BELMONT’S SHOW: Keith Mason was soaring high when part of the horse he owns, Keen Ice, finished third in the Belmont Stakes to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Mason and his wife, Twinker, are shown with former President Bill Clinton. Of his horse’s performance, Mason says that he “Thought Keen Ice had the kick for the finish. We were most pleased. He ran the best race run thus far, giving it all he had. American Pharoah is a superhorse. There’s no shame in losing to a Triple Crown winner.” For more photos from the Belmont Stakes track on Saturday, click here.
ISSUE 15.20 | June 9, 2015IN THIS EDITION
TODAY’S FOCUS: Local Non-Profits Get $130,000 from Community Foundation
EEB PERSPECTIVE: People Are There for You If Something Runs Amiss in Your Life
FEEDBACK: One Veteran’s Story and How He Got Help in Gwinnett
UPCOMING: Walton EMC Releases Details of Cooperative Solar Property
NOTABLE: Leadership Gwinnett Announces 40-Member Class for 2015-16
RECOMMENDED READ: Lusitania; Triumph, Tragedy by Greg King and Penny Wilson
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Finally, Gov. Ellis Arnall Pardons Author of Georgia Chain Gang Book
TODAY’S QUOTE: Concerning How Scientists Have Been and Are Today Thinking
LAGNIAPPE: Mike Rooks of Mulberry Park Wins National Trail Award
TODAY’S FOCUS
Community Foundation awards $160,000 in 30th anniversary grants
By Paige Havens
DULUTH, Ga., June 9, 2015 — The Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia (CFNEG) is awarding $160,217 in grants to 33 non-profit organizations in our community as part of the Foundation’s 30th Anniversary celebration. These awards are part of the Foundation’s annual discretionary grant disbursements that are gifted to help non-profit organizations further key projects, programs or community initiatives.
Julie Keeton Arnold, 2015 Grants Committee Chair shares: “Our goal was to award at least 30 grants to honor the Foundation’s 30th anniversary, but we had to stay within our granting budget. Ultimately these 33 grants rose to the top and the committee is very pleased with the final decision.” Arnold continues, “It is always humbling and extremely educational to go through this granting process. It shines light on real needs in our community that many of us don’t know exists. While it’s never an easy task to decide where our limited resources should go, it is so rewarding to know that our dollars are invested in ways that make a real impact in the lives of so many across our community.”
Randy Redner, CFNEG executive director says: “We are able to invest in and help forward the mission of so many worthy organizations. Sustaining grants like these are the lifeline to the day-to-day work of these non-profits. We are always excited when we can infuse the Foundation’s resources back out to the community, because we directly impact lives and enhance quality of life for us all.” Redner continues: “This $160,217 will bring exponential return back to our community and will change the course of many lives for the better.”
Six awards this year were issued as challenge grants, which allows those agencies the opportunity to leverage their grants with other giving to double their fundraising efforts via a dollar-for-dollar match. Redner explains: “As part of the grant application each agency was asked if their project lent itself to a challenge opportunity. Those projects we felt best fit were given this opportunity. Challenge grants are very impactful as they motivate organizations to seek out new support and enable them to show their donors a greater return on investment. The $30,000 we are granting these organizations will be the catalyst for a total of $60,000 in giving back to our community.”
The Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia was founded in 1985 by a group of community-minded citizens to receive and disburse charitable funds for an improved quality of life across northeast Georgia. The Foundation focuses on serving the needs of 10 counties – Gwinnett, Barrow, North Fulton, Forsyth, Clarke, Jackson, Madison, Greene, Oconee and Walton. CFNEG manages funds held in trust, donated by individuals, organizations and businesses. Over the past 30 years the Foundation has given over $56 million back to the community. The Foundation will celebrate its 30th anniversary later this summer on August 22nd at the Gwinnett Center. To learn more about the work of the Foundation, visit www.cfneg.org.
