There’s always something happening in the Hostess City. Stay in the know about upcoming events and the latest information with our periodic News & Notes.
Upcoming Events
Historic Savannah Foundation to continue 2024 lecture series with “Women in Construction” discussion panel
Who: Historic Savannah Foundation
When: Thursday, March 21 at 6 p.m.
Where: 321 E. York St.
What: In honor of Women’s History Month, Historic Savannah Foundation will host a special “Women in Construction” discussion panel as part of the 2024 Historic Savannah Foundation Lecture Series, “People, Places and Stories That Define Savannah.”
This interactive, engaging discussion will feature female professionals who are changing the landscape of Savannah’s preservation and construction field on Thursday, March 21 at Historic Savannah Foundation’s headquarters. Attendees are invited to attend a wine reception at 5:30 p.m. The panel discussion will start at 6 p.m.
“Women in Construction” panelists include:
Jessica Leavitt Outtara – Chief Culture + Client Officer, Alair Homes; President, National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) – Savannah Chapter
Katie Fitzhugh – Director of Deconstruction, Re:Purpose Savannah
Kelley Lowe – Director of Salvage, Re:Purpose Savannah
Yolanda Morris – Marketing Manager, Re:Purpose Savannah
Amanda Nelson – Owner, Leonard Preservation
“We invite everyone to hear stories from skilled local leaders in the field of construction, preservation and building arts,” says Historic Savannah Foundation CEO and President Susan Adler. “These women are shaping the future of preservation in Savannah and carrying forward the legacy of seven brave women who founded Historic Savannah Foundation in 1955, saving the Isaiah Davenport House from demolition and starting the city’s modern-day preservation movement.”
Additional speakers in HSF’s 2024 Lecture Series include Lyssa Harvey and Rabbi Robert Haas discussing “Kugels and Collards: Jewish Foodways in the Lowcountry South” on April 18 and Becki Harkness and Sarah Ward discussing “Nominating the Kiah House for the National Register of Historic Places” in honor of Preservation Month on May 16.
For more information about the HSF Lecture Series, please visit myhsf.org.
Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home to Celebrate Author’s 99th Birthday
Who: Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home
When: Sunday, March 24, from 1 to 4 p.m
Where: Lafayette Square
What: The Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the legacy of one of the South’s greatest writers, will host Flannery O’Connor’s 99th Birthday Party and Fair in the Square. This annual event is hosted in conjunction with Savannah Local Author Day, sponsored by The Book Lady Bookstore. The event is free and open to the public.
“This annual event not only celebrates the life and literature of Flannery O’Connor, but also the quirky and creative characters of Savannah,” said Ariel Felton, President of the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home Board of Directors. “It also will kick off our lead-up to her centennial birthday next year!”
Participants will be able to hear live music by the Sweet Thunder Band, participate in an improv opera with Moon River Opera, enjoy a popup art show by Panhandle Slim, create their own Flannery-inspired crafts, and grab a slice of birthday cake in celebration of O’Connor’s 99th birthday. Attendees are invited to dress up as Flannery to compete in a Flannery look-alike contest or as their favorite character from Flannery’s writing for fun!
In addition, a portion of Lafayette Square will be dedicated to the annual Savannah Local Author Day, where local and regional poets, children’s book authors, and fiction and nonfiction writers will be on-hand.
Authors include:
Helen Bradley
VL Brunskill
Don Cellini
Amy Paige Condon
Rosemary Daniell
Laura Davenport
Susan Earl
Deborah Grahl
Kevin Grogan
Charles Hoskins
Miho Kinnas
Danelle LeJeune
Jessica Leigh Lebos
Ann Lilly
Kevin McCarey
Tony Morris
Maggie Redmon
Elizabeth Robin
Southern Poetry Review
Patricia West
The birthday party will culminate in a promenade around Lafayette Square and birthday cake. Bring handmade signs and sing along.
