Safety guide

A GUIDE TO BOATING AND SWIMMING SAFETY RESOURCES PRESENTED BY LAKESIDE ON LANIER BOATING

Boater Education Courses with Certification Exam Basics of Boating - America's Boating Course

• Course: Meets Georgia DNR and NASBLA requirements for boater and PWC certification; covers boat handling, safety equipment/procedures, rules of the road, boat types/terminology. • Instructors: America’s Boating Club – Atlanta (formerly Atlanta Sail and Power Squadron) • When: Classes resume in 2023 • Cost: $25 per student; plus optional course textbook $28 • Information/registration: americasboatingclubatlanta.org/ or Email - ABC@usps-atlanta.org

Boating Safely & Personal Watercraft Certification - USCGA

• Course: NASBLA certified entry level classroom-only course with test for boater education and PWC certification. Covers basic boating terminology, “rules of the road,” navigation, operation, legal requirements, emergencies, water etiquette and more. • Instructors: U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteers • Minimum age: 12 • When: Classes resume in 2023 • Where: U.S. Coast Guard Flotilla 29, 6595 Lights Ferry Rd., Flowery Branch • Cost: Individuals $35 • Private lessons also available for groups or organizations outside normal schedule by calling Flotilla Commander Chuck Kelemen, 770-714-0888. • Information/registration: Perry Hidalgo, uscgaux29@gmail.com, 470-310-3336; http://wow.uscgaux.info/peclass.php?unit=070-02-09

On-Line Courses • www.boat-ed.com and http://www.boaterexam.com/usa/georgia include study guide and Georgia Certification Exam with unlimited exam attempts; cost is $29.50 payable upon exam passage. Temporary certificate printed upon passage; permanent card mailed. • http://www.boatus.org/onlinecourse/Georgia.asp offers free course, exam and print your own certificate; mailed certificate $5. • Other certification courses offered at www.boatcourse.com, www.boatingbasicsonline.com, and www.pwcsafetyschool.com.

Other Boater Education Opportunities (Certification exam not included)

• Advanced Boating Classes in piloting, marine communications, and other boating skills offered periodically by the Atlanta Sail and Power Squadron. americasboatingclubatlanta.org.

Vessel Safety Checks • Atlanta Sail and Power Squadron offers vessel safety check-ups by appointment. http://atlantasboatingclub.com/vessel-safety-check/vessel-safety-check-signup. • Vessel Safety Checks by appointment: Both U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and United States Power Squadrons offer vessel safety check-ups at your boat by appointment. www.safetyseal.net. Sailing Classes • Windsong Sailing Academy: Basic and advanced sailing training and certifications including engine maintenance, marine electrical systems, coastal and celestial navigation as well as marine meteorology offered by Windsong Sailing Academy through the DeKalb County Parks and Recreation Service. Public and private week evening and weekend classes available. Fees vary.  www.WindsongSail.com. (770) 967-1515.

Frances Meadows Aquatics and Community Center

• Location: 1545 Community Way, Gainesville. • Information/registration: (770) 533-5850, www.gainesville.org/swim-lessons • Lessons: Swimming and water safety program for all ages and levels, age 6 months to masters, basic aquatics safety to skill proficiency for competitive swimmers, lifeguard training. • Splash Aquatic Club: Competitive swimming groups for Rookie (age 4) through Masters (age 18 and older to improve fitness, develop better technique, or train for competition.

Cumming Aquatic Center

• Location: 201 Aquatic Circle, Cumming • Information/registration: (770) 781-1781 www.cummingaquaticcenter.com (register online) • Lessons: Swimming and water safety program ranges from toddler-age in Parent Child Aquatics Program to teens and adults in Learn to Swim and Adult Aquatics Program. Private or semi-private lessons available. Fees and schedules vary. Competitive swimming and diving programs, Masters Swim Team also available. Lifeguard certification offered. Brenau University

• Location: Brenau Fitness Center, 500 Washington St., SE, Gainesville • Information/registration: www.brenautigers.com, Blaire Bachman, (770) 534-6279, bbachman@brenau.edu. • Lessons: Custom private swim lessons for all ages and abilities. Brenau Masters Swim Team offers practice and competitive program for swimmers of all levels, high school age and older. University of North Georgia Gainesville Campus

• Location: 3820 Mundy Mill Rd., Oakwood • Information/registration: https://ce.ung.edu/wconnect/ace/, (678) 717-2377 • Swim lessons: For ages 3 (must be potty trained) and older range from introduction to water skills to swimming and skill proficiency. Check website for dates.

