WGL July-August 2015

West Georgia

LiVing July/August 2015

Life . Art . Music . People

Education!

Pre-K or kindergarten?

School alternatives Lunch lessons Teaching science Plus ...

The crash of Flight 529 The new bossa nova Bacon, bacon, bacon Photos by Ricky Stilley

... And much more!

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Vol. 5/Issue 4

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West Georgia

Li Ving Volume 5 . Issue 4 July/August 2015 Publisher Marvin Enderle publisher@times-georgian.com

Editor Ken Denney ken@times-georgian.com

Advertising Melissa Wilson melissa@times-georgian.com

Photographer Ricky Stilley rstilley@times-georgian.com

Design Richard Swihart rswihart@messenger-inquirer.com

Contributors Taylor Boltz, Bob Coval, Rob Duvé, Liz Marino, Josh Sewell, Marilyn Van Pelt

F r om the E d itor Dear Readers: We’re at the height of summer right now, and that means the kids of west Georgia are out of school and having fun. And while all parents enjoy having their kids around, maybe you are also secretly counting the days when it will be time for them to go back to school.

That’s what this issue is all about: back to school. Education is one of the things we do best in west Georgia. The public and private schools of Douglas, Carroll and Haralson counties consistently achieve a level of excellence that makes our region competitive with far larger systems in the state. We expect great things from the students who graduate from our schools, thanks to the excellent teaching and administrative staff who work hard every day of the school year.

Some of you are old hands at sending your kids off to school; others of you are about to experience it for the first time. We hope all of you will find the articles in this issue both entertaining and enlightening.

If you have kids approaching school age, you may be considering whether to enroll them in kindergarten, or even pre-k. We take a look at the kinds of preparation a young student can expect from both environments. If you are thinking about an alternative for public schools, Taylor Boltz has some options for you. Did you know there was such a thing as “unschooling?”

Neither did we.

Liz Marino takes us on a tour of Winston Elementary in Douglas County, with its rich history and experienced staff. We also examine how science is taught in our region, and how teachers are preparing our students for new technologies in the 21st Century. And we even take a look at school lunches and their importance in helping educate our young people. If you plan on packing a lunch for your child, Taylor Boltz has some suggestions for you.

We also take note of a very serious anniversary for our region. August will mark the 20th anniversary of the crash of Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529, one of the worst aviation accidents in our region’s history. We tell you the story of that flight, the accident and its legacy.

Our chef, Rob Duvé, has a special treat for us with a collection of amazing recipes that all deal with everyone’s favorite side dish: bacon. If these ideas don’t send you to the frying pan, nothing will. We also have a profile of a band that specializes in the bossa nova, a short-lived midcentury musical style that may be making a comeback. And there’s much more besides.

So take our magazine out to the patio with a nice glass of iced tea and watch the kids play in the yard. It’s summertime.

Ken Denney

To advertise in West Georgia Living, call Melissa Wilson at 770-834-6631.

West Georgia Living is a bi-monthly publication of the Times-Georgian.

Submissions, photography and ideas may be submitted to Ken Denney c/o The Times-Georgian, 901 Hays Mill Rd., Carrollton, GA 30117.

Submissions will not be returned unless requested and accompanied with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

West Georgia Living reserves the right to edit any submission.

Direct mail subscriptions to West Georgia Living are available for $24 a year.

Copyright 2015 by the Times-Georgian

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West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

Marvin Enderle is Publisher of West Georgia Living, the Times-Georgian and the Douglas County Sentinel.

Melissa Wilson is the Advertising Director for West Georgia Living, the Times-Georgian and the Douglas County Sentinel.

Ken Denney is editor of the West Georgia Living

Ricky Stilley is the Photographer for West Georgia Living and IT Director for the TimesGeorgian.

ǡ

At Southwire, we believe education is the key to success. Through partnerships with the University of West Georgia (Southwire Sustainable Business Honors Program), West Georgia Technical College (Southwire Center for Manufacturing Excellence), Carroll County Schools (12 for Life) and Carrollton High School (Southwire Engineering Academy), we are helping students build brighter futures.

It’s another way we deliver power...responsibly.

C o ntents 12

16

23

26

54

62 Photos and Cover Art by Ricky Stilley.

On the Cover: Central Elementary School 5th grader Emily Jones in the robotics classroom

F eatures 20 Winston Elementary

40 Photographer Ricky Stilley captures the best of of

34 School lunchroom staffs keep the daily menu both

54 It was a horrific tragedy that stunned west Georgia:

School's hallways are a treasure trove of memories spanning generations flavorful AND healthy

our region in this semi-annual photo essay ASA Flight 529

D epartments Cinema

"10 years" an unheralded sleeper 10

Garden

Ithica Elementary gardening

Food

Nothing is better than "BACON"

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Books

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Back to School

M

an, do I remember summer vacations when I was in school.

The last days of classes would just seem to drag by. There was no air conditioning at Central High School in Carrollton back then, so it was also hot, sticky and uncomfortable in those classrooms. I don’t know how those teachers kept us kids focused – but then, teachers were free to paddle back then.

When classes were finally over, it meant freedom. We’re talking about real freedom here: liberty to run around in the woods, whoop and holler, play baseball and hunt frogs. This was not, by the way, back in the Huck Finn days; it was actually (it seems to me) relatively recently in Carroll County.

Kids today are a bit more acclimated to urban lifestyles. Not only do they sit inside a lot playing video games, but they are also running all over the place for scheduled activities.

Summer break back then meant no scheduled activities, except for those you made yourself: Baseball before lunch; building the fort in the woods in the afternoon; cartoons before supper.

The only thing bad about summer vacations was that they never lasted. It would have been better if it had just ended swiftly and mercifully, but they didn’t. There was always plenty of warning that the new school year was coming.

When the month of August would roll around, regular as clockwork, my mom would organize a trip into town to buy new school clothes. I hated that.

There would be endless jeans to try on, and they were stiff as cardboard tubes in those pre-relaxed fit days. I would have to model dozens of them in front of my mom and the saleslady who was helping us. I remember a lot of disapproving looks.

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I’d have to get new shoes, too. Sneakers – or “tennis shoes” as we called them back then – were not something you wore as a fashion statement. They were a part of your PE outfit, which was another dreaded purchase.

Everyday school shoes were hard-soled, lace-up affairs; usually a pair of previous “Sunday shoes” demoted to everyday use, replaced by a new pair for church.

As we got older, of course, fashion would control more and more of these purchases.

I can’t imagine what my mother thought when, at the edge of the Disco era, I insisted on getting platform shoes and bell bottoms, but she got them anyway.

The first day of school meant a return to routine: A regimented day consisting of homeroom, classes, lunch, more classes, and study hall. It was, looking back, a way of preparing oneself for the regimented days of working for The Man. Except you didn’t have to wear a tie – but, then again, work casual is another kind of uniform.

I think most people remember more of the social life of school than the teaching. I have sometimes even said that I didn’t learn much in school; that most of what I learned came later in college and, later still, from working for other people.

But I wonder if that’s really true. I know I became interested in writing because of a specific teacher in school, and that interest took me on to a career. I learned a little about history and politics too – in fact, it would have been impossible not to, growing up in the shadow of Vietnam and Watergate.

School is the place where you grow up. It’s where you learn about having to be around different kinds of people who maybe didn’t grow up the way you did, believed what you did, or cared about the things you care

KEN DENNEY

about. Going back to school every fall after a summertime of freedom was opening the door to new people and new experiences.

Which is not to say all of these experiences are fun. But learning how to cope with rough days, angry teachers and malevolent peers is also part of education. It’s also good prep for living in the grown-up world of work, which has its own rough days, angry bosses and malevolent co-workers.

When you are in school, you don’t necessarily see the long view. You see only how homework takes away your after-school freedom, how you are forced to deal with difficult subjects, how you must face each new day with the fresh memory of yesterday.

School is the place where you learn to add and subtract, who discovered America, when and how the planets move, and how to modify verbs. You learn all these things to prepare yourself for the outer world where everyone is working from this same, basic body of knowledge Beyond these basics, though, you learn a sense of self and how that self relates to the rest of the world. You learn what interests you from this wide array of knowledge, and you learn where your talents set you apart from others. You learn where you can push boundaries and where you can excel. You begin to glimpse the trajectory of your future life.

The kids across west Georgia who are getting ready now to return to school are only focused on the now, of pushing through the long years of education ahead of them before they get a diploma and leave school behind.

Soon enough they will learn that there is more education to come – that, in fact, their days of schooling will never end; that they will learn new facts, new lessons and more about themselves throughout the rest of their days. WGL

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CINEMA

Photos courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment

“10 Years”

As Reunion Season Begins . . . Remains an Underrated Gem

T

his time of year, the phrase “back to school” doesn’t just apply to kids or stores offering sales on backpacks and notebook paper. We’re also in the season of class reunions, a time when adults put on a nice suit or dress so they can impress friends and adversaries they probably haven’t seen in years. For some, high school was the best time of their lives, while others view it as a nightmare they barely survived.

Plenty of movies have featured reunions as a plot device, like “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” “Grosse Pointe Blank,” “American Reunion” and “The Big Chill” – although those characters were college buddies. But few films have captured the fun and awkwardness of such an occasion like “10 Years,” a little-seen comedic drama from 2011 that deserves a bigger audience.

Something tells me a lot more people will discover it over the next few years simply because of the cast. From that perspective, writer-director Jamie Linden somehow ended

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up making this decade’s version of “American Graffiti” or “Dazed and Confused.” In the brief time since it was released, practically every actor in the film has become a huge movie or television star.

Check out the ensemble cast: Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Chris Pratt, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Mackie, Kate Mara, Aubrey Plaza, Justin Long, Max Minghella, Scott Porter, Ron Livingston, Lynn Collins and Ari Graynor. Even if you don’t know all of those names, chances are you’ll recognize their faces.

The plot sounds simple: a group of old friends meet up to attend their 10-year high school reunion and hang out at a bar afterwards – that’s it. Yet this basic setup allows for a complex web of relationships, desires, regrets and what-ifs to play out over the course of an evening. Some characters get a chance to reveal

JOSH SEWELL

their feelings to old loves, some learn sad truths about themselves, and others discover that the road not taken might’ve led them away from their current happiness.

Nothing earth-shattering happens over the course of 100 minutes; there aren’t any fistfights, car crashes or shocking deaths. Real life doesn’t tend to happen like that. Instead, we get to witness the little dramas most people experience in that situation.

Jake (Tatum) is planning to propose to his longtime girlfriend (Jenna Dewan-Tatum, his wife in real life), but he gets sidetracked when he runs into an old flame (Dawson) and her husband (Livingston). Former jock Cully (Pratt) regrets the way he used to bully certain classmates, so he sets out to apologize – only to revert to his old self after a few drinks.

Reeves (Isaac) has become a famous musician, but he’s taking a break from his tour in hopes that he’ll run into his former crush, Elise (Mara). Then there’s Marty (Long) and

A.J. (Minghella), best friends who find themselves sabotaging each other in their conversations with Anna (Collins), who they always considered the hottest girl in school.

I think part of the reason for the movie’s lackluster box office was a marketing plan that presented the intimate character piece as some wacky “American Pie”-style comedy.

There are plenty of funny scenes, but this movie has a serious side. It’s a fairly realistic depiction of a high school reunion, so what makes the film memorable are those beautiful, well-earned moments between characters that Linden meticulously structures in his script.

Jake’s struggle to align his past and present works because you think it’s going in a stereotypical romcom direction; instead, it leads to a sweet, surprisingly mature resolution.

We’ve gotten so used to Tatum as a comedy and action star, that it’s easy to forget he’s capable of an understated performance like this. He’s got great chemistry in the scenes with his wife (obviously), but his conversations with Dawson’s character are magnetic as well.

Cully’s story arc is another example of Linden’s well-structured screenplay. If you’re watching closely during the opening scenes, you realize Cully’s mission – which falls apart the drunker he gets – is actually destined to fail for a reason that has nothing to do with alcohol. Still, it’s worth his cringe-inducing interactions with former band nerds to see Pratt’s terrific performance and his next-level skill for physical comedy. It’s easy to spot the talent that would go on to make him a superstar in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Jurassic World.” Graynor also delivers strong, subtle work as Cully’s increasingly exasperated wife.

However, the film’s best narrative thread – by far – is the slow reveal of Reeves’ motivation for attending the reunion. Yes, he enjoys getting to see his friends again, but the way he looks at Elise proves this isn’t a surface-level attraction. The two characters exist in their own quiet world while crazier stories are playing out around them, and their attraction is so intense that we feel like we’re invading their privacy by watching them.

When Reeves’ classmates finally talk him into playing his hit song, we hear a single phrase that packs a sudden, emotional wallop. It’s a beautiful moment for both Isaac and Mara, one that I still can’t watch without the room getting a little dusty. Isaac is a brilliant actor, one who excels at playing difficult, complicated characters. But his work here – as a goodhearted, lovestruck guy – remains my favorite.

The movie isn’t without its problems. Some viewers might think it’s boring because of the deliberate pace, designed to give us time to get to know the characters. When it comes to Marty and A.J.’s storyline, I’d be inclined to agree. Any time the movie switches to their annoying rivalry, I roll my eyes and resist the urge to hit the fast-forward button.

There’s a sweet, albeit predictable, resolution to their story, but, wow, does it take forever to get there. That’s mostly because the characters are downright repellant. Long, a solid actor who almost always comes off as likable, does what he can to salvage the role, but he’s hamstrung at every turn by his co-star. I haven’t seen much of Minghella’s other work, but he’s grating here, obliterating the movie’s momentum every time he appears.

I was also disappointed that Porter (terrific in television shows like “Friday Night Lights” and “Hart of Dixie”) and Mackie (now an integral part of the Marvel films) don’t get more to do. They both elevate the flick

whenever they show up, and their characters’ supportive conversations with assorted classmates are far more compelling than other subplots that get more screen time. Looking at you, Marty and A.J. I recommend giving “10 Years” a watch, especially since it’s available for dirt cheap on Amazon. As fall approaches, with its reunions, high school football, marching band competitions, etc., many of us start getting nostalgic for our younger days. Linden’s film is a nice reminder of the fun times we had in high school – as well as the not-so-enjoyable experiences we tend to block out over time.

“10 Years” is rated PG-13 for language, alcohol abuse, some sexual material, and drug use. WGL E-mail: joshsewell81@gmail.com Twitter: @IAmJoshSewell Facebook: facebook.com/josh8199 July/August 2015

West Georgia Living

11

C

hurches OF West Georgia

New Mountain Top Baptist Church, Winston

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Before 1905, there was only one Mountain Top Baptist Church in Winston.

In that year, the membership decided to move the church to another location - but as the time drew near to make the move, some of the members changed their minds and wanted to stay put. So, the memberships created two churches: Old Mountain Top and New Mountain Top. Since then, New Mountain Top has experienced many changes, including a fire, new members and an expansion of its campus on Conners Road. Today, the church is led by Bishop A. Reginald Litman.

PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY July/August 2015

West Georgia Living

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The original sanctuary is now used as a chapel. A historical marker, left, documents the founders of the church.

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July/August 2015

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This was the first day of school in Cindy Bagwell's class at the Early Learning Center

Photos courtesy of Carrollton City Schools

Pre-K, Kindergarten or Kids who are just starting their education may just need all the advantages they can get 16

West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

K

indergarten used to be fun.

Well, of course it still is fun from a kid’s perspective. Who wouldn’t like cutting things out of construction paper, playing games, singing songs, and looking at books with colorful cartoon characters?

If only the kids knew they were really working, and that kindergarten – as well as prekindergarten – is actually serious business.

Educators say that together, these introductions to school add to a child’s learning experience, prepping them for the rigors of actual schooling; an advantage that, in turn,

KEN DENNEY

gives them an edge for college, for careers, for their whole lives, actually.

