About The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2024)
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 ASHBURN,GA, 31714 VOL 109 - No. 9 • 750 www.thewiregrassfarmer.com ^Around Town N Subscribe to The Wiregrass Farmer Delivered in your mail every week Call 567-3655 Tags due by April 30 Vehicle tags are due April 30. Please have your tag number or vehicle identifi cation number and proof of insurance when you come to renew your tag. You can come in anytime during our working ours. You can also renew your tag online by visiting: www.eservices.dri- ves.ga.gov . Firearm and driver safety class Turner County Sheriffs Office will have a Public Firearm Class March 16 from 9am until. To register or if you have any questions regarding the training, call 229-567-2401. Registration ends Thursday March 14, 2024, or when the maxi mum limit is reached. TCSO will also have a Pub lic Driver Safety Class March 30 from 9am until. To register or if you have any questions regarding the training, call 229-567-2401. Registration ends Thursday March 28, 2024, or when the maximum limit is reached. Food & books Feb. 6th-March 12th on each Tuesday from 5:30-7 p.m.Victoria Evans Memo rial Library will host a Prime Time Family Reading Series for families with chil dren 6-10. A nutritious meal will be served and free transportation is available. Two free books will be given to each family and door prizes will be given! Registration cards for the program are available at Turner County Elementary School and Victoria Evans Memorial Library. Obituaries Clifford Evan Free, 82, Ashbum Odin Dunbar, Ashbum Complete obituary information Page 5 V J HOMETOWN NEWS SINCE 1902 Food bank gives out 147 tons In 2023, the Shepherd’s Pantry Food Bank handed out 295,094 pounds of food. That comes to 147.5 tons of food. A semi’s max load is around 48,000 pounds or 24 tons .That works out to just a bit more than 6 semi loads of food given away by the food bank in 2023. “We are so grateful we are able to do this,” said Diane Saylor, food bank director. “We appreciate everyone who helps and we want to do even more.” All this food was free and comes from the Feeding South Georgia food bank warehouse program based in Valdosta. The giveaway includes food for the Backpack Buddies pro gram. Backpack Buddies sends food home with little kids on the weekend during the school year. This school year 107 chil dren are signed up in the pro gram. “No one working here is paid. We spend our own money for gas, oil and other vehicle expenses to go to Tifton every week and Thomasville periodically to get food,” said Ben Baker, food bank director. Donations are appreciated. While a lot of the food handed out here comes to Shepherd’s pantry at no cost, the food bank does buy some food. With more donations, the food bank could buy even more food to give away. Money works better than donating food. The cost per item at the food bank ware house in Tifton is much lower than what you spend to buy the same food in the grocery story. Donations are tax de ductible and the food bank will (See FOOD Page 2) Glenda Dawsey (I) and Patricia Harris. Mrs. Dawsey was thanked for contributions to the BackPack Buddie program. Andrea Pierce (I) and Patricia Harris. Mrs. Pierce was thanked for contributions to the BackPack Buddie pro gram. See all local board meetings on YouTube @TheWiregrass Farmer Sturdevan to compete for Ms. ABAC title on Feb. 29 Wyleigh Rose Sturde van, a biology major from Rebecca at ABAC, is one of 20 young ladies competing for the Ms. ABAC contest on Thursday, February 29. The event, which is spon sored by the ABAC Agripreneurs, begins at 7 p.m. in ABAC’S Howard Audito rium. Admission is $10, and advance ticket purchase is ad vised because of limited seat ing. Tickets can be purchased from any Agripreneurs officer in Donaldson Dining Hall the week of the event. "Being involved in this long-standing tradition is a highlight of each year,” said Dr. Audrey Luke-Morgan, as sociate professor of agribusi ness at ABAC. 2024 MS. ABAC contestants “This is the 12th Ms. ABAC pageant I have directed, and each group of young adults brings something new and dif ferent to the experience. From planning and organizing the pageant as an Agripreneurs’ member to competing as one of the twenty fabulous contest ants, each individual has the opportunity to learn and grow from the experience. It takes a lot of hard work, but everyone has fun through the process.” Contestants will compete in casual and evening wear and will be judged on a written essay and interview with the judges. The top 10 contestants will answer a question on stage. Sexually transmitted disease on the rise in Turner Sexually transmitted dis eases (STD or