Striker and Sally, a pair of emu siblings, escaped from a ranch in Lexington on Jan. 17 — and were nowhere to be found for four days — except on the phones of Facebook users in the Oglethorpe County Community group.
The duo belongs to the Mirandas, who live in Hoschton, but own property in Lexington. The family searched for days, even leaving fruit outside for the pair.
They had almost lost hope until a neighbor, Cynthia Franklin, messaged them on Facebook that she had found the emus on her property.
“A sweet lady that lived a few streets down from us actually took them in, fed them and made sure they were safe,” said Alexandria Miranda.
The two emus stayed together during their journey in Oglethorpe County, and social media was the key to bringing the large, flightless birds back home.
Fabian Miranda, who is Alexandria’s father, said he was thrilled and shocked the community came together to help find them. In fact, it helped solidify the family’s plan to move to Oglethorpe County.
“It made us even more excited to move up there knowing how great the community has been to us,” he said. “People are even messaging us to meet Sally and Striker.”
The siblings are not the only emus who recently have gotten loose.
Two emus were spotted roaming the county about a week after Striker and Sally were found. Their photos were again posted on Facebook to try to reach an owner.
Kat Howkins, owner of Sweet Olive Farm Animal Rescue in Winterville, said it was a common trend for people to buy emus about four or five years ago.
“They protect all of the chickens, roosters and ducks from things like foxes or coyotes,” Alexandria said.
Some may be concerned about a loose emu’s behavior or may wonder if the animal can be threatening to humans.
“Emus are very friendly animals, and humans should not be afraid of them,” Howkins said.
Howkins added she is experienced in handling and taking care of emus. She caught a loose emu named Tuk Tuk that was roaming Oglethorpe County a few years ago.
Others on social media were concerned about the emus’ health with the low temperatures last week. However, cold temperatures are not too much of a concern for the animal, Howkins said, as they have fat and multiple layers of feathers covering their skin.
If someone spots a loose emu and attempts to capture it, Howkins said it’s important to not lasso the emu, which could break its neck.
Before Sally and Striker were found, Howkins said she planned to try and find them, too. She said she spent five hours capturing Tuk Tuk and was prepared to save the two from the wild and bring them to her farm.
As Sally and Stiker approach their first birthdays in April and May, the Miranda family is thankful to have them back on their farm.
“My dad has been wanting an emu for a very long time,” Alexandria said. “We finally were able to find some and they were siblings, and we couldn’t separate them, so we got them together.”
In a small corner lies rolls of brown banner paper, bottles of paint, paint brushes and other random supplies for a student-led business, Abundant Celebrations.
Supplies sit in the corner for Shirah and Barbee use to create their banners every week. PHOTO // Lesley Randall
Each week, Abundant Celebrations, makes up to three hand painted banners a week.
The banners are made for different occasions like sorority events, birthday celebrations or bachelorette parties.
McKenna Shirah, founder of Abundant Celebrations and University of Georgia marketing student, started her small business on Instagram with her roommate Whitley Barbee, an economics major at UGA.
The two have been making banners for sale for 10 months.
“I always loved getting to make banners and signs for my friends when they would have birthday parties or celebrations,” Shirah said. “The idea came to me when someone reached out and asked me to make a banner for them because they saw one on social media that I had made for one of my friends.”
Instagram serves as the main platform for customers to contact Abundant Celebrations.
On the Abundant Celebrations Instagram page are photos of previous banners that were made for customers. Instagram also serves as a platform of inspiration for future customers.
“Instagram has allowed us to share our banners and signs with so many more people than just our friends, Shirah said. “A lot of people will order banners and signs by messaging on Instagram.”
As Abundant Celebrations has gained more customers, the two roommates split up the work weekly to finish the banners on time.
“We both have different things that we enjoy about painting banners which makes it easier to split up the work,” Barbee said. “McKenna does all of the hand lettering and penciling for the banners and I handle all the painting and designs that the customer wants.”
Barbee and Shirah agree it is easier to paint large banners and complete many orders a week together rather than doing it alone.
“It is nice to be doing this as a team because whenever one of us has super busy weeks the other is able to take on more of the workload and make sure the orders get finished in time,” Shirah said.
