The nation's attention was focused on Georgia's gubernatorial race Thursday as Oprah Winfrey and Vice President Mike Pence made dueling appearances in the Peach State – Winfrey for Democrat Stacey Abrams, and Pence for Republican Brian Kemp.

Abrams and Kemp are in a statistical dead heat , according to polls.

Winfrey campaigned in Marietta and Decatur , and went door-to-door for Abrams; in the photo below are former Tiftonites Leon and Caroline Benefield with Oprah, who visited their Marietta neighborhood .

Pence meanwhile held rallies in the Dalton, Augusta and Savannah areas. In the photo above, Pence campaigns for Kemp with state Rep. Barry Fleming , R-Harlem.

And this weekend, former President Obama and President Trump are scheduled to campaign for their respective candidates in Georgia.

Meanwhile, early voting continued strongly across the state, including in Tift County. On Thursday, 518 people voted in Tifton for an early-voting total of 6,807 Tift countians.

Early voting ends at 5 p.m. today, and polls don't reopen until Election Day on Tuesday, when polls will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Tift County Schools Food Service Director Vanessa Hayes, center, accepts the Golden Radish Award recently at the Georgia Freight Depot in Atlanta. At left is Ga. Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black and second from right is State School Superintendent Richard Woods.

TIFT SCHOOLS GET TOP HONORS AT GEORGIA'S GOLDEN RADISH AWARDS

Tift County Schools won platinum-level recognition at the 2018 Golden Radish Awards ceremony last week in Atlanta .

The Golden Radish Award recognizes Georgia school districts for best practices in farm-to-school programs, such as local food usage , exposing students to new foods through taste tests, and incorporating gardening and cooking activities in curriculum.

The Tift County School District was recognized for the following:

Tift County Schools was one of 84 school districts recognized at the awards.

The Golden Radish Award is presented by Georgia Organics, Georgia’s agriculture, education, and public health departments , and the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service.

This Saturday & Sunday: Browse. Buy. Enjoy!

Surprising and beautiful works by 30 ARTISTS. 

Potters, painters, photographers, woodcrafters,

glass artists, and more!

Plus indulge in A SWEET TASTE OF TIFTON!

Delightful baked goodies by local groups & entrepreneurs!

Pre-Sell for Charity Day Today!

See any associate for details.

Still Accepting Charities!

Sign up for your organization today. See store for details.

Don Julio's Mexican Restaurant

211 S. Main St., Tifton

This event is nearly sold out; get your tickets HERE!

STORM CANCELS CLASSES,

POSTPONES CHORAL CONCERT

Because of the possibility of inclement weather Thursday afternoon across Southwest Georgia , Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College canceled afternoon and evening classes and all scheduled events at its sites in Tifton, Moultrie, Bainbridge, Donalsonville and Blakely.

The action forced the rescheduling of ABAC's Fall Choral Concert , which will now be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5, in Howard Auditorium in Tifton .

“We always look forward to this concert because it involves so many of our students who have worked extremely hard over the past several months,” said Dr. Susan Kirby Roe, head of the Department of Fine Arts and conductor of the event

“The community is very gracious in its support of these students, and we promise to give everyone who attends a night of music that will be quite pleasing to their ears.”

For information on the concert, contact Roe at  [email protected]

'SURF AND TURF' FOR EDUCATION

The Tift County Foundation for Educational Excellence held its third annual Lobsterfest on Oct. 25 at UGA's Blackshank Pavilion in Tifton.

The menu included freshly cooked lobster and steak .

The fundraiser generates money for the foundation's programs supporting teachers and students in Tift County public schools.

"I tell you, Ned, it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized."

Capt. Silas S. Soule, who refused to participate in the actions, wrote these words to a friend in 1864 soon after what became known as the Sand Creek Massacre of Native Americans near Eads, Colo.

Soule's letters led to investigations by congressional committees and an Army commission. Soule was shot dead on the streets of Denver just weeks after he testified.

" At dawn on the morning of Nov. 29, 1864 , Col. John Milton Chivington gave the command that led to slaughter of 230 peaceful Cheyennes and Arapahos — primarily women, children and elderly — camped under the protection of the U.S. government along Sand Creek in Colorado Territory and flying both an American flag and a white flag ," writes Dr. Gary L. Roberts, history professor emeritus at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton.

" The Sand Creek Massacre seized national attention in the winter of 1864-1865 and generated a controversy that still excites heated debate more than 150 years later," Roberts writes in his 2016 book, "Massacre at Sand Creek: How Methodists were involved in an American Tragedy."

Roberts, an acknowledged authority on the history of the American West, is giving a presentation on the massacre next Thursday in Eads, Colo., part of a lecture series hosted by the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.

Roberts has written several books, including one on Western gunslinger Doc Holliday, who grew up in what became Valdosta. His family's home still stands there.

The 82nd Annual Coastal Plains Agricultural Fair is in town through this Sunday, Nov. 4, at the fairgrounds on U.S. Highway 84 E.

Hosted by American Legion Tift County Post 21 , fair proceeds help support local veterans and youth programs. Along with carnival rides, the fair includes contests for locally grown produce and locally made baked goods.

The Tifton fair dates to 1936 and is the longest active fair in the region.

The Coastal Plains Agricultural Fair is open 6 p.m.-midnight today (Friday); 2-10 p.m. Saturday; and 1-7 p.m. Sunday.

(COOKIE) WALK THIS WAY....

Peace Lutheran Church  is hosting its annual  Cookie Walk and Yard Sale from  9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17 , at the church's  Fellowship Hall, 604 Tennessee Drive, Tifton.

Church members have been busy baking different kinds of  cookies, cakes, breads, candies and German pastries, and making  holiday candies and homemade peanut brittle. 

Also available will be homemade Christmas ornaments and many new gifts.

Proceeds will be used to purchase phone cards for armed forces personnel. A donation will be made to Lutheran Services Disaster Relief Fund.

Supplemental funds have been received from Thrivent Financial.

Tifton native Caitlin Carmichael, second from right, with some of the cast of ABC-TV's "The Good Doctor." Carmichael guests on the primetime series on Monday, Nov. 5, at 10 p.m.

This coming Monday's episode of the medical drama "The Good Doctor" on ABC-TV guest stars Tifton native Caitlin Carmichael.

"The Good Doctor," which airs at 10 p.m. Mondays, is about a young surgeon with autism and Savant syndrome who is recruited into the surgical unit of a prestigious hospital.

Carmichael, a veteran of several television shows and films, is currently in Utah filming a new TV series for BYUtv entitled "Dwight in Shining Armor."

Carmichael has the female lead in that series, playing a sleeping gothic warrior princess who is awakened in modern-day times. The series is expected to debut early next year.

TIFTON NATIVE PRINCE A NOMINEE FOR NATIONWIDE AUTO DEALER HONOR

Tifton native Jay Prince , vice president of Prince Automotive of Valdosta , is one of 51 auto dealers nationwide nominated for the 2019 Time (magazine) Dealer of the Year award.

Prince and the other 50 dealers will be honored at the 102nd annual National Automobile Dealers Association show Jan. 25 in San Francisco.

The Time Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious honors. Recipients are among the nation’s most successful auto dealers who demonstrate a commitment to community service.

Prince, 47, was chosen to represent the Georgia Automobile Dealers Association in the national competition.

A 1989 graduate of Tift County High School, Prince earned an accounting degree from the University of Georgia in 1993. He is the son of John and B.J. Prince of Tifton.

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Tifton Grapevine

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Frank Sayles Jr.

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Bonnie Sayles

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