By Staff Reports
Andalusia Star News
To say that Brig. Gen. Walter D. Givhan, Thursday’s featured speaker at the Covington County Veteran’s Day Ceremony, knows something about the military would be an understatement.
Givhan is scheduled to speak immediately following the parade, at approximately 10 a.m., at the Andalusia Veterans’ Memorial Park, located behind city hall. His address will be followed by a wreath laying ceremony with a 21-gun salute and the playing of “Taps” in memory of the nation’s fallen soldiers.
Givhan currently serves as the Commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
The institute supports national defense by providing graduate, post-graduate and professional education and research programs for Air Force, sister service and foreign officers and civilians in pertinent scientific and technical disciplines.
Givhan, a native of Safford, Ala., graduated from Morgan Academy in Selma and the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., where he was a National Merit Scholar. He served as the U.S. air liaison officer to the commanding general, French ground forces, for operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He has commanded a combat training squadron, an operations group, an air base wing and an air expeditionary wing.
His previous staff assignments include deputy military assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force; Chief of the Congressional Action Division for Air Force Legislative Liaison; Chief, Combat Forces Division, Directorate of Programs; and Director, Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff Executive Action Group, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. He was also a Military Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a command pilot with more than 2,500 flying hours in the T-37, T-38, T-1, AT-38, F-15 and A-10 aircraft.
Honors include a Bronze Star medal, Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, a National Defense Service Medal with bronze star, Global War on Terrorism Service medal, two Kuwait Liberation medals and a French Croix de Guerre with silver star.
By Stephanie Nelson
Andalusia Star News
Covington County residents will have an opportunity Sunday to see a first-ever event on two fronts – a performance by the nationally renowned Lily Cai Chinese Dance Com-pany.
It will be Cai’s first Alab-ama performance ever.
“I think that dance is about everyone’s life,” Cai said Tuesday. “A moving body constitutes dance. Think about it. When you laugh, your head is moving. That is dance.”
Cai and her six-member dance company are being brought to the area as part of the Covington Arts Council’s 2010-2011 season.
Cai moved to the U.S. from Shanghai in 1984, she said. Four years later, she established her dance company.
“The longer I live (in the U.S.) the more I realize that people know little about Chinese dance – Chinese food, yes; Chinese dance, no,” she said. “It is so unique. It is very rich. It has such beauty, such feeling. Most people who see it say they have never seen anything like it in their life.”
Most in Covington County have never had the opportunity to see such a performance, which was the exact reason Paula Harr, CAC executive director, leaped at the opportunity to bring the company to the area.
“I had looked at this company for a number of years, but the price was always a little out of reach for us,” Harr said. “This year, the tour was coming through the area and with the help of a grant, we were able to negotiate to bring them to Andalusia.
“This performance is just beautiful to watch,” she said. “Their technical ability is amazing. Even those who may not be into dance will enjoy the esthetic quality and beauty of their movement.”
Described as “Elegant, sensual and captivating,” the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company “melds ancient Chinese forms with modern dance in an artistic and inventive marriage of styles. The Company bridges the continuum from past to contemporary – from spectacular court dances of Chinese dynasties to contemporary works fusing classical Chinese movement and ballet, complemented by dazzling costumes, original music and multi-media designs.”
The company will also host a workshop for area dancers on Saturday.
“Anytime that someone has the opportunity to see something outside their usual realm of dance experience, it only enhances their appreciation of the art of dance,” Harr said of the local tutorial.
Lily Cai will hit the stage Sunday as part of the
Covington Arts Council’s 2010-2011 season. | Courtesy photo
The 2 p.m. performance Sunday at the Lurleen B. Wallace Community College Dixon Center will serve as a close to the “Absolutely Andalusia” event. On display in the lobby will be a ribbon sculpture created by Cathy Powell’s gifted and talented students at Andalusia Elementary School.
“We want people to know that arts are alive and well in Andalusia and Covington County, and we’re very proud of it,” Harr said.
That’s also a message that Cai said she hopes to promote through each of her performances no matter their location.
“We want you to enjoy the beauty of happy and to see something different when come see us perform,” Cai said.
This performance of the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
General admission season tickets are $50 each; $25 for students. Family packages, which consist of two general admission tickets and two student tickets, are $125 for the season.
Tickets are available at Ansley Place or Brooks True Value Hardware and will be available at the door of the night performance for $15 each.
Posted on Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 at 12:01 am.
By Kendra Bolling
Andalusia Star News
“Stitches in time,” — that’s how one local group is celebrating “Absolutely Andalusia Homecoming 2010.”
The Covington County Quilters Guild is sponsoring a quilt show beginning Thurs., Nov. 11, from noon until 5 p.m. that will feature about 150 quilted objects, said publicist Jane Barber.
“We heard about the Andalusia homecoming event last January,” she said. “They were looking for participants this weekend, and we decided we would participate.”
Barber said the show, which will be held at the Johnson Park gym, is “just for homecoming” and the organization hopes to see people from all over stop by and see the works.
Barber said the quilt show features items for everyone in the family — jackets, purses, pictures made of fabric, Christmas wall hanging, and several examples of the mystery and challenge quilts the organization has worked on over the past couple of years.
“With our mystery quilts (quilts that have an unknown pattern or story), you will find that they are all similar, but all quite different,” she said. “We will have a wall for our challenge quilts. We all used the same fabric, but all very different.”
Barber said for those who may want to make purchases at the event, the organization will have an “extensive” gift shop, which will include crafts, books, magazines and even fabric.
Additionally, Barber said that organization is selling $1 chances on an opportunity quilt and all proceeds will go to the Dream Park renovation project.
“We agreed to buy two $400 tic-tac-toe boards for the Dream Park renovation,” she said. “Anything we have left over we’ll give to them.”
Barber said the chances will be sold until around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, when the drawing will take place.
The event is free to the public, and it will also be open Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Posted on Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 at 1:39 am.
By Kendra Bolling
Andalusia Star News
Gage Theus, Matthew Beasley and Madeline Miller enjoy playing on the tire swing.
Children were found enjoying the newly renovated Dream Park Monday. The park will be dedicated Thurs., Nov. 11 at 2 p.m.
Gage Theus, Matthew Beasley and Madeline Miller enjoy playing on the tire swing.
Posted on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 12:01 am.
By Kendra Bolling
Andalusia Star News
The season of giving is right around the corner, and the Andalusia Adult Activity Center is calling on the community to do just that – give.
AAC coordinator Dianne Jones said that each year the center sponsors about 80 homebound seniors citizens around the Christmas holiday.
“They aren’t able to get out, and we just want to help them,” she said. “A lot are in desperate need and have no family to help them.”
Jones said the AAC will take donations of items from now until Dec. 7, including lap quilts with pockets, blankets, socks, toboggan caps, pillows, shawls, food, candy, vegetables, and anything else senior adults may enjoy. Jones said that donations of toiletry items are also requested.
Monetary donations may also be made.
AAC staff will distribute the items around Dec. 15.
“Our staff takes it out, and they also donate a lot of the items,” she said.
Jones said this is very important to the seniors it helps.
“A lot of times people forget about the elderly during these times,” she said.
“Any help we can get we’d greatly appreciate it.”
For more information, call Jones at 222-6891.