VOLUME L ISSUE 60 NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Sodexo Canned

Food Drive Nov. 1-13 Sodexo’s second-annul canned

food drive be-

gins Thurs. All of

the proceeds will

be donated to

Ruth’s Cottage.

Clubs and organi-

zations have from

Nov. 1 to Nov. 13

to collect as many

canned goods as you can! The winner

will be determined on the 13th and

will receive a $100 gift card to

Walmart. As for any faculty, staff or

commuter students who does not have

a meal plan, bring in five canned

foods items from 11-2 on the Nov.13

and your lunch will be free!

Two of the finest pianists in the area

will be spotlighted in the First Tuesday

concert on Nov. 6 when ABAC presents

A Night of Music for Two Pianos featur-

ing Becky Anderson and Gina Lawhon.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. in the

Chapel of All Faiths.

The First Tuesday series features

regional professional artists on the first

Tuesdays of five months during the

year. Dr. Susan Roe, Director of Music

for the School of Liberal Arts, is the

First Tuesday Program Director. All

First Tuesday performances are open

to the public at no charge.

The performance will feature some

of the most popular music in the classi-

cal repertoire including Richard

Addinsell’s “Warsaw Concerto”, Franz

Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody”, and Ser-

gei Rachmaninoff’s “18th Variation”. A

taste of ragtime music will be added

into the concert with William Bolcom’s

“The Serpent’s Kiss”.

Anderson is the pianist for Central

United Methodist Church in Fitzgerald.

She studied music un-

der Shirley Burch and

at Florida State Univer-

sity under Dr. Tommy

Wright while pursuing

degrees in German

and English. She is a

member of "Four

Grands," a four-piano

group which performs

within the state.

Anderson worked

with the German Con-

sulate General in Atlan-

ta for 10 years before

returning home to Fitzgerald, where

she and her husband, Tim, are publish-

ers of Fitzgerald's community newspa-

per, “The Herald-Leader”. She has

served on the boards of Communities

in School, the Blue-Gray Museum, the

Downtown Development Authority, the

Fitzgerald-Ben Hill Arts Council, and

the Humane Society.

Lawhon is an elementary school mu-

sic teacher at Len Lastinger Primary

School in Tift

County. She has

been church

pianist for First

Baptist in Tifton

for 33 years. She

is a graduate of

North Texas

State University.

She taught piano

and accompa-

nied performing

groups for 10

years at ABAC.

Lawhon has ac-

companied numerous recitals at ABAC,

Albany State University, and Valdosta

State University, and has played with

the Brandenburg Quartet. Lawhon has

performed and accompanied many

Georgia Baptist events as well as nu-

merous solo concerts and performanc-

es with the Albany Symphony. She has

recorded one piece of sacred music,

“Praise His Greatness.”

Pianist Anderson and Lawhon will per-form Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Chapel

Two Terrific Pianists In Concert Tuesday

Cordell Lecture Nov. 14 at 4 p.m. 100 A former newspaper reporter who

now writes about rural America will be

the featured speaker at the Cordell

Lecture Series on Nov. 14 at 4 p.m. in

Bowen Hall, Room 100 on the campus of

ABAC.

Richard Wood, a former reporter for

the “Rocky Mountain News” in Denver,

will speak on his book, “Survival of

Rural America: Small Victories and Bit-

ter Harvests”, published in 2008 by the

University Press of Kansas and selected

as a Notable Book by the Kansas Center

for the Book at the State Library of Kan-

sas.

The Cordell Lecture Series is named

in honor of Tom M. Cordell, former

dean and coordinator of the continuing

education program at ABAC. Cordell,

who passed away in 1991, was recog-

nized as “Man of the Year” by the

“Progressive Farmer” magazine in

1971. Always open to the public at no

charge, the lecture series in Cordell’s

honor began in 1985.

“Survival of Rural America” exam-

ines the causes and effects of the mas-

sive depopulation of rural communities

throughout the world. Using Kansas as a

surrogate for rural areas everywhere, it

tells the stories of people in small, re-

mote towns who are trying to stabilize

their populations, and – in most cases -

are failing to do so.

Wood received a B.A. in history from

the University of Kansas, an M.A. from

New York University in political sci-

ence, and his law degree from

Georgetown Law Center in Washing-

ton, D.C.

Wood is a native of Kansas City, IL,

but now makes his home in Estes Park

and Denver, CO.

Schools and clubs participating in the Stallion Marketplace can set-up Friday from noon—3 p.m. or by 9 a.m. Saturday morning. Be ready for a great day—close to 200 students have signed up and the number will continue to increase. If you have questions contact Brooke Jernigan at bjernigan@abac.edu.

Take a step back in time on

Nov. 10 and Nov. 17 with the annu-

al cane grinding and syrup mak-

ing parties at the Georgia Museum

of Agriculture and Historic Village

at ABAC.

Visitors can also enjoy live mu-

sic on the Gibbs House Porch as

well as wool washing and dying

and spinning demonstrations at

the Clark Cabin throughout the

day. Concessions will be availa-

ble at the Drug Store including

soup and corn bread, hotdogs, ice

cream, and peanut butter and jelly

sandwiches.

The “Wild at Heart” exhibit of

wood carvings, photos, and paint-

ings of outdoor creatures and

scenes will also be available for

viewing in the Museum Gallery.

