Celebrating 125 years of care

COMPILED BY JENNIFER J. HEWETT

St. Joseph's Hospital

In 1880 the leading causes of death were tuberculosis and cholera, and four young Sisters of Mercy sought to care for citizens’ health by establishing Saint Joseph’s, the city’s first post-Civil War hospital.

Next year marks the hospital’s 125th anniversary, and to commemorate it, the hospital staff is collecting stories, memorabilia and photos from employees, patients and others who know about the hospital’s history.

Please e-mail your story to jcascio@sjha.org, or write to Saint Joseph’s Hospital 125th Memories, c/o Jennifer Cascio, 5673 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, Suite 650, Atlanta, GA 30342 by Dec. 31.

Ruth Pinson, a fourth-grade teacher at Armuchee Elementary in Rome, and her students examine Monarch butterflies before tagging and releasing them.

Chasing butterflies; finding friends

It’s been a busy season for Monarchs, which pass through Georgia from August through October during their annual migration to Mexico. It’s especially busy for schoolchildren statewide who track the butterflies’ annual journey, plant milkweed, learn about nature—and make friends from far away.

Monarchs Across Georgia, an environmental education program for schoolchildren and families, in collaboration with Environmental Education Alliance, provides a hands-on approach to learning. This includes finding and planting naturally occurring milkweed, a species vital for the butterflies’ survival because it is the only plant on which the adults lay eggs and then eat. Enter students like those at Demorest Elementary School, near Cornelia, where teacher Chatty White’s third-grade class planted 1,700 plants.

“We’ve got teachers all over the state doing this,” says Barbara Payne, Monarchs Across Georgia steering committee member.

Through the Internet-based Journey North program, students track animal migration (butterflies and bald eagles to assorted mammals) and seasonal changes. They also participate in a “symbolic migration,” Payne says. “Students create beautiful butterflies [from paper] with a message to students in Mexico, and receive butterflies in return from students from Canada to Mexico in spring.” For more information about Monarchs Across Georgia, visit www.monarchsacrossga.org.

Providing for Georgia’s hungry

Hunters all over the state have helped make the Hunters for the Hungry (HFTH) program a success over the past 12 years, donating deer to help feed hungry Georgians during the holidays.

Harvested, field-dressed deer will be collected again this year at one of 10 collection sites around the state from Oct. 30-Nov. 30. Last year, 911 deer were donated, resulting in more than 20,000 pounds of venison; since 1993, more than 116,000 pounds of ground venison has been distributed statewide to food banks and pantries by the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

For more information on the HFTH program, collection site locations and hours of operation, or to make a monetary contribution, visit www.gohuntgeorgia.com or call (770) 535-5700.

Collecting Veterans’ history

In 2000, members of Congress rallied to create the Veterans History Project to preserve for upcoming generations the memories, experiences and history of veterans serving in 20th-century wars.

Four years later, the project has catalogued thousands of first-hand accounts including letters, diary entries and taped interviews of wartime experiences from veterans serving in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War, alongside accounts of U.S. civilians on the home front who were actively involved in supporting war efforts.

For more information on the Veterans History Project, or to find out how to contribute your first-hand account, visit www.loc.gov/folklife/vets, e-mail vohp@loc.gov, or call (888) 371-5848. For a list of project partners in Georgia who are recording stories and collecting war memorabilia for the project, visit www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/partners/georgia.html.

Veterans Day, originally known as Armistice Day, became a national holiday in 1938. Today it’s celebrated Nov. 11 to honor the service and sacrifice of all U.S. veterans.

Flint RiverQuarium in Albany.

Flint RiverQuarium opens

The Flint RiverQuarium’s grand opening in early September guarantees to be Albany’s newest family attraction where residents and visitors “dive-in” to an educational discovery of the Flint River’s ecosystem.

Built at $30 million, the RiverQuarium, designed by architect Antoine Predock, is a key component in restoring the downtown district. This state-of-the-art facility also plans to extend the critical message of water conservation. According to Executive Director Douglas Noble, “The preservation of water is bigger than most people realize since water is a scarce resource.”

One of the major highlights of the RiverQuarium is the Blue Hole. This 175,000-gallon hole is 22 feet deep and contains thousands of sea creatures’ homes including snapping turtles, snakes and eels and is open to the air. “Without the Blue Hole staying at 68 degrees of chilled water, many organisms would not survive,” says Noble.

Three different aspects of river life are showcased in addition to the Blue Hole. The Flint River Gallery gives a description of life on the river, while the Discovery Cavern’s games and exhibits allow visitors to control the weather and river flow. Lastly, the World of Water gives visitors an inside view of other global rivers sharing similar features and challenges as the Flint.

Visit www.flintriverquarium.com for more information.
—Antoinette Clarington

Georgia glimpses

• Last year, 1,139 Georgians called Butterball’s “Turkey Talk-line” asking for recipes, turkey-preparation tips and last-minute Thanksgiving help. Over the past 25 years, the talk-line has helped more than 2.7 million people with turkey-related questions. To reach the hotline, dial (800) BUTTERBALL (288-8372) during November or December.

• Over the past few months as hurricanes and tropical storms have rolled across Georgia and the Southeast, Web hits poured in to the Atlanta-based weather.com, the online site for the Weather Channel. Ranked as the world’s largest provider of online weather, news and information by Nielsen/NetRatings, the site reached 24.5 million people in July alone. The Weather Channel, a 24-hour weather network, is seen in more than 87 million U.S. homes.

• The Travel Channel chose Cumberland Island to be featured on a segment of “America’s Top 10 Beautiful Beaches.” The show will premiere March 2005.

• Golfweek magazine named Cuscowilla Golf Resort on Lake Oconee as the Best Residential Golf Course in America in 2004 in its October 2004 issue; last year the course ranked No. 2. Other Georgia courses in the Top 100 were Reynolds Plantation, Great Waters (#52); the Oconee Course at Reynolds (#56); the National Course at Reynolds (#69); Harbor Club, Greensboro (#82); Landings at Skidaway Island Deer Creek (#90); and Osprey Cove and St. Marys (#97).

Did you know?

Georgia-quarried marble was used as the main plaza paving stone of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., which opened May 29, 2004. Georgia marble is also used in the Lincoln Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.
Source: National Parks Service