When most of us were going to school, there were only 12 grades to get through. Now, there are effectively 13 grades. Kindergarten is mandatory in some states, presenting concepts in reading and writing that used to be taught in the first grade. Kindergarten gives kids an essential foundation to their learning process, and pre-k, although not yet mandatory, can be an even earlier jump-start.

Pre-k is not seen as a necessity to many parents, but perhaps they are relying on their own memories of what kindergarten was like for them. Today, by the time a child enters first grade in Georgia schools, he or she is expected to know their letters, their numbers and be able to write five simple,

but complete sentences. That’s a skillset a bit more complex than being able to cut and color within the lines.

for the state. An educated workforce translates into better job opportunities, which in turns leans to a more prosperous economy.

But before a child can even learn the basics of the Three Rs, he or she has to understand some rudimentary things: how to be social with other children; how to respond to adult supervision; how to share; how to accept failure and how to meet challenges.

Parents are no less interested in their child’s success, and that includes a growing interest in giving their child an early start in preschool, starting with pre-k.

These are pretty difficult concepts – there are even a few adults who find them hard.

Children enter the world with no knowledge whatsoever, yet within the first six years of their life, they are expected to get busy on a course of study that will carry them through high school, possibly into college, but definitely for their whole life. Children only have 180 days in kindergarten to master both the social skills and the educational skills to be ready for the first grade.

So, we’re not talking about your father’s preschool anymore; we’re not even talking about your own. For educators in west Georgia, getting kids ready for first grade means children should at least have kindergarten, and preferably both kindergarten and pre-k. Pre-kindergarten, with its focus on socialization, gets kids ready for the kind of intense learning they are going to need to master critical concepts before they enter the first grade.

It’s a pretty daunting challenge – and perhaps terrifying for parents who are anxious

Back in 1960, only 10 percent of the nation’s three and four-year olds were enrolled in a classroom setting; by 2005, 69 percent of all four-year-olds were enrolled in some kind of early childhood program, including state-funded pre-k, the federal Head Start program, government-funded special education programs, and non-public nursery schools or preschool centers.

In Georgia, state-funded pre-k programs served more than 82,000 children during the 2010-2011 school year. During the 2012-2013 term, that number jumped to 84,000 children.

The question of when a child should enter school is complex. It’s not simply a matter of age; it has to do with the development of the child, which encompasses both their mental and social skills.

Karen Wild is principal of Carrollton Elementary School, which maintains an Early Learning Center on its campus, housing pre-k and kindergarten students separately from other elementary school kids. It’s a

good arrangement, she says, because it allows children enrolled in both programs a chance to get used to being in classrooms, the places they are hopefully going to stay for the next dozen or so years.

She sees preschool as a two-stage process, with pre-k serving to get children acclimated to being students in a social setting, followed by kindergarten as a sort of prepschool for first grade: “The design is that children would have the opportunity to begin as a four-year-old in that pre-k setting, then keep up some of the social skills – how to work along with others, how to follow directions when you are in a group rather than having mommy or daddy directing you do something. Expecting direction, and following direction in a group setting, is absolutely out of the norm for them.”

Manners Before Numbers It used to be that first graders learned social skills along with letters and numbers. Now, kindergarten is the place where that happens. If social skills are learned in a pre-k setting, then the kids are free to concentrate entirely on rudimentary academics. Children who come to first grade without either pre-k or kindergarten have to play catchup; maybe throughout their schooling.

or Both? that their child do well in school and have a good head start in life.

Growing Influence of Pre-K Public school systems in Georgia provide public kindergarten, although it is not mandatory. To enter any kindergarten, public or private, a child must be five years old on or before September 1 of the school year. The state also provides funds for diverse kinds of pre-k programs for students who are four years old, on or before September 1.

State law requires every child in Georgia, from ages six to 16, be enrolled in some kind of educational program, public, private or homeschooling. The fact that there is state law, and public support for education, is a measure of how education is a priority

Carrollton has a unique situation of being able to host a homecoming parade on campus and that all students pre-K-12 are able to attend. Here is a shot of kindergarten students waving gold and black pom-poms.

July/August 2015

West Georgia Living

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“By the end of kindergarten, the expectation is that children will write five sentences and those five sentences are centered around one topic, and are connected,” Wild said.

“So you can’t just say ‘I like my dad;’ ‘I like a tree;’ ‘I eat popcorn.’ It would be along the lines of ‘I have a puppy,’ ‘his name is Spot,’ ‘we play outside.’ That is the goal by the end of kindergarten.

“However, coming into kindergarten, we have children whose ‘writing’ is drawing a picture. There are no letters or words. We have children that have begun to realize that writing has letters, but they scribble – they are not perfect letters, but they know that writing is something different from drawing a picture. And of course we have other children who will actually write letters and even some who, to some extent, can form the right words.”

The problem with expectations is that they sometimes run headlong into reality. The fact is, children develop skills at different, individual rates. They have to be nurtured according to their abilities. One four-year old may have the poise and panache of a six-year-old; his seatmate, however, may be lagging developmentally.

“There is the argument, or the belief I guess, that until the mind is at a developmental level that it’s ready to do that, it doesn’t matter what the teacher does. So it’s really a tough place to be as a teacher, because you want to honor the learner, but also want to prepare them for the next step.”

One advantage of pre-k is that classes take place in a closer, more intimate setting. At Carrollton Elementary’s Early Learning Center, there are only four pre-k classrooms, serving a total of 22 children – compared to 18 kindergarten classrooms. The smaller the class size, of course, the more individual attention the students receive.

“Part of our day has a small group time, and the teachers use work time and read-aloud times to assess the children’s readiness for looking at letters or looking at words, or working with numbers.”

Becoming an Independent Thinker When you were in school yourself, it may have seemed as if each grade was its own goal. You had to pass first grade to get to second grade, to eventually get to 12th grade. You may not have seen the larger goal of turning you into a successful adult, and perhaps there was no organized structure back then. But if that was ever the case, those days are long over.

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The Early Learning Center opened this school year. In August, the Carrollton Board of Education toured the facility, designed for the system's youngest learners. This picture of Dr. Jason Mount, a member of the board, puts in perspective how small the furnishings are.

Curricula in public schools can be a controversial subject. But whatever kind of educational standards you are talking about, educators today are interested in staging education in such a way as to prepare a student for the World Beyond School. Think of schools nowadays as a sort of assembly line, with each student passing from grade to grade, getting new skills installed along the way.

Teaching has also changed. The goal now is to turn out a student who can basically teach himself; a person who has learned how to ask questions, reason out solutions and evaluate results.

“Sometimes at the school, we have conversations about that,” said Wild. “Are we creating an environment where students are dependent on teachers to do the thinking, or are we creating a learning environment where students will be able to be independent thinkers? And that requires allowing them to make mistakes.”

Making mistakes can lead to disappointment – and that means hurt feelings.

Parents who hover over their children like helicopters, ready to whisk away even the slightest adverse experience for their child, may not like hearing that. But making mistakes only hurts a child's education if the child fears making them. That sense of fear is something they learn, and not necessarily from their teachers.

“Fear blocks learning stronger than any other thing,” Wild said. “That’s why we really have to focus on providing a safe environment; and by that I mean the way that

our adults speak with our children, the way that they give directions, the way that they give re-direction. Because these kids are going to make lots of mistakes; it’s brand new to them, and we have to work on being patient.”

“We certainly respect that the parents have their children’s best interest in mind,” she adds. “But oftentimes if we, hand in hand, help children to be confident, our kids adjust very quickly to the school setting.”

••• To live in the 21st Century, with all the technological advances and changes in social structure, today’s kids will need every advantage they can get. That certainly means a quality education, one that will turn them into independent thinkers, with the ability to critically analyze all the facts and possibilities flying at them in a tumultuous world. Yes, they will be able to find the answers to a lot of problems on Google – but they will have to use their minds to figure out which of those answers is correct.

The modern world demands that children hit the ground running, ready to start performing in the first grade and run the race through to their senior year – and then it will be up to them to see how much further they can go.

A preschool education that meshes with those goals is not only an advantage for them, it’s an advantage for us all. WGL

L

asting egacy

W

andmark Winston Elementary School steeped in generations of history

inston Elementary School is the tie that binds generation upon generation of families who call the once incorporated town home.

Although very little written history remains on the school, Winston Elementary was started in 1925, making it one of the oldest – if not the oldest – public elementary school in Douglas County.

At any rate, Winston Elementary School celebrates its 90th year in 2015.

The school has gone through four different mascots in its history: the Raiders, the Wizards, the Warriors and the Wildcats, its current mascot.

The newest thing about Winston Elementary School is its principal, Dawn Taylor, a Winston resident, who begins her second year as principal of the landmark school.

Taylor has 21 years experience in education, most recently serving as assistant principal at nearby Mason Creek Elementary for five years.

A little about the Winston community itself: It runs along U.S. Highway 78 in the western portion of Douglas County along the railroad 20

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between Douglasville and Villa Rica.

According to the late librarian and historian Fannie Mae Davis in her 1987 book, “From Indian Trail to Interstate 20,” Winston was first known as Weddington, later Winn Town and finally Winston, named after James Henry Winn, a prosperous merchant, in 1887.

The highest point in Douglas County lies within the Winston community at Andy Mountain, towering 1,329 ft. above sea level.

Few remnants of past days still remain.

Once an agricultural community, Waldrop Farm continues to raise beef and sells other products at a quaint produce market on the farm’s property.

A number of familiar names whose families have roots in Winston to this day include Waldrop, Pope, Johnson, Camp, Strawn, Payne, Thompson, Sparks and Polk. Some have children – and even grandchildren who attend the 90 year old school.

Flipping through the oldest remaining docu-

STORY BY LIZ MARINO PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

ment in the school’s archives is a scrapbook dated 1960-1961. Among the youthful faces were notables Douglas County Probate Judge Hal Hamrick and County Coroner Randy Daniel.

According to an old newspaper scrapbook clipping, Daniel recalls being in Eva Mae Waldrop’s fourth grade class when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. A note: Waldrop taught at Winston for 44 years before retiring in 1972.

Special Education Teacher Meredith Strickland McTyre, named the 2013-2014 Winston Teacher of the Year, has deep roots at Winston Elementary. The 20-year teacher’s first year at Winston was in 1974. She has taught in one of her old childhood classrooms.

She is one of many faculty and staff members to have attended the school as a student and returned as an employee there.

First Grade Teacher Lynn Morris was a student at Winston from first through fifth grades. She has taught at Winston for 18 years.

Her father, Richard Boatright also attended Winston as a child. He says that he went to school in the original building but

when the school first opened, it was multigrade and warmed in the winter with potbellied stoves.

Boatright believes he was in either second or third grade when they built individual classrooms.

Custodian Troy Whitehead has worked at Winston Elementary for 34 years. The 67-year-old recalls a school for black children on Mattie McKoy Lane, also called Winston Elementary, which closed in 1958.

The original portion of the current facility was demolished during one of many renovations and expansions. The former second grade building had to be torn down because the wooden floors were caving in.

A lot of people drive down Highway 78 and see WESCO on the school sign and wonder what it means. Moore explains that it stands for Winston Elementary School Community Organization, and that the school was incorporated in 1996. Winston is the only school in the county to be incorporated.

Once trailers littered the school grounds when the population rose to about 800 students.

“Bright Star, North Douglas, Mason Creek and Mirror Lake have all opened since I came here 25 years ago,” says Moore. “At

one time, we were the only (elementary) school from here to Beulah.”

With the opening of Mason Creek Elementary, the population at Winston shrunk to around 435 students, making it the smallest school in Douglas County – at least for awhile. They were bumped up a notch due an enrollment decline at Dorset Shoals Elementary.

Winston can boast the highest test scores in the county, says the counselor, and ranking in the top 50 in Georgia among all elementary schools.

The latest renovation was in 2012. The oldest portion from the 1950s has become the cafeteria, according to Tricia Moore, school counselor for 25 years.

She recalls the many changes in education during her quarter-century tenure at the school.

“When I first came here as counselor, there were no counselors in Paulding County where I had previously taught,” says Moore.

“Douglas County was one of the first counties to have counselors in schools.”

School counselors were not mandated by the state prior to 1990.

“Computers were a big change,” says Moore.

“I did the school newsletter and had to cut out things. It would take a week to do a newsletter, which now takes an hour.”

From left, Bridgette Bias, Dana Jennings, Renee Hodges, Lynn Morris, Shelly Moreland, Tina Joiner and Meredith McTyre, all attended Winston Elementary when they were children and have returned to work at the school.

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At right is one of the oldest wings of Winston Elementary School.

Geographically and demographically, Winston has beaten the odds, as most of its students feed from the more rural and lessaffluent Corn Crib, Governor’s Ridge and Mann Road areas.

Surprisingly, Winston also can boast a wellbalanced and diverse group of students, made up almost equally of white, black and Hispanic children. An ESOL teacher, Ginny Head, works with students who are mastering the English language. WGL

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Remote Video 22

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TEACHING

Photos courtesy of Carrollton City Schools

SCIENCE

W

hen a lot of us were in high school – back in the previous century – science classes were different. Sure, we learned about the planets and some chemistry and biology, but it was part of a general curriculum. Aside from passing the courses, there was not much expectation we would get more than a fundamental understanding of how the world works.

What a difference a couple of decades make.

Since today’s parents (and certainly grandparents) graduated, America has accelerated on the road to a technological economy.

Virtually every type of business relies on the internet; social interaction and commerce occur in virtual worlds. Today’s kids are immersed in an environment that baffles some of us; their careers will likely involve technologies that are only now emerging.

Today’s public school students will spend their lives in the 21st Century, where science, technology, engineering and math skills will be more important than ever

Back in the day, kids could get by on science fair projects that explored what happens to plants that don’t get water. Today, even the term “science fair” is passé; now it’s “science

KEN DENNEY

and engineering fairs,” and kids who haven’t yet given up playing with action figures are winning prizes for studies of microbiology, robotics, and physics.

Getting kids ready for their future is, of course, the job of teachers – and nowadays that especially means science teachers. The methods of teaching science have changed: instead of drilling students with facts that they are supposed to memorize and repeat as if on command, science teachers help their students learn in a much more organic and natural way.

Getting Kids Interested If you think about it, some of the first questions any child ever asks are science related.

Why is the sky blue? How to birds fly? Why do we have a winter?

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expect students to know about the world, and a consensus among science educators on how to meet those goals.

Along with being a School Improvement Specialist for Douglas schools, Pam Walker was the 2007 Georgia Teacher of the Year, and was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue as a commissioner on the Professional Standards Commission, which shepherds educational policy matters. She knows a thing or two about science standards for the state’s public school students.

International Baccalaureate students conducted a genetic study using plastic pop-beads. Tim Hawig, CHS science teacher, had received a grant from the Carrollton City Schools Education Foundation to fund the experiment. The student is senior Lylliana Menjivar-Couch.

Yet, sometime between those first questions asked of parents, and the time kids enter middle school, that spark of curiosity is often extinguished. Getting kids interested in learning science is critical to how successful they will be able to navigate the World of Tomorrow, and that means teachers have had to change their instructional methods.

“We want students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers rather than just gathering information and memorizing things,” said Pam Walker, School Improvement Specialist for Douglas County schools, and the person who guides teachers in developing their science classes.

“Instead of teaching the class, they are going to facilitate the learning process. I think that’s what’s so important today in science education; is that the teacher must go from being a direct instruction teacher to becoming more of a facilitator, because that’s really how our students learn.”

Learning by doing is the approach taken by some young students at Central Elementary School in Carroll County. They are members of a robotics class, where they put together what is essentially a sophisticated toy robot and then program it to do some amazing things.

