Author: Admin

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is excited to announce that the sixth 2024 FIN FIT (Financially Fit) event will be held on Thursday, October 24 from 8:30am-12:30pm at Atlanta Technical College Dennard Conference Center Ballroom (Bldg. B). We are proud to partner with the Atlanta Technical College Small Business Center for this small business event. This event is free and open to all Georgians. Free continental breakfast is included with registration.

Starting a business and making it profitable is challenging. Secretary Raffensperger is dedicated to empowering Georgians to acquire the necessary skills for success in starting their business and growing it. FIN FIT is the Secretary of State’s live event where panelists will discuss how to fearlessly raise capital to finance your small business. They will also discuss the details of the Invest Georgia Exemption (IGE), a powerful tool for Georgians looking to raise capital to fund their new venture or just grow their already thriving business.

“Our goal is to reach all corners of the state,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “We’re proud to bring this program back home to Atlanta.”

The first part of the event will be a panel discussion moderated by Donna Lowry, Award Winning Jounalist. Panelists will include Steven Bromell, Operations Manager, S Pro Cutters Lawnscapes, Inc.; Nickolas Downey, CEO of MerchLogix, Angel Investor; Victoria DuBose, Branch Manager, Truist Bank; and Ryan Swanson, Business Consultant, UGA SBDC. The second part of the event will be led by Jeff Patterson, Supervisory Lender Relations/Economic Development, Georgia District Office, U.S. Small Business Administration. Jeff will cover the topic “Access to Capital and The 5 C’s of Credit.”

“We want our next generation of entrepreneurs to grow a business, reshape their current product line, or launch new ideas,” said Noula Zaharis, Assistant Commissioner of Securities, “FIN FIT provides resources and information to kickstart those innovations.”  

FIN FIT is a financial empowerment seminar series hosted by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as part of his multi-faceted financial literacy effort and is administered through the Securities and Charities divisions of the Office of Secretary of State. These free programs feature industry leaders who discuss resources that can help increase attendees’ knowledge about money, their relationship to money, and financial issues and strategies for growing their wealth.

The office of the Secretary of State invites all Georgians to attend these free and informational events.

To register for this free event, click here.

To learn more about FIN FIT, click here.

To review and download our free financial resources, click here.

To stay informed on all things Secretary of State, follow us on social media at the links below!

Residents of Cresswind Georgia at Twin Lakes formed The Friends of Monarch Club, a group dedicated to sustaining the monarch butterfly species. After obtaining approval from the HOA, the club transformed a half-acre unused community space on Huron Lane into a vibrant butterfly garden. 

Founded just one year ago, The Friends of the Monarch Club now has approximately 200 members, with about 33 actively maintaining the garden plots. “My original goal was to promote monarch-friendly plants in individual yards and gardens,” said Paul Beggs, The Friends of Monarch Club Chair. “But we’ve expanded this vision by creating a butterfly garden here at Cresswind Georgia at Twin Lakes.” 

The project began in December 2023 and was completed by June 2024. Paul’s wife, Sherry, an artist, played a key role in designing the garden, which takes the shape of a tree. The main path represents the tree trunk, the smaller walking paths form the limbs, and the garden beds symbolize the tree’s canopy. 

The garden includes a variety of native plants, including five or six types of milkweed, sunflowers, bridal wreath spirea, wild asters, goldenrod and a wildflower meadow, all chosen to attract and sustain pollinators like Monarch butterflies.

“At Kolter Homes, we believe in fostering a vibrant and engaging lifestyle for our residents. Our support of the Cresswind Georgia Butterfly Garden and clubs like the Friends of the Monarch Club is a reflection of our commitment to encouraging homeowners to pursue their passions and interests,” said Jennifer Landers, Community Director at Cresswind Georgia at Twin Lakes. “Through our lifestyle programs, we aim to create spaces where residents can connect and share their hobbies while contributing to the vitality of their communities.” 

Monarchs are migratory, passing through Georgia in the spring and fall. Beggs is optimistic that by spring 2025, the established milkweed will attract Monarchs as they journey from Mexico to Canada. “We have only spotted a few Monarch butterflies so far, but we see dozens of other butterfly species daily,” Beggs noted. “It has become a beautiful and peaceful space for the community.” 

The Friends of the Monarch Club operates without membership dues, instead relying on contributions from residents, ranging from $20 to $500, along with donations of benches, picnic tables, Adirondack chairs and birdhouses. One resident, Pat Sileo, held two fundraisers that raised $5,000. Other in-kind contributions include horse manure for augmenting the soil and mulch for walking paths. 

Paul’s interest in Monarch butterfly conservation has grown steadily. Paul and Sherry Beggs, both Master Gardeners, have been longtime butterfly enthusiasts. After moving to Cresswind, Paul realized that planting milkweed alone wouldn’t make a significant impact, but working together, the community could create a meaningful habitat. “It’s hard work but also incredibly rewarding,” he added. “The Friends of Monarch Club is giving back to the community and earth while making valuable friendships and connections,” said Paul Beggs. “Our goal is to inspire Hoschton to be a butterfly-friendly town.”

