TODAY'S ISSUE
Children learn by giving in Points for Presents program
By Emily Hill
Marketing and Communications Coordinator
The IMPACT! Group
Special to GwinnettForum.com

NOV. 29, 2005 -- Each winter, over 250 children at Bradford Gwinnett Apartments and Townhomes have the opportunity to participate in an innovative program that allows them to earn community service points toward the purchase of holiday gifts for their family members by doing good deeds.

The Points for Presents program relies on local individuals and businesses to donate gifts that the children can purchase with their community service points. The children have the opportunity to earn these points by participating in a neighborhood clean-up day; creating holiday cards for patients at Gwinnett Medical Center; helping elderly or disabled community members with daily chores; or performing other community service activities.

By donating to Points for Presents, firms do more than just provide greatly appreciated gifts for low-income families in the community. The program also helps teach children the importance and fun of serving their community.

Pamela Cates, a resident of Bradford Gwinnett and coordinator of Points for Presents, says: "Every year I've found that the kids really enjoy doing the community service-at the end of each activity they're already asking what they can do next to help their neighbors. It means so much to them to be able to give their family gifts that they earned all by themselves."

Below is a list of the types of gifts needed for the Points for Presents store:

• Winter items (gloves, hats, scarves, etc.)
  
• Household items (kitchen utensils, tools, picture frames, candles, etc.)
  
• Gift certificates
  
• Make-up, bubble bath, perfume/cologne and other toiletries
  
• Jewelry and accessories
  
• Books and toys
• Gift wrap and supplies
  
• Monetary donations (to be used to purchase additional gifts and supplies for the store)

Bradford Gwinnett is a local community of low- to moderate-income households earning 50 percent or less of Gwinnett County's median income. The IMPACT! Group acquired the Bradford Gwinnett Apartments in 1996 and since then has invested more than $10 million in the greater Norcross area to revitalize declining real estate and preserve affordable housing opportunities.

The results of the efforts have included higher real estate values in the neighborhood and surrounding area and a decrease in criminal activities. The Points for Presents program is just one of the community activities that The IMPACT! Group organizes each year with the involvement of the neighborhood's residents.

Any individual or business looking for a way to give back to the community during this season of giving, consider collecting gifts for the Points for Presents program. Donations are tax deductible and make a significant impact in the lives of local children and their families.

For more information, contact Marci Davis or Emily Hill of The IMPACT! Group at (678) 808-4477. Gifts may be dropped off at the Property Management Office at Bradford Gwinnett Apartments or other arrangements can be made by calling the number above.

The IMPACT! Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community development corporation that offers a range of housing services from homelessness to home ownership in Georgia. The IMPACT! Group operates three departments with specific areas of focus: IMPACT! Resource Center in Norcross provides emergency and transitional housing services for homeless families; IMPACT! Development revitalizes low-income neighborhoods and creates safe and decent communities for low- and moderate-income families; and the IMPACT! HomeOwnership Center provides home buyer and home owner education, comprehensive housing counseling, and financial services such as mortgages and down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers and homeowners. Please visit the website at www.theimpactgroup.org.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Almost impossible to begin to understand the Chinese mind
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

Second in a series

NOV. 29, 2005 -- More random observations on a recent trip to China.

• We marveled at the extensive construction, mostly of high-rise apartments, we saw in large cities. But we never understood how the Chinese government paid for all this activity! What tax system did they use? Where was the money coming for the extensive improvements in roads, health care, schools? That'll be a subject for future investigation.
  
  
• We saw a tremendous number of toll roads on expressways. That's allowing those using the improvement to help pay for the roadways of China.
  
  
• When visiting in the city of Suzhow, about two hours from Shanghai, we passed a large building which our tour guide said was once the local "communist center." These days it has been retrofitted into the Suzhow Library! That's a real retrofit…..in thought!
  
  
• We were also surprised at the activity going on when visiting any Buddhist temple. The Temple itself often was deep inside several courtyards, surrounded by beautiful traditional Chinese construction. We found a tremendous amount of commercial activity within the temple walls, from simple refreshment stands, to large shopping stalls. Meanwhile, people were coming into the area to pray, disregarding the hordes of people and the commercial activity going on around them. Perhaps we reacted because of our Christian heritage of "moneychangers" within a sanctified place!
  
  
• We visited several factories making objects from silk, or pearl, or cloisonné. Each had its own gift shop. Watching people taking water-soaked silk cocoons and pulling tiny strains of silk from the cocoon was amazing. Later on, visiting another factory we saw a lady weaving a silk Oriental carpet. And we learned that the part of the rug that you walk on is really the end of the strand of silk or wool, cut off with a knife, then tamped down tightly. When you think that this has to be done thousands if not millions of times to make even a small rug, it boggles the mind!
  
