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TODAY'S ISSUE
Discover Mills opens first Medieval Times in Georgia in 2006
By Bob Perry
General Manager, Discover Mills
Special to GwinnettForum.com

JULY 12, 2005 -- Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament®, an interactive dining experience that brings visitors back to the days of knights and castles, recently signed a lease with Discover Mills with intent to open in Summer 2006. This is the first Medieval Times to open in Georgia and the ninth to open in North America.

When completed, the Discover Mills' Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament will seat 1,000 spectators inside the Grand Ceremonial Arena. It will encompass an 87,000 square foot area of the center's entertainment area. Typically, Medieval Times' showcase a tournament of games for spectators, complete with horsemanship, jousting, knights, sorcery, and romance. The kingdom's guests will enjoy an authentic four-course feast served with replicas of medieval dinnerware to help authenticate the feeling of living in the Middle Ages.

Celeste Lanuza, vice president of marketing, at Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, says: "Our dinner and tournaments are always looking for exciting locations to expand our unique brand of family entertainment. Medieval Times' success at Arundel Mills' solidified our desire to expand our partnership with The Mills Corporation. We look forward to another successful relationship with a Mills property when we open at Discover Mills."

Heather Lisa Rittner, marketing director at Discover Mills, points out: "With more than 200 stores at Discover Mills, we are excited to be chosen as the first home in Georgia for Medieval Times and bring our customers another exciting dining and entertainment option. We always strive to bring customers new and unique options to the area. Medieval Times is one of the country's most lively restaurant concepts."

Those dining at Medieval Times can feast on a four-course meal while watching spectacular pageantry, exquisite horsemanship and an authentic medieval jousting tournament. Rittner says: "It can be an unforgettable evening for the entire family."

Discover Mills is located off of Interstate 85, exit 108, Sugarloaf Parkway. Discover Mills is 1.2 million square feet featuring more than 200 retailers, unique restaurants and entertainment venues such as, Last Call Neiman Marcus, Off 5th Saks Fifth Avenue, Kenneth Cole New York, Books-A-Million and the AMC Theatre. It is owned and managed by The Mills Corporation. Additional information on Discover Mills is available at www.discovermills.com.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Suwanee new park comes from co-founder of Peachtree Doors
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

JULY 12, 2005 -- The City of Suwanee can thank a successful Gwinnett business for making it possible for Rae Hewell to sell his 61 acres on Suwanee Dam Road to the city for a passive park.

Two brothers, Jimmy Hewell, now retired on St. Simons Island, and the late Rae Hewell founded and guided Peachtree Doors and Windows to success in Gwinnett.

Back in 1959, Jimmy says: "We were just searching for a way to make a living." Rae was in interior design, Jimmy in windows and doors, and the two decided they could make quality aluminum-framed sliding glass doors if others could.

Jimmy ran the office and sales, while Rae ran all the manufacturing. "We seldom saw Rae in the office. He was a hands-on manager. He was very mechanical and artistic, and probably should have been an artist. He had good taste. That was before there were consultants; everything we did was Rae's idea. He was a good manager."

Bernie Governale of Flowery Branch was vice president for engineering at Peachtree Doors. He says: "Once the product was designed, Rae put together how to fabricate the product, what type of equipment to use, and where to locate it on the plant floor. Most of Rae's education was from hard knocks, but he sure did understand how to get along with people. He could be tough, but he had a soft heart."

The company prospered and sale soared. At their height in 1990, sales were over $200 million, and the firm had 2,300 employees, with plants in Norcross and in St. Joseph, Mo. (primarily for their mid-West and western customers.)

Finally in 1978, the two brothers were tempted for the last time with buy-out offers, merging with Indal Ltd. of Toronto.

Meanwhile, Rae had first retired from the company in 1974. He traveled widely, but returned to the company later and retired again in 1984. In 1980, he began construction on a house on 61 acres in Suwanee.

The house is sited atop a hill beside Sims Lake. The beautifully designed house has Oriental features, tasteful lines, and even solar panels, conveniently hidden on the back roof, for heat and hot water.

Jimmy says: "Rae loved that place. He had good taste and stocked it with great pieces of art. When he died, we got the good art out." Today, the remaining art pieces are a testament to his eye for good quality.

Rae, formerly a constant smoker, had emphasema. Jimmy says: "He was on oxygen for the last 10 years."

Jimmy remembers Rae concentrating on getting everything he owned converted to cash. "He had a nice net worth. Selling the property to the City of Suwanee was a godsend. When the city offered to buy the house and land and pay for it with him getting a life interest, and not have to pay taxes, this was his last asset he was able to convert into cash. It was a wonderful thing."

He adds about his brother: "He had an abiding faith that he would be here forever, though he knew his days were numbered. But the end came suddenly." Rae had finalized the agreement with the City of Suwanee in January 2003, and he died five months later.