It may seem like fun to the children, but the play actually helps develop their minds, says teacher Lesley Greene, one of several instructors who guide the fourth and fifth graders. Once the robots – literally made 24

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of Lego bricks, gearboxes and sensors – are put together, the students then hook them up to a laptop, and use a basic programming language to instruct the robot how to navigate an obstacle course the teachers have taped to the classroom floor.

Clearly, the students get an idea of programming from the exercise, but it is more than that. The students must also use math and other science skills to calculate how many rotations of a wheel will carry a robot a certain distance; how and when to instruct the robot to move; and turn within a fixed dimensional space.

But the most important lesson the kids learn is how to fix problems. As anyone who deals with technology knows, computer systems can be buggy; what a machine does may be something you did not expect it to do. When the robots don’t behave, the students have to figure out why, opening their problem-solving skills on multiple layers.

What to Teach?

Teachers have pretty much figured out now how to make kids interested in science, and to keep them interested. What’s in flux right now is exactly what they should learn, and how.

This goes beyond certain political issues in the news about science – evolution and climate change, for example – it has more to do with what state and federal governments

Science in Georgia schools now follow the Georgia Performance Standards, a series of protocols that, in terms of science education, determines several “benchmarks for science literacy.” Some state science teachers, Walker included, wish the state would conform to a more structured practice, specifically one laid out by the National Research Council and called the Next Generation Science Standards.

It may seem a battle between buzz phrases, but while the Georgia Performance Standards discuss what “science literacy” looks like, the Next Generation standards, Georgia teachers say, provides a clear roadmap on how to achieve it.

“The National Standards were based on learning progression, so that an elementary teacher would lay that foundational knowledge, and then the middle school teacher would know what that elementary school teacher taught, and then they in turn would lay the foundation for high school. So it’s a very seamless, progression,” says Walker.

Walker says the Georgia Standards are 10 years old and the state is now taking teacher feedback on whether they should be updated, specifically to conform to the national standard. Until the differences are worked out, standards for teaching science in the state will be in flux.

“I feel like, in Georgia, we want to be as closely aligned to those as we can, because we want produce our students who are good stewards of science education and are going to perform as well as they can in the universities that they will later attend.”

STEM Education When a student leaves public school in Georgia, he or she will pursue educational and career opportunities wherever they may find them, and that very well may mean going out of state. This means that Georgia students have to be competitive with graduates from the other 49 states who will be

This is the class of juniors and seniors who were SWEA interns for 2014-2015. The juniors will return to school as team leaders. vying for those same opportunities. No one wants a Georgia student passed over for a job simply because another state has a more comprehensive science curriculum.

To even out the career playing field, the Georgia Department of Education has been ramping up teaching in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – which form the acronym STEM. Whatever standards – or goals – state educators eventually settle upon for teaching science, the emphasis on STEM education will continue.

“I think that when the standards are ironed out, I think we will find there will be a large connection to the STEM area,” Walker said.

At Bremen High School in Haralson County, educators are finding unique ways to combine the sciences into interactive learning experiences. They still teach physics in physics class, and math in math class – but in Bremen, the students of both classes get to mix and mingle, do experiments, solve problems together, and learn how the two sciences mesh with one another.

That’s the essence of what STEM education is: getting students to mentally see how diverse fields of science are connected, then using those insights to work out real-world problems. It’s sort of an applied application of sciences that adults might only appreciate late in life.

Most of us learned algebra in high school and, since graduation, have found we got along fine without it. But at some point, when we are trying to solve a particular type of problem – designing a swimming pool for the backyard for example – we suddenly discover there actually is a practical use for algebra. Students who learn early in life how to apply diverse fields of science to equally diverse problems will become employees who will be highly

sought by 21st Century employers.

To promote programs like Bremen High School’s, various groups create curricula for classrooms. One of these is Project Lead the Way, which will sponsor STEM education in 10 of Douglas County’s 20 elementary schools this school year.

“I think that we’re definitely moving toward the direction that we’re going to see science going,” said Walker. “No longer can we just look at it as science, but we have to look at how science, technology, engineering and math are all woven together.”

Diversity Education Despite the advances in science education, society still clings to stereotypes that might hold students back. We’re not talking about kids fearing the label of “nerd”; this is about science being a subject for certain groups only, such as white men.

Colleges and universities like to recruit new students with promotional materials that have pictures of students doing things, including working in science labs. Too often, some critics say, these pictures have too many white faces, and use minorities as “props.” A typical such image shows an earnest white man actively doing an experiment, while a woman or minority – if they are shown at all – stand in the background, looking on. Such stereotypes nurture the notion that science is an exclusive club, to which some have no admittance.

The New York Times has reported that although women make up half the workforce, only 26 percent of jobs in science, technology, engineering or math. African Americans make up 11 percent of the workforce, yet hold only 7 percent of those

postions. Educators fear that beyond stereotypes, the main obstacle to a more diverse science class is simply access to education.

School systems across the state – and across the country – are actively seeking to diversify science education to be more inclusive of women and people of color. It fits in with the idea that STEM education creates what educators call a “pipeline” of digitally and technically literate people, moving directly from the classroom to gainful employment.

In the robotics club at Central Elementary School, you will find an equal split between girls and boys. And in the Douglas County system, Walker says, there is a robotics club that consists only of girls.

Reformers would like to increase the economic investment in public education – but that runs up against the buzzsaw of politics. State and local governments often talk about education, but the practical costs of funding inevitably turns on taxes; a difficult subject to discuss in the best of times, much less in a time of recession.

••• Politics and education do sometimes mix, affecting both the funding of schools and the subjects taught there. Science is often at the forefront of these debates.

Yet it remains true that the students of today will spend their whole working lives in the 21st Century, which means they will live in a world fundamentally different from the ones in which their parents and grandparents now live and pay taxes. Their jobs and their future depend on their ability to navigate today what will become the sciences of tomorrow. WGL July/August 2015

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Grayson Dickson comes 'alive' when the blanket is pulled away by teacher Kelly Zeid as the rest of the Oak Grove Montessori class sings “Somebody’s Hiding Under the Blanket.”

Alternatives to Public School W

hen it comes to educating children, public schools seem an obvious choice for many parents. There are other options, however – choices that are not limited to private or charter schools. There’s Montessori, or Montessori-style schools; there are also homeschools, and there are even “unschools.”

All of them emphasize self-directed learning with an emphasis on both the basics and encouraging a child to follow their individual strengths and interests.

Montessori A lot of parents may have heard of Montessori schooling, but the concept behind the name may be unfamiliar, especially to parents who attended public schools. For those who want their children nurtured at their own speed, it can be an attractive option.

“It is much more organized than traditional 26

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school,” said Dr. Rebecca Harrison of West Georgia University. “Everyone has a purpose and routine.”

Maria Montessori (1870-1952), an Italian doctor and educator, developed a teaching system for children who needed more attention within the education system to the “standards.”

Ioan Huxley, left, and Ardis Lowe work on an exercise that helps them learn to count in Lola Sanders works on multiples of five. a geography lesson

Montessori schools are broken up into levels: Pre-k through kindergarten; first through third There are two different sections of Montessori grade; fourth through sixth grade, and so on. schooling: AMI, or Association Montessori There are some schools in the United States International, and AMS, or American Montes- that continue through high school, but Montessori Society. Both require their schools to have sori schools in west Georgia go only through rigorous accreditation and specialized teachers. the fourth grade, preparing their students to Harrison, an English Education Professor at then enter public or private school. Classes are UWG, weaves Montessori pedagogy into her conducted in two three-hour work cycles, with internship class, teaching her students how a recess-like break. to utilize the Montessori teachings in public schools.

“There are typically two teachers per room,”

STORY BY TAYLOR BOLTZ PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

Harrison said, “But it’s designed to give older students a mentoring opportunity.”

The lead teacher constantly walks around with a clipboard, taking notes. The second

teacher offers redirection when a student gets off task, unless an upper level student can step in and help give a lesson.

“I was never antischool,” Morris noted. “I just wanted to be with (the kids) more.”

Ruby Erben works on a classroom assignment while Hagen Russell gets one-on-one help from teacher Adria Jackson.

The co-op provided a path for the parents to follow, “like college for high school,” Morris said. “(The parent) acts (the student’s) guidance counselor, picking classes and understanding prerequisites.”

“Collaboration is key; students work together and this teaches compassion and citizenry,” Harrison said. “It’s very hands on. Kids learn by doing, through movement and cognition.”

Montessori schooling follows the development of the child themselves, allowing freedom so they might take more initiative in their education.

“In the lower school, (students) pick what (they) want to learn for the day,” Harrison said. “The teacher monitors that. In the Elementary program, they will probably give a weekly plan.” She explained that it is left up to the student to meet their goals by the end of the week.

By dividing the school levels into three-year pockets, students get three years to all be on the same page, understanding that students learn differently from one another, and at their own speed. This is important for students to retain what they have learned.

“There is no grading,” Harrison said. “(Students) internalize learning if there’s no external motivation. To be a truly curious person, who’s always learning, you need to be intrinsically motivated. But you have to learn the work.”

“It’s old-school in a really positive way. What (Montessori) underscores is long processing skills,” Harrison said. “And the class is responsible for navigating (any communal) resources.”

This leads to students learning to be respectful of their education, curious, and individually motivated. This prepares them for higher education, in which students are expected to hold an academic discussion and to delve deeper into a topic of their choosing.

Home Schools While Montessori schooling is expensive and requires children to be brought in at an early

age, it isn’t the only option for self-directed learning. There’s also homeschooling.

Just as the name implies, this option involves parents educating their children inside the home, with the parent or a tutor doing the instruction. Many parents prefer this method because it concentrates on the individual level of the children, and allows themselves to be more involved in the daily life of their child.

There are numerous resources available to parents who homeschool, but some parents – especially those who struggled through school themselves – might feel intimidated at the prospect of, say, teaching pre-calculus to their kids. For those, there is help: Cooperative Educational Opportunities, or co-ops, that supplement the traditional homeschooling experience.

Sandy Morris, of Carrollton, never intended to homeschool her daughters Jenna and Brianna through high school, but she began working with a co-op early in their education specifically because she felt upper level math was beyond her skill level.

“The co-op was customizable,” Morris said.

“It’s individualized. (They could) find (their) path, or fit school to (the) child.”

Jenna and her now-husband Evan attended the Koinonia co-op in Villa Rica. It was the second co-op for both; Evan began at Wisdom’s Way in Douglas County, and Jenna at Lighthouse Classical Homeschool Academy in Carrollton, and both found the experience fabulous.

The co-op experience prepares the students, therefore, for college by allowing students to choose those classes that suit their interests, and to self-direct their learning.

But it wasn’t just reading and writing; while at Koinonia, Jenna and Evan had the usual social experiences of high school: proms, student council, and other opportunities.

“It’s a more well rounded experience in home schooling,” Morris said. “I got to pick people to be a part of (my children’s) lives. (You have to) look for people whose personalities you can get along with.”

“The teacher is more of a tutor,” Jenna said.

“They give assignments and you see them one or two days a week.” “(Parents) get involved and are right there with the students,” Morris mentioned. She herself got involved with proms and such socialization events, while other parents taught her children things she couldn’t.

Unschooling If homeschooling and co-ops aren’t for you, there’s another alternative: unschooling.

The term itself may sound radical, rooted as it is in its 1970s founding. It relies on a selfdirected educational approach, just as both Montessori and homeschools, but it seeks to educate without the standard curricula and grading methods of traditional schooling.

Critics say this is “the easy way out” for students and parents alike, yet there are different levels of unschooling, from radical - with not July/August 2015

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a single book - to a more organic approach, in which books are allowed for certain subjects like math or science, and in which parents may guide their children.

But let’s back up for a minute and lay out what unschooling actually is.

“It’s more of a lifestyle,” said one unschooling parent who asked not to be identified. “The parent is taking on more of the role of facilitator.”

Though this parent felt uncomfortable with the idea of no school books at all, she did want her children to have a say in their education, which is the fundamental philosophy of unschooling.

“When we do, say, American history, we’ll do literature and history at the same time and let (the children) choose the literature to read. We compare the two, versus just doing dates and facts,” she said, which offers a deeper understanding of the time period.

She calls this style more organic, because it follows the development of the child, much like Montessori.

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“It’s important to let children play. My children will take board games and change the rules to make them harder, playing Scrabble by using only literature words (or things like that).” “(Unschooling) takes away all the labels (of traditional school,” the parent said. It also liberates children from an institution that she and other unschooling parents feel suppress their learning instincts.

Homeschooled children often score higher on standardized tests – and so do unschooled children, she said, and the numbers of unschooled children are growing.

She noted, as well, that in the late 70s, there were 13,000 students kindergarten through grade 12 being homeschooled. That number has jumped to between 1.2 and 1.7 million, proving homeschooling to be a growing alternative to public school.

“Teaching to test is not learning,” she said, “but regurgitating.”

••• Indeed, there are many criticisms of the public school system, especially in regards to putting

pressure on children to pass certain tests, and forcing teachers and school administrators to results-oriented curricula.

But there are alternatives that allow students to proceed at their own pace, and within a nurturing environment, whether from dedicated tutors to the parents themselves. The goal of all these alternatives is to instill in each student a an educational work ethic that fosters individual curiosities and thoughts. WGL

RESOURCES For Montessori schools around west Georgia: privateschoolreview.com For information about Montessori education: amshq.org/Montessori-Education “Montessori Today: A Comprehensive Approach to Education from Birth to Adulthood” by Paula Polk Lillard.

Listings of homeschool co-ops in Georgia may be found at: Homedirectory.com Homeschoolcentral.com For information on unschooling: “The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School” by Valerie Fitzenreiter.

Unschooling.com

WEST GEORGIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS CARROLL COUNTY City Schools Carrollton Elementary School Principal: Karen Wild 401 Ben Scott Blvd Carrollton, GA 30117 770-832-2120

Carrollton High School

Principal: Dr. Mark Albertus 202 Trojan Drive Carrollton, GA 30117 770-834-7726

Carrollton Junior High

Principal: Dr. Todd Simpson 510 Ben Scott Blvd.

Carrollton, GA 30117 770-832-6535

Carrollton Middle School

Principal: Dr. Andre Touchard 151 Tom Reeve Drive Carrollton, GA 30117 770-830-0997

Performance Learning Center Principal: Aprill Jones-Byrd 510 Ben Scott Blvd.

