Brookhaven Man Raises Most Money for Cancer Society

A Brookhaven man was named the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Man of the Year for raising $49,000.

A Brookhaven resident, James Beasley, was recently named the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Man of the Year. He was one of 14 local community leaders – four men and 10 women – who competed with each other for 10 weeks to raise the most money as part of the society’s "Man and Woman of the Year Campaign." Beasley, a regional manager with First Communities Management, raised $49,258 for LLS in honor of his father, who died in 2011 of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). He was recognized at the campaign’s Grand Finale event at the Loews Atlanta Hotel in June. In its fourth year, the campaign raised a record $575,000, about $100,000 more than last year. Beasley will now be entered into the national competition for Man & Woman of the Year, which …

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Brookhaven Resident Helps Train Olympic Hopefuls

Skippy Mattson has a long and distinguished swimming career, and she gives back to the sport and the community in numerous ways.

At an hour when most people are just rising from bed and getting ready for the day, Brookhaven's Skippy Mattson has already put in 90 minutes in the pool. And only then, she's just getting started. Mattson is a fulltime physical therapist at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. But even before she's seen her first patient, Mattson has already completed her daily training regimen and served as a volunteer trainer, coach and mentor for the dozens of high school kids who also train daily at the Dynamo Swim Club. With a long career both as a competitive swimmer and coach, Mattson is a certified athletic trainer who is headed to the U.S. Olympic Swim Team Trials in Omaha, NE from June 25-July 2. There, she will serve as the lead trainer for the …

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Greatest Person

Greatest Person: Kim Ellis Gokce Helps Transform Cross Keys High School's Image

Our March 2012 Greatest Person.

"...In the midst of a family crisis, when he was about to lose his house and hadn't been to work for over a year, he started the Cross Keys Foundation to help students who for years, had been overlooked. Talk about selflessness." - 2011 Cross Keys Alumnus Mpaza Kapembwa   It was the Spring of 2009 and the conditions at Cross Keys High School were what neighbors called 'disgusting and deplorable'.  At five decades old, the school’s roof leaked, the plumbing was outdated and vagrants camped out near and on school property – hardly safe conditions for faculty and students to thrive. “The Cross Keys community had been at the bottom of the priority list of capital improvements and it was just very clear that there was a gap in advocacy,” said …

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