Calendar of events
Dec. 21, 2016 ... see page 4
page 4
Family displays 20 ft. tall snowman
Fisk family halfway to fundraising goal
By KANDICE BELL kandice@newnan.com Many families have different traditions they look forward to each holiday season, and the Ridley family in Newnan looks forward to their annual display of hundreds of snowmen. Linda Ridley has put her snowmen out for everyone to see for over 20 years. “She gets them out every year for the family,” said Buck Ridley, Linda’s son. “The family can bring over whoever they want to see them. She has one that’s 20 feet fall and some all the way down to an inch. She’s been collecting them for years.” Linda Ridley has snowmen made from glass, crochet, pillows, stuffed snowmen and fiber optic ones. Snowmen are also distributed to every room in the house, including the bathrooms. She begins the Friday after Thanksgiving by taking the books down from a bookcase where some will be displayed and getting the snowmen out of the storage of the family business, Coweta Car Care in Sharpsburg. It takes her about two weeks to put the snowmen in their respective places. “We call it the snowmen migration,” Buck Ridley said. “It literally looks like I’m moving for about two weeks,” she said. “I usually get them (snowmen) as gifts or I buy them myself. I’m to the point now, I just buy the unusual ones because I have so many.” She said the most sentimental snowmen were crocheted by her husband’s grandmother and an ornament made by her daughter at the Rutledge Center years ago. “If you look at every snowman in
By MAGGIE BOWERS maggie@newnan.com
PHOTO BY KANDICE BELL
T h i s i s M a r t y t h e s n o w m a n , p a r t o f a co l l e c t i o n o f t h e h o l i da y i co n s h e l d b y N e w n a n r e s i d e n t L i n d a R i d l e y . T h e a i r- f i l l e d s n o w m a n i s 20 -feet t all and is displayed in the yard of the Ridley ’s home in Cowet a.
my house, they all have a smile on their face,” she said. “That’s what the holidays are all about.” The most common reaction she gets is, “You’ve got a lot of snowmen.” “It usually makes them smile, and they make me smile,” she said. “They all walk around and they’re like ‘Wow.’ The
grandkids love them. The ones I don’t want touched are all on the fireplace. The rest of them, yes they mean something, but I won’t be devastated if they’re broken. The snowmen are to be enjoyed.”
SNOWMAN, page 2
EC head football coach retires By JEFF ARMSTRONG jarmstrong@newnan.com East Coweta High’s Steve Pardue has decided to retire from public education, effectively ending his tenure as the head football coach at the school. He ends his coaching career at EC with a 24-9 record, qualifying for the state playoffs in all three seasons. Among his highlights was defeating county and region rival Newnan High two of his
three seasons, including a 28-0 shutout this past November. It was EC’s first shutout win over Newnan in 14 years. Pardue, 54, told EC principal Steve Allen of his decision last week. “I’ve been teaching for 30 years, and in the state of Georgia, you have the opportunity to retire from public education and that’s what I am going to do,” said Pardue, who came to EC in 2014 after a coaching stint at the University of Kentucky’s football program. “It’s been
Steve Pardue a fun three years here, and I’ve enjoyed my time here.”
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Allen said the head coaching position is posted and numerous people have already made inquiries. “I knew it was his 30th year teaching, so it was always an option for him,” Allen said. EC athletic director Ken Kesselring said he was grateful for Pardue bringing in his experience from coaching on the college level. “He did a really good job and showed us new things about running a program,” Kesselring said.
Four-year-old Micah is a happy and active child, and, like most little ones his age, has recently begun attending preschool — a feat his mom was not certain he would be able to accomplish this year. Micah suffers from severe epilepsy and experiences multiple seizures throughout each day. The attacks come often and without warning and can lead to a number of complications. “We have really good weeks and really bad ones,” Erin Scharko-Fisk explained. “He could have a seizure just from being overly tired, anxious or even just excited.” Micah’s condition was discovered in his first month of life when the seemingly healthy baby began experiencing seizures that would stop him from breathing. As he grew, Micah’s seizures only became stronger and more frequent, occurring in clusters, or, sometimes in the form of absence seizures which are short periods of “blanking out” or staring into space. Doctors treating Micah have tried a number of treatments, though few yielded any long-term or significant results. As an alternative to medications, The Fisks began in January to raise money for a seizure dog, an option the family believes will make the most difference in Micah’s life. “There is nothing on the market that has been proven to work as well as a seizure dog,” Fisk said in a January interview. “We are trying to do everything we can think of.” The service dog will be trained to recognize subtle cues that would indicate an oncoming seizure. This early warning may allow for Micah’s caregivers to take precautions before an injury occurs. “Sometimes you don’t know a seizure is happening until he is in trouble,” Fisk said. Episodes could occur while Micah is asleep, climbing on the playground or participating in class. Since beginning fundraising 10 months ago, the Fisks have raised around $8,000, just over half of their total goal of $15,000, the cost of a dog trained in the specialized care of a companion like Micah. The family plans to adopt the special dog from 4 Paws for Ability, a company which breeds and trains dogs, and screens the animals to make sure each is well-qualified. “It is amazing how much has been raised in the last several months, especially since we really never had any big, commercial sponsors,” Fisk said. “This has all been simply dollar by dollar and very grassroots. It is a huge blessing to receive so much from friends, family and even strangers.” The flow of donations has slowed significantly, however, and Micah needs a companion more than ever now that he has begun school, according to his family. As his mother, Fisk is adept at predicting Micah’s seizures and at caring for him during his multiple episodes, but more and more, Fisk is not his only caregiver. “We really hoped that Micah would have a service dog by the time he started school, but we just weren’t able to make that happen,” Fisk said. “I was so worried about how he would do in preschool and how teachers and other students would respond to his needs.”
MICAH, page 2
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