6/3: GACS campaign; On Ty Cobb; Cruise with difference

GwinnettForum  |  Issue 16.18  | June 3, 2016

 16.0603.SnellFM

FARMERS MARKETS are now operational in many Gwinnett communities. Several have recently or will open soon.  Snellville’s market, above, opens Saturday, June 4, and will operate each Saturday through September from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
IN THIS EDITION
TODAY’S FOCUS: GACS Raises $30 Million, Surpassing “Path Forward” Goal
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Authoritative Book about Ty Cobb Is Major Service to His Reputation
ANOTHER VIEW: How One Couple Enjoyed a Cruise with a Difference
SPOTLIGHT: United Community Bank
UPCOMING: Library Offers High School Diploma Through Online Program
NOTABLE: Suwanee Medical School Campus Sees Nearly 300 Students Get Degrees
RECOMMENDED: The Martian by Andy Weir
GEORGIA TIDBIT: I am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang Is Literary Sensation in 1932
CALENDAR: Kids Fishing on Tap for Jones Bridge Park This Weekend
TODAY’S QUOTE: How Truth Gets To Be What It Is
MYSTERY PHOTO: Modernistic Building Design Was One Seen in Many Buildings
LAGNIAPPE: GACS Student Wins Key Award from School Musical Theatre
TODAY’S FOCUS

GACS raises $30 million, surpassing “Path Forward” goal

By Margie Asef

NORCROSS Ga.,   |  Greater Atlanta Christian School has announced that it surpassed its $29.7 million capital campaign goal — raising a total of $30 million.

Titled “The Path Forward,” the campaign is the largest in GACS’ 48-year history.

Aerial view of GACS campus

Aerial view of GACS campus

GAC President, Dr. David Fincher, says: “Greater Atlanta Christian has always been on a fast track forward.  It’s in our DNA to strive for the absolute best in research-based learning aligned with powerful character building programs and people.  This successful campaign has launched us again in significant ways, all for our students and families.  It allows us to do much more than impact facilities.   While facilities matter, the greatest impacts will be seen in areas of learning, expanded resources, supporting great teaching, plus building community and faith.  Mainly—the campaign will make it possible for the GAC student of today to advance to incredible new levels not possible before.”

When the campaign launched publicly in 2015, it prioritized four key areas for improvement: Academics, the Arts, Athletics, and Faith. Katherine White, Vice President of Advancement, led the Path Forward campaign.

White

White

Initiatives included renovations to six existing facilities, including the two original academic buildings built in 1968, and the addition of four new facilities. When construction is complete, there will be over 180,000 square feet of new or completely renovated space on campus.

Because of early gifts, several projects in the new plans have already been completed or are already well underway.  Projects only started once GACS was  certain of funding.  About 30 percent of projects are completed, with the largest of ten projects ready for fall of 2016.

Initiatives completed thus far include:

  • The transformation of the existing business building into the new Art and Design Center, doubling the space of GAC’s growing Visual Arts program.
  • The new Environmental Learning Center expands outdoor learning for elementary students, including a chicken coop, student-directed greenhouse, and edible garden.
  • The new Cross Tower and Center Stage located at the heart of campus provides additional worship space, a place for baptisms, and special events.
  • The redesigned Strickland Plaza expands outdoor learning space for Junior High and Senior High.
  • More space is now available for athletic teams and their training in the new Hoover Field House.
  • More field and practice space is available for lacrosse, football, baseball, and softball through the new Multi-Sport Complex.

logo_gacsCurrently, the Junior High Building and the Senior High Complex are being redesigned to ensure that students and faculty have access to more collaborative and interactive classrooms for teaching and learning.

Construction to convert the Campus Chapel Building to the new Center for Performing Arts is set to begin in fall 2016.

All construction is scheduled to be completed by May 2017.

The Path Forward campaign also covers academic programs like the Leadership and Entrepreneurial Program that spans kindergarten through 12th grade. Through specially designed curriculum, mentoring, and annual speakers, students will gain leadership training with character building.

Additionally, $3.2 million will be set aside to provide ongoing professional development for teachers, and to recruit the best educators for GAC students.

