nurtured the beverage she served.
That Darjeeling trip led to another unintended consequence: she became a mentor and a protector for a group of orphaned girls.
Christie determined that they would go to college, and turned her tea shop and her Atlanta connections into a scholarship engine.
She calls the enterprise The Learning Tea and it has helped 11 young women with medical care, safe housing, tutoring and college educations.
The story of her journey is told in a memoir, "Tiger Heart," a book that Christie wrote with Journal-Constitution reporter Shannon McCaffrey. Parts of the story first appeared last year as a two-part series in the AJC's Sunday feature called Personal Journey.
Katrell and McCaffrey will discuss the book and sign copies 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Margaret Mitchel House Museum, in Midtown, 979 Crescent Avenue NE, Atlanta. Tickets are $10. Information: 404-249-7015, atlantahistorycenter.com
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