The Veterans at the Library held their weekly meeting at the Franklin Memorial Library Monday morning, August 24, at 9 a.m. With Chair Johnny Tapley presiding, they had 44 in attendance. The Wedincamps provided breakfast consisting of biscuits and gravy, jelly, scrambled eggs, grits and all the trimmings. Shari Watt provided the orange juice, grape juice, cranberry juice, apple juice, and coffee. Johnny introduced Erin Youmans from Georgia Southern University/East Georgia Campus who works in the Technology Department who talked about AI. AI is technology trained to understand language and recognize patterns in huge amount of data of text and information allowing it to generate helpful answers. She works with GYSTC which is a learning ecosystem that brings K-12, higher education, and business and industry together.
Erin stated she has two grandfathers that were veterans of WWII and a great uncle that was a veteran of WWI. Most important is that she has a Revolutionary War Veteran ancestor, Colby Smith, that after the Revolutionary War, moved to Washington County from Chatham County, NC in 1800 and died there in 1835. Colby Smith has an estimated 100,000 descendants.
Chair Johnny then talked about the upcoming 30 gun drawing during the month of September each day. There will be a winner drawn for each day and it’s possible to win more than once on a ticket. Johnny also talked to the Veterans about the upcoming New Veterans Wall that is being constructed at the Veterans and 1st Responders Memorial Park later the year by November 7. You can obtain a form from the library for your veteran's information to be placed on the wall. Veterans at the Library then heard from Veteran Terry Reynolds about the upcoming Wounded Warriors Retreat 15th Annual Sportsman's Banquet and Auction that is being held on October 8 at 5 p.m. at Beaver Creek Plantation. Advance tickets are required. Call Terry Reynolds at 478-494-3758, Richard Driggers at 912-290-1108 or Nick Kraus at 912-687-6781.