Greater Atlanta Christian School is located on 88 acres on Indian Trail Road in Norcross, Ga. Founded in 1961, GAC offers a Christian education to more than 1,800 students K3-12. GAC families come from more than 90 zip codes and 14 counties in the Atlanta area.

EEB PERSPECTIVE

Authoritative book about Ty Cobb is major service to his reputation

This iconic photo by Charles M. Conlon shows Cobb stealing third base during the 1909 baseball season. Photo via Wikipedia.

This iconic photo by Charles M. Conlon shows Cobb stealing third base during the 1909 baseball season. Photo in public domain via Wikipedia.

By Elliott Brack, publisher, GwinnettForum  |  A sports author has done the state of Georgia and Ty Cobb, in particular, a major service.  Author Charles Leerhsen of Brooklyn, N. Y. has published an authoritative biography: Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty. The book enhances and clarifies the reputation of Georgia’s “Big Peach,” who was maybe the most controversial player in baseball. The book won the 2015 Casey Award for the best baseball book of the year.

15.elliottbrackTy Cobb was the greatest batsman in baseball history, an average of .366, the highest lifetime average of any baseball player. He led the American league in batting for nine consecutive years, one season batting .420. He was the first player voted into the Hall of Fame. He was also a wheelhorse on the basepaths, held for years the all-time record for stealing 897 bases. And he was a superb fielder, in essence a complete baseball player.

It is when running the bases that many thought Cobb was most exciting. The celebrated sports writer, Grantland Rice, tells when in the dentist chair, his dentist told of Cobb’s style when Cobb got a base on balls with the score tied: “…he trotted slowly and carelessly …to first…then 30 feet away, he suddenly started at top speed, rounded the bag, and whirled to second.  The pitcher, rattled by such a wild move, threw badly to second, and before the ball was back, Ty was…at third, waiting to score ten seconds later on a short outfield fly. Great stuff?”

16.0603.CobbBookThe public perception of Cobb has always been critical, but his reputation was deeply sullied by Cobb’s own choice of a collaborator in writing his memories. He choose, at the instigation of his publisher, a hack journalist named Al Stump, who at one time we remember wrote for the Atlanta newspapers. Stump failed to do much research, and seems to have made up vast portions of the biography.

Charles Leerhsen said in a talk of Cobb at Hillsboro College, Hillsboro, Mich., about the way Stump compiled the book:  “Stump, who had never met Cobb, spent only a few days with him before setting off to write. For several months he refused to show Cobb the work in progress…. Stump was filling in the gaps by making up stories out of whole cloth, and Cobb’s voice in the book sounded suspiciously like Stump’s own. Cobb wrote letters threatening a lawsuit if the book wasn’t cancelled or rewritten. But he died soon thereafter, and the book—entitled My Life in Baseball: The True Record—came out a few months later.”

Leerhsen has done extensive research, especially in attacking Stump’s many fabrications. He shows the Royston, Ga. native in moments over his entire life, emphasizes his Southern gentlemanly manners, his love of children, and his “ordinary decency” in general. Yet he also portrays how Cobb could be combative, to the point of fisticuffs, at times.

Our hats off to Charles Leerhsen for telling a more complete story of Cobb not just on the base paths, but Cobb in real life.

SUGGESTION: Visit the Ty Cobb Museum in Royston, about 60 miles from Gwinnett. It is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and opens at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

ANOTHER VIEW

How one couple enjoyed a cruise with a difference

16.0603.Fanthom1

Mixing concrete for a floor

By Tamara Loeber  |  “Why are you here?” This was a question Donny and I heard repeatedly while onboard Fathom Travel’s second-ever cruise to the Dominican Republic a few weeks ago. We heard it again on the island at the beach, when planting trees on an impossibly green mountaintop, and while teaching English in a sixth-grade classroom in a local elementary school.

Why were we there? It’s pretty safe to say we would all love to do our part to make the world a little better, but how can we make an intentional decision to have that goal be part of our lives regularly?