The club’s efforts to create a thriving butterfly habitat align with broader conservation measures, given that monarch butterflies were declared endangered in 2020. 

In addition to The Friends of Monarch Club, Cresswind Georgia offers various resident-led clubs, including the Veterans Club, Cooking Club, Just Craftin’ Around Club, Dance Club, Pickleball Club, Trail Blazer’s Hiking Club and many more!

Named for the two large lakes on the property, Cresswind Georgia at Twin Lakes offers residents extensive outdoor amenities. These include fishing, kayaking or canoeing on either of the two lakes, walking trails, a resort-style pool, event lawn, community garden, and, most notably, 21 pickleball courts and a covered “Eagle’s Nest” spectators pavilion, with plans to expand to over 40 total pickleball courts to become the largest private pickleball complex in Georgia. The Club at Cresswind offers a lounge with relaxing lakeside views, an indoor pool with lap lanes, the cutting-edge SmartFIT Training Center powered by EGYM, an arts and crafts room and multiple event spaces. 

Priced from the high $300,000sto over $1 million, homes at Cresswind Georgia feature flexible floor plans that can be personalized with options like golf cart garages, finished or unfinished upper-level bonus rooms, daylight basements, flexible room configurations and enclosed patios, and hundreds of finish choices at the community’s on-site Design Studio. 

To learn more about Cresswind Georgia, visit www.CresswindGeorgia.com. For more information regarding Cresswind communities throughout Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, visit www.Cresswind.com. 

For the fourth year in a row, Harry Norman, REALTORS®, the premier luxury real estate firm in Atlanta and broader Georgia, will host its Harry Norman Cares initiative to support Atlanta families in need. The firm is partnering with Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities (ARMHC) for the third year as part of the initiative, aiming to provide numerous families with kits full of food, personal care, essential items, and more. Harry Norman, REALTORS® offices will be collecting donated items from the public from Oct. 1 through Oct. 22 for this year’s Harry Norman Cares.

“Our commitment to community goes beyond real estate, and we aim to make a positive impact on the local areas we serve each year with the Harry Norman Cares initiative,” said Jenni Bonura, Harry Norman, REALTORS® President and CEO. “We’re honored to be partnering with Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities for the third year because their mission perfectly aligns with the reason we began this initiative. Our team is excited to allocate our time and resources to those who need them most, and with help from the public we hope to surpass last year’s donation of 1,680 kits.”

The goal of the initiative is to create a better community through meaningful actions and partnerships. The Harry Norman, REALTORS® Impact Council, its diversity, equity, and inclusion group, creates opportunities for teamwork and inclusivity within the company and community, including the Harry Norman Cares initiative, which was established in 2021. ARMHC is an Atlanta-based charity that aims to keep families together during uncertain, difficult times. They host thousands of families each year, providing a comfortable place to call home while they care for a child receiving treatment for illness or injury at a nearby care facility. 

Donations can be made by participating in one of three ways from Oct. 1 through Oct. 22.

• Drop off donation items at 12 Harry Norman, REALTORS® offices, Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• Donations purchased online can be shipped directly to an office if needed.

• Clients of Harry Norman, REALTORS® agents can also provide items directly to the agent.

Donated items will be used to create different themed “Care Kits,” including “Personal Care Kits,” “Laundry Essentials Kits,” “Grab-and-Go Snack Kits,” and “Entertainment Kits.” Items being collected for donation include travel-sized shampoos and soaps, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, laundry pods, individual dryer sheets, mini hand-sanitizers, non-perishable food items like sweet and salty snacks, individual packages of mac and cheese, mini juice boxes or water bottles, holiday, and seasonal comfort items, and more. Items must be able to fit within gallon-sized Ziploc or clear bags.

In addition to collecting donations this year, Harry Norman, REALTORS® has reserved three on-site volunteer opportunities for its agents, employees, and staff to participate, including:

• A Group-Led Meal Service, where groups plan, prepare, and serve meals to families.

• A Trunk or Treat event, where volunteers decorate car trunks and hand out candy to families, followed by a pizza party.

• At the conclusion of the donation drive, Harry Norman, REALTORS® agents and employees will package the donated items into Care Kits, for delivery to ARMHC.

More information on Harry Norman Cares and specific items needed for the Care Kits and drop-off locations for donations can be found here. Interviews are available on request.

Each city’s risk to public safety can be as unique as the people who live and work there. That’s why many municipal fire departments across Georgia rely on data-based, strategic approaches, such as Community Risk Reduction program (CRR), to mitigate risks from large-scale events like fires, floods, or tornadoes to individual incidents like falls and medical emergencies.  

According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), CRR is a method for identifying and prioritizing local risks, followed by the integrated and strategic investment of resources to reduce their occurrence and impact. A CRR strategy is often based around “the 5Es” – education, engineering, enforcement, economic incentives, and emergency response. 

“Collaboration among fire, police, EMS, city administration, and other departments such as planning and development, economic development, parks and recreation can uncover hazards or risks that the city can mitigate through unified action,” explained Roswell Fire Division Chief Brian G. Wolfe, a strong advocate of Community Risk Reduction. The action could take the form of an “ordinance change to reduce fire risk in assisted living facilities,” Wolfe said, “or the opening of a city facility to provide shelter during extreme weather to reduce the risk of cold or heat exposure to unhoused or limited-resource members of our communities.” 