Carrollton, GA 30117 770-836-2842

Mount Zion Elementary School

Temple Elementary School

Elementary Schools

Principal: Cindy Parker 260 Eureka Church Road Carrollton, GA 30117 770-832-8588

Bowdon Elementary School

Providence Elementary Elementary

Villa Rica Elementary School

County Schools

Principal: Lorie Teal 223 Kent Avenue Bowdon, GA 30108 770-258-2161

Central Elementary School Principal: Tony Childers 633 Stripling Chapel Road Carrollton, GA 30116 770-832-6466

Glanton-Hindsman Elementary School Principal: Beth Chandler 118 Glanton Street Villa Rica, GA 30180 770-459-4491

Ithica Elementary School Principal: Brad Corbett 75 Whitworth Road Villa Rica, GA 30180 678-840-5101

Principal: Dr. Terie Smith-Phillips 287 Rainey Road Temple, GA 30179 770-537-8100

Roopville Elementary School Principal: Cherri LeBlanc 60 Old Carrollton Road Roopville, GA 30170 770-854-4421

Sand Hill Elementary School Principal: Carla Meigs 45 Sand Hill School Road Carrollton, GA 30116 770-832-8541

Sharp Creek Elementary School

Principal: Deaidra Parks Wilson 115 Old Muse Road Carrollton, GA 30116 770-214-8848

Principal: Tricia Denny 95 Otis Street Temple, GA 30179 770-562-3076

Principal: Charles T Johnson 314 Peachtree Street Villa Rica, GA 30180 770-459-5762

Whitesburg Elementary School

Principal: Dr. Marissa Ogando 868 Main Street Whitesburg, GA 30185 770-832-3875

Middle Schools Bay Springs Middle School 122 Bay Springs Road Villa Rica, GA 30116 770-459-2098

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Bowdon Middle School Principal: Scott Estes 129 Jonesville Road Bowdon, GA 30180 770-258-1778

Central Middle School

Principal: Glen Harding 155 Whooping Creek Road Carrollton, GA 30116 770-832-8114

Mount Zion Middle School

Principal: Connie Robison 132 Eagle Drive Mt. Zion, GA 30150 770-834-3389

Temple Middle School

Principal: Gail Parmer 275 Rainey Road Temple, GA 30179 770-562-6001

Villa Rica Middle School 614 Tumlin Lake Road Temple, GA 30179 770-459-0407

High Schools Bowdon High School

Principal: Travis Thomas 504 West College Street Bowdon, GA 30108 770-258-5408

Central High School

GOAL Program

Principal: John Jacobs 1095 Newnan Road Carrollton, GA 30116 770-830-5012

Mount Zion High School

Principal: Tracey N. Barrow 280 Eureka Church Road Carrollton, GA 30117 770-834-6654

Temple High School

Principal: Jared Griffis 113 Central High Road Carrollton, GA 30116 770-834-3386

Principal: Karen Suddeth 589 Sage Street Temple, GA 30179 770-562-3218

College and Career Academy

Villa Rica High School

Principal: Cindy Clanton 1075 Newnan Highway Carrollton, GA 30116 770-832-8380

Principal: Adam Herring 600 Rocky Branch Road Villa Rica, GA 30180 770-459-5185

DOUGLAS COUNTY Elementary Schools Annette Winn Elementary

Principal: Melanie Manley 3536 Bankhead Highway Lithia Springs, GA 30122 770-651-3100

Arbor Station Elementary School

Principal: Melissa Joe 9999 Parkway South Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-3000

Beaulah Elementary School

Principal: Dr. Stephanie Cosper 1150 Burnt Hickory Road Douglasville, GA 30134 770-651-3300

Bill Arp Elementary School

Principal: Marian Dowland 6550 Alexander Parkway Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-3200 30

West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

Bright Star Elementary

Principal: Mrs. Dale Black McGill 6300 John West Road Douglasville, GA 30134 770-651-3400

Burnett Elementary School

Principal: Dr. Kacia Thompson 8277 Connally Drive Douglasville, GA 30134 770-651-3500

Chapel Hill Elementary

Principal: Robert Blevins 4433 Coursey Lake Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-3600

Dorsett Shoals Elementary School Principal: Cher Algarin 5866 Dorsett Shoals Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-3700

Eastside Elementary School Principal: Sean Roach 8266 Connally Drive Douglasville, GA 30134 770-651-3800

Factory Shoals Elementary School Principal: Tommy Shadinger 2375 Mount Vernon Road Lithia Springs, GA 30122 770-651-3900

Holly Springs Elementary School

Principal: Sheila J. Miller 4909 West Chapel Hill Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-4000

Lithia Springs Elementary School Principal: William Marchant 6946 Florence Drive Lithia Springs, GA 30122 770-651-4100

Mason Creek Elementary School Principal: Kathleen French 3400 Johnston Road Winston, GA 30187 770-651-4900

Mirror Lake Elementary School Principal: Susan Calderara 2613 Tyson Road Villa Rica, GA 30180 770-651-4300

Mt. Carmel Elementary School Principal: Tracey Seymour 2356 Fairburn Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-4200

New Manchester Elementary School

Principal: Alesia Stanley 2242 Old Lower River Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-4400

North Douglas Elementary School

Principal: Fran Davis 1630 Dorris Road Douglasville, GA 30134 770-651-4800

South Douglas Elementary School

Principal: Casey Duffey 8299 Highway 166 Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-4500

Sweetwater Elementary School Principal: Dr. Teresa Martin 2505 East County Line Road Lithia Springs, GA 30122 770-651-4600

Winston Elementary

Stewart Middle School

Principal: Dewayne Jackson 8138 Malone Street Douglasville, GA 30134 770-651-5400

Turner Middle School

Principal: Kwame Carr 7101 Turner Drive Lithia Springs, GA 30122 770-651-5500

Yeager Middle School

Principal: Dr. Fred Ervin 4000 Kings Highway Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-5600

High Schools Alexander High School

Principal: Nathan Hand 6500 Alexander Parkway Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-6000

Chapel Hill High School

Principal: Dawn Taylor 7465 Highway 78 Winston, GA 30187 770-651-4700

Principal: Dr. Sean Kelly 4899 Chapel Hill Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-6200

Middle Schools

Douglas County College and Career Institute

Chapel Hill Middle School

Principal: Dr. Jolene Morris 3989 Chapel Hill Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-5000

Chestnut Log Middle School Principal: Dr. Nicole Hayes 2544 Pope Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-5100

Principal: Mandy Johnson 4600 Timber Ridge Drive, Building D Douglasville, GA 30135 770-947-7690

Douglas County High School

Principal: Dr. Tim Scott 8705 Campbellton Street Douglasville, GA 30134 770-651-6500

Factory Shoals Middle School

Douglas County Performance Learning Center

Fairplay Middle School

Lithia Springs High School

Principal: Angela Carter 3301 Shoals School Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-5800

Principal: Yvonne Kidney 8311 Highway 166 Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-5300

Mason Creek Middle School

Principal: Eric Collins 7777 Mason Creek Rd. Winston, , GA 30187 770-651-2500

Principal: Dr. Donita Cullen 2300 Shoals School Road Douglasville, GA 30135 770-651-6475

Principal: Dr. Garrick Askew 2520 East County Line Road Lithia Springs , GA 30122 770-651-6700

New Manchester High School

Principal: Constance Craft 4925 Hwy. 92/166 Douglasville, GA 30135 July/August 2015

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HARALSON COUNTY

City Schools Bremen High School Principal: Tim Huff 504 Georgia Avenue Bremen, Ga. 30110 770-537-2592

Bremen Middle School

Principal: Silas Brown 2440 Crosstown Parkway Bremen, Georgia 30110 Phone: (770) 537-4874

Bremen Academy

Principal: Brian Evans 2440 Crosstown Parkway Bremen, Ga. 30110 770-537-9340

Jones Elementary

Principal: Bill Garrett 206 Lakeview Drive Bremen, Georgia 30110 (770) 537-4352

Crossroads Academy

Director: Beth Garrett 504 Georgia Avenue Bremen, Ga. 30110 770-537-2592

Buchanan Primary School

County Schools Elementary Schools Buchanan Elementary School Principal: Brandi Hurston 215 College Circle Buchanan, GA 30113 770-646-5140

West Haralson Elementary School Principal: Dr. Lorilyn Harrel 4552 Highway 100N Tallapoosa, GA 30176 770-574-7060

Principal: Pepper Moon 271 Van Wert Street Buchanan, GA 30113 770-646-5523

Haralson County Middle School

Tallapoosa Primary School

High Schools

Principal: Jentsie Johns 501 Highway 120 Tallapoosa, GA 30176 770-574-7444

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March/April 2015 July/August 2015

Middle Schools Principal: Brian Ridley 2633 Georgia Highway 120 Tallapoosa, GA 30176 770-646-8600

Haralson County High School Principal: Topher Byrnes 1655 Georgia Highway 120 Tallapoosa, GA 30176 770-574-7647

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No ‘Mystery’

Douglas Schools meet the challenge of matching good food with picky eaters 34

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July/August 2015

Danielle Freeman, School Nutrition Coordinator for the west side of Douglas County.

D

epending on whom you might ask, school lunches have always gotten mixed reviews. After all, you can’t please everyone, especially young picky eaters.

“For our kids, it is the social part of the day, when they get to sit and socialize with friends,” Hanlin explains. “We want to make that part of the day enjoyable – the social aspect of eating.”

School lunches are supposed to meet state and federal standards, ensuring that meals are healthy and well-balanced, and provide students all the nutrition they need to succeed in school.

But getting what Hanlin calls the “Moe’s and Subway generation” interested in school meals is a challenge. Just like any popular restaurant might, Douglas County schools work to market their program.

However, there is another important element, says Emily Hanlin, director of food services for the Douglas County School System.

“We’re not what you think we are,” Hanlin says. “Our goal is to provide meals that your kids will be excited about and enjoy eating.

A big part of what I have to do is getting the word out.”

STORY BY LIZ MARINO PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

And it’s working.

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During the 2014-15 school year, over 25,000 students from Douglas County’s 33 schools participated in the school system’s meal program. That breaks down to 9,300 breakfasts and 17,800 lunches served per day.

In the elementary schools, over 50 percent of students participated in breakfast at school and 80 percent chose school lunches.

Forty-five percent of middle school students eat breakfast at school and 80 percent purchased school lunches. On the high school level, 20 percent of the students ordered breakfast at school and 47 percent bought school lunches.

“It is so important to keep communication open with the kids,” says Hanlin. “We assess currently on what they like now, sitting down with them and having a conversation. Based on feedback, we determine what are perennial favorites and what we can replace.”

Beginning her second year as the county’s “food czar,” the registered dietician and her staff must do a balancing act between meeting federal nutrition requirements in the 2010 “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,” providing what kid’s will actually eat, and to keep it all within budgetary constraints.

Low fat, low sodium and portion control are the new normal in nutrition, along with more fresh fruit and vegetables in each day’s menu.

Hanlin says, that lowering the sodium

Margarita Calle makes orange quarters level requires an enhanced use of other seasonings. She enjoys stepping into the kitchen with staff and working with – and tasting – recipes for optimum flavor and nutrition.

Today’s school meals focus on whole grains, freshly made salads and low-fat dairy products.

The heavenly aroma that I still remember from my own days at Mt. Zion Elementary School when Mrs. Ernestine Nixon and her staff were making yeast rolls from scratch

are not lost to Douglas County students.

They only difference is that today’s madefrom-scratch yeast rolls are made with whole grains.

Fresh fruits, running the gamut from a fresh fruit mix to a hot cinnamon apple, are offered daily.

Getting children to eat their veggies might be more tricky, however, as students are required to “take” at least one serving of produce on their trays. “Taking” and “eating” are two different things.

This is where the food service staff has to get more creative with the required number of red/orange, dark green and legumes offered each week.

“Elementary kids like to ‘dip’ things,” says Hanlin, “so we offer such items as carrot sticks with ranch dressing. Elementary-age children are so open to trying new things, especially with vegetables. We give them samples of things they’ve perhaps not had at home to try.”

In addition to traditional vegetable offerings such as corn, green beans and steamed broccoli with cheese sauce, you will see sweet potato fries, or “California blend veggies” on the menu. Last year, “honey-roasted broccoli” and “spinach bake” were tested on the students who gave them high marks.

These popular new vegetable choices will be featured on this year’s menu.

Danielle Freeman, nutrition coordinator for west Douglas; Francetta Stivender-Muhammad, nutrition coordinator, east Douglas; and Emily Hanlin, school nutrition director.

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“Marketing and good customer service is huge for us,” says Hanlin. “We research on fun names – especially in elementary school – such as “Hot Diggity Hot Dogs.”

April Meeks brings pizza fresh from the oven

Ada Mote sets out a tray of broccoli.

One any given day, elementary school students will be feasting on such items as whole-grain crust, low-fat cheese pizza, tacos with brown rice, ham and cheese slider rolls with veggies, yogurt and fruit plate, Asian chicken salad or loaded baked potatoes.

their choices,” says Hanlin, who says the high schools get specials such as Mexican or Italian Pasta bar once a week. In March, the high schools enjoyed a pizza “March Madness” in which students could vote for their favorite brackets such as Hawaiian vs. Pepperoni to determine a winner.

Last year, the school nutrition staff rolled out chicken and waffles at every age level, which Hanlin describes as “one of our most popular days.”

Last year, Chapel Hill High School and Alexander High School piloted a “build your own style” sub sandwich line, which will be rolled out at the other three high schools this fall. Students choose a bread and meat, then personalize with heir own sandwich fixings.

A goal for this year is to increase participation in the school breakfast program at all levels, while giving extra attention to middle and high school students.

“We know that breakfast is important to help students stayed focused,” says Hanlin.

“Our goal is in getting most of the kids to eat breakfast.”

A “Meal on the Go” bag is a new concept being offered to middle and high school students this year. It is not what you’d call a “traditional” breakfast, but a nutritional “grab and go” that older students can snack on.

Staying abreast of popular food trends, two new flatbread items, including a honey barbecue, have been added at the middle school level.

The five high schools in Douglas County operate like a food court, but cater to a more sophisticated taste. New at the high schools this year are jerk chicken with rice and beans and jambalaya.

“High school students like to customize

a two-hour period, according to food service manager April Meeks, which gives you an idea of the sheer volume of lunch customers a school might feed on a given day.

“I think of the students as my customers,” says Meeks, “and want to make it as pleasant and delicious dining experience as possible.” WGL

This is in addition to a pre-made “express” line, which offers already prepared choices such as a meatball sub or “Ribbie Que.” The piloted Subway-style line has proven immensely popular with the high school crowd, serving approximately 140-150 subs daily at Chapel Hill High School.

In addition, Chapel Hill offers a “Roost” line, featuring chicken items. On the day we visited, the featured item was “Hot and Spicy” Chicken tenders.

The “Main Event” is where students can feast on a hot meal, with meat and sides, such as the Sweet and Sour Chicken, brown rice and steamed broccoli that I was fortunate enough to enjoy while researching this article.

A new “specialty pizza” was added in March to the regular choices on the popular “Pizza Line.”

Chapel Hill High feeds 800 students within July/August 2015 West Georgia Living

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Lunchtime can get a little overwhelming as the school feeds all the students, every day.

Unpacking the School Lunch I

f you’ve been out shopping for school supplies, you’ve seen row after row of Superman or Barbie, or any number of other colorful characters on school lunchboxes, beckoning from the store shelves. Whether your child actually needs a new lunchbox it’s you who are going to have to spend the next 180 or so days filling it with something.

Making lunch before the sun comes up each of those days is going to be a challenge. Not only because of the time involved, but also in keeping kid lunches

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STORY BY TAYLOR BOLTZ PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

varied, healthy and – most of all – enticing.

It’s easy to fall into a routine of packing a PBJ along with whatever combination of fruit, snack and drink is handy. But just remember: if the lunch is boring to you, it’s 10 times more boring for your child.

Fortunately, there’s a whole range of options to help make school lunches healthy and easy.

The Main Course If your child enjoyed last night’s dinner, why not give it to them

again? Leftovers are a terrific way to get double use out of a healthy meal, while cutting down the clutter in the refrigerator. If you want to make sure the food is warm by the time the lunch bell rings, pack it in an insulated box. There are lots of websites that rate such containers by how long they hold their heat, and most keep their temperature for at least five hours.

There are other lunch ideas hiding in plain sight at your local grocer. Surely you’ve seen those pre-packaged lunches; the ones for which some assembly is required. If you think those are too rich in chemicals and gluten for your kid, you can make your own “lunchable.”

Lisa Leake, author of “100 Days of Real Food,” suggests packing your child’s lunchbox with whole-grain crackers and cheese, or plain whole-wheat pizza crust (or pitas), along with small containers of spaghetti sauce and grated cheese.

Remember, the whole appeal of this type of product is that kids feel as if they are making their own lunch. You can give them that experience, while making sure the actual food they are putting together is good for them.

anced meal, shaping the outcome for the rest of the day. What gets eaten correlates directly to your child’s mood and how well they pay attention to their teachers.

Food has to be enticing, especially for children. Colors, fun shapes, and variety are what helps make food edible for kids.

Yet no child is going to find any lunch appealing unless there’s some kind of snack involved.

