Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 4

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Comments from our readers * Compiled by Jennifer J. Hewett
Hometown HERO

Ms. Forrester received 115 pints of blood.
[See "Meredith Forrester: Shooting survivor now a
Red Cross advocate," Hometown Hero, January 2020,
page 42; bit.ly/hhrc120.] As a lifelong donor since
1972, I have given 133 pints, so her emergency needs
for survival were very dramatic.
I'm glad that donors continue to give the "gift of
life," but many more donors are needed!
-Randall C. Miller, Carrollton

By Amber Lanier Nagle

Meredith Forrester
Shooting survivor now a Red Cross advocate

he events of the Atlanta day trader shootings on
July 29, 1999, are forever etched in Meredith
Forrester's memory.
"I was seven weeks into my first real job, sitting at my
desk studying for a securities licensing exam," Forrester
recalls. "He walked by me and didn't acknowledge me. I
didn't see anything alarming. Soon after, I heard popping
sounds from the back of the office."
Gunman Mark Barton's shooting spree killed 13
people and wounded 13. One of his hollow-point bullets
blasted into Forrester's back, damaging her spine, intestine
and pancreas and shredding a major vein of her heart.
Doctors at Northside Hospital gave her a one in 1,000
chance of surviving.
"They pumped 115 pints of blood into me during
two emergency surgeries," she says. "For perspective, the
human body holds between 10 and 12 pints of blood."
Against all odds, she survived and started down a long
road to recovery. Today, Forrester is a SunTrust executive;
a wife and a mother to daughters Brooke and Arden. She
is also a tireless advocate for the American Red Cross, the
nation's largest blood-collection organization.
"I think about [the shooting] a lot, and I feel such
gratitude for the treatment I received and for my life," she
says. "If the shooting had been two days earlier, I would
have died because there had been a blood shortage, and
there wouldn't have been enough blood at the hospital to
have saved me. My mission is to educate the public on the
importance of blood donations and help collect as much
blood for the Red Cross as I can."
Along with donating blood often, she's an active board
member of the Metropolitan Atlanta Chapter of the
American Red Cross and has chaired the board of the
American Red Cross Southern Region Blood Services
group. She serves as SunTrust's Corporate Champion on
the Red Cross LifeBoard, a group of corporate supporters in the Southern Region that hold between five
and eight blood drives a year. In 2018, the Red Cross
January is
unveiled its Meredith Forrester Chairman's Award,
National Blood
an annual honor bestowed upon outstanding blood
Donor Month.
drive coordinators in metro Atlanta.
Meredith Forrester's story is one of triumph,
gratitude and giving back.
"Live each day of your life to the fullest," she says.
"Take care of others, and most of all, give blood! Blood
donations matter."
Amber Lanier Nagle is a freelance writer living in
Adairsville.

42 Georgia Magazine

What you should know
* There is a 90 percent chance that you will need
blood in your lifetime.

* There is a constant need for blood of all types.
* One pint of blood can help up to three people.
* Donating blood is easy, is relatively painless and
takes less than an hour.

* To find a Red Cross blood donation center in
Georgia, visit bit.ly/gchap.

AMBER LANIER NAGLE

Hometown Hero highlights

January 2020

My favorite part of the entire March 2020 magazine was the piece written about Daryl Roberts. [See "Daryl Roberts and his team are
rebuilding lives," Hometown Hero, page 46; bit.ly/hh320.]
What a phenomenal story! The story inspired me to nominate a hero of my own.
-Heather Jones, via email
42_Hometown_Hero_A_0120.indd 42

12/13/19 11:25 AM

Thank you!
Thanks so much for the $200 gift card as the Travel Guide grand prize. It was spent
wisely, and I am so grateful for it.
-B.J. Alexander, Canon
Contents

MARCH 2020 * VOL. 76, NO. 3
GEORGIA MAGAZINE

PAUL LEAVY

UGA LATIN AMERICAN ETHNOBOTANICAL GARDEN

16 Back to the future

Civil War-era plant lore may hold the answer to drug-resistant bacteria.
By Tom Oder

March is National Kidney Month.
By Victoria Scharf DeCastro

AMBER LANIER NAGLE

20 Care for your kidneys

THE

access
26 toImproving
care
Volunteer medical clinics
help fill the health care gap.
By Amber Lanier Nagle

HEALTH

32 High-tech health care

ISSUE

New developments put Georgians on the
cutting edge.
By Carolyn Crist

On the cover
Cassandra Quave, a medical ethnobotanist at Emory
University in Atlanta, evaluates the chemical makeup
of plants used to treat infectious disease in traditional
medicine. (Photo by Louis Tonsmeire.)