Barbee(left) and Shirah(right) with their most recent banner they completed for a friend’s 21st birthday. PHOTO // Lesley Randall
With the help of one another, different schedules do not matter as they will work in either of their free time in their living room—-turned art room.
“They always have something going on, so our living room floor is always covered in banners and their supplies,” Emma Kate Williams, roommate of Shirah and Barbee. “But, it doesn’t really bother me because I love helping with design ideas for the banners too.”
The banners range in prices depending on how large, how much paint and materials are used and the time it takes to finish the banner.
When the two first began selling banners, they sold them for a $25 flat rate. Then, when their banners became more popular, they decided to vary the prices depending on each banner itself.
“When McKenna and I started we were charging $25 per banner but as we started getting more orders we made the prices higher,” Barbee said.
Whenever Shirah and Barbee work on banners together, they will split their weekly profits between the two of them.
On average they said they will each make about $50 a week.
Both agree that having a small side hustle is fun and worth it as a college student.
“It is easy to get overwhelmed when we have a lot of orders on top of other jobs, school work, and social life,” Shirah said. “Having a partner to do it with keeps it fun.”
Shirah also said being in control of how much work Abundant Celebrations has each week is comforting.
“If we have too much going on, we can just say no,” Shirah said.
Most banners Abundant Celebrations sells are for friends or other connections from their friends.
Most of our customers are people that we are friends with or someone with mutual connections, Barbee said. “People will see banners or signs on social media or know someone that placed an order and that made them want to purchase from us.”
However, the team of two have occasionally had larger orders for sorority events or senior night events.
The biggest sale that we have made was to a high school, Shirah said. “They wanted several banners for a senior night event.”
Senior night banners at Prince Avenue Christain School. // SUBMITTED PHOTO //
Barbee said the banners for the senior night event took almost two weeks to complete because they were larger than normal and had photos of each senior on them.
Though, the most popular sale is for birthday banners according to Shirah and they usually range from $30 to $40.
Our favorite project was probably our first banner that we sold, Barbee said. “It was super colorful and had a big birthday cake on it. We were so thrilled about our new side gig and it was so fun to sit together, listen to music and paint our first banner together.”
Michael Moody runs the Broad River Outpost at the Wildcat Bridge in Danielsville. For him, the amount of rain can determine if his business runs or not.
“Water is our life,” said Moody, who lives in the Glade community. “Too much precipitation makes for floods, too little makes for droughts, both of which can affect our quality of life, hobbies, businesses and our home properties.”
Moody also belongs to a dedicated group of nine rain watchers in Oglethorpe County who report their measurements to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network (CoCoRaHS, for short), a community-based organization that tracks precipitation. Wolfskin’s Wayne Hughes compiles the data and reports to The Oglethorpe Echo on a weekly basis.
“It’s rewarding to be part of an international network of tens of thousands of observers providing vetted granular data that can be scaled up for monitoring our climate,” said Pete Kalla, an observer in Sandy Cross.
Pam Knox, director of the UGA Weather Network and agricultural climatologist, stated in a UGA Extension article that March was a warmer and wetter month in the Southeast compared to past years.
“The result of all that warmth and moisture is an early bloom and green-up of trees and shrubs across the region,” Knox said.
Moody knows too much or too little rain can result in his business shutting down for multiple days.
“We rent boats and run shuttles on different sections of the river,” he said. “Rainfall and runoff directly affect the conditions of the river in terms of its height.”
Proper rain measurements are also crucial to the daily lives of many throughout counties like Oglethorpe County, where agriculture plays a crucial role.
“Depending on the amount and type of rains, farmers, ranchers, small town water suppliers and paddlers all pay attention to the type and amount of rainfall locally and in our regional areas,” Moody said.
For others, measuring rain is strictly out of curiosity.
“My father had a dimestore-variety rain gauge for many years, for his own information and to satisfy his curiosity,” Kalla said. “He was always very interested in the weather.”
However, 20 years ago, Kalla stumbled on CoCoRaHS by accident.
“My wife and I started a garden as soon as we moved here,” he said. “I wanted a high-quality rain gauge for the garden, and when I searched for one, I found out about CoCoRaHS and the local network.”
He has been measuring precipitation ever since.
