Couple seek to start pet food bank in Gwinnett County
By Tom Wargo
Special to GwinnettForum.com

LILBURN, April 1, 2008 -- My wife and I started SOS Club, a licensed, non-profit organization in Lilburn. We've also run our remodeling business, VNS Contracting, in Gwinnett for 21 years. Our mission at SOS is to help in the needless loss of quality of life as well as life itself to pets and people because of a lack of food, funds, medical care, and the knowledge of assistance programs. We need your assistance to start a pet food bank and pet assistance program with the aim of allowing people to keep their pets with them in their homes.

Basic care is expensive for some, let alone with a pet. We need donations of pet food and pet services so that pets won't be turned out of homes, and eventually probably be picked up by the pound with more than a 50 percent chance of being euthanized. Just in the Atlanta area, approximately 80,000 animals are euthanized each year.

It is far better helping people to keep their pets. People who can't afford to care for their pets often let them go, which causes a financial burden on everyone. The average cost of a pound animal is $100-150 to catch, process, care for, and most likely euthanized anyway. With our program, more pet owners could keep and care for their pets at home. The results would be happier pet owners, happier pets, and less of a tax burden to the county for pet care.

There are similar facilities around the country, but none like ours are known in Georgia. Other states have organizations that raise & distribute over a million pounds of pet food annually. Damaged pet food is normally thrown away by distributors in Georgia because no one can store it and they can't sell it. This is why we need a facility to store and distribute these supplies. Not all pets get adopted from shelters. Even less leave the pound, alive. Animal overpopulation is tremendous. Help the families stay together.

Our organization will help with:

• Seniors, homeless, and low income people: We will work with the senior centers, the local co-ops, homeless shelters, and the Meals on Wheels Programs in the area to get pet food and supplies to the low income individuals in need. Records show that pet companionship can increase the quality of life of a senior, or ill or disabled persons, or persons with little outside contact.
  
  
• Spay-neuter and discount vet services. We envision a "fixing for food program" and a discount basic vet care whereby our sponsor veterinarians will give pet owners vouchers in the amount of the care to be used at our facility for food and supplies to offset the costs.

We are seeking to expand our efforts and get more people involved. We are processing our 501(c) 3 status to increase our potential. Our immediate goal is to raise $125,000 to get a facility of operations, buy supplies, store donated food, and operate for six months. We need your help now and hope that you can become a monthly sponsor.

Remember what Edmund Burke said: "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."

Look at our charity scavenger hunt to raise funds and awareness for charities. To learn more on how to help: www.sosclub-scavengerhunt.com, or www.daffyspetsoupkitchen.com, or www.vnscontracting.com.

Start of 8th year of publication brings neat search ability
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher

APRIL 1, 2008 -- As noted above, today we mark the start of the eighth year of publishing GwinnettForum. It's been a fast seven years, slipping by without making us really aware of how fast time flies. For us, it's been fun. For you, we hope it's also been fun and good reading.

Brack

Sure, we enjoy hearing people sing the praises of the Forum. We were pleased last week when one of our readers said: "I really look forward to every Tuesday and Friday when I get the Forum." That person was like many of you, quietly reading it, but never responding. We want all types, but are always pleased when someone writes in---getting on us for some shortcoming, or lauding us---for articles in the Forum. Many times we get praise for comments authored by others. We'll take them all, knowing full well that it's the continued peppering of people's minds by the writers of the many varied pieces that really gets the reader's attention.

People sometimes ask how many of the letters or featured articles we reject. The answer: very few. Those that do not see the light of publication are those with obvious axes to grind, those that obviously seek to promote a cause or company; and those who are downright offensive to everyone. We suspect that in the course of a year, we might reject one or two as being downright in bad taste. People seem to know the limits, and know also that we are diligent in trying to get original content.

One area that tends to put any editor into orbit is when some pressure group seeks to form public opinion by having many of their members write to media. Over the course of the last three months, we suspect we have had over 200 letters, each with the same headline, and each worded in the same exact way, asking to "protect my right of self defense." After three or four, you stop writing back, since they are obvious form letters from the pressure group, and not the writer's original thoughts.