Back in 2001, the City of Suwanee had only nine acres of parkland, or 969 citizens per acre. Today after a bond issue to buy park land, the addition of the Hewell property means Suwanee has 235 acres of park land, or now 49 citizens per acre. That's amazing! Rae Hewell, we bet, would like that!

Today's sponsor is Norcross Station, located on Peachtree Street in downtown Norcross. Come enjoy meals cooked as you remember them from your mother's table, tasty items, with generous portions. There's a family atmosphere, with a railroad motif in this converted former rail station. We're in the middle of Norcross, easy to get to, and open Monday-Saturday for lunch and dinner. No reservations required. Check out our web site at www.NorcrossStation.com.

The fourth annual Georgia Hispanic Network (GHNet) Art Exhibit begins July 13 at the Forum at Defoor Centre, Atlanta, (www.defoorcentre.com). The artwork will be on display to the public through the end of July at the center, located at 1710 Defoor Ave NW, Atlanta.

More than 15 of the top Latino artists in the Southeast will be presenting outstanding gallery-quality works in painting, sculpture and photography. The artists represent a variety of countries including Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Argentina.

Opening night will include three of the most distinguished art experts in Atlanta discussing the impact of Hispanic art in Georgia culture, commerce and education. They are: Linda Dubler, Media Arts Curator for the High Museum; Naomi Silva, gallery owner for the Naomi Gallery at Tulla; and Margarita Munoz, Development Hispanic Outreach Coordinator for Gainesville College.

Kickoff for this event will be from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The evening will include music, complimentary appetizers and cash bar. The event is free to GHNet members and $15 for non-members. GHNet is one of the largest Hispanic professional groups in Atlanta with nearly 3,000 people on its mailing list.

The Foster Children's Foundation, a 501c3 non profit organization, will host the Police and Fire Appreciation Day and Olympix on September 10, 2005, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m .at the River Green Business Park, located at Peachtree Industrial Boulevard between Pleasant Hill Road and Highway 120. The event will be located at the complex's soccer fields.

This annual fundraiser includes competitive events between local Law Enforcement and Fire Fighters, family fun, food, games, entertainment, and surprise celebrity guests. County officials will be judging the events. Teams are forming now; you may also sponsor a participating team. Proceeds benefit the Foster Children's Foundation which serves foster children throughout the Metro area. The event is open to the public and admission is free. Live television coverage of the event will be provided by WSB-TV.

For more information about how to enter a team or for sponsorship opportunities, please contact Suzanne Geske at 770-623-6135 or at www.fosterchildrensfoundation.org.

GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA
Habitat for Humanity springs out of Jordan's Koinonia Farms

Clarence Jordan (1912-1969), a white Southern Baptist minister, co-founded Koinonia Farm in Sumter County and translated many New Testament books into the "Cotton Patch" versions, colloquial interpretations set in the American South. Jordan committed his ministry to racial reconciliation and economic justice. A gifted preacher and teacher, he was a popular and frequent speaker at progressive religious gatherings across the United States from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Clarence Leonard Jordan was born on July 29, 1912, in Talbotton. One of his brothers, Robert H. Jordan, served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia and as chief justice from 1980 to 1982.

In 1933 Jordan earned a B.S. degree in agriculture from the University of Georgia. Jordan entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1933. Ordained in 1934, he served as pastor of three rural churches while earning a Th.M. degree (1936) and a Ph.D. degree in the New Testament (1939). Jordan married Florence Kroeger of Louisville, Ky., in July 1936. They had four children. Although Jordan received invitations to teach at Baptist colleges and to pastor prominent Baptist churches, he chose instead to move with his family to rural Georgia and, with Mabel and Martin England, establish Koinonia Farm in 1942.

Jordan decided to incorporate his agricultural training into his ministry and established Koinonia Farm as a Christian community in which members pooled their resources into a common treasury and treated all persons as equals, regardless of race or class. Koinonia taught local farmers, black and white, advanced farming techniques to increase production and profit in an effort to break the cycle of poverty that trapped so many local families. Koinonia also endorsed pacifism, a practice that made the community a target during World War II (1941-45).

The farm's racially integrated working and living environment also invited such severe violence, prosecution, and economic boycott during the Jim Crow era of the 1950s that the community became nearly dormant. In 1968 Koinonia Farm reincorporated as Koinonia Partners and launched an ambitious but pragmatic low-cost, interest-free house-building program that eventually evolved into Habitat for Humanity.

Jordan led Koinonia from 1942 through 1969. He also traveled widely as a speaker and translated much of the New Testament into the Cotton Patch versions. Tom Key and Russell Treyz transformed the Cotton Patch version of Matthew into The Cotton Patch Gospel, an off-Broadway musical with a score by Harry Chapin.

Jordan died of a heart attack on October 29, 1969, while working at Koinonia on a Cotton Patch translation. Florence Jordan died of cancer at Koinonia on June 17, 1987, and both are buried at Koinonia.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Perhaps this from a guy who once had a Jack Russell around

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