Gwinnett’s oldest locally owned newspaper - established 1988 Covering Duluth, Peachtree Corners, Norcross, Berkeley Lake, and Suwanee
Vol. 29, No. 5
Larry Hall contributes to Farmers Market page 3
FREE
Brooks Coleman, Representative of the 97th District of the Georgia House of Representatives, is a collector. He’s a collector of treasures, but he also collects people, occupations and accomplishments. He’s a 77-year-young man, if mental acuity and his outlook on life are taken into account. An educator by trade (by his first trade, anyway), Coleman is passionate about both students and educators. Growing up in the Little Five Points area of Atlanta and educated in Atlanta Public Schools, he has seen what hard work, dedication and a love of learning can do in a child, in a school and in a community. Brooks grew up in a loving
home with his mother, Katherine Coleman, who was a role model, teacher, mentor, disciplinarian and educator. “My mother was my SHERO and the inspiration of my life. She was always there for us at all times. “I learned a lot from my childhood movie heroes – cowboys,” said Coleman, whose hands-down favorite was the great Roy Rogers. One of the things Coleman learned from the gutsy men of the West was that you make your own luck; in other words, a person has to take action rather than waiting for luck to smile on him. I was asked onetime to fillin for a speaker who failed to show for a Rotary Club meeting, not sure what to say, so I grabbed a picture of Roy Rogers and talked about the five things I learned from cowboys
See BROOKS on Page 18 Stocking Trout page 12
Gwinnett Pulse 3 Health & Wellness 12 Weddings 15 Classifieds 16
PRESORT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID LILBURN,GA PERMIT NO. 99 ECR-WSS POSTAL CUSTOMER
Special Photo
First STEAM school in the county opened this year in Duluth on the site where Brooks Coleman started teaching in 1963 and where he had his first principals job.
Hudgens Center for the Bomar brings expertise, Arts a hidden Gwinnett gem passion to Gwinnett Village CID
Carolyn Wright Art Matters Art Matters page 15
INSIDE
MARCH/APRIL 2017
Gwinnett’s Brooks Coleman: ‘‘Make your own luck” By Carole Townsend Staff Correspondent
Broadway comes to St Edwards page 11
www.gwinnettcitizen.com
Special Photo
Gallery Visitors take a closer look at Rembrandt’s etchings in the Fowler Gallery last Fall
By Carole Townsend Staff Correspondent Since its organization, the Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for the Arts is operated by the Gwinnett Council for the Arts, Inc and was originally organized by Lawrenceville Woman’s Club in 1981 has grown from a grassroots effort into a thriving mecca for the arts. Housed in several locations over the years, including the Williams House in Lawrenceville and the historic Lawrenceville Post Office. The beautiful facility is currently located at the Infinite Energy Center on Sugarloaf
Parkway in Duluth. When the Hudgens Center for the Arts first moved to Gwinnett Center (now Infinite Energy Center), it occupied 14,000 sq. ft., including 4,000 sq. ft. of gallery space, an education department, and an additional 28,000 sq. ft. comprising the Al Weeks Sculpture Garden along the eastern side of the building. Once the move to Duluth was made, a great deal of effort and commitment were devoted to raising private funds to expand the Center and create the accompanying endowment. As a result, an additional
See HUDGENS on page 6
Marsha Bomar is the Gwinnett CID’s new Executive Director
By Carole Townsend Staff Correspondent Marsha Anderson Bomar is a woman some might call “busy.” But her brand of busy is likely a bit different from most people’s; a self-de-
Special Photo
scribed “serial entrepreneur and lifelong learner,” Marsha Bomar has leveraged her education and experience to launch not just one but several successful businesses. In June 2016, she was brought on board to
See BOMAR on page 2