Author: Submitted

South Georgia State College (SGSC) is proud to kickoff the Eames Speaker Series March 24 at 7 p.m. with author Janisse Ray. The event will be held in the Peterson Hall Art Gallery on SGSC’s Douglas Campus. It is free and open to the public. Ray is a southern Georgia native, writer, naturalist, and activist. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana and has been awarded two honorary doctorates – one from Unity College in Maine and the other from LaGrange College in Georgia. In 2015, Ray was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Her works…

CMS recently kicked off its mentoring program with keynote speaker Dr. Rowland Cummings. This program is designed to target male students who have been identified as needing additional support in the school setting. A mentor from CMS is assigned to each student and will provide support in any area that the student may need. Headed by Mrs. Stephanie Gooden, with collaboration from Assistant Principal Randy Drew and API Rontee Barnes, it is our hope that this pilot initiative will set the foundation for a large scale mentoring program in the near future. – Submitted

Mr. Charles Ronald Swails, age 76, of Douglas passed away early Sunday morning, at the Shady Acres Health and Rehabilitation Center, following an extended illness. He was born April 27, 1939 to the late Wylie L. Swails and the late Vashti Hutcheson Swails. Survivors include: 1 Sister: Estelle Caves of Broxton Ga.; Several Nieces, Nephews, Friends, and Other Relatives. Graveside Services and Interment will be held Tuesday morning, March 15, 2016, at 11:00 A.M., at the Douglas City Cemetery. The family will begin receiving friends Monday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M., at Ricketson Funeral Home. Ricketson Funeral Home is…

Coffee High School Drama is celebrating Theatre In Our Schools month with a lighthearted, “countrified” adaption of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Peggy May Leon, A Country Tale will be presented by the CHS Spring Semester Intermediate Drama Class, Act Two, at CHS on March 18 and 19. Peggy May Leon is a teenager living on the family farm. Her looks, manners, and attire are a far cry from a teen queen, but a bet made between two groups of girls turn her from a dirty pig farm girl into the most popular and pretty girl on campus, but at a…

Coffee Middle School’s Read 180 and System 44 students have been hard at work! Each student was recently required to create a book project of their choice about a book the class read as a group and had an option to do a number of different project ideas. Some chosen were ghostly graveyard scenes from the book The Incredibly Revolting Ghost, hamster models and classroom scenes from Adventures According to Humphrey, and headstone markers, ship models and bookmarks from the series Titanic. Students were allowed to work on their projects in class and at home. Ms. Donna D. Davis,…

With the recent heavy rains, warmer weather, and dangers of the Zika virus, the City of Douglas has plans to start spraying earlier this year for mosquitoes. Citizens are also encouraged to take measures to “fight the bite” in their own backyards. “Wetter than normal conditions, combined with our warm temperatures, help to increase the mosquito population,” says Jacob Lott, Public Works Director. “With the new threat of the Zika virus, we are going to start spraying for mosquitoes earlier this year. We are also hopeful that residents will take the initiative to protect their families and remove mosquito breeding…

Shirley Jean Burke, age 80, of Broxton, GA passed away on Friday, March 11, 2016, at Coffee Regional Medical Center. Mrs. Burke was born on August 30, 1935, in Glen Saint Mary, FL to the late Rev. Luther Alford and Mary Williams Alford. Survivors include: her four sons, Billy (Leisha) Burke, Curtis Ferrell (Shari) Burke, Ezra (Kim) Burke and Matthew (Serena) Burke all of Broxton, GA; three daughters, Sharon Burke (Tony) Anderson of Fernandina Beach, FL, Elizabeth B. (Johnny) Batten of Douglas, GA and Mary Lou Burke of Savannah, GA; brother, Earl (Suzanne) of Glen Saint Mary, FL; sixteen grandchildren;…

South Georgia State College (SGSC) walked away with several awards at the Phi Theta Kappa Georgia Region Spring Regional Convention held recently in Atlanta, Ga. Six SGSC students and two advisors, Amy Hancock and Ame Wilkerson, from the Douglas and Waycross Campuses, attended this year’s convention. Both SGSC chapters were again designated as Five Star Chapters, the highest level a chapter can achieve. The SGSC chapters include Kappa Sigma on the Douglas Campus and Alpha Rho Omega on the Waycross Campus. Each year, Phi Theta Kappa chapters are required to complete two projects: a College Project to be completed in…

South Georgia State College (SGSC) students Charles Pridgen of Broxton, Susana Rojas Mandujano of Douglas, Courtney Falvo of Waycross, and Kolby Kicklighter of Blackshear were named to the All-Georgia Academic Team, a program sponsored by two-year college presidents, the national honor society for two-year colleges Phi Theta Kappa, and community college state associations. Pridgen and Rojas Mandujano attend the Douglas Campus, and Falvo and Kicklighter attend classes at the Waycross Campus. They recently attended a recognition luncheon in Atlanta at the Sloppy Floyd Building Empire Room. SGSC President Dr. Virginia Carson comments, “I commend these students on their academic achievements…