The Tifton Gazette offers a round of applause for individuals and organizations doing good things in our community.

Georgia Museum of Agriculture and City of Tifton Halloween organizers

We want to recognize the Georgia Museum of Agriculture and History Village as well as the City of Tifton for their Halloween celebrations.

The Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village held its annual Trick or Treat in the Village on Saturday, Oct. 27.

Children and adults who attended were able to trick or treat their way around the village, stopping at each location to get treats, check off the spot on their punch card and learn a little something while they were at it.

The City of Tifton held a downtown celebration Oct. 31, with a flash mob and trick or treating.

We thank them for organizing family friendly holiday events.

National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

The Tiftarea community joined Ruth’s Cottage and the Patticake House Oct. 25 in recognizing National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Businesses, organizations and individuals wore purple shirts to raise awareness of domestic violence.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, one out of three women and one out of four men have been victims of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime.

Nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States, with more than 20,000 phone calls made to domestic violence hotlines on the average day.

We thank everyone who recognized this month.

For more information about Ruth’s Cottage and the Patticake House, call 229-387-9697 or visit www.stopthehurtga.org.

Football players, coaches and staff

If you haven’t been paying attention to the Tift County Blue Devils and the Tiftarea Panthers football teams this season, you’ve been missing quite a show.

The Tiftarea Panthers have had their best opening of all time, as they’re currently on an unprecedented, undefeated 9-0 run.

They play Southland Academy Friday for the Region 3-AAA title, which would be their first title in 10 years and their first 10-0 season ever.

The Tift County Blue Devils are 6-3 with a game set for Friday against Camden County, playing for home field advantage in the playoffs.

We applaud the players, coaches and staff for their hard work all year-round. We’ll be rooting for their seasons to continue.

Walk A Mile volunteers

The 8th Annual Walk A Mile In Her Shoes took place at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College on Oct. 23.

The event is part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which takes place throughout the month of October and is designated by the color purple.

The walk is an international event where men walk a literal mile wearing women’s high-heeled shoes as a way to get the community talking about gender relations and men’s sexualized violence against women. The walkers take a pledge that they will honor women in their relationships and avoid any kind of violence and control in their relationships.

Alpha Gamma Rho-Gamma Delta chapter contributed participants, as did the event sponsors Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, which hosted the event, the ABAC baseball team, Tift Regional Health System, Christy Dorman and The Howard Center for Women.

The Sycamore Police Department was represented by Chief Bill Ryder, who is also a RCPCH board member.

Our hats (and shoes) are off to the participants.

Tift College and Career Academy

The ribbon cutting and grand opening of the Tift College and Career Academy at the Tift County High School was held Oct. 25.

The event opened the newly constructed wing of the high school up to tours after the ribbon cutting. Attendees were able to look in on classrooms and workshops where students were receiving hands-on training in a variety of career pathways.

The College and Career Academy program was created in 2011 as a way for schools to partner with area businesses and industries to train students to fill jobs where there was a lack of qualified workers, benefitting both students and industries.

Tift County was awarded a grant of $3.1 million in March 2017 for the construction, which is almost completed.

Additionally, the program has new equipment for many of the labs, most of which were paid for through grants.

We congratulate Tift County Schools on its latest addition.