4
6
8
10
14
24

34 AROUND GEORGIA

MAILBOX

The Georgia Conservancy
sponsors outdoor
adventures

PICTURE THIS?
GEORGIA NEWS
CALENDAR OF EVENTS

38 GEORGIA GARDENS
The power of plants

CURRENTS
GEORGIA'S ENERGY
OUTLOOK

25 CURIOUS GEORGIA
The School Bus
Graveyard

42 GEORGIA COOKS
Goodbye, gluten!

46 HOMETOWN HERO

Daryl Roberts and his
team are rebuilding lives
www.georgiamagazine.org

03_TOC_0320.indd 1

Take caution around plant
I saw the photo of a person sitting under the beautiful angel trumpet tree in your magazine on the table of
contents page [see March 2020, page 3; bit.ly/toc320].
I want to let you know that all parts of that plant are
highly poisonous. The flowers, leaves, the bark-everything is poisonous to animals as well as people.
I learned about this plant on a TV show that talked
about emergency room cases, and I just wanted to let
you know so you could share the information.
-Sherri Labrie, Kennesaw

2/13/20 4:17 PM

10 46

Editor's note: Thanks, Sherri. Yes, all parts of the Brugmansia can be toxic
because of alkaloids in the plant, so take care when handling them and keep
children and pets away from the plants. The person in the photo is Karen Moss
Bryan, curator of the UGA Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden in Athens.
Share your thoughts. Email us at magazine@georgiaemc.com. Please include your name,
address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and space.

Travel Guide winners
Congratulations to Georgia Magazine's 2019 Travel Guide contest winners!
The following readers won the grand-prize drawings for $200 Walmart gift cards:
March/April: Ed Scott, Kennesaw, and Rachel Steele, LaGrange; June: Sue Hinderlider, Crawfordville; September/October: Ken Greene, Rockmart, and William
Lamb, Warner Robins; December: Belinda Alexander, Canon.
The following readers won $25 Walmart gift cards in the online Travel Guide
drawings: March/April: Mary Belcher, Ellaville, and Linda Combes, McRae; June:
Jeanie Willis, Commerce; September/October: Judy Agnew, Lawrenceville, and
Karen Parker, Powder Springs; December: Chelsie Nolley, Oxford.
Want a chance to win, too? Look for our Travel Guide contests in the months
listed above or click on the contests tab at georgiamagazine.org. This month's
Travel Guide coupon is on page 37.

Georgia Magazine

04_Mailbox_Ed_notes_0420.indd 4

From THE EDITOR
Mention Clydesdales and most
people think "Budweiser." That's
understandable, given the iconic status
of Anheuser-Busch's eight-horse team,
but there's more to this sturdy breed than
just pulling beer wagons.
When Shannon and Mark Martin
founded Classic City Clydesdales, their
intent was to raise the powerful draft
animals, but as their herd grew they
realized that increasing awareness of
the breed was also important.
With that in mind, they opened their
property to the public so that visitors can
interact not only with these gentle giants
but also with the cattle, pigs, donkeys and
chickens that live there. See "For the love
of horses," starting on page 16, to learn
how they've made their farm a familyfriendly destination.
Family outings build strong emotional ties and help children feel
important and loved. That feeling of
belonging is even more critical for
children who have been placed in foster
care because of neglect, abuse or abandonment. As an increasing number
of children enter the system in Georgia,
there is a pressing need for more foster
parents.
The decision to foster a child can
be life-changing, but luckily there are
resources available to help prospective
parents. Turn to page 20 to find out more
about this program and how you can
make a difference in a child's life.
Those of us who are already parents
know that it's not easy to impress kids
these days, but a tank-driving, carcrushing experience still gets their
attention. That's just what visitors can
expect at Tank Town USA in Morganton.
While you must be at least 15 years
old and have a learner's permit to actually drive a tank, kids as young as 7 can
ride along as passengers. See "Crushin'
it," starting on page 32, to find out more
about this bucket-list experience.
Enjoy,

Laurel George
Editor

April 2020

3/11/20 12:27 PM

http://www.bit.ly/hhrc120 http://www.bit.ly/gchap http://www.bit.ly/hh320 http://www.bit.ly/toc320 http://www.georgiamagazine.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Georgia Magazine - April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - April 2020