Writing for Women’s Day, Mandy Major says cookie cutters can pare down the size of basic sandwiches and add a little flair, especially if they coordinate with a holiday. Those bakery tools that help you make ghost-shaped cookies at Halloween can do the same thing for sandwiches.

Opening a lunchbox to find stars and candy canes, pumpkins and turkeys is a fun surprise for any child.

It’s important to match an equally exciting and decently healthy main-event lunch with fun snack counterparts. Simply replacing an apple for a fruit roll can take 50 grams of refined sugar from your child’s diet each week – while adding 20 grams of fiber. Not only that, apples provide 27 percent of the recommended level of vitamin C, and 15 percent of the requirement for vitamin E and for potassium.

Major also makes another point: there’s no reason why you and you alone have to make all the lunch decisions. Allowing the child to have a say in what to have for lunch insures it will get eaten, because they’ve chosen it for themselves. Children get to experience a small sense of autonomy, and you, as a parent, get to provide another family-building experience for them. Maybe they will even pack their own lunch while someone cooks dinner or makes breakfast – allowing everyone to gain some extra family time.

What to Snack?

Of course, lunch is supposed to be a bal-

The Carrollton School System provides a variety of nutrious foods and beverages.

Swapping carrots for chips allows for at least 1,325 fewer calories, 95 fewer grams of fat, 30 fewer grams of saturated fat and 10 more grams of fiber, all while adding 270% of the Daily Value of vitamin A over a week.

Keeping these fruits fresh until lunchtime may have been a challenge in the past, but companies like Chiquita and ReadyPac are working to make fruit and vegetables more convenient and fun by offering prepackaged snackey treats that are perfect for anyone’s lunchbox (including some grownups.)

Chiquita, for example, offers pre-sliced apples (sold under the name Apple Bites)

and individual little bags of grapes (Grape Bites). They also have small packed bags of carrots – with ranch dressing dip – and sugar snap peas. Other fun bagged snacks include celery sticks with peanut butter (Ready Pac) or carrots, sans dip (Grimmway Farms).

It’s still okay to throw in something like a Rice Crispy Treat or a small pack of cookies, but it’s all about proportions and portion sizes with kids. If you make the snack larger than the main meal, they might be tempted to just eat the treat. Elizabeth Ward of Thermos.com urges parents to “keep kids fueled during and after school by offering essentials packed with fiber or protein, which will also help reduce snacking urges.”

Ultimately, getting the children involved in their lunch – whether by helping to choose what they have, or, better yet, helping you to make it - is a stronger way to ensure that they (might) eat what’s packed. Kids love to be involved. WGL

Resources Search for “school lunches” on these websites: Thermos.com Takepart.com WebMD Heart.org Womansday.com July/August 2015 West Georgia Living

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Railroad tracks in the early morning fog , Coweta County.

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West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

A foggy morning in rural Carroll County

STILLEY'S BEST

A crane in St. Andrews State Park, Florida

Each year, West Georgia Living's photographer Ricky Stilley turns out dozens of excellent photographs for this magazine. But like all photographers, Ricky takes many other photos for himself alone. He may be headed someplace for an assignment and see a beautiful landscape, or find himself in a crowd of interesting people. When place and time mix with with a unique combination of light and shadow, Ricky is there to capture a masterpiece. Every so often, we like to share some of Ricky's photographic studies with our readers, so here are some of his best.

Jousting at the Renaissance Festival

July/August 2015

West Georgia Living

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Rainbow after a thunderstorm, on Curtis Creek in Carrollton, across from Lake Carroll

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West Georgia Living

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Snow-capped mountains and the Little Tennesse River

July/August 2015

West Georgia Living

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Marine Lance Corporal Scott Harper was brought home to Douglas County in October, 2010. Below : An airline pilot inspects his plane in a photo taken for a college photojournalism assignment in 1980. Below right: Sunset in Carroll County, across from Mt. Zion High School.

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West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

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BACON! Everyone's favorite side dish July/August2015 2015 March/April

West Georgia Living

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FOOD Clockwise, Pecan Crusted Goat Cheese served on Bacon Marmalade, Bacon Vinaigrette, Vanilla Bourbon Bacon Truffles

Platter designed by west Georgia artist Melanie Drew

S

ome trends in the culinary world arrive with a lot of fanfare then slip away into deserved oblivion. Like the Ramen Rave, in which noodle restaurants spread like kudzu, or the flagrant and disrespectful trend of battering everything that could fit into a deep fryer.

One thing that has stood the test of time, however, is the all-consuming power of bacon.

Yes, bacon. Thick cut or thin; peppered or applewood-smoked; on a burger or wrapped around a Mexican hotdog, bacon is one of those universal things that gets everyone's attention. The smell of bacon is enticing, and its magnificent flavor can take just about any dish to a wonderful new level. Finding new ways to use bacon in dishes is the perfect way to make the food we love more interesting, and it turns food we don’t like into our new favorite dishes.

Usually, creating something new in the kitchen begins with finding ingredients that work together, then carefully crafting and balancing their individual flavors. In the case of bacon, all you have to do is find something you already like, then throw on some bacon to make it even better.

Here are a few recipes to get you started on your own bacon experiments.

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Vanilla Bourbon Bacon Truffles If you’re going to go with some candied form of bacon, why not go big?

6 strips of quality bacon cut into 4-inch lengths 1 teaspoon vanilla ¼ cup bourbon 1 ½ cups heavy cream 1 cup quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped, plus ½ cup in reserve ¼ teaspoon sea salt ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 cups vegetable oil for frying Mix vanilla and bourbon, brush over bacon and let stand in the refrigerator for about an hour. Brush on extra if desired. In a small saucepan, heat oil to 325 degrees. Form bacon strips into rings with a diameter of about 1 ¼ inches and hold together with tongs. Hold bacon in oil until the ring holds its shape, then release and let it cook until crispy. Drain on a rack or tea towel, taking away as much grease as possible. Repeat until all rings are formed. You should end up with about 24 rings. That is, of course, if you don’t sacrifice a few for “quality control,” as we all do.

In a large glass bowl, heat heavy cream until almost boiling. Add dark chocolate, cayenne pepper, and salt and whisk until completely melted and combined. Let stand until just thick enough that a spoon swirl holds its shape in the bowl. Spoon into a heavy zipper freezer bag, cut one corner of the bag off, making about a ½ inch hole and squeeze into the bacon rings. If it begins to ooze from the bottom of the ring, let stand another minute or two. Let cool for

Rob Duvé

Quick Tip You may remember from past editions that a roux, or gravy and sauce base, is flour (a protein) that is suspended in some form of fat. Chocolate is the same thing; it is the ground protein of the cocoa bean suspended in the cocoa butter.

When liquid hits these heated proteins, such as making a gravy, the proteins immediately expand and thicken. It’s the same things with chocolate.

One drop of water from the steam of the double boiler can ruin the entire batch. Take your time and keep the heat low.

about 30 minutes.

In a double boiler over medium low heat, melt remaining chocolate. When completely melted, dip just the end of the bacon to form a cap. Turn over, and let cool as you dip the others. Then, flip and repeat the process until all are “capped” top and bottom. Set on wax paper to cool.

chopped again. Whisk egg whites and roll chilled goat cheese until completely coated. Coat with pecan mixture until fully covered. If there are spots that aren’t covered, or if you like a heavier coating, simply roll in egg whites and pecans again. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes to heat the cheese, but not enough to melt it.

Bacon Marmalade Pecan Crusted Goat Cheese with Bacon Marmalade I recently ran across this dish on a trip and was immediately taken by it. The only problem was that the marmalade, as in most restaurant settings, had more taste of bacon than the amount of actual bacon I thought it should. Being the kind of guy that I am, as soon as I returned home I began to play with the idea then came up with something I thought was a more proper bacon vehicle.

Pecan Crusted Goat Cheese ½ pound quality goat cheese, divided into thirds, formed into balls, and thoroughly chilled ½ cup pecans, finely chopped 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon brown sugar Pinch of sea salt 2 egg whites In a small skillet, add pecans and butter over medium and toast pecans until dark brown. Turn off heat and add brown sugar and sea salt, stirring constantly until the sugar melts and combines. Place in the refrigerator to cool. When cooled, break up or place in a food processo,r and pulse until finely

1 pound quality bacon 2 cups Vidalia or other sweet onion, diced 1 cup red bell pepper, diced 3 cloves garlic, finely minced 2 cups organic cane sugar 2 cups apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoon Louisiana hot sauce Fry bacon in a large skillet and remove to drain.

Chop bacon or pulse in a food processor until the pieces are about one quarter of an inch, or just a bit smaller. Pour off all but three tablespoons of the drippings, then sauté onions and red peppers over medium heat until translucent and the edges just begin to turn brown. Add garlic and sauté for an additional 34 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until reduced by half and very thick. If it is not as thick as you would like, reduce for another 10-15 minutes, but don’t allow it to scorch.

Serve with warm goat cheese and your favorite crackers or warmed pita wedges.

loved porcine flavor. Yes, I'd take the latter instead of the former! ¾ cup canola oil ½ cup apple cider vinegar ¼ cup crispy bacon, chopped 3 tablespooons warm bacon drippings 2 tablespoons honey Pinch of sea salt and pepper to taste In a large bowl, add vinegar, bacon drippings, honey, salt, and pepper and slowly whisk in the canola oil a little at a time. Add the bacon last and mix in. Another method (the one I use) is to add all ingredients to a large mixing glass and blend with an immersion blender. If you don’t have an immersion blender, it’s a good idea to get one.

They’re pretty cheap and the results you get when it comes to salad dressings is great.

What, you want even more bacon in your diet? How about Bleu Cheese Deviled Eggs topped with crispy bacon dust (I call it Pixie Dust)? Remember the bacon rings from before? I was challenged by a customer to turn salad into finger food, so I made the rings about 2 inches in diameter and used them as a salad ring, much like a napkin in a napkin ring and, viola! Salad became finger food. Like many other culinary subjects, the only limits to the creative uses of bacon is one's imagination. WGL

! y o j En

As always,

Bacon Vinaigrette Sure, we can put bacon on our salads and get a bite of it here, a piece of it there – or we could make a bacon vinaigrette and cover every morsel of that salad with that

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West Georgia Living

49

GARDENING

ITHICA ELEMENTARY:

A Gardening Laboratory A

s I drive down the interstate, I think about the vast acres of land devoted to highway medians and wonder if there might be a way to grow food crops there. It seems a shame to waste so much good earth.

I doubt we'll be seeing watermelons and corn growing in the medians of I-20, but one Carroll County educator is making use of another vacant space of public land. He is turning part of his school’s campus into a horticulture laboratory.

Brad Corbett is a first-year principal at Ithica Elementary School near Villa Rica. His love of gardening is demonstrated by the energy and time he has invested in creating what is becoming a not-so-secret garden in the Carroll County school system.

Corbett has started a garden club

MARILYN VAN PELT 50

West Georgia Living

with 80 eager pre-k through 5th grade students who are working with him to transform a large back campus area into vegetable and fruit beds, as well as a pollinator garden shaped like a butterfly with herbs, flowers and shrubs. The large area had the beginnings of a garden project even before Corbett became principal, so the existing butterfly garden will be incorporated into an expanded plan for the space.

It will be the perfect place for students to learn how birds and bees play their role in nature.

A "stem" is the main body or stalk of a plant or shrub; but "STEM" is also an acronym, referring to the academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

Corbett, who describes himself as a science teacher at heart, wants to demonstrate connections between horticulture, science, nutrition and math. What’s more, he wants the students to know where food comes from and, through a local church food

July/August 2015

Above, Ithica Elementary students prepare the butterfly garden for new plants.

Here, students sort day lillies. Photos by Brad Corbett.

bank, discover the satisfaction of giving back to the community by distributing the produce to those who are in need.

In anticipation of a busy gardening year, the garden club students planted seeds early to start the plants for their raised bed plots.

Many people, businesses and organizations have contributed to this project with material, money and labor. The Carroll County Master Gardeners have offered advice, supervision and labor, as well as a $500 grant for plants and materials. Even the lunchroom staff is contributing to the cause by providing compost material. Composting is an excellent opportunity to teach a science lesson showing children the magic of turning vegetable waste into soil to grow plants.

The children will be tending the garden through the summer, since plants don't know about summer vacations. And, except for "grown-up" tasks, the kids will be expected to do much of the work. Since summer can be hot and dry, they will learn that plants need water to keep them alive and that water conservation is important. Rain barrels are on the wish list for an auxiliary water source.

Students at Ithica Elementary are from farms, in-town homes and apartments. Sixty percent of the student body receives free

Students work with other Garden Club members to prepare the flower garden. Photo by Brad Corbett or reduced lunches. Corbett's passion for gardening and teaching prompts him to use an old proverb to describe his goal: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

He might include chickens in the grand experiment – if that can be worked into the plan. WGL Marilyn Van Pelt is a Carroll County Master Gardener Extension Volunteer.

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THE CRASH O

Almost exactly 20 minutes after takeoff, 18,000 feet above Carrollton, a routine commuter flight became anything but routine.

A series of loud thuds told the two-person flight crew that something serious had gone wrong with the left engine. The pilots knew their situation was dire when they could not keep the turbojet commuter plane level. They declared an in-flight emergency and radioed for help in finding the nearest airport. The flight attendant ordered the 26 passengers to brace for impact.

As the plane sank lower to the pine trees, the pilots continued fighting to control the plane. “Help me, help me hold it, help me hold it,” the captain told the first officer. And as the ground rose up, the first officer spoke into his headset, intentionally leaving a message for his wife on the plane’s black box:

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"AMY, I LOVE YOU."

West Georgia Living July/August 2015

OF FLIGHT 529

I

t was August 21, 1995.

Operating alongside Delta’s big jets at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport, Atlantic Southeast Airlines was the carrier’s shorthop commuter transport, ferrying passengers to various points across the South.

Flight 529 that day was scheduled to depart at noon for the 360mile trip to Gulfport, Miss. It was assigned to the workhorse of the ASA fleet: the twin-engine Brasilia, a sleek and fast airplane built by Embraer, a Brazilian manufacturer; 65 feet long, with a 65-foot wingspan.

Aboard were 26 passengers, cramped together inside the tubelike fuselage, a space that felt more like the inside of a small bus.

Three were from Georgia, the rest from places ranging from Bangor in Maine to Austin, Texas. There were two deputy sheriffs, a federal prosecutor, engineers, teachers and an Air Force major.

Flight attendant Robin Fech, 38, of Macon, was more than the

person who handed out drinks and magazines. She was trained in maintaining passenger safety, skilled in knowing what to do in an emergency.

In the cockpit was the captain, Ed Gannaway, 45, of Dublin, Ga. To his right sat the first officer, the person that most people call the co-pilot, Matt Warmerdam, 28, of Warner Robins. Gannaway had been with ASA over 6 years; he and his wife Jackie had three sons over their 19-year marriage. Warmerdam had only recently been hired by ASA, but he knew the Brasilia well. He had met his wife, Amy, five years earlier.

Just before takeoff, Warmerdam had done the customary “walkaround,” a ritual dating from the early days of aviation, looking signs of potential trouble: nicked tires, leaking fluids, damaged blades.

As it happened, there was something very wrong with one of the propeller blades. But Warmerdam would have needed Superman’s eyes to find it.

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Trapped within the corked space of the taper bore, the chlorine could quietly eat at the metal, creating weak points. These flaws only worsen under the stress of powerful engines, to the point that the blade can snap off entirely.

The Propeller Propellers spin at thousands of RPMs and must do so over many years. Performance at such levels produces unimaginable stress on their parts.

The propellers on each of Flight 529’s twin Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines consisted of four separate blades, each made of a composite material built on a solid, forged aluminum alloy spar. The spars were precisely machined, designed to handle the stress.