Having CoCoRaHS observers in a region gives accurate measurements and predictions for precipitation levels. However, to be an observer for CoCoRaHS, proper rain gauges are required.
“These gauges are very accurate and can measure up to 1/100 of an inch,” said Gwen Hirsch, who lives in Smithonia. “Everyone on the CoCoRaHS network must use the same gauge so measurements are consistent across the country.”
Hirsch became a volunteer after reading that CoCoRaHS needed observers in a University of Georgia publication in 2008. She “hesitated” when she learned that the required rain gauge cost $40.
“I have since purchased many gauges as gifts for friends,” Hirsch said. “I had a career in a number of different research labs, so I enjoy measuring things.”
People visit the pumpkin patch in Athens, Georgia on Oct. 10, 2021. The Milledge Avenue Baptist Church’s annual pumpkin patch returns to raise money for the church. (Photo/Aynur Rauf; AynurRauf1@gmail.com)
Autumn is in full swing in Athens and many people are looking for ways to celebrate the season before it slips away. The Red & Black compiled a list of seasonal events in and around Athens for locals and students to participate in this fall.
Washington Farms
Located just outside of Athens in Bogart, Georgia, Washington Farms offers a pumpkin patch and other fall activities. The pumpkin patch is free to enter, visitors just pay for the pumpkins they pick. Other activities include a 6.5-acre corn maze and a sunflower and zinnia flower-picking field which are available with the purchase of a ticket. 35 other fall activities are present at the farms, and tickets can be bought online. Weekday and weekend ticket prices vary, but general admission costs around $14-19. Washington Farms will remain open through Nov. 6 for the fall season.
Milledge Avenue Baptist Church
Known as the “Pumpkin Church,” the Milledge Avenue Baptist Church sells pumpkins of seemingly all shapes and sizes. Open daily through Oct. 31, the proceeds from the fundraiser go towards children’s, youth and music ministries, as well as building stewardship by supporting service groups, according to the church’s website. While at the patch, take a picture with friends and family at the fall-themed backdrop or among the pumpkins.
Hendershot’s Fall Fright Fest
Listen to music at the Fall Fright Fest, hosted at Hendershot’s and presented by Volumes. Scheduled for Friday, Oct. 21 from 8-11 p.m., the event has a $10 entry fee. Wear a halloween costume and listen to local and visiting musicians, ranging in genre from rock bands to hip-hop artists. Local vendors will sell their products at the event, and local artists will have their work on display.
Fall Festival at West Broad Farmers Market
Back in action after two years, the West Broad Farmers Market will host its Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 22. Enter the pie baking contest by signing up online before the event and bringing the best baked pie to the festival. The festival is free to enter and halloween costumes are welcome. This is a family-friendly festival with activities such as live music and pumpkin painting.
Zombie Farms
In its 10th year in business, those that enjoy adrenaline should make their way to Zombie Farms. Zombie Farms is a haunted trail in Winterville, Georgia. This year’s theme is “The Clown Mother.” Only open on Friday and Saturday nights, plan ahead as tickets do sell out. Ticket prices are $25 online and $28 at the gate.
Animal Wellness Center of Athens Fall Festival and Open House
This event is one for the animal lovers. From Oct. 27 to 29, AWC Athens will welcome the community to their facility for a Fall Festival and Open House. The center is located off of Atlanta Highway and cares for pets medical and boarding needs. At the festival, there will be fall photo options for pets, snacks, raffles and an employee pumpkin-carving contest.
Clarke County Sheriff’s Office Fall Festival
Mark your calendar on Oct. 28 for a free fall festival hosted by the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office. Support the ACC Government’s departments from 6-9 p.m at the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office Training Center. At this festival, expect to walk through a haunted house, ride on a hayride, get your face painted and play some games. Admission is free but attendees are encouraged to bring a canned good to donate.
A renovated common space is pictured at the University of Georgia’s Pi Beta Phi house in Athens, Georgia, on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. (Photo/Jessica Gratigny; @jgratphoto)
After a multi-year project, the Pi Beta Phi house on Milledge Avenue has undergone what some might call an extreme home makeover. Liz Toombs, owner of PDR Interiors, led the redesign with a goal to bring youthfulness into the house.