For more information about the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home and the birthday party, please call 912-233-6014 or email janie@flanneryoconnorhome.org. For more information about Local Author Day, please contact Joni Saxon-Giusti at The Book Lady Bookstore at books@thebookladybookstore.com.
Local Updates
Registration now open for free Girls Code Savannah spring sessions
Girls Code Savannah is back! The Creative Coast’s youth program will return this spring with four, free in-person Saturday Sessions starting March 23rd, 2024. The program, which is a STEM‐based educational platform focused on teaching 5th to 8th-grade girls in Savannah Chatham County Public Schools how to code, will take place in partnership with Live Oak Public Libraries at a different library location each week.
Girls Code Savannah Saturday Sessions will meet from 11 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Dates and locations include:
March 23 at Islands Library (50 Johnny Mercer Blvd, Savannah, GA 31410)
April 13 at Southwest Chatham Library (14097 Abercorn St, Savannah, GA 31419)
April 20 at Bull Street Library (2002 Bull St, Savannah, GA 31401)
April 27 at Garden City Library (104 Sunshine Ave, Garden City, GA 31405)
Each library location will run two parallel sessions: one for beginners and another for Girls Code Savannah returning coders. The beginner-level session will teach introduction to HTML and CSS for students new to website coding or for those who would like to brush up on their introductory website coding skills. A simultaneous second session will allow returning coders to continue building upon the websites they’ve already created.
Girls Code Savannah is led by Lesli Ott, an experienced full-stack software developer and data scientist who is responsible for curriculum development. She serves as a lead instructor for Girls Code Savannah camps and classes as well as a teaching mentor for several female high school and college students assisting with the program. The high school and college students, in turn, also lead instruction as paid teaching assistants.
With guidance and mentorship from an experienced developer and teachers, Girls Code Savannah attendees have the opportunity to learn to code in a supportive, fun, and friendly environment. The overall mission of Girls Code Savannah is to inspire girls in the Savannah community to continue to advance their technology and coding education and to consider the many benefits of pursuing high-impact and high-income STEM-based careers.
To register for spring sessions visit the Girls Code Savannah website at girlscodesavannah.org/camps-classes.html.
For questions about the upcoming sessions, sponsorship opportunities, and future teaching assistant openings, please contact Lesli Ott at lesli@girlscodesavannah.org.
Girls Code Savannah is a community partner program of The Creative Coast and is made possible by generous annual sponsors at the City of Savannah and the Howmet Aerospace Foundation.
While Girls Code Savannah is designed for 5th to 8th-grade girls in Savannah Chatham County Public Schools (homeschool students included), we welcome all genders to attend our girl-focused camps and classes.
Nora L. and Henry Cunningham Fund provides grant for new stage for SCI’s Center for Successful Aging
Senior Citizens Inc (SCI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people age successfully, was awarded a $7,500 grant from the Nora L. and Henry Cunningham Fund for a new stage to be used by The Learning Center and other events at SCI’s Center for Successful Aging.
“We are very thankful to the Nora L. and Henry Cunningham Fund for their generous grant”, said Patti Lyons, President of SCI. “The addition of a portable stage will make it easier to see our various presenters and performers within our lecture rooms and provide better viewing for all our guests.”
Located at 3025 Bull Street, SCI’s Center for Successful Aging hosts more than one hundred events/lectures every year through The Learning Center and other community outreach partnerships.
The Nora L. and Henry Cunningham Fund provides grants to organizations that enrich the lives of older adults of Chatham County, Georgia.
National early language and literacy expert trains Savannah teachers on how to mentor
Active classroom engagement is at the heart of children’s learning. Teachers need to be equipped with suitable tools to support student acquisition of skills that build healthy peer relationships and regulate emotions while also ensuring that classroom diversity translates into successful social inclusion and student learning.