For example, in 2012 Union City became the first city in Georgia to adopt an ordinance requiring owners of new multi-family or high-risk dwellings to equip housing units with devices that require “high-end heat limiting technology” for electric coiled cooking devices (ranges, cooktops and hot plates) helping to prevent stovetop cooking fires (the number one cause of household fires in the U.S. – 44% of all fires according to the NFPA). 

As an example of enforcement action, Wolfe highlighted a technology tool – the Compliance Engine portal – that the cities of Roswell, Alpharetta, and Sandy Springs use to streamline system inspections like alarms and sprinklers to minimize wasted time and effort. Using the Compliance Engine portal, local businesses upload compliance reports before inspections, allowing inspectors to spend less time on repeat visits. Inspections are postponed if a company is non-compliant until a passing report is upoloaded. Roswell also has a Cry Wolf Program that tracks false alarms and determines if fines are needed to reduce false alarms, which can be a nuisance to fire and police departments. 

According to Fayetteville Community Risk Reduction Officer Stephaene Core, the city has implemented “quite a few programs” as part of its risk reduction efforts. 

One program called the Vial of Life encourages residents that are senior or disabled to fill out a form with their current medical information, enclose it and other pertinent documents in a clearly marked medical vial, put it in the refrigerator or freezer, and attach a Vial of Life sticker outside the refrigerator in case of a medical emergency. 

“If the patient is unresponsive, [first responders] could get the information from the vial. They can understand what could be going on,” Core explained. “Everyone can take a program like this and adjust to their community.”  

Fayetteville CRR officers also educate schoolchildren on fire safety through activities like station tours and fire truck appearances. They also provide CPR training at local businesses, install free smoke alarms for select residents in need, and conduct a junior firefighter camp for 6th to 8th graders, where the participants learn about what makes a fire, fire safety, radio communications, and more. 

“My goal is not just to have programs, but to have them have an impact and be sustainable,” Core said, adding that in the year since the city implemented the risk reduction programs, the city’s ISO rating has dropped from two to three. An ISO rating is a score given to the fire departments and their communities by the Insurance Services Office (ISO) that assesses how well-prepared the community is for fires. “I want to grow our CRR program to reach all age groups,” Core added. “Ensuring the programs fit our needs.” 

The city of Milton’s CRR program involves the Fire Marshal and the Medical Services offices, and the city targets its programs based on incident data.  

“The Medical Services office looks at a broader scope of medical-related needs, like CPR, community stop the bleed classes, and safe sitter programs that teach young girls how to become babysitters in the community,” explained Milton Deputy Fire Chief and Fire Marshal Alex Fortner. “Another Milton CRR program is a co-response unit with the city’s police department that speaks to mental health.” The program is called Community Advocates for Referral and Education Services or CARES. The CARES medics refer those who have experienced a mental health episode to additional services. “Anytime the hospital discharges someone in the program who lives in Milton, a CARES medic will call and ask if they patient needs anything,” Fortner said. The outreach program aims to bridge the gap between emergency care and everyday healthcare needs. 

The city also has an education program on when to call 9-1-1 and a barn safety program, as it is known as an equestrian city. 

Milton has also launched an online risk-assessment platform called CRAIG 1300, which incorporates incident data and overlays it with local community indicators. 

“While we’ll use this information in-house to better plan fire and life safety initiatives, it also has a public-facing component,” Fortner explained. “That’s right – the general public has access to key information and data points that will help them fully understand the risks in our community, how we respond, and what we’re doing to reduce them.” 

Alpharetta Fire Marshal Ethan Talbot said that city prevention and education programs enable fire departments to address potential threats before they escalate to crisis levels. 

“By doing this, we reduce the burden on community resources and emergency services,” he said. “In Georgia, where diverse urban, rural, and coastal communities each face distinct risks, a robust CRR plan ensures that we are not only prepared for the unexpected but actively working to prevent it or restore our communities to normal with minimal disruption. When we invest in resources to implement CRR programs, we invest in our communities’ longevity and prosperity, fostering environments where businesses can flourish, families can grow, and neighborhoods can thrive.” 

• “Minions” Friday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.
• “Little Rascals” Friday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m.
• “Casper” Friday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m.

• Midland: The Get Lucky Tour
  Friday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m.

• Nothing But Thieves
  Sunday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m.

• Knocked Loose
  Thursday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.

• The Script
  Friday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m.

• Stephen Sanchez
  Sunday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m.

• Jungle
  Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m.

• The Red Clay Strays
  Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

• Massive Attack
  Thursday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.

• A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie
  Saturday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m.

• MrBallen: The Strange, Dark, & Mysterious
  Sunday, Oct. 20 at 8 p.m.

• Bethel Music
  Monday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m.

• Chase Atlantic
  Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 8 p.m.

• Judah & the Lion
  Friday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m.

• Tinashe World
  Saturday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m.

• Danny Ocean
  Thursday, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m.