Thief hits Windermere
Money, valuables stolen from vehicles ►►PAGE 2
And the winner is...
Forsyth teacher of the year announced ►►PAGE 4
Poets on display
Singing their hearts out
Cumming Library to have exhibition ►►PAGE 8
Local students compete at theater festival ►►PAGE 7
February 19, 2014 | forsythherald.com | 73,500 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 17, No. 8
SYDNEY RIDINGS STRONG »
Liberty Middle unites to battle childhood cancer By ALDO NAHED aldo@forsythherald.com
ALDO NAHED/STAFF
Emily E. Hennessey shaved her head in support of classmate Sydney Ridings, who is battling Ewing’s Sarcoma.
CUMMING, Ga. — Sydney Ridings is a beautiful 14-year-old with a warm contagious smile, outgoing friendly personality and a bald head. Sydney, who is battling Ewing’s Sarcoma, sparks something in people. Deputy Angie Lively, a Forsyth County Sheriff’s school resource officer at Liberty Middle School, is one of hundreds of people touched by that spark. “Every day, she shows up to school and she just has the sweetest smile on her face and she’s so sick and she never lets anybody know it,” Lively said. “She’ll not have her wig on, she’ll not have her hat on and she’s still so beautiful and so inspiring.” In Ridings’ honor, Lively wanted to help spread the word about a St. Baldrick’s
Foundation event, which funds child cancer research. After putting the call out to fellow sheriff’s deputies, the word spread throughout the community and it has since snowballed. Lively, along with fellow Deputy Tammi Wright, a top fund raiser and resource officer at Forsyth Central High School, began to invite donations and challenge people to shave their heads in support. On Feb. 10, those in support of Ridings convened at Liberty Middle School for a celebration fundraiser for St. Baldrick’s and Locks of Love, which makes wigs for child cancer patients. In all, Liberty and its community raised about $15,000, event officials announced, far surpassing their goal of $5,000.
See CANCER, Page 11
Residents slip, fall, crash during storm By ALDO NAHED aldo@forsythherald.com FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — The latest snow storm did not cause nearly a fraction of the car accidents experienced at the end of January, but many more injuries were reported from people slipping and falling and sledding. Most residents stayed home during this snow storm with only a small number of power outages reported. From 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11 through 1 p.m. on
Thursday, Feb. 13, when the winter weather warning was lifted, the Forsyth County 911 Center handled 793 calls for service, including police-initiated calls. Three weeks ago, beginning Jan. 28 through Jan. 29, when the county experienced its first significant winter snow, there were close to 1,000 calls to 911 during that two-day period. On Wednesday, Feb. 12, the Forsyth County Fire Department responded to four unrelated sledding incidents. For Sawnee EMC, there
were 24 outages, affecting 3,838 consumers in a sevencounty span that includes Forsyth County. “Our longest outage was approximately an hour, most were 20 minutes or less,” said Cindy Badgett, a Sawnee EMC spokeswoman. “We were able to accomplish this because we had crews strategically placed throughout our service area ready to act as soon as an outage occurred. Trees on the lines were the main cause of
See SNOW, Page 5
A Hummer loses control off Peachtree Parkway.
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