  
• Food was plentiful, and generally tasty. We had a choice of regular American or Chinese breakfast, and in general, we all ate plentifully each morning. Both the other meals were served at round tables from lazy Susans, with 8-9 dishes offered. Virtually each time, there was chicken, pork, beef and fish. Though we sometimes did not know exactly what we were eating, we all ate well.
  
  
• China's cities seem always alive with people everywhere. As such, it is crowded enough. But we learned there might be three times a year when you don't want to visit China. You see, all Chinese get three weeks off a year. The times are after the May 1 International Labor Day; at their spring holidays; and after October 1, their National Day. With lots of Chinese taking trips then, we can't imagine how crowded it could become if visiting China then.
  
  
• Guess what fixture names we found in the hotels baths and rest rooms? Does it surprise you that we often saw the names of Kohler, American Standard and Toro? With China seeking to improve rest room facilities, this must be a major expansion market for fixture firms.
  
  
• Our tour guides constantly were speaking of some particular dynasty. That was a major point of reference for them, yet was confusing for us. Just like we had to translate the price of goods marked in the Chinese Yuan (8 Yuans to the dollar), we continually asked our guides to translate that dynasty into specific years for us. The mindset in China is in dynasties….not years. That's just one example of why it will be virtually impossible for the average American to understand the Chinese mind.
  
  
  

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UPCOMING
Meeting on bringing New Orleans back set in Atlanta on Dec. 6

Mayor Ray Nagin's "Bring New Orleans Back" Commission will be hosting a town hall meeting in Atlanta for the citizens of New Orleans displaced by damages caused from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This open forum meeting is the first in a series of five national town hall meetings that will provide citizen evacuees the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas on the development of a master plan for rebuilding the City of New Orleans. For more information on the national strategy, contact Mike Etienne, metienne@uli.org, (202) 624-7170.

The Atlanta event will be held on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 at the Loudermilk Center, 40 Courtland Street with an open house from 4 to 7 pm and a Town Hall meeting at 7 p.m. The Loudermilk Center is located at the corner of Auburn Avenue and Courtland Street. Directions can also be found at: www.loudermilkcenter.com.

For questions and information about the December 6th town hall meeting in Atlanta, please call Jeff DeFresne, ULI Atlanta, at 770-489-6627 or Dan Reuter, Georgia Planning Association, at 404-463-3305.

NOTABLE
Gwinnett arena up for top award for concert industry

The Arena at Gwinnett Center has been nominated in the category of the "Arena of the Year" for the 17th Annual Pollstar Awards. The award will be presented as part of the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards and will be held in Las Vegas, Nev. on Feb. 15, 2006.

Preston Williams, General Manager of The Arena at Gwinnett Center, states, "We are pleased to be one of only seven arenas nominated in the Arena of the Year category. Our staff has worked very hard to bring in acts such as: Yanni, The Eagles, WWE, Ashlee Simpson, The Gaither's, American Idol, Gwen Stefani, The Black Eyed Peas, The Wiggles, Dolly Parton, and The Spanish Riding School of Vienna. So the nomination for this award is a tribute to a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes".

The Arena of the Year award is presented to indoor venues that seat over 6,000. For more information on the 17th Annual Pollstar Awards go to http://www.pollstaronline.com/CIC2006/Awards17/awardshome.htm
or contact Chris Hendley at chendley@gwinnettcenter.com or by phone at 770-813-7552.

RECOMMENDATION

• An invitation: What Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
  
  
  

GEORGIA TIDBIT
After Camilla Massacre, military rule returns to state

Brown

During the April 1868 campaign for governor, Republican Joseph E. Brown had argued that the new constitution did not confer office-holding rights on blacks. Consequently, in July, the General Assembly's Democrats and their white Republican allies began a campaign to expel the black legislators. Although black Republicans Henry McNeal Turner and Tunis Campbell and other black colleagues in the House and Senate had argued against purging obvious ex-Confederates from the General Assembly, they nonetheless were removed from the body themselves in September 1868. A week later in the south Georgia town of Camilla, in an incident known today as the Camilla Massacre, a confrontation preceding a black Republican rally ended in violence and death, with some twelve blacks killed and several whites wounded.

These developments led to calls for Georgia's return to military rule, which increased when Georgia became one of only two ex-Confederate states to vote against U.S. Grant in the presidential election of 1868. In March, 1869 Governor Rufus Bullock, seeking to prolong Reconstruction, "engineered" the defeat of the 15th Amendment. That same month the U.S. Congress once again barred Georgia's representatives from their seats.

• To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
  
  

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Glimmer of reason behind thinking of all-volunteer army

"The reason for the all-volunteer military was to let the smart and rich avoid service and instead send kids from middle-class and blue-collar families. It works."

-- Fred Reed, via Marshall Miller, Lilburn.

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

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