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PAGE 2B PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. DECEMBER 17. 2020
• Weddings
• Birthdays
• Anniversaries
• Students
• Reunions
• People of Interest
> > > We welcome submissions for this page at articles@pickensprogressonline.com
Choose to Lose donates
to ACES Children’s Home
Vincent elected to UNG f s
Student Government Assoc.
Sanford named Emerging
SBA Lender of the Year
Choose to Lose weight loss support group starts collect
ing money in October of each year to give to a local charity.
This year we gave our donation to ACES Children’s Home.
Kathy Browning, one of our members, volunteered to de
liver our donation. She is shown handing it to ACES Board
Member, Fred Mullis. Choose to Lose is a free weight loss
support group that meets at the Rec Center on Friday morn
ing. Weigh-in is from 8:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. The meeting is
from 9 a.m. until 9:45 a.m.. Call Pat Groves for more in
formation. 417-413-8025
Local residents receive
degrees from Piedmont
Piedmont College cele
brated 380 fall graduates dur
ing a Commencement
ceremony on December 11 in
the Johnny Mize Athletic
Center.
Graduates include:
From Jasper - Courtney
Davis, Laura Nix, Donna
Franklin, and Jessica Year-
gin.
From Talking Rock -
Kelly McArthur and Chris
tine Westbrook.
From Ball Ground - Va
lerie Boehm, Ashley Patter
son, and Pamela Williams.
President James F. Mel-
lichamp and Board of
Trustees Chairman Thomas
A. "Gus" Arrendale III con
gratulated students receiving
Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of
Science, Certificate of Car
diovascular Technology, Cer
tificate of Event
Management, Master of
Business Administration,
Master of Arts, Master of
Arts in Teaching, Education
Specialist, and Doctor of Ed
ucation degrees.
The keynote address was
delivered by Dr. Jacqueline
"Jackie" Ellett, Associate
Professor of Art Education at
Piedmont College and the
2020 recipient of the Vulcan
Materials Company Teaching
Excellence Award. Ellett
earned her Bachelor of Sci
ence degree in Art Education
(1986), Master of Art Educa
tion (1991), Education Spe
cialist degree in Art
Education (2000) along with
a Gifted Endorsement
(2000), PhD in Art Education
(2011), and her Interdiscipli
nary Qualitative Studies Cer
tificate all from the
University of Georgia.
Hannah Vincent of Talk
ing Rock has been elected to
serve in the University of
North Georgia's unified Stu
dent Government Associa
tion (SGA) as Elections
Chair, a role included in
SGA's Campus Governance.
Vincent is a student on
UNG's Blue Ridge Campus.
Jelma Flores-Mota will
serve as the university's first
unified SGA president, and
UNG's Blue Ridge Campus
is launching SGA for the first
time this fall.
Each campus has a vice
president.
"I am proud of the SGA
leadership that worked very
hard on getting this unifica
tion completed for the 2020-
21 academic year," said Dr.
James Conneely, vice presi
dent for student affairs and
enrollment management. "I
am also appreciative of the
dedication and mentoring
that the SGA advisers pro
vided to the students during
this extensive process. A con
solidated SGA will provide a
strong foundation as the rep
resentative body for students
in helping UNG to reach new
levels of excellence."
The legislative branch fea
tures elected and commis
sioned senators. The 19
elected senators plus a senate
chair represent UNG's col
leges and campuses. One
senator each represents the
College of Arts & Letters,
College of Education, Col
lege of Health Sciences &
Professions, Institute of En
vironmental and Spatial
Analysis, Mike Cottrell Col
lege of Business, College of
Science & Mathematics and
University College. The
other 12 senators represent
the five campuses. Blue
Ridge and Cumming have
one each, Oconee has two,
and Dahlonega and
Gainesville each has four.
Commissioned senators
are appointed to represent
specific populations. They
include commuters, the
Corps of Cadets, dual-en
rolled students, first-year ex
perience, fraternity and
sorority life, international
students, LGBTQIA, multi
cultural, residential, student-
athletes, students with
disabilities, student organiza
tions, transfer, and veteran
and adult learners. Freshmen
make up the First-Year Sen
ate.
Campus governance fea
tures three elected officers to
manage communications,
election and finance on each
campus. These officers and
campus senators govern the
daily operations such as new
club approval, mini-grants
and budgets. To learn how to
become a part of SGA, go the
UNG SGA webpage.
Weight Loss Group
Choose to Lose - Weight loss group meets at the Pickens
County Community Center Room #1 every Friday morning.
Weigh in time is between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Meeting runs
from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. No charge. Call Pat Groves for
more information at 1-417-413-8025.
