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Wednesday, December 5, 2007 The Braselton News Page 3A Local group encourages writers to explore talents Book Signing Ahead Members of the Northeast Georgia Writer’s Club will participate in a book signing featuring “Our Journey” on Saturday Dec. 8, from 12-1 p.m., at Luna Coffee House, located in downtown Hoschton. BY KRISTI REED he latest project of a local writer’s group was the publication of an anthol ogy in honor of a member who passed away in April. The Northeast Georgia Writer’s Club was established in 1973 by Jane Wilheit, along with several other writers. Wilheit was known for her support of the Northeast Georgia Council of the Arts and of the Challenge Child organization, an advocacy group for special needs children. Wilheit was honored by the Girl Scouts of America as their first “Woman of Distinction” in the late 1990s. Wilheit, a club member since its inception, passed away in April of this year. The club dedicated its recently published anthology, “Our Journey,” in her honor. “Our Journey” is a collection of 63 stories and poems by 22 different writers in the club. The book’s title refers to the journey of the writers. “I guess you would say it’s our take on the different facets of life,” said Ruthanna Kilpatrick-Bass, president-elect of the club. “Our Journey” is divided into four themed categories. The categories are “Preparing for the Journey,” “Places on the Journey,” “People on the Journey” and “Pictures of the Journey.” BOOK SIGNING On Saturday, Dec. 8, club mem bers will be participating in a book signing featuring “Our Journey” from 12-1 p.m. at Luna Coffee House in Hoschton. Kilpatrick-Bass said the club’s book is 82 pages long and sells for $12.50. The book can be purchased at the Northeast Georgia History Center gift shop. Frames Younique in Gainesville and the Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gift Shop. Proceeds from the book fund club events. Kilpatrick-Bass hopes the book will help the club attract new members and help promote further writing efforts. The anthology is the club’s lat est publication and is an important activity for club members. To fur ther their writing goals, members also participate in monthly meet ings, attend conferences and com pete in an annual writing competi tion. The competition culminates with an awards luncheon in May. Winners are recognized in catego ries including poetry, lyrics, short stories, non-fiction articles, lyrics and children’s stories. The highlight of the annual awards ceremony is the presentation of the “Snoopy Award” for outstanding writing achievement and the “Woodstock Award” recog nizing outstanding contributions as a member of the Northeast Georgia Writer’s Club for the previous year. “I really enjoy the competition and I really enjoy the opportunity that I have to further my writing,” Kilpatrick-Bass said. Kilpatrick-Bass is very excited about what is ahead in 2008 for the club. “We have many projects to promote our writing and to pro mote writing in the community,” Kilpatrick-Bass said. “We want to bring talent out of writers who have yet to be discovered.” The purpose of the Northeast Georgia Writer’s Club is to foster good writing, to encourage mem bers to publish their written works and to learn the joy of writing. Kilpatrick-Bass also enjoys the opportunity to meet regularly with her fellow writers and to learn from special guest speakers. “[Our meetings] are eclectic,” she said. “We have had speakers such as Gordon Sawyer. He has writ ten a lot. He writes for Backroads Georgia. In February, we are going to have Jean Mahavier speak. She is the chair for the Poetry in Schools project in Georgia. She also was the judge for the poetry section of our contest last year. We just have different people who can promote publication and who can promote places that we can publish our work. They can tell us different experi ences they have had with publishing their works.” Kilpatrick-Bass said the club has had many distinguished members over the years, including Clara Martin, a former writer of The Gainesville Times and head of the journalism department at Brenau. “There have been many distin guished people who have been members and many distinguished writings have come out of the club,” Kilpatrick-Bass said. The Northeast Georgia Writer’s Club meets on the first Wednesday of every month at St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Gainesville. “Right now, we have 30 club mem bers, but it’s growing,” Kilpatrick- Bass said. She added that she has truly enjoyed being a member of the club. “I am in total awe of the members who have been there many years and their accomplishments,” she said. “They’re like mentors. I enjoy that. It’s just a very nice group of ladies and I have really enjoyed going and being a member.” Submit your school or social news from Braselton, Hoschton, Chateau Elan, Mill Creek, South Hall or West Jackson by e-mailing news@mainstreetnews.com, faxing items to 706-387-5421 or calling 706-367-5986. Feature story ideas are also welcomed. Community makes giving a tradition YOUNGSTER GREETS SANTA Caden Alford is the first to greet Santa at Sunday’s ‘Traditions of Christmas’ event. Caden told Santa he has been very good all year long. BY KRISTI REED Traditions of Braselton held its annual “Traditions of Christmas” on Sunday. The event, now in its second year, is a holiday celebration focused on family fun and helping others. Kay Constantino, a member of the Traditions of Braselton social com mittee, said community members decided to place the emphasis of this year’s event on giving. “The parents said they wanted this to be an opportunity to teach the kids about giving,” Constantino said. “We wanted to get the chil dren involved in giving and let them understand the real meaning of Christmas.” The community joined together Sunday to support several charities. Community members contributed new toys for the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program and canned food for the Jackson County Department of Family and Children’s Services’ Holiday Connection. The community also col lected monetary donations for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). CASA is a nonprofit organization which helps abused and neglected children in Jackson, Banks and Barrow counties find safe, permanent homes. Additionally, the event raised funds to help an Athens family which recently lost all their posses sions in a house fire. The family of five has three young children. Cash donations were also accept ed to help children at Fowler Elementary School purchase addi tional school uniforms. Social com mittee member Linda Ferguson said her daughter, Natalie Bishop, teaches a class with several underprivileged children who cannot afford to buy additional uniforms for school. The community’s goal is to raise enough money to buy each of the children in Bishop’s class at least one additional uniform. Though the focus of the event was on bringing joy to those less privi leged, there were plenty of activities aimed at pleasing the youngest resi dents of the community. Children had the opportunity to meet with Santa and have their pictures taken. The event also featured marshmal low roasting, hayrides and caroling. Tommye Stewart, social commit tee member and one of Santa’s elves for the day, said the event was a fun learning experience for the chil dren. “My favorite part is seeing the children being generous and giv ing to others,” she said. “The chil dren learn to give instead of just to receive.” Newspaper website tops 1 million hits average MainStreetNews.com, the news and information website for newspapers in Jackson, Banks and Madison counties, announced this week that the site is now aver aging over one million hits per month. That translates to 324,000 page-views and 107,000 unique visitors each month. “Through October of this year, we averaged 1,012,925 total hits each month,” said co-publisher Scott Buffington. This is a goal we’ve been working toward for the past couple of years, but we didn’t expect to get here this soon.” The site is currently undergoing a major overhaul. Beginning in January, an enhanced classified viewing and placement system will be implemented. Later in 2008, a redesign will take place that will encourage more reader participation, as well as expanded adver tising opportunities. Eventually, Buffington wants full online subscrip tions of the entire newspapers available for readers who prefer an electronic edition. “Most of our readers still want a printed newspaper, but we are increasingly being asked to provide the entire paper electronically,” he said. “And some want both. We are working toward accommodating those requests.” The Braselton News, already has a full electronic edition available at braseltonnews.com. Readers can access the entire newspaper in PDF format. 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