NEW for 10/13: Technical colleges, movie set and Euchre!

GwinnettForum  |  Number 22.72  | Oct. 13, 2023

IT’S AN INCOMPLETE NEW YORK STREET MOVIE SET, built in front of stacked cargo containers at the OFS plant and movie studios in Norcross. Mike Reams of OFS led a tour of Leadership Gwinnett alumni through the giant cable plant turned movie-making facility on Monday. For more details, check out Elliott Brack’s Perspective below. 

IN THIS EDITION

TODAY’S FOCUS: Technical Colleges of Georgia are a bright star of the state
EEB PERSPECTIVE: The vastness of OFS moviemaking site overwhelms you
SPOTLIGHT: Gwinnett County Public Library
ANOTHER VIEW: In that family game of Euchre, I know what I saw
UPCOMING: October 15 is deadline for paying county property tax
NOTABLE: ESPN2 television features two Gwinnett teams on Friday
RECOMMENDED: Mother A Cradle to Hold Me by Maya Angelou
CRITIC’S CORNER: Lawrenceville, Ga., Ghost Tour 
GEORGIA TIDBIT: William B. Hodgson was early diplomat and scholar of Georgia
MYSTERY PHOTO: Here’s another potential cream puff mystery
LAGNIAPPE: Duluth DAR chapter celebrates 25th anniversary
CALENDAR: On Saturday, visit Lilburn Daze at the city park from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

TODAY’S FOCUS

Technical Colleges of Georgia are a bright star of the state

(Editor’s note: the following is from a veteran of technical college education. He retired as president of Coastal Pines Technical College in Jesup, Ga. –eeb)

By Dr. Paul Scott

JESUP, Ga.  |  Today’s dynamic workplace forces two special requirements on the career-focused student. The first and most important of these is the need to “learn how to learn.” This is brought about by rapid changes in technology and the tools used as a result of that technology. 

Scott

The most conspicuous example of the impact of a new tool is the surgeon’s robot. Another example includes the auto mechanic’s hand-held diagnostic computer. Many automobiles now have chemically based composite bodies instead of the sheet metal of the past, meaning you can no longer bump and ding with a hammer to repair a dented fender.

The ultimate must-have component in modern career and technical education universe is the technical college. Today, it is common knowledge that the future jobs will require post-secondary (but less than a four-year degree) preparation for entry. The technical colleges of Georgia have uniquely evolved to fill that niche. They are not an alternative to the four-year academic college/university. They have their own unique role. 

The technical colleges are first and foremost a part of the community economic engine. Their job is to upgrade the area workforce by providing: 

  • Associate degrees that enhance the capacity of individual workers to meet specific workforce needs; 
  • Career-related diploma programs to create highly skilled workers; and 
  • For a company with an acute need or a career-oriented student who is in a big hurry to join the workforce, the technical colleges offer Industry Recognized Certificates that enable a student to focus on finite job task(s) by developing in-depth knowledge and skill sets.

The government of Georgia wisely chose to create a statewide independent system that owns and operates its technical colleges. The system provides multiple opportunities for students to acquire in-depth attitudes, knowledge and skills suitable for employment in today’s high-tech workforce. It is a given that all technical colleges require certain academic courses as a routine part of the program of study.

Another key element is that the actual job skills are always taught by an experienced craftsman/craftswoman, i.e., a practitioner who knows the ins and outs of the occupation.

The technical colleges not only provide preparation for the novices but contribute to the lifelong learning needs of all workers. For example, specific industry recognized certificates can be used to aid incumbent workers in adding new skills. 

The student body of a technical college will always be unique and most distinctive. On any given day you will find novices just beginning their preparation for the workforce, experienced workers getting a variety of preparation for a whole range of tasks or displaced workers retooling their skills for a different kind of work. Right beside them you will find workers who wish to change to another set of skills or add an associate degree. Dual enrollment students from local high schools will also be there working to get a head start in the job market.

Because all credits earned in a technical college must be portable and transferable, each technical college will be fully accredited—often by more than one accrediting agency. They are constantly refocusing and refitting to keep them in harmony with the needs of the workforce of today and tomorrow.