- To see a list of the agencies getting grants, click here. Agencies marked with an asterisk are given challenge grants to multiply their grants.
People are there for you if something runs amiss in your life
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 9, 2015 — In the distance, was that a siren? Waiting among a large group in a medical facility recently for a doctor’s appointment, an ambulance pulled up to the building entrance. That explained the siren. Three EMTs started rolling in a gurney.
About that time a Gwinnett fire truck from Station 15 on Perry Street in Lawrenceville also quietly pulled up to the building, with three fireman joining the EMTs.
A guy in medical clothing saw the grou
p coming in and directed all six guys to the other side of the building from where I was. From previous visits I knew that side was where people visited for medical procedures.
After about 10 minutes, the EMTs came out with a guy about 40 years old sitting up on the gurney. They loaded the person in the ambulance, which pulled away. Shortly the firefighters also drove off.
We never learned what was the specific cause of this incident. We suspect that the person on the gurney needed additional medical attention, and was sent by doctors to the hospital.
* * * * *
Thinking about what I had witnessed, it got me to thinking of what citizens want from their government…..good honest service, efficiently performed, but while staying routinely in the background.
Had Gwinnett not had an efficiently-operating Fire Department, that guy on the gurney may have been in serious difficulty, even though at a medical office. When someone determined he needed emergency movement to the hospital, everything speedily fell into shape for him.
When each of us depart from home each day, whether for work, or out on an errand, or visiting someone, we can be confronted with situations out of our control. When that happens, we are dependent on kind individuals and our local government to assist us.
We may be involved in an accident…..or have our own health problem…..or perhaps we merely slip and fall down while walking toward a grocery store.
Almost always, help arrives. When departing on this trip, we will have had no idea we will soon need assistance. We may not even know who came and provided assistance. But help is there.
Talking to an official of an electric utility recently, he noted that all most of his customers want is service, and for the most part, never think of the utility. The customers never recognize all that routinely goes on to provide them with good service, that maintaining the right-of-way for electric lines costs a lot of time and money, being continually cleared; the poles maintained, and the lines kept free from entanglements. But the customers never think of this.
Customers understand when dramatic events, such as heavy storms, cause power to be out. Most are patient, recognizing that crews work diligently to restore power. But in general, most people never give the utility a second thought until “the lights go out.”
It’s the same way with your government, which includes police, fire and emergency management personnel. And the garbage collectors. Or the courts, or schools, or postmen. These people operate in the background. All too often, we do not realize they are there working for us, nor appreciate them enough. Yet we live in these United States and have these services on call, should we need them.
That man being transported to the hospital and his family are thankful for help being on standby for him the other day. All of us in Gwinnett are fortunate to live in an area where we have good service and good government but never give it a thought! Be thankful! These people are on duty for us. It’s wonderful!
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Story Tells How One Veteran Gets Help in Gwinnett County
Editor, the Forum:
Allow me to give you the story of one veteran and his service to our country, tell about his family, and how he became homeless, then got back on his feet. I’ll call him Bill to protect his privacy.
Over 50 years ago Bill took his grandfather’s advice to earn a degree in electronics where it led to a career with the United States Navy working with sonar. Bill was assigned to his first ship, the USS Adams (DDG-2) where he maintained the electronic equipment.
After two tours of duty on the Adams, working with advanced sonar systems, Bill was assigned to a land based oceanographic station in Big Sur, Calif. His next sea duty assignment was on the U.S.S. Fox (DLG/CG-33), which at the time was stationed off the coast of North Vietnam, during the Vietnam War, as the northern search and rescue ship controlling carrier-launched combat aircraft.
After numerous tours of duty and several re-enlistments, Bill was honorably discharged and returned home. He moved to New Hampshire and was hired by Lockheed where he worked for ten years. He married and had three children. Unfortunately, Bill and his wife divorced.
At the same time, Bill’s mother became ill, was diagnosed with cancer and was told she had six months to live. Bill left New Hampshire to move to Greenville, S.C. to help take care of his mother. He resided there for 20 years until his mother died.