Georgia Mountain YMCA

• Location: 2455 Howard Rd., Gainesville • Information/registration: http://www.hallcountyymca.org/jawalters/programs/youth-swimming-lessons/, 770-297-9622 • Swim lessons: For all ages and levels, parent-child swim, Masters Swim Program, water fitness, water safety, life guard certification. Fees and times vary.

NOTE: Please contact Lakeside on Lanier News to list additional boating and water safety classes. lakesidenews@mindspring.com.

By Pamela A. Keene

A Baseball World Series trophy, early signs from historic Buford, and artifacts from the Bona Allen tannery that made saddles for the horses of film stars Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, rare photographs of historic events and detailed information about the creation and construction of Lake Lanier: It’s all at the Museum of Buford.

Begun in 1986 in the corner of a historic building in downtown Buford by Randy Wood and Sandra Sumner, the Museum of Buford holds the keys to the treasures of Buford. Now housed in 2,500 square feet on the ground floor of the Buford Community Center, the museum is filled with numerous treasures that tell the famous and not-so-famous stories of this north Gwinnett County town.

Curator and fifth-generation Buford native Lynn Bowman eagerly shares his passion about all things Buford with visitors to the museum. Bowman has carefully kept the history of the town alive. Yet he’s always seeking more: more photographs, more letters, more memorabilia and more stories to bring the history of this Atlanta suburb to life.

“My great great grandfather John Bowman settled here in 1818 before there was even a Buford,” Bowman said. “And I’m the youngest of 125 great great grandchildren who descended from John Bowman.”

Bowman can cite chapter and verse of the success of the Shoemakers semi-pro baseball team that won the World Series in their division in 1938; they also won the prestigious Denver Post baseball tournament championship in 1940. Trophies, photographs, telegrams and newspaper clippings tell the tale of a team from the Bona Allen Tannery and Shoe Factory that were runners up for the 1936 and 1937 championship before its 1938 title.

The Bona Allen Tannery, which opened in 1873, was for years the heart of Buford as the area’s largest employer. As the country’s largest producer of horse collars, hand-tooled saddles, shoes, bridles and postal bags, it eventually made materials for Spalding to manufacture baseballs and baseball gloves.

“Buford even attracted the attention of Hollywood when both Roy Rogers and Gene Autry had custom-made saddles by Bona Allen,” Bowman said. “Over the years other cowboys, rodeo stars, and even members of the cast of ‘Bonanza’ and ‘Gunsmoke,’ all proudly rode saddles made in Buford.”

The museum’s archives include thousands of photographs, letters, business ledgers, news clippings, school yearbooks, report cards, church bulletins and an ever-growing library available for research, both historical and genealogical. “We have good records of many of the businesses here from way back,” Bowman said. “You’d be surprised about the amazing information these documents hold about the lifestyle, culture and history of Buford. We call it ephemera – the bits of everyday life that many people simply toss out: letters, birthday cards, receipts – that have their own stories to tell.”

Much of the museum’s collections are in storage because even the move into the Buford Community Center’s ground-floor space isn’t enough to allow everything to be displayed.

During the pandemic, as with many organizations, the museum was closed. Bowman is working to re-open it three days a week for three or four hours – Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The City of Buford currently opens the museum for many evening shows and events scheduled inside the Buford Community Center and Theatre.

Now there’s another younger generation of descendants of those early residents, plus many more long-time families who have shared their treasures, letters, photographs and family histories with the museum. Bowman encouraged members of the community to share their family histories and documents with him as a way to continue to build the history and legacy of Buford.

“Everyone’s history is important and that’s what our museum is about,” he said. “Years from now, our descendants will be looking though copies of our emails, printed-out photos taken digitally and family records and imagine what life was like ‘back then.’” The museum’s mission statement is simply, “Preserving all things Buford.”

The museum is staffed primarily by volunteers from the Buford Lanier Woman’s Club, but Bowman is desperate to “grow our population of persons willing to share their talents and time in the common effort to preserve and pass along our community’s rich history.”

For more information, to share items for possible inclusion at the museum or to volunteer, visit www.museumofbuford.com.

PHOTOS CREDIT: MUSEUM OF BUFORD A rendering of the Old Academy and Masonic Lodge in Buford, 1874.

Randy Wood restores building on Buford's Main Street, circa 1985.

Lazy Days Houseboat in a race during the early days of Lake Lanier.

Boxcars being unloaded at Bona Allen.

Where: Buford Community Center, 2200 Buford Highway, Suite 108, Buford, Ga. Hours: Thursdays 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; Friday, Saturday: noon-3 p.m.; and by appointment Info: 770-945-4559, www.museumofbuford.com