The maker of the propellers, Hamilton Standard, had designed each blade with a conical hole, called a taper bore, in one end. The bore was to reduce weight and was packed with lead wool to balance the blade in proportion to the three other blades on the engine, much like tiny lead weights are added to balance automobile tires.

The lead wool was held in place by a plug made of cork, a common type of cork, bleached to lighten its color. But chlorine, the bleaching agent, can corrode metal, creating microscopic pits on the surface.

Trapped within the corked space of the taper bore, the chlorine could quietly eat at the metal, creating weak points. These flaws only worsen under the stress of powerful engines, to the point that the blade can snap off entirely.

That had actually happened twice before with this propeller design. On March 13, 1993, a blade snapped off and sliced through the fuselage of a Canadian commuter plane. Fortunately, the plane was able to make a safe landing with no injuries. Then, on March 30, 1994, a similar accident happened on another Embraer-made plane flying high over a jungle in Brazil. That plane had also landed safely, but the twin accidents prompted Hamilton Standard to order all propellers of that same model to undergo microscopic inspection, then re-certified for service.

One of the propeller blades on the left engine of ASA Flight 529 had failed its inspection.

In June, 1994, it was sent to a facility in Rock Hill, S.C., to find out why. Sometimes, such failures were due to false readings, often caused by tiny surface blemishes. A technician meticulously worked over the surface and ground it smooth, just as he had been trained

Illustration by Ken Denney 56

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July/August 2015

All Photographs courtesy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to do. When the blade was tested again, it passed inspection.

It passed a second test almost exactly one year before ASA Flight 529 left Atlanta for Gulfport. It shouldn't have.

The Emergency Flight 529 was late when it left Hartsfield Airport that Monday at 12:23 p.m. The weather was overcast; gray clouds hung low over the metro area. The plane was due to arrive in Mississippi at about 12:50 p.m. central time.

The flight was routine. As the passengers read, chatted or snoozed, Fech prepared to distribute snacks. The pilots commented on some of the usual, irksome quirks common to the Brasilia aircraft as it began its climb to 20,000 feet.

It happened near Carrollton, as the plane passed through 18,000 feet, as the propellers spun at 1100 RPM. A microscopic flaw in the propeller blade that had gone undetected for nearly two years shattered the aluminum spar, sending a four-foot long section of propel-

ler whizzing off in the direction of Randolph County, Ala. Now out of balance, the left engine began to shake itself apart, exploding into pieces, tearing itself off its mounts and wrapping itself over the leading edge of the left wing.

The drag over the airfoil rolled the plane to the left. Passengers who could see the destroyed engine out of their windows gaped in horror; the pilots, who could not, wondered what the hell had happened. They grappled the controls, trying to make sense of the dozens of alarms and lights, and the sudden loss of control.

“I need some help on this,” Gannaway told Warmerdam as he wrestled with the yoke.

All twin-engine planes are designed to fly on one engine, but no plane can fly on one wing.

Essentially, that was the case with the Brasilia; the wreckage over her left wing was warping the airflow over the wing, depriving it of lift and pulling it down to earth – and the plane was falling fast.

As Gannaway flew the plane, Warmerdam got on the radio: “Atlanta center, A-Sea (Atlantic Southeast) 529; declaring an emergency.” He then briefed Fech in the passenger cabin, who in turn took command of the

A microscopic flaw in the propeller blade that had gone undetected for nearly two years shattered the aluminum spar, sending a four-foot long section of propeller whizzing off in the direction of Randolph County, Ala. July/August 2015

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It was nine minutes and 20 seconds after the propeller blade had snapped; the plane was coming down hard and fast. It wasn’t going to make West Georgia Regional either.

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passengers and instructed them on bracing for a crash landing. They were terrified, but truth be told, there wasn’t anyone on that plane who wasn’t terrified.

The Atlanta control center tried to direct the plane back around to Hartsfield. The plane was slightly more controllable now, the right engine revving up, but Gannaway – seeing for the first time the damage on the left wing – realized they would never make it. “We need an airport quick,” he told the first officer. Warmerdam repeated the words on the radio, then added: “Roll the trucks and everything for us.”

Air control then told them about West Georgia Regional Airport, located 10 miles from the plane’s position. The airport could not be seen through the heavy clouds, but Gannaway and Warmerdam began twisting the plane in its direction.

Suddenly the plane was below the clouds, and the pilots could see rolling hayfields and thick stands of pine trees. It was nine minutes and 20 seconds after the propeller blade had snapped; the plane was coming down hard and fast. It wasn’t going to make West

Georgia Regional either.

The two pilots almost stood in their seats, wrestling with the plane. Gannaway made the decision to land without wheels, lest the landing gear catch in the dirt and send the plane cartwheeling. He put his last effort into setting the plane into a hayfield below, willing the plane to skid across the field, not into it.

“Help me hold it, help me hold it, help me hold it,” he told Gannaway.

The plane's black box was recording it all.

Warmerdam left a last message for his wife: “Amy, I love you.”

The Crash The plane clipped pine trees then slammed into the ground at 180 mph, a force that tore the plane’s interior apart. The dragging left wing caught the dirt, spinning the plane; the torque cracked the fuselage in two. The front section with the cockpit and first four passenger rows spun off to the right. The back section slid tail-first around the nose and rolled

over on its right side.

The plane had come down on the farm of Paul Butler on Burwell Road, just west of Shiloh United Methodist Church. As he and other neighbors began running to the crash site, some of the people inside the plane began running from the wreckage.

In fact, everyone had survived the crash.

Gannaway was unconscious inside the shattered cockpit. Warmerdam was alive; so was Fech – but aviation fuel was everywhere, and the shredded interior wires were sparking with electricity. Several small fires started, which quickly spread into a giant blaze even as more passengers freed themselves.

Many had to run through the flames to escape, their clothes on fire as they got into the field. Some passengers were severely burned.

It only took five minutes for the first Carroll County Fire Department unit to arrive on the scene, but time slowed to a crawl at the crash site. As passengers collapsed in Butler’s field with seared skin and burning clothes, Warmerdam was trapped where he sat, feeling melted plastic dropping on his skin. He took a small hatchet, part of the cockpit’s standard gear, and began to chop at the window.

The hatchett was too small, and he had no room to use it. Warmerdam shouted for help. A passenger took the hatchet from him and tried to help, but the blade detached. A Carroll County firefighter arrived and went to work with a stouter tool. “Tell my wife I love her,” he said, fearing the worst. As fire crews sprayed water on the cockpit, Chief Steve Chadwick broke through the rear of the cockpit. “No, you tell her,” he told the co-pilot.

The flames and smoke had killed Gannaway before he could be freed; another passenger had stumbled out of the flaming wreckage only to collapse in the burning field. Those were the only two fatalities at the scene, but the severely burned and injured passengers needed medical attention, and fast.

Ambulances whisked 11 passengers to Bowdon Area Hospital; 15 others, including the critically burned ones, were taken to Tanner Medical Center in Carrollton, where police had blocked off streets to aid emergency vehicles and doctors rushing to the hospital. Some of the worst injured, including Warmerdam, were later airlifted to burn centers in Atlanta and Chattanooga.

The Aftermath Later that day, a husband and wife who had been on the plane passed away from their injuries. The next day, another passenger died. In September, four passengers who had been severely burned died of their injuries. In October, a woman who had survived both the crash and the fire died of a heart attack that her doctors blamed on the stress of her experience.

She was the tenth and final victim of Flight 529.

wanted so desperately to leave a final message for his wife, not only survived his severe burns, but he continued to fly for Atlantic Southeast for several years.

Today he lives in San Rafael, Calif. He has a Facebook page. WGL Editors Note: This article was based on the official investigation of the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board, and on the book, “Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds: The Tragedy and Triumph of ASA Flight 529” by Gary M. Pomerantz.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the crash and tried to find out how a propeller blade that had failed an initial test, but then passed two later inspections, had snapped off that day over west Georgia. The team determined that the blade had numerous microscopic corrosion pits that were not found because of the maker’s inspection and repair techniques, and inadequate training of its contractors.

In all, 19 people out of the 29 aboard the plane survived. Gannaway, the only member of the flight crew who was killed, is credited with saving so many by skillfully maneuvering the fatally crippled aircraft.

In the back of Shiloh Methodist Church in Carroll County, a monument has been set up to commemorate the day in which the lives of so many people intersected in the quiet community of Burwell.

Matt Warmerdam, the first officer who

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TAKE 5

Susan Mabry Executive Assistant,/County Clerk, Carroll County Board of Commissioners I never dreamed I'd...

Be a widow at 50. Danny’s sudden and untimely death turned my world upside down, but in the process taught me some really important lessons in life. I tell my friends “Burn the candles; use the nice sheets; wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion.

Today is Special.” Life is precious; make every moment count.

My best friend is...

Simply an amazing woman who I believe to be “my own personal angel.” I met Joy while we were attending West Georgia College and my life hasn’t been the same since. She has been there for all of the ups and downs in my life. She helps me celebrate the happy times and props me up in the difficult times. And most importantly, she lets me be me – unconditionally.

If stranded on a desert island, I'd want this book with me...

My family photo album. It is full of my favorite stories of all kinds (including some humor, romance, suspense, and even a an occasional thriller.)

I'd love to share a cup of coffee with...

Katharyn Richt, wife of UGA Head Football Coach Mark Richt and water girl for the Bulldogs. From everything I’ve heard and read about her, she is an amazing woman, wife, and mother. I’d like to hear her thoughts on faith, family, and football.

My hero is...

Every person who fights for this country. Those who are willing to give up their freedom and safety to protect mine.

People probably don't know that I...

Am a breast cancer survivor. In fact, I just celebrated my 10th anniversary of being cancer free. Thanks to early detection through a screening mammogram, all appears to be fine. I encourage every woman to have one annually, because you never know – it could be you.

When I have 10 minutes alone I like to...

Step outside, find a quiet spot in the sun, and take a few deep breaths. I find this calms my mind, giving me a brief respite from the stress of the day.

My parents taught me ...

Always do the right thing – even when no one is looking. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about. Be kinder than necessary. And, never give up when you truly believe.

My personal motto is ...

Fight fairly. Give generously. Laugh loudly. Love deeply.

Photo by Ricky Stilley

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July/August 2015

My favorite childhood memory is ...

Every birthday, every Christmas, and every summer vacation. My parents always made a point of making every occasion special. I once overheard my Mother say to a friend, “Your children get only one childhood, make it memorable.” And she always did.

TANNER HEALTH SYSTEM

Facts About

SUNSCREENS HOW TO CHOOSE AND PROTECT YOUR SKIN WITH SUNSCREEN Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays is the most important preventable risk factor for skin cancer. Skin damage from UV rays early in life can lead to skin cancer later in life. Sunscreen plays an important role in blocking the absorption of UV radiation by the skin; however, no sunscreen blocks 100 percent of UV radiation. Sunscreen extends the length of time you can be outdoors before your skin begins to redden, but it doesn’t give you total protection. Using sunscreen doesn’t mean you can stay out in the sun indefinitely since damage is still occurring.

WHAT DOES THE SUN PROTECTION FACTOR (SPF) MEAN? The sun protection factor (SPF) on a sunscreen label is a measure of how well the sunscreen protects against ultraviolet B (UVB) rays. UVB rays are the main cause of sunburns, but like ultraviolet A (UVA) rays, they can also contribute to skin cancer. The SPF on a label does not say anything about a sunscreen’s ability to block UVA rays.

Higher SPF numbers mean greater protection from UVB rays, but no sunscreen can block all UVB rays. For example, a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 blocks about 97 percent of UVB rays, while a sunscreen with an SPF of 50 blocks about 98 percent of UVB rays.

HOW TO SELECT A SUNSCREEN The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) recommends choosing a sunscreen that offers: • Broad-spectrum protection (protects against both UVA and UVB rays) • An SPF of 30 or higher • Water resistance (protection while swimming or sweating for a specified time) According to the AAD, the best type of sunscreen is any one you will use again and again. Provided that it meets the criteria above, available options include lotions, creams, gels, sticks and sprays.

HOW TO APPLY SUNSCREEN Even when they use sunscreen, most people do not apply enough of it or apply it properly. The AAD recommends that you: • Apply sunscreen to all areas of skin that will not be covered by clothing.

• Use at least an ounce of sunscreen to cover exposed areas. You might need to adjust the amount depending on your body size.

• Apply the sunscreen to dry skin about 15 minutes before going outdoors to give it time to be absorbed.

• Reapply sunscreen at least every two hours — more often after swimming or sweating • Protect your lips by applying a lip balm or lipstick that contains sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher.

Children need protection from the sun, too. Sunscreens are recommended for everyone older than 6 months of age. For babies younger than 6 months, the American Academy of Pediatrics approves of the use of sunscreen only if adequate clothing and shade are not available. Parents should still try to avoid sun exposure and dress the infant in lightweight clothing that covers most surface areas of skin. However, parents also may apply a minimal amount of sunscreen to exposed areas, such as the infant’s face and back of the hands.

DON’T RELY ON SUNSCREEN ALONE Using sunscreen when you are going out in the sun is important, but it is only one strategy for protecting your skin. Other important strategies to protect your skin include seeking shade, wearing a hat and avoiding tanning beds and sunlamps.

Learn more about the "Effects of Ultraviolet (UV) Exposure" and "Sunburn and Children" in the Health Library or at www.tanner.org, or call 770.214.CARE for a physician referral.

— Paid advertisement July/August 2015

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ARTIST'S CORNER

A

A di

B

logue with

F VELA

ossa nova, a mix of samba and jazz music, was a short-lived phenomenon of a half century ago. Originating in Brazil, where the word “bossa” is slang for something done with artistic flair, this fusion of samba and jazz had great appeal among those with sophisticated musical tastes.

Now, a Carrollton-based group that calls itself Favela has taken it upon themselves to revive the genre.

Favela consists of University of West Georgia faculty and staff, both past and current: Don Rice, Chair of the Psychology department is on keyboards; Bobby Johnson, ex-Director of Admissions plays horns; Chad Davidson (drums) and Kevin Casper (bass) are English department faculty; and John Blair (vocals) and Muriel Cormican (vocals, percussion), are German department faculty.

Bossa nova swept the United States and

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STORY BY TAYLOR BOLTZ PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

it’s kind of complicated, but, to listen to, it’s really fun.”

Essentially, each song Favela plays is a pop song. “(Bossa nova had a) four to five year heyday and now it’s been kind of preserved,” Davidson explains. “We’re trying to make it ‘poppier.’”

grew in popularity through the 60s; it might have kept on growing had it not been for the “British Invasion” and the Beatles.

“A bunch of samba musicians, mostly in Brazil, started listening to Miles Davis,” said Davidson. “(They) sort of appropriated Davis’ ‘cool jazz’ feel and tuned it down.

(Bossa nova is like) the samba, mellowed out.”

Davidson described bossa nova as “beach music in a foreign language” because “it’s the perfect music to play for crowds. For musicians, it’s really fun to play because

The band, which has a standing practice every week, has been playing as a group of six for over two years.

There was a bit of discussion around how long the group has been around, though.

The final decision? The core of the band— Blair, Davidson, and Rice— has been playing together for over six years; Johnson and Cormican joined within the last four years, and Casper within the last two.

“Everyone (in the band) is pulling together for the same goal,” Cormican said. “Everyone is totally committed to it.”

“This band is pretty stacked in terms of equipment,” Davidson said.

At a recent rehearsal, Cormican, perched on a stool at the far right of the room, played a wide variety of percussion instruments, in addition to her vocals.

Some of those percussion instruments include the cabasa, the triangle, the clave sticks, a rain stick actually brought back from Brazil,,the güiro, which is a gourd based instrument, and a series of egg-like shakers.

“The key to (bossa nova) is all the layering that we do,” Davidson noted.

Rice added though, that “the guitar is a really major part. It’s carrying the harmony and the rhythm.”