“The chapter wanted the space to represent them more, being young women. We really tried to focus on brightening and lightening the look,” Toombs said.
The house was redesigned and reconstructed in order to make a viable and comfortable home for Pi Beta Phi members to utilize. Despite the changes, the home still embodies a traditional sorority house look. From practical bathroom finishes to an enormous sunroom, the house depicts elegance while weaving in modern youthfulness.
With large televisions, speakers in many rooms and sound systems to match, the house includes some of the latest technology to date. However the house also comes with a homey feeling through furniture and decor.
The renovated chapter room is pictured at the University of Georgia’s Pi Beta Phi house in Athens, Georgia, on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. (Photo/Jessica Gratigny; @jgratphoto)
“It’s so hard to pick a favorite part of the new house, but if I had to pick one thing it would be hanging out with everyone in the living room,” chapter president Bella Galdabni said
Nods to the sorority colors of wine and silver blue and the University of Georgia’s red and black throughout the house are important for keeping tradition in the chapter. For many members, tying together different colors and symbols embodies what it means to be a Pi Beta Phi at UGA.
“We tried to make it look like young women lived there, but also [represent] Pi Beta Phi [by] using some of their symbols and their colors and also weaving in UGA’s colors and symbols,” Toombs said.
This project did not happen overnight. In fact, it took almost two years to fully complete the changes. Last school year, members of Pi Beta Phi were living in a house that was only halfway available for use due to the interior redesign. Now, sisters are living in one of the most updated homes on Milledge Avenue.
“They lived through the addition going on. They had access to their bedrooms and a very few number of common spaces were set up, but they did not have their big functioning kitchen and they did not have a lot of gathering space,” Toombs said.
The renovated kitchen is pictured at the University of Georgia’s Pi Beta Phi house in Athens, Georgia, on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. (Photo/Jessica Gratigny; @jgratphoto)
Now, the Pi Beta Phi house is fully accessible with brand new renovations that are popular in the sorority. To most, the wait was worth a freshly remodeled house with an updated kitchen, large bathroom counter space and comfortable study rooms.
The large sofa is a highlight for many.
“We have a really large sofa in their living room and I loved that. It is great for using it during recruitment or if everyone is just gathered in the living room to watch TV together,” Toombs said.
The furniture piece has already brought sorority members together after a busy recruitment process.
“After long days of recruitment, some of the sophomores and I would all pile up on the couch and watch movies or just talk for hours. It has been fun for me to get to know and spend time with the younger girls living in the house,” Galdabini said.
A renovated common space is pictured at the University of Georgia’s Pi Beta Phi house in Athens, Georgia, on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. (Photo/Jessica Gratigny; @jgratphoto)
A redesigned house for the Pi Beta Phi community was long-awaited, exciting and rewarding for many involved. For Toombs and PDR Interiors, this project is one of the largest and most fun to date.
For Pi Beta Phi, a long construction process has finally given way to a breath of fresh air each time they step into their new home.
Precious Jones, owner of MePlusTea, holds a picture frame with decorations about the planet and sustainability at the Athens Farmers Market (Courtesy/Precious Jones).
MePlusTea is a local tea company that began in 2017 with just a few blends, and the ultimate goal to prioritize health. A variety of its’ hand-blended loose leaf teas are now sold in many stores throughout Athens, as well as sold by the cup. There is also an online store to purchase the blends.
Blends are created to suit different moods, illnesses and time of day. All of the teas are hand-blended, and many of the plants used are locally sourced. Precious Jones called herself the “founder, owner, marketer, packager, everything” of MePlusTea
Lesley Randall: What is your favorite part about MePlusTea?
Precious Jones: My favorite part is I actually get to do what I love. Like it’s not a job. It’s waking up doing what I love and knowing that not only am I helping myself, I’m helping the community, I’m helping my family as well as others and just sharing the love through tea.
LR: What initially sparked your interest in tea?
PJ: Medical herbs has always been a way of life for my family. In 2017, I quit my full time job and decided to take a leap of faith. After much research on the various loose leaf tea types, I believed the timing was perfect to blend my knowledge of locally grown medicinal herbs with loose leaf teas.
LR: Where is MeplusTea served?
