Publisher’s Page: You can make a difference this year

By John A. Winters, Publisher

One of the first Christmas-related fundraisers I ever covered in Newnan was Lights for Linda.

It was started by Nancy Sanker as a tribute to her sister, Linda McGrenaghan, who died from leukemia in 2010. Every year luminaries were sold with the proceeds from those and other items donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In an eight-year span, that small neighborhood group raised more than $50,000 for the leukemia society.  And their neighborhood looked beautiful come Christmas.

Since then, other neighborhood organizations have also sold luminaries to light up their neighborhoods and donate to charities, schools and other worthwhile organizations.

Not too long ago a dear friend – looking at you Ginger Queener – sent me some information about a community get-together to help out the less fortunate. This time the organization being helped was Backpack Buddies, a wonderful local nonprofit that fills up backpacks with food for students who may not have enough, especially over the weekends.

As of now, Backpack Buddies serves more than 700 students on a weekly basis. That’s a lot of kids worried about their next meal.

Queener and others involved with the Friends of Lake Redwine group packed 40 backpacks for Newnan High School students. They are shooting for 80 backpacks this month. You can read more about it in The Shopper print edition.

You can make a difference. This year, why not get together with your neighbors and friends and find a project. One of the greatest gifts you can ever give is your time.

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And now for something completely different.

Two years ago Thanksgiving Eve, my wife and I, along with Don Phillips, Joe Williams and Alan Jackson, (the attorney, not the singer) sat around a table with papers being passed back and forth.

When it was all over, I handed Joe a check, he said a prayer over Corby and me and we became the new owners of The Coweta Shopper.  And a lot has happened since then.

We changed The Coweta Shopper to The Shopper, and have now moved into Peachtree City and other areas. We started The Paper, the premier “what to do, see, eat” publication  in the county.

And for our two-year anniversary, we just unveiled a new website at www.wintersmedia.net. It has all the content from The Paper and The Shopper. There’s also a completely new “What To Do” section that’s updated every weekend. All our social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are there was well.

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All of us here at Winters Media want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and so we end with this:

“That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
(Luke 2:8-14, New Living Translation)

Until next time.