As reported recently in the Athens Banner-Herald, during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month throughout Athens, there were several walks, picnics and fundraisers to support breast cancer victims.

Campus organizations helped bring awareness to the support and services available for students or their affected family members.

On Oct. 7 The Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support hosted their annual “In Their Shoes,” a walk or run event to raise funds that will help support the activities provided by the center.

Oncology social worker Lauren Liverman said that this year’s event was a 10K run or walk instead of a 13.1-mile run.

“This is a very active town and we did have a lot of great community awareness this year,” Liverman told the paper. “There was definitely a lot of community involvement and I only expect that that will increase [next year].”

Liverman said their practice offers counseling services, support groups, yoga classes and many other quality-of-life classes to cancer survivors and their caregivers.

About the same time as the “In Their Shoes” 10K, the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority hosted their annual Pink Picnic on the front lawn of the Zeta house to raise funds for their national philanthropy breast cancer education and awareness.

Caroline Stroud, president of Zeta Tau Alpha, said about 600 members of the Athens community attended the BBQ lunch and corn hole tournament.

Aside from the Pink Picnic, the sorority also hosts an annual single softball tournament every spring to contribute to the philanthropy’s funds.

​“This year, we proudly raised over $100,000 to give back to breast cancer education and awareness,” Stroud said.

​Bulldogs Battling Breast Cancer, another organization which was started by Jay and Teresa Abbot to raise money “to fight breast cancer through early detection and assistance to women in need who may not have the resources to get the services they need to fight the disease,” the website said.

According to Jay Abbot, the non-profit was founded a year after Teresa was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. Though they had only planned to host the event once, they just celebrated their 13th annual golf tournament.

Jay Abbot said the gold tournament is organized with current football players and coaches every year. The football players are assigned to a group of three people for the tournament, which gives fans a chance to interact with the players and allows everyone to talk about the reasons they are there to support.

“Everything that we raise goes to help fight breast cancer,” Jay Abbot said. “We have no administrative costs at all.”

The St. Mary’s Foundation in Athens, which is the benefactor for the Abbott’s charity, received $85,000 from the charity the beginning of this year. The funds will benefit women with breast cancer in need of treatment and other technologies being developed to detect breast cancer earlier.

“We do it out of love for Teresa, first of all, and we’re just trying to do something for the community and to help fight this horrible disease,” Jay Abbott said.

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Last Saturday the Oconee Chamber Fall Festival attracted thousands of Oconee and Clarke county residents.

In its 43rd year, the annual event has become known as a premiere arts & crafts festival, according to the Oconee Chamber of Commerce website.

Held on the 3rd Saturday in October every year in downtown Watkinsville, the outdoor festival hosted over 200 vendors and 20,000 attendees.

Vendors included Wood N Creations, Southern Pickens, Classic City Gift as well as Hillbilly Bob’s Soda, SouthPaw BBQ and Nedza’s Waffles.

One vendor who has had a booth set up for the last six years was pleased with the turnout. 

“We have always been impressed with the large crowds the festival brings,” said Dave Chase of Dave’s Heaven Sent Sauce, who was pulling all-nighters the week leading up to the event to create his BBQ and hot sauces ready, bottled and labeled. “This year, in particular, our big-ticket items were the first things to go and quickly.”

The ever-growing event garnered many first-time visitors as well.

“I enjoy going to fall festivals with my family but my husband and I were not expecting it to be as large as it was,” Athens resident Melissa Toledo said. “There was definitely so much to see, buy and eat.”

Toledo said her family enjoyed some good old-fashioned corn dogs and watching their son play in the corn pit and pet the farm animals, especially because the train ride was not functioning.

Although the train ride for small children was having mechanical issues before the afternoon hit, there were plenty of activities for children of all ages to participate in. 

As a family-friendly event, there were hayrides to and from select parking lots, the KidZone Rock which included a climbing wall, spider Jump, inflatables, and pony rides.

​The Oconee Chamber of Commerce hopes to continue to host longtime vendors and attendees and attract more newcomers.
 
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As reported in the Athens Banner-Herald, the Georgia Bulldogs have risen to No. 3 in the Associated Press poll. The last time Georgia was in the same position they are in now was in 1982. Currently they lead the SEC East by one and a half games over Kentucky.

The Bulldogs (7-0, 4-0 SEC) have outscored SEC opponents this season by 31.25 points per game.
Georgia’s four SEC wins last year came by one, three, six and 14 points.

“We’re going into the bye week and that means we’re hitting the re-set button,” kicker Rodrigo Blankenship told the paper.

Georgia, which is also No. 3 in the coaches’ poll this week, is one of eight unbeatens, including No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Penn State, No. 4 TCU, No .5 Wisconsin, No. 8 Miami, No. 16 South Florida and No. 20 UCF. If Georgia and Alabama meet in the SEC championship game unbeaten, the loser could still reach the four-team playoff.

Coach Kirby Smart still expects more from his team even during their bye week.

“I’m excited to get back to practice because I want to get better,” Smart said. “I told them, it’s not an off week, it’s not a bye week, it’s a work week because we’ve got to clean some things up and get better if we’re going to go where we’re going to go.”

On Oct. 28 is their yearly matchup with rival Florida in Jacksonville.

The Gators (3-3, 3-2 SEC) have lost back-to-back home games to LSU 17-16 and Texas A&M 19-17 and, after their own bye week, will have a two-game losing streak leading up to the Georgia game for the first time since 2014.

Georgia will get back some players who have been out injured including defensive tackle Trenton Thompson (knee) and defensive end David Marshall (undisclosed).

“It’s definitely a good time for a bye week, get everyone back, have a good week of work and it’s off to Florida,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith.

“We certainly hit it at a good time,” Smart said. “The one thing I’ve learned coaching in the SEC for as long as I have, you go seven straight weeks, throw in an App (State), Notre Dame and the physicality that we play and practice with, teams need the off week, they need the bye week. We’re going to go to work. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get more players to play winning football on our team. We’ve got to get healthy. We have some guys that need to help our team and we’ve got to get them back.”
 
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As reported in the Athens Banner-Herald, a $1.5 million dollar donation from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation will go toward students in UGA’s College of Pharmacy and from Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods.

The foundation designated $1 million for the College of Pharmacy to support students needing financial assistance.

The $500,000, which was matched by $500,000 from the UGA Foundation, begins another endowment that will fund five need-based scholarships annually for students from Atlanta Westside neighborhoods — English Avenue, Vine City and Castleberry Hill.

Five undergraduates received the scholarship for Westside students from the newly-created Angela and Arthur M. Blank Scholarship Fund.

For over a decade, the Blank Foundation has funded efforts aiming to transform the Westside neighborhoods, including health, education, housing, civic empowerment, workforce development, youth development, parks and other areas.

Since the foundation was formed in 1995, it has given more than $300 million to charitable organizations.

Arthur Blank is the co-founder of Home Depot, now the world’s largest home improvement retailer. His current portfolio of businesses includes the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United, the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and others.

His wife, Angela Blank, is a director of the Blank Foundation and is a member of the UGA Board of Visitors.

In January, UGA President Jere Morehead announced the “Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program,” with a goal of adding 400 to 600 new needs-based scholarships.

Currently it exceeds 130 scholarships, according to a UGA announcement. The UGA Foundation would match any gift of $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 for needs-based scholarships, he said.
 
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