PJ: We are in Bear Hug Honey, Community in downtown, The Olive Basket and then by the cup Seabear, Revival Yarn and [Choco Pronoto.] We are also at the Athens Farmers Market every Saturday.
LR: How has your company changed from the beginning when you first started?
PJ: Well, mostly it is growth. We started with five blends and then working with herbalists and spiritualists and everything we developed a whole other line. The tea.potthecary lines are the herbs that we got ourselves or you know, we’re getting from local growers. And those are formulas that’s been in our family for generations. Then we have the loose leaf tea line, which is mostly on the tea bases, but we blend those herbs with it. So we’ve grown from just having five blends to have been 40.
LR: Where do you envision MePlusTea growing in the next five years?
PJ: I envision growing our own acreage so that we can grow more of our own and focusing on the health and well being as well as the team.
LR: Do you have a permanent source for your products or do they vary?
PJ: I do have a permanent supplier that I work with that works with small family farms in China, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Japan.
LR: How do you create different blends and know what works best together?
PJ: Start with a tea base or an herbal base. And then from there we build in the loose leaf herbs that we mostly grow ourselves or either that we get from local growers that grow oranges. Then we blend those with the teas that we get from the supplier and that’s how we create our blends.
LR: What is your favorite blend to drink?
PJ: It would definitely be the ‘Peace and Love’…It’s one that helps me relax.
MePlusTea is a local tea company that began in 2017 with just a few blends, and the ultimate goal to prioritize health. A variety of its’ hand-blended loose leaf teas are now sold in many stores throughout Athens, as well as sold by the cup. There is also an online store to purchase the blends.
Blends are created to suit different moods, illnesses and time of day. All of the teas are hand-blended, and many of the plants used are locally sourced. Precious Jones called herself the “founder, owner, marketer, packager, everything” of MePlusTea
LR: What is your favorite part about MePlusTea?
PJ: My favorite part is I actually get to do what I love. Like it’s not a job. It’s waking up doing what I love and knowing that not only am I helping myself, I’m helping the community, I’m helping my family as well as others and just sharing the love through tea.
LR: What initially sparked your interest in tea?
PJ: Medical herbs has always been a way of life for my family. In 2017, I quit my full time job and decided to take a leap of faith. After much research on the various loose leaf tea types, I believed the timing was perfect to blend my knowledge of locally grown medicinal herbs with loose leaf teas.
LR: Where is MeplusTea served?
PJ: We are in Bear Hug Honey, Community in downtown, The Olive Basket and then by the cup Seabear, Revival Yarn and [Choco Pronoto.] We are also at the Athens Farmers Market every Saturday.
LR: How has your company changed from the beginning when you first started?
PJ: Well, mostly it is growth. We started with five blends and then working with herbalists and spiritualists and everything we developed a whole other line. The tea.potthecary lines are the herbs that we got ourselves or you know, we’re getting from local growers. And those are formulas that’s been in our family for generations. Then we have the loose leaf tea line, which is mostly on the tea bases, but we blend those herbs with it. So we’ve grown from just having five blends to have been 40.
LR: Where do you envision MePlusTea growing in the next five years?
PJ: I envision growing our own acreage so that we can grow more of our own and focusing on the health and well being as well as the team.
LR: Do you have a permanent source for your products or do they vary?
PJ: I do have a permanent supplier that I work with that works with small family farms in China, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Japan.
LR: How do you create different blends and know what works best together?
PJ: Start with a tea base or an herbal base. And then from there we build in the loose leaf herbs that we mostly grow ourselves or either that we get from local growers that grow oranges. Then we blend those with the teas that we get from the supplier and that’s how we create our blends.
LR: What is your favorite blend to drink?
PJ: It would definitely be the ‘Peace and Love’…It’s one that helps me relax.
“Nana’s Banana Puddin'” from Cool World Ice Cream Shop in Athens, GA. (Photo/ Lesley Randall)
When I walked into Cool World Ice Cream Shop, I was overwhelmed by the swirly blue and green floor, the striped window valance and the blue neon signs on the wall.
As I made my way through the store, the decision on what to order became difficult. There is an abundance of gourmet ice cream flavors, specialty ice cream sandwiches, milkshakes and large ice cream sundaes to choose from on the menu.
