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The Paper | Thursday, April 24, 2014
Sheriff Janis Mangum with students in Paige Young’s ninth grade civic class who teamed up to produce “Honoring Our Heritage: Honoring Jackson County, Georgia’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty.”
EJCHS civics class wins first in DAR contest honoring heritage By Katie Griffin
klgriffin@clickthepaper.com
Ms. Paige Young’s ninth grade Civics Class at East Jackson Comprehensive High School recently won first place in a statewide Daughters of the American Revolution’s Junior American Citizens Committee art contest for their banner entitled “Honoring Our Heritage: Honoring Jackson County, Georgia’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed in Line of Duty.” The finalized banner included the following five law enforcement officials: Jackson County Sheriff Clifford Barber who was killed in 1919; Piedmont Solicitor Floyd “Fuzzy” Hoard who was killed in 1967; Jackson County Sheriff Deputy Eddie Evans who was killed in 1994; Braselton Police Department’s Todd Helcher who was killed in 2004 and Pendergrass Police Department’s Chris Ruse who was also killed in 2004. There were 70 entries just in Jackson County and Young’s class won first place in the state competition. The banner has since been entered in the national competition and they are anxiously waiting for the results. “We are very proud here locally that they won at the state level. The banner was very professionally done and we are very thankful for teachers like Paige Young who help students learn about their heritage through extracurricular activities,”
said Guy Dean Benson, DAR representative from the James Pittman Chapter in Commerce. Benson explained that the students were very involved and learned a lot about the history of Jackson County. The next chapter meeting is in May and she will be presenting the banner to the local members then. The Civics class got involved in this competition when their teacher began doing research online. She saw the ad for the Junior American Citizens Committee competition and was immediately intrigued. “As a social studies teacher, I was immediately drawn to the theme, and I knew I wanted to do a project with my civics class,” said Youngl. She was unsure about what the focus should be. She then asked the Assistant Principal for Instruction Chanda Palmer if she could sit down with her father, Bennie Lord, who has lived in Jackson County for most of his life and has an impressive breadth of knowledge of local history. He showed Young his scrapbook of articles he has collected over the years pertaining to Jackson County history. One of the articles they looked at was about Floyd Hoard, the Piedmont solicitor who was killed in 1967 when sticks of dynamite that had been wired to his car exploded. Young knew that is the direction she wanted to go in. She presented the “Honoring
Our Heritage” theme and the case to a group of 10 students in her freshman civics class. They were intrigued by the case, too, and decided to expand their project to include other law enforcement officials in Jackson County who were killed in the line of duty. “We realized that creating this banner would be a way to pay tribute to these men who made the ultimate sacrifice,” said Young. Young said that she was very impressed with how diligently the students worked. They spent many hours gathering information and revising their writing. One of the students also drew a picture of a police officer bowing his head with his hand over his heart in the traditional salute to a fallen officer. “One of the most rewarding parts of doing this project was that it gave these students an opportunity to learn about local history that they didn’t know happened in Jackson County. Several students told their parents and other family members about the project, and many of these family members remembered the events,” said Young. One of the highlights of the project occurred when Richard Hoard, son of Floyd Hoard, came to speak to Young’s civics class. The day before his visit, the class read and discussed excerpts from his book, Alone Among the Living, in which he describes the impact his father’s death had on him. When he vis-
ited, he described in detail the events of the murder and the subsequent emotions he experienced. Mr. Hoard was only 14 years old when his father was killed, and since the students are about the same age, they could relate on some level to the younger Hoard’s story. The five officials included on the banner were each assigned to pairs of students to research and write about. One of the oldest cases was the 1919 murder of Sheriff Clifford Barber. The sheriff was shot and killed when he went to serve a warrant to a suspect. His murderer was hanged for his crime. Another case was about Jackson County Deputy Sheriff Eddie Evans who was struck and killed by a vehicle when he was doing a routine traffic stop. The two students who wrote about this particular case were really affected when they discovered the sad irony that Deputy Evans was not even originally scheduled to work that day. After the results were announced, Benson presented the first-place award to Young’s Civics class and invited Sheriff Janis Mangum to join her during the presentation of the award. “I was working the day Jackson County Deputy Eddie Roe Evans was killed in the line of duty and also responded the night Pendergrass Police Officer Christopher Ruse was killed in the line of duty. I can’t explain the feeling an officer has when you get word that a
brother or sister in law enforcement has died, giving their life to serve others,” said Sheriff Mangum. The Sheriff said that she is very proud of the EJCHS
students for this accomplishment and that one day she hopes to have this project displayed in the lobby of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
Summer shouldn’t mean hunger for our nation’s children By Kevin Concannon
USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services
As a child, I always looked forward to the carefree joy of summertime. I remember the long days of playing outside at a nearby park until I needed to come home for lunch. Unfortunately, many of our nation’s children do not experience the simple joys of summer. In fact, far too many are left worrying where their next breakfast or lunch will come from when schools are dismissed for summer break. During the school year, about 31 million American children receive school meals through the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program every day. About 21 million of those children receive
meals at a discounted rate or for free, based on their family’s income. When summer rolls around, though, only about 3.5 million of these children participate in USDA’s summer meals programs. That means millions of eligible low-income children are at risk of going hungry during the summer months. And we know that to thrive and reach their highest potential, children need good nutrition all year long. USDA’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is working to fill this hunger gap for children who qualify for free and reduced price meals during the school year. The program serves free healthy meals to eligible children ages 18 and under, and is made possible through the efforts
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of national, state, and local partners, including a cadre of energized volunteers. While USDA has worked to increase access to summer meals for low-income children for many years, SFSP began receiving priority attention in 2013. Last summer, USDA employed a new tactic of working with partners to deliver intensive, targeted technical assistance on SFSP in five states. The result was a historic increase in the number of meals served, nationwide — 7 million more than the previous year. We hope to continue building on last year’s successes with
our state and local partners in 2014, and move closer to closing the summer hunger gap. The key to success this year will be expanding the number of sites open for summer meals. We must spread the word to schools, parks and recreation departments, libraries, and faith and other community organizations across the nation; their participation is critical for the continued success of SFSP. The deadlines to become Summer Food Service Program sponsors vary by State, and begin as early as April 15. Program sponsors over-
see and provide meals to summer sites. In return, USDA, through the States, reimburses program sponsors for the meals served to children. I’m sure it comes as no surprise when I say that galvanizing hundreds of faith-based groups, civic groups, recreation centers, food banks, schools, other non-profit organizations, and volunteers takes time, effort and commitment on all sides. For any community that treasures its youth (and I haven’t met one that doesn’t), we must organize now to fight hunger this summer.
If you or your organization is interested in helping us reduce the risk of hunger among our nation’s youth, visit our website, www.summerfood.usda.gov. The summer meals outreach toolkit includes sample outreach plans, templates, customizable flyers, door hangers, letters to parents, examples of site activities, best practices, and more. State representatives are also available to answer questions and facilitate sponsor enrollment and site registration. This year, let’s work together to make sure every child in our great nation has a hunger-free summer.
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