Garden grows food, community

Gardeners in Rabun County, Georgia are hoping to grow more than herbs and vegetables in the Old School Garden this year.
Local organizers of the Old School Gardens said the mission is to create and encourage local sustainable food sources while also building community. A nonprofit organization Sustainable Mountain Living Community sponsors the community garden located in downtown Clayton.

Rabun County commissioners donated the space to the group three years ago, but the plots have expanded since then and a waiting list has formed. With the state of the economy and the increasing cost of food has raised awareness about the importance of raising food locally and organically.
Beginning gardeners and experienced planters work side by side and help each other with tips, watering and keeping the critters out of the garden. The local 4-H Club and extension agent helped build a tool shed and the Rabun County High School agriculture department donated transplants for the gardeners.

New gardener Ron Lindahn of Rabun Gap said he was excited about the community garden efforts in the county. "Not only is the price of food rising, but it's important to know where your food comes from," he said.
Lindahn said the community garden allowed people to see where the food came from and who handled it before it reached the table. Even with little experience, he said gardeners were able to grow more than they could eat, and they gave a lot to others. "I think it's great, and we should all do a lot more of it," he said.

Gardeners also commit to giving a portion of their harvest to charities in the community. The Old School Garden donated 440 pounds of the total 720 of produce harvested last year.
SMLC is now pursuing another goal to create a community kitchen and cannery. The organization is seeking grants to renovate a portion of the Clayton Municipal Complex into a commercial kitchen and cannery.

Warriors Invade!

More than 15,000 Warrior Dashers started the race displaying their individual team's color, but in the end all racers came out wearing the same color: brown.
Racers and spectators invaded Rabun County, Georgia on May 14-15 for the second year in a row to participate in one of the most extreme, 3-mile obstacle races that wound through Camp Blue Ridge.

Some racers, including Rabun County resident Dolly Ramey, were there to beat their time from last year. But others were there just to have fun.
Tiffany Horn of Cumming said she was glad she made the 2-hour trip to Mountain City. She was thrilled with her time of 35 minutes and 52 seconds since her average 5-kilometer time was 33-35 minutes. “I'm definitely proud of that one,” she said.
“I recently started running and training for 5k's and Warrior Dash seemed like a good ultimate goal to reach. So I trained for about 3 months … off and on,” horn said.
She said every person she talked to was nice and welcoming. “It was like we all were helping each other finish the race,” she said. “Like, if someone slipped or was having trouble on an obstacle, others would help out.”
All of the obstacles were challenging, including jumping through flames, a muddy car graveyard, steep trails and cargo nets.

“The next most difficult thing was the trail through the woods. I thought I was walking up Brasstown Bald for a little while there,” Horn said. She is already thinking about signing up for the September Warrior Dash event in Tennessee.
While racers enjoyed a fun day of comradery, mountain views, exercise and beer, the rest of the county enjoyed a much needed economy boost. Rabun County is a perfect locale for outdoor recreation and relaxation, but it isn’t the best place to find a job.
As of April, the county’s unemployment rate circled 15 percent. What once was an oasis for blue-collar manufacturing industries, is now a community thirsty for sustainable jobs.
Tourism has become Rabun County’s no. 1 economic engine so restaurant owners and merchants were thrilled the hear Red Frog Events, Warrior Dash organizers, had chosen Camp Blue Ridge in Mountain City as one of its 10 U.S. locations in 2010 and returned this year.
It’s hard to say for sure what economic impact the weekend event had on the county, but the Rabun County Convention and Visitors Bureau has an idea. Every room in the county and surrounding counties were booked during the weekend and restaurants were packed. That means more hotel/motel tax funding to promote tourism and more sales tax revenue for the county.
Red Frog had shuttles from downtown Clayton taking racers and spectators directly to the race in Mountain City, but that didn’t stop entrepreneurs along Highway 441 from offering up their property for parking at $10 per vehicle.
According to CVB executive director Pete Cleaveland, Red frog Events also encouraged participants to donate to the American Red Cross to assist in tornado cleanup. He said the organizers also donated $1,500 raised in the axe-throwing contest to a local charity.

For more information on Warrior Dash, visit www.warriordash.com.

Longtime teacher retires

Principal Tomy Short has been a teacher and administrator in Rabun County, Georgia for 30 years, and he still knows every student’s name when they walk into his office.

In fact, he probably even knows their parents’ names.

When Short noticed his student athletes from South Rabun Elementary School were getting cold during the rainy 2011 Special Olympic games, he went back to the school bus to retrieve all of their jackets.

It is his caring and compassionate nature that makes him a great teacher.

Matt Arthur, Rabun County Schools Superintendent and a close friend of Short, said the school system was suffering a great loss this year as Short retired. “I’m happy for him being able to retire, but I’m sad for Rabun County,” he said.

With his wife, Sharon Short, also retiring this year after 33 years of teaching in Rabun County, and with his first grandchild on the way as I write this story, Short said he was looking forward to spending quality time with family.

"(After 31 years) I don't feel burnt out, but I've reached a time in my life I want to slow down and enjoy a few things while I still have my health," he said.

Short spent his first nine years teaching middle and high school science and a little math before being promoted to assistant principal at Rabun County High School.

Since then, he has taken a number of different administrative positions at Rabun County Middle School, Clayton Elementary School, the board office and finally South Rabun Elementary School.

While Short is thankful for each new position that allowed him to take care of his family, he said he enjoyed being closer to students. "But my best times were always teaching in the classroom," he said.

But teaching was different when he was in the classroom.

"That's before there were a lot of regulations," he said. "But it was an exciting time for science." He said events like the eruption of Mount St. Helens and the HIV/AIDS epidemic gave him more opportunities to make science relevant for students.

"You have to show them there's some future utility in what they're learning," he said.

Short said these days teachers had to be covering a certain chapter at a certain time to keep up with state standards. While new teaching data have been helpful in recent years, he said every student learned differently.

"It's a give and take. I think education is moving toward honorable and achievable goals, but it's also robbing some of the things that make (learning) more interesting," he said.

Arthur said Short was a great asset in the classroom and brought a valued opinion at the board office. "He's very intelligent and looks at things from all angles," Arthur said. "... He's always honest, even if you don't want to hear it."

Short hopes his legacy will be one of fairness. While being the disciplinarian is never an easy task, he said he tried his best to be fair to all parties involved.

"I always wanted to give everybody the opportunity to present their side of an issue," he said. "I think most people would say I was fair, and that's all you can hope for."

Arthur agreed that Short was fair and consistent. "The bottom line with Tomy, he was fair and made sure all kids had the same opportunities no matter where they came from," he said.

Short was born in Rabun County. Actually, he said he was the first baby to be born at Rabun County Memorial Hospital in 1957. His parents, Jack and Eleanor Short, are from Clayton, but the family moved to East Point when Tomy was a young child.

Tomy said he wasn't fond of the city and moved to Marion, N.C., his senior year of high school, which is where he met Sharon. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Western Carolina University while Sharon was earning her education degree from Mars Hill College.

Short then went on to get his master's degree in education. He said education was a natural fit for him because his grandmother, both his parents and his wife had already taken that path.

"I knew it would have its rewards," he said. "And good science teachers were not easy to come by then."

Tomy said he always enjoyed living in the mountains. Once he and Sharon settled down here and had children, they wanted to make sure their daughters graduated from Rabun County.

"It's a good school system, and there's no better place to raise your kids," he said.

Visit The Clayton Tribune for the original story.