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Valerie Montgomery Rice, M.D Page 3
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Whoopi Goldberg
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Volume 85 • Issue 48
Compiled by ADW Staff
East Point’s Salute to the Red, White, & Blue Hometown Celebration The event features a carnival, fireworks and more. Grab your front row seat for the spectacular East Point, Ga.
University of Georgia Study Finds Low Civic Involvement in Georgia By Charlotte Roy ADW Managing Editor
Fourth of July in Atlanta offers a host of traditional activities through which visitors and residents alike can celebrate the nation’s birthday! Along with a burgeoning slate of barbecue and concert options annually, fireworks remain the marquee attraction on July 4th, and Atlanta offers no shortage of locales that wow.
Centennial Olympic Park Centennial Olympic Park illuminates the skies over downtown Atlanta with a vibrant firework display each Fourth of July. Enjoy food and fun from noon until night at Centennial Olympic Park. Bring the entire family for a day of fun, food and the celebration of freedom! Relax on the Great Lawn or splash around the Fountain of Rings, while children enjoy face painting, arts and crafts, inflatables and more. Free musical performances featuring local bands and famous headliners precede the AirTran Airways Fireworks Spectacular, Atlanta’s best fireworks display synchronized to a special selection of patriotic music. Lenox Square For more than a half a century, Lenox Square has celebrated in grand tradition with activities for the entire family, including games for children, musical entertainment, food concessions and the largest fireworks display in the Southeast. Everyone is invited to Lenox Square to experience Atlanta’s historic celebration!
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July 4 - 10, 2013
A Host of Metro Atlanta Events Offered for Yankee Doodle Dandies!
Peachtree Road Race Be one of 150,000 spectators cheering on the 55,000 participants in the nation’s second-largest race. The Peachtree Road Race takes place along the course’s 10-kilometer route from Peachtree Road at Lenox Square mall to Piedmont Park beginning at 6:45 a.m.
Rev. Anthony Evans
fireworks! Don’t miss one of the best fireworks shows in Atlanta. Bring the family down to ride to the top of the Ferris wheel, take a spin on the carousel and bite into a mustard-covered corndog at one of the oldest and largest south Fulton County celebrations. Before the fireworks, big appetites meet their match at watermelon-eating and pie-eating contests, vendors sell funnel cakes and bands rock the evening. When the exploding blossoms of reds, golds, blues and greens fire into the sky above East Point, all eyes are on the heavens and hearts thump to a synchronized musical score. 2757 Main Street East Point, GA 30344, located across from the East Point MARTA station and East Point City Hall. The celebration will take place from 5 - 11 p.m., with the fireworks show starting at 9:30 p.m. 4th of July on Marietta Square Entertainment schedule: All day Arts & Crafts Show • Marietta Freedom Parade, 10 a.m. • Festival, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. •Scott Thompson concert, 12 p.m. • Bell Ringing ceremony, 2 p.m. • Float contest awards, 2:15 p.m. •Greg Bates concert, 8 p.m. • Fireworks, dark Stone Mountain Park Fantastic Fourth Celebration Don’t miss the 46th Annual Fantastic Fourth Celebration! The Atlanta Journal-Constitution readers have voted Stone Mountain Park as the best place in Atlanta to enjoy fireworks during the Fourth of July holiday. Enjoy the Lasershow Spectacular in Mountainvision followed by a special, patriotic fireworks finale on two nights! Included with $10 daily parking permit or $35 annual parking permit.
A new study that experts agree has “created a lot more questions than answers” says Georgia has one of the nation’s lowest levels of civic involvement in activities such as voting and volunteering. The University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government headed the project with several partner organizations to measure how much the state’s Milton Little citizens participate in their communities. They came up with a Georgia Civic Health Index that found communities in the state tend to lag below the national average when it comes to voter turnout and attendance at public meetings. Other indicators, such as interactions with neighbors, were about average. W. Dennis Epps, deputy director of the UGA institute, says he thinks state and local officials will use the results to work “This was a glance toward doing a better job of at the issue that we engaging Georgia citizens. hope will produce But in a recent interview more in-depth with the Atlanta Daily World, Epps noted that the sample review and a size for the study, which used call to action.” Census Bureau statistics, was quite small. “This report was -said Epps meant to be a conversation starter for government and civic organizations,” he said. “This was a glance at the issue that we hope will produce more in-depth review and a call to action.” “I find these study results extremely surprising,” said United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta head Milton Little. “Particularly since we are an organization that depends on thousands of volunteers that run and lead our programs successfully. This certainly bears more study.” Rebecca Rice, of the Georgia Family Connection Partnership, participated in analyzing the study results. She said that while the study did not break down the minority community into specific ethnicities, the percentages of civic involvement of minority and majority communities was essentially equal. However, she notes that urban civic activity, particularly among those with moderate to higher incomes, tended to be generally more active. “There are greater opportunities, more engagement and better outcomes in the larger urban areas,” she said. The urban communities were also more likely to reach out in a general way to assist with city-wide problems, while rural groups were more hands on and relied on neighborhood networking and individual support of one another, she noted. “Don’t forget that the study also included the millennial population,” she said, ruefully. “Sadly, we are a problematic group that is uniquely passive and disengaged.” The Census Bureau produces the numbers for analysis annually, Epps said, which allows regular updates and ongoing discussion.