As reported in the Athens Banner-Herald, there were two-hundred and thirty-two veterans that were remembered for their service and sacrifice this past Sunday during the Clarke County Veterans Council’s annual Memorial Day program at Evergreen Memorial Park in Athens.

For the last 100 years, the tradition of remembering deceased veterans with a roll call was honored for the Athens area servicemen and women who served in wars going as far back as World War II and that have died since May 1, 2016.

“Everything that we get in life that’s worth anything has a cost to it,” Veterans Council Chaplain Ray Fairman, a U.S. Marines veteran, told the newspaper. “The cost for our country’s freedoms and liberties and justice is always paid in the blood of young men. This is a day for the people who didn’t make it back.”

​For other veterans who attended, the ceremony is a way to continue the legacies of their fallen comrades.
“I lost guys in Vietnam,” said Michael Ginn, commander of the state-wide AMVETS organization and of AMVETS Post 10 in Athens. “This is my way to make sure they aren’t forgotten.”

A U.S. Army veteran, Ginn said that it took him nearly twenty years after leaving active duty to get involved with veterans’ organizations.

“I wanted to put Vietnam behind me,” he said. “But I know now that the way to do that is to honor these men and women’s sacrifice.”

For others, hearing the name of a loved one during the roll call is a new experience that causes mixed emotions.

​“I’m happy and sad,” said Marty Chambers, whose husband, Alfred Chambers, was a veteran of World War II and Korea and passed away in 2016.
“I’m sad he’s not with us anymore, but I’m so happy to see him honored. He won’t be forgotten.”
 
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As reported in the Athens Banner-Herald, last week the Georgia Department of Education announced that North Oconee High School teacher Paige Cole is one of 10 finalists up for state Teacher of the Year.

Throughout the next couple of weeks, a panel of judges will interview the finalists and watch them give speeches. The state Department of Education will announce the winner on June 12.

A panel of past Georgia Teacher of the Year winners and finalists, administrators, community leaders and others picked the 10 finalists from among 150 applicants, based on essays they submitted.

All the applicants had previously been named their school district’s Teacher of the Year, just like Cole was.

Cole teaches U.S. history and Advanced Placement government at North Oconee, where she has taught for the last five years. She had also taught at the Athens Montessori School, Athens Technical

College and at Apalachee High School in Barrow County.

Cole’s three degrees from the University of Georgia include an undergraduate degree in history, a master’s in social studies education and a Ph.D. in language and literacy.

In 2011, she received a Fulbright Hayes award that allowed her to travel to East Africa, an opportunity that influenced her teaching on power and privilege, she mentioned on her web page.

​“The impact she makes on our students is immeasurable,” said North Oconee Principal Philip Brown in a statement released when Cole was announced as Oconee County’s Teacher of the Year last fall.
 
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As reported in the Red & Black, the Georgia gymnastics program recently gained a new head coach.

​Courtney Kupets Carter, who competed while at Georgia from 2006-2009, was named the team’s eighth head coach last Tuesday May 9,  following the firing of former head coach Danna Durante.

​"I feel like it's a very special opportunity, and I am so thankful and grateful for this chance to show the passion that I had while I was a gymnast at Georgia, but now I get to have that passion as a head coach," Kupets Carter said at her introductory press conference last week. "I cannot wait to instill that into the current and future Gymdogs."

Kupets Carter’s return is highly anticipated as she was one of the best collegiate gymnasts ever. In 2006, she won individual titles in bars, beam and all-around.

Although an injury caused her to miss the 2008 NCAA Championships, she still managed to finish her career with nine individual national titles, which is a record that still stands.

Kupets Carter announced her hiring of new volunteer coach Suzanne Yoculan Leebern, who won 10 national championships as UGA's head coach from 1984-2009. 

"I am so thankful that she would come back and take the time and invest back in the program that she started," Kupets Carter said. "It's going to be a monumental year, not only for the program, but for the athletes who get to experience little bits of what I got to experience out of Suzanne.”