Because of his desire to help others, Bill moved to Georgia in 2013 to help take care of his godbrother, whose health was declining. After helping him for two years, he was asked to leave and find his own housing. Because he spent the last two years as a full time care giver, he had no job nor money to move out. He was suddenly homeless with no place to turn.
He contacted the Veteran Resource Center in Lawrenceville. They advised him of The IMPACT! Group (one of the center’s collaborative partners) and of the housing programs for veterans which The IMPACT! Group provides.
Once accepted into the program, The IMPACT! Group and their collaborative partners were able to assist Bill with rental deposits, utility deposits, moving, furniture and household linens. Now Bill has a place to call “home.” Through our collaboration partners, we’ve been able to assist him in getting a job repairing computers and electronics.
If you would like to help us help our veterans, or know of a veteran who needs help, please go to our website at www.theimpactgroup.org and select the “Support Us” tab or you can mail your tax deductible check to: The IMPACT! Group, 40 Technology Parkway, Suite 180, Norcross, Ga. 30092.
— Tom Merkel, president, The IMPACT! Group
UPCOMINGWalton EMC releases pricing on cooperative solar property
Walton Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) has released details on pricing and availability of its innovative cooperative solar project. The project consists of a one-megawatt solar electricity generation site in northeastern Walton County. The six-acre facility will use 4,280 individual solar panels and is expected to produce approximately two million kilowatt-hours of solar electricity per year.
Only customer-owners who have residences connected to Walton EMC’s electric grid are eligible to receive solar-generated electricity.
Blocks of solar electricity are $25 each per month. Each block is equal to 1/750th of the total output of the project and is expected to produce between 180 and 260 kilowatt-hours per month, depending on the sun’s angle, the time of year, the number of cloudy days in the month and other factors.
Kilowatt-hours produced by the solar electricity units will offset the same number of kilowatt-hours on each participating customer-owners’ monthly bill. Each customer-owner may purchase up to two blocks. Requests for more than two blocks will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Sign-ups are currently open on a first-come, first-served basis by calling Walton EMC at 770-267-2505. Once solar electricity blocks are sold out, customer-owners will be placed on a waiting list.
“Walton EMC customer-owners are enthusiastically embracing our cooperative solar project, said CEO Ronnie Lee. “We’ve had many ask to sign up even before details of the project were firm.”
Cooperative solar projects allow access to consumers who might otherwise be excluded from owning and installing their own solar electricity generation.
Lionheart to present “History Alive” of Norcross’ earlier days
A selection of citizens from the past of Norcross will “come alive again” on June 11 and June 13 to tell their stories and celebrate the town’s rich history since those days. John Thrasher founded the town of Norcross in 1870.
The American branch of the Thrasher family will celebrate their connection to Norcross this year by holding their annual reunion in the area the weekend of June 13. Family leaders contacted Cate Kitchen, the director of the Norcross Welcome Center and History Museum, to ask for her help in arranging a tour of the town that their ancestor founded almost 150 years ago.
When Tanya Caldwell, director of the town’s Lionheart Theatre Company, learned of this request, she immediately moved to participate. She worked with local historian Gene Ramsay to identify seven individuals from the town’s rich history whose lives illustrate the town’s past.
James Beck, of Onion Man Productions, assembled a group of local playwrights to craft scenes for these citizens of long ago. Actors from Lionheart will bring them to life as part of a walking tour through town. Tour participants will meet citizens such as Emma Dodgen, who will tell of farm life and cotton ginning in 1907. Tom Rainey will tell of his 50+ year career working for the Southern Railway, and of his harrowing close call with destruction early in the railroad days in North Georgia.
While the June 13th tour is a private tour for the Thrasher Family, Lionheart is inviting the public for the final dress rehearsal of the tour, which starts at the Norcross Welcome Center at 189 Lawrenceville Street at 7 p.m. on June 11. There is no charge for this event.
