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Wednesday, December 12, 2007 The Braselton News Page 5B Social Humane Society to hold pet Adoption Day on Dec. 15 The Humane Society of Jackson County will be hosting an Adoption Day on December 15, from noon to 3 p.m. at the Traditions Animal Hospital located in the Traditions Walk Shopping Center. Up for adoption will be various cats and dogs currently being fostered by volunteers with the Humane Society of Jackson County. Adoption fee are $70 for cats and $90 for dogs. Interested pet owners will need to completely fill out an application provided by the Humane Society of Jackson County. Once the application has been reviewed, a home inspection will be completed by the Humane Society. For ques tions about adopting an available pets, call The Humane Society of Jackson County at 706-367-1 111. Established in 1998, the Humane Society of Jackson County was the vision of a native Marjorie Butler, who worked with Bob and Sandy Wells to make her dream a reality. The organization is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit and donations are tax deductible. Member meetings are held quarterly at Beef O’ Brady’s. For more information or get involved, call 706-367-1111. Toys, money being collected for Peace Place shelter WayPoint Realty, Braselton, is hosting the Helping Little Angels Toy Drive, which will benefit Peace Place. Peace Place is a domestic violence shelter for women and children that serves Jackson, Barrow and Banks counties. Peace Place offers victims of domestic violence referrals for housing, jobs, education, medical, counseling, clothing and food. The shelter also offers support groups and legal advocacy for victims. Donations will be accepted Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., until Dec. 22. Toys or money may be donated. Monetary donations will be used to purchase gift cards for older kids. The age range for donated toys is newborn to teen. WayPoint Realty is located at 81 Lagree Duck Road, off Hwy. 53, Braselton. For more information, call 706-824-0318. Angel Tree to help needy children Upper Cervical Health Centers of America, located in Hamilton Mill, will host its annual Angel Tree event to benefit under-privileged children in North Georgia. Hebron Church is collaborating with the office to locate several chil dren who may not have many gifts this year. A Christmas tree in the office will be set up and feature ornaments with a child’s name. Written on the back of the ornament will be the age and gift idea specifically for that child. For each ornament that is taken, the gift on the back is purchased and left unwrapped. In return, Upper Cervical Health Centers of America will offer a free health correction or a coupon to give to a friend or relative good for a free consultation, X-rays, report of findings and their first correction. An Angel Tree party will be held on Thursday, Dec. 13. Refreshments and snacks will be served throughout the day. Upper Cervical Health Centers of America is located at 3635 Braselton Highway, Suite B-2, Dacula. For more information, call 770-614-9444 or visit www.uppercervicalcare.com. Blood drive set for Dec. 13 A blood and national marrow donor program drive in honor of Jackson Austin will be held on Thursday, Dec. 13, from 3-8 p.m. in Athens. Austin is a Jackson County boy who has cancer. The drive will be held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, Hill Atrium, on the campus of the University of Georgia. Donors are encouraged to give blood and/or register for the National Marrow Donor Program. Since Clarke County has a grant, all testing for the National Bone Marrow Registry is free and only involves a cheek swab. All blood donors are strongly encouraged to eat a full meal or snacks, and drink lots of caffeine-free liquids before donating blood. To make an appointment for the event, contact Danielle Austin at daaustin@alltel.net or Janet Jarrett atjarrettja@usa.redcross.org. For more information about donating blood, visit www.givebloo- dredcross.org. For more information about the National Marrow Donor Program, visit www.marrow.org. The Georgia Center for Continuing Education is located at the comer of Lumpkin and Carlton Streets, near the UGA track. Genealogy class offered Dec. 18 The Athens-Clarke County Library will host its final “Getting Started with Genealogy” session of the year on Tuesday, Dec. 18, from 2-4:30 p.m. The monthly class is a free, informal session to walk participants through the basics of researching family history. All participants will receive an information packet to get started. The class is appropriate for ages 12 and up. Participants should bring a pencil and paper, and a sweater or light jacket, as the Heritage Room is known to be chilly. Participants can stay after the session to begin researching. No registration is required for the program. For more information, call the library at 706-613-3650, ext. 350. I NOW OPEN AT DUNCAN’S CORNER! Complete Nail Care for Ladies & Gentlemen fjU w HOLIDAY DISCOUNTS 7421 Spout Springs Rd. #102 Dec. 1-31 Flowery Branch, GA 30542 Across Kroger, behind Waffle House u 20% OFF 770-965-5110 all services with this coupon. Walk-Ins Welcome Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. • Sat. 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. • Sun. 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. Season of music keeps piano technician busy In Focus with Fil Fil Jessee filwrites@aol.com WORKING ON A PIANO Following his adjustment of all strings to concert pitch, Leif Duguay removes the hammer action section of a Janson piano in Braselton for repairs in his home workshop. It’s that time of year when friends and rel atives often gather around the piano and sing Christmas carols. But, when this pastime proves a little off key, it may not be because Aunt Betty had a little too much eggnog. Unlike guitars or violins, pia nos have 88 keys and approxi mately 230 strings, and if any one of these gets loose or a ham mer doesn’t strike it properly, the quality of the music you’ll hear suffers accordingly. Add this factor to the number of homes, churches, colleges, and cocktail lounges that have pianos, and there’s little wonder why professional piano tuners are so busy this time of year in particular. But, keeping these complicat ed instruments in shape often requires more than just tighten ing a few screws. A RARE BREED According to a spokesman for Lancaster Music in Gainesville, there are probably only 20 pro fessional piano turners within a 100-mile radius of Braselton. And, of these, even fewer are experienced