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FEBRUARY 6 - FEBRUARY 12, 2019
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PHOTO COURTESY OF AARON HEIDMAN
People walk through Newnan in Scottish dress to celebrate the Newnan Burns weekend.
Chance meeting creates sister city relationship BY JEFFREY CULLEN-DEAN
jeffrey@newnan.com A chance meeting i n 19 9 4 i s t he re a son why ba g pipe s d roned through Newnan from Jan. 31-Feb. 3 as the city a nd Coweta Cou nt y celebrated their sister c it y/c o u n t y rel a t i on ship with Ayr and South Ayrshire, Scotland. It was t he four t h annual Newnan Burns Weekend, a sister city celebration featuri ng mu sic , d a nce a nd storytelling. T he e vent ’s n a me c om e s f r om t h e p o e t Robert Burns, who was bor n i n Ay r. Bu r n s i s m o s t-we l l k n ow n fo r t he po em “Au ld L a n g Sy ne ,” wh ic h i s com-
mon ly sung on New Year’s Eve. “He did so much with literature and poetry in such a short life,” said L a r issa Scot t , event director for the weekend. “He rea l ly capt u re d t he s ent i ment s of t he cou nt r y men of Scotland and they ident i f y heav i ly w it h h i m a nd his poetr y. T hat ’s why t here ’s Rob er t Burns societies all over the world.” According to Larissa Scott, Burns’ birthday at the end of January is celebrated all over the world. “Because Newnan had the sister city relat ion sh ip, t hey sta r ted d oi n g a B u r n s we e kend,” she said.
T he sister-city relat ion sh ip goes back to 1994, a fter a cha nce meeting in Washington D.C. between education a nd busi ness off icia ls from Newnan and Ayr at a national education conference. “T hey were just sitti ng i n a ba r toget her and they realized they were t r y i ng to do t he sa me thing - expa nd internet access to people i n b ot h c it ie s ,” s a id M ic h ael Scot t , a member of t he O rder of Tartan of the Chatt a h o o c h e e Va l l e y, a Scottish heritage organization. “Bel ieve it or not , i nter net con nec t iv it y did exist in Newnan. In fact, it bega n the pro-
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cess i n t he ea rly ‘ 90s where we, a g roup of business partners, were working educators and t r a i n i n g t e a c h e r s to acce s s t he i nter net ,” sa id Joh n T h rasher, a member of the Newnan Cultura l A rts Comm i ssion . “ T h i s g roup from Newnan was very interested in establishing internet connectivity in schools.” According to Michael Scot t , G e or g i a Power worked closely w it h Coweta County School Systems to ensure the local schools were one of the first to link up on the internet. “And they were doing the exact same thing in Ayr,” he said. “That was t he bi r t h of t he sister
In 1998 we signed a sister-city/sister-county agreement with Ayr and Newnan and South Ayrshire and Coweta County.
city relationship.” “ S o we d e c id e d we should pa r tner w it h t hem ,” T h rasher sa id. “Schools from NewnanCowe t a Cou nt y pa r tnered w it h schools i n sout hwest Scotla nd in a n a rea ca lled Ayrsh i re. We had a lot of back and forth that took place and the program began in the 1995-1996
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school year.” According to T h rasher, t he schools were connected through high-speed i n te r n e t c on n e c t i on s t h a t a l l owe d r e g u l a r video conferences. “A t t h e e n d o f t h e ye a r, we or g a n i z e d a s t u d y to u r fo r G e o r-
BURNS WEEKEND • 2
Knocked it down CCFR CREWS BATTLE HOUSE FIRE OFF RAYMOND HILL ROAD PHOTO BY CLAY NEELY
Firefighters Travis Thornton and Taylor Robinson bump a fist following a house fire off Raymond Hill Road. Saturday morning, members from Coweta County Fire Rescue were called to a house fire on Glen Cannon Trail. Homeowners stated they heard several loud explosions coming from the attic. Everyone was able to safely exit the structure prior to fire department arrival, and crews were able to bring the fire under control within a few minutes. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but is believed to have started with the heating and cooling unit located in the attic.