January

Legacy Ridge at Sandy Plains
Newsletter

Brazil, Around the World with Atlas

Around the world with Atlas - January 2025 - Brazil

Resident's Birthdays

Peggy Cochran-January 3rd

Celebrating January

New Year’s Day-January1st
Martin Luther King Jr. Day-January 20th

Events Spotlight

Happy Birthday Elvis-January 8th
Happy Birthday Dolly-January 19th
National Pie Day-January 23rd

BRAZIL
Around the World with Atlas

Brazil, the largest country in South America, is known for its vibrant culture, rich history, and stunning natural beauty. Home to the Amazon Rainforest and Christ the Redeemer statue, it offers breathtaking landscapes and iconic landmarks. With diverse influences, lively music, samba, Carnival, and soccer, Brazil is a global symbol of celebration and passion.

What’s Cooking at Sandy Plains

In December we said goodbye and congratulations to our revered Chef and Director of Dining Services, Joe Chenot who will be the new Director of Dining Services at Atlas’ new premier Senior Living Community in McDonough, Georgia set to open this month. All of us at Sandy Plains wish Joe continued success and are grateful for his vast contributions to our community in and out of the dining room.

Fortunately for us, our new Director of Dining Services, Stefany Williams, is from the Atlas family as she joins us from the Peachtree Community. She has hit the ground running to get to know our residents and staff. We welcome Stefany to our community and look forward to enjoying her culinary talents.

From the Executive Director, Cindy Brown

Happy New Year Sandy Plains!
I am so happy to be here with all of you. As we begin 2025, I want to express my gratitude to all of you for your continued support of myself and the staff at Sandy Plains. This month marks my one-year anniversary as your Executive Director. It has truly been an honor to get to know all of you and serve your loved ones.

We are looking forward to a year filled with engaging programs and events, great food, stellar care and new residents and families.

As I enter my second year as your Executive Director, I am optimistic about what 2025 holds for Sandy Plains residents, families and staff. Together I know we can make 2025 our best year yet!

Warmest regards,

Cindy

Welcome to Brazil

BRAZIL
Around the World with Atlas

Brazil is the most successful soccer team in history, winning a record five FIFA World Cup titles. Known for its skillful players, creative style, and attacking flair, Brazil has produced legends like Pelé, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho. Its deep passion for the sport and rich talent have made Brazil a dominant force in international soccer.

Resident of the Month

Tom McCurdy

Congratulations to Tom McCurdy, our Resident of the Month, for January 2025.

Tom has been a resident of our community for the past three years. He is originally from Lafayette, Georgia and was born on his grandparents’ farm. Tom has 2 children, a son Matthew and a daughter, Vanessa Deriso, as well as 3 grandchildren. He also had a beloved Jack Russell Terrier names Teagan “T”.

Tom graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Industrial Management and continues to support his alma mater. You will see him proudly wearing his Georgia Tech hat and vest and other spirit wear. He is also one of our honored veterans for his service in the U.S. Marine Corps. Tom was recognized with our veterans in May and in November of this year. You will find his picture on our Wall of Honor in our community.

He has traveled all over Europe and lived in London for a while. These days you will find him in his favorite spot upstairs in our gathering room. He enjoys Bingo and will occasionally join our exercise class and sing a few notes to entertain us. He has a wonderful sense of humor and a quick smile and has been known to dance a few steps during our many entertainment programs.

We are so grateful that Tom calls Sandy Plains at Legacy Ridge home and we celebrate him this January.

A Look Back at 2024 with Gratitude

It is with appreciation and sincerest thanks to everyone who made 2024 at Sandy Plains such an exceptional year with gifts of time, talents, volunteering, and service. We applaud our community partnerships with churches, schools, boy scouts, caring neighbors bringing gifts and holiday cheer and our third-party vendors. Thanks to our collaborations we had beautiful musical programs, a perfect therapy dog named Luna, hand knitted blankets for all our residents, an epic St. Patrick’s party, Easter Egg Hunt and baskets for all, holiday stockings and a visit from Santa from these exceptional high school students who come monthly to play spirited Bingo and visit with our residents. Our entire community joined together to support our Angel Tree so all our residents would have a special gift under the tree. Our local Kelli Green Garden Center donated over 80 Poinsettia’s to beautify our community and share with our staff. We are humbled by your donations and kindness to Sandy Plains and look forward to continued partnerships in 2025.

Legacy Ridge at Sandy Plains
Leadership Team

Executive Director
Cindy Brown

Sales and Marketing Director
Hillary Rhodes

Wellness Director
Darrell Brown

Director of Dining Services
Stefany Williams

Lifestyle Director
Penney Williams

Business Office Manager
Gerry C. Stokes

Director of Building Services
Bryan Swindell

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Recipe Spotlight:

Lemon Buttermilk Pie
with strawberry toping

Ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
2 cups fresh Louisiana strawberries, sliced
2¼ cups sugar
1 tbsp flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a small mixing bowl, combine sliced strawberries with ¾ cup sugar, stir, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. This should be done at least 6 hours prior to serving. In a large mixing bowl, combine remaining sugar, flour and salt. Blend well. Add eggs and egg yolks, and using a wire whisk, cream into sugar mixture. Once blended, add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Whisk well to incorporate and dissolve sugar. Pour into pie shell and place on a cookie sheet. Bake 50 minutes or until pie is lightly browned and filling is just set. Remove and cool a minimum of 30 minutes prior to serving. Top each slice with a generous portion of sugared strawberries.

Associate of the Month

Shameika Richardson

We congratulate Shameika Richardson as our January 2025 Associate of the Month for her exemplary service as a care partner at Legacy Ridge at Sandy Plains. She has been a member of our care team since July 2024. She brings 15 years’ experience in the health field to our community. She has worked as an ER tech, in home health care and now on the Sandy Plains care team.

She grew up in Leland, Mississippi and has an associate’s degree in education. However, she changed her career path after being inspired by her father who was an Army Combat nurse and caring for her parents in later years. Shameika moved to Georgia to pursue new opportunities. She has two children, two grandchildren and one foster child.

Her advice to newcomers to this profession is to treat every resident how you would like for your family to be treated. She also says you must have a heart to do this job, be patient and be prepared for different situations daily. When asked what her secret to her success is, Shameika makes it a point to get to know our residents. She is kind, caring and gentle with all our residents. She is also a tremendous asset to our activities program and helps keep our residents engaged and happy. Shameika is a team player and offers help wherever she is needed in the community. She has a warm and kind personality that the residents gravitate to.

When she is not providing exceptional care to our residents, Shameika enjoys reading romance novels and most importantly, spending time with her grandchildren. She tries to take them on a special trip each year as a surprise.

Shameika thank you for being such a stellar staff member of our Sandy Plains Community. We celebrate you this January!

Collaborators

Cindy Brown, Executive Director | Legacy Ridge at Sandy Plains
Cindy Brown
Penney Williams, Lifestyle Director | Legacy Ridge at Sandy Plains
Penney Williams

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