Dear editor: The Board and staff of Keep Covington/Newton Beautiful would like to express our thanks to the sponsors of this year's Green Getaway fundraiser. Sponsors were Capes Properties, Ed Hutter & Associates, Newton County Water & Sewerage Authority, Bank of North Georgia, BB&T, Burge Plantation, Margie & Pierce Cline, Copy Central, The Covington News, Current Events Productions, The Dermatology Center of Newton-Rockdale, Dobbs Environmental, Georgia Power Company, Longhorn Steakhouse of Covington, Newton Federal Bank, Peoples Bank, REL Properties, United Bank, United Community Bank, Utopia Day Spa

We also appreciate the publicity and coverage that The Covington News has provided for this event.

Without generous donations from our sponsors and partners, we would be unable to continue our educational and beautification programs. Thanks to strong community support, our fundraiser generated nearly $25,000, which will be used for a new Detective Seymore Green puppet show production and also to help support a children's garden project and gateway entrance signs.

We also want to thank the many volunteers who contributed items for our auctions. We are very grateful to all the businesses that advertised our event and donated gift certificates, tickets and items to be auctioned. To everyone who purchased tickets and/or auction items, we thank you. Thanks to everyone who gave monetary donations.

Thanks to all our fundraiser committee members who organized and planned the event: Leslie Lathem, Mary Anne Smith, Treasa Waters, Michael St. Bernard, Dorothy Edwards, Anne Laster, Lee Aldridge and Carol Veliotis. Thanks so much to all who set up for the event and cleaned up afterwards. Thank you to our auctioneer, Dale Evans, and our caterer, Plain Nuts.

For their special contributions, we gratefully acknowledge Andy Irwin and the John Roquemore band.

Thank you for making our fundraiser a success.