The ironic aspect is that by sending in the same letter over and over, that works against getting these letters printed. We trash those letters.

Through it all, we want to be just what the names implies, a forum of public opinion about what is going on in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Those of you who care to comment on about any subject, fire away. Others, we know, will want to hear, too.

* * * * *

Sometimes, life get easier. Today the Forum is improved. Here's how.

Today we've added a search engine to help you find items in the archives of GwinnettForum. On the top of the front page of www.gwinnettforum.com, you'll notice on a wide dark blue line a "Search" feature on the right side. Provided free to you by Google, just type what you're searching for….and if it has been in the Forum all these seven years we've been publishing, out will pop all the references.

That's the easy part. It'll take you to that day's publication, and somewhere in that day's edition will be the term you are looking for. However, from here on out, it gets more difficult, for the search engine does not go as far and highlight your search. You must look through that entire edition to find the item you want.

It's another service from Google. And it's another indication why Google is doing so well, even helping out those searching this very Forum. Wish I still had some Google stock!

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers, Today's sponsor is Wheeler/Kolb Management Co. The company evolved from the name change of Hudgens Management Company in November, 1991. Tom Wheeler and Tom Kolb have been principal owners since 1985. Wheeler/Kolb has offices in Duluth and has 28 employees. More: Wheeler/Kolb.

• For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm
  

Gwinnett Tech extends invitation to Global Diversity Day

Gwinnett Technical College's faculty, staff and students will celebrate the global diversity of the college with the annual Global Perspective Bash. It will be on April 10, from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., in the cafeteria in Building 100.

Featuring food from more than 20 countries, the menu will include specialties from the Ivory Coast, Italy, Mexico, Gambia and Germany - plus an all-American style cookout. Entertainment will feature belly dancing, African dance and drums, hair braiding, henna artists, and more.

The event is free and open to the community. Children are welcome. For event information, contact Rachel Mariano, student activities coordinator, 678-226-6341, or by email at rmariano@gwinnetttech.edu.

For information about Gwinnett Tech or about any of the college's more than 45 program options, call 770-962-7580.

Patriotic concert set April 10 at Suwanee LDS Church

"America… the Dream Goes On" is the theme of an annual two-day, free community concert . It is being performed by nearly 130 singers and musicians from the Gwinnett Community Band and the Sugar Hill LDS Choir from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The performance is being held at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 19 and Sunday, April 20 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Sugar Hill Stake Center at 4833 Suwanee Dam Rd., Suwanee near North Gwinnett High School. The evening will include a variety of popular songs including "Colors of the Wind" and "You'll Never Walk Alone," along with patriotic numbers that will stir the soul and get the feet tapping. The third annual concert provides a celebration of music for everyone and has quickly become a spring tradition with nearly 1,500 attending last year's performances.

Established in 1984, the 60-member Gwinnett Community Band is a non-profit group of volunteer, metro-Atlanta adult amateur musicians who have performed at venues that include the World Congress Center, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Stone Mountain Park and Lake Lanier Islands. The 65-voiced Sugar Hill LDS Choir draws its volunteer members from Dawson, Hall, Gwinnett and Forsyth Counties and has performed at venues that include Atlanta's Festival of the Trees, City of Norcross' Patriotic Celebration, Sugar Hill Tree Lighting, Gainesville Multi-Cultural Festival and Holiday Lighting Tour. For additional information, contact the Sugar Hill LDS Choir at 678.714.0036 or visit www.sugarhillldschoir.org or www.gwinnettband.org.

Gainesville's Quinlan Center hosting Georgia watercolors

Breathtaking landscapes, painterly figurative work and vivid abstracts are sure to capture the interest of visitors this spring at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville. The show will be judged by watercolor artist and instructor Mel Stabin who will also be teaching a five-day workshop in conjunction with the exhibit March 31-April 4. There will be a free opening reception on Saturday, April 5, from 5-7 p.m. for the public.

