Georgia Peach Awards: Nominate your Own Elberta or Rotten Peach

South Carolina may ship more peaches than Georgia now, but Georgia is still known as the peach state. So I have decided to start a new category where the public can nominate someone in Georgia that is doing great work and honor them with a Peach award. The rotten peach award will go to someone in Georgia as the description suggests is doing the opposite. These awards are open to both politicians and private citizens that have gained notoriety either from good or bad works. It is also open to companies, groups, and organizations as well that are doing great work here in Georgia and deserve recognition as well as those that are causing harm.

The Elberta Peach Award goes to the Macon Volunteer Clinic

The Elberta Peach Award goes to the Macon Volunteer Clinic. These people do amazing work and good for the community and deserve not only recognition for their efforts but the support of the community. The clinic’s work is vital because the rate of working adults in Bibb County who are uninsured is about 18 percent, compared to the national rate of about 13 percent. The clinic now sees more than 900 uninsured workers

In the fall of 2001 retired physician Chapin Henley gathered a group of diverse volunteers that shared a similar dream: opening a free clinic that would provide a medical home for working uninsured residents of Bibb County. Group leaders visited the Hilton Head Volunteers in Medicine Clinic as well as others in the Southeast. They became convinced that a volunteer clinic in Bibb County was crucial to closing some of the healthcare gaps facing our community.

A generous grant from McNeil Laboratories and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded training from the Volunteers in Medicine Institute. Coliseum Health System donated a building rent-free on Rogers Avenue, and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia financed its renovation. The MedCen Community Health Foundation supported research, promotion, and fundraising to get the clinic started and The Peyton Anderson Foundation ensured its first year success by generously funding start-up costs.

In addition, local businesses and individuals donated numerous items and services to help the dream become a reality. Volunteers spoke to civic groups and churches, as well as corporations and foundations, further increasing support. As a result of this community wide effort, Macon Volunteer Clinic was incorporated in April 2002, received its 501 (c) (3) status on October 16, 2002, and opened its doors February 18, 2003. Since then, the clinic has served over 2,506 patients providing physician visits, prescription medication, laboratory analysis, x-rays, eye exams, dental care and cancer screenings free of charge. As of February 28, 2013, the clinic has completed 39,005 patient visits.

Thank you for all the great work you do and for all the lives you have saved! Please consider donating to this wonderful charity.

The Rotten Peach Award Goes to Romain Dallemand

I have written numerous articles about Romain Dallemand so I do not plan to list all the reasons why he is so despised. He was a gypsy superintendent far more interested in enriching himself than any pedagogical pursuits and left Bibb county schools around $60 million poorer with nothing to show for it. When he ran out of cheap parlor tricks and distractions and it became clear to even his supporters that he was a fraud he got out of Dodge while the getting was good.

For people unfamiliar with Romain Dallemand, a good primer is There is no Accounting in Macon and my reply to Charles Richardson’s inane attempts to defend Dallemand Part I and Part 2 in July of this year.