Given all this activity and care it is very clear why the Technical College System of Georgia is one of the state’s brightest stars in both economic development and education.

EEB PERSPECTIVE

The vastness of OFS movie-making site overwhelms you

Another possible movie set site: here’s a look showing how empty the spaces are before the moviemakers arrive at the OFS site in Norcross. Mike Reams gives details about the site.

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

OCT. 13, 2023  |  The one obvious aspect you get should you visit the OFS movie production facilities at I-85 and Jimmy Carter Boulevard is the open vastness of its studios. What was once Western Electric’s cable manufacturing plant today still turns out fiber optic cable, but with automation, the cable making aspect takes less room, freeing up other giant space for movie-making.

The production spaces are so very big-big-big-huge!  But when you first see them, there’s nothing indicating that they can be a sound stage or set for movie making. It’s just open space, looking like a warehouse. Altogether, it is 160 acres of movie-making campus, just 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta.  It offers over 300,000 square feet of space to the film industry, with 30 to 40 foot ceilings  plus 11 acres of outdoor open space.

The major impact is the sheer size of the space.  Several shootings can take place here at the same time. 

  • There’s the 80,000 square foot west stage.
  • A 60,000 square foot two floor steel structure.
  • A 50,000 square foot east stage.
  • Three different outdoors areas for filming: two four-acre sites and another of three acres.

Skilled craftsmen can turn these vast spaces into anything they want, from a big city street, to a cozy bar, and recently on an outside location, into a peaceful river setting, completed with a tire hanging from an over-the-water tree, awaiting a drop into the “river.”

While the inside spaces are big, there’re the tremendous open grounds on the back side of the property. This area is lined with several 300 foot long walls of five deck-high cargo containers awaiting the blue or green screens to turn this giant container wall into a scene for the next movie. 

The only indication that something unusual might be going on here in front of one row of cargo containers is a yet-to-be-finished set of a New York street, halted because of the recent strike.  It’s merely a giant steel and wood facade of the front of buildings—halfway finished. 

These spaces for movie sets began in 2012 after the OFS fiber-optic cable manufacturing plant was in the process of revamping after major changes in the industry. The plant, which once had 5,000 people working there 24/7, is now down to about 400 employees, reduced some because of automation, but also because of a worldwide drop in fiber demand.

Gwinnett County bought 104 acres of the OFS site property for $34.3 million in May of 2018 to enhance the possibility of films being shot here. A total of 70 productions have been produced at the OFS facility since the county assumed ownership. This includes music, commercials, feature film, episodic TV, single-day location, student films and production office space leases from production companies. The first movie shot here was Identity Theft in 2012, followed in 2013 by Fast and Furious Seven.

All this has helped attract other movie-makers to Gwinnett. Right up the street, Eagle Rock Studios at 470,000 square feet has the largest TV production studio facility in the U.S. under one roof.  All this film work in Gwinnett provides employment for a wide array of skills, from carpenters, electricians, caterers, seamstresses, dry cleaners, equipment rental, et al. It’s become an entirely new industry for Georgia and Gwinnett County.

Mike Reams of Johns Creek oversees the movie-making aspect for OFS. A Duke mechanical engineer, he joined AT&T out of a master’s progra at Georgia Tech, and eventually slid into overseeing the movie-making aspect.  

Betcha no one in Gwinnett even thought this cable plant would become a movie-making site!

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Gwinnett County Public Library

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ANOTHER VIEW

In that family game of Euchre, I know what I saw

The author’s uncle, Elmer, and father, circa 1962.  Photo provided.

By David Simmons

NORCROSS, Ga.  |  My mom and dad ventured west from East Tennessee in the late ’50’s to Indianapolis, and were soon followed by my mother’s older brother Elmer and his family.  After we moved to the suburb of Greenfield, we lived about 30 miles apart and Elmer actually bought the house that we used to rent on the southside of Indianapolis. 

My dad hired on at the Ford plant, and Elmer found work at the General Motors plant there. Both of them played prodigious amounts of Euchre during their breaks and lunch at work. (Euchre is a trick-taking game with a trump, played by four players in teams of two. The basic play is similar to Whist, i.e., each player plays one card, the highest card of the suit leads to winning the trick,unless someone has played a card of the trump suit.) Dad said that they usually could play three games of Euchre during a 15 minute break. And the games were fierce.