Lionheart Theater is very active in Norcross community life, offering a full season of theatrical performances each year at the Norcross Community Center. It is a growing program of camps in theater arts for children and adults each summer and a range of activities in the Lionheart Centre for the Arts, located in the old Norcross Cotton Gin. Upcoming performances include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Frank Loesser musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and the comedy, Laughing Stock, centered on the challenges faced by a local theater company when presenting Dracula and Shakespeare in repertory.
- For more information on Lionheart see their website at http://www.lionhearttheatre.org/
Leadership Gwinnett announces new class for 2015-16
Forty local leaders have been selected for the Leadership Gwinnett Class of 2016 — the 31st class of Leadership Gwinnett’s signature program for established community leaders. The program begins in the fall.
Since 1985, Leadership Gwinnett has ensured that the community’s leaders are knowledgeable about issues, well networked and passionate about the success of the county and region. Armed with new knowledge, connections and perspectives, Leadership Gwinnett graduates are prepared to take their places as effective community leaders. The program year kicks off in August with orientation and will include two overnight retreats, seven learning days covering topics such as leadership in a world class community, infrastructure, economics, education, health & human services, justice and regional relations, as well as monthly study groups, exclusive tours and hands-on experiences.
Patty Heitmuller, general chair of Leadership Gwinnett and director of Leadership Development, Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement, says: “Leadership Gwinnett has been a tremendous success for our county. Since the program’s inception in 1985, 1038 alumni have graduated and many have taken their places in our community as decision makers and role models. Graduates can be found in every aspect of Gwinnett business, civic and cultural life.”
- For a list of the class members, click here.
GaPCOM offers summer camps with a medical focus
Innovative camps with a medical focus have begun at the Georgia Campus – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (GA-PCOM). The five day camp, planned by GA-PCOM’s medical students and supported by faculty members, started June 8 and will introduce students ages 15 and up to such topics as heart anatomy and physiology, diagnosing and treating a heart attack, suturing, physical therapy, the stages of a stroke, as well living a healthy lifestyle, both mentally and physically, and applying to medical school.
Above at right, from left, are First Year Medical Students Giselle Pineiro, Alexander Navone, Nixon Nguyen and Natalie Vukmer are heading up Camp Cardiac and Camp Neuro, which will introduce Atlanta area high school students to careers in medicine. The camps serve as an introduction for high school students interested in exploring a career in medicine.
RECOMMENDEDLusitania; Triumph, Tragedy and the End of the Edwardian Age
A book by Greg King and Penny Wilson
(Editor’s Note: GwinnettForum recently recommended Erik Larson’s book about the sinking of the Lusitania. Here’s a review of another book about this tragedy.—eeb)
“The authors put human faces on the tragedy of the Lusitania sinking. They artfully lace historical facts along with personality sketches of people on the fateful journey. The authors were able to give a voice to people like actress Rita Jolivet, Alfred Vanderbilt, Dorothy Conner, Albert and Gladys Bilicke. all high society personages. There are also descriptions of the accommodations of First, Second and Third class passengers, what they paid, and how those prices compare with today’s prices. Parts were difficult to read…the suffering was palatable, as was the description of the chaos that occurred as people tried valiantly to save their lives…in 18 minutes. The 100 anniversary of the sinking was May 7, 2015. It was worth reading of at a time gone by but with a lasting imprint on the soul of the USA, Germany, England and others pulled into the tragedy of World War I. Illustrations included.”
— Karen Harris, Stone Mountain
An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (100 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. –eeb
GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBITFinally, Gov. Ellis Arnall pardons author of Georgia Chain Gang book
(Continued from previous edition)
Some critics and scholars believe Robert Elliott Burns‘s brother ghostwrote the book, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! Vincent Burns, who was known mostly for his patriotic and religious poetry, served as the poet laureate for the state of Maryland from 1962 until his death in 1970. He also wrote Out of These Chains (1942), a sequel to I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!, and The Man Who Broke a Thousand Chains; The Story of Social Reformation of the Prisons of the South (1968), a memoir of Robert Burns. Vincent Burns later sued his brother for a greater share of the profits received from the book and the film.
A motion picture version was put into production shortly after the book’s publication, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring one of Hollywood’s finest actors, Paul Muni, in the title role. Burns himself went incognito to serve as a consultant on the film. As indignant as Georgia officials were over the book’s publication, they were even more upset over the movie, and they insisted that Warner Brothers drop “Georgia” from the film’s title.
Upon the movie’s release in late 1932—during one of the darkest periods of the Great Depression and days after the election of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt —the theaters could not screen it often enough. A telegram to Warner Brothers in Hollywood told the tale: “fugitive biggest Broadway sensation in last three years stop thousands turned away from box office tonight with lobby delay held four hours stop.”
In spite of its rather stilted script, the film was one of the major achievements of 1930s Hollywood. LeRoy had just completed Little Caesar, the first great work in a new genre, the gangster film, while Muni himself had just completed another classic gangster picture, Scarface. Thus, both star and director were moving from the founding of one genre toward establishing a second, the southern prison adventure. Fugitive was named Best Picture of the Year by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Muni and the film received three Oscar nominations. It was remade in 1987 under the title The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains (HBOFilms, directed by Daniel Mann). Scenes, themes, and motifs from the 1932 LeRoy picture also abound in Cool Hand Luke (1967, Warner Brothers, directed by Stuart Rosenberg).
Burns was apprehended yet again in December 1932 in Newark, but the state of New Jersey refused to extradite him, despite the insistence of Georgia officials. After two other failed attempts to bring him back to Georgia, Burns met newly elected Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall in New York in 1943 and requested a pardon. Arnall arranged to have Burns return to Georgia in November 1945 to face the parole board, where he stood by Burns’s side as his counsel. The board commuted Burns’s sentence to time served. Governor Arnall’s gesture capped an administration devoted to prison reform, including the abolition of chain gangs. Burns died on June 5, 1955, at his home in Union, N.J., where he had worked as a tax consultant.
MYSTERY PHOTOFew recognize lodge at Yosemite National Park
Try this waterfall on your brain. It’s not a major well-known waterfall, but it is beautiful, and some of the GwinnettForum readers have probably seen it. If you think you know where this waterfall is, send your idea to elliott@brack.net, and be sure to include your current home town.
Mike Sweigert of Duluth was first to spot last edition’s Mystery Photo, saying: “I believe this is the Awahnee Hotel in Yosemite.” The photo came from Beverly Lougher of Lawrenceville.
Another recognizing the photo was Bob Foreman of Grayson, who said: “We visited Yosemite National Park about 15 years ago. The photo is of a portion of the Lodge at the Falls. The lodge is quite a bit larger than shown in the photo. The rustic craftsman style design is very appropriate for the park. Yosemite is one of the most beautiful places in the world.”
LAGNIAPPENational trail award
Recently retired long-time Gwinnett County Parks and Recreation employee, Mike Rooks has won the Trail Worker award of the National and International Trails Awards Program, presented recently at the 22nd International Trails Symposium in Portland, Oregon. This award recognizes an individual that has made outstanding contributions and provided consistent support for trail planning, development, or maintenance. Mike Rooks has been with the county since February, 1989, and retired in May of this year as the park foreman at Little Mulberry Park. He routinely repairs and maintained more than 15 miles of equestrian, hiking, and cross country running trails contained within the 900 acre park. Little Mulberry Park is a destination park known for its nationally recognized trails that vary in difficulty and experiences. This park’s trail system has been designated as National Recreation Trails by the Secretary of Interior. From left are David Clark, deputy division director, Park Operations; Rooks; and Charlotte Nash, Board of Commission chairperson.
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