Landing site

Landing site

We’ve travelled all over the world as budget-travelers. Travel expands our minds and our hearts. Getting out of our comfort zone challenges us to examine our habits, beliefs and predispositions. You begin to see clearly that when it comes down to it, we humans are indeed all the same.

What we heard about the new cruise line, Fathom, intrigued us. Owned by Carnival, Fathom focuses on trips with a purpose, based on the belief that the “person-to-person connection is among the strongest catalysts for transformation.” Their Impact Travel trips to the Dominican Republic aim to combine fun and adventure with sustainable social impact.

Our Impact Guide got us thinking deeply in one of the preparatory onboard workshops held as we sailed toward the island. She advised us on how to interpret new situations from a perspective of empathy rather than sympathy. Fathom learned the real needs of the community in Puerto Plata, and how travelers might be able to help reach those goals.  Some 40 percent of Dominicans live below the poverty level, and needs are many. Fathom Travelers work alongside representatives of partner organizations, but also together with members of the local community. All have a common goal: to empower the local community in a long-term, sustainable way.

Planting trees

Planting trees

As we squatted together in the thick, green grass, a Jurassic landscape spreading out around us, a Dominican Boy Scout asked, “Why are you here?” We were planting seedlings on the hillside slopes in the Yasica region. “I want to help,” I told him. “It might not be as much fun as the beach, but it’s more important, right?” he asked. Exactly! Reforestation will help combat erosion, clean the air and increase biodiversity in this northern mountain range, so important to the Cibao valley, where most of the country’s food is produced.

“Why are you here?” we asked a local teenager who, with some of his friends had joined in the sweaty, dirty job of mixing concrete by hand in the dirt. “We want to help,” he said. “My friend’s grandmother got a floor last week, and everyone is so excited.” We were outside the cinderblock home of a young family. By the end of the day their dirt floor would be replaced by a safe, smooth one of concrete.  Other Impact Activities offered on Fathom Travel cruises include helping new businesses get a head start or assisting with the production of water filters, and helping students and community members with English conversation.

The impact on individuals and within the community in Puerto Plata is easy to see, but it doesn’t end there. It just may lead to a more intentional life back home, and an answer to the question, “Why are you here?”

If you’re ready to get on board, be sure to use our special Insiders’ Code. Details on how to book are at the end of our Fathom Travel post on TurtlesTravel.com.

button size=”small”]IN THE SPOTLIGHT [/button]

United Community Bank

logo_ucbiThe public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriting sponsor is United Community Bank, with 30 offices within Metro Atlanta. Headquartered in Blairsville, Ga., it is the third-largest traditional bank holding company in the state with more than 100 locations throughout Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina. Since 1950, United Community Bank has been dedicated to providing platinum-level service to its customers as the foundation of every relationship. Known as The Bank That SERVICE Built℠, it is committed to improving the lives of residents in the communities it serves through this philosophy of delivering exceptional banking service. In Gwinnett, the bank has offices in Lawrenceville, Snellville and Buford.

  • For more information, visit  https://www.ucbi.com or call 770 237 0007.
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UPCOMING

Library offers high school diploma through online program

Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL) is offering qualified community members the opportunity to earn an accredited high school diploma and credentialed career certificate through Career Online High School. This is a program brought to public libraries by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. Part of the world’s first accredited, private online school district, Career Online High School is specifically designed to re-engage adults into the education system and prepare them for entry into post-secondary career education or the workforce.

logo_gcplnewGCPL Executive Director Charles Pace says: “Earning a high school diploma is a life-changing achievement. With Career Online High School, we’re empowering our residents to seek new opportunities and transform their lives. We’re excited to be the first library in Georgia, and one of the first in the Southeast, to offer this program to our community.”

GCPL will award scholarships for Career Online High School to qualified learners looking to earn a high school diploma and advance their careers. Once enrolled, Career Online High School pairs each student with an Academic Coach, who assists with developing an individual career plan, offers ongoing guidance and encouragement, evaluates performance, and connects the learner with the resources needed to demonstrate mastery of the course material.