These were the findings of a Marcus Foundation-funded 2022 study of teachers’ experiences and perceived effects of a professional development approach called Social Emotional Engagement – Knowledge and Skills (SEE-KS). The approach aims to incorporate support for teachers to help them meet the diverse social-emotional and academic needs of their students.
Co-developer of the SEE-KS approach, national early language and literacy expert Emily Rubin returned to Savannah on March 7 to lead a second training session with local educators and provide freely accessible tools for measuring learner engagement, enhancing engagement in everyday settings and academic instruction, and empowering educators to sustain the work through peer to peer mentorship.
About 75 local educators attended the training, presented by Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition, United Way of the Coastal Empire and the Savannah Chatham County Public School System.
Held at the Southwest Branch of Live Oak Public Libraries, the event was the second of a series of three sessions to be led by Rubin for Savannah area educators. During the first, held on January 11, Rubin provided a tool kit for educators to help identify early indicators of language and how to interact with children to help with their communications.
“Our focus in this second session was to provide support for the development of community-viable models of staff training,” Rubin said. “We shared the tools that build the capacity of school systems and early intervention providers to serve as informed consumers of evidence-based practices.”
Rubin said her professional vision is to empower our public schools with a framework for social and emotional engagement and learning that is: 1) ecologically valid to the demands of achieving academic standards, 2) sensitive to the unique needs of students with social learning differences, and 3) can serve as a universal design for learning that benefits all of our students and young children in order to maximize return on professional learning.
“This training opportunity offered teachers the tools they need to mentor other teachers in early intervention techniques,” said CGIC executive director Lizann Roberts. “Its purpose was to build their skill sets and model how they can work together to foster the social and emotional and academic needs of their students.”
Enmarket opens its newest location at White Bluff and Eisenhower
Enmarket opened its first newly constructed store of 2024 on March 2 at the intersection of White Bluff Road and Eisenhower Drive, bringing the total count of Enmarket convenience stores to 131.
The store employs more than 25 people on the site, which previously featured a Fiat dealership before the new-to-industry construction of the store. It includes a 12-pump canopy with multiple fuel grades, including unleaded, mid-grade, premium, non-ethanol and diesel. A new Marketwash, Enmarket’s in-bay carwash brand, is situated at the east end of the property and offers customers multiple car wash package options. Using the Marketwash mobile app, customers can participate in car wash subscription packages or use this new location with an existing car wash subscription.
The company has committed to preserving a 300-year-old live oak that graces the property. Enmarket worked with Bartlett Tree Services to determine the tree’s age and conservation techniques. Bartlett Tree Services cared for the oak by pruning it, installing a lighting protection and cabling system on the property as well as soil care amendments. To highlight the majestic Savannah Live Oak, Enmarket will feature outdoor seating under the tree’s canopy.
“We are excited by this latest addition to our three-state family of stores,” said Matt Clements, president of Enmarket. “This location is ideally situated to serve the public, being along major traffic corridors and carefully planned to minimize traffic impact. We are thrilled to better serve our local military with this site that is particularly convenient to Hunter Army Airfield’s main gate.”
The 6,098-square-foot convenience store features an Eatery. The Enmarket Eatery, awarded the Convenience Foodservice Innovator to Watch by Convenience Store News in 2020, is a Southern-inspired menu that expands to include fresh, healthy, and on-the-go, quality offerings. Some breakfast offerings are burritos, platters and fish and grits. Lunch and dinner items include daily specials, made-fresh fried chicken and tenders, pecan cobblers, and even sausage gravy pizza. Fresh salads, parfaits and an array of cold sandwiches and wraps are also available. This location also serves Mooz frozen yogurt, a proprietary offering that allows customers to mix flavors and add endless toppings, all for one set price. The beverage bar is endless with fresh, high-quality Bean-2-Cup coffee, Savannah Sweet Tea® and dozens of fountain and frozen beverage choices.
A formal ribbon cutting and grand opening is planned for a later date.
This article appears in Connect Savannah I March 2024.