Our families regularly visited back and forth on weekends, and Saturday nights were always card night. We would start off with Oh Hell! which allowed everybody, including us kids to play.  Then as it got later in the evening, the adults would switch to Euchre.  It was always guys against the girls, Elmer and Dad against Mom and Aunt Teen.  

I did a lot of watching, and it was funny how the guys seemed to win at Euchre waaaaaay more than the gals.  For a while there, I thought Dad was a psychic, because when he was in the first seat, and the women turned down the trump card, he always seemed to hit Uncle Elmer’s hand. Now, Hoyle says to call next, (i.e, spades if clubs turned down, diamonds if it was hearts, etc.) to hit your partner’s hand. That is supposed to work. But dad might call any suit, and then not have a strong hand in that suit. And that don’t compute.  And believe me, I paid attention. 

By about 1964, when I was nine, I finally figured it out. Uncle Elmer was a heavy smoker, always had one going, and being a gentleman, he never blew his smoke towards the table and the other people.  Then I noticed that when Uncle Elmer would blow his smoke straight up in the air, Dad would call Spades.  Blow it off to the left?  Boom, Dad would call hearts.  Straight down below the table?  Clubs.  Uncle Elmer was signaling dad what to call with his cigarette smoke! 

No wonder they won so much! But I never told, and the women never figured it out.  One day a few years after Mom passed away in ’90, I was visiting with Dad and we were talking.  We got onto cards and I asked him why Mom and Aunt Teen never caught on to their little tricks with the smoke.  He acted shocked that I would even suggest such a thing.  Denied it to his dying day.  But I was there, and I know what I saw.  

Thus we had Uncle Elmer and my Dad, Glenn, the two card shark shysters, circa 1962, from the card games of my youth.  

FEEDBACK

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We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum.  Please limit comments to 300 words, and include your hometown.  The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length.  Send feedback and letters to:  elliott@brack.net.

UPCOMING

Oct. 15 is deadline for paying county property tax

Tax Commissioner Denise R. Mitchell reminds homeowners the deadline to pay 2023 tax bills, October 15, is quickly approaching.   

Homeowners have several options to pay: 

  • Drop box: Check payments may be placed in drop boxes at any tag office.
  • In-person: Payments with cash, check, money order or debit or credit card can be made during business hours at any Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner’s Office.
  • Mail: Checks can be mailed to P.O. Box 372, Lawrenceville, Ga. 30046.

Taxpayers can also view, print and pay their bills online with an e-check, credit card or debit card at www.GwinnettTaxCommissioner.com/Pay. Mitchell says paying with an e-check is safe, secure, efficient and free.  Payments made online with debit and credit cards incur added convenience fees. The debit card fee is $3.95. The fee for using credit cards and PayPal is 2.25 percent of the total paid.

Austrian networking firm locates in Gateway85 CID

Nesevo, an Austrian firm and global leader in networking solutions, IT services, and logistics, recently announced plans to expand its footprint in Gwinnett County, leasing a 13,000-square-foot facility in Norcross in the Gateway85 CID for manufacturing and office operations. The company plans to create 30 new jobs over the next five years and is working with Partnership Gwinnett on the expansion.

Victor Handl, country manager/director for nesevo U.S.,says: “Gwinnett County provides a diverse talent base to reflect our global presence, excellent access for international connection, and a very strong tech-industry foundation.”

An ISO 14001-certified corporation, nesevo values environmental stewardship and strives for green best practices in all its operations. It is headquartered in Hörbranz, Austria with offices in China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States.  For more information on nesevo, visit www.nesevo.com

Partnership Gwinnett worked to retain and support the expansion of nesevo which was already operating out of a smaller location in unincorporated Duluth. The company selected a larger facility in Norcross and the Gateway 85 Community Improvement District (CID) that could better accommodate its growth plans.

NOTABLE

ESPN2 television features two Gwinnett teams Friday

It’s only 9.6 miles from Buford High School to Mill Creek High School in Gwinnett County. This short distance will see national attention on Friday night, October 12.

