MyConnection MARCH 9, 2016
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Published every Wednesday by The Newnan Times-Herald
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Coweta’s Dancing with the Stars Returns April 15
By MAGGIE BOWERS maggie@newnan.com The Centre for Performing and Visual Arts, located at 1523 Lower Fayetteville Rd. in Newnan will host Coweta’s Dancing With the Stars’ annual event on April 15 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the event are available now online at www.communitywelcomehouse.org. Tickets can be purchased at $30 each for preferred seating or $15 for upper level seating. This year’s local stars include Angela Munson, Coweta Probate Judge Candidate, Gary DeGeorge, Jr. of Atlanta Range and Ordinance, Cher McWilliams of Leaf
and Bean, Gerald Kemp of Fidelity Bank, Dr. Tia Guster of Piedmont Newnan, Jairo Castellanos of Delta Airlines, Marsha Suber of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Lee Whetstone of FutureStaff, Martin Pleyer of Grenzebach and Rob Estes of Can’t Never Could, Inc. Vote for your favorite local stars at $1 per vote by visiting Community Welcome House online. For more information on this event or to become a sponsor, contact Judi Alvey at 404-925-1169 or Samantha Brazie at 770-820-5559. This anual event benefits the Community Welcome House, a safe haven and temporary residence for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.
FLAVOR to Easy Weeknight Dining
FAMILY FEATURES
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here’s no time like the present to begin incorporating healthier meals into your menus — but that doesn’t mean you have to broadcast it to your family. Deliver big taste with fewer calories and less sodium than you might expect with this Garlic Cream Elbows with Sun-
Mrs. Cora Reeves, who attended Ruth Hill and later taught there until retiring, offers words of inspiration and challenge. Students listen during a presentation that was part of “Hope Towards Our Future,” the Black History program at Ruth Hill Elementary.
“What Determines Your Future is You” PHOTOS BY WINSTON SKINNER
By W. WINSTON SKINNER winston@newnan.com rs. Cora Reeves knows the value of education — in particular, the value of education at Ruth Hill Elementary School. Reeves attended the school as a girl, later returning there to work. She taught at Ruth Hill until her retirement in 2013.
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When the school celebrated Black History Month, Reeves had some words of wisdom and encouragement for Ruth Hill’s students of today. “What you have done, does that determine your future? Whether you have money or none? Whether you wear Nike or whatever? It does not determine your future,” she said. “What people say about you does not deter-
mine your future,” Reeves, the keynote speaker at the Hope Towards Our Future Black History program . “What determines your future is you.” The program includes the singing of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” and “RockA-My-Soul” by the Ruth Hill Chorus, as well as music by the Evans Middle School Band. There also was a presentation by the Y K Step Team from East Coweta High School. The program included a narrated dramatization about famous black Americans, an essay reading by Jada Martin and a presentation of Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” by Ansleigh Mahone, Damaze Dorsey, Reginald Muwwakkil, Jaylan Gates and Kameron Jordan. Reeves, a Newnan native, graduated from Central High School in 1969, later earning a degree from the University of West Georgia. During her years as a teacher at Ruth Hill, she taught grades 4-6. “Our dreams keep us going. Our
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Dried Tomatoes and Basil recipe. Pantry-friendly ingredients get the creamy Parmesan-enhanced pasta on your table in just 30 minutes. Made with premium durum wheat semolina and added inulin, a prebiotic fiber from chicory root, Dreamfields pasta gives this recipe a nutritional boost
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dreams keeps us strong,” she said. Education plants seeds that take root in children and change lives. “No one knows what’s in you,” Reeves said, but “everyone could be a mighty tree." Reeves was born in segregated Newnan in 1951. She remembered her entry into first grade at Ruth Hill with Mrs. Anella Johnson as her teacher. “I didn’t have a bus to bring me to school,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about rain boots." She did have galoshes. “I walked to school,” she remembered, “and they protected my feet from the mud." Reeves grew up on Pratt Street, a dirt street then with no sidewalks. She strived to have a good attitude about school, and she worked at reading. Most of all, she attended school every day. “I didn’t stay out school because it was raining,” she said. Reeves recalled the Dick and Jane readers of her childhood. “I practiced and practiced until I got it right," she said. “You are a seed and you are planted to learn. Your education will take you to places you never thought you could go, to meet people you never thought you would meet. … You are a seed planted here, and your roots are going deep,” she proclaimed. Today’s children have the potential for greatness. Reeves said parents, educators, community leaders and church leaders must encourage children to dream, have high expectations of them and encourage youngsters not “to be satisfied with where they are." An ordained minister since 1998, Reeves closed her comments with a call and response. “Can anything good come from Ruth Hill?” she asked. The resounding answer came back: “Yes, it can.”
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