South Cobb Volume 7, No. 2
The
YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR COMMUNITY NEWS AND EVENTS
Bright Side
TM
Austell, Mableton & Greater Smyrna’s Community Newspaper
FEBRUARY 2012
MOM, DAUGHTER TEAM EARN NATIONAL HONORS FOR GINGERBREAD HOUSES
‘SPRING CHICKEN RUN’ REGISTRATION BEGINS
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Put on your running or walking shoes and join the 10th Annual Spring Chicken Run - A Race Against Hunger on Saturday, March 24, in Powder Springs to benefit C.A.M.P. The Run is hosted at Macland Presbyterian Church located at 3615 Macland Road. This family friendly event offers something for everyone including a 5K Run/Walk, 1 Mile Run/Walk, Spirit Walk, and Tot Trot. Races begin at 8:30 a.m. The 5K is an official certified Peachtree qualifier course and all races are overseen by Racing Solutions. On-site parking is available along with shuttle service to across street parking at Macland Baptist Church. Register on-line at www.active.com, in store at Big Peach Running Co., or print the race form and directions at www.
svcamp.org. Pre-registration for the 5K is $20 ($25 after 3/20/12 and on Race Day); $15 for the 1 Mile; and $20 for Phantom Runners. Spirit Walkers pre-register directly with C.A.M.P. to participate and enter with a minimum $20 in paid pledges to support C.A.M.P. The event benefits Christian Aid Mission Partnership (C.A.M.P.), a local nonprofit organization serving the community for over forty-three years. C.A.M.P. operates a large food pantry program and clothing closet along with an emergency financial assistance program. Last year the Atlanta Food Bank named C.A.M.P. as the largest distributing partner agency in its 700+ partner network. For more information, please contact carla@svcamp.org or call 770-819-0662, ext. 17.
COLLINS’ ART CLASS AT FLOYD FEATURES GUITAR HEROES Students in Lisa Collins’ art classes at Floyd Middle School are ‘remixing’ art history with a splash of rock ‘n’ roll! Ms. Collins challenged her classes to develop creative reports about prominent visual artists, then create their own ‘Guitar Heroes’ artwork representing the artist studied (See the gallery below for a sampling of student artwork). Last year, Ms. Collins applied for and received a Teacher IMPACT grant from the Cobb Schools Foundation, which enabled her to purchase resources, frames and laptop computers for the ‘Guitar Heroes’ project, as well as instructional supplies for Floyd’s music program! These ‘Guitar Heroes’ masterworks will be available for viewing March 13 – April 4 at the Mable House Gallery for the annual ‘Floyd Celebrates the Arts’ community display. Ms. Collins took her efforts to the next level, connecting with a colleague at country radio station KICKS 101.5. The station
Great things are cooking in the Lewis household. Austell Intermediate 5th grader Evelyn Lewis and her mother Heather Lewis have taken their love of baking to a national level and have won national honors for their gingerbread designs. What started as a holiday tradition of making standard gingerbread houses and decorating them turned into a serious hobby. Mother Heather Lewis recalls, “After decorating houses for fun with the kids, I started making gingerbread homes as gifts for the classroom teachers. I began making it a hobby because it was relaxing and fun.” Mrs. Lewis turned this hobby in to a serious art form when she began taking classes, starting at a Michael’s cake decorating class and progressing to taking private lessons from Nicholas Lodge, Food Network regular and premiere Atlanta Chef. With gingerbread being her specialty, she looked to compete in the 2009 National Gingerbread House Competition hosted at Ashville’s Grove Park Inn but the flood waters that filled Austell devastated the Lewis home and dreams of competing would have to wait until the next year. With more techniques she learned from traveling to cooking conventions across the country, as well as some she developed on her own, Heather Lewis and her daughter Evelyn were ready to make a run at the 2010 competition. In a field with over 250 entries, many competition veterans, Heather Lewis took the Grand Prize for her Gingerbread Russian Nesting Dolls and Evelyn placed in the top ten in the youth division for her gingerbread dog house. This year was also a big year for the Lewis bakers as Evelyn returned to place in the top 10 and Mrs. Lewis took the runner-up prize. Their success has lead Continued on Page 3
Lisa Collins donated an acoustic guitar autographed by some of country’s most prominent artists, which will be auctioned with proceeds benefiting the Fine Arts programs at Floyd Middle.
Evelyn Lewis and her gingerbread cabin, above, and Heather Lewis and her gingerbread ornament box. Photos by Michael Oppenheim Photography.
GARRETT TO CELEBRATE ‘NIGHT OF THE ARTS’ FEB. 9 Garrett Middle School will hold its seventh annual Night of the Arts program on Feb. 9 at the school. “This event showcases the best of the best among our fine arts students,” said Principal Dr. Barry Harris. Students are represented from the programs of visual arts, drama, dance, band, chorus and orchestra. A $20 VIP ticket entitles the attendee to be treated to a catered reception prior to the performances. It also includes the actual performances, as well as the “meet the performers” reception after the event. The VIP reception starts at 5:45 p.m. If you want to attend just the student performances and meet performers reception as well, the tickets are $5 with the show starting at 7 p.m. “At any level, attendees are sure to have a wonderful time,” Harris said. Tickets are available at the school office.