Classes are supported by board-certified instructors and students have 24/7 access to the online learning platform. Coursework begins in one of eight high-growth, high-demand career fields (across a wide spectrum from child care and education to certified transportation), before progressing to the core academic subjects. Students are able to graduate in as few as six months by transferring in previously earned high school credits but are given up to 18 months to complete the program.

Residents can learn more about Career Online High School and take an online self-assessment by visiting www.careeronlinehs.gale.com/gcpl.

  • For more information or questions, contact the Library Help Line at 770-978-5154.
NOTABLE

Suwanee medical school campus sees nearly 300 students get degrees

Nearly 300 students were graduated at the eighth annual commencement of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (GA-PCOM) on May 27 at the Tommy P. Hughes Ballroom of the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth.

00_new_pcom_vertSome 58 candidates received a Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences degree, and around 100 students were awarded the Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from the college, based in Suwanee. The Class of 2016 is the third graduating class for PCOM School of Pharmacy, which is located on the Georgia Campus. Later that day, in another ceremony in the afternoon 128 students were awarded Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degrees.

Each commencement ceremony featured a distinguished speaker. First District United States Representative Earl L. “Buddy” Carter addressed the graduates at the morning ceremony. The only pharmacist currently in Congress, Representative Carter is serving his first term in the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, as well as the committees on Homeland Security and Oversight and Government Reform.

John R. Potts III, MD, spoke at the afternoon ceremony. A Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, the American Surgical Association and the Southeastern Surgical Congress, Dr. Potts became the Senior Vice President for Surgical Accreditation at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2012.

In honor of the graduating students, the College hosted a Commencement Dinner Dance at the Infinite Energy Center on May 24.

Public funding entity names Joe Allen of Gwinnett Place as president

16.0603.AllenJoeThe Partnership Gwinnett Public Funding Entity (PFE) has elected Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District Executive Director Joe Allen, pictured at right, as president of the PFE’s Board of Directors. Allen was also selected by the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners to represent the Gwinnett Place CID on the Gwinnett County Redevelopment Agency as the Community Improvement District (CID) appointment.

Two students from Gwinnett get nominations to Naval Academy

Senator David Perdue has announced the appointments of 19 Georgia students nominated by his office to the United States Service Academies. On Monday, June 6, Senator Perdue will be holding a breakfast in honor of the young women and men who have been nominated and offered an appointment to one of the United States Service Academies. Two students from Gwinnett are his nominees to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. They are Andrew Murphy from Lawrenceville and Christopher Lumley of Buford.

Brenau University begins new class at School of Nursing

Sixty-three students from four countries and 10 states began work May 16 toward Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees in what a Brenau University School of Nursing professor described as one of the most experienced classes in the program’s history.

logo_brenauThis is the first group to enroll in the Brenau nursing program since the Georgia Board of Nursing, which licenses all nurses that practice in the state, in March extended full approval of the program through 2021. All members pursue the same degree on virtually the same schedule. Brenau nursing programs also operates with full approval of the Washington, D.C.-based Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the federal government-sanctioned national accrediting agency.

More than half of the prospective nurses in the May cohort came from the Brenau undergraduate pre-nursing program. However, several others have bachelor’s or master’s degrees in other fields.

School of Nursing Director Dina Hewett said Brenau attracts nontraditional students because of the experienced faculty, robust curriculum, ample opportunities for clinical educational experiences and the university’s investment in health care technology, including its innovative patient simulation center.

Mitsubishi Golf Classic hires Bottomley to sales manager position

The Mitsubishi Electric Golf Classic, played at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, has appointed Chris Bottomley as the new sales manager for the tournament. Bottomley officially started with Mitsubishi Electric Classic on May 31. The announcement came from Gwinnett Sports Commission Executive Director Stan Hall.

Bottomley

Bottomley

Bottomley comes to the Mitsubishi Electric Classic from Atlanta National Golf Club, where he was their membership director. He has over 15 years of experience in sales, mostly with RS Medical, where he served as regional sales manager. He is also a former golf professional and was twice recognized as PGA Professional of the Year. His most recent position as a PGA professional was with West Lake Country Club in Augusta.. He attended Georgia Southern University, where he was a member of the university’s golf team.

