Sweet Tea: Generous Georgians

“You can change the world!”

How many time have we heard that platitude? It always struck me as too much to ask from a single person.

Can one person change the world? I would argue no. That undersells the importance of the collective. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., for instance, “changed the world,” but he’d probably be the first to tell you there were thousands of others fighting and sacrificing for the cause that allowed his legacy to stretch so far.

Rather than deflating, I think it’s a bit of a relief to know we have to have faith in our fellow people if we’re going to get stuff done.

That being said, people can make a difference in other people’s lives, in their own communities and with the specific gifts they’re given. That’s just as good as changing the world. Today we’ll look at several incredible who have changed the worlds of those around them.

NOURISHING HER ROOTS

Taylor Rooks is sharing blessings with people in need in her hometown. (Cooper Neill via AP 2025)

“It’s where I learned who I was.”

That’s how NBA and NFL sportscaster Taylor Rooks describes her hometown of Suwanee in Gwinnett County, where she grew up before becoming an extremely successful broadcaster.

• Through the Taylor Rooks Foundation, she’s eliminated $2.1 million in medical debt for 1,805 residents in Gwinnett County
• “I want everyone to understand that medical debt doesn’t come from irresponsibility,” she said. “It comes from people trying to survive, take care of themselves or take care of the people they love.”
• Rooks is now based on the West Coast, and covered sports all over the country during her rise. She’s never forgotten where she began.
• “It was important to me that one of the foundation’s earliest major initiatives poured directly back into the community that poured so much into me first.”

🫶🏾 READ MORE: Why Rooks feels such a connection to the issue

THE POWER OF THEATER

Freddie Hendricks knows art can improve lives. (Vinny Varsalona via AP)

Did you know there’s a Tony Award for theater educators? What a brilliant idea.

The Excellence in Theatre Education Award, sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University, honors teachers who inspire and empower students, changing their lives through their craft.

This year’s honoree is from right here in Ellenwood.

• Freddie Hendricks is a middle school theater teacher at Utopian Academy for the Arts in Ellenwood and founder of the Youth Ensemble in Atlanta.
• He’s taught several students who went on to find successful careers on the stage and screen.
• Tony-nominated sound designer Justin Ellington said Hendricks was “the first person to show me the importance of storytelling in theater.”
• One of Hendricks’ teaching methods involved students choosing difficult topics they care about — poverty, gun violence, teen pregnancy, apartheid or AIDS — and building performances around their ideas from their perspective.
• “That just empowered these kids so much,” Ellington says. “Not only empowered them from an internal place of owning who you are, but empowering them as storytellers and showing the importance of storytellers.”

🎭 READ MORE: How Hendricks says theater builds self esteem

SIPS FROM AROUND THE SOUTH

🥽 Brewton, AL: Three welding teachers from around Alabama received grants to improve training for a new generation of welders. Among them was Marty Long from Escambia Career Readiness Center, who teaches about 50 students a year. He won a $30,000 grant to replace decades-old machines. More from The Brewton Standard