Blair added that he plays a “simplified version” of most of the bossa nova rhythms “because a lot of them are really very complicated.”

In addition to Blair’s simplification of rhythms, the band arranges each of their songs, as the originals are merely “skeletons (that) you can kind of do with it what you want,” Davidson noted.

“The main thing is the beat,” Rice said.

“You’re just keeping with the bossa nova beat.”

“Which is African in origin,” Davidson added.

Davidson compares arranging a song to writing a poem. “Sometimes they’re really easy (to write), and sometimes they take forever.”

“You’ve changed up some of (the originals) by adding parts of other songs,” Cormican said, referring directly to their rendition of “Chega de Saudade,” which features the classic Tito Puente hit “Oye Como Va.” According to Davidson, arranging begins by the band “deciding on a song we’re going to do, and there’s usually someone spearheading it. It’s pretty organic.”

the beginning around, so sometimes you get kind of bored. You get kind of sick of what you’re doing.”

“The only reason we like it now is because Kevin (Casper) joined us,” Cormican added.

Cormican said “usually we all go off and try to learn the song and learn the lyrics.”

crowd not necessarily understanding the lyrics.

“The lyrics are better in Portuguese,” Davidson admitted. “They are kind of cheesy and there’s a lot of stalker songs, a lot of very depressing songs, but people actually dance.”

She herself has learned over three languages for the band, including Portuguese, Japanese, and Italian.

During their most recent show, at the Alley Cat, near Adamson Square in Carrollton, two couples couples took to the floor, busting out both traditional samba and more modern moves.

The bossa nova standard, “Água de Beber” was something the band had to work on to make it their own.

“Eighty to 90 percent (of bossa nova) is Portuguese,” Davidson said. “But Muriel (Cormican) is looking at a German bossa nova song.”

“This music is very fun to play,” Davidson noted. “What I didn’t want to do is start just a rock band.”

“We liked it right away, and then we hated it for years,” Davidson said. “We changed

Favela typically has three to four gigs a year and the turnout is quite strong - despite the

The band, which has played for the League of Women Voters and the Bremen Rotary, is looking to book a gig in Atlanta. WGL

“We’ll be playing, and all of a sudden something comes to you,” Rice added. “Like why don’t we try this or why don’t we try that.”

July/August 2015

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The Furniture House “Quaility Furniture at Affordable Prices�

I would like to say “Thank You� to the community for such support. My family and business is fortunate to have such a loving community. Leah and I had an opportunity to celebrate our second wedding anniversary in June, and the pleasure of taking Anna Claire on her first beach trip. She had a great time getting in the water and watching the birds. It is a blessing to have a business in the West Georgia community and we appreciate each one of you.

Corey Faust

)5(( &21&(57

We are having a Customer Appreciation Weekend July 10th-11th. We will have a tent sale Friday and Saturday, followed by a Free concert on Saturday night sponsored by The Furniture House. We have the great pleasure of bringing Cole Taylor to the Carrollton Amp. He recently celebrated his first #1 song. Cole wrote "Sippin' on Fire� performed by Florida Georgia Line. Be looking for upcoming giveaways and information. Visit our Facebook page for more information.

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BOOKS

Rumble in the Jungle: Death Along the Amazon S.W. Lee The Amazon Murders: a Rainforest Mystery.

Permuted Press, 2014.

I

t’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

Sue Wiygul Lee’s novel, set in the Amazon rainforest, revolves around the mysterious deaths of men engaging in illegal logging, particularly of mahogany trees. As with any good mystery, the novel presents a number of possible suspects and motives designed to keep the reader guessing and turning the pages.

The plot revolves around the complex interactions among Lee’s varied and interesting cast of characters.

Dr. Stephen Elmore, who works for a pharmaceutical company, and Dr. Julie Cole, a professor at the University of Georgia, are researching possible pharmaceutical uses for jungle plants. But another academic, Nigel Diobello, is a possible psychopath who is only interested in plants for their use as poisons.

Then there is Arthur Livingston, the unethical billionaire owner of a lumber company, who is interested in illegally harvesting the remaining huge mahogany trees. The murdered men at the novel’s beginning are his employees.

Perhaps the most interesting character is Lupa, who works for Stephen and Julia. He is a shaman, and his profound knowledge of the plants and animals in the environment extends from the empirical and scientific to the supernatural. He teaches Stephen and Julie about the qualities of plants and animals. In addition, Lupa provides a bridge in the novel from the ordinary 66

West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

physical realm of the jungle ecosystem to a realm of the supernatural and spiritual.

Lupa knows of the forest spirits, especially El Tunchi, a supernatural being that he believes protects the ecosystem. By brewing

and drinking a potion called “ayahuasca,” Lupa communicates with these spirits, and his presence gives Lee’s novel an additional element of mystery.

The rainforest ecosystem of flora and fauna almost become characters in their own right – and maybe even a suspect.

Lee has done her homework. She researched the novel by going to Brazil and sailing down the Amazon River, interacting with native people, and learning about the rainforest from the locals as well as from academic experts.

Her knowledge of the Amazon jungles – and the practices of both researchers and rainforest harvesters – reflect this careful research.

Along with a great murder mystery, the reader gets an education on the ecosystem in which all these characters inhabit. The ways in which plants and animals protect themselves from attack, using poisons and other defenses, is especially interesting in terms of the mysterious deaths of the loggers. The author uses the science to suggest a more sinister cause for the human deaths.

The trees may reflect the arboreal archetypal significance evident in many cultures. Trees, of course, create much of the oxygen we breathe, in addition to their many uses for humans and other creatures.

As the author presents these scientific theories, she moves into the realm of myth. From a cultural perspective, trees are important symbols in most cultures, and Lee’s story seems influenced Yggdrasil, the tree of the world in Norse mythology; or the oak in Greek and Celtic myth; and the sacred fig in Hindu and Buddhist beliefs.

In all of these mythic images the tree becomes a powerful symbol, capable of communicating with other trees and protecting itself and the ecosystem. Indeed, as Stephen and Julia study the trees in the rainforest, they learn that cherry trees have developed a defense against tent caterpillars by creating cyanide in their leaves. The novel suggests that the cherry trees may communicate with one another if they are attacked, allowing distant trees to develop their defenses against the spread of the caterpillars.

The possible solutions to the mystery continue to evolve and interact throughout the novel, each detail adding a strand to the tapestry of the plot line. At the novel’s conclusion, the revelation of the reasons for the mysterious deaths is satisfying, though the reader is still tantalized by other possible reasons, some scientific, and some possibly more supernatural.

As Lee suggests at the end of the novel, this is the first of a projected series of novels. The last two sentences of the Epilogue lead the reader to the next novel – and to yet another series of mysterious deaths.

REVIEWER BIO

Robert C. Covel, a retired university and high school English teacher, received his Ph.D. in English from Georgia State University. He has published two books of poetry and he is also writing a novel. When not reading and writing, he enjoys playing trivia. He lives with his wife Deloris and his dog Monet in West Georgia.

While these ideas may be a subtext for Lee’s novel, she does not allow them to interfere with her plot line. The mysterious deaths in the novel remain foremost in her writing, while these other elements provide complexity as the reader searches for a solution to the deaths.

Sue Lee’s novel is well written, with an interesting plot and complex character interactions. Just as engaging, however, are her fascinating insights into the rainforest and the species of plants and animals that live there. Vivid descriptions, such as the parade of leafcutter ants that opens chapter two, place the reader in the Amazon rainforest, aware of the innate complexity of the ecosystem. All of that complexity, in addition to the educational value, adds to the novel’s murder-mystery plot.

Deforestation, global warming, and air and water pollution: all of these environmental issues are topics of debate in the scientific and political communities, as well as in novels and in movies such as James Cameron’s blockbuster film Avatar. Sue Lee’s novel revolves around those same hot-button environmental issues. Her book gives the fan of murder mysteries an enjoyable story filled with interesting characters; and at the same time, the reader gets an education on important scientific and cultural issues that give the story line more intellectual depth and dimension. The reader will finish this book impatient for the next book in the series.

Author bio S. W. Lee received a degree in Language Education from the University of Georgia, followed by an M.Ed and an Ed.S. She began her interest in the Amazon rainforest in 2006 when she visited the rainforest and first became aware of its complex ecosystem.

She began her writing career by writing and directing folk-life plays for a small theater outside of Atlanta. She belongs to the Carrollton Creative Writers Club. She enjoys reading, gardening, and tubing down north Georgia rivers. She has three granddaughters and lives in west Georgia with her Manx cat. She is currently at work on the next book in the Rainforest Mystery series. WGL

Tammie Pero-Lyle (770) 832-0911 102 Trojan Drive, Suite A Carrollton tammiepero@allstate.com tperolyle@allstate.com

821 Dixie Street, Carrollton, GA 30117

770-832-7076 Gifts Drive thru Service • Free Delivery

© 2011 Allstate Insurance Company

July/August 2015

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FOR THE BEST IN CUSTOMER SERVICE AND FOR ALL YOUR VEHICLE NEEDS Call or Stop in To See

Up & Running

JACKIE CLAYTON at PIONEER FORD (404)538-7732 or (770)537-FORD claytonj128@yahoo.com

THE STORY OF TOMMY VANCE, HIS CRASH AND HIS RECOVERY Now available at Horton’s Bookstore in Carrollton Ga. *All profits go to Shepherd’s Center in Atlanta Ga.

West Georgia

Li V ing In the next issue.......

Home Improvement

Coming in September 2015 68

West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

Events

Calendar of Events

July/August

JULY WEDNESDAY, JULY 1

Wednesday Wind Down: Come relax and enjoy some wonder ful music ever y Wednesday night in July from 7 to 9 p.m., at O’Neal Plaza, Downtown Douglasville. Free and open to the public. Information: (678) 449-3102.

THURSDAY, JULY 2

Public Handgun Clinic, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Douglasville Police Department, 2083 Fairburn Rd., Douglasville. Free, but requires registration. Information: Matt Underwood at (678) 293-1789 or underwm@ci.douglasville. ga.us.

SATURDAY, JULY 4

City of Douglasville Independence Day Parade and Fireworks Extravaganza.

Parade at 10 a.m. at Church Street in Downtown Douglasville; fireworks begin 9 p.m. at Arbor Place Mall or Walmart parking lots.

Hot Summer Wheels Show and Shine and Troop Trot: Sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 39. 9 a.m., Clinton Nature Preser ve,

JULY 7 – 29 Ephesus Church Rd., Winston. Information: July art exhibit “Summer Fun.” Court- James “Bo” Hunt at (678) 643-3266 or bokris@ house Art Gallery, 3rd floor Douglas County comcast.net.

Courthouse, 8700 Hospital Dr., Douglasville.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free. Information: (770) 9207593.

3rd annual Northwest Georgia Collectors Club Comic and Toy Show, 11a.m. to 4 p.m., 5971 Sutton Drive, Douglasville.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 8 Dealers from all across the South will be buyWednesday Wind Down: Come relax ing and selling comics and toys. Kids five and and enjoy some wonder ful music ever y under free. Information: Jesse Brook at (678) Wednesday night in July from 7 to 9 p.m., at 429-0017 or jessebrooknwgcc@yahoo.com .

O’Neal Plaza, Downtown Douglasville. Free Wednesday Wind Down: Come relax and open to the public. Information: (678) and enjoy some wonder ful music ever y 449-3102.

Wednesday night in July from 7 to 9 p.m., at O’Neal Plaza, Downtown Douglasville. Free THURSDAY, JULY 9 and open to the public. Information: (678) 449-3102.

Free Family Movie: “The Parent Trap,” 8 p.m. at The Amp, 119 Bradley Street, CarrollFRIDAY, JULY 17 ton. Information: (770) 832-6901.

Information: (678) 449-3124.

SATURDAY, JULY 11

Exile and Juice Newton in Concert: 8 p.m., Mill Town Music Hall, 1031 Alabama Avenue, Bremen. $30-$35. Information: (770)

July/August 2015

West Georgia Living

69

AUGUST

537-MILL (6455.)

SATURDAY, JULY 18

3rd Saturday Free Concert Series: O’Neal Plaza in Downtown Douglasville. 7 to 9 p.m. “Wasted Potential Brass Band” a New Orleans-style band to perform. Info.: (770) 949-2787.

Free Concert: Yacht Rock Review, 8 p.m. at The AMP, 119 Bradley St., Carrollton.

Information: (770) 832-6901.

at the AMP, 119 Bradley St., Carrollton. Information: (770) 832-6901.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29

Wednesday Wind Down: Come relax and enjoy some wonderful music every Wednesday night in July from 7 to 9 p.m., at O’Neal Plaza, Downtown Douglasville. Free and open to the public. Information: (678) 449-3102

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22

Wednesday Wind Down: Come relax and enjoy some wonderful music every Wednesday night in July from 7 to 9 p.m., at O’Neal Plaza, Downtown Douglasville. Free and open to the public. Information: (678) 449-3102.

THURSDAY, JULY 23

Free Family Movie: “Paddington,” 8 p.m.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 4 - 26

August art exhibit, “55 and Fabulous” - art from persons ages 55+; through August 26 at the Courthouse Art Gallery, 3rd floor Douglas County Courthouse, 8700 Hospital Dr., Douglasville. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free. Information: (770) 920-7593.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7

Hot Rods on Main brings revving entertainment to downtown Douglasville ever y first Friday in August, September, and October from 5 to 9:00 p.m.. Featuring cool hot rods, a live musical performance, and tons of vendors! Come check out some of the areas coolest classic, muscle, and other highperformance vehicles, or showcase your own ride. Information: April McKown at (678) 44-3102.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 15

3rd Saturday Free Concert Series: O’Neal Plaza in Downtown Douglasville. 7 to 9 p.m. “Keltic Kudzu,” performs Celtic/ Southern fusion. Information: (770) 9492787.

Free Concert: The Producers, 8 p.m. at the AMP, 119 Bradley St., Carrollton. Information: (770) 832-6901.

The Oak Ridge Boys Concert: 8 p.m. at Mill Town Music Hall, 1031 Alabama Avenue, Bremen, $50-$55. Information: (770) 537MILL (6455.)

Your home is our home No matter where you live in west Georgia, we’ve got you covered.

To start your convenient home-delivery, please call 770.214.2285 70

West Georgia Living

July/August 2015

“Where Your Heart Matters”

Dr. Rouse

Dr. McFarland

Dr. Glass

NOW ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS

General Cardiology Services • General Cardiology Office Visits • Cardiac Nuclear Imaging • Stress Testing • Heart Catherization • Pacemaker Monitoring • Echocardiogram • Peripheral Arterial Disease Screening

Healthy Heart Wellness Services • • • • •

Weight Management Medical Massage Nutrition Counseling Community Health Fairs Run with your Doctor Saturdays • Women’s Heart Health • Rejuva Flow (ECP)

129 Bankhead Hwy, Carrollton, GA 30117 (770) 838-8440 www.WestGaCardiology.com

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Ask the Ex ert What every West Georgian should know about...

The Benefits of a Final Resting Place For Your Loved Ones

An Award Winning Dealership Walker Cadillac, Buick, GMC, Inc. ...... .....76

Ellen Wynn McBrayer/ Jones Wynn Funeral Home ........................73

Staying Hydrated Childhood Anxiety

Tanner Health System ................................77

Oak Mountain Academy ...........................74

Heat Stroke Win The Battle Against The Dog Days of Summer With These Tips from NG Turf NG Turf ....................................................... 75

Carroll County Animal Hospital ............... 78

Ask the Ex ert

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

What every West Georgian should know about...

The Benefits of a Final Resting Place for Your Loved One

Q A

Ellen Wynn McBrayer

Jones-Wynn Funeral Home & Crematory and Meadowbrook Memory Gardens As always, we remain “A Family Serving Families®....Since 1950”

Qualifications

Jones-Wynn Funeral Homes & Crematory has served our community for over 65 years. We keep our funeral home synonymous with its name & reputation of serving & caring for families. We are three generations carrying on one tradition.