The Georgia Watercolor Society's 29th Annual National Exhibition will feature 80 paintings by some of today's top watercolorists, ranging in style from realism to impressionism, and from contemporary to abstract. Karen Orellana, co-chair of this year's show, says: "The diversity of the paintings will surprise people who might not realize how varied, interesting, and dynamic watercolor painting is."

Pat Hahn co-chair, adds: "This national show provides the community with an exceptional opportunity to view watercolor artwork at its finest" adds.

The society was founded in 1975 and now boasts over 450 members throughout Georgia and the southeast. "This show draws top watercolor artists from Georgia and across the country," notes Kathy Rennell Forbes, president of GWS.

"We are honored to be hosting a fine arts show of such artistic diversity and beauty, and to give our community another wonderful exhibit to experience," says Maureen Files, Executive Director of Quinlan.

The Quinlan Visual Arts Center, 514 Green Street, N.E. is located in the heart of the historic Green Street district of downtown Gainesville. The regular operating hours of the Quinlan are Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., and Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Admission is free to the public. For more information, please call (770) 536-2575, and for exhibition information and photographs, please view the website at www.quinlanartscenter.org or visit www.georgiawatercolorsociety.com.

Grayson cookbook featured in GEMC Georgia Magazine

The April issue of GEMC Georgia Magazine has a nice spread on a cookbook from Gwinnett. It's from the Grayson Arts and History Center, featuring their "From Trip to Grayson" cookbook. It also featured a recipe from Carolyn Hardy of Grayson for a Burgundy Rump Roast. The cookbook, which sells for $20 plus $3 for shipping, is available form the City of Grayson, PO Box 208, Grayson, Ga. 30017.

Gwinnett Chamber presents valor awards to safety officers

The Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce has presented awards to members of the Gwinnett public safety contingent.

The Medal of Merit, awarded to an outstanding community public safety program, was given to Duluth Master Patrol Officer Liz Strickland for her Operation Drive Smart Program which targets high school students and teen driving issues.

The Lifesaving Award, given to the public safety official/unit in recognition of acts taken in a life-threatening situation where an individual's life is in jeopardy, was presented to Major Carl Sims with the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department. Major Sims responded to a call at a visitation booth with a medical emergency by performing CPR and reviving the man.

The Public Safety Person of the Year Award went to Snellville Police Chief Roy Whitehead for permitting an officer to carry two sets of handcuffs and protective gloves, launching the Quality of Life Unit, increasing uniform personnel from 38 to 45, and establishing the PRIDE Program for teen drivers.

The Public Safety Unit of the Year Award was won by the Suwanee Criminal Investigation Division which solved and apprehended all six bank robbery suspects that occurred in 2007 in the Suwanee city limits. The detectives nominated include Detective Lieutenant Dan Clark, Detective Sergeant Shane Edmisten and Detective Rob McCoy.

Medal of Valor awards, given in situations where officers demonstrate extraordinary judgement, were awarded to:

GOLD: Awarded to Officer Craig Lake with the Gwinnett County Police Department, who placed his life in peril when apprehending a suspect who had fired on and hit Officer Lake's radio, disabling it. He was able to return fire, strike the individual and restore order.

SILVER: To Officer Paul Ascenzo of the Gwinnett Police Department for taking quick and decisive action in capturing a suspect who had earlier robbed a gas station, then threatened a woman in her driveway, and was ramming a truck when apprehended.

BRONZE: To Sgt. Dwayne Black with the Suwanee Police Department, who apprehended a violent suspect in an armed robbery.

Jim Maran, president and CEO, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, says: "It is because of the heroic and courageous efforts of Gwinnett's public safety professionals that we are able to live, work and play in a safe community. The Gwinnett Chamber commends their efforts for keeping our county safe."