Both teams are football powerhouses and have a perfect 6-0 record this season in Georgia high school football. The two teams will square off at 7 p.m. Friday night in Hoschton at Mill Creek High and be featured on the ESPN2 network, broadcasting not only all around the USA, but also worldwide.  Buford is ranked No. 1 and Mill Creek No. 2 in AAAAAAA football in the entire state.

Mill Creek captured the Georgia 7A state championship last season, going 14-1, with their only loss coming to Buford 39-27 in regular season play.

The game could pave the way toward one team having an undefeated season. There’s also the possibility that the two teams might meet again at playoff time. 

Restrepo is first Peachtree Corners marshal

Restrepo

The City of Peachtree Corners has appointed its first city marshal. He is Edward Restrepo, for 26 years a Gwinnett County police officer. Restrepo will assume his official duties on November 1, 2023. 

Restrepo has had several Gwinnett police positions, including commander of the Narcotics and Gang Task Force, and Special Operations commander. He obtained both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in criminal justice from Saint Leo University and is currently in the process of completing his doctorate. Furthermore, Restrepo has served as an adjunct professor for over four years. He has lived in Jackson County since 2008.

RECOMMENDED

Mother A Cradle to Hold Me, by Maya Angelou

By Karen Harris, Stone Mountain: Maya Angelou’s Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me, is a soulful and sweet soliloquy that describes a child’s relationship with a mother. From the early days of merging through the years of separation, rebellion, and ultimately appreciation, it describes a pivotal relationship.  The beginnings of personhood are softly but poignantly conveyed with mystical tinge that will plumb the heart of all.

An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next.  Send to: elliott@brack.net 

CRITIC’S CORNER

Lawrenceville Ghost Tour

By Jane Wroton: Entertaining, enlightening…and educational: these three adjectives perfectly describe this 90-minute walking Ghost Tour of the dimly-lit streets, alleys, and courtyards surrounding the Lawrenceville Courthouse Square. Born in Lawrenceville in 1820 and taken by ‘The Consumption’ when only in her teens, our ghost guide, ‘Miss Willow Wood’ greeted us in period costume: straw hat, long, dark brown cape and skirt, pouch and lighted lantern.  Her tales of spooky spirits and paranormal encounters were enough to give even the most staunch non-believer goose bumps on this chilly, blustery fall night under the light of the day’s half-moon!  A knowledgeable, enthusiastic storyteller, Willow transported us back to 19th and 20th century Lawrenceville with vivid, emotional… sometimes funny, sometimes tragic… accounts of the buildings, people, and events that formed the town.  Don’t miss out on this spook-tacularly fun outing for the whole family!”  Buy tickets from Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville.

GEORGIA TIDBIT

Hodgson was early diplomat and scholar 

The distinguished scholar-diplomat William Brown Hodgson became a mainstay in the cultural and intellectual life of Savannah following his marriage in 1842 to Margaret Telfair, the youngest daughter of Georgia Governor Edward Telfair.

Born on September 1, 1801, in Georgetown, D.C., Hodgson was left fatherless as a young boy. He never attended college, and his formal education was limited to studies in Georgetown, principally under the Reverend James Carnahan, a future president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University).

When Henry Clay became secretary of state under U.S. President John Quincy Adams, he assigned Hodgson to the Barbary States of northern Africa to receive further linguistic training and to assist the consul general at Algiers in Algeria. There Hodgson began his lifelong fascination with the Berbers and their ancient language. He was sent to Constantinople, Turkey, in the spring of 1831 with instructions to negotiate a ratified treaty with the Turks. 

In 1834 Hodgson was sent to Egypt to ascertain the practicability of carrying on commercial relations with that country. In 1836 he served in London, England, and the following year dispatched on a mission to Lima, Peru, to deliver a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce with the new Peru-Bolivian Confederation. Hodgson was appointed in 1841 to his first consular post—as consul general in Tunis, Tunisia—by U.S. secretary of state Daniel Webster.

In Paris, France, on his way to Tunis, Hodgson met and fell in love with Savannah native Margaret Telfair, a member of the prominent Telfair family, who was traveling on the European continent with her sisters. Telfair agreed to marry him on the condition that he resign his post in Tunis. Hodgson accepted her terms, and they were married in July 1842 at St. George’s Church in London.