I chose a single scoop of their homemade “Nana’s Banana Puddin’” ice cream.
The description noted that the ice cream was swirled with marshmallow cream with chunks of vanilla cookies.
The mixture of the ice cream and marshmallow swirl created a perfect creamy and fluffy texture. I could eat an entire cup of the marshmallow swirl on its own.
The ice cream itself tasted like my mom’s banana pudding except in ice cream form. Hot take, but it was a little better than banana pudding itself.
I was pleased with the amount of cookie chunks that were in the ice cream. The chunks of vanilla sugar cookie were small and soft which I enjoyed because they did not overpower the ice cream.
The ice cream was extremely sweet. While I know desserts are supposed to be sweet, this was so rich in sugary flavors that I couldn’t even finish one scoop.
Overall, I rate “Nana’s Banana Puddin’” a 4.2 out of 5. I loved each bite, as it reminded me of my mom’s banana pudding, though the extreme richness was a little much after a couple of bites.
Students at Tweed Recording Audio Production School in Athens can learn the audio recording and production skills necessary for a career in the music industry. (Courtesy/Tweed Recording)
What started as an in-home recording studio in Mississippi is now a major audio recording school, giving students in Athens preparation in all areas of sound engineering.
With a career that began as recording throughout the day in his own home and working in a pizza kitchen at night, Andrew Ratcliffe, CEO of Tweed Recording Audio Production School, is a self-taught recording artist and instructor. Ratcliffe found much success in his in-home recording studio where other musicians began to utilize his space and equipment.
“We had a lot of bands and a lot of musicians showing up. We charged like 10 or 15 bucks an hour and bands started using our facilities and that became the first version of Tweed Recording,” Ratcliffe said.
When Tweed Recording took off, a new space was needed. It was nothing but expensive to open and build a recording studio. Different ideas were thrown out to subsidize the cost before the final decision was reached — they would open a recording school.
“We could give back to people and kind of teach the way that we’ve learned,” Ratcliffe said
Ratcliffe’s first plan was to stay in Mississippi. Roadblocks were constantly delaying the process to open up the school in his home state, so ultimately Ratcliffe decided to head to Athens.
One of the main reasons Ratcliffe chose to open Tweed Recording in Athens was due to the history of the Classic City and the small-town music community. However, Ratcliffe “didn’t come here to try to ride the coattails of the history of Athens,” he said.
The goal for Tweed Recording was to be a part of the future of the Athens music industry.
“We started construction in 2018 and took in the Lamar Lewis Shoes store and a bar, so now it’s all in one building. We went back and built in four studios and a classroom,” said Melissa Bateman, director of admissions at Tweed Recording.
The school began offering an Audio Production Certificate in January 2021. No more than 24 students can fit in the space, but only 12 students will be accepted to the program in a typical semester, according to Ratcliffe. This is to ensure the ability to utilize all equipment and one-on-one time with instructors.
Tweed Recording also offers sessions and workshops for high school students and Athens locals.
In each semester, students take 18 weeks of classes, six hours five days a week, learning various components of recording, producing and navigating as a sound engineer.
Classes range from sitting in a classroom listening to lectures to actively recording music for a band in town. Tweed Recording is heavily hands-on, where students actively practice things like running cables and learning how to build their own in-home recording studio.
Studio recording one and two are introduction courses to the studios. Students learn how to practice recording etiquette, how to set up a server and how to run cables. Three weeks of the program focused on commercial recording, Ratcliffe said.
Other classes include an audio electronics class, a sound design class and a music business class. This variety of classes is designed to prepare students at Tweed Recording for any type of future in sound engineering.
An understanding of the basics of building a recording studio is imperative for future sound engineers, but building a recording studio is expensive. Tweed Recording teaches its students how to build an in-home recording studio with simple items.
In March 2023, Tweed Recording is beginning its first semester teaching a new program, Live Sound Production. An impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is a major shortage of employees in live sound production, according to Ratcliffe.
Tweed Recording has a large venue to teach live sound production and Athens has a plethora of venues that need the help. Classes for the new program will be Monday through Thursday, from 5-9 p.m.
