Downtown Abbey,the box-office smash hit based on the PBS series that opened last weekend nationwide will be on the big screen in Andalusia beginning Friday.
Mack Clark, owner of Clark Theatres, said movie suppliers initially said it would be two weeks before he could show Downtonhere, but persistence paid off.
“I kept after him, and agreed to pay an audience guarantee, so will have it on two screens beginning Friday night.”
Clark said Downton is scheduled for 4 p.m., 4:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Friday.
On Saturday and Sunday, Clark Theatres will show Downtonat 1 p.m., 1:15 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:!5 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased online in advance from Clark Theatres’ website, https://clarkcinemas.com/andalusia/.For those fans who need to entertain the kids while the adults are enjoying a royal escape, the family-friendly Abdominablealso is showing this weekend, Clark said.
Downton Abbeynetted a whopping $31 million in domestic ticket sales in its first weekend, and beat out all others, including Brad Pitt's science fiction film Ad Astra, which came in at $19.2 million, and Rambo: Last Blood, which reached a similar $19 million. It also topped two well-performing, previously-released movies: Hustlers at $17 million, and It: Chapter Two with $17.2 million.
The Covington Veterans Foundations will honor local veterans this November by displaying tribute banners on the city square and surrounding streets. The display coincides with The First Inaugural Celebration of Heroes: A Salute to Covington County Veterans, a two-week event that kicks off on Sunday, November 3. CVF Chairman John Vick said other cities in Alabama have tried this and have had great public support and approval for their displays.
“The display of our local veterans in the public space brings attention to the service and sacrifice of these individuals,” Vick said. “We especially want to highlight our World War II veterans most of which sadly are now gone.”
The public will be able to sponsor a banner for their own local veterans for a cost of only $75. A picture of the veteran in their uniform at the time of their service is desired. The CVF is offering free scanning for those who wish to sponsor a banner. The cost also includes an 8x10 print adaptation of the banner. The banners also will be used for future veterans events.
Forms are available at the CVF office located at the county administrative building (190 Hillcrest Drive, Room 178), and also at the Andalusia, Opp, and Florala Chambers of Commerce. The order form will also be available at the Covington Veterans Foundation Facebook page and at www.andalusiaveterans.com/get-involved. Forms can also be had by calling (334) 392-0204 or emailing . The deadline for banner sponsorship in 2019 is October 20.
Invictus Development on Thursday held an official groundbreaking for Appaloosa Run, a new 56-unit apartment complex featuring two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments, a clubhouse and fitness center. Construction on Shreve Road just behind Ireland Trailer is expected to be completed in 11 months.
The housing is designed for working families like teachers or law enforcement officers.
Olympia Construction of Albertville, Ala., is the general contractor.
Shown from left are Summer Reaves and Vickie Wacaster, Andalusia Area Chamber of Commerce board members; Steve Williams of McKean and Associates; Andalusia Councilwoman Hazel Griffin; Mike Marra of Wells Fargo; John Peck of Olympia Construction; Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson; local developer Robert Bishop; Chamber Executive Director Chrissie Duffy; Rep. Mike Jones; Covington County Economic Development Commission Executive Director Rick Clifton; Paula Rhodes, president of Invictus; Rick Cavalieri, executive vice president of Invictus; Gene Gant of Alabama Housing Trust Fund; Stephen Lee, vice president of RBC Capital Markets; and Andalusia Area Chamber of Commerce Assistant Director Maggie Jones.
As Andalusia High School continues the Season of Celebration of its 100thyear of football, it will celebrate A Sound Tradition on Friday, October 18, when an alumni band will join the current band members in performance at halftime.
Organizer Johnny Brewer said any former band member is invited to participate.
The cost of participation is $25, for which participants will receive an alumni band T-shirt ($10), and from which the AHS band will receive $15. Payments can be made by PayPal, or can be mailed.
Alumni band members will rehearse at 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 17, Brewer said. They will play “traditional Andy songs,” including the fight song and the alma mater.
More information is available on the Facebook page “2019 Andalusia High School Alumni Band.” The deadline for ordering T-shirts is Friday, September 27.
Other organizers are Wynne Wilson Glenn, Amy Dugger, and Joshua Sheffer. For additional information, call Brewer at 334-504-1899 or Glenn at 334-804-1900.
Note: This column first appeared in Impact, the Andalusia Area Chamber of Commerce's monthly newsletter.
By CHRISSIE DUFFY
A city, or county, and the businesses within that area, grows and prospers only by community-wide cooperation.
What keeps our community growing and on the right track? It all has to do with people, making a difference. Visionary leaders, industry experts, non-profit organizers, church groups; all make up a culture and a civic infrastructure in Andalusia that you just don’t see in other small towns. Coupled with support for our public school systems and impressive healthcare systems, we have a great foundation!
To really cultivate prosperity in rural Alabama, we cannot wait for improvements to happen. The world is more competitive than ever. We have to fight for our community. We have to invest in our community. We must be specific and intentional. If it means picking up trash on the side of the road to make Andalusia a nicer looking city, organizing groups to raise awareness for our specific needs, and even planning quality of place events like our Christmas in Candyland. These “small” things add up to make the biggest difference. And can be a catalyst a change. We never really know how far-reaching our conversations can go, and projecting positivity, using our resources with intention, and being specific with our efforts is what moves the needle.
I like to think of our Chamber as a window through which people can see what Andalusia has to offer. Some of our efforts go to generate interest, and generate content and also shed positive light on this town and the real bonuses of living in a rural community. What better way for people to see Andalusia than beautifully decorated for Christmas? Candyland started just six years ago as a little idea I had in the back of my mind to make it snow on the square. Little did I know that it would literally snowball into something much larger, but think of all the change that has happened in that time. Our downtown has seen a renaissance that has breathed new life into our community.
Candyland by the numbers
Let’s go through how many people we were able to reach through this one event. Starting with our own organic marketing efforts of the event, our Candyland Facebook page has an engaged reach of more than 200,000 people, and our website got about 30,000 hits last December. We tracked cell phone data using a geo fence around Springdale and the Square and collected 38,000 unique devices that attended the event. That is 38,000 cell phone carrying adults (with location services on) and we can extrapolate from that information that we had more than 60,000 people actually attend the event. They even took the data further to tell us that 17,114 individual families attended with an average family size of 2.96, average household income of $68,555 and the median age is 39.2.
Last year, Andalusia was also featured on the MSN homepage on December 12th for an article Reader’s Digest put out about the most Festive Town in each state. The cover photo of the article was of downtown Andalusia and we were in the top left corner of the welcome screen for MSN.com homepage for an entire day. MSN is the 33rdmost visited website in the world and 28thmost visited in the US with about 850 MILLION visits last December alone. What does that mean for Andalusia? I don’t really have any idea, but that is a whole lot of people that saw a positive story about our town. We were also featured in the Chicago Tribune, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and several other regional publications.
We just received a message from a different national publisher that will be featuring our event this year. This has the potential to gain even more publicity than last year. We have to harness that energy and use it to its greatest potential. We did that together! The list of businesses, organizations, and individuals that bring this event to life is huge and I would like to encourage you all to help continue to spread joy this December. In my opinion, what makes our event unique and so exciting is the shared investment in the event through the Candyland Cottages. Now is a great time to make your mark on this community by putting your company or organization or church’s culture into a playhouse for children to enjoy with their families this season. Not only does this reflect positively on your organization from the outside, your employee base will also swell with pride.
If you would like to participate in Christmas in Candyland in any capacity, please contact the Chamber today.
"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." --Helen Keller
Chrissie Duffy is the executive director of the Andalusia Area Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at .