Barrow County
Reporting about Barrow County, Georgia. Some stories will be republished in the Barrow News-Journal with Mainstreet News as part of a news-academic partnership with Grady Newsource.
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Unconventional Duo of Candidate, 19-Year-Old Leads to Barrow County Primary Win
Will Stevens was sitting in his freshman dorm at the University of Georgia when his phone lit up with a notification. It was a text from a number he didn’t know. The 19-year-old political science and public relations major doesn’t get random messages often, but this one was different. It…
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UPDATE: Apalachee High School Community Responds to Shooting, Deaths
Four people were killed in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia on Sept. 4. The suspected shooter, a 14-year-old student, is in custody. Officials explained what they know so far to the media at a press conference. The city of Winder came together at a vigil…
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Meeting Families Where They Are: Athens Area Diaper Bank Gets Distribution Van
Erin Campbell remembers feeling angry, sad and frustrated a decade ago after reading a statistic in a magazine: one in three families struggled with diaper need. Campbell, just a few weeks postpartum herself, was in a financially stable situation, but the thought of other new mothers having to clean and…
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Northeast Georgia County Representatives Discuss Population Growth
Grady Newsource brought in representatives from the surrounding counties to address the issue of population growth — during a special solutions journalism broadcast on Nov. 15. Recently, Athens-Clarke, Barrow, Jackson, Oconee and Madison counties have all seen an influx in population. The Solutions Journalism Network defines solutions journalism as rigorous reporting…
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Newest Elementary School in Barrow County Provides Relief from Overpopulation
Barrow County opened its 10th elementary school this year. Austin Road Elementary had its first day of classes on Aug. 1, and the Rockets are hoping to be another elementary school in Barrow that exceeds Georgia statewide standards. “We had mobile [classrooms] beginning to pile up at Yargo Elementary School,…
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Winder Church Honors Member With Memorial Walk
First Christian Church will hold its fourth annual Walk Out of the Darkness on Oct. 22. The walk was started after the suicide of Candler Smith, a church member, in 2017. It is a 1-mile loop around both the church and Winder-Barrow High School in partnership with the American Foundation…
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Barrow County Nonprofit Serves Children in Crisis Across Georgia
One backpack and one volunteer at a time, Adventure Bags, a nonprofit out of Barrow County, is serving children displaced from their homes across the state of Georgia. Adventure Bags is partnering with agencies and organizations to give backpacks to children entering foster care, domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters or…
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Winder Police Revamps Body Cameras, Focuses On Transparency
The Winder Police Department is embracing new technological advantages in a world of rapidly changing police tactics. In early August, the WPD issued new body-worn camera technology to its force, replacing the prior camera system that police chief Jim Fullington said was implemented in 2015 and is no longer being…
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Statham Sunflower Festival Attracts Most Vendors Yet in 23rd Year
The city of Statham held its annual Sunflower Festival on Sept. 17, with this year’s event proving to be noteworthy in size. The festival attracted 217 vendors, the most Statham has seen in its 23-year run. The vendors sold everything from cookies to jewelry to artwork. “It makes me very…
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Barrow County Students Show Off Art for National Arts In Education Week
While the arts are celebrated every day at Barrow Art and Sciences Academy, this week is particularly special. It’s National Arts in Education Week, and Mitch Freeman, a 2D art teacher at the academy, has his class creating a collage of patterns to create an optical illusion. “We looked at…