Featured artists include Ronald

Goodman from Fitzgerald, Evelyn

Mercer from Hahira, and Thomas Bland

from Reidsville.

Visitors can also take a ride on the

steam train pulled by the 1917 Vulcan

locomotive, and visit with costumed

interpreters who will explain how

grinding the cane eventually results in

a bottle of syrup available for purchase

from the Museum store.

For many Southerners, cane grind-

ing and syrup cooking are family tradi-

tions that have been passed down

through many generations. The Geor-

gia Museum of Agriculture’s Historic

Village is one of the few

places left where visitors

can go back in time to see

sugar cane grinding with

a mule leading the way.

The resulting juice from

grinding the cane is

poured into a cast iron

kettle where it’s cooked

down into syrup.

Admission to the Georgia

Museum of Agriculture

and Historic Village on

Tuesday-Friday is $7 for

adults, $6 for seniors (age

55 and over), $4 for chil-

dren 5-16 years of age,

and free for children four

and under. Saturday ad-

mission is $10 for adults,

$8 for seniors (age 55 and

over), $5 for children 5-16

years of age, and free for

children four and under.

For more information on these and

other upcoming events, interested per-

sons can contact the Museum staff at

(229) 391-5205 or visit the Museum’s

website at www.abac.edu/museum.

The annual cane grinding at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village will take place Nov. 10 and 17.

Cane Grinding, Syrup Making Nov.10 and 17

Mark Your Calendar Choral Day

C oncert Thursday @ 4 p.m.

C oncert Band Performance

Nov. 13 @ 7 p.m.

Two-Day Career Connections Nov. 13-14 The fourth annual Career

Connections event will take

place Nov. 13-14 on the campus

of ABAC. The event will run

from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. each day in

the new two-day format.

On Nov. 13, the focus will be

on the fields of agriculture and

horticulture. The second day of

the event will spotlight jobs in

forestry and wildlife.

The Career Connections job fair will

feature a forum for employers to recruit

future interns and employees and to

communicate industry issues and op-

portunities to ABAC students. Employ-

ers will also have the chance to give

feedback to faculty and students about

human resource needs and promote

agribusiness and green business prac-

tices to ABAC students.

“The state of the national economy

has caused the nation to question the

future of certain career paths,” said Dr.

Tim Marshall, Dean of the School of

Agriculture and Natural Resources.

“During the last four years when other

industries have suffered greatly, agri-

culture has been strong,

growing, and in a state of

technological development.

Through Career Connec-

tions, our students learn

more about the future needs

of the employers, and the

employers learn much

about the current state of

young people interested in

the agricultural industries.”

Organizations and companies partic-

ipating in the event will include Kubota

Tractor Corp., Brickman Landscape

Group, Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., Auburn

University - College of Agriculture,

Pfizer Animal Health, Perdue Farms,

Inc., Southwest Georgia Farm Credit,

Sanderson Farms, AgCareers.com,

Black Gold Farms, and Lasseter Equip-

ment Group.

Businesses interested in participat-

ing in the Career Connections event

can register online at www.abac.edu/

ag/careers/. For more information on

the Career Connections event, interest-

ed persons can contact Marshall via e-

mail at tmarshall@abac.edu.

ABAC Birthdays

7 Deborah Drummonds 7 Kathy Moreno 8 Tim Marshall 8 Robert Carpenter 11 Judy Perry

11 Alma Young

The FOCUS is an electronic publi-cation produced by the ABAC Public Relations Office . Please submit information by Thursday at noon to Ashley Mock at amock@abac.edu for inclusion in the next FOCUS.

ABAC Closed Nov. 21–26 for Thanksgiving Holiday

The ABAC campus will be close at 5:30 on Nov. 20 and will re-open at 8 a.m. on Nov. 26 in observance of the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Dining For Hunger with

ABAC Phi Theta Kappa

Join ABAC’s Phi Theta Kappa in a case

study focusing on how much food is wast-

ed on a daily basis.

Nov. 5-9 PTK members will demon-

strate the amount of food thrown away

daily in the dining hall by placing hay

bales in the Meadows. Each hale bale will

represent 100 pounds of food thrown

away in the dining hall.

As a conclusion to the project, Phi The-

ta Kappa will be hosting a dinner on Nov.

15 to emphasize how little some people

actually get to eat for a meal. The dinner

will be at the St. Anne’s Episcopal Church

Social Hall, and tickets for the dinner will

be $5 per person. Dr. Renata Elad, ABAC

Professor of Agricultural Economics, will

be the guest speaker. Participants will

receive a meal, however it may not be

the same as the person sitting next to

you. Please come out and support

ABAC’s Phi Theta Kappa.

For tickets or more information please

contact Hans Schmeisser,

hschmeisser@abac.edu, Chase Hagood,

chagood@abac.edu, or Kim Talley, ktal-

ley@abac.edu.

Ms. Fran Retires After 14 Years at ABAC

Ms. Fran Kester celebrated 14 great years at ABAC Thursday during her Retirement Reception. Kester began working at ABAC on October 29, 1998. During that time she received her American citizen-ship and was known for exclaiming “God Bless America.” She plans to relax and spend time with her family during her re-tirement.

Meth Awareness Day Seminar

ABAC students attended a panel discussion last Wednesday on drug awareness and how to prevent the negative consequences of meth addiction. The event was sponsored by the Student Development Center, Criminal Justice Club, and Stu-dent Life and Housing.