Area churches and individuals are invited attend a concert by the Southside Baptist Church Choir in Andalusia on Sun., April 29, at 6 p.m. to celebrate mothers and to celebrate life.
The church choir will provide special music, and information about the ministry of Sav-A-Life will be shared during the concert.
A dessert reception to honor mothers will be held following the concert in the Family Life Center.
For more information about the concert, call Jan White at 222-2907 or the church office at 222-4300.
If your church plans to attend, please call with an approximate number of people coming so that the church can prepare desserts for the reception.
As the “go green” movement increases, so does the amount of recyclables collected in Andalusia.
Eddie Crittenden, recycling center manager, said in Andalusia, residents have the option of curbside pickup of recyclables such as newspapers, magazines, telephone books, office paper, mailings, aluminum and steel cans, plastic bottles and jugs and cardboard.
And they are, he said, as the nearly 40 percent of Andalusia residents who participate in the city’s curbside recycling program have kept more than 500,000 pounds of refuse out of the landfill in the last five months alone.
All recyclables go into one bag, and are picked up on the weekly trash pick up routes. Upon arrival at the center, the bags are placed onto a table, opened and the items are hand sorted.
Once sorted, those items are packed and bundled and then sold to the highest bidder.
“Everything we take in here is resold,” Crittenden said. “What can’t be sold is buried in the landfill. That’s why it’s so important to recycle, because those things that can’t be reused, they’re buried in the ground.”
From October, at the beginning of the fiscal year, through the end of March, 573,840 pounds – or 286.92 tons – have been saved from going into the landfill, Crittenden said.
“That’s a lot of stuff, when you think about it,” he said. “People don’t really look at their bags and think that’s a lot, but it adds up.”
Crittenden said he believes 2012 will be a record year for recycling. At present, nearly 184 tons of cardboard, 23.45 tons of metal, 18.99 tons of plastics, 43.36 tons of newspaper and 17.44 tons of office/mixed paper was recycled and sold. In total, it earned the city $5,609.29 – and saved valuable space in the landfill, he said.
“I think it will be a tremendous year for recycling,” he said. “I’ve already sold three loads of cardboard, one load of metal and two other loads of cardboard are ready to go. None of that is in those totals, and we still have five months to go in this year, too.”
Crittenden said as residents become more aware of the benefits of recycling and the city’s ability to handle those items, participation will increase.
“Of course, we always feel like (participation) could be better,” he said. “We want people to recycle. That’s the bottom line.”
The recycling center and landfill can be found in the city’s industrial park, located just off Sutton Road.
Andalusia residents can participate in the program by calling the recycling center at 222-0862. A green recycling bag will then be delivered to your home. When filled, put the green bag out beside your hobo, a recycling crew will pick it up and leave you another one.
Just because SaraGrace Martin is wheelchair-bound, it doesn’t mean she isn’t going places.
The 11-year-old fifth grader at Pleasant Home was born with spina bifida, but she doesn’t let it slow her down from doing the things she enjoys, like playing outside and fishing, her mother said.
“SaraGrace is very independent and outgoing,” Teresa Martin said. “We have raised her just like her two other sisters. She doesn’t let things bother her. I think things bother me more than her, to tell you the truth.”
The Martin family was chosen as the latest family to benefit from a group of Pleasant Home residents whose 5K “Running for a Reason” fundraising events have helped two families to date. Only this time, they’ve modified it a bit – calling the event “Rolling for a Reason” in honor of SaraGrace, said organizer Leigh Newby.
“Dealing with the expense of traveling back and forth to the doctor can be difficult on a family,” Newby said. “This is the community’s way of helping ease that a bit.”
This 5K will be held on Sat., April 21, at Robinson Park. The run begins at 9 a.m. There is a $20 registration fee. There will be hamburger plates on sale for $5 each and the Shepherd family will provide entertainment. Registration is available on line at www.active.com or by calling Newby at 222-3874 or Kerri Kelley 222-3746.
Proceeds will be used to help offset travel expenses for the Martin family as they travel back and forth to Birmingham.
“People look at her in the wheelchair and see a beautiful girl,” Martin said of her daughter. “But there’s a lot of stuff underneath that people don’t know about – her shunt, her catheter, stuff like that. She looks perfectly healthy.”
Recently, SaraGrace underwent the 20th surgery of her life. Martin said it was to replace am 11-year-old shunt used to alleviate hydrocephalus, or water on the brain.
“When we went in to have it replaced, we had every complication you could think of,” she said. “SaraGrace was in the hospital eight days in Birmingham. There we were, me and her oldest sister in the hospital room with her, and her dad traveling to see her. Thankfully, we are down to check ups, but it hit us pretty hard financially.
“To think that these wonderful people want to do something to help us, it makes me thankful we live in a community where things like that happen,” Martin said.
The James Gang Amusements will continue its carnival tonight and tomorrow night at the Crow’s Nest Barbecue across from Massey Automotive in Andalusia. The carnival is from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Armbands are $20 each, and look for a $5 off coupon inside today’s paper. Top: Presley Mohon rides the elephant ride Wednesday night.
There are 14 new computers available for use at the Andalusia Public Library, thanks to the nationwide broadband opportunities program.
The selection replaced five old computers, as well as provided for five new desktops and four laptops, said library director Karin Taylor. Funds for the purchase were made available through a $4.6 million award to Auburn University by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“The money is to be used to expand the availability of broadband technology in Alabama’s rural libraries and public schools,” Taylor said.
Under the programs guidelines, it works to improve public access to broadband services in underserved areas of the state in order to bridge the “digital divide” between low-income rural areas and wealthy urban areas.
Taylor said she applied for the funding in November. The laptop computers will be used to help with onsite tutoring, she said.
“This is a great opportunity for small libraries such as ours to increase our technology services for our patrons,” she said. “Patron use of our computers has increased dramatically during these trying economic times. We hope to receive more computers through this initiative in the coming months.”
Taylor said the library’s new website is now available onsite and work is under way to “go live” in the coming months, making it possible for patrons to check out electronic books.
“We will be fine tuning the configurations for it today with our library software vendor, and hopefully it will be ready for access offsite very soon,” she said. “We are in the final phase of training for our EBook service. We are part of a consortium that consists of several libraries throughout Alabama. We expect the service to be available sometime in June.”