PLAIN & SIMPLE NEWS

A LOOK BACK AT 2023

1. Provide 7 community breakfasts 
2. Provide 2 cosponsored brunch events in conjunction with Pine Lake Lounge
3. Sponsor annual PLAIN Mardi Gras Parade in conjunction with a breakfast event 
4. Sponsor Easter Egg Hunt in conjunction with a breakfast event
5. Provide July 4th Picnic in partnership with the City
6. Sponsor the inaugural Sunset Soirée on the porch of the Beach House to engage new and younger residents with PLAIN
7. Sponsor annual PLAIN Cookie Exchange in conjunction with the City’s Lighting of the Lake
8. Support students, teachers and staff at Rockbridge Elementary School with school supplies, lunches for teachers and staff, and food assistance
9. Provide both monetary and volunteer support to both LakeFest and PrideLake festivals 
10. Sponsor a successful Candidate Forum for Municipal Elections in October
11. Begin a pilot recycling program for styrofoam waste at Christmas, in collaboration with CHARM, we hope to expand this program in 2024
12. Assist residents in need of help through PLAIN’s Neighbor 2 Neighbor program, providing food assistance through the Food Pantry and grocery store gift cards, and monetary assistance (limited) to meet emergency needs 

Each month we’d like to appreciate a notable Hero Neighbor, someone who goes above and beyond for our community. 

This month the Hero Neighbor award goes to Becky Ferguson. On behalf of PLAIN, we want to extend our sincere gratitude for your exceptional efforts in working with our Little Free Pantry each month.

Becky has been a long-time volunteer for the Pine Lake Food Pantry. Before the kiosk was built, she worked to keep food organized and safe in our storage area. She has been diligent in sorting food and taking out expired food. St Vincent de Paul takes expired items (up to 18 months), and Becky gathers and delivers these. During Covid she helped clean food packaging according to the protocols in place at that time. Since the installation of the kiosk, she is still our main “sorter” to keep our items current, with deliveries of expired stuff to SVDP. She helps keep an updated list of food to be bought with our PLAIN allowance. In addition, she volunteers as a “Kiosk Keeper” once a month. All this is done while working full time! Thank you, Becky, for all that you do!

“I’m a printmaker and painter who’s been in Georgia for the last decade. I graduated from Winthrop University in South Carolina with intentions of being an art teacher, but instead, the wind blew me into chemical-laden print shops through the southeast. I still spend most of my time screen printing, but now it’s only things I want to print. 

I’m now in Pine Lake, Georgia with my partner and our daughter, which has inspired a renewed recognition of the beauty of the South and a newfound appreciation for neighborhood. That, along with the blossoming of my own small family, motivated me to start painting more and to build our own Paradise Garden. Though most of the space is filled with my rapidly-deteriorating pieces, I’m looking forward to my Frannie adding to the landscape.

My work is open-ended and invites people to sublimate their own meaning on both esoteric symbols and familiar religious imagery, but at the end of the day, there isn’t a strict theme or message. I like to paint things that I (and hopefully others) like to look at. Art can be a powerful vehicle for all kinds of messaging, but for me, it’s just as noble a pursuit to make something beautiful for the sake of making something beautiful.”

• Tom Ramsey
• Tommie Storms