RECOMMENDED

The Martian

A novel by Andy Weir

00_recommendedAre you a fan of the movies Cast Away, or Mission to Mars?  Andy Weir’s novel of a man marooned on Mars during a tumultuous escape by his fellow crewmates smacks of movie explorations on the ‘left behind’ theme.  I’ve resisted the urge to see the movie version of this novel, which often takes on a life of its own.  Instead, I enjoyed a portrait of an almost-average Joe, who confronts his situation using humor, problem-solving, and a faith that “it will all work out” in the end.  The road to rescue is full of detours and unexpected delays, but Astronaut Mark faces his fears and uses his common sense to reason a way to survive.  A great read, with a number of laugh-out-loud moments.  Nice to be introduced to a character you would like to know in real life.

— Karen Burnette Garner, Dacula

An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (100 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. –eeb

GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBIT

I am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! is literary sensation in 1932

The book, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! was a sensational best-selling book by Robert Elliott Burns. Published in 1932, it recounts the dramatic story of the author’s imprisonment in Georgia and his two successful escapes, eight years apart, with seven years of freedom, business success, and emotional intrigue in between. It was also the basis of a popular movie entitled I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, produced later that year by Warner Brothers.

16.0603.chaingangA native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Burns was a drifter and a battle-scarred World War I (1917-18) veteran who found himself living in a cheap hotel in Atlanta in 1922. In February of that year Burns and an accomplice stole $5.80 from a local grocer. They were arrested instantly; Burns was swiftly tried, convicted, and sentenced to six to ten years on the Campbell County (later Fulton County) chain gang.

It did not take the stunned northerner long to comprehend that ten years on the chain gang was practically a death sentence. Southern chain gangs, notorious across the rest of the nation, had their origins in the scandalous convict lease system of the late 19th century. When convict leasing was abolished in 1908, with the demand for convict labor still growing, the chain gang took its place.

Burns’s book is full of sensational, lurid, yet mostly verifiable descriptions of mistreatment, brutality, disgusting food, and labor so unrelenting and exhausting that it left men in a stupor. As he soon learned from his wretched fellow prisoners that to leave the chain gang a man had to “work out, pay out, die out, or run out.” Burns decided to run out. He did so in June 1922, after serving only a few months’ time.

Burns’s dramatic escape to Chicago was crowned by brilliant success in the publishing business, social recognition, and marriage.

But years later when he proved an unfaithful husband, his wife, Emily, turned him in to the authorities. His arrest on May 22, 1929, caused a sensation in Chicago. Burns had never told Emily about his past, but she discovered his secret by opening letters from his brother, the Rev. Vincent Burns, an Episcopal priest.

In negotiations with officials from Georgia, Burns arranged to return to Georgia, take a soft job in the prison system, and receive a pardon after one year—or so he believed. But the state of Georgia was unrelenting, and Burns once more faced the hardships of the chain gang, this time at a prison in Troup County.

In September 1930 he escaped a second time and made his way to Newark, N.J. There he wrote, “Georgia cannot win! . . . I have decided to write the true story, while in hiding, of my entire case.”

Burns’s memoir, first serialized in True Detective Mysteries magazine, was published in January 1932 and was an instant success. “It would be hard to find a more thrilling story in either truth or fiction,” a New York Times reviewer wrote.

(To be continued)                   

CALENDAR

00_calendar(NEW) Safety Check: the City of Lilburn Police Department will host a drive-through car seat safety check on Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. This free event will be held in the Railroad Avenue parking lot across from the Police Department, which is located at 76 Main St. A certified Child Passenger Safety Technician will ensure that car seats are installed properly and that children are riding in the safest seat for their height and weight.  For more information, click here.

(NEW) Kids Fishing at Jones Bridge Park playground on Saturday, June 4, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Join Commissioner Lynette Howard for a play date, make a craft, or fish. For kids ages 16 and under, accompanied by an adult.  Life jacket is recommended. Fishing rod and bait will be provided while supplies last. The Buford Trout Hatchery will stock over two thousand rainbow trout on the morning of the event. For more information, visit www.gwinnettparks.com.