We offer the highest quality service with the most affordable options.

Today, we will take a moment to discuss. choices for a fi nal resting place with cremation.

As with almost anything in life that involves multiple family members and highly charged emotional situations, there might be a certain amount of disagreement that families must work through to continue down the pathway of healthy grieving. Let’s consider some of these challenges.

Some members feel strongly that the cremated remains should be scattered in a favorite place, or separated into separate, equal portions and returned to the family members involved in the decision making process. Cremation jewelry and glass ornamentation have become popular choices to memorialize the deceased as well.

Some families will even bury a large portion of the cremated remains and retain small keepsake portions according to the family member’s preference.

Some examples of a final resting place include a columbarium that has individual spaces, or niches, for the urn. These are commonly available

with stone front or glass front appearances, each offering its own benefits. Many families choose inurnment, or the burying of the urn in a grave space. This provides the most traditional and conventional method of memorialization with an upright or flat headstone, depending on the cemetery guidelines and family preferences. An additional option that is gaining popularity is the use of a memorial bench, grave marker, or rock that actually holds the cremated remains in an inner compartment, serving as the permanent urn.

As you can see, there are many decisions to be made when it comes to cremated remains and their final destination. Positive, effective communication seems to be a vital part of the puzzle when multiple family members are left with the decision of caring for the cremated remains of their loved one. One particular choice that seems to meet most of the family’s needs, all the while keeping the peace between its members, is the idea of some form of permanent memorialization. Each family will ultimately journey down their own pathway of grief, handling issues and circumstances in their own unique way.

Ask the Ex ert

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

What every west Georgian should know about...

Childhood Anxiety

Q A

Paula Gillispie

Head of School Oak Mountain Academy, Carroll County’s only independent, college-preparatory, faith-based, day school

Qualifications Earning her graduate degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, Paula is a lifetime educator in her fifth year as Head of School at Oak Mountain Academy. Professionally, she chairs Accreditation Teams for the Southern Association of Independent Schools, is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and Phi Delta Kappa. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Independent School Association. Paula is a member of the Carrollton Dawnbreakers Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, and she serves on the Board of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

In today’s world, parents are prone to worrying about their children and life in general. Additionally, we are now seeing more children suffering from anxiety. Why is this, and are there ways to cope with this worry?

I was recently drawn to an article entitled “The Opposite of Worry” by Lawrence J. Cohen. Anxiety is a growing concern for both adults and children in our modern world. Cohen notes there are three main sources of excess childhood anxiety: a reactive temperament or intense reaction to anything new or unfamiliar, sometimes considered shyness; anxious parents who pass on their propensity to worry and be anxious to their children through genetics, role modeling, and being overprotective; and finally trauma which occurs when children experience things that are beyond their ability to handle, leaving the child highly sensitive to danger and unable to relax.

Further, Mr. Cohen attributes the rise in childhood anxiety in part to the highly anxious world we live in with a heightened awareness by parents of a variety

WARRIORS

OAK MOUNTAIN ACADEMY

of dangers. To be sure, this danger awareness has caused us to be safer in many respects. Conversely, this heightened awareness has caused us to be more anxious and to have difficulty relaxing. The author proposes “embracing the opposite of worry” to help children when they are anxious. For example, instead of reprimanding a child for being over anxious, encourage him or her to relax with you and validate the feelings rather than dismissing them. Or, if a child is worried about “what if ’s,” concentrate on what is happening right now.

Cohen concludes that the opposite of worry for parents is trust – trust in the power of development, friendship, attachment, and connection. Focus on connecting with children, dealing with personal anxieties, and then helping your child feel “secure and confident.” In the end, perhaps life will be a bit more “opposite of worry.”

Learn more at: www.oakmountain.us 770-834-6651 paulagillispie@oakmountain.us

W ELCOME W EDNESDAY Come experience us in action!

Please join us each Wednesday.

10:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m.

I am a Warrior!

Can’t make it on Wednesday?

Please call 770-834-6651 to schedule your personal weekday visit!

We can’t wait to see you “on the Mountain.”

Nʝɦ acȪʑpʤʖnɒ ʋʠɿʙicaʤiʝnɡ fʝɠ ʃȱɏ 2015-2016 sɭhoɼɗ Ɇeʋɠ.

Pȵeaȿɏ cɪɸɗ ʝɠ stʝɞ ʍɨ ƵƳA!

Come see what it means to be a Warrior.

. . . . . . . . .

ADMISSIONS OPEN H OUSE EACH W EDNESDAY 1 0 : 0 0 A. M. — 1 2 : 0 0 P. M.

O AK M OUNTAIN A CADEMY 222 Cross Plains Road ~ Carrollton, GA 30116 www.oakmountain.us Oak Mountain Academy admits qualified students without regard to race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, handicapped status, or religion.

Ask the Ex ert

Helen Albrightson Business Manager Qualifications A native of Wisconsin, Helen joined NG Turf in 2001. Her responsibilities include oversight of internal functions including accounting, sales, marketing and human resources. Helen has been a Certified Turfgrass Professional since 2005.

? ?

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

What’s Important Now?

WIN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER WITH THESE TIPS FROM NG TURF The kids may be heading back to school soon, but our lawns are still busy battling the dog days of summer. If new sod dries out before the roots dig in, it can die a yellow, crispy death. But, overwatering can lead to disease.

Giving your lawn a summer-healthy sprinkle while conserving water is easier than you think.

Q How do I care for my new(er) sod in the summer?

A New sod needs about an inch of water per week,

including rainfall. So use a rain gauge to keep track.

Water before 10 am or after 4 pm to reduce water loss by evaporation. Shy away from watering at night to prevent moisture related diseases.

Keep the soil below new sod moist to promote healthy root growth. To test, lift a corner of your sod. If a screwdriver slides into the soil easily and comes out wet to about 6 inches, you’re doing great.

It’s better to water deeply once or twice a week than in frequent, short bursts. Roots only grow as deep as the soil tends to stay moist. Deep rooted turf is stronger and healthier.

How do I know when it is time to

Q water? the soil below the lawn is moist, there’s no need to A Ifirrigate.

Visible signs of water stress include curling

blades, developing a grayish color, and footprints remaining behind when the turf is walked on. If you see any of these, give your lawn a nice, long drink.

Stop watering if you see substantial runoff. If your soil has a lot of clay, it will absorb water very slowly. You may have to break your deep watering up into two consecutive days.

My established lawn is turning yellow.

Q Is it dying? not. Some homeowners even choose to let their A Probably established turf grass go dormant in the heat of summer.

Dormant grass is yellow-brown, but if it was healthy before the heat, it should bounce back fine once you begin watering again. Established Bermuda lawns can go 8 weeks without irrigation. Centipede and Zoysia can each last 4 weeks.

Do not let newly planted sod go dormant because the roots cannot handle the reduced access to water.

How does mowing affect a lawn’s water

Q needs?

A Cut grass loses moisture fast. When the weather is hot

and dry, raise your mower height and mow less often.

And when you do, remove no more than the top 1/3 off the lawn.

LEARN MORE www.NGTurf.com 770-832-8608

Ask the Ex ert

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

What every West Georgian should know about...

An Award Winning Dealership

Q

You say Walker Cadillac Buick GMC is an Award Winning Dealership; what does that mean?

A

We have been a GM Mark of Excellence award winning dealership since the program’s inception. To receive this prestigious award, we must maintain high levels of Customer Satisfaction and increase sales year over year. Only the finest dealers who commit to unsurpassed performance and customer satisfaction are named Mark of Excellence dealerships.

Mark Foster General Manager Walker Cadillac, Buick, GMC Inc.

Qualifications Mark has a Dual BBA in Automotive Marketing/Automotive Management from Northwood University and Certification in Dealership Successorship through the NADA. Mark has 15 years experience in the automotive industry and is a community visionary who has a passion for exceptional customer service.

Q

And you sell award winning vehicles; what exactly is that?

A

Once again, Buick has claimed the top spot for Customer Service Satisfaction across all mass-market brands! This means Buick dealers just locked in position as the backto-back reigning champions of this coveted

award. As a Buick GMC Dealer, we can confidently call this our J.D. Power “3Peat” with GMC winning in 2013 and Buick in both 2014 and 2015. For 2015, GMC came in a commendable fourth place position in the mass market brands.

Q

How does Walker Cadillac Buick GMC work to maintain these levels?

A

We Dare ourselves to be Different. We challenge each co-worker to do more, better, faster. Mr. Walker makes it very clear for us to focus on “What is right for the customer” before we make any decision. It is his ultimate goal for us to stand out in the crowd as the best of the best.

LEARN MORE www.walkergmauto.com• 770.832.9602

www.walkergmauto.com

770-832-9602

1492 N Park St. • Carrollton

Ask the Ex ert

Thomas Fitzgerald, MD Board-Certified in Emergency Medicine Carrollton Emergency Physicians

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

What every west Georgian should know about...

Staying Hydrated

Q A

Q A

Qualifications: Dr. Fitzgerald is board-certified in emergency medicine with Carrollton Emergency Physicians. He serves as medical operations leader of the emergency department at Tanner Medical Center/ Carrollton. He earned his medical degree from Emory University and completed his internship and residency at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Q A

blood pressure, kidney problems, dry skin and more. Dehydration can affect your memory, mood and motor skills.

Thirst is the most obvious sign that you’re dehydrated. Drink water before you become thirsty, rather than waiting until you are. Dry skin is another indicator. Skin is an organ — like the heart and lungs — and it’s the largest organ in the body. If it’s dry, it’s a safe bet that other organs are suffering as well. Also, be aware of your appetite; it’s easy to mistake hunger for the need to eat more when you may simply be dehydrated.

Try downing a glass or two of water before you eat and it will help you control your portion sizes.

Another easy monitor to use to determine if you are dehydrated is to observe your urinary output and its color. It is a real-time, accurate monitor of your hydration status. Dark and limited urine indicates more fluids are needed. Pale or clear urine generally means you are well hydrated.

Why is water the best choice?

In the average, healthy adult, water can account for up to 60 percent of an individual’s body weight. For newborns, water can account for up to 75 percent of a baby’s weight. It’s a key nutrient — we can’t live without it. Every system in the body depends on water. Our bodies use water to carry other nutrients and oxygen to cells, flush toxins out of vital organs, dissolve minerals and keep mucous membranes moist. We constantly lose water, especially in the heat, so we need to replace it.

How much water should you drink?

The amount of fluid you require depends on how active you are and how hot it is. Forget the typical rule of eight glasses of water a day — some people may need more. Strenuous exercise or exercise in the heat and humidity can tip the balance toward dehydration. Drink extra water beforehand, plus a half to a whole cup every 15 to 20 minutes. After exercise, drink at least two additional cups or more if it’s very hot. Some people with underlying diseases, such as congestive heart failure and kidney failure, have to be very careful about fluid intake and balances and they should have detailed discussions with their physician about water intake.

How can I tell when I’m dehydrated?

Not getting an adequate amount of water can lead to physical symptoms, including feeling tired, headaches, constipation, muscle cramps, irregular

Q A

What other options for hydration can I choose?

Water is cheap, calorie-free and low in sodium, but other foods and drinks count toward your daily hydration needs. For a nutritional boost, drink a glass of low- or nonfat milk. Brewed tea packs an antioxidant punch, but watch out for the caffeine. Fruits and many vegetables contain lots of water, too.

For more information, call 770.214.CARE or visit www.tanner.org.

Ask the Ex ert

Jason P. Harden, DVM

Veterinarian at Carroll County Animal Hospital

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

What every west Georgian should know about...

HEAT STROKE (OVERHEATING) IN YOUR PETS

Q During these summer months

â&#x20AC;˘ Avoid walking or exercising your pet during the hottest parts of the day (12pm-5pm).

A

â&#x20AC;˘ Give your long haired dogs and cats a hair cut for the summer months and brush your cats more often to prevent matting of their hair.

what can I do to make sure my dog doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get too hot?

This is a great question and one we get all the time.

Cats and dogs do not sweat like humans so they pant to cool themselves. When the temperature and humidity rise, this can cause them to quickly overheat. This is especially true in breeds with shortened faces (e.g. Pugs, Shi Tzu, and Bulldogs) and working breeds at work (e.g. Labradors, spaniels, and Retrievers). Owners can prevent overheating by learning the early warning signs, keys to prevention, and treatments you can do from home.

Overheating Warning signs:

Qualifications Dr. Jason Harden is a native of Carrollton, GA. He graduated from Oak Mountain Academy and continued on to the University of Georgia where he received his degree in Biology and his doctorate in veterinary medicine. His interest in veterinary medicine include surgery, exotic medicine, and ophthalmology.

Dr. Harden is married to Chloe Harden, and they have 2 children, Maggie and Reese. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association, and the American Animal Hospital Association. He is the chairman of the Oak Mountain Academy school board, a member of the Carrollton Lions Club, and on the board of directors of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

Early warning signs of overheating would include excessive panting or difficulty breathing, drooling, and mild weakness. As the pets temperature continues to rise above 104F the symptoms will progress to vomiting, bloody diarrhea, and even seizures.

Prevention:

â&#x20AC;˘ If you suspect your pet is overheating, take their temperature with a rectal thermometer. If it is over 104F seek veterinary care immediately.

At home treatment (only if your pets temperature is less than l04F) 1) Put your pet in a bath tub and run cool (not cold) water over your pet especially the back, head, and neck.

2) Massage your petâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legs to improve circulation.

3) Take your pets temperature every 5 minutes and keep them in the bath until their temperature is below 103F. This will take time. Do not try to cool them too quickly with cold water as this may make them shiver and can actually raise their body temperature.

â&#x20AC;˘ When you are outdoors this summer always make sure your pet has access to plenty of water. â&#x20AC;˘ Never leave your pet in a parked car even if it is running. â&#x20AC;˘ Never leave your pet tethered outside.

LEARN MORE www.carrollcountyah.com 770-832-2475

Carroll County

Animal Hospital Sometimes youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re pet health care canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be scheduled Office Hours: Mon. - Sun. 8am - Midnight Regular Office Hours: Mon. - Sun. 8am - 6pm

NOW SERVING YOU FROM TWO LOCATIONS

(770) 832-2475

635 Columbia Dr. 1155 Stripling Chapel Rd. Carrollton, Ga. 30117 Carrollton, Ga. 30116 #OLUMBIA $R s #ARROLLTON 'A (770) 832-2475 Across from Sony(770) Music834-1000

www.pcgofwestga.com

Jeff Reid, M.D. Joseph Jellicorse, M.D. Mandi Del Pozo, PA-C Lindsey Roenigk, M.D. Shawna Berg, NP-C Hermogenes Pagsisihan, M.D.

Advancing Health ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP For the third time in four years, Tanner has been named one of the 15 Top Health Systems in the nation by Truven Health Analytics.

This is important because health care is changing. Bigger is no longer better. Our success will not be defined based on how many people we serve; our success depends on how well we serve them. That’s why this achievement — a product of the hard work and diligence of our medical staff, clinical care team and all of Tanner’s team members — matters.

The top-performing health systems in the nation have higher survival rates and fewer errors, offering care at a lower overall treatment cost than other health systems. The top performing health systems have better survival rates and experience fewer deaths, have 5 percent fewer complications, adhere more closely to patient safety and core measures — with an almost 11 percent better patient safety scorecard — and spend 7 percent less per care episode than other health systems.

No other health system in Georgia scored among the 15 Top Health Systems. Not one.

At Tanner Health System, we will advance health in our region by remaining nimble and continuing to provide care to our community. We’re advancing health one service at a time, one treatment at a time, one person at a time. Because, according to the research, that’s how the top health systems do it.

www.tanner.org