Perry Area Chamber and UGA Extension Office celebrate new educational pavilion

PERRY – Friday, May 3, the Perry Area Chamber and the University of Georgia Extension Office of Houston County celebrated a ribbon cutting of their new educational pavilion. 

“On behalf of the Perry Area Chamber, we are very excited with the celebration and being able to introduce this beautiful new facility to Perry and to Houston County as well as Middle Georgia,” said Perry Chamber President/CEO Maggie Schuyler. “Congratulations to the UGA Extension Office on this beautiful facility and for everything it is going to be doing for this community.” 

UGA Extension Office County Extension Coordinator Brandi McGonagill commented on this new educational pavilion. A few years ago, she met with Houston County Director of Administration Robbie Dunbar and expressed her idea for building an outdoor classroom.

“I remember Robbie [Dunbar] saying, ‘If y’all can find the money, we can make it happen,’” she said.

After this, the UGA Extension partnered with Flint Energies, which committed $20,000 to the project. After that, Parrish Construction supplied concrete and designed the educational pavilion. 

“Then, we needed a little bit more money and went back to Robbie [Dunbar] and Chairman Perdue and graciously, they gave us enough money to finish the project,” she said. “We are so appreciative of everybody that made this happen.” 

McGonagill believed this project was the result of collaboration among people who support the extension’s work. 

“Everything we do at extension centers around helping others and serving our community,” she said. “We can’t wait to witness the life-long learning that is going to happen in this facility for young people and adults.”

Marian McLemore of Flint Energies then spoke on the pavilion. 

“Our true mission is to improve the quality of life of all of our members in the community we serve,” she said. “One of the ways we do that is by supporting education, youth and agriculture, and what a better way to support that mission is to give $20,000 to this educational pavilion for the benefit of the youth in Houston County.” 

Chairman Dan Perdue concluded the ribbon-cutting ceremony by thanking Flint Energies and Parrish Construction for their work building the educational pavilion. 

Perdue said that while many government functions do not yield a great return on investment, this facility does. 

“I can honestly say I cannot think of any area other than Extension where tax dollars have a better return on investment,” he said. “I am so pleased to cut the ribbon on this facility and to really look forward to the return on investment that this facility is going to bring to our community.”