(NEW) The second annual Gwinnett Beer Fest will take place on Saturday, June 4 at Coolray Field, home of the Gwinnett Braves in Lawrenceville. It will feature unlimited samples of over 200 craft beers, live music in the stadium, food, festival games and more. Tickets are on sale now at gwinnettbeerfest.com. Tickets are $45 for General Admission and $110 for VIP. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.gwinnettbeerfest.com.

Snellville’s Farmers Market will open Saturday, June 4, operating from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. through September 24. The market is located on the Towne Green in front of City Hall, 2342 Oak Road.   For more information visit www.snellvillefarmersmarket.com

Lilburn’s Third Annual Behind the Garden Gate Tour will be Saturday, June 4, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. It is sponsored by the Lilburn Woman’s Club. Tickets are $20, and may be purchased online or the day of the tour. For more information, visit www.lilburnwomansclub.org.

A Bridal Show, an Engaging Affair, will be held Sunday, June 5 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse in Lawrenceville. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with more than 30 wedding professionals. The exciting event is $6 in advance and $7 cash per person at the door. The Gwinnett Historic Courthouse is located at 185 Crogan Street. For more information or to pre-register, call 770-822-5450 or visit www.gwinnettparks.com.

(NEW) Fifth Annual Flag Day in Snellville, Tuesday, June 14, will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on the steps of Snellville City Hall. The theme is “United We Stand.”  Refreshments will be served in the Community Room following the program.

MYSTERY PHOTO

Modernistic building design was one seen in many buildings

16.0603.mystery

Today’s Mystery Photo looks to be a smaller version of the design of buildings from not too many years ago. Somehow, it reminds us of a onetime look of the Norcross Post Office, before it was re-vamped to the present Norcross City Hall. Send in your guess as to where this is to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include your hometown.

16.0601.PHPritzkerThe quirky Mystery Photo in the last edition was easily identified by several people.

Paige Havens of Lawrenceville sent in the photo, of Pritzker Pavilion, an outdoor amphitheater in Millennium Park, Chicago, saying: “The building was designed by architect Frank Gehry. The $60 million pavilion was constructed between June 1999 and July 2004. The pavilion was named after Jay Pritzker, whose family owns the Hyatt Hotels. It has a seating capacity of 11,000. The bandshell’s brushed stainless steel headdress frames the 120-foot proscenium theatre; the main stage can accommodate a full orchestra and chorus of 150 members. The bandshell is connected to a trellis of interlocking crisscrossing steel pipes that support the innovative sound system, which mimics indoor concert hall acoustics.”

First in was Jon Davis of Duluth, then came Bob Foreman, Grayson. Later George Graf of Palmyra, Va. writes: “The story goes that while Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was at his dentist’s office on Michigan Avenue, he looked out the office window at 900 parked cars and a railroad station and said, ‘Let’s cover it with a park.’ While the reality is probably more nuanced and complicated, the idea for an iconic park was born. With more than four million people visiting Millennium Park every year, it has become a much-loved destination that has changed the image of Chicago.”  Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill says: “It’s the funky Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago. This up close photo of it makes me a bit dizzy.”

LAGNIAPPE

GACS actress wins key award from school musical theatre

16.0603.Jennings,ParkerGreater Atlanta Christian School actress Parker Jennings of Atlanta was presented the 2016 Shuler Award for Best Actress in a supporting role at a red carpet affair. Parker’s portrayal of Mrs. Banks in the GAC performance of Mary Poppins won the prestigious award out of 59 Georgia High Schools.  As a sophomore, Parker attributes much to the mentorship and guidance Clif Jones, GAC’s theater director and instructor, and the high level of GAC’s commitment to the visual and performing arts.  Considered the “Tony” of Georgia High School Musical Theater, the Shuler Hensley Awards reflect the best of the best for the Peach State.  Named after Georgia Native and Tony Award winner, Shuler Hensley, the competition highlights the arts throughout the state.  The full length adjudicated musicals are all chosen from the 2016 The National High School Musical Theater Awards Qualifying Roles for consideration. Her parents are Kathy Daly-Jennings of Atlanta and Michael Jennings of Atlanta.

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