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Index
News 2,5,7,8
Obituaries 3
Opinion 4
Around the County 6
Sheriff's Report 9
Legals 9
Calendar 9
Sports 11
Inside
The final show in the
Downtown Develop
ment Authority Concert
Series will feature jazz,
swing and dixieland
7 p.m. Saturday at
Platt Brooks Estate.
...Page 5.
To start your subscription or to donate to The Oglethorpe Echo, see Page 8,
The Oglethorpe Echo
Volume 149, Number 37
June 15, 2023 ■ Oglethorpe County, Georgia
$1
JESSE WOOD/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO
Music director Chase Cooper leads the cast of Matilda the Musical during a rehearsal on June 12 at the Historic Crawford School. Left to
right are Ellie Roman, Hazel Hogan, Allie Spurlin, Thalia Smoot and Kassie Mathews; obscured are Jenna Grace Burt, Clover McGovern and
Sophia Priest. ArtsiOglethorpe director Bly Hartley said the production's actors have a wide range of ages, and the show is family-friendly.
From age 9 to age 70
ArtsiOglethorpe s Matilda the Musical has wide-ranging cast
By Jesse Wood
The Oglethorpe Echo
Thirteen-year-old Thalia Smoot said
the most challenging part of the upcoming
ArtsiOglethorpe production has been speak
ing Russian.
“At the end, there’s a part where I have to
learn two lines of Russian,” she said about her
lead role in Matilda the Musical.
Smoot, a seventh-grader at Hilsman Mid
dle School, said she began her acting career
at age 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She moved to
Clarke County two years ago, and this is her
first appearance in Oglethorpe County’s com
munity theater.
“(My aunt) told me the night of (auditions),
and so I prepare, I stay up day and night, try
ing to figure out what I can do for this,” Smoot
said.
Bly Hartley, director of ArtsiOglethorpe,
chose the musical Matilda to include more
members of the community not only as cast
members — but also as audience members.
See the Show
Opening weekend for
ArtslOglethorpe's Matilda the
Musical is June 23-25 at the Historic
Crawford School, but tickets for
those dates are already sold out.
Other performances will be June 29
through July 1, and tickets can be
purchased at|artsoglethorpe.com|
“We haven’t done a show with kids in quite
a few years,” Hartley said. “We specifically
had looked for something that was going to be
family-friendly.”
Auditions were led by Hartley on May 1,
and the turnout was strong.
“We didn't have quite as many boys as we
would have liked, but that is very normal,”
Hartley said. “And so, we have several girls
playing guy roles.”
The actors are geographically and genera-
tionally diverse. Ages range anywhere from 9
to 70, with eight schools and five counties rep
resented.
“We pretty much forget how old every
body is,” Hartley said. “We treat everybody
the same and have the same expectations for
everyone.”
Smoot said she did not know anyone in the
cast prior to landing the lead in Matilda, and
despite the age differences, she said she and
her castmates have bonded during the long
hours of rehearsal.
“I love them to death,” Smoot said. “Like
family.”
The summer months can bring scheduling
obstacles for ArtsiOglethorpe, so rehearsals
began soon after auditions in early May. The
cast has been working 6-9 p.m. each night,
Monday through Friday.
“Because we're just a community theater,
we work around people's vacations, people's
work, people’s everything,” Hartley said.
“We've been doing it that way for 25 years.”
BOE
rescinds
director
approval
Cherry, former
board member, will
not become director
of transportation
By McCain Bracewell
The Oglethorpe Echo
Former District 1 Board of Ed
ucation member Collin Cher
ry will no longer be the incoming
director of transportation for the
Oglethorpe County School Sys
tem.
The Board of Education ap
proved withdrawing the recom
mendation to hire Cherry at its
June 13 meeting. Superintendent
Beverley Levine had recommend
ed the board employ Cherry.
“Previously, at our meeting on
June 1 that we had at the middle
school, I had a recommendation to
employ Collin Cherry. I made the
recommendation; the board vot
ed on that,” Levine said. “And to
night, I am recommending that we
withdraw my recommendation,
and I’m recommending the board
rescind its actions to approve the
superintendent’s previous recom
mendation.”
The board will now consider the
previous three applicants to fill the
director of transportation position.
The board is also still in search
of a replacement for the District 1
seat. There are currently no candi
dates, but the board must appoint
someone within 60 days of resig
nation or Gov. Brian Kemp has the
power to step in and appoint the
position.
Cherry resigned on May 23.
In other business,
the board:
■ approved a new Foothills
memorandum of understand
ing. The biggest change is stu
dents who enroll in the school af
ter July 1 will still remain stu
dents at Oglethorpe County High
School and be able to participate in
Foothills’ graduation and OCHS’s
graduation.
■ approved a resolution re-
See DIRECTOR, Page 2
Crocheting with care: Sanders serves, teaches others with her craft
By Elizabeth Rymarev
and Olivia Wakim
The Oglethorpe Echo
Despite the thunderstorm crack
ling at 7 a.m. on a Saturday in late
March, Virginia Sanders still packs
her car with bags of food and coffee
supplies, boxes of yam and a Tupper-
ware of name tags before she heads
over to Lexington Baptist Church.
She arrives and sets out choc
olate chip cookies and coffee, as
sembling chairs around tables in
the Logan Family Ministry Center.
As 10 a.m. approaches, she contin
ues setting the scene for Covered
See the Story
Hear from the Covered
with Love members about
their mission and passion
for creating afghans for
those who need them by
visiting oglethorpeecho.
com or The Echo's YouTube.
with Love, a crochet group she
founded at her church.
Sanders said a vision for the
club came to her in a dream sever
al years ago. Now about 25 women
meet bi-monthly to crochet person
al projects and afghans, which they
donate to a nearby organization.
“This is what I feel called to do,”
she said. “And I’ve always said that
as long as the Lord is growing the
group, I’ll continue to do it.”
Seven years later, she contin
ues to share crocheting with the
Oglethorpe County community.
This year’s recipient of the group’s
handiwork is Quiet Oaks Health
Care Center. Administrator Chris
Wrenn said it’s easy for some resi
dents in long-term care to feel like
they’ve been forgotten.
See CRAFT, Page 8
ELIZABETH RYMAREV/FORTHE OGLETHORPE ECHO
Virginia Sanders, far right, crochets as she engages in conversation
with others at a Covered with Love meeting in March at Lexington
Baptist Church.The members, who create and donate afghans, have
been meeting for seven years, and this year, they are donating their
work to Quiet Oaks Health Care Center.
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