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Pictured with the new photo frame area at the Chamber are (from left) Julie Paysen of the Chamber of Commeerce, Paul Cawley of ASI-Southeast, Kyle Eller of ASI-Southeast, Roger Ward of ASI-Southeast, and Dusty Bolman of North Georgia Technical College.
By Julie Paysen
Here’s another awesome story of community collaboration.
Shortly after the pandemic began, your Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce developed the Keeping Stephens Strong Together Resource page on our VisitToccoa.com website.
From this effort came the #KeepingStephensStrongTogether hashtag campaign.
It provides the most up-to-date and current resources available to our community on national, state and local levels.
With the goal to help navigate through the challenges faced while moving in the direction of recovery and restoration regarding health updates, available services, working remotely and small business tools.
Through these difficult times as we witnessed our community come together to overcome and work through our differences, we decided to design a photo op reminder of just how we come together in Toccoa-Stephens County to grow even stronger through our adversities.
So we petitioned some of our local Chamber members to help us in this effort.
We are so grateful for many of our local business leaders and the support they demonstrate on a regular basis by investing in our community.
This project involved two local businesses and our technical college, who are all Chamber supporters.
Doug Hitchon, executive vice president and chief operating officer with ASI-Southeast; Jon Heffer, president & CEO of PTL Equipment Manufacturing; and Dr. Mark Ivester, president of North Georgia Technical College; all stepped up to the plate to help get this project done.
PTL Equipment graciously provided all the material needed for the project. The team at ASI-Southeast laser cut out the letters.
The welding department at North Georgia Technical College-Currahee Campus assembled and welded the pieces together.
Then the ASI-Southeast team applied the black powder coating to complete the job.
This is just another beautiful example of community collaboration and how Toccoa-Stephens County comes together to get the job done, thus #StephensStrong.
The photo booth is located on the North Alexander Street end of the historic train depot.
Take time to come by, snap a picture and share on social media why we are so proud to be part of this town, #StephensStrong.
(Julie Paysen is president of the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce.)