“On Mondays we’ll actually be doing kind of an apprenticeship-based experiential thing [at] the Georgia Theatre and some of the places here in town that have flying speakers and different sound stations to kind of give them different looks of what my sound looks like,” Ratcliffe said.
Tweed Recording serves as a stepping stone into the future of the music industry. One of Ratcliffe’s main goals opening Tweed Recording in Athens was to aid in the future of the music industry and training a new generation of music professionals is the perfect way to do so.
Chanda Santana, founder of DIVAS Who Win Freedom Center, a nonprofit that seeks to help women overcoming sex trafficking, addiction and prostitution, cut the ribbon on the Freedom Experience, an immersive walk-through educating individuals on the steps to and through sex trafficking, on Sept. 23.
The walk-through experience was broken into seven phases providing context to the steps that lead to, through and toward surviving sex trafficking. During the walk-through, individuals wore headphones, listening to a narrator and seeing different visuals like props and real photographs.
The walk-through of the seven different phases added “a closer look into the creative and evil minds” of a trafficker, Santana said.
“The mission at DIVAS is to support folks like my family … Women who are overcoming substance use disorder, prostitution and sex work and those who are survivors of human trafficking,” Santana said.
Substance abuse is common among sex trafficking survivors. DIVAS Who Win serve over 150 women each month on average struggling with substance abuse and trauma from sex trafficking, according to its website.
In order for DIVAS Who Win and the Freedom Experience to serve the community, people must not turn their heads the other way, Santana said. The Freedom Experience aims to create an educated and supportive community surrounding sex trafficking and its survivors.
Santana wants to “create a platform where women can develop intentional victory and success,” she said.
Creating a community around and among survivors is one of the main goals for DIVAS Who Win, and the Freedom Experience directly serves this goal. Not only does the community lift one another up, it provides safety and security, something many of the survivors have never felt.
The walk-through is one way to educate the community about the sex trafficking process. Santana’s daughter is the victim of sex trafficking in Atlanta in the exhibit. Learning through the phases, individuals will understand that the path to sex trafficking begins in childhood and the healing will continue on long after being freed.
Natasha Ganem, leadership coach at Lion Leadership, said “the community needs to be awake” in regards to the sex trafficking crisis. The Freedom Experience will provide crucial community support and education, according to Ganem.
As Santana and Ganem brainstormed about how to get people to engage in the Freedom Experience, the first thought was groups, like businesses, clubs and sororities.
The one-to-many effect means that once one group attends the Freedom Experience walk-through, they challenge another group to attend, creating a domino effect. Ganem compared the challenge as similar to the ALS ice bucket challenge.
“We want individual community members to come and engage in this experience so that they are aware and it provides that 20 minutes that might just change the trajectory otherwise,” Ganem said.
A dream goal for Santana is to have a Freedom Experience walk-through in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The airport in Atlanta is one of the largest sex trafficking hubs in the world. Santana believes providing an educational walk-through for frequent travelers is a way to prevent sex trafficking and add awareness in the airport.
Only 28 minutes of an educational walk-through during layovers could save someone’s life. Understanding the signs of a trafficker, how to help and what to do is important in major hubs like airports.
The Freedom Experience is one step closer to the ultimate goal of DIVAS Who Win. A walk-through brings people in, creating an engaged community. The Freedom Experience is a crucial step in the progress of DIVAS Who Win.
“You have the power to muster up the courage to come to the experience. What I’m really encouraging is that Athens, Georgia, gets to be this beautiful, creative, innovative space where your ideas around this experience are wonderful,” Santana said.
Looking forward, DIVAS Who Win plans to expand further. By 2025, the goal is to have a home where survivors will live, rent free, for two years. In those two years, survivors will gain all the tools necessary to survive on their own.
Rehabilitation, therapy, work experience and community will be provided for survivors within this home.
“Being a part of this experience is incredible because we get to help people get into trauma meetings, AA meetings and [access] resources,” said Tashawna Willoughby, who serves on the board of directors for DIVAS Who Win.
Santana constantly preaches about community. She strongly believes that, with an engaged and educated community, DIVAS Who Win will thrive. Community support is a necessary tool in the growth of DIVAS Who Win and the Freedom Experience is the stepping stone to reach the community.
