A last-minute venue change could alter a 22-year tradition in Oglethorpe County.
The annual Community Day, where families can check out the resources available in the county before the start of the new school year typically takes place at Bryan Park, but organizers decided to move it to Oglethorpe County Middle School this year due to heat concerns.
And that change might be permanent.
“The bad part about Bryan Park is that there is no shade,” Oglethorpe County School System Superintendent Beverley Levine said. “But I think it may have found its new home.”
This year’s event was moved to OCMS about two days before Saturday’s event, but the short notice didn’t deter attendees.
Organizer Jeanne Jones estimated over 500 attendees, including about 250 K-12 students. She said this was the “most well attended” Community Day in the last few years.
OCMS proved to be able to handle the increased foot traffic. The school’s cafeteria easily held all of the vendors and Jones said the shape of the room helped with the flow of attendees. She said the air conditioning made a difference, too.
“I think having it indoors this year has really helped with the attendance,” she said. “It’s about the venue and finding the perfect spot, and I think potentially we may have found it.”
Community Day provides an opportunity for businesses and organizations to show families the different resources available to them throughout the county.
“This gives an opportunity for families to find resources that they may not need now, but may need in a couple of weeks,” Jones said. “A lot of the families that come out here don’t know what is offered in not just our county, but our community.”
Levine worked the school table, which was perched at the back middle section of the cafeteria. School officials gave students hand sanitizer and COVID-19 tests, and they gave parents calendars of school events.
Levine said they also double checked students’ proof of residency, part of an ongoing process ahead of the start of school this week.
OCHS teacher Mareta Spencer and Doug Spieth brought their daughter Coralee, who starts kindergarten this fall.
“I’m a teacher, so I get why they’re here, but at the same time as a parent it’s, ‘OK, you’re the face, you’re the person I need to see,’ ” Spencer said. “It’s reinforcing to parents and children that there’s a community behind them.”
Spieth said Coralee was most excited for the Oglethorpe County Library booth, but she also enjoyed seeing people she knows from church or preschool.
“She’s already loving school, so having something that just wets her appetite a little bit more for school makes me really proud,” Spencer said.
ALJ foundation, which aims to give back to the community in remembrance of Antonio Jewell, an Oglethorpe County man who was killed in Athens-Clarke County in February, according to published reports. The foundation gave students backpacks full of school supplies.
“I think it’s a good way to bring the community together,” co-founder Britney Green said. “I love giving back to the community. That’s what my brother loved, so it means a lot to the Jewell family to be out here and be able to participate in community day.