Dinner at the Flores house is almost always an adventure. Most evenings around the four different-sized folding tables - covered in mismatched tablecloths - sit people hailing from varied spots across the United States as well as guests from across international borders. English and Spanish mix with potatoes and vegetables, tea and red Kool-Aid.

Neighbors, volunteers and pretty much anyone who shows up at dinner time share a table and conversation with Anton and Charlotte Flores and their two children. Their LaGrange home is open, their lives are ready to serve.

It’s that lifestyle that has garnered Anton Flores three nominations by Atlanta Latino newspaper for its annual award of Person of the Year. It’s his passion that caused them this year to name him Person of the Year - the first person from outside metro Atlanta to receive the honor.

Atlanta Latino is the largest independent Hispanic newspaper in Atlanta. The paper, which also runs a Hispanic television station, serves the Spanish-speaking community living in the Atlanta metro area. Each year readers submit names for the Person of the Year award. A panel chooses finalists and the winner.

“Anton has mobilized people. He reaches out and has a clear cultural understanding with Hispanics. That’s something we admire and hope he continues to do,” said Judith Martinez-Sadri, editor in chief of Atlanta Latino. “Immigrants in your community are staying. Americans need to understand why they are here and the issues they deal with every day.”

Flores’ work in three areas brought him to the top of the list, Martinez-Sadri said.

n Last year he organized and led a 50-mile Holy Week pilgrimage from Gainesville to Atlanta to highlight the plight of immigrants.

n He was instrumental in bringing public attention to the mistreatment of immigrants at Stewart Detention Center and helped form the Georgia Detention Watch.

n And he is the founder of Alterna, a nonprofit Christian community of U.S. citizens and Latino immigrants dedicated to accompaniment, advocacy and hospitality.

“His nonprofit goes beyond borders,” Martinez-Sadri said. “We thought it was important to recognize him.”

Flores moved to La-Grange in 1993 to work as a social worker in the Troup County school system. He later worked at New Community Church, then taught social work at LaGrange College.

During that time he met a Hispanic woman who had fallen behind on her utility bills. He helped collect the money for the single mother with three young children to have her utilities turned back on.

“I went with her to the city and paid the bill, but they said to get it turned back on she needed a Social Security number, which she didn’t have,” Flores recalled.

The document had not been required when she first turned on her utilities.

“But she had it turned on before 9-11. The policy changed after that,” he said.

Flores tried to fight the city policy, but was unsuccessful. He was thinking of leaving LaGrange at that time, when a neighbor confronted him.

“She asked me why I would think God is calling me somewhere else when there were so many needs here,” he said.

He reconsidered and in 2006, he left LaGrange College to launch Alterna. He now works full time to bring attention to the rights of immigrants. And every week he welcomes them to his home and his table.

Sherri Brown can be reached at sbrown@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 240.