Aurora Theatre announces play list for 2008-09 season

The Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville has announced its line-up for its 13th season, one which promises to be its strongest ever. Music, thrills, laughs and excitement will be filling the big family stage. The line-up for the fall season shows:

• Damn Yankees on Aug. 7-Sept. 7. In celebration of the Gwinnett Braves bringing professional baseball to the county, Aurora opens its season with a home-run. Fanatic Joe Boyd makes a devil of a deal to become a young baseball sensation. The catchy score includes: Heart, Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo and Whatever Lola Wants.
  
  
• Dracula: This Halloween season enjoy the original vampire story including all the suspense and seduction of the oft-told tale of Count Dracula. "I want your fear. For your fear, like a current, rushes through your body. Your fear makes your heart pound, it renders your veins rich and full." - Count Dracula. The play runs from October 7-November 3, just right for Halloween haunting.
  
  
• Christmas Canteen 2008, an Aurora Theatre Original.Celebrating 13 Seasons of joy! This nostalgic musical holiday extravaganza is always similar but never exactly the same. With the spectacle being provided in the new theatre, and the awe- inspiring Festival of Trees in our majestic lobby, the Aurora promises nothing will get you ready for the holidays like Christmas Canteen. It runs from November 28 - December 21.
  
  
• Corpse! You can curl up with another great Aurora wintertime thriller! Set in London in 1936 Corpse! tells the story of twin brothers, one of whom plots to murder the other in the most unusual circumstances. One actor plays identical twins Evelyn and Rupert Farrant for both chilling and comedic effect. The play runs from January 15- February 8, 2009.
  
  
• The Glass Menagerie: directed by Susan Booth, who is the artistic director of the Alliance Theatre, and 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award Winner, Tennessee Williams peels back the tattered wallpaper of a dingy St. Louis tenement revealing a family in turmoil. Southern gothic icon Amanda Wingfield's "good intentions" guide a fragile family's destruction. The world of illusion created by her daughter Laura collapses under the weight of her mother's expectations. The run is from March 5-April 5, 2009.
  
  
• Once On This Island: start your summer vacation early as Once On This Island, a musical re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, transports you with the island rhythms of the Caribbean. A beautiful peasant girl, Ti Moune, falls in love at first sight when Daniel, a boy from the wealthy side of the island, has an accident that brings him to the brink of death. Ti Moune bargains with the gods offering her life for his, if their true love does not unite their two different worlds. The run is from April 30-May 30, 2009.

To order tickets to the Aurora Theatre, call 678 226 6222, or via email at boxoffice@auroratheatre.com.

Cancer treatment center opens on Gwinnett Medical campus

Georgia Centers for Total Cancer Care (GCTCC) recently opened its fifth office, at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, located at 698 Duluth Highway on the Medical Center campus. Patients are now receiving treatment at the center.

GCTCCs are comprehensive cancer care facilities where patients can have access to many of the services associated with cancer treatment, including medical oncology, hematology, radiation oncology, radiology, imaging, and a specialty pharmacy.

Atlanta Oncology Associates--one of the largest radiation groups in the Southeast, and Georgia Cancer Specialists, the largest private oncology/hematology practice in the Southeast, provide cancer care for the centers.

The 6,711 square foot Lawrenceville facility is completely renovated and includes only state-of-the-art equipment. AOA physicians Drs. Mark Quinn and Craig Wilkinson, and GCS physician Dr. James Hamrick will staff the new venture. Dr. Quinn, has been practicing in Lawrenceville for nearly seven years.

Other GCTC centers are located in Blairsville, Hawkinsville, Lake Oconee and Macon. GCTCC can be found on the web at www.cancercarega.com.

• 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
  

"The Blues" is blend of African-European traditional music

The blues is a blending of African and European traditional music characterized by its melancholy (or blue) notes expressing suffering and deprivation. Songs are typically structured in three-line verses, with the third line summing up, or rephrasing, the sentiment expressed in the first two. Beginning in the 19th century, blues music developed throughout the southern United States from slave work songs and field hollers. In 1839 one of the earliest known references to slave music that would evolve into the blues was documented on a Georgia rice plantation by an English traveler.

