Fall 2018 Features

A World of Change

     People have long traveled around the nation to relive and remember key places and events in the Civil Rights Movements. They have even more reason to come to the Peach State because Georgia is now part of the new U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

     "Georgia is one of 14 states on the U.S. Civil Rights Trial and that will mean that even more people will visit our state as they retrace this important history," says Jeanne Cyriaque, cultural heritage specialist with the Georgia Department of Economic Development. "In this, the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, now there is something about the Civil Rights Movement and African-American heritage not only in Georgia, but across the United States." To keep reading, click here.

Java Joy

Engage, Connect, Thrive  - Extra Special People

     Until 1986, youngsters in and around Watkinsville with special needs had two options of how to spend their summers.  They could stay home from school or they could spend summer school with other students who were held back academically. 

     "Martha Wyllie had a vision to help youngsters with all kinds of disabilities have a chance to engage in social and recreational activities typical of their peers," says Laura Whitaker, executive director of ESP, Extra Special People, a non-profit organization that now serves more than 2.000 individuals from 350 families in 26 counties in North Georgia.  "from her dream, we have been able to expand the program in ways that we never imagined, including offering summer camp, after-school programs, family events and counseling." Click here to read more.

Moving to the Groove

     When I was a senior in college, Urban Cowboy reigned over the box office like dew on a spring morning.  On the screen and larger than life, John Travolta and Debra Winger, thumbs placed coolly in their jean's top pocket, glided across the smoky dance floor at Gilley's, separately then together.  Everyone wanted to go to Texas and find a cowboy and do that. 

     That was 1980.

     In 1982, Michael Jackson's Thriller showed up.  Zombies and werewolves aside, the smooth side steps of Jackson and his "funk of forty thousand years" moonwalkers put the line in new perspective.  Whether it was sultry country music or the King of Pop, line dancing, in any genre, was here to stay. To keep reading, click here

Q & A: Gary Usry

     In 1981, college student Gary Usry came home to Greensboro to assist his father in the family business, Greensboro Tire.  Upon his father's retirement, Usry took over the reins and has continued his father's legacy of service to the community.  And for the past 18 months, Usry has been learning how to shuffle his commitment there with his love for the people of Greene County.  As chairman of the Greene County Commission, he finds himself leading in one of the most flourishing times for the county.  As leader of a fast growing community, he is learning how to juggle. For the full article, click here