Home & Garden Show helps homeowners find
solutionsSee McBride, Page 2ABy Lily AveryNorth Georgia NewsStaff WriterClan Fraser was the honored clan at the 2017 Blairsville
Scottish Festival & Highland Games. Photo/Lily AveryLads and lassies gathered their kilts and erasaids to partake in the Opening Ceremony for the 14th Annual
Blairsville Scottish Festival and Highland Games at Meeks Park on Saturday, June 10. Each year, the games are officially opened during the Opening Ceremony,
highlighting the Parade of Tartans, the Massed Bands and the recognition of the year’s honored clan – Clan Fraser. “The Scottish Festival is all about the gathering of
the clans,” said Paul Jean Redditt, Scottish Festival Music and Entertainment Chairwoman. “That’s the origin of it. All the clans come and they border the creek and
everyone comes together, like a family. Year after year, everyone comes back. People that are searching for their clans come here and find out what their roots mean.
It just gives people a real connection to their Scottish heritage.”Under the command of Drum Major Don Bogue, this year’s Massed Bands featured bagpipers and
drummers from across the region, with musicians from Athol Highlanders Pipes and Drums, Alhambra Highlanders Pipes and Drums, Appalachian St. Andrews Pipes
and Drums, John Mohr MacKintosh Pipes and Drums and North Georgia Pipes and Drums. Since the beginning of the Blairsville games 14 years ago, a clan from the
original 26 that registered to attend the first games has been honored. Clan Blair was the first to hold the coveted title all those years ago and now, Clan Fraser holds
the 2017 title.“In the 14 years that we’ve had the festival, we have literally drawn out of a hat the names of the 26 clans that were here the first year,” said Joe
Satterfield, Blairsville Scottish Festival Planning Committee Chairman. “We put those 26, and now 12, names in a pot and drawn them out of a hat, literally, and
invite them to be the honored clan. But it has to do with the first year and the clans that were here the organizing year.” Gary Fraser of Clan Fraser spoke to the
audience on behalf of the clan, expressing his utmost gratitude to be honored during the festival and wishing all in attendance Bud and Mary Carol Akins with
members of Modern Woodmen of America. Photo/Shawn JarrardThe 2017 Home & Garden Show. Photo/Lowell NicholsonSee Home Show, Page 7AThe Third
Annual Northeast Georgia and Western North Carolina Home & Garden Show by Expo Management Inc. provided local businesses and service providers an
opportunity to show off home and lawn gears and gizmos to thousands of patrons on June 10 and June 11. “This is the third annual home and garden show,” said Bill
Anderson, president of Expo Management. “We’ll have about 4,500 people between the two days, so we’ll have a big turn out. We have just about anything and
everything someone needs for their home.” The show, held for the first time at the Towns County Recreation and Conference Center, also featured seminars from Jim
Parks, the host of HGTV’s remodeling show “New Spaces.” Parks hosted three seminars on both days, covering an assortment of how-to topics and current trends in
housing,
June 14, 2017 THE NORTH GEORGIA NEWS Page 7A
Home Show…from Page 1A
Jim Parks of HGTV’s “New Spaces” fame. Photo/Lowell Nicholson
It was looking outdoorsy indoors during the show at the Towns County Recreation and Conference Center. Photo/Lowell Nicholson
on curb appeal to a seminar on optimizing space within the home, and everything in between.
“Jim Parks lives in Chicago and is with HGTV, and we use him for a lot of our shows,” said Anderson. “He flies down and spends the weekend giving seminars,
such as ‘Update My Kitchen, Bathroom and Closet,’ which is the most popular one.”
According to Anderson, the majority of the vendors at the show are from the Western North Carolina market of Murphy, Hayesville and Andrews, then Blue
Ridge, Blairsville and Hiawassee in Georgia.
“We have 82 vendors this year, which is bigger than before, and most of them are local,” said Anderson. “That’s part of the beauty of it. These are local people
who have products for the houses. And people who see something they like, they won’t have to travel far to find these businesses.
“If people want to make their house better, more livable, more comfortable, then they should definitely make it out to the home and garden show.
“Also, most of the vendors and businesses that are here also have show specials, so there are discounts that people can get here that they might not get just by
going to the store.”
One of the booths, Cindy Cohen and Donald Caraway with Complete Home Services in Blairsville, had multiple displays around the venue, showcasing the various
services they offer, such as residential lawn design.
“We’re Complete Home Services, which has a division of VistaScapes Landscaping,” said Cohen. “We’re one of those companies that does housekeeping, gutter
cleaning, summer home cleaning. Then we have our VistaScapes Landscaping division where we do anything from designing of residential lawns to just basic lawn
care.”
The two have been coming to the Home and Garden Show for as long as it has been running as a way to attract more customers and let people in the area know where
they are and what they do. So far, both Cohen and Caraway said that it has definitely proven to be a good decision each year.
“This is our third year here,” said Caraway “We’ve been coming to the Home and Garden Show ever since it started. We always are trying to get our name and face out
there and that’s basically why we come to this show, to try and do that.
“It has generated some business so far this year and definitely brought in some business in previous years. And we love the new venue this year. The recreation center
is bigger and nicer and we have a lot of space to set up and people seem to like it.”
Countless other vendors lined the recreation center, from cookware to house insurance to home furniture, offering deals and tips on how to make the home a more cozy,
comfortable environment.
Overall, this year’s home and garden show was one for the books, with more vendors, more attendees and more opportunities for home improvement.
“The house is the greatest asset that most of us have and we spend more money and more time on making our house nice and livable than anything else we have,”
said Anderson. “This is why home and garden shows are so popular and so important.”
C&H Construction is a licensed general contractor and Custom Home Builder located in Blairsville,Union County Georgia serving Towns County Georgia, Fannin County Georgia, Gilmer County Georgia and the North Georgia Mountains.