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gainesvilletimes.com
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | getout@gainesvilletimes.com
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Santa is coming to town
Photos by DAVID BARNES I The Times
The lighting of the chicken during the annual Jingle Mingle in downtown Gainesville, on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017.
Jingle Mingle returns despite construction, parking issues downtown
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
Santa Claus will soon be
making his way to the down
town square for Gainesville’s
annual Jingle Mingle event.
Guests and businesses alike
always look forward to the
event and the main attrac
tion: lighting the giant chicken
perched atop Main Street Mar
ket. This year’s event, which
kicks off downtown’s holiday
shopping season, is set for 5 - 8
p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15.
Santa will be arriving in a
fire truck as the event begins
and will be ready for pho
tos with children throughout
the night. Guests can take
carriage rides around the
square and children can take
train rides around Roosevelt
Square. And, of course, there
will be live music from the
Voices of North Georgia and
the Believer’s Concert Band.
The Greater Hall Chamber
of Commerce, which supports
the event each year, is always
hoping to bring more guests to
downtown businesses.
This year, it may be espe
cially needed.
“Businesses on the square
could really use some addi
tional shoppers this year, just
with the construction that’s
been happening,” said Con
nie Rock, owner of Purchase
Effect on the corner of Wash
ington and Bradford Streets.
“We hope people come out
and support it.”
Purchase Effect, which
used to be located inside
Main Street Market, recently
moved out of that space and
found a more prominent area
on the square. Rock said she
always looks forward to Jingle
Mingle and even closes her
store for about 15 minutes so
she can head out to watch the
lighting of the chicken.
She said she doesn’t typi
cally see much difference in
sales, but with her new loca
tion, she’s thinking that may
change.
“I’ve kind of got that antici
pation of what’s to come,”
Rock said. “In the evening,
you just have a lot of people
who came by and visit, and
I think their minds are on
the event and lighting of the
chicken, not so much shop
ping. But I believe they come
by at a later time.”
She’s keeping her hopes in
check, though, since construc
tion has taken over the square
and cut away some of the
available parking.
“I’m hoping that people will
take the extra time and try to
find parking spots, or carpool
and come support the busi
nesses,” Rock said. “I don’t
know anybody I’ve talked to
that the parking hasn’t made it
difficult for their customers.”
Dress Up, a women’s bou
tique on the square, is pulling
people in by offering sales and
free hot chocolate outside its
Gainesville location. Savan
nah Williams, a manager at
the store, said they “like to get
Julius, from Gainesville, looks up at Santa during the annual event, during which a giant chicken is
lighted on the square.
Mr. and Mrs. Claus wave to the crowd as they are lowered in a fire engine bucket.
super festive,” so they spent
an entire day decorating and
getting things ready for the
holiday season.
“We did a bunch of holiday
decor, which is different than
what we normally do,” Wil
liams said. “We’ve got Christ
mas trees up, and lights and a
bunch of fun Christmas stuff.
We’re all going to be wearing
Santa hats, so it will be a lot of
fun.”
She said Jingle Mingle
brings in “a ton” of custom
ers, so they bring in a handful
of extra employees to keep up
with the demand in the store.
And even on such a busy day,
Williams said the event is
something they always look
forward to.
After “20-something years”
of doing Jingle Mingle, Kit
Dunlap said it still never gets
old. As the president of the
chamber, she said she looks
forward to it every year.
“It’s important because if
you haven’t been downtown
Jingle Mingle
Where: Downtown
Gainesville Square
When: 5 - 8 p.m. Nov. 15
How much: Free
in a while, you walk around
and see the stores and it’s the
beginning of the holiday sea
son,” Dunlap said. “It’s not
only Thanksgiving but Christ
mas too. So I think it’s a big
deal.”
‘Businesses on the square could really use some additional
shoppers this year, just with the construction that’s been
happening. We hope people come out and support it.’
Connie Rock
Purchase Effect owner
American
Legion Post 7
to host its first
fall festival
BY AMBER TYNER
atyner@gainesvilletimes.com
Veterans Day has already passed, but
the celebration will continue this Saturday:
From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the American Legion
Post 7 will host its first-ever Veterans Fall
Festival, complete with arts and crafts and
food vendors.
“We’re trying to duplicate Mule Camp,
kind of at a ‘crawl, walk, run’ level,” said
Johnny Varner, the house committee exec
utive at large for the American Legion Post
7. “We wanted to make it a part of our Vet
erans theme for the month.”
The festival is for all ages, and there will
be military vehicle displays, music, corn-
hole and a variety of
food options, includ
ing chili, barbecue,
hot dogs, hamburg
ers and vegetable
soup.
Varner said the
American Legion
will also have a post
service officer at the
event around 1 p.m.
“She’ll be able to
talk about state ben
efits as far as vet
erans and some of
the programs, how
to check on your
claims and things of
that nature,” he said.
And while the fes
tival is sure to offer
a good time, Varner
said it also serves another purpose.
“We want to highlight some of the things
the facility has to offer,” he said. “There’s
a lot of people that still don’t know they
can rent it. We’d like to try to be some
of the options that they can look at when
compared to the (Gainesville) Civic Center
or some of the other venues out there that
they can rent.”
He said the American Legion Post 7 is
also preparing for its 100th anniversary,
which will be in August 2019.
“We’re just really trying to let people
know where we’re at and educate them on
the history we have at that post,” he said.
“It would be nice to have throughout the
day maybe 100 to 200 people who come
through.”
Veterans
Fall
Festival
What: Hosted
by American
Legion Post 7
When: 9 a.m. to
6 p.m. Nov. 17
Where:
American
Legion Post
7, 2343
Riverside Drive,
Gainesville
How much: Free
More info:
404-536-3831
oralpost7@
outlook.com
Exhibition to
display ‘open
air’ paintings
among others
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
Quinlan Visual Arts Center is switch
ing over to its winter exhibition, featuring
paintings from the Eastern League of Pro
fessional Artists, the Hoschton Heritage
Group, John Guernsey and Marea Haslett.
A reception for members and artists
will be held from 5:30 - 7 p.m. Nov. 29, the
same day the exhibition opens free to the
public during normal business hours.
“With all these
dreary days
we’ve been hav
ing, it’s the per
fect time to come
in and see some
really great art,”
said Amanda
McClure, execu
tive director of
the center.
On top of the
work from the
two groups being
displayed, Guern
sey and Haslett will show off their solo
work. McClure said Guernsey is known
for his landscape art while Haslett is an
abstract artist.
One of the major draws to this show,
which will be on display through Feb. 16,
is the plein air paintings.
“Plein is short for ‘in the open air,”’
McClure said. “It’s a French term used to
describe artists that work outside.”
This sort of painting requires artists
to brave the elements and get outside to
embrace the real movements of what
they’re painting. Everything must be done
in the open, not in a studio.
Members of the Eastern League of Pro
fessional Artists, which is headlining the
show, did some of these paintings around
Gainesville — a few outside Quinlan and
some on other parts of Green Street —
and invited other artists around the area
to participate as well.
“They actually required the artist to
take a picture on their phone of them
painting outside to prove they didn’t just
paint in their studio from a photograph,”
McClure said.
About a dozen plein air paintings will be
on display at the winter exhibition.
Quinlan
Winter
Exhibition
Where: Quinlan
Visual Arts Center,
514 Green St. NE,
Gainesville
When: Nov. 29
through Feb. 16
How much: Free
More info:
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