STI) are on the rise in Turner County. Health Department reports from 2018-2022, '22 being the most recent year-long stats available, show Chlamydia, Gonorrhea infections rose over that time, and Syphilis infec tions saw far fewer cases, but still had arise. HIT HARDEST STDs hit the Black commu nity more than any other race group in Turner County. Cen sus data shows Turner County has 39.5% Black people and 57.4% White people. Of the 673 reported cases from 2016-2022 where the per son's race is identified, 555 were identified as Black peo ple. According to that, 82% of Turner reported infections were in Black people. About 16% were in White people. In Turner County, women are also far more likely to have an STD, at least one that is reported. In Turner County, females accounted for 488 of the cases in 2016-2022, and men accounted for 262 of the cases. From 2016-2022, Turner County saw 11 STDs reported in the Hispanic community from 2016-2022, but the state did not say which year these were reported. Also, the state reports do not break down infections by age group. EDUCATION Education, teaching people 2018-2022 Chlamydia 43 91 71 97 74 Gonorrhea 16 21 28 57 34 Syphilis 2 7 7 6 4 about safe sex and how to avoid infections and what to do if infected is the key to slowing STD rates. "We are proud to offer STI testing within ah of our health departments. These services are available on a sliding fee scale. We also offer free con doms within ah of the health departments as well as by mail a t www.southhealthdistrict.com/f reecondoms. Our HIV preven tion program as well as several of our health departments share information at commu nity events to encourage safe sex practices and the impor tance of knowing your status. Our priority and focus is en couraging people to get tested so they know their STI status as well as asking the status of your partner and always using protection. Anyone who is practicing risky behaviors should be tested regularly to ensure they are current on their STI status and should always use protection," said Kristin Patten, public information of ficer for the health district. School Superintendent Craig Matthews said health ed classes in the school system discuss STDs, transmission (See STD Page 2) Hisfor Month' 1 Albert Murray CNN lists Albert Murray as one of the most impor tant thinkers of the 20th century. A profilic writer, Mr. Murray was most noted for his musings on race, commen tary that stated the facts as he Murray saw them and paid little heed to what others thought. He se riously launched his career as a writer in 1962 while living in New York. “The United States is not a nation of black and white peo ple,” Mr. Murray wrote. “Any fool can see that white people are not really white, and that black people are not black.” He also refused to identify himself as anything but an American, a definition of himself that con tinued until his death in 2013. A report at Tuskegee Uni versity says, “In his writing, Murray presents an authentic analysis of African American life as he has known and lived it. As he does so, he neither ig nores nor apologizes for the negative elements in the com munity that cause people to de fine African Americans as social problems —elements such as the poverty and crime resulting from a long tradition of slavery, segregation, dis crimination, and racism. But he does strongly challenge the negative, oversimplified im ages that both blacks and whites represent as the com mon experience of ah African Americans. Murray insists on portraying and celebrating the positive, nurturing qualities of African American life and the complexity of the culture.” His obituary in The Guardian, a newspaper pub lished in Great Britain, said, “The writings of Albert Mur ray, who has died aged 97, ex pressed his impatience with the modern stereotype of the African American as victim. Murray was equally suspicious of the chic status sometimes bestowed on black people and black culture by mainstream white society. In fact, Murray, who did not publish his first book until he was 54, disliked even the frequently shifting terminology. “I am not African,” he said. “I am an American.” (See MURRAY Page 2) Like rending historical articles? Let us know and subscribe so we can keep them coming! THE WIREGRASS FARMER 109 N. Gordon St Ashburn 229-567-3655 Wed Cloudy Cloudy Fri Rain Sat Thunderstorms 8 66670 00023 750 - tax included Sun Overcast Showers This space available. Your ad runs 4 or more weeks. Get your business noticed! Call 567-3655 Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. - Khalil Gibran • Remember the happiest people are not those getting more but those giving more. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
