Mercer speaks to Kiwanis

The Kiwanis Club of Swainsboro held its weekly meeting Tuesday night, July 16, at the Rustic Grill at 7 p.m. With President Cheryl Goodman presiding, they had 17 in attendance including four guests, Megan Mercer, Richard Smith II, Statesboro Kiwanians Jim Thibodeau and Jacobi Thibodeau. The apple pie donated by Brenda and Will Barber was won by Deana Patrick. Dess Smith won the Domino’s pizza donated by Domino’s, and President Cheryl won some hot dog buns. At the end of the meeting, members of the Club were also treated to Fla-Vor-Ices. A special thanks to the five Kiwanis members who helped with the timing of the Firecracker 5K on July 6, in Wrightsville. Kiwanis were able to get additional help from the Johnson County Middle School Track Team, Coach Alphonza Griffin, Middle School teacher Siterro Wheeler, and track team member Ashton Griffin. The program was hosted by President Cheryl who introduced Megan Mercer, a Community Relations & Events Coordinator for the Institute for Health Logistics & Analytics at Georgia Southern University. Megan’s job responsibilities include data gathering and analysis of rural health opportunities. She is part of a Community Health Research Project (CHRP) that is funded by an external grant. This multi-year initiative will be looking at 18 rural, underserved Georgia counties, focusing on available health services and how they can be linked together to provide the best possible health services for those communities. The study will use available data, meet with stakeholders, facilitate focus groups, and implement “boots on the ground” observation to develop and release detailed community health resource maps.”

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