Tuesday afternoon, Rotary members held their weekly meeting at the Kirbo Center.

President Tommie Howell took to the podium to announce past members and their contributions to the Bainbridge community. Afterward, members introduced the guests they brought along.

Next, Howell announced club information. A board meeting will be at 5:15 PM today in the Salvation Army board room. Next Tuesday at 11:00 PM, there will be a meeting of the past presidents in the conference room at the Kirbo Center. Rotary Leadership Institute is coming up on Saturday, February 1, in Thomasville. The State Conference will be held from April 24-27, and all three districts from Georgia will be in attendance. Howell also mentioned participation in the Laws of Life Essay and cleanup along the nature trail. January is the vocational service month of Rotary, and the following two meetings will be dedicated to vocational service.  Next week will be mentorship for students. The following week, there will be a presentation about a program that teaches moderate and severe handicap students life skills. The students run a coffee house once or twice a month, provide coffee to teachers, and raise money for field trips. Additionally, information about the Attapulgus experiment station will be available in the first week of February. 

Furthermore, Jamie Sinko introduced Gallagher Dempsey, owner of Southern Philosophy Brewing, and Tyler Thomas, owner of The American, to discuss the 5th annual Jazz and Blues Festival for February 1.

Dempsey started the discussion by asking, “Who the Grammy award-winning trumpet player and conductor who performed at the first yearly Bainbridge Jazz and Blues festival?” After his question was met with silence, he revealed that Scott Barnhart was the answer.

Next, he discussed the start-up of the Jazz and Blues Festival. Dempsey stated it began when he was working on building the Southern Philosophy in the winter of 2019 on the first Saturday of February. Suddenly, a family of four visiting Bainbridge asked him why nothing was open Downtown. He informed them that they are currently building Downtown Bainbridge, so something will be open the next time they come back. Dempsey was disappointed that nothing was happening Downtown, so he and Tyler put their minds together and envisioned a cold-weather festival with tents and jazz and blues music, creating the Festival that people enjoy today. The Festival is influenced by Bradfordville Blues Club, Dave’s cc clubs, and New Orleans Jazz and Blues.

“They used to have winter festivals with blues, the outdoors, and the stage was intense,” Thomas recalled. “I was a teenager when I used to go to those festivals, and I loved it, and I was like, ‘Let’s do something like that.'” “It will allow people to walk around and experience downtown, and that’s part of why we have different time slots,” stated Dempsey. “The mission is to bring the community together through music and arts, where the focus of jazz and blues inspire local culture, and we want to keep that going.” Thomas and Dempsey like highlighting local musicians’ art to draw the Jazz and Blue Festival poster.                     

Thomas and Dempsey have many supporters for the Festival. The Firehouse Arts Center is one of their supporters, with whom they collaborate and have several meetings throughout the year. Lastly, Thomas and Dempsey presented photos of previous festivals, and asked members if they had any questions.

After this, the meeting was adjourned.