Upon their return to America, Hodgson and his bride settled into the Telfair residence in Savannah. Hodgson took over the supervision of the Telfair plantations and soon became caught up in the intellectual life of the city.  Hodgson’s scholarly work included studies in the physical sciences, among them an 1843 paper to the National Institute in Washington on the organic remains and geology of the Georgia coast

Hodgson received many honors during his lifetime. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Oriental Society and was elected to membership in the ethnological societies of New York City, London, and Paris, as well as to the geographical societies of London and Paris. He attended the Paris Exposition of 1855 as commissioner from the State of Georgia and was one of the first Americans to be awarded the French Legion of Honor. Princeton University awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree in the 1850s.

Hodgson died on June 26, 1871, while visiting New York City. He was buried in the Telfair family crypt at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah.

Margaret Telfair Hodgson constructed, in his memory, a new headquarters and library for the Georgia Historical Society. Hodgson Hall was dedicated on February 14, 1876, the 37th anniversary of the society’s founding. During the ceremony, Carl Brandt’s portrait of Hodgson, to be hung in the new hall, was unveiled.

MYSTERY PHOTO

Here’s another potential cream puff mystery

For the second issue in a row, readers are getting what might be termed a cream puff Mystery Photo.  It’s an enormous, beautiful building. Now tell us what it is, and where it is located.   Send your answer to elliott@brack.net, and include  where you live.

As Mikki Root Dillon of Lilburn replied, the last Mystery Photo wasOur own High Museum in Atlanta from an unusual slant, but the little house gives it away.”  

Fran Worrell of Lawrenceville gave more detail: “It’s the largest museum of visual art in the southeastern United States. It’s on Peachtree Street in Midtown. The High is 312,000 square feet and a division of the Woodruff Arts Center. The museum was founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association. In 1925, the High family, for whom the museum is named, donated their family home to house the collection following a series of exhibitions organized by Atlanta collection J.J. Haverty. In 1983, a 135,000-square-foot building designed by architect and abstract artist Richard Meier to house the High Museum of Art. Meier won the 1984 Pritzker Architecture Prize after completing the building, which was funded by a $7.9 million grant from former Coca-Cola president Robert W. Woodruff, matched by $20 million raised by the museum. In 2005, architect Renzo Piano designed three new buildings as part of an upgrade to the Woodruff Arts Center complex which more than doubled the museum’s size.”  The photo was made by George Graf of Palmyra, Va.

Also recognizing the photograph were Lou Camerio, Lilburn; Jon Davis, Duluth; Steve Ogilvie, Lawrenceville; Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill; Pat Mitchell, Boone, N.C.; Kay Montgomery, Duluth; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; Mike Donahue, Lawrenceville; Olesya Goncharova, Johns Creek; Lindsay Borenstein of Atlanta; Lee Klaer, Duluth; Pat Bruschini, Peachtree Corners; Elizabeth Neace, Dacula; Michael Green, Milton; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas;  and why not you? 

SHARE A MYSTERY PHOTO:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but  make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)  Send to:  elliott@brack.net and mark it as a photo submission.  Thanks.

LAGNIAPPE

Duluth DAR chapter celebrates 25th anniversary

From left are William Day DAR Vice Regent Patricia Farren, new member Sally Berner, Chaplain Sara Burns, and Membership Chair Judy York.

Duluth’s William Day Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, celebrated its 25th Anniversary on October 7. Appropriately, the occasion was held at the Bellmere Garden House, where the earliest meetings of the chapter were held. Owned by founding member Deen Day Sanders, who was in attendance, the venue is once again the site of our regular chapter meetings. Mrs. Sanders also presented the chapter with a Belgian tapestry of Washington Crossing the Delaware. The chapter’s namesake, patriot William Day, was in one of Washington’s boats as they crossed the Delaware River.

Imagine Vice Regent Farren’s surprise – as well as that of members and guests – when the ghost of William Day himself entered the room and interrupted her as she began the program, He tried to find himself pictured in the gift tapestry with the point of his cane, but he decided he must have been in another boat. 

