About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2013)
ICO Ministry Meeting Thurs.ftanuary 24th Byron Depot BEADS, BANGLES 81 bunco Feb. 2. Peach Valley Winery lyron Lions Club fundraiser Issue 4 Covering Byron & Peach County email: byronbuzz@pstel.net Thursday, January 24, 2013 From left: Erin Gowen (champion), Mrs. Terri Moore (Spelling Bee Coordinator), and Jameson Suddeth (runner-up) Erin Gowen and Jameson Sud- deth were the last two spellers standing at Kay Road Elementary’s 2012-2013 Spelling Bee held on Janu ary 15th. Both fourth-graders will attend the district wide spelling bee in Fort Valley on February 1st. A Day Of Love Quilters Begin Project Hard Work Pays Off For New City Clerk By Victoria Simmons The Byron Buzz When Telina Allred began working for the City of Byron in 2006, she never thought she would become the City Clerk a little over six years later. ”It wasn’t even a thought in my head that I would become the City Clerk, but I always said that I would like my next job to be one I could retire from. Isn’t life full of surprises?” she said. Telina began her career with the city as an Account Payable Specialist who also processed payroll. She began to handle Workers Compen sation claims while learning how to decrease claims and costs to the city. With City Clerk Betty Sims retiring, Telina officially takes over Thursday, January 31, 2013. Betty announced her retirement in plenty of time for Telina to get some on the job training. That went a long way in helping Telina be ready to take over. ”1 feel confident that I will be seri ous about learning all that I can and doing the best job I can to make these wonderful folks and this wonderful city look good,” she said. Because she is a people person, Telina says she en joys helping the public have a pleasant experience when they visit and know that they have been treated well. ”1 love the people I work with and that makes for a won derful work atmosphere and great attitudes,” she said about the favorite part of be ing City Clerk. On the down side, she said, ”My least favorite thing about my duties would be that blame could fall on me if things aren’t handled as they should be, so again I say that I will just have to do my best.” Telina has been married to her best friend, Tony Allred, for 23 years and they have two children, Kaleb, age 21 and Konner, 14. She has lived in Byron for 40 years and is a product of the Peach County School System. She has been a member of Byron United Methodist Church for 20 years where she enjoys working with the youth when called. ”1 love the ocean, camping, being with family and friends and working in the yard. Anything that puts me in the sunshine I like,” she said. Telina has always loved working at the City of By ron. ”1 am so happy to work somewhere I feel hard work and a good attitude can make a difference.” She feels she still has so much to learn but looks for ward to the challenges of her new position. ”1 really ap preciate the opportunity to do a good job for the City of Byron and I look forward to many more years of posi tive growth for Byron and for myself,” she said. Volunteers busy working cutting out quilt squares. Officers from Byron Police Department also dropped by throughout the day. PHOTOS BY BONNIE GEHLING town of Byron and put to gether a workshop especially for the victims of Sandy Hook and their families. Each family will be receiving a hand-made quilt, but that’s not all. Along with these beautiful quilts in the Sandy Hook school colors, a book chronicling the quilt’s journey to completion will be sent along as well thanks to Bonnie Gehling. “We don’t just want the quilts to be placed in the laps of these families,” Karla Chidester stated at the work shop. “We want to show them the journey, the prayers and the love that we feel for them in this time of loss.” Chidester is no stranger to the face of grieving. She is the co-chair for Compassion ate Friends, a group that helps people through the loss of a child. She has also gone to great lengths to help the Com forting Quilters with their mas sive project asking for people to donate to the CQ group a monetary donation of $40 or more for her 40th birthday. Karla Chidester, left, and Julie Love, right. Karla is part of the Comforting Quilters and is helping Julie coordinate the Sandy Hook project. Christmas, shocked the nation and brought out sympathy in thousands of people across the country. As the prayers went up people looked for ways to comfort the families who had lost their children and family members. Love came up with the only way she knew how, comfort in quilting. “I’m a quilt maker! Quilts are my way of providing com fort to someone who isn’t feel ing so good or needs a hug. There is nothing better in my opinion,” Love said of her brand of feel good medicine. Love and her group of mer ry quilters usually build and stitch quilts for those in need of comfort locally. They give quilts to people who have lost loved ones or those suffer ing from cancer. When Love heard that one of the little angels who lost her life in CT, was from her hometown Utah she knew immediately a simple prayer was not enough for her. So she set out on a mis sion and with the help of her community, the media and some very special friends she brought together the small By Abigail Adams The Byron Buzz Seventeen volunteers filled with prayer and love gath ered at the house of Byron resident Julie Love to spend their Saturday hours quilting. The Comforting Quilters is a group of very special people who send comfort by way of one of their extra special lap quilts. This Saturday was no ordinary Comforting Quilters meeting though, this meet ing was special and the start of many as the quilters cut, placed and stitched their quilt squares for a group of people who are in exceptional need of comfort. On December 14th in New town, CT 20 children lost their lives in what has become the second-deadliest school shoot ing in United States history. Among the children killed were also six adult female staff members at Sandy Hook El ementary where Adam Lanza opened fire on the school staff and students. These women died trying to protect the chil dren in their school. The tragedy, so close to The project has begun with an outpouring of love, bring ing in donations of about $340 just on the first workshop day and many of Saturday’s vol unteers are already commit ting to the next workshop day on February 2nd. With lunch bought from The Drugstore Deli in Byron and even local law enforcement officers stop ping by to give their support the day turned out to be a suc cessful start to the project. “Wow. What a show of support. The volunteers who came all stated they would be returning on a regular basis. Everyone had a great time and there wasn’t anyone looking for something to do,” Love stated. The group hopes to have their 26 quilts finished by the end of March with the em broidery of the personal infor mation of each victim to start shortly after that. Media in Connecticut will be contacted as the project reaches comple tion to coordinate the delivery of the quilts and books. The journey is not over and the Comforting Quilters are still asking for help. “It was a great event and the 2nd of February promises to be just as exciting. It is antici pated that there will be several quilt blocks quilted and ready for assembly. The need for cash donations is helping to cover the cost of backing fab ric and the book being made that will be given to each re cipient documenting the jour ney of how these quilts were made,” Love said. To make a donation visit the Comforting Quilters blog at http://comfortingquilters. blogspot.com and donate via PayPal, or you can mail a check made out to Comfort ing Quilters to: Comforting Quilters 200 E Heritage Blvd, Byron, GA 31008. Love asks that those who are interested in helping at a workshop to please RSVP as space is lim ited to 25 people. The next workshop on February 2nd will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and volunteers are asked to bring $5 for lunch. placed in front and back of Love’s home.
