Faith and Blue Weekend Packs Police SUVs With Donations for Womens Shelter

This year’s Faith and Blue weekend in Lavonia was a big success, according to Police Chief Shane Edmisten.

This year’s Faith and Blue weekend began Thursday evening, October 5 with dinner for local law enforcement at the Lavonia Train Depot followed by a cornhole tournament at the Gazebo.

“It went great. We had the Appreciation Dinner for the officers and their families. That was sponsored by several churches in Lavonia,” Chief Shane Edmisten said. “We had attendees from Lavonia Police, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Probation, Georgia State Patrol, and Georgia Motor Carrier Compliance Division. Everybody enjoyed the dinner and we had some door prizes for the officers and their families. And then afterward we had Cornhole with a Cop at the Gazebo downtown. We were joined by the Georgia State Patrol and some deputies at the event and everybody seemed to have a good time.”

But the real goal of Faith and Blue weekend was to raise money and collect donations for the women’s safe house run by the Northeast Georgia on Domestic Violence in Hartwell.

Edmisten said local churches joined with the Police to collect donations through the weekend.

“We had the churches take up donations and citizens were able to drop off donations here at the police station. We had donations from Lavonia First Baptist Church, Lavonia Church of God, First United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church,” Edmisten said. “And we went around Wednesday morning and picked up those donations.”

On Wednesday, officers loaded two police SUV’s filled with donations to take to the women’s shelter in Hartwell.

Edmisten said they plan to expand Faith and Blue Weekend and continue helping the women’s shelter and they look forward to next year’s event.