City of Nelson reschedules meeting
The City of Nelson’s January Council Meeting was sched
uled for Jan. 4, 2021 but due to the upcoming election on Jan.
5, 2021 we will be rescheduling our meeting for Jan. 11,
2021.
Families Anonymous
Families Anonymous is a group for relatives and friends
concerned about the use of drugs or related behavioral prob
lems. It is a recovery program offering support to people
whose lives have been affected by a relative’s or friend’s use
of mind-altering substances or related behavioral problems.
Weekly meetings on Wednesdays at King of Kings
Lutheran Church, 45 Appalachian Circle, Talking Rock (1
mile north of Jasper Walmart) from 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Bring a lunch. For more information call 706-276-1850 or
mkc@etcmail.com
Youth Writing Contest awards Thursday
Community Bank of Pick
ens County’s Board of Direc
tors and staff would like to
congratulate our SBA Man
ager Reece Sanford for being
recognized by the nation’s
top SBA consulting firm as
the 2020 Emerging SBA
Lender of the year (under
40).
Congratulations to Cole
man’s 2020 Emerging SBA
Lender the Year, Wesley
Reece Sanford. He is an SBA
manager at Community Bank
of Pickens County in Jasper.
Sanford has been active in
SBA 7(a) lending for roughly
six and a half years and re
cently closed his first SBA
504 loan.
Since Sanford entered the
industry, he has closed nearly
40 traditional SBA loans
worth $39 million.
Recently, he aided bank
executives in overseeing the
closing of 464 PPP loans
amounting to $30.2 million
in funding, which supported
approximately 3,473 jobs.
Since Stanford started
managing Community Bank
of Pickens’s SBA depart
ment, he has been able to ob
tain a PLP license for the
Bank, as well as SBA Ex
press authority. In addition to
his work with the SBA de
partment, Sanford has also
served on the Bank’s strate
gic planning committee and
has prepared economic fore
cast presentations for the
Bank’s C-Suite.
English classes via Zoom
In previous years, free English Classes met at Pickens
County Recreation Center every week. These classes are still
available, but on Zoom. You may join each Monday at 6 p.m.
or each Thursday at 8 p.m. for a free 90 minute practice. The
Thursday class is a repeat of the Monday class. Please call
706-692-0707 for the link.
Thrift Store Holiday Schedule
The Community Thrift Store will be closed Christmas and
Christmas Eve and New Years Day.
What are your
Christmas traditions?
Submitted by Sassafras
Literary Exchange
The Sassafras Literary
Exchange will hold their
awards ceremony for the
39th annual Creative Writing
for Youth contest on Thurs
day evening, December 17th.
For the purpose of social dis
tancing, the ceremony will be
broken into two time slots. It
is asked that participants
wear face coverings. Awards
for the middle grades divi
sion (6th through 8th grades)
will begin at 6:30 p.m. with
the high school group starting
at 7:30 p.m.
The ceremonies will be
held in the recreation hall of
the First Christian Church of
Jasper. Its location is 22
Burgess Road. This is across
Bring the Simple Man
to your house for Christmas
Caleb Smith's new book
All I Hear is Banjos - The Ballad of a Simple Man
His original
Ponderings of a
Simple Man
$15 each
(signed copies
available at the
Pickens Progress
or on Amazon
For a double-helping
of the Simple Man,
get both books for $25.
All
■f hear
Is Banjos
The Ballad of a Simple
Man
Refuge Road from R & R
Body Shop. Follow Refuge
Road south from Pickens
Junior High School to
Burgess Road on the right.
The Featured guest speaker
will be accomplished and
noted poet, Cliff Brooks.
Winning students will
have been duly notified and
invited.
We’d like to hear from our Progress readers this holiday
season. What are some of your Christmas traditions you fol
low every year? A Christmas Eve church service? A visit to
grandma’s house for egg casserole on Christmas morning?
Reading a favorite book together as a family or watching
some favorite holiday movies?
Email us by Friday, December 18th at article s@picken-
sprogress.com or drop it by our office at 94 North Main
Street and we will share what makes your holiday special
with our readers. Look for the traditions to be printed in the
December 24th Christmas edition.
Peanut Butter & Butterscotch Haystacks
Need an easy dessert for Christmas? This classic haystack recipe is simple and
never fails to please.
1 cup butterscotch chips
Vi cup peanut butter
U cup salted peanuts
2 cups chow mein noodles
Melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter on top of a double boiler, or in a mi
crowave. Blend together.
Stir peanuts and noodles gently into the melted peanut butter mixture.
Drop dough by forkfuls onto waxed paper. Cool until set.
Have a recipe you would like to share with the community?
Send it to areinhardt@pickensprogressonline.com