The chapter learned of our patriot’s personal history as well as his observations of over 10,000 proposed amendments to the U. S. Constitution since 1787. One of our favorites was the proposal that the presidency be replaced by a Council of Three; William asked us to imagine Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders on this council together. Some of us in attendance thought the ghost strongly favored Terry Manning, but others thought he was a truly amazing ghost.

CALENDAR

Visit Lilburn Daze Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Men’s Civic Breakfast at Christ Episcopal Church will be Saturday, October 14.  Come for coffee at 7:30 and breakfast at 8 a.m. Speaker will be Charles Dowdell of Duluth, who will relate his experiences working as a Senior Communications Technician contracting for the United States Antarctica Program, supporting the National Science Foundation and International Science projects. 

Norcross neighborhood clean-up and recycling will be Saturday, October 14, from 8 a.m. until noon, at Norcross Public Works, 345 Lively Avenue. The city will be accepting single-stream recyclables, glass bottles and jugs, electronics, paper shredding and scrap metal. It’s your chance to make a difference and contribute to a more sustainable future!

Lilburn Daze is a family friendly arts and crafts festival held October 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Lilburn City Park. The family atmosphere at the one-day event is what keeps residents and out – of -towners coming back year after year.  Lilburn Daze is organized and hosted by the Lilburn Woman’s Club and co-sponsored by the City of LilburnThere is free admission, free parking, and shuttle transportation.

Preview Days at Georgia Gwinnett College will be October 14 from 9 a.m to 1 p.m. Prospective students will hear from members of the Grizzly family about programs of study, admissions, financial aid, student housing and more. Participants will be able to tour GGC’s campus and talk to student ambassadors about their experiences at GGC. The event will include food, music and fun giveaways. GGC team members will host selected breakout sessions in Spanish. Register for Preview Day at www.ggc.edu/preview.

Meet award-winning author Zoe Fishman as she discusses her newest novel, The Fun Widow’s Book Tour, a funny, moving story of friendship, and resilience. This appearance will be Saturday,  October 14, at the Duluth branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. Books will be available for sale and signing. 

Open House at Truth’s Community Clinic will be Sunday, October 15, from 1 to 3 p.m. The clinic, now in its 20th year, provides free medical and dental services to underserved residents in our area, is located at 250 Langley Drive, Suite 1316, Lawrenceville. Light snacks and refreshments will be served.

A new watercolor painting class is starting at Norcross Gallery and Studios. Four week class begins on October 16 from 10 a.m. to noon, continuing through November 6. Register at norcrossgalleryandstudios.org  Instructor Lucy Brady is experienced, friendly and will  give personal attention. Cost is $135 members, $155 non-members.

Citizenship Clinic will be held on Friday, October 20, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.at the  Lawrenceville Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. Join Asian Americans Advancing Justice for a free naturalization application preparedness workshop. Pre-registration is required.

The Gwinnett Stripers are hosting its first “Brewfest at the Ballpark” at Coolray Field on Saturday, October 21 from 1 to 5 p.m. This one-of-a-kind beer festival will give attendees a chance to sample selections from local Georgia craft breweries. The event will include live music, and food will be available for purchase at select Coolray Field concession stands.

Third annual Peachtree Corners Decathlon will be Saturday, October 21. The event will be at the Path to fitness, near the Town Green.  Some 72 participants will be entered in 10 challenging events.The sold-out event is open to men and women, age 18 and older, and known for its intense physical challenges that tests endurance, strength and agility.

Pedal Norcross on Saturday, October 21, from 3 until 6 p.m. Join Sustainable Norcross for a group bike ride through historic Norcross. The event kicks off on Skin Alley with bike recycling and helmet giveaways . The ride wraps up with a prize drawing and a chance to win an E-Bike! Get your tickets here.

Braselton High School alumni, friends and families will celebrate the school’s history on Saturday, October 21 from 9 a.m. until noon in the historic 1904 building in downtown Braselton. Attendees are asked to bring any memorabilia and help identify students in the historic photographs dating from 1924 to 1957. The Braselton High School opened in September 1920 and closed during the 1957-1958 school year after merging with Jackson County schools. For more information, contact Amy Pinnell at apinnell@braselton.net

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