enough to call them selves piano technicians. Leif Duguay is one of those rare experts who can not only tune a piano, but can literally rebuild one from the inside out. He services 800-1,000 pianos a year in north Georgia, includ ing those at North Georgia State College and University, Brenau University, and Lancaster Music in Gainesville. “We use Lief because he has the same customer service phi losophy that we do. And, his reliability and workmanship is strictly top notch,” said Brant Barron, a third generation mem ber of the Lancaster Music fam ily. That’s quite an endorsement when you consider the fact that Lancaster Music has been sell ing pianos since 1949, routinely keeping a least a 100 of the instruments in stock, and main taining approximately 50,000 titles in sheet music. In recent years, this company has man aged to keep up with the latest in keyboard technology by offering a number of digital player pianos in addition to the traditional con soles, full uprights, and grands. Duguay is himself an accom plished pianist, but seldom accepts jobs as a musician any more. “I’m just too busy fixing pia nos, now,” he said. And, he’s been doing that for about 20 years. Although piano tuning in the past mainly required a good ear and turning forks, Duguay uses a hand-held computer with a soft ware program he says hears bet ter than the human ear. However, he told me that he still relies on his hearing for two thirds of his work. “Every piano is different and only the human ear can detect subtle harmonic differences cre ated by the various materials that comprise each instrument,” he explained. “This can get tricky when you’re tuning a group of pianos to be played together in the same recital or concert,” he added. Duguay further explained that he always tunes pianos to concert pitch, although some technicians may not. “Concert pitch is essential when other instruments are expected to play with a piano,” he said. With so many moving parts of wood and felt, a piano’s action is particularly subject to subtle damage from humidity. And to address such a problem is some thing that requires a lot more skill than merely tuning the instrument. Since most of this work is done on site, Duguay carries a pleth ora of parts and thousands of dollars worth of tools. But, when extensive repairs are involved, he sometimes has to relocate the instrument or its internal action section to his Gainesville area workshop. Such was the case when he recently worked on our 38 year- old upright. Some of the ham mers were sticking, and lubrica tion alone proved insufficient to fix the problem. He also had to replace a number of the springs that the hammers require to return to their original positions after striking the strings. And in addition to that, some of the keys were sticking in the down posi tion due to swelling of felt from years of too much humidity. In a nutshell, our piano was one sick puppy. From an amateur pianist’s point of view, I was particularly pleased that Duguay took the time to show me every little thing that was wrong and how he planned to fix each problem before he actually did the work. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the mechanics that work on our cars were all that considerate! Duguay also explained that a piano should be tuned at least once a year and, definitely, after each time it is moved. These instruments have to adjust to new environments kind of like houseplants, I learned. But, I also found out that it’s a good idea to give them a little time to complete this period of adjust ment. Two or three months are the norm, I was told. Duguay generally charges $90 to $150 for a simple tune-up, depending on the amount of time it takes him to bring the instru ment up to snuff. A total restora tion job could easily run into the thousands. Needless to say, I’m glad ours wasn’t that far gone. And I’m also glad our church pianist recommended Leif Duguay. As a piano technician, he’s a true craftsman in every sense of the word and, thankfully, one who still makes house calls. Fil Jessee lives in Braselton, where he works as a freelance journalist. He can be reached at fi Iwri tes@aol.com. Rotary International Foundation raising funds to eradicate polio North Georgia Rotary International District Governor Nathan Carmack recently announced a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rotary International Foundation. The partnership includes a $100 million challenge grant to assist in the eradication of polio, a crippling and sometimes fatal disease that still paralyzes children in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East and threatens children everywhere worldwide. The Rotary Club of Braselton is included in this challenge to Rotary International. The Rotary Club of Braselton meets at 7:30 a.m. on Thursdays, at the Legends at the Chateau Elan clubhouse. According to Rotary International, The Rotary Foundation has received a $ 100-million Gates Foundation grant, which Rotary will match with funds raised, dollar-for-dollar, over three years. “The Rotary Clubs of North Georgia, District 6910, have made an initial contribution in the about of $10,000 towards the project,” said Carmack. An additional dona tion is planned for April 2008. “Anyone interested in assisting in contributing to the effort to eradicate polio may make give their contribution to any Rotarian or local Rotary Club,” added Carmack. The Evanston-based volunteer service organization will spend tine initial $100 million within one year in direct support of immuni zation activities carried out by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a partnership spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF. The polio eradication grant is one of the largest challenge grants ever given by the Gates Foundation and tine largest grant received by Rotary in its 102-year history. Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority since 1985. Since then, Rotary has contributed $633 million to the eradication effort. Founded in Chicago in 1905, Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional lead ers who provide humanitarian ser vice and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary’s glob al membership is approximately 1.2 million men and women who belong to more than 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. WJJC Radio Will bring High School Basketball throughout December and January, Coverage includes: Commerce Tigers> East Jackson Eagles, Jefferson Dragons CRATfi Join Rob and Craig oil i2yu AM for All the Exciting Action!! WJJC Radio - 1270 AM 706-335-1270 - www.WJJC.net ROB