Georgia has produced a rich blues heritage that showcases a variety of performance styles, from such popular commercial recording artists as Ray Charles from Albany, Little Richard from Macon, and Robert Cray of Columbus to more obscure players like Blind Simmie Dooley from Hartwell and Dolphus "Gus" Gibson from Fort Valley.

Little is known about the earliest forms of the music, but Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, a native of Columbus, claims to have sung blues in front of live vaudeville audiences at the age of 16 (around 1900), which may make her the first professional female blues performer.

The influence of the intricately finger-picked Piedmont style of country blues also appeared in Georgia with Eugene "Buddy" Moss from Jewell and Peg Leg Howell (Joshua Barnes Howell) from Eatonton, who maintained one of the most successful early blues recording careers into the 1930s. "Blind Willie" McTell from Thomson, another country blues singer active from the 1920s, played in Atlanta and like many "songsters" of the day, he incorporated a wide variety of popular song styles in his repertoire

When white listeners became interested in blues music in the late 1950s and early 1960s, many of the country blues musicians had ceased playing music or lived in obscurity until blues revivalists searched them out.

By the time the blues began to have an overt influence on white musicians like the Allman Brothers of Macon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, white performers had overtaken their black peers in popularity, and increasing numbers of white musicians, like Tinsley Ellis of Atlanta, began playing the blues. Luther Johnson of Davisboro, who played extensively with Muddy Waters, and other important blues musicians of the 1970s were often overshadowed by white contemporaries, a trend that continues to this day. Georgia still produces blues by performers like Neal Pattman from Madison County and Robert "Chick" Willis of Cabiness, but blues tourism and the record industry continues to homogenize the genre, and the distinctive traditions of the early blues records and the Atlanta style no longer remain.

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

You're wasting your time when you explain yourself

"Never explain -- your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway."

-- Philosopher, lecturer, critic, publisher, novelist Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915).

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

MORE: Contact Gwinnett Forum at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com

© 2008, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA.

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GwinnettForum.com
Number 8.01, April 1, 2008

WHOO-HOO: This edition marks the beginning of the eighth year of publication of GwinnettForum. Thank to all of you, readers, letter writers, contributors, underwriters, and any others we haven't mentioned, for your support through the years. We literally could not do it without you. Keep up the good support! And keep us alert to what goes on in this community we call Gwinnett. --eeb

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TODAY'S FOCUS: Lilburn Couple Wants To Start A Gwinnett Pet Food Bank
ELLIOTT BRACK: A New Feature for GwinnettForum at Start of Eighth Year
UPCOMING: Global Diversity; Patriotic Concert; Watercolor Show and Cookbook
NOTABLE: Valor Awards; Aurora 2009-09 Offerings; and New Cancer Center Opens
GEORGIA TIDBIT: A Primer on the Derivation of "The Blues" Music
TODAY'S QUOTE: Never Explain. Read Why.

GROUNDBREAKING. Sugar Hill held a groundbreaking ceremony to start phase one of construction of what will become a 55 acre recreational facility for Sugar Hill. The park will feature soccer fields, tennis courts, a putt-putt golf course, a snack bar/ clubhouse with a tennis pro-shop, and two miles of walking trails with several bridges, including a covered bridge, over streams. Precision Planning Inc. created the engineering and construction plans, and a Sugar Hill general contractor, Charles Pruitt, has started grading the property. Completion of the park is slated for spring of 2009. The park is located on Austin Garner road and Suwanee Dam Road in western Sugar Hill. From left are Sugar Hill Councilman Steve Edwards, Mayor Gary Pirkle, Councilman Marc Cohen, Councilwoman Susie Gajewski, contractor Charles Pruitt, Councilman Mike Sullivan, City Manager Bob Hail, Councilman Nick Thompson, Recreation Director Andy McQuagge and Reid Golden, representing Precision Planning Inc.

FOR CHARITY. You can give "A Gift of Laughter," a new book of cartoons by Bill McLemore, to help raise money for Rainbow Village. At just $20, it's a fun way to help. To order, call 770 840 1003, or 770 446 3800, or email to info@gwinnettforum.com.

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