Andersonville National Historic Site will commemorate Memorial Day with events that are free and open to the public, beginning on Saturday, May 27 and concluding on Tuesday, May 30.
Memorial Day service activities at the park begin on Saturday, May 27, when hundreds of scouts and other volunteers will place small American flags on more than 20,000 gravesites in Andersonville National Cemetery. The dramatic and moving display of thousands of veterans’ graves decorated with American flags, along with the Avenue of Flags placed by volunteers of Rolling Thunder Chapter Three, will create a powerful and patriotic setting for visitors.
On Sunday, May 28, the Memorial Day Observance Ceremony will be held in Andersonville National Cemetery. The U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence band will perform at 1:30 p.m. followed by the formal program at 2 p.m. The ceremony will feature keynote speaker retired US Army Col. Rob Choppa, and wreath presentations will be conducted by several military, civic and patriotic organizations.
On Monday, May 29, the public are invited to attend two events. The Knights of Columbus will hold a special mass in the cemetery at 11 a.m. At 2 p.m., the public is invited to attend a reinterment ceremony with full military honors for Corporal Luther Story. Corporal Story was a Korean War Medal of Honor recipient whose remains had been unidentified until recently.
Following Memorial Day weekend, park staff are seeking volunteers to help clean up the cemetery on Tuesday, May 30, including the careful removal of the small flags that were placed for the events. For more information, please call Caitlyn Price, volunteer coordinator, at 229-924-0343.
Former Nigerian among 650 graduates of GGC
When she was a young girl growing up in Nigeria, Chenanniah Mac-Cephas wanted to be one of the youngest lawyers ever to pass the bar exam. “That’s what my dad and I would talk about, and that was what I thought at the time would bring me financial freedom,” says Mac-Cephas.
Mac-Cephas
She was on the right track to accomplishing that through much of her youth. Her parents enrolled her in Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) school, and she exceeded the expected goals so much that she was able to skip the third grade.“I was ecstatic,” recalls Mac-Cephas. “I was only seven or eight at the time, but even though I was young, I had so many plans and aspirations. But I soon realized that plans don’t stand up when change pays a visit.”
When she was 10, her family moved from Nigeria to Maryland, and then to Georgia a year later. Despite the challenges of moving to a new country and assimilating into a new culture, she never lost her ambitious work ethic, working at home while the transition was happening.
When starting classes in Maryland, she was told that the extra work she’d done to skip another grade didn’t count in the American system. She would have to stay in sixth grade instead of jumping to seventh.
“This news was devastating. How was I supposed to graduate early? How was I supposed to be the youngest lawyer ever? How was I supposed to achieve my dreams?” says Mac-Cephas. “A year later, my family was packing up and moving to Georgia, and I took this as my opportunity to take summer classes so that I could skip eighth grade and jump right into ninth. I was determined.” She started high school when she was 12 and graduated at 16.
Her goal was to become a patent law attorney, which, much to her dismay, required a background in science. She chose computer science. That seemingly innocuous decision would alter her life path dramatically. After only a few classes, she was hooked on information technology (IT).
Suddenly, becoming a lawyer wasn’t her number-one goal anymore. Mac-Cephas credits her professors at GGC for inspiring her to pursue a career in IT.
Mac-Cephas was among 650 students who graduated in May from GGC. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in IT with a concentration in software development and a minor in film.
“Change is not your enemy or a villain,” she says. “You will end up right where you belong despite any uncertainty you may feel. It is okay for plans to change because on the other side of change is opportunity.” Mac-Cephas is now working as a software developer. She still intends to pursue a law degree and hopes to produce short films.
Jones re-elected to Georgia Transmission board
Jones
Otis P. Jones of Lawrenceville has been re-elected as a director and as secretary-treasurer of the Georgia Transmission Corp. Board of Directors. In addition, he is a Gwinnett member and chairman of the board for Jackson Electric Membership Corp. (EMC). During Jones’ most recent three-year term as a director, Georgia Transmission has invested $568.8 million in infrastructure, completing 299 capital projects, which includes the addition of more than 75.23 miles of transmission lines and the construction of 22 new substations. In addition, the company set a new all-time peak of 10,787 MW used on Dec. 24, 2022. And in 2022, Georgia Transmission incurred no environmental violations and no lost-time incidents for the ninth consecutive year.
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