While still somewhat successful, Georgia's program has declined since Yoculan's retirement. The last time the program won a national title was during Kupets Carter's senior season in 2009, which was Yoculan's last season as head coach.

Under Durante, the Bulldogs didn’t finish higher than fifth at NCAA Super Six. Now, Kupets Carter will try to change that even though this is her first time being a college head coach.

​"Georgia gymnastics will win championships again," Kupets Carter said.
 
 
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Several speakers delivered hopeful messages Friday on a chilly graduation day on the University of Georgia campus in Athens.

As reported in the Athens Banner-Herald, UGA’s ceremony for graduate students began at 10 a.m.

About 1,000 students packed the Stegeman Coliseum to receive Ph.D. and master’s degrees, and to listen to UGA professor Marshall Shepherd, the head of UGA’s atmospheric sciences program.

The main graduation event, the undergraduate ceremony, began at Sanford Stadium at 7 p.m. with fireworks and all.

A total of 1,169 graduate students and 4,456 undergraduates were able to participate in Friday’s events.

Sportscaster and UGA graduate Ernie Johnson, host of TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” was the featured speaker for undergraduates.

In between, the School of Political and International Affairs and the School of Social Work also had convocation ceremonies for their graduates, with other notable speakers.

Former U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss addressed the School of Public and International Affairs, and former Georgia Commissioner of Labor Michael Thurmond, an Athens native who is now CEO of metropolitan Atlanta’s DeKalb County, addressed the School of Social Work graduates.

Thurmond quoted Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Gospel of Matthew as he exhorted social work graduates to go out and make a difference, and not to be discouraged by the nature of their work.

“Not every child you encounter can be saved,” he said, “nor can every family be reunited, nor every alcoholic rehabilitated.”

But some can, he said.

​“You are in a unique position to change and save lives,” Thurmond said.
 
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As reported in the Athens Banner-Herald, last Sunday, April 30, Joe MacKenzie, a senior mass media arts major at UGA, organized a St. Baldrick’s Foundation head shaving event at The Rook & Pawn.

Seven volunteers had their heads shaved by stylists from Model Citizen Salon and donated proceeds to the charity, which funds childhood cancer research.

MacKenzie said he organized the event in honor of his late cousin, Pierce Broe, who died in Oct. 2014 after a 15-month battle with a brain tumor at just 12 years old.

St. Baldrick’s was the main charity that helped Broe throughout his battle with cancer.

“I organized this event because this is the charity that helped out my cousin, who unfortunately passed away from cancer a few years ago, and why we chose this one charity specifically is because they fund to childhood charity research,” MacKenzie told the paper.

MacKenzie also said that he believes that we should bring more awareness about childhood cancer and address the need to research genetic cancers.

​“Childhood cancer is not very well addressed to the general or pharmaceutical population which means they need more money for specific research,” MacKenzie said. “Children suffer from specific genetic cancers. For example, the [type of cancer] my cousin had, a brain tumor, was not very well researched.”

Tom MacKenzie, father of Joe MacKenzie, was one of the seven who volunteered to have his head shaved. He said he participated in memory of “his little fishing buddy, Pierce.”

“I had taught him to catch his very first fish. We always try to help out kids with cancer because it just doesn’t seem fair,” MacKenzie said. “We also are happy to support our son, [Joe], who really was Pierce’s good buddy.”

MacKenzie said the benefit of the event is to educate the youth in the community.

“I think it’s a great educational opportunity for a lot of the youth just like my son and daughter. Unless you have a personal acquaintance with cancer, you don’t know about this sort of stuff,” MacKenzie said. “I think it’s a great way to reach out to people and say ‘hey’ and give people a sense of giving early on.”

​During the event, 10 percent of all purchases made at The Rook & Pawn contributed to the Mackenzie’s St. Baldrick’s team named ‘Pierce the Heart.’ Their goal was set at $2,000 and at the end of the event, the team had reached just over $2,500 from individual contributions